Pnoy Joins Cory at 61. Remembering The Fight to Democracy of the Aquino's in the Philipines

 

Former President of the Philippines Benigno Noynoy Aquino III died Thursday at the age of 61 after being hospitalized in Quezon City, Philippines. He was the Philippines 15th President from 2010 to 2016 following the footsteps of his mother then Former Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino, an icon of democracy known after the EDSA Revolution of whom of I had the the opportunity of having work with during the early years of her presidency. 

I remember President Noynoy still carried a bullet wound from a 1987 attempted military coup against President Cory's administration, during which he was shot five times and three of his bodyguards were killed.

President Noynoy  died at the Capitol Medical Center near the capital Manila, Philippine News Agency reported, adding that his family will release a statement soon after suffering kidney disease. He had an an background as an Economist working at the Conjuangco Sugar plantation in 1998 and later on serve as a Congressman for Tarlac.  His father, Senator Benigno Aquino Sr. was assassinated at the Tarmac of the then Manila International Airport upon returning from the United States from exile in 1983. This then led to the EDSA Revolution of 1986 which toppled the Marcos dictatorship and for the Marcoses to exile in Honululu leaving behind the 5,000 pairs of shoes in the Malacanang Palace, the ill-gotten wealth un-resolved globally while the the slums in Manila are still starving on daily basis and today still shut down due to the covid-19 pandemic.

His 6 year term had a steady economy in a way has some economist say. Yet one the controversies that was unpopular was when He also approved a controversial government operation that left 44 commandos dead while pursuing a wanted Malaysian armed leader in the southern island of Mindanao.

That incident derailed the peace agreement with Muslim rebels that Aquino spearheaded during his time in office.

Aquino, whose family went into exile in the U.S. during Marcos’s rule, had turbulent ties with China as president. After China effectively seized a disputed shoal in 2012 following a tense standoff between Chinese and Philippine ships in the South China Sea, Aquino authorized the filing of a complaint before an international arbitration tribunal that questioned the validity of China’s sweeping claims in the strategic waterway on historical grounds.

“We do not wish to increase tensions with anyone, but we must let the world know that we are ready to protect what is ours,” Aquino said in his State of the Nation Address to Congress in 2011.

The Philippines largely won. China refused to join in the arbitration and dismissed as a sham the tribunal’s 2016 ruling, which invalidated Beijing’s claims to virtually the entire South China Sea based on a 1982 U.N. maritime treaty and continues to defy it. Aquino’s legal challenge and the eventual ruling plunged the relations between Beijing and Manila to an all-time low. -- quoted from the Houston news. 

One of the legacies of the President Aquino's presidency was the signing of a 2014 peace deal with the largest Muslim separatist rebel group in the country, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, in 2014 that eased decades of sporadic fighting in the country’s south, homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation.

May Noynoy rest in peace as he joins his mom and dad,

Ignorance, Deceit, Misinformation and Psychology as In The Room Where it Happened

The floundering America's 45th President brags on the first most important step he did in response to the COVID-19 response was that he closed the borders from China arrivals. A perfect answer to his loyal base. 

This base as written right after November 2016 elections,  "Donald Trump always enjoyed massive support from uneducated, low-information white people. Trump supporters might retort: “That’s because Trump supports the little guy and Clinton helps the already privileged college grads.” But that’s false: Trump supporters in the primaries had an average income of about $72,000 per year. They aren’t rich, but make more than the national average and more than Clinton supporters" quoted from the Foreign Policy

  The Room Where It Happened, John Bolton writes about January 6, 2018 one of the first book written on Trump being president "Fire and Fury" where Trump tweets that he is a very stable genius. As we've seen the last few years from books to commentaries writing about being unfit for president. Yet with all of this written culminating to the impeachment, Mr. Trump. Bolton talks about making his difficult decisions prior to resigning like other past officials. He describes the uniformity about how one is unsatisfied with the administration, He talks about the the Iran Nuclear Treaty, North Korea, China during his tenure as National Security Adviser. He credits Trump on his Defense budget initiatives yet he reflects on his concerns we loss on the nuclear treat on North Korea's ballistic program. He explains how Trump is so focus on his trade deal with China and most Trump is waiting for Nov. 4 until he calls the Chinese President on this. 

On impeachment, Bolton writes on the Democrats' Impeachment malpractice by merely concentrating on Ukraine. He claims potential issues beyond Ukraine should have been looked into. He explains why he did not testify as the democrats did not explore beyond their party lines to be bi-partisan. His concern mostly on the issue of abuse of power. This is why he believes his book is more useful in the philosophical usage in an election than an impeachment in a USA today interview recently. Bolton says he will not vote for Biden as well but his goal is for the Republican party to hold on control of Republican controlled senate. He also concerns on the Rule of Law to be even handed on the recent actions of the President on the legal justice system today, This is why he claims that the President wanted to do everything to stop the publication of his book. It's not really about national security but about the consequences of the effects on the elections is why the President wanted to stop this book from being out to the public, he states. Bolton claims he merely wants to substantiate that the President and the administration did not act on national security concerns as needed. He's always focus on trade which is why there's risk on America's national security. He knows that even as Republicans reads his book they will still vote for Trump but his distinct goal is to showcase people who and what they are voting for.

On Covid-19, Mr. Trump initially do anything at first as his fear was about his China Trade deal and he didn't want to say anything against the Chinese President. He states that the administration's initiatives can be tweak in second based on the President's personal needs. This is why it took this White House to even do anything about the pandemic for a long time. This is also the fact that he and himself and others who have left the administration had experience. There was a lot of thinking and re-thinking that your following the orders of the commander in chief and  the n at some point in time be challenged of the fact that should one keep doing so or arrive on one's conscience.

.......................................John Bolton's genius as a note taker is why this book extends to about 500 pages of extensive recollection even to Trump's rants and phone calls. He focuses on the visible "is all about me", his personal interest than what the country needs. The ignorant white based he had when he won and somewhat starting to disband lately in lieu of the recent events of the rising cases of covid-19 and the street protest after the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. 

Trump's conversation with Xi, in Bolton's book was even more dumbfounding. While Trump talks about his favorite trade, he turns on the upcoming Presidential elections alluding to China's economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleads with Xi to ensure he wins as Bolton wrote. Sounds familiar like Ukraine? I believe this is just once instance why Bolton stated the impeachment malpractice of the democrats should have gone beyond Ukraine.

Trump and his campaign today creates a post pandemic strategy totally opposite to the administrations corona-virus task force on face mask, testing and social distancing. The president still lives on his 2016 strategy that brought him victory with his then ignorant voter based. This is the first presidential campaigns outside the norm in historical perspective. If he wins with this strategy it gives a visual that America should be re-branded for being known as the land of the free, a nation of immigrants and equality to humanity.

Stable genius, uninformed, holds national security briefings once or maybe twice a week, does not want to read and study national security briefings and ask if Finland was a part of Russia. Erratic, foolish, indecisive, everything is about re-election are some excerpts on this book that stands out if one really gets to read to read in depth page by page.

How this will change the results of the upcoming US Presidential elections in November 2020 neither how the presidential historians writes about this president is something to look forward to,

Alex Esguerra