Russians and Chinese can now lease lands for 120 years

Batas Mauricio

RUSSIAN and Chinese businessmen will now be allowed to occupy lands in the Philippines for about 120 years, in a big policy shift that President Duterte is undertaking to entice investors from Russia and China to do business in the country. Under current laws, foreigners and foreign corporations can lease lands initially for 50 years, renewable for another 25 years.

Duterte made the policy-change disclosure in a speech before mediamen covering the Office of the President on Sept. 26, 2016. Duterte said “I will open up all avenues of trade and commerce. They can come in, and kung wala pang panahon because I could not amend the Constitution right now, then I can give them sixty years plus another sixty years…”

The President made it clear that he has already talked with Xi Jinping, the president of China and the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, as well as with Russian Prime Minister Dmity Medvedev. He said he is “about to cross the Rubicon between me and the United States”, which is an idiomatic expression which means that there is no turning back.

Duterte is pursuing more robust trade and commercial relations with Russia and China after the US, the European Union and international bodies like the United Nations  severely criticized his fierce anti-drugs campaign. Here are parts of his speech on Sept. 26, 2016:

“You want me to answer (for the killings), you answer also. We’re on the same boat. Bakit kayo … who are you to threaten me? Na sabihin nila the Standard and Poor’s … they grade, lowered us to a BBB borrowing potential, then?

“I have talked to Xi Jinping. I’m going to China. I will open up all avenues of trade and commerce… I have been talking with Prime Minister Medvedev. Nag one-on-one man kami doon. Walang nakaalam noon. And I said—oo, nag-one on one, matagal kami. Sabi ko na I think I have … I’m about to cross the Rubicon between me and the United States. At least for the six years. I would need your help and everything – trade, commerce, and I will open up…”

Duterte went on to lambast what he said was the hypocrisy of the United States, Australia, and Great Britain. He said: “Bakit sila, ang America and Britain, they warned Iraq. I don’t know what was that warning (about), but they went inside the Iraq on a pretext, excuse, a reason that there were weapons of mass destruction, only to find out that there was none; and yet they destroyed a nation.

“Napaka-hipokrito nitong p***ina ’to. Itong EU (European Union), at first you had the pretension of the sentiments of a civil society, civilization. Binuksan ninyo iyong boundary, noong nakita kayo, hirap na kayo, eh ang lalaki naman ng lupa ninyo, sinara ninyo bigla. So iyong inabutan sa sentimiyento ninyo, before your… let me find the word–before your nightmare, pasok kayo nang pasok ang egging everybody, criticizing every nation there that refused to allow the entry (of those running away from war).

“Noong napuno na sila, anak ng… sinirahan ngayon, sarado na and some of them are drowning now, and some of them are out and winter is coming, and they will suffer. So where’s their human rights? Australia—mga Rohingya, the stateless person or tribe in Myanmar, Burma. So, they travelled to Indonesia, anong ginawa? Nagkuha ng barko, tinulak ulit doon sa dagat. God, here I am killing the criminals, assuming it to be true, you guys… what the hell happened to your values in life?”

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Just what kind of low have Filipinos descended into these days? I thought I have already heard all the weird news there are in the world, but our very own countrymen can truly outdo the weirdest of the weird that other people from other nations can muster. Just consider the example of the 40-year old father from Nabas, Aklan who figured in the news on Monday.

A report from Bombo Radyo Philippines (see http://www.bomboradyo.com/news/latest-news/item/168514-misis-na-ayaw-magpasiping-tinaga-ng-mister-kasama-ang-anak-na-dalaga) claimed that the father, Jose “Jun” Villorente boloed his own wife, Maricar, 41, and his own daughter, Jasmine, 22, after he was refused sex by Maricar.

The report said Jose came home from a drinking spree and perhaps out of drunkenness, he asked to have sex with Maricar. However, Maricar refused because she had to sleep with their daughter Jasmine to take care of her as she was sick. Angered by the refusal, Jose got a bolo and wounded Maricar in her forehead. Jasmine then tried to pacify Jose, but she too was hacked.

Fortunately, Maricar and Jasmine sustained only minor wounds and were declared out of danger after being treated in a nearby hospital. Jose was later on arrested by the police, and is now being detained while frustrated parricide charges are being readied against him.

Now, there are interesting issues from this incident. The first pertains to the legal duty of a husband or a wife to have sex with their spouses. This is provided for by the Family Code of the Philippines. Under this law, a husband or a wife is obliged to have sex with their spouses, but under current jurisprudence, sex should be voluntary and the result of mutual consent.

In a landmark ruling (People vs. Jumawan, G.R. No. 187495, April 21, 2014), the Supreme Court ruled that “(I)t is true that the Family Code obligates the spouses to love one another, but this rule sanctions affection and sexual intimacy, as expressions of love  that are both spontaneous and mutual, and not the kind which is unilaterally exacted by force or coercion…”

The other point in the case of Villorente is this: very clearly, Jose was suffering from some kind of a “confusion of the mind” or some form of “madness.” Indeed, only someone who is out of his mind can be so enraged by a refusal of his spouse to have sex with him, or her, especially if, as in the case of Villorente, there was a justifiable reason for the refusal to have sex.

How did Villorente, and many others like him I am sure (based on similar news stories which abound in mainstream and online media), became “confused” in their minds and “mentally mad” as well so that they are disabled from acting prudently, judiciously, and even rationally? From where I sit, I believe it is because many Filipinos no longer read their Bible, and no longer obey the commands of God.

There is a prophecy which says that if a person no longer listens to God, and no longer obeys His commands, God will afflict him or her with “confusion of mind” and of “madness.” This clearly is playing out itself now, turning many Filipinos mad and insane, because we no longer listen to God (no longer read His Bible), and no longer obey Him. Many will perish because of this!

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com