Posts by Patricio P. Diaz
MIND DA News: Complicating Implications Ahead
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/16 June) — Contentious issues in the negotiation of the three remaining annexes to the Framework of Agreement on Bangsamoro have delayed progress in the roadmap to… »
MIND DA NEWS: Annex on Wealth-Sharing snagged
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/14 June) – Initialed last February 27, the Annex on Wealth-Sharing has remained snagged and, together with the other annexes, can delay longer – if not much… »
COMMENT: ‘Always Looking for Improved Strategies’
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/01 June) – That statement to the Philippine Daily Inquirer of the deputy presidential spokesperson, Abigail Valte, “We are always looking to improve strategies that we can… »
MINDA DA NEWS: Just the Speeches, Not the Writers
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 30 May) – “Neat!” would be how an African-American might react to a May 27 Philippine Daily Inquirer story headlined, “Aquino unhappy with speeches, not… »
COMMENT: Transition That Will Work Imperiled (7)
IV Postscript (Conclusion) GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/27 May) — The regular Bangsamoro legislature will be elected in 2016 during the interim period. Will the few reoriented leaders be able to… »
COMMENT: Transition That Will Work Imperiled (6)
IV. Post Script GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 26 May) – Besides the need for the BTA to set up the Bangsamoro that will truly solve with finality the Bangsamoro… »
COMMENT: Transition That Will Work Imperiled (5)
III. What Will Work (Continued 2: Key to Transition) GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/19 May)– The Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) is the present holding the future of the Moros… »
COMMENT: Transition That Will Work Imperiled (4)
III. What Will Work (Continued 1: Past and Present) GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/18 May)– Some shreds of the past show how Government and successive Presidents have handled the Moro… »
COMMENT: Transition That Will Work Imperiled (3)
III. What Will Work? GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/17 May)– As defined in Part I, “transition” specifically refers to the period of establishing the government institutions, mechanism and modalities for… »
COMMENT: Transition That Will Work Imperiled (2)
II. Lying Ahead GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/27 April)– MILF Chair Mohagher Iqbal tells media they are ready to sign the Annexes. These are basically the same Annexes in the MILF… »
COMMENT: Transition That Will Work Imperiled (1)
I. Open-Ended Roadmap GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/25 April) – “Transition” as used here specifically refers to the period of establishing the governmental institutions, mechanics and modalities for the entrenchment of… »
COMMENT: Getting It All Wrong
GENERAL SANTOS CITY, April 23, 2013 – Posted in the website of OPAPP (Office of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process) on Sunday, April 21, is “Gov’t on diligent review… »
COMMENT: MILF View of the Transcom
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 17 April) – Mohagher Iqbal, chair of the MILF peace panel and concurrently of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, meandered awhile emotionally in his welcome remarks… »
MIND Da NEWS: Annexes Shrinking the Time Frame
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/12 April) — Government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front peace panels adjourned their 37th Exploratory Talks April 9 to 11 without final agreements on the three remaining… »
MIND DA NEWS: Off-Course Presscon
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 11 April) – In a 43-minute press conference at the Crowne Hotel in Pasig City last April 3, the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, following its en… »
COMMENT: Behind Hope, Fears
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/07 April 2013) — The signing of the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro on October 15, 2012 was the poetical “sun always shining” that emerged from “behind the… »
COMMENT: Pope Francis: Notes and Quotes
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/31 March)– Thirteen days after Pope Benedict XVI had resigned from the papacy, Pope Francis was elected on March 13, 2013 eleven days before Palm Sunday that… »
COMMENT: ‘Let Us Protect’, Pope Calls
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/24 March) — “Let us protect with love all that God has given us!” implored Pope Francis in summarizing his 1,400-word inaugural homily last March 19 that… »
MIND DA NEWS: Focus of the New Papacy
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 21 March) – At his inauguration last Tuesday, March 19, Pope Francis bared the focus of his papacy in his homily before 150,000 to 200,000… »
MIND DA NEWS: New Pope, Same Problems, New Hope
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 17 March) – The election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, of Buenos Aires, Argentina to the Papacy – becoming Pope Francis – has stirred… »
MIND DA NEWS: Lake Sebu Problem: Typical
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 12 March) – The Lake Sebu story as written by Bong S. Sarmiento (MindaNews, March 10, 2013) is a problem typical of Filipinos and the… »
COMMENT: Historic Legacy of Sultan Alam
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/08 March) – When Sulu Sultan Mohammed Jamalul Alam leased the Sultanate’s part of North Borneo to the British North Borneo Company in 1878 never did he… »
COMMENT: Complicating the Question (2)
II. Complicated GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/02 March)– We ended the first part of this piece with the conclusions of two analysts, Sen. Jovito Salonga and Sabahan journalist Vidal Yudin Weil,… »
COMMENT: Complicating the Question (1)
I. The Question GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 27 Feb) – When we started writing this piece in the afternoon of February 25, the followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul… »
MIND DA NEWS: Crucial to Sabah Claim
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/23 February) – Yesterday, February 22, was the deadline the Malaysian government had given for the men of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III to leave their refuge in… »
MIND DA NEWS: Different Problems, Different Answers
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 21 February) – Last February 11 (9 in another report), Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram, the brother and heir apparent of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III of… »
COMMENT: Aquino III’s Blind Side (3)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY, February 9, 2013 — Corruption is primarily an effect, not a cause, of moral perversions and violations of the ideal or of ethical principles. However, once created in different species, forms and names, corruption tends to breed more corruptions. Remember the saying: “Money begets money.” When corruption pervades with impunity in government and other sectors of society and gains public tolerance, indifference and even acceptance as normal, it becomes systemic corruption.
Mind da News: Aquino’s Second Push
GENERAL SANTOS CITY, February 8, 2013 – As reported in three national dailies, on the initiative of President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III, the government will launch on Monday, February… »
COMMENT: Aquino III’s Blind Side (2)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/1 February) –The grant of discretion in the disposition of savings is not corruption. It is provided in the Constitution and other laws. What constitutes corruption is the abuse of this discretion. This we discussed in Part I.
MIND DA NEWS: ‘Latest News’
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 26 January) – Yesterday, Friday, was the end of the 35th exploratory talk of the Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. At 7 o’clock… »
COMMENT: Aquino III’s Blind Side
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 23 January) – President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III told the station managers of Radio Mindanao Network in Malacañang last January 10 that his government’s “relentless campaign against graft and corruption would continue” and warned “that one of the perceived ‘most corrupt’ government agencies ‘will get a very severe jolt’ in due time” without naming the agency. (The Philippine Star, January 12, 2013: Noy: Corrupt gov’t agency will get a severe jolt)
Mind da News: Cops Shoot Cops: Echo Clear
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/ 11 January) – That so-reported shootout on Marharlika Road in Atimonan, Quezon in the afternoon of last January 6 was a loud post-New Year greeting for… »
Mind da News: What a Wrath!
GENERAL SANTOS CITY, January 8, 2013 – Horrible! What horror wrought by a terrible hand! On reading the news and seeing the pictures of the wrath of “Pablo” such description… »
COMMENT: Aquino Nearing his Mid-Term (2)
Last of two parts: Dampers GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/5 January) – Nearing his mid-term, President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III has brought the Philippines to unprecedented economic growth. This was… »
COMMENT: Aquino Nearing his Mid-term
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 4 January) – President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III is just six months away from completing three years in his six-year presidency. How are the… »
MIND DA NEWS: Impasse: Basic vs. Expedience
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 27 Dec) – At the root of the “technical impasse” that occurred at the 34th exploratory talks of the peace panels of Government and Moro… »
Mind da News: EO 120, s. 2012 and the Impasse
GENERAL SANTOS CITY, December 21, 2012 – President Benigno Simeon S. Aquino III signed Executive Order No. 120, s. 2012 last December 17 creating the Bangsamoro Transition Commission as provided… »
MINDA DA NEWS: Bangsamoro: After June 30, 2016, What?
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 19 Dec) – What does Moro Islamic Liberation Front want Bangsamoro to be? Leading the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, MILF may be able to set up… »
Bridging the Historic Chasm (8)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/ 8 December) – Responses to an event reflect how the event impacts on the responders. Specifically, the “how” shows the responders’ biases, prejudices, attitudes, stakes or plain interests as well as appreciations relative to the various causes and effects of the event – how they regard the causes and how they perceive the effects as affecting them, their advocacies and even fortunes.
COMMENT: Bridging the Historic Chasm (7)
III. MILF Dictating Terms GENERAL SANTOS CITY, November 28,2012 – In his column, “Analysis: What’s Bangsamoro?” (Philippine Daily Inquirer, October 26, 2012), Amando Doronila asked two questions: “Under whose… »
COMMENT: Bridging the Historic Chasm (6)
III. Strategic Compromises (3. More Observations) GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 20 Nov) – While the agreement in principle on “unacceptable status quo”, “ministerial form of government” and “asymmetric… »
Mind da News: Sin Tax Bill: A Comedy
GENERAL SANTOS CITY, November 13, 2012 – “Too late to fight sin tax bill,” declared Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago in a news report of the same title (Philippine Daily Inquirer, November… »
COMMENT: Bridging the Historic Chasm (5)
III. Strategic Compromises (2. Clash of Concepts) GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/ 09 November) — As discussed in the “Re-View”, the Moro Problem is more than 400 years. The Moros started… »
MIND DA NEWS: The Only Solution
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/28 October) — Cotabato City Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema said during an interview last Wednesday that the “only solution” to the problem of achieving long-lasting peace in… »
COMMENT: Bridging the Historic Chasm (3) II. Looking into the FAB (2 as Framed)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/27 October) — As earlier noted, the 15-stage implementation of the FAB appeared to have been drawn on the presumption that the Bangsamoro as aspired by the… »
COMMENT: Bridging the Historic Chasm (2): Looking into the FAB
2nd of a series GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/21 Oct) — Glowing tributes to the architects of the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and their patrons; seeing in the FAB a new… »
COMMENT: Bridging the Historic Chasm (1) Intriguing Notes
1st of a series GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/16 October) — In “Mind da News” (MindaNews, October 5, 2012), we cited the Government and MILF panel chairs as referring in their… »
MINDA DA NEWS: Bridging Historic Gaps Heroic
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/ 5 October) – The Philippine Government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front negotiators have agreed to extend by one day – to end today (Saturday), October 6… »
COMMENT: AHA! … Really? … Not New
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/16 September) — Two September 11 news reports in the Philippine Star, one on the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the other about politics in Maguindanao,… »
COMMENT: Bridging the Historic Chasm (4)
By Patricio P. Diaz on November 4 2012 3:43 pm
III. Strategic Compromises (1. A Re-View) GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/04 November) – The Aquino III Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front forged the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro through compromises.… »