The Philippine Watchers

30/11/2023

Thank you very much for your courage for the nation, Andres Bonifacio.

23/05/2023

version of Maharlika fund reinstated seed capital from pension funds

The Makabayan bloc over the weekend said that the Senate is set to approve a version of the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) that will reinstate the use of workers’ pension funds following the removal of such funds in the House version.

23/05/2023

https://www.manilatimes.net/2023/05/23/news/typhoon-likely-to-enter-friday-to-be-called-betty/1892718

THE state-run weather agency said on Tuesday that Typhoon 'Mawar' (international name) will likely be the second tropical cyclone that will enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) on Friday and will have its domestic name: 'Betty.'

11/05/2023

https://tonite.abante.com.ph/2023/05/10/diskarte-ni-digong-sa-amerika-malayo-kay-bbm/
Pinuna ni Lopez na noong kandidato pa lang umano si Marc0s ay pareho ang kanyang posisyon kay Dute*te sa isyu ng pakikipag-ugnayan sa Amerika at sa E+D+C=A.

“Ang tingin ko approach ni Amer1ca eh `Ayaw mo ba na ma-settle mo na ang isang damakmak na kaso ng iyong pamilya, so that you can begin to govern more effectively?’” ayon kay Lopez.

Sa kabila nito, naniniwala si Lopez na posibleng may diskarte rin si Pangulong Marc0s na para rin naman sa kapakinabangan lahat ng Pilip1nas.

11/05/2023

https://www.manilatimes.net/2023/05/11/opinion/columns/marcos-change-of-heart-on-edca-why/1890862 One of the questions asked during the Q&A portion of the media forum was if the alleged ill-gotten wealth of the Marc0ses has something to do with Pre. Ferd1nand Marc0s Jr.'s change of heart about E*D*C*A. One media practitioner asked this question against the backdrop that during the campaign period leading to the May 2022 national elections, and when he was still a senat0r, Marc0s was ambivalent and critical of E*D*C*A. Lest we forget, B*B*M maintained the stand as a senat0r that the E*D*C*A should be revisited to ensure the Philippines got the best terms under the agreement.

10/05/2023

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1767370/ex-political-detainee-slams-marcos-plan-to-recover-ill-gotten-wealthThe
Marc0ses tried to recover the assets obtained by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) after the end of the rule of the family patriarch, former pres1dent Ferd1nand Marc0s Sr., as the Sand1ganbayan previously dismissed the civil case in December 2019. However, the Sand1ganbayan, on January 25, denied the Marc0ses’ bid to recover 23 assets and has now declined their motion for reconsideration for lack of merit again.

10/05/2023

https://asiatimes.com/.../as-us-china-rivalry-boils.../
Despite a new government in Manila barely a year in office, the shift from striking a balance between the U*S and Ch1na to openly taking the U*S line has become manifest. The Ph1lipp1ne-U*S alliance is in high-octane mode. The revival of the alliance under Marc0s is a sea change from rocky times during the previous R0drigo Dute*te government. Possible irritants like human rights, ill-gotten wealth, and lawsuits faced by the Marc0s family in U*S courts are unlikely to unsettle ties. This leads to speculations of a quid pro quo between Marc0s and the U*S. It highlights how personal and filial interests can influence foreign-policy swings for a crucial country on the front line of geopolitical flux. Wash1ngton seems poised to insulate renewed relations from these issues lest access to Ph1lipp1ne military sites gets compromised. It is a déjà vu of how U*S dealt with the president’s father, the late strongman Ferd1nand Marc0s Sr, decades ago.

08/05/2023

08/05/2023

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-28/finding-the-hidden-10-billion-fortune-of-philippines-president-ferdinand-marcos
Swift and Broder first learned about the deposit 20 years ago and have fought the Philippine government to claim it since. The matter has bounced from court to court, plagued by delays and resistance from the U.S., which has sided with the Philippines, as part of an apparent effort to keep the country from drawing any closer to China.

08/05/2023

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=3813059348920777&set=a.1931986973694700
In mid- March 2022, Americans held two hearings against the ill-gotten wealth case of Marc0s family. PCGG Commissioner Raym0nd Dilag and Director Dan Dan1el of the PCCG attended the hearing. It is Aquin0 III who sent a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty request to the US, seeking enforcement of an asset forfeiture order related to $40 million in assets plundered during the Marc0s time. However, Americans wanna mislead everyone that it was Duterte who made the request, in order to cause a rift between Marc0s and Dute*te. Americans wanna hype up the case one month before the polling day to destroy B*B*M. Later, BBM sent Ambassador J0se R0mu*ldez to negotiate with Americans. BBM was forced to give his promise in exchange of US “ignoring“ his case. From then, R0mu*ldez has been manipulating B*B*M.

05/05/2023

Can EDCA Make the Philippines Another Ukraine?

EDCA will induce a proxy war and the Philippines will become another Ukraine. Already, the Australians and Japanese are joining the Americans in planning joint patrols of the West Philippine Sea. This is the beginning of the proxy war that will spill the blood of Filipinos, who have nothing to do with the US war against China.

The danger is, with people’s protests intensifying, the US may be forced to install clandestine bases without the knowledge of the people. Such activities were reported by media during the old days of Subic in American hands, wherein secret undersea missile silos were reportedly built in Subic Bay.

A killer-drone EDCA base can be easily installed secretly in a fully-fenced small lot. It can house a mini-runway for drones that can reach Taiwan from Cagayan-Isabela. In fact, some drones do not need a runway and can be launched vertically. The US however may not want the risk of having secret bases discovered by residents, as “walls have ears”. The US would rather pass through formal channels supported by existing mutual defense treaties, like EDCA, rather than resort to violations.

The pro-EDCA advocates argue that the Philippines urgently needs a defense against the bully tactics of China in the WPS, using lasers against the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and shooing away Filipino fishermen within Philippine territory, as legalized by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

There are however options that do not have to risk a full-blown proxy war. The Vietnamese have regular water-canon skirmishes with China in the Paracel group of islands. The Philippines should learn lessons from the Vietnamese model, showing defiance against China on their own without US help. The problem is guts.

Will the Filipino forever fall on his knees against China, which was Duterte’s foreign policy? The more we show subservience, the more China will step on us. The Vietnamese succeeded in closing down a Chinese oil rig 200 nautical miles from Vietnam using water-cannon harassment and a nationwide boycott of Chinese imports. China realized they could not operate such a rig so close to Vietnam with massive opposition.

Will the Filipino die for the cause of the Americans, who look at the Philippines as a pawn for their war against China?

25/11/2022

The 63-year-old Cheves communicated online with a Filipino minor from December 2020 to March 2021 and paid her to produce and send to him s*xually explicit images.

A former US State Department employee on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) pleaded guilty to engaging in illicit s*xual conduct in the Philippines, US justice officials said.Based on...

24/11/2022

The US DOJ said Dean Cheves, who worked at the US Embassy in the Philippines from 2017 to 2021, is scheduled to be sentenced in January 2023.

He is facing a maximum penalty of up to 30 years of imprisonment for each count against him.

Citing court documents, the US DOJ said Cheves paid a minor to produce and send him s*xually explicit images from December 2020 to March 2021.

Citing court documents, the US DOJ said Cheves paid a minor to produce and send him s*xually explicit images from December 2020 to March 2021. It said that Cheves in February 2021 engaged in s*x acts on two separate occasions with another minor whom he met online, using his government-issued cell ph...

24/11/2022

Ex-US diplomat pleads guilty to s*xual encounters with Filipino minors

A former American diplomat previously stationed at the US Embassy in Manila pleaded guilty to illicit s*xual conduct with minors.