vonjobi: wow, congratulations! kelan ang trip? i hope i'll be around when you come. had a good time with diosa last...
Keith Bacongco: Knowing Nograles and his Big Boss...garapalan na lang talaga.
Vinia Datinguinoo Mukherjee: Congratulations, PCIJ! Mabuhay kayo!
Lead Philippines: But without credible mass media there, what is left to protect the people..?
vonjobi: it's juned sOniDo.

Latest Message 5 months ago

hopeless_race : Lets not just focus sa mga malversation of funds, sa mga overpricing..ating pagtuunan ng atensyon ang diskarte ng mga politiko na umuutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno."Small time" ang ibang pamamaraan ng pangungurakot kumpara sa pag-utang sa gobyerno ng bilyon na tunay ngang masasabing "pinaka big-time" at wala pang sabit.
hopeless_race : Mukhang tikom ang bibig ng lahat pagdating sa diskarte ng mga politiko sa pagutang ng mga bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno na tinatakbuhan. Itong pamamaraan na ito ang tunay na kumakain ng malaking porsyento ng ating national budget batay na din sa sinasabi ng world bank.
hopeless_race : Pakisilip naman po ang mga utang ni Villar sa BSP, ang mga utang nila RAMON JACINTO, RONNIE ZAMORA, JOE DE VENECIA at madami pang ibang mga pulitiko. Iilan lamang yan sa mga nababanggit sa balita na may mga malalaking utang sa gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Nagmimistulang "small time" lamang ang malversation of funds kumpara sa laki ng kinakamal ng mga umuutang sa gobyerno. At ito ay malinaw na natatakbuhan dahil hindi nga naman pwede makulong ang may-ari ng kumpanya sa pagkaka-utang lamang. Tunay na mga tuso at magagaling sa batas itong mga politiko natin. Masasabi ko na malamang lahat ng mga politiko ganito ang diskarte...wala pang kulong.
hopeless_race : PCIJ pkitingnan naman po ang mga gaya ni Villar na my malaking utang sa Gobyerno pero tinatakbuhan. Magtatayo ng kumpanya at uutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno ng walang balak bayaran. Tunay ngang walang nakukulong sa utang...ito ang prinsipyo ginagamit ng mga politiko ntin kaya nakakapagtaka kung san napupunta ang daang bilyong pera ng gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Sana itreat naman po ng media ang hacienda luisita at mendiola massacre na parang MAGUINADANAO MASSACRE. Ipublicized ang mga katotohanan at ipakita sa tao ang karumaldumal na pinaggagawa sa mga farmers dun. Untouchable po ba sila cory at danding at hindi magawang batikusin ng media about these two massacres?
hopeless_race : Kapag napaguusapan ang mendiola at hacienda luisita massacre ay parang walang nangyari at parang hindi big deal. Anu po ba ang pinagkaiba ng dalawang nabanggit na massacre sa maguindanao massacre?
hopeless_race : Its sad that we pinoys are blind to the fact of what had happened in mendiola and hacienda luisita. Ang tanong..bakit ang media ay hindi manlang matackle ang ganitong usapin? Takot ba sila kay cory at danding?
hopeless_race : Wilkins" brand, for P1.4 billion.-1999 Sugarland Multi-Food Corp. for P2.9 billion 2001- Purefoods Corp P7 billion P60 billion Coca-Cola ... See More 2002- Cosmos Bottling Corp. from RFM Corp. for P14.1 billion October 2008- GSIS' shares in Meralco worth PHP30 Billion. December 2008- country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation. international company shopping spree: Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd $35.5 mi
hopeless_race : Gud am..glad to be back.
jr_lad : rip mr. alecks pabico. you'll be greatly missed!
sevens21 : Dati input mo lng name at SSS ID makukuha mo agad STATIC INFO...
sevens21 : tawag ka sa HOTLINE nila walang ANSWER grrr we need pa namn ng static info SSS Gising!!!
sevens21 : Gawa naman po kayo ng article about SSS. Pangit ng site nila dali ma blocked ng account
guest_899 : we must check the background of each potential candidates to avoid having another big mistake like GMA
guest_899 : congratulations to PCIJ, more power and God Bless !
jazzymuver : how did Arroyo swallow that kind of things!! how come that she just spend the money our countrymen for her own sake!!
guest_3664 : i would be glad if u can include the investigation of the manner public officials announce infra projects as per COA regulation. It is frustrating to see their faces on the tarpaulin instead of the prescribed information like name of project, date of implementation,amount of contract, source/s of fund, among other things. This is very rampant here in Marikina. Thanks and more power on your noble endeavors. We need people like you to have make our country great again.
jhanz_08 : im making research on R.A 9136...with rgards to the privatization of NPC..could someone out there can let me understand more bout this matter?why was monopoly dismantled?email me..jhanycem@yahoo.com...thanks much
erika marie : P.S.:) my paper is due next week and i do hope someone could provide me these reports coming from reliable resources thank you ulit.
erika marie : P.S.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study regarding political killings in the philippines. could someone out there please send me human rights reports under Aquino and Ramos administration. you could send it at my email: erikamariet@yahoo.com your response would surely be very much appreciated. thank you everyone. god bless.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study for my paper regarding political killings in the philippines. i noted that there are no human rights reports during the Aquino and Ramos administration. could someone out there please send me reports regarding these matter? i do hope these reports came from reliable resources you could send it in my email; erikamariet@yahoo.comyour response would surely be appreciated. thanks everyone. god bless.
jayson bourne : gusto ko po maging member ng PCIJ, panu po ba? may application po ba? sana mapadalhan nyo ako ng info sa email ko... www.jboxpenshoppe@yahoo.com
jayson bourne : cory is OK, but kris & Noynoy sensationalize masyado...
guest_9891 : LABAN pa rin!
meow : boycotts worked during marcos years. how about doing it now against the businesses of the con-ass congressmen?
meow : aside from 168, what other establishments can we boycott that belong to the arroyos and their cronies?
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Cory Aquino and our Magical Democracy

Posted by: Sheila Coronel | August 1, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Filed under: General

At this moment of grief for the Filipino people, the PCIJ pays tribute to Her Excellency, Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, with this story by PCIJ founding executive director, Sheila S. Coronel.

Sheila, who received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in Journalism, Literature and the Creative Communication Arts in 2003, is now the executive director of the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism of the Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

THOSE OF us who had grown up in the shadow of the Marcos dictatorship had not heard or seen Cory Aquino until August 1983, when she returned to Manila to bury her husband Ninoy. I remember catching a glimpse of her as I joined the crowd lining up at the Sto Domingo church to view Ninoy’s body, which was laid out in the bloodstained white suit that he had worn to his homecoming and death.

Only three years later, when Cory was going around the country to campaign for the presidency, did she tell Filipinos what happened the day she returned. In a voice that betrayed no emotion, she told the large crowds that had gathered to see her that she had asked to be left alone with her husband’s body. “Ninoy,” she told him, “itutuloy ko ang laban mo (I will continue your fight).”

Those who did not live through the 1980s will find all this too melodramatic. But the Philippines was a different place then. We were a country ruled by a dying dictator being kept alive by frantic doctors and dialysis machines behind the walls of the highly fortified presidential palace. As Ferdinand Marcos lay in the throes of death, palace factions conspired, the army was restive in the barracks and the air was rife with rumor and intrigue.

Into this twilight came Cory Aquino. She was the grieving widow of Marcos’s martyr. She had been purified by suffering, her agony mirroring the nation’s. In 1986, she told the crowds that gathered in rapt attention, “I am just like you, a victim of Marcos.” How could any Filipino not be moved?

The period from 1983 to 1986 were the years of magical politics. We were saved. We got democracy without shedding a drop of blood. And we did it – as so many of us still believe, and certainly, Cory Aquino more than anyone else – with the grace of God and the Virgin Mary and the power of prayer. Jaime Cardinal Sin preached that the Edsa Revolution was a miracle, a gift from God. And if you ask those who stood before the tanks, praying the rosary and begging the soldiers not to shoot, they will tell you it was.

Cory was the patron saint of that miracle. She believed in it more fervently and more fiercely than any us ever did. “I believed,” she told me in an interview in 2006, 20 years after people power, “that it was important for us to restore democracy. I believed it was important for us to oust the dictator in a peaceful manner.”

I never had the strength of Cory’s faith. And unbeliever that I am, I am skeptical about this magical thinking about our democracy, this thinking that the miracle of people power will save it again and again and again. I have watched too many times how this faith propelled all sorts of people out into the streets and out of the barracks – often with disastrous results.

Ultimately all of us will judge Cory Aquino according to whether she has lived up to our hopes and expectations. Many will credit her for reestablishing democratic institutions and doing away with some of the most egregious legacies of the Marcos dictatorship. They will also say that only Cory, of all the presidents after Marcos, remains untainted by corruption, although they will not vouch for some members of her family.

But others will not be as kind. They will blame her for resurrecting the pre-martial law political system dominated by elite families and patronage-seeking politicians. They will say she had not transcended the interests of her clan and class.

Today as I join Filipinos in remembering and grieving for Cory Aquino, I will suspend judgment and disbelief. After all, Cory’s presidency made it possible for me as a journalist to write freely and to expose wrongdoing without fear. For that alone, I am grateful.

In the end, if one only one thing can be said about Cory Aquino, it is that she believed in this country and its people. She knew, much more than we ever did, that the well of greatness lies within us. Cory reminded us we had a taste of greatness once and maybe we can have it again. – PCIJ, August 1, 2009

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 1st, 2009 and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.