Topic: Philippines

With regard to the report that Duterte was comatose in the afternoon or evening of Sunday, August 19, I never claimed it to be certainly true but I cautioned the readers of my Facebook Timeline that the report is subject to verification or negation by the public appearance of Duterte and by credible medical bulletin.

“Duterte never gets tired of repetitively terminating the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations,” said Jose Maria Sison, National Democratic Front of the Philippines chief political adviser, in a statement.

National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison dismissed government’s latest declaration terminating the peace talks, saying President Rodrigo Duterte has already done so last year.

Duterte never gets tired of repetitively terminating the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. He terminated the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations on November 23, 2017 with his Proclamation 360, and then he followed it up in December 2017 with Proclamation 374 designating the CPP and NPA as terrorist” organizations with the malicious intent of making it doubly sure that he had killed the peace negotiations.

The truth is that he and his family are very much into graft and corruption, including cutting into infrastructure and casino projects and the large scale smuggling of illegal drugs through Manila, Davao and elsewhere.

Duterte is the mentally and morally bankrupt president of a financially bankrupt government. Mentally bankrupt, he is unable to understand the rotten character and social ills of the semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system. Morally bankrupt, he is capable only of giving out extrajudicial kill orders, making financially impossible promises and using his foul mouth in a futile attempt to deflect attention from his crimes and unfulfilled promises.

This was attended by 40,000 people in Quezon City and by hundreds of thousands in various parts of the country. It is a historic event of far-reaching significance. It signals a major advance of the people´s movement to oust the US-Duterte regime in line with the national and democratic demands of the Filipino people against the reign of terror and greed.

The reason why China became interested in building artificial islands as military bases in the Spratlys is not because the Aquino regime filed the Philippine case before the ITLOS in accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea but because the Arroyo regime made the stupid and grave error of entering into a joint agreement on seismic undertaking with China to explore the oil and gas resources under the West Philippine Sea.

At the same time, the regime is finding itself in an increasingly difficult position, economically, politically, and internationally. The introduction of the TRAIN law, a package of regressive taxation that significantly increases the prices of goods, particularly fuel, has sparked major protests throughout the country.

Long before Alice became accomplished and outstanding as a scholar, a professor, a theorist and critic in the arts and literature, Julie and I separately and jointly became friends with her on the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines. Alice and Julie were roommates at the UP South Dormitory in the summer of 1957.