More depressing commentary on the state of the Philippines from Superblessed, with a link to commentary from Raul Pangalanan on Filipinos and government. Also see Conrado de Quiros today on hunger, and Sassy Lawyer on free lugaw, the poor, population, and the Church and NGOs.

Teddy Benigno, back from a writing break, never changes, and zealously pronounces his standard forecast of revolution, violence, and death from the bubbling “social volcano.” (From experience, however, if the Philippines is like a volcano, it’s more like Mount Saint Helens in recent weeks, making lots of occasional smoke and noise, always bubbling and seething with underground [MSH: liquid hot magma / Philippines: civil unrest] but never really erupting into a full-scale explosion like it did in [MSH: 1980 / Philippines: 1986].)