In your dreams (or nightmares, depending).

But now that I have your attention, let me get to the point of this post, which is to jump right into the inevitable finger-pointing bandwagon on our dismal showing in the Beijing Olympics. Not that medal shutouts are anything new to us. The country has failed to win a single medal in any of the past three Olympics (Sydney, Athens and now Beijing).

And with Mongolia winning its first gold at the 2008 Olympics (in judo), the Philippines now holds the dubious record for the most medals without a gold. Even war-torn Afghanistan managed to break into the medal tally. Read the rest of this entry »

President Arroyo has backtracked on her initial stand pushing the memorandum of agreement creating an expanded Bangsamoro homeland as the way to “lasting peace” in Mindanao. In light of the escalating conflict in Cotabato and the Lanao provinces, she had little choice but to move away from the deal. To save face, Malacañang says that it would not sign the MoA on the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) “in its present form”. This is tantamount to saying it will never be signed at all, as the MILF has made it clear that it will not settle for anything less than the establishment of the BJE as defined in the MoA. As far as the rebel group is concerned, the MoA is a “done deal”. Read the rest of this entry »

I have had opportunity to reassess the credibility of Justice Jose Sabio in the light of certain facts extracted by the investigating committee looking into the Meralco-GSIS case, and it isn’t a pretty picture. In fact, it’s downright ugly. Justice Sabio, for all his pious posturing turns out to have been a player too.

Facing the three-man investigative panel composed of former Supreme Court Justices Romeo Callejo, Flerida Romero and Carolina Grino- Aquino, Justice Sabio admitted that his older brother, Philippine Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Commissioner Camilo Sabio, had asked him not to issue a temporary restraining order against the Government Service Insurance System that was in a dispute with the Manila Electric Company. It was a bald request to take the GSIS side in the case. Justice Sabio did not reveal this fact until it was elicited from him in the process of cross-examination. Read the rest of this entry »