A4
Opinion
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017
mst.daydesk@gmail.com
EDITORIAL
Adelle Chua, Editor
Loose tongues
A
T A time when everybody seems keen on outdoing himself or herself, an assistant secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development has gone too far in defending the administration to which she belongs.
Social Welfare and Development official Lorraine Marie Badoy, in a Facebook post, exalted President Rodrigo Duterte’s early lead in TIME Magazine’s survey of the 100 most influential people in the world.
The polls opened Friday and will close on April 16. Badoy pointed out that Duterte leads other global celebrities such as Pope Francis, Russian president Vladimir Putin, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. She also cited a survey that said nine out of 10 Filipinos approved of the way he is running the country. “Nothing and no one can stop it right now,” Badoy gushed. “He [Duterte] is beloved.” She could have stop there. She said: “Wrap your dim minds around that, you clowns.” She aimed her stinging words at
the President’s critics: Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano, who filed an impeachment complaint against Mr. Duterte, and Vice President Leni Robredo who told the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs that Filipinos were hopeless and helpless living under Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs. She described the men as snotty children, and Robredo as having a singsong voice and a creepy smile. She told them to join a knitting club or bake red velvet cupcakes instead. What took the cake, however, is her message to the European Union officials who criticize the President’s methods: “Just do online child porn. That’s where you’re good at, anyway.”
Badoy’s brand of sarcasm has gone viral and has only done much to bring down the conversation to the gutter, even as sarcasm is normally seen as a thinking man’s humor. Stating facts would have sufficed. Then again, this is the Duterte era. Anything goes. We wished Badoy were just a vociferous social media personality—but she is not. She represents an agency of government tasked with ensuring children do not fall victim to predators in any form. We know she is joking, of course. But there are some things that should not be joked about—not even in her desperate attempt to show her fierce devotion to her infallible president. VIRTUAL REALITY TONY LOPEZ
How 8990 became the largest home builder
Trillanes’ trap LOWDOWN
JOJO A. ROBLES IT’S just dinner, for crying out loud. It’s not the end of the Yellow world as we know it. Sometimes I wonder if the people who claim to be allies of Vice President Leni Robredo are not actually preventing her from becoming a productive member of government, instead of remaining just a perennial critic supported by taxpayers’ money. Their response to the reported invitation by President Rodrigo Duterte for Robredo to have dinner in Malacañan Palace is a perfect example of the refusal of her supporters to even consider an end to the debilitating and energy-sapping partisan squabbling that has been the hallmark of Philippine politics for ages. Senator Antonio Trillanes, for instance, urged Robredo not to break bread with Duterte, warning that this could be a “trap.”
Trillanes said that the invitation could end up like Robredo’s joining the Duterte Cabinet, which resulted in the vice president’s quitting after she was told to stop attending meetings in Malacañang. But to me, Trillanes’ warning sounds more like a demand for Robredo to remain a thorn on Duterte’s side, just like he is, until the end of his term. In Trillanes’ twisted world, there can be no peace with Duterte, even if the entire country goes to hell. The senator’s position is actually classic Yellow, an ideology which neatly divides the country into those who have bought into the worldview of the Aquino family and its various hangerson and those who haven’t, who are (in their view) beyond political salvation. In other words, Trillanes is testing Robredo’s faith in the somos o no somos policy of the Yellows—and her decision to accept or to decline a simple dinner invitation could be used as a barometer of her fidelity to the cause. Duterte, of course, is nothing
if not the antithesis of Yellow political practice. While it is true that he and Robredo have had a very public falling out over the vice president’s decision to become the president’s chief critic and de facto leader of the opposi-
Leni’s decision to accept Digong’s invitation could be used as a barometer of her fidelity to the Yellow cause. tion even within the Cabinet, he is still apparently willing to seek a common ground and to work for a higher purpose with her, thus the dinner invitation. I have time and again criticized Robredo’s various actions since
she assumed office. I was among those who applauded her decision to leave the Cabinet, since she cannot seem to decide if she wants to be a government critic or a partner of the administration in working towards its goals. I don’t think Robredo will suddenly become a “Dutertard” after a mere dinner, is what I mean. But I understand that, as president, Duterte must still try to convince Robredo that they should work again together if they both want the country to move forward. However, I see no trap being laid for Robredo, who is after all only being asked to have dinner and not being offered marriage by the president. (That salty joke by Duterte about Robredo marrying him if she wants power is just another of those zingers we’ve come to expect from the President—even the Yellows don’t fall for those throwaway lines anymore.) I only see an offer of friendship and perhaps a political rapprochement between the top two officials of the land, who are,
while estranged, both facing impeachment charges. The choice of accepting the offer of mending fences is really Robredo’s. Robredo can succumb to the Yellows’ call of remaining Duterte’s chief critic and salivating successor in office, refusing to share anything with him, not even a simple meal. Or she can act like she can actually go beyond politics and listen to what the President wants to say this time, after the breakup. Now, it would be different if Trillanes was invited to sup in Malacañang. If Duterte’s claims of the senator’s exploits as a former putschist are at all true, the Presidential Security Group should keep close watch on the palace silverware the moment Trillanes sits down at the table. *** Robredo has not said yes or no to dinner with Duterte. But she has shown signs that she may be soon be easing up on the criticism, if her radio interview with broadcaster Ted Failon yesterday is any indication. Turn to A5
IN TODAY’S column may I excerpt from a lecture delivered at Ateneo Graduate School of Business, March 16, 2017 by JJ Atencio, president and CEO of 8990 Holdings, the country’s largest home builder: “It’s really more fun in the Philippines when you consider a nation of 7,107 islands with 175 dialects, each with their own distinctive cuisines; a young population of 104 million, 13 million living in Metro Manila and 4 million overseas Filipinos responsible for foreign currency remittances totaling P3 billion in 2016, raising per capita incomes to $3,500, achieving a GDP growth of 6.5 percent every year for the past 15 years. But it is also the country, where 50 percent of adults do not own any kind of property, a housing backlog of 5.5 million growing 5 percent every year, and a housing industry that can only produce 250,000 homes annually. You know right away that something is amiss, or that you realize a great potential in a market that is severely underserved. In our 13 years as 8990, we’ve grown from one branch in Cebu to 8 across the nation, 49 completed projects and 18 ongoing, we’ve delivered more than 50,000 housing units, making us the largest homebuilder in the affordable housing space in the Philippines today. Behind this growth is a vision that’s way bigger than the business. I’ve always believed that in order to be successful in mass housing, you’ve got have a sense of mission, because there are easier ways to make money in real estate, honestly. When we started 13 years ago, we wanted to run a business that was not only profitable, but also had tremendous social impact. We are continuously driven by the idea that housing is not about houses, it’s about people, and how we use housing as a vehicle to transform people’s lives for the better. Eighty-two percent of our market are primary or first-time home buyers who want to stop renting and move up the social ladder to become property owners paying a monthly amortization. Fifty-eight percent of our buyers are young. Without a doubt, the new and emerging market for affordable housing are millennials. That means while these young, tech-oriented, information-driven Filipinos have adequate cashflows for housing, and will have increasing income levels as they get older, they don’t have the savings for a huge downpayment today. To be successful today is to tap into the Turn to A5
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