US bombed everything on Kharg Island except the $53b oil infrastructures

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The US destroyed the military infrasturctures at Kharg Island:  bunkers airports etc but not the oil facilities.  It is where most of the oil exports of Iran come from.  It has to be an island so that deep sea ports without the massive engineering can be economically be built.   

Strategy according to them:    It is not the bombs you drop, but which you did not drop

Another video making Filipinos more proud: Japanese military officer expresses admiration for Filipino soldier in military exercise

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Japanese and Filipino soldiers met in the WW2 war theater before.  And now as allies, they had joint military exercise/drills in Mindanao.

The Japanese military officer expressed his admiration for the Filipino counterpart for being patient, uncomplaining and tough.           

All of us grew in hardships, tempered in hardship:   poverty, lack of infrastructures, disasters:  earthquake, typhoons diseases.   And even adverse govt leadership.   

An admiration a tribute from a former adversary from the 3rd richest country is something to be proud of and work doubly harder on.  

Increasing Philippines defense capabilities - to lessen bullying?

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Lately through its own initiative and with a little help from its Allies, Philippines is acquiring more lethal weapons:  tanks, ships, air assets, and missiles to increase its defense capabilities.   Showing some military strength and teeth as it were

What do you think of this latest move?  Has Philippines become a hawk and war monger?

Or is it just realistic in face of increasing tension and threat?

Fraud and scam advisory

Awesome. Warning to the bully, strengthening strategic advantage

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Is it going to be a deterrent to bullying.   So that the bully meet its equal (or master)

But the majority of _________are law abiding, God fearing (as excuse) for a group of terrorists and imperialists

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This sort of argument is always forwarded for terrorist groups:   Nazi, jihadist, Hamas, Japanese etc.   Only 10%-20% were bad apples, and the majority of the people are good.  They will not hurt a fly.

Only 19 people executed the 9/11 murder in USA, but what did the rest of 1.2 Billion brethren do?

Nothing.

They just let the minority did their heinous crimes, and did nothing.  

So right now, we are dealing with many good businessmen Chinese.    Many of them are needed because the majority of them are entrepreneurs, and hence many of them are millionaires and billionaires because they have good business sense, are frugal and hard working.  

I have Chinese business partners.  They have been very kind and understanding.  They give us gifts during Christmas, Chinese New Year and remember our birthdays.  

And yet we see as small minority and we are offended by their actions who take silly action in WPS that harm us for a little bit of territory for the sake of military and political glory.  Only the heads of CCP and 

Xi want glory for imperialism, the Silk and Road initiative (which turned to be a great failure)  The China first (which all leaders use as mantra) is only wanted by a few in a leadership.

Time and time again, we have seen how conquest fail because of the huge expenses and administrative energy needed to maintain the empire/colony

We hope this time the rest of 80-90% of the population of neighboring country see the light and realize that it is better to be at peace and prosperous.  

Confusion on implementation of community quarantine

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MM is supposed to be GCQ starting today with granular lockdown ,  And yet the number of covid cases peaked at 22,000 when the results sof the extended ECQ at MM was , and yesterday, it was still at 18,000.   

So the authorities back back pedaled and had the MECQ instead.

This post notes that we have one of the most extended lockdown and expanded lockdown in the world.  It is noteworthy that while we were ahead of  many in terms of many cases, many including European countries see it fit to have lockdowns.    

I think the  DOH and the rest of leadership did its best, (but it was not good enough) to fight the pandemic and put up many facilities.  But the gods may not be smiling at us, the virus is really virulent that is why cases are still rising   This may be partly to the  1.  hard headed ness of the people  and 2.  the military way the covid was handled, via PNP and the barangay who all of a sudden became epidimologist, scientists, lawyers.   The disease is spread via social contact in enclosed spaces but we had plenty of this:    1.  distribution of bakuna, 2.  checkpoints,   3.  gathering of arrested individuals. 

4.  a semi rally when VIPs visit the provinces.     

There is a lot of confusion:      (and it reflects my hobby)     DOTR says its ok to bike in the street;   LGU says no and arrests are made;    DOH says we can exercise, LGU says no.   

It is weird and crazy to prevent passersby in the highway especially for bikers and the orders relevance in the spread of the disease.   You have to show proof that bikers spread disease.   

Two contrasting views during the MECQ Flex

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Rizal Philippines

5.06.2021.   

Early this week, I saw how enthusiastic the security officer were in haranguing citizens for:   non wearing of face mask and face shield in a market place, inconsiderate herding of customers of a financial institution   (as if we were negotiating for an ayuda)

Eh bakit nakafatigue ang police?  May giyera?  Vs its own citizens?

Today I saw large congregation of:   parents enrolling their children (the line extending several blocks and into interior streets) and  people waiting at a barangay (for an ayuda)   Why cant we mail the check or credit the amounts to their bank accounts.  To avoid the crowding.  There are various platforms to do this.   

And now we wonder why cases are not going down?  The govt agencies conduct activities that foster crowds and physical contact.   There is no need for police to be rude and harsh,   We are not the enemies. 

Covid is...

Conflicting orders prevail.

Pres Duterte explains once again his statement that he is severing ties with US

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Rizal Philippines
October 22, 2016

Pres Duterte Announces Military Economic Ties with US


For the nth time somebody is interpreting/paraphrasing the statement pf Pres DU30 made at a meeting in Beijing this week re"severing ties military and economic ties with US"  Several major dailies carried the same story, so with the videos This post was shocked and was careful enough to note what the the good President said..  This sent shock waves to the BPO industry with over 1 million employees employed and with revenues of $20 billion, almost equal to OFW remittance.

The US State department was concerned;   China Foreign Minister took the statement lightly (She knew what DU30 meant - probably joking or engaging in a balimbing talk.

He said it is not severance of ties  (but only a  separation of policy

Eh ano ba Mr President?  Sinabi mo SEVERANCE.  Make up Mr. President.  Say exactly what you mean.   Let us not confuse every one or be engaged in double talk.  It is not good for a President to engage in that kind of talk;  it weakens his leadership and stature and probably the support of 16 million voters has waned

With due respect, please say what you mean and mean what you say.  No double talk, no need for interpreters   You are our Preisdent.  We want you to succeed and lead us into your great promises.  Please do not confuse your nation

Very disturbing developments in the DU30 foreign policy

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Rizal Philippines
October  21, 2016

#shocking #breakingtieswithUS

This post has been a supporter of the DU30 govt and even an avid supporter. However, when he said without prior consultation and notice and announced that he would break military and economic ties with US  and join China and Russia this post was shocked.

At the end of the day, what did we get?  The revival of friendship between China and Phil?  $12 billion worth of trade deals (on paper).  Did we get the vaunted  Philippine sovereignty.  No that was not tackled.  At the end of the day we did not get much from China, who could be stingy with its former arch enemy.  Let us not forget the lifting of the ban on travel

On the other hand what can we expect:

1.   Possible departure of other US business from the Philippines?

2.  More foreign aid from US? Or less or Zero?

3.  Our defense lies where?  Our US hardware will fit into the Chinese aid if ever?  Why break US military ties?

4.  Less foreign trade with US.  US is one of the biggest trading partners of the PHL and is  still the biggest economy of the world. Chinas and Japans economy is dependent on US economy that is why the two deal diplomatically with US.

Did DU30 do this on his own or in consultation with other cool heads?

At the end of the day we can say that DU30 did this to spite US and UN for trying to investigate his anti drug campaign (talagang ganun, gagawin nila tungkulin nila) and for having spat with Obama (imagined  - he did not have face to face spat with Pres Obama)   DU30 has made a big blunder and mistake and his 16 manok supporter is unravelling. Thsi time former FVR could be right.

Hinay hinay Mr President.    Let us be more circumspect for the nation.   You could be wrong too

In the meantime expect more rabid rallies from the leftist groups as what has happened at US embassy recently (DU30 will have problem whom to side? -  the police who helps in the drug war, or the rallyists?) and more leftist govt policies that could hurt the business.  This may foment instability

Inside story of the devastation by Typhoon Haiyan in Leyte

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Manila Philippines, November 30, 2013

We met with our construction contractor for labor tonight.  He just arrived from Leyte and he has been there since November 13, 2013 to assist his relatives who were victims of Typhoon Haiyan.  He brought to assist his stricken relatives 50 relief packs and it cost him about a P100,000.  He had many interesting stories to tell regarding the situation there:

Some relief goods distribution were just for a show

Not all were given relief goods.  Those lines which were deemed to be full of people in same household were not given anymore.  After photo ops, relief goods that were given were retrieved/recalled.    Some relief packs were repacked (what for?)

Relief goods even as of this date have not reached the intended beneficiaries;   why?

Some container goods were kept in warehouses and remained undistributed and heavily guarded in warehouses of local officials.  What for?

Commandeered by the military?

He alleges that some relief goods carried by helicopters c/o the military were not 100% delivered;  some were taken for personal use of the military personnel.  Some military men were behind the pilferage of fuel in tanks (the guys in bonnet were encouraging the people to pilfer the gasoline in underground trunk?  why?)

We can see generosity and cruelty of people in times of crisis

There was this townmate businessmen of this contractor who was hated before.  But he brought from Cebu 3 truckloads of relief goods costing several hundreds of thousands of pesos to distribute to the typhoon victims in his town.  On the other hand, there were rapes and robberies going on.  Abandoned cars and motorbikes are being strippped for parts.  There were wholesale theft of motorbikes in a store which was carried out clearly not in the name of survival.

There was even a band of robbers who shouted tsunami, and everybody ran away injuring many in the stampede that ensued.  That was a ruse for the 3 robbers to rob the vacant houses.  They were soon discovered and one of them was lynched, one was caught, and one ran away.

Gasoline is sold for 2x the price, construction materials are sold 2x their price that is why people cant rebuild their lost homes.  If only construction materials were made available at prevailing market price

Lack of strong leadership and management needed

Our friend really deplored the politicking that was going on, greediness, self interest, and cruelty that was going on and the inability of the public sector to control this and take charge. It will tell heavily on the elective officials if they will still stay in office

Logistics management, crowd control, leadership must be practiced and taught.   Many educated people only bring in cash, goods, and repacking labor to the table, but I guess we need good management practices in this kind of situation (and even morality and ethics)  Amanpour was right -  the actions here define the kind of people who lead and manage us.

Unbelievable devastation

From the stories he heard, the surge was more than 30 ft high.  And people were not prepared for that.  Many died from the ships that crushed their homes.  There were little tornadoes that tore the structures apart.  Would you believe that coconut trees were twisted by the strong wind?