Philippines Declares War to the US!

George Bush and the Philippines before the War declaration

George Bush was sitting in his office wondering whom to invade next when

his telephone rang.

'Hello, Mr. Bush!' a heavily accented voice said, 'This is Ka Menong from
Baranggay Langgas, Infanta, Quezon Province. I am ringing to inform you
that we are officially declaring war on you!'

'Well, Ka Menong,' Bush replied, 'This is indeed important news! How big is
your army'.

Protest movements against US invasion of the Philippines prior to the escalation of war...

'Right now,' said Ka Menong, after a moment's calculation, 'there is
myself, my cousin Tasyo, my next door neighbor Entong, and the entire
Langgas team from the pakatan. That makes eight.'

Bush paused. 'I must tel l you, Ka Menong that I have one million men in my
army waiting to move on my command.'

'Aray..' said Ka Menong. 'I'll have to ring you back!'

Sure enough, the next day, Ka Menong called again.

'Mr. Bush, it is Ka Menong, I'm calling from Alitas, the war is still on!
We have managed to acquire some infantry equipment!'

'And what equipment would that be, Ka Menong?' Bush asked.

'Well, we have two jeepneys, a carabao and Tasyo's tractor.'

Bush sighed. 'I must tell you, Ka Menong, that I have 16,000 tanks and
14,000 armored personnel carriers. Also, I've increased my army to 1-1/2
million since we last spoke.'

'Ay naku naman....' said Ka Menong. 'I'll have to get back to you.'

Sure enough, Ka Menong rang again the next day.

'Mr. Bush, the war is still on! We have managed to get ourselves
airborne.... .. We've modified Tasyo's tractor by adding a couple of
shotguns, sticking on some wings and the baranggay's generator. Four high
school boys from Alitas have joined us as well!'

Bush was silent for a minute and then cleared his throat. 'I must tell you,
Ka Menong, that I have 10,000 bombers and 20,000 fighter planes. My
military complex is surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile
sites. And since we last spoke, I've increased my army to TWO MILLION!'

'Susmariosep. ...' said Ka Menong, 'I'll have to ring you back.'

Sure enough, Ka Menong called again the next day.

'Ganyan ka pala, Mr.Bush! I am sorry to tell you that we have had to call
off the war.'

'I'm sorry to hear that,' said Bush. 'Why the sudden change of heart.'

'Well,' said Ka Menong, 'we've all had a long chat over a couple of alak,
and decided there's no way we can feed two million prisoners of war!'

NOW THAT'S CALLED FILIPINO CONFIDENCE

Phil Gov't Response to Global Financial Crisis: Keep the OFWs abroad

I don't know what hit me but when I came across several news articles from the Inquirer entitled "RP assumes 'worst case scenario' " (Oct 14, 2008), I was really disappointed that the goverment's response to the financial crisis was simply for PGMA's to order the formulation of a contingency plan "to cushion the impact of the global financial crisis on the overseas Filipino workers". In the first place, is the country really affected by the global financial crisis? Some would say that the country is doing well financially.

Of course the country has more things to worry about and although OFW's jobs abroad is a genuine concern in the short term, I would really like to hear what this "contingency plan" is about. If OFWs are to be layed off, would this plan simply find new "markets" for the so called 'Global Filipino' to work? Government rhetoric has consistently discussed reintegration programs for our returning migrant workers but it does not go beyond the creation various government agencies, such as the National Reintegration center for OFWs, and assigning VP De Castro as Presidential Adviser on OFW affairs (I wonder what skills made him into a capable adviser?).

Filipino migration and government policy are indeed complex issues that more people should be concerned about. Hopefully we can have more interesing and informed discussions in the future.