I am pretty sure that during their time in service, those former Marines would have been willing to step in front of a bullet and die for flag and country.
Samantalang itong magkapatid na bugok, alegasyon pa lang hindi na kaya.
Weak.
Seven years later, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife made their second visit to North Korea.
Most Westerners have never been to North Korea.
They know almost nothing about its people, its education system, its daily life, its history, or how a country survives decades of sanctions, isolation, military pressure, and ideological demonization.
But in their imagination, North Korea already exists as a completed villain template.
Dark.
Backward.
Brainwashed.
Poor.
Disposable.
A cartoon state built for Western moral theater.
China has been placed into the same narrative machine, only on a larger scale.
Not a civilization.
Not a country.
Not 1.4 billion human beings with history, memory, labor, grief, ambition, and survival.
Just “the authoritarian threat.”
A giant villain with ports, factories, missiles, AI models, high-speed rail, engineers, and 5,000 years of civilizational continuity.
That is how Western ideology works.
First, it removes human complexity.
Then it replaces reality with a label.
Then it treats the label as evidence.
“Dictatorship.”
“Regime.”
“Threat.”
“Axis.”
“Rogue state.”
“Authoritarian bloc.”
Once the label is installed, no fact is allowed to disturb it.
If a sanctioned country survives, it is propaganda.
If its people are educated, it is indoctrination.
If life expectancy rises, it is ignored.
If it builds industry, it is militarization.
If it resists Western pressure, it is aggression.
This is why the West misunderstands both China and North Korea.
It does not study them as societies.
It consumes them as villains.
Thank you for the reminder that even though life has been an absolute challenge, mine will never be as forsaken, meaningless, and regrettable as yours. 🥰
Sa gobyernong bangag at kawatan, puro takipan ng kabuktutan at kasalanan sa taumbayan.
Panahon na para ang taumbayan naman ang magtakip ng dyaryo sa inyong kasamaan.
Ngayon, bukas, at magpakailanman.
Today's testimony of the Brave 18 has the same destructive energy as the raging floods that happen because the budget meant to control them was stolen.
But this time, only the powerfully few will suffer.
And suffer greatly they will.
I found the following notes that I used in teaching Constitutional Law at the PLM College of Law under then Dean (now COMELEC Commissioner) Ernest Maceda, Jr. :
1Avelino v. Cuenco, G.R. No. L-2821, March 4, 1949
Background: 1949 Senate had 24 seats but only 23 sitting senators. Mariano Cuenco was elected Senate President with 12 votes. 10 senators walked out and said no quorum.
SC ruling on "majority of the Senate" vs "all members"*:
The 1935 Constitution used "majority of each House" for quorum. The SC said 12/23 = majority for quorum under Sec. 10(1), Art. VI 1935 Constitution.
But the Court drew a key distinction that the 1987 framers later copied:
> “There is a difference between a majority of ‘the House’... The latter requiring less number than the first.”[quorum]
*Why it matters for 1987 Sec. 16- The 1987 framers changed the wording for electing SP/Speaker to "all its respective Members" = 24. That’s stricter than Avelino’s "majority of the House" for quorum. So post-1987, you can’t elect SP with just 12/23 like Cuenco did. You need 13/24.
Mas malaki pa rin ang 125M in 11 days ni Inday Lustay kaysa sa laman ng lahat ng paper bag at maleta na nai-deliver sa mga kinawatan este kinatawan ng bayan.
Dapat sa inyo binibitay.
Hindi ako naniniwala na wala nang pag-asa ang Pilipinas. Ika nga, there are decades where nothing happens. And there are weeks where decades happen.
We are living through one of those weeks.
The current chaos in government only proves that the old political order is cracking under its own weight. The public is watching institutions fight over power, quorum, legitimacy, rules, and survival while ordinary Filipinos are still waiting for service, stability, and direction.
Minsan, kailangan munang lumabas lahat ng kabulukan bago magkaroon ng tunay na political reckoning at transformation. Masakit sa heart and mind pero nobody said it was easy... It's such a shame for us to part... Charot. Hahaha.
The question now is simple: who will use this moment to protect the people, and who will use it only to protect themselves?
Abangan. 🤭
#PlutoInAquariusThings
When Philippines leadership uses the words > « rules based order »…>>>> you know that Washington is writing the script, Washington is controlling the Philippines.
China did not send its defense minister to Shangri-La.
Good.
Why elevate a U.S.-anchored propaganda forum into something it is not?
Beijing sent military technocrats instead — and they still managed to cut through the entire performance.
The Philippine defense minister was asked a direct question about the contradiction between “South China Sea rules” and Manila’s repeated provocations on uninhabited islands and reefs.
He did what client states always do:
talked smoothly,
answered nothing,
hid behind “rules,”
and hoped the American shadow behind him looked like sovereignty.
This is the whole theater of Shangri-La.
→ Washington supplies the script.
→ Asian client states perform victimhood.
→ China is invited to sit in the dock.
But this year China lowered the temperature by lowering the rank — and still exposed the stage.
Sometimes you don’t need a heavyweight to crush a puppet.
You only need one precise question.
David is giddy with the organization of a truth commission on the drug war EJKs. Despite the economy in the shits this is what they're more concerned about.
What about the victims of the drug addicts? Don't they deserve justice? Don't they deserve the chance for them to ventilate their grievances?
This truth commission is not about the truth but more about the demolition of the Duterte's.
You're stupid if you believe their claim of 20,000 to 30,000 dead more than the deaths during martial law.
https://t.co/ZVYPAh6sfA
This is really remarkable: the Philippines is undergoing a huge grassroots-led green revolution, with millions of ordinary Filipinos installing Chinese solar panels on their rooftops.
So much so that the Philippines just became, so far in 2026, China's #2 solar export market on Earth 👇
A lot of it is driven by the current energy crisis and the fact the Philippines now has the most expensive residential electricity in Southeast Asia.
This makes the economics of solar panels a complete no-brainer: as per the Ember report (https://t.co/U0UBrnyAhL) a Chinese solar panel - given cost of electricity in the Philippines - now has a payback period of only 3.1 years for households and 2.3 years for businesses.
Given that the average lifespan of a solar panel is roughly 30 years (panels from the big Chinese makers - Longi, JA Solar, Trina - now come with 30-year performance warranties as standard), it means that when you install one on your rooftop you essentially get free electricity for about a quarter of a century!
We're used to thinking of green energy as something top-down, the government imposing on reluctant citizens, but increasingly - in large parts of the world - it's becoming the exact opposite: a bottom-up movement of ordinary people who simply want cheaper energy.
Not really. There's a strong anti-Marcos sentiment among Filipinos. With trust and approval underwater voters are looking for options. Pinoys have short memories as well. Once Robredo starts talking they will remember how off-putting she is.
The same is true with Sara. She's not PRRD. She may have the masa behind her but she needs to work harder to at least come close to PRRD in terms of intellectual depth. Inday is a millennial which is both an advantage and disadvantage.
The pro-Marcos are going to be the orphans of the 2028 election. They will have to make a choice between Sara as whoever the Yellowidiots field. I don't think Robredo will run even if there's manufactured clamor.
The most serious threat to Sara is the US. The Americans won't allow another Duterte presidency what with the EDCA sites and Pax Silica in place. Gibo will be their candidate and the challenge is how to make him win. The US can't afford to lose the Philippines as its first island chain defense against China.
It's going to be a very interesting and hard fought election. One that has serious ramifications on American foreign policy and its China containment strategy in the Indo-Pacific.
Hegseth playing "Rambo" with China
Too many self-proclaimed China experts naively bought into the idea of U.S. disengagement from Asia.
The exact opposite is unfolding. Every major conflict right now ultimately targets China.
Striking Venezuela and Iran is about choking Beijing’s energy lifeline.
A containment coalition is rapidly forming — Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Australia. It’s happening in plain sight, laid out clearly in U.S. policy papers.
This is pretty insane: the U.S. just tried to literally re-colonize part of the Philippines.
They did so under the so-called "Pax Silica" initiative, the brainchild of - surprise, surprise - an ex-Palantir guy named Jacob Helberg who now runs U.S. economic "diplomacy" from the State Department.
It's causing a big outcry in the Philippines, which is quite a feat given this is by far the most US-friendly country in Southeast Asia.
If you're the US and you're getting the Marcos administration - of all governments - to push back on sovereignty, you've really overplayed your hand.
What is the "Pax Silica" initiative? In a nutshell it's about the US getting other countries to commit to restructuring their AI tech infrastructure around a US-led stack. It's basically vendor lock-in: you hand over your critical minerals, align your export controls with Washington's, regulate AI the way America wants, and in return you get to be a US "trusted partner," whatever that means these days.
In essence, let's not kid ourselves, it's all about China: this is the US's initiative to "win the AI race" by getting other countries to contractually commit to keeping China out of their tech supply chains. When you can't preserve your lead through innovation, you seek to lock countries in contractually.
For instance as a country, this would mean telling Huawei they can't sell you AI chips, and telling Chinese firms they can't invest in your data centers - even if they're better and cheaper. It's not about choosing the best technology, it's about choosing the right flag.
But in this instance, the US went much further still: they literally tried to carve out 4,000 acres of Philippine territory (in New Clark City, 60 miles north of Manila) to be governed under US common law with diplomatic immunity - the first arrangement of its kind anywhere in the modern world.
This is according to the WSJ who ran the story last month (https://t.co/kydhIQfo2A) as if it was a done deal (it wasn't).
Heard about the "French concession" or "British concession" in China during the century of humiliation? Same thing: the US basically asked for an "American concession" in the Philippines.
Unsurprisingly, there was quite a bit of backlash in the country with for instance the Peasant Movement of the Philippines (KMP) calling it a “massive sellout” of the country’s land, minerals, and sovereignty (https://t.co/nkXSajH2Q7).
So much so that the Philippines' government - namely Joshua Bingcang, president and chief executive of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) - issued a statement saying that the Philippines had rejected US proposals that would place the project beyond local jurisdiction (https://t.co/ZmNWJB03eH).
Note, by the way, this delicious irony: the BCDA is the government agency that was created in 1992 specifically to convert former US military bases at Clark and Subic Bay after the Philippines spent decades negotiating their closure. New Clark City - where the Pax Silica's hub would go - is built on the old Clark Air Base.
So the agency whose entire reason for existing is to turn former American colonial territory (i.e. US military bases) into sovereign Philippine land is the one now being asked to hand part of that very same land back under US jurisdiction (and, apparently, declined).
Of course though, blocking this specific jurisdiction grab doesn't change the bigger picture. The Philippines is still a Pax Silica signatory, and Pax Silica itself is structurally neocolonial: you supply the cheap labor and raw materials, align your export controls and regulations with Washington's, cut yourself off from the world's rising technological powerhouse - and in exchange you get assembly jobs and the privilege of getting a pat on the head and being called a "trusted partner."
They dropped the most cartoonishly colonial demand - governing Philippine soil under US law - but the underlying architecture is the same: you serve America's supply chain, on America's terms, and you relinquish your sovereign right to trade with whoever offers the best deal.