THEN AND NOW

Yesterday we had MARTIAL LAW.
Today we have MAR SHALLOW.

LACIER DUH

Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda says, "Former Senator Francisco Tatad a liar, source a fishball vendor."

And I am reminded of what George Burns once said: "Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair."

Get my point?

Well, in three years time, Lacierda will be busy driving a forklift and cutting grass.

I WONDER WHICH MOVIE?

I agree with Korina. And, would that be Woody Allen's 1969 movie "Take The Money And Run" or his 1989 movie "Crimes And Misdemeanors"?

MAR SHALLOW

The photos on left remind me of Martial Law, while the photos on right remind me of Mar Shallow. Ugh.

Photo credits: Mosquito Press

THE TROUBLE WITH BATTOLOGERS

The Superior Person's Book of Words by Peter Bowler defines 'Battology' as "the continual reiteration of the same words or phrases in speech or in writing. A battologer is one who battologizes. One of those words whose lack of  wider currency seems undeserved and puzzling in the light of its wide potential for application to television commercials, sales pitches by car and encyclopedia vendors, spouse's homilies, etc." Time and again, we hear the President's mouthpieces a.k.a. battologers come to his defense. That's expected and could be tolerated up to a certain extent, as long as the speech does not turn into a fantastic fib. But what if the latter's own quickly defends his sister and hints of her immunity from a lawsuit? Isn't that stretching it a bit too far? But it doesn't end there.

Hence, recently we have witnessed that Noynoy Aquino speaks for Malaysia. Mar Roxas speaks for Ayala. Abigail Valte speaks for Ballsy. Edwin Lacierda speaks to the dead. Miriam Defensor-Santiago speaks to herself (and she answers back).

We're all copulated!

ROBERT REYES, A WOLF IN WOLVES' CLOTHING / AKBAYAN.GOV

The yellow bunch is on it again and this time they hired a python-hugging, media-hogging priest to do the dirty job for them.

Fr. Robert Reyes has been living in silence for years and suddenly, barely a month before the national elections, he is once again "out" trying to revive an issue that has been long answered. He has been residing at the Juan de Plasencia Franciscan Novitiate in Liliw, Laguna, after deciding to take a break from public life in 2011.

And methinks he runs selectively.

Robert Reyes (I refuse to call him "father" too often) has Social Democrat leanings. But he sure knows his politics. Politics of opportunism. He has worked closely with Risa Hontiveros' Akbayan party-list which is composed of activists linked to socialists and social democrats.

It is easy to put the pieces together. Reyes was the head of GOMBURZA, a cause-oriented organization of priests, nuns, brothers and the laity, and of course a well-known ally-organization of Akbayan.

Akbayan is now tagged as the administration party-list with several key positions in government occupied by no less than its officials and members. They include Presidential Political Adviser Ronald Llamas, National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) head Joel Rocamora (who was in hot water recently), and Commission on Human Rights chair Loretta Ann 'Etta' Rosales. Other Akbayan members in government include Barry Gutierrez, Llamas' deputy; Mario Agujo, member of the board of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Social Security System (SSS) Commissioner Daniel Edralin, National Youth Commission (NYC) Commissioner Percival Cendaña, and Angelina Ludovice-Katoh, commissioner in the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor. The Comelec also disclosed that the President's sisters donated P14 million to Akbayan in the 2010 elections.

This is clearly a desperate smear campaign orchestrated by the yellows through a former selective-running priest who sneaked out of his own hunger strike in 2005 and was kicked out of his diocese by parishioners who complained about his pet python which he allowed to wander around the altar while saying mass. Shades of Father Tropa, perhaps?

Robert Reyes says he has witnesses. I challenge him to bring them out in the open. Otherwise, his case is based on hearsay I say. Hearsay. Nothing more.

EDUCATION SHOULD BE WITHIN REACH, NOT JUST FOR THE RICH

"College education should be within reach, not out of reach," says Sonny Angara in reaction to an incident involving a UP student who committed suicide.

Wow. So convincing but wait -- isn't Sonny Angara an ex-officio member of the UP Board of Regents? The same board that implemented the "No Late Payment Policy" which drove Kristel Tejada to take her own life? All UP policies are approved by the board, isn't it?

Yes, Sonny Angara is a board regent being the Chair of the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education. And as the administration candidate who champions education, Angara also brings Coco Martin to his campus tours. This must cost a lot of money.

Because if we believe what ABS-CBN reporter and PM tabloid writer Gretchen Fullido, Pilipino Star Ngayon showbiz editor Veronica Samio and Bulgar entertainment writer Vinia Vivar wrote in their March 20 columns respectively that Coco Martin's fee is P35 million to endorse a candidate, then we must also take note that the tuition in UP is around P30,000 per semester. Thus, Angara could have sent 1,700 'Iskolar Ng Bayan' to school.

Obviously, the son did not even consider the fact that his father was a former UP President.

No more 'trapos' in the sacred halls of the academe. Please.

SABAH, PHILIPPINES

Sabah or North Borneo and the island of Palawan were bestowed as gifts to the Sultan of Sulu by the Sultan of Brunei in 1658 in gratitude for the assistance of the Sultan of Sulu to avert a civil war in Borneo. Thus, since that time, Sabah became a property of the Sultan of Sulu and the Sultanate of Sulu. Sabah's problems is that its tenant Malaysia is not paying the right amount of rent to the Lessor Landlord (Sultan of Sulu).

In 1878, HM Sultan Jamalul Ahlam Kiram, the legitimate owner, leased Sabah to a British company headed by Gustavus Baron de Overbeck and Alfred Dent for their use and their heirs, but the Lease disallows the transfer of Sabah to any nation, company or persons without the consent of His Majesty's Government ("Government of the Sultanate of Sulu"). The transfer of Sabah by Great Britain to malaysia in 1963 constituted a breach of the provisions of the 1878 Lease as the Government of the Sultan of Sulu did NOT consent to the transfer to Malaysia. As a point in law, Sabah MUST and SHOULD be returned to the Lessor as owners (the Sultan of Sulu and the Sultanate of Sulu).

In 1906 and in 1920, the United States formally reminded Great Britain that Sabah did not belong to the latter and was still part of the Sultanate of Sulu but Great Britain ignored and did not listen to the reminder of the US and transferred Sabah to Malaysia in 1963. This transfer is prohibited under the Sabah Lease of 1878.

The continued occupation of Sabah by Malaysia is illegal and must certainly end. Malaysia pays the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu a very small annual rent of PhP77,442.36 or a measly US$1,500 for Sabah a real estate property with a land area of 73,711 square meters. This tiny annual rent is unjust and unfair and is unacceptable and indefensible how Malaysia can stay in Sabah by paying so little an amount of rent per year.

Sabah contributes US$30 billion GDP to the Malaysian economy annually and looking at fair commercial rental property transactions, the Lessor can expect to receive a rental payment of at least 10% to 12% of US$3 billion to US$3.6 billion per year from Tenant. But the Lessor only receives a measly US$ 1,500 per year so the Malaysian rent needs further discussion and a renegotiation must take place for the satisfaction of everyone concerned. For the Tausugs and for the Filipino nation.

Due to the unfair and unjust treatment of Malaysia which the Tausugs of Sabah regard as un-Islamic and Haram and the lack of economic development in the Sultanate of Sulu and also in Sabah, several pro-independence groups advocate Sabah's freedom from a foreign power. It's high time we give the due recognition to our Tausug brother over their rightful ownership of Sabah. Sabah must be returned to the Tausugs and the Kiram family. Sabah must be returned to His Majesty Sultan Fuad A. Kiram I.

The Sultan of Sulu and the Sultan of Sabah, HM Sultan Fuad A. Kiram I (current Lessor/Landlord) expounds that if Malaysia wants to stay in Sabah lawfully, then Malaysia must pay the correct rent of US$ 3 Billion to US$3.6 Billion per year. But if the rental payment is unacceptable, he proposes a "Joint Administration" between the Sultan of Sulu and the Sultan of Sabah and Malaysia to administer Sabah and all incomes are split co-equally, similar to the joint administration or "Condominium of France and Great Britain in Vanuatu"  prior to Vanuatu's independence.

Income to be derived from the Sabah rent or the Joint Administration will be utilized to develop Sulu to uplift the well-being of the Sulu people such as roads, hospitals, schools, education, peace and order, etc. The correct rent payment by Malaysia to the Sultanate of Sulu and/or the Joint Administration of Sabah will be the solution to the Sabah issue. In any Joint Administration, the Sultanate of Sulu must insist that 50% of the earnings will be for the Sabah people's social and economic developments and 25% each for Malaysia and the Sultanate of Sulu.

If the rental payment or Joint Administration is not acceptable, then Malaysia MUST vacate Sabah and return Sabah to her lawful owners -- the people of the Sultanate of Sulu. These are the three (3) options available to resolve Malaysia's illegal occupation of Sabah.