DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/16/2006
Read the following quote and you will hear the echo of nations oppressed by a global system of exploitation today and their yearning to be freed by new leadership to replace the existing exploitative regimes. This piece is from a national political leader who has won a nation’s mandate but, like in many Third World countries, the popular is being frustrated by the powers of elites that control the established system supported by the oligarchy of the Western powers:
"1. We will fight poverty and the monstrous inequality which reigns in our country. Without justice, no one will have guaranteed security and tranquility. Nor will there be social peace. Peace is the fruit of justice.
"2. We will defend the Nation's patrimony. We will not permit national assets to be sold off. We will not permit the privatization, under any modality, of the electrical industry, of oil, of public education, of social security, and of natural resources.
"3. We will uphold the public's right to information. This refers to the attempt to ram through a law strengthening the cartelization of Mexico's mass media.
"4. We will confront corruption and impunity. The government cannot continue to be a committee at the service of a minority. Those who have committed abuses when in power and robbed Mexicans of their patrimony must be punished."
5. Civic institutions must be cleaned out, he said, because the institutions that are supposed to protect our Constitutional rights have been "kidnapped by a cabal." We are not willing to let tax and treasury policies be applied "solely for the benefit of bankers and influence traffickers." And we are not willing to allow the Supreme Court "to be at the service of tycoons and to protect white-collar criminals." This quote is from Mexico’s Andred Miguel Lopez Obrador, the true winner in their last presidential election but fighting to claim that rightful mandate.
Some elements young officers asked for advice, I gave them this counsel: Be revolutionary leaders. I write this piece and quote from AMLO beautiful exhortation to his people to struggle, for years if necessary, to force the mandate they have granted to the leadership they have entrusted their hopes. For our young idealist young officers I can imagine how they will fire up the hopes of the nation if they quit the ambiguities and tell it like it is: our the oppression and corruption in our society is dire, we need radical change! Listen to AMLO, be like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.
AMLO sums up the vital issues we too face: poverty and monstrous inequality; peace from justice (and not from suppression as Gloria, Jesuit Intengan and Palparan thinks); national and people’s patrimony and its protection against theft (privatization) by the powerful few; media and control of information by oligarchs; government and constitutional bodies (like their IFE or our Comelec, and Supreme Court) its corruption and usurpation by the “minority” or the money power that Abraham Lincoln warned against even in the U.S. over a hundred and fifty years ago.
Alongside corruption AMLO condemns “impunity” of the criminals who plunder government and the national patrimony, globalizers (like Makati Business Club people) as well as the corrupt permanent government “bulok-crats”; and finally, the most important assault on the root of the problem: the bankers and “influence traffickers” and how they’ve sucked the nation dry from the debt and taxes for the debts local and foreign. Why look to Mexico and AMLO? - To draw inspiration from it to add to the drive of our Philippine struggle.
AMLO’s distant echoing of what we are fighting for here helps us re-echo it to ourselves and overcome the noise and fury of our daily brawls here. At some point, as I have been stressing to a number of deaf ears, our struggle must link up with the international struggle against the global oligarchy which also supports Gloria and the Establishment here. This echoing will help the consolidation of our genuine popular leadership - consolidating around the definition of the people’s problems, establish solidarity and boost leadership symbols that nation and the masses can rally to.
If no single, individual leader can generate the critical mass then a council can be established. The progressive bishops can provide intermediation. With the combined power of the people and the reformists let us seize the levers of national governance to restore this country to the people once more. We are pressed for time for, as the article in the reformist soldiers’ website “The Last Revolution” states, we are a: dying society. Let’s resuscitate it before it’s too late. Even as we write and discuss this the global and local oligarchy continues to suck our blood
dry:
The country’s largest IPP Mirant is “borrowing” $735-M from local banks (our OFW’s hard earned $) winding up after gaining $ 3-B in assets in just five years from being bankrupt in the U.S.! The Lopez’s First Philippine Hodling profit soars 76% mainly from power sales and NLEX fees. P 350-B of our tax payments will go to interest payments, another P 380-B to roll over princip, and the local banks gets over half that. Let’s take the country back from these leeches! Let us break free! Solidarity of Mexicans and Filipino masa now!
(Tune in M-W-F to 1098AM 6-7pm)
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Bishop-People Forum
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/11/2006
Today, Friday, at eight in the morning at the now historically important place of religious-political ferment, the St. Peter’s Church at the Commonwealth Road in Quezon City will host the first of a continuing series of what organizers call Bishops-People Forum. The forum aims to kick-off, sustain and maintain a continuing dialogue between some leaders of the Catholic Church, the progressive bishops in particular, and the people of the Church – its flock, the poor, the meek and oppressed who supposedly are the blessed but really the most neglected by the Catholic Church mainstream.
When I started getting civically conscious in the late 60’s and began to be exposed to Church related social activism, one institution that had been impressed upon my then very youthful mind was the Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference (BBC). Little did I know that in my later years I would become very cynical about this group and the personalities from the business and Catholic Church hierarchy identified with it -representatives of the Philippines’ regressive Establishment which has ruled since the days of friars and the compradores of the colonial era.
I went through my teen years under the tutelage of Catholic priest-activist Jose C. Blanco who impressed with the notion that these businessmen and bishops were the good guys. But over the decades I saw through the fable of corporate responsibility and the prelature’s piety. I saw the voracious sharks that they really are as agents of the “corporatocracy” of foreign finance and big business, and their frenzied feeding blessed by the conservative bishops. Their voracity has never been
more obvious than these years of swelling corporate profits in the midst of growing poverty and hunger.
Bishops active in BBC has invariably been the ones at the helms of the CBCP, bastion of conservatism. The who’s who of big business are mainstays of the BBC counting names like Dick Romulo, Vicente Paterno, the Monsods, the Concepsions, the Yuchengcos, the Aboitizes and other oligarchs or agents of oligarchs who are in the boards of the top corporations such as the oil companies, the banks, the telecoms, privatized power and water utilities, and other companies that have run the country since 1986 and doubling yearly profits since their 2001 Edsa Dos corporate-fascist coup.
When Jimmie Regalario of the KME (Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomista) described the Bishops-People Forum I saw the great significance of the initiative in the socio-political-cultural evolution of the Church and the laity in the Philippines. It could even be epochal if it leads to a radical change in the direction of the Church from a Church of the oligarchy and plutocracy to a genuine Church of the poor and the broad masses of Filipinos. Maybe Christ’s vision and mission will finally see the light of day in this country after over four hundred fifty years after its arrival in the islands.
The first topic of the Bishop-People Forum is “extra-judicial killings” of the Arroyo regime carried out by General Palparan, the Isapf and foreign intelligence agencies. The progressive bishops of the Catholic Church namely Bishops Tobias, Iniguez and Labayen will preside. Noticeably absent will be the big corporate bosses in their gusot mayaman barongs or business suits and pompous Cardinal Sin look a-likes. Instead those present will be the urban poor, families of abducted or murdered activists, mass organization representatives and the simply dressed progressive bishops.
At long last, the country will have a Church dialogue with the masa, the poor and unshod, the oppressed and persecuted. At long last, the Church will lend its heart and ear to issues of poverty, oppression and seek solutions to these urgent problems of the borad masses or our people. This should expose the paucity and eclipse the false sheen of the Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference of conservative bishops and insatiable profiteers feigning “social and corporate responsibility”. This is the first time anything like this has happened in the country and in a Church previously dominated by prayle thinking.
The Bishop-People Forum must dominate the Philippine Catholic Church agenda in the coming months to displace the oligarchic BBC. It is timely too, because there is a global trend towards the rise of the poor and popular movements asserting its voice and its issues as we can see in Latin America. With the leadership of the progressive Filipino bishops Catholicism may yet lead in social reform instead of being a dead weight and a drag on social change. We may be seeing the fruition of Bishop Labayen’s life long mission of establishing the Church of the Poor in the
Philippines.
One item that must be tackled in the first Bishop-People Forum is the issue of Archie Intengan, the Jesuit who has been identified as the ideologue of the Arroyo regime’s extra-judicial killings campaign. Intengan’s rabid anti-communism has transmogrified him into the Philippine Torquemada and Rasputin combined – commanding the persecution, torture and murder of perceived mortal enemies – even non-combatant social activists and people merely identified with the Left – lassifying them all to be “part-time rebels”.
We’ve known Intengan since the 60’s as activist among the “moderates”, even then a pathological fanatical streak in him was observable. Now, Intengan’s streak has become full blown insanity incarnating him as archbishop of death melding religion with SocDem mumbo-jumbo for a perverted potion of fascism taking precedence in his mind over pursuit of social justice.
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/11/2006
Today, Friday, at eight in the morning at the now historically important place of religious-political ferment, the St. Peter’s Church at the Commonwealth Road in Quezon City will host the first of a continuing series of what organizers call Bishops-People Forum. The forum aims to kick-off, sustain and maintain a continuing dialogue between some leaders of the Catholic Church, the progressive bishops in particular, and the people of the Church – its flock, the poor, the meek and oppressed who supposedly are the blessed but really the most neglected by the Catholic Church mainstream.
When I started getting civically conscious in the late 60’s and began to be exposed to Church related social activism, one institution that had been impressed upon my then very youthful mind was the Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference (BBC). Little did I know that in my later years I would become very cynical about this group and the personalities from the business and Catholic Church hierarchy identified with it -representatives of the Philippines’ regressive Establishment which has ruled since the days of friars and the compradores of the colonial era.
I went through my teen years under the tutelage of Catholic priest-activist Jose C. Blanco who impressed with the notion that these businessmen and bishops were the good guys. But over the decades I saw through the fable of corporate responsibility and the prelature’s piety. I saw the voracious sharks that they really are as agents of the “corporatocracy” of foreign finance and big business, and their frenzied feeding blessed by the conservative bishops. Their voracity has never been
more obvious than these years of swelling corporate profits in the midst of growing poverty and hunger.
Bishops active in BBC has invariably been the ones at the helms of the CBCP, bastion of conservatism. The who’s who of big business are mainstays of the BBC counting names like Dick Romulo, Vicente Paterno, the Monsods, the Concepsions, the Yuchengcos, the Aboitizes and other oligarchs or agents of oligarchs who are in the boards of the top corporations such as the oil companies, the banks, the telecoms, privatized power and water utilities, and other companies that have run the country since 1986 and doubling yearly profits since their 2001 Edsa Dos corporate-fascist coup.
When Jimmie Regalario of the KME (Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomista) described the Bishops-People Forum I saw the great significance of the initiative in the socio-political-cultural evolution of the Church and the laity in the Philippines. It could even be epochal if it leads to a radical change in the direction of the Church from a Church of the oligarchy and plutocracy to a genuine Church of the poor and the broad masses of Filipinos. Maybe Christ’s vision and mission will finally see the light of day in this country after over four hundred fifty years after its arrival in the islands.
The first topic of the Bishop-People Forum is “extra-judicial killings” of the Arroyo regime carried out by General Palparan, the Isapf and foreign intelligence agencies. The progressive bishops of the Catholic Church namely Bishops Tobias, Iniguez and Labayen will preside. Noticeably absent will be the big corporate bosses in their gusot mayaman barongs or business suits and pompous Cardinal Sin look a-likes. Instead those present will be the urban poor, families of abducted or murdered activists, mass organization representatives and the simply dressed progressive bishops.
At long last, the country will have a Church dialogue with the masa, the poor and unshod, the oppressed and persecuted. At long last, the Church will lend its heart and ear to issues of poverty, oppression and seek solutions to these urgent problems of the borad masses or our people. This should expose the paucity and eclipse the false sheen of the Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference of conservative bishops and insatiable profiteers feigning “social and corporate responsibility”. This is the first time anything like this has happened in the country and in a Church previously dominated by prayle thinking.
The Bishop-People Forum must dominate the Philippine Catholic Church agenda in the coming months to displace the oligarchic BBC. It is timely too, because there is a global trend towards the rise of the poor and popular movements asserting its voice and its issues as we can see in Latin America. With the leadership of the progressive Filipino bishops Catholicism may yet lead in social reform instead of being a dead weight and a drag on social change. We may be seeing the fruition of Bishop Labayen’s life long mission of establishing the Church of the Poor in the
Philippines.
One item that must be tackled in the first Bishop-People Forum is the issue of Archie Intengan, the Jesuit who has been identified as the ideologue of the Arroyo regime’s extra-judicial killings campaign. Intengan’s rabid anti-communism has transmogrified him into the Philippine Torquemada and Rasputin combined – commanding the persecution, torture and murder of perceived mortal enemies – even non-combatant social activists and people merely identified with the Left – lassifying them all to be “part-time rebels”.
We’ve known Intengan since the 60’s as activist among the “moderates”, even then a pathological fanatical streak in him was observable. Now, Intengan’s streak has become full blown insanity incarnating him as archbishop of death melding religion with SocDem mumbo-jumbo for a perverted potion of fascism taking precedence in his mind over pursuit of social justice.
More power lies
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/9/2006
I think this was the only space that took notice of the grand deception of Gloria and the Lopez’s so-called “rate reduction” stemming from the Meralco purchase of power from the WESM (wholesale electricity spot market), aside from the report in one newspaper internet edition that popped up and out and up again (I don’t know if it ever saw print on the hard edition). What really frustrated me the whole day was waiting for commentaries and reports of this grand deception over the radio and TV broadcasts, and I didn’t catch anything.
I texted one young congressman to discuss on their program with two journalists and a congressional colleague of his, he wasn’t on the air that day but I would think such an important issue would not escape the attention of the others. Unfortunately for the public there was no mention of the issue on their two hour daily morning radio program, and I wasn’t surprised when I heard the “north Luzon tollways corporation” radio spots aired – as we all know, the Lopezes also control and run that operation. It seems that my column and radio are the only ones raising the alarm on the new Gloria and Lopez stunt.
That’s very, very sad, because the public is being taken for a very costly ride again: billions will be added to their taxes for pogi points Gloria and the Lopezes are scoring. But there is more to these and Freedom from Debt Coalition has expressed apprehension that the Masinloc deal may be involved in this trick of Gloria and the Lopezes, as I surmise from succeeding news items quietly tucked into unobtrusive corners of the news: one reporting the scrapping of a mandated P0.30-centavos rate reduction and the other that Meralco seeks more “bilateral power contracts”.
One report says “EPIRA-mandated rate reduction (of P 0.30 for supply sourced from National Power Corporation) … shall be scrapped once these are already procured via the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market”. It should be clear from this that Meralco avoided or evaded this P 0.30 rate reduction specified by law for its purchases from NPC for the benefit of the public when it started sourcing from WESM, aside from the fact that NPC was forced to dive its rate and transfer its losses from this to taxpayer. The Lopezes are certainly no Good Samaritans.
The other report on bilateral power contracts that “seek to guarantee reliable power supply to avoid exposure to price volatilities in the spot market” is more enigmatic as it clearly contradicts the high praises for the spot market! Bilateral contracts are the same ones Meralco has with its own IPPs (independent power producer) which are higher rates than what NPC supplies, but isn’t the WESM supposed to provide the cheapest power because of so-called “competition? These contradictions indicate something fishy is being set up by the Lopezes, Meralco and Gloria.
There is one dilemma where the three players Gloria, the Lopezes and FVR intersect: the Masinloc problem. Are they laying the ground for the project to go to a favored but, this time, less contentious group. The Lopezes can give the long sought for “supply contract” a.k.a. “bilateral contract” to the Masinloc project while Meralco skirts the EPIRA mandated P 0.30 rate reduction and gets extra-profits taxpayers shoulder. The Lopezes can be part of the new Masinloc deal with FVR’s foreign crony assured– all of them are happy together, all paid for by the Filipino consumers and taxpayers.
The privatization program has been one big scam where the Filipino has been given false promises about the virtue of competition that has never and will never come from it because it is entirely manipulated by corrupt government authorities and bureaucrats in the pockets of corrupt Big Business. The revenues from sale and distribution of power should have gone to amortizing debts of Napocor but instead it has all gone to private Big Business while the debts have been left on Napocor and the taxpayers’ shoulders. This is what our forensic economist Hero Vaswani of KME said:
“On your column Mentong… way to go… Please point out the utter hypocrisy of our so called market expert Joey Salceda. Market principles dictate that in case of over- supply prices should go down. That is what equilibrium is all about. But with that implicit take or pay contract which is priced in dollars we got hit twice over with the multiplier effect. In effect we subsidize foreign capital. It is time to put NAPOCOR into bankruptcy. Privatizing the assets will do no good as the implicit debt (foreign) risk capital continues this time under more onerous terms.
“…Restructure Napocor the same way Mirant restructured in the U.S. under Chapter 11. Please note that the case of Banco Filipino vs. the old Central Bank is worth noting. The charter of the old CB was canceled. A new abstract was established by law - BSP. They can no longer sue. Either re-structure NAPOCOR under fairer terms or shut it down and let a new leaner institution take over. The government is trying implicitly to restructure NAPOCOR but under a creditor imposed conditions. This is patently unfair and unjust. Are we all getting dumb and dumber. Argentina
and Bolivia has done this already with their water and power contracts.”
(Tune in to 1098AM, M-W-F 6-7pm)
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/9/2006
I think this was the only space that took notice of the grand deception of Gloria and the Lopez’s so-called “rate reduction” stemming from the Meralco purchase of power from the WESM (wholesale electricity spot market), aside from the report in one newspaper internet edition that popped up and out and up again (I don’t know if it ever saw print on the hard edition). What really frustrated me the whole day was waiting for commentaries and reports of this grand deception over the radio and TV broadcasts, and I didn’t catch anything.
I texted one young congressman to discuss on their program with two journalists and a congressional colleague of his, he wasn’t on the air that day but I would think such an important issue would not escape the attention of the others. Unfortunately for the public there was no mention of the issue on their two hour daily morning radio program, and I wasn’t surprised when I heard the “north Luzon tollways corporation” radio spots aired – as we all know, the Lopezes also control and run that operation. It seems that my column and radio are the only ones raising the alarm on the new Gloria and Lopez stunt.
That’s very, very sad, because the public is being taken for a very costly ride again: billions will be added to their taxes for pogi points Gloria and the Lopezes are scoring. But there is more to these and Freedom from Debt Coalition has expressed apprehension that the Masinloc deal may be involved in this trick of Gloria and the Lopezes, as I surmise from succeeding news items quietly tucked into unobtrusive corners of the news: one reporting the scrapping of a mandated P0.30-centavos rate reduction and the other that Meralco seeks more “bilateral power contracts”.
One report says “EPIRA-mandated rate reduction (of P 0.30 for supply sourced from National Power Corporation) … shall be scrapped once these are already procured via the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market”. It should be clear from this that Meralco avoided or evaded this P 0.30 rate reduction specified by law for its purchases from NPC for the benefit of the public when it started sourcing from WESM, aside from the fact that NPC was forced to dive its rate and transfer its losses from this to taxpayer. The Lopezes are certainly no Good Samaritans.
The other report on bilateral power contracts that “seek to guarantee reliable power supply to avoid exposure to price volatilities in the spot market” is more enigmatic as it clearly contradicts the high praises for the spot market! Bilateral contracts are the same ones Meralco has with its own IPPs (independent power producer) which are higher rates than what NPC supplies, but isn’t the WESM supposed to provide the cheapest power because of so-called “competition? These contradictions indicate something fishy is being set up by the Lopezes, Meralco and Gloria.
There is one dilemma where the three players Gloria, the Lopezes and FVR intersect: the Masinloc problem. Are they laying the ground for the project to go to a favored but, this time, less contentious group. The Lopezes can give the long sought for “supply contract” a.k.a. “bilateral contract” to the Masinloc project while Meralco skirts the EPIRA mandated P 0.30 rate reduction and gets extra-profits taxpayers shoulder. The Lopezes can be part of the new Masinloc deal with FVR’s foreign crony assured– all of them are happy together, all paid for by the Filipino consumers and taxpayers.
The privatization program has been one big scam where the Filipino has been given false promises about the virtue of competition that has never and will never come from it because it is entirely manipulated by corrupt government authorities and bureaucrats in the pockets of corrupt Big Business. The revenues from sale and distribution of power should have gone to amortizing debts of Napocor but instead it has all gone to private Big Business while the debts have been left on Napocor and the taxpayers’ shoulders. This is what our forensic economist Hero Vaswani of KME said:
“On your column Mentong… way to go… Please point out the utter hypocrisy of our so called market expert Joey Salceda. Market principles dictate that in case of over- supply prices should go down. That is what equilibrium is all about. But with that implicit take or pay contract which is priced in dollars we got hit twice over with the multiplier effect. In effect we subsidize foreign capital. It is time to put NAPOCOR into bankruptcy. Privatizing the assets will do no good as the implicit debt (foreign) risk capital continues this time under more onerous terms.
“…Restructure Napocor the same way Mirant restructured in the U.S. under Chapter 11. Please note that the case of Banco Filipino vs. the old Central Bank is worth noting. The charter of the old CB was canceled. A new abstract was established by law - BSP. They can no longer sue. Either re-structure NAPOCOR under fairer terms or shut it down and let a new leaner institution take over. The government is trying implicitly to restructure NAPOCOR but under a creditor imposed conditions. This is patently unfair and unjust. Are we all getting dumb and dumber. Argentina
and Bolivia has done this already with their water and power contracts.”
(Tune in to 1098AM, M-W-F 6-7pm)
The next leader of the country
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/1/2006
Sometimes it gets difficult to find a topic to write, especially when so many legitimate, vital and urgent national issues plead for clear analysis and prescription range from Gloria Dorobo’s continuing use of the illegal E.O. 464 as in the case of the OWWA Funds investigation by again stopping her cabinet secretaries from attending hearings to the inexplicable hospital visits of Gloria for small ailments like stomach trouble and flu, to the wonderful “Babala sa Tuko” poem of Bien Lumbera; but while I hesitated I noticed an interesting columnist’s comment on “the next leader”.
There is an unwritten and I think pointless rule in Philippine column writing never to confront other columnists in frontal debate on issues. It allows for a subject of controversy to be brought up but does not allow for the holder of the contentious adverted view to be named. I shun that view, and in practice I name the holder of a contrary or even adversarial view to bring the debate to a real level – yes, personal, and preferably not to an acrimonious level but to a respectful and productive end. Everything is really personal, you see, contrary to the disingenuous etiquettes of “nice” writers. If a view is not held very strongly personally then its not a sincere view.
The opinion about the ideal “next leader” that triggered my combat ready critical faculty was from a respected fellow columnist from another newspaper, Billy Esposo, who sought to compare his own thought about the “next leader” with Fidel V. Ramos’ view of the same and choose one name, one leader for the country. His piece was interestingly entitled “FVR: I am not pro-Gloria”. In the end, the two pointed to Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte and his “sterling performances” in various posts in government. Billy and FVR had set up the prey for my sniper’s rifle perfectly, a prey we’ve been stalking ever since his Edsa Dos treachery against the nation.
Sonny Belmonte is the man behind the “payola of the decade” in 2001 when as Speaker of the House he distributed the half-a-million pesos each envelopes to congressmen to get the EPIRA bill passed to authorize the full implementation of the privatization of electricity and it various provisions that made our power rates “the highest in Asia”. Belmonte is the single biggest factor, aside from Gloria, in the backbreaking power costs that have ruined our national economy and the simple comforts and convenience of modern living with affordable electricity rates – after
Belmonte greased the EPIRA into law Filipinos have had to scale back all their home comforts.
To be praised by FVR too is to be given the kiss of the Satan in this Christian country, but FVR has to praise Belmonte because they are one and the same kind – opportunistic, unprincipled, predatory and always thinking that the “Teflon” is still there. They don’t realize that people begin to see them as “kapalmuks” when the Teflon already wears off, although Belmonte has stayed low keyed enough to keep his coating on for the most part. That is why we’re here to expose his toxicity as Dupont’s Teflon has been exposed by consumer protection advocates. So, we’re here to say about Belmonte caveat emptor, buyer beware – when Belmonte presents himself as senatorial candidate, which is what all this balloon floating is about.
What will Sonny Belmonte do as senator? Work for the vested interests of special interest groups again, particularly for FVR and the vile foreign and local special interests he represents? Will he use it to ingratiate himself again with the big corporate interests and pass laws for them that exploits the public and consumers? But what else can he promise since Belmonte has never represented any redeeming principle in his decades in government service, not an ounce of self-sacrifice for the public good has ever been shown by this man. Increased revenues for Quezon City – but I know how he’s been taxing businesses there to death!
The next leader (or leaders) will be Filipinos who have a track record of correct policies and actions that protect the nation from predation, from injustice and exploitation, and possess a proven record of self-sacrifice for higher values and aspirations of the nation. I’d point to Bishop Antonio Tobias who raised the public debate on the economic issues in his last sermon on a Channel 5 celebration of the mass and has a record of giving haven to dissidents seeking genuine change and uplift of the country. I’d point to President Estrada who’s sacrificed five years in jail to stand up for justice and against FVR’s “sovereign guarantees”.
President Estrada was elected with a 60% margin over FVR’s chosen candidate in the 1998 election – Joe de Venecia. President Estrada mandate is still running. His continuing popularity attests to his correct leadership. His only fault was to abide by reason instead of force, shunning even the popular force like Mexico’s Lopez Obrador calling for his popular base to takeover Mexico until his votes are fully counted - and the Mexican ruling party isn’t shooting at protesters yet. Now, the Filipino people know better, there will be no viable “next president” until the last legitimate President is restored along with the Rule of Law.
(Tune in M-W-F to 1098AM 6-7pm; T-Th to 1242AM, 7:30-8:30am)
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/1/2006
Sometimes it gets difficult to find a topic to write, especially when so many legitimate, vital and urgent national issues plead for clear analysis and prescription range from Gloria Dorobo’s continuing use of the illegal E.O. 464 as in the case of the OWWA Funds investigation by again stopping her cabinet secretaries from attending hearings to the inexplicable hospital visits of Gloria for small ailments like stomach trouble and flu, to the wonderful “Babala sa Tuko” poem of Bien Lumbera; but while I hesitated I noticed an interesting columnist’s comment on “the next leader”.
There is an unwritten and I think pointless rule in Philippine column writing never to confront other columnists in frontal debate on issues. It allows for a subject of controversy to be brought up but does not allow for the holder of the contentious adverted view to be named. I shun that view, and in practice I name the holder of a contrary or even adversarial view to bring the debate to a real level – yes, personal, and preferably not to an acrimonious level but to a respectful and productive end. Everything is really personal, you see, contrary to the disingenuous etiquettes of “nice” writers. If a view is not held very strongly personally then its not a sincere view.
The opinion about the ideal “next leader” that triggered my combat ready critical faculty was from a respected fellow columnist from another newspaper, Billy Esposo, who sought to compare his own thought about the “next leader” with Fidel V. Ramos’ view of the same and choose one name, one leader for the country. His piece was interestingly entitled “FVR: I am not pro-Gloria”. In the end, the two pointed to Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte and his “sterling performances” in various posts in government. Billy and FVR had set up the prey for my sniper’s rifle perfectly, a prey we’ve been stalking ever since his Edsa Dos treachery against the nation.
Sonny Belmonte is the man behind the “payola of the decade” in 2001 when as Speaker of the House he distributed the half-a-million pesos each envelopes to congressmen to get the EPIRA bill passed to authorize the full implementation of the privatization of electricity and it various provisions that made our power rates “the highest in Asia”. Belmonte is the single biggest factor, aside from Gloria, in the backbreaking power costs that have ruined our national economy and the simple comforts and convenience of modern living with affordable electricity rates – after
Belmonte greased the EPIRA into law Filipinos have had to scale back all their home comforts.
To be praised by FVR too is to be given the kiss of the Satan in this Christian country, but FVR has to praise Belmonte because they are one and the same kind – opportunistic, unprincipled, predatory and always thinking that the “Teflon” is still there. They don’t realize that people begin to see them as “kapalmuks” when the Teflon already wears off, although Belmonte has stayed low keyed enough to keep his coating on for the most part. That is why we’re here to expose his toxicity as Dupont’s Teflon has been exposed by consumer protection advocates. So, we’re here to say about Belmonte caveat emptor, buyer beware – when Belmonte presents himself as senatorial candidate, which is what all this balloon floating is about.
What will Sonny Belmonte do as senator? Work for the vested interests of special interest groups again, particularly for FVR and the vile foreign and local special interests he represents? Will he use it to ingratiate himself again with the big corporate interests and pass laws for them that exploits the public and consumers? But what else can he promise since Belmonte has never represented any redeeming principle in his decades in government service, not an ounce of self-sacrifice for the public good has ever been shown by this man. Increased revenues for Quezon City – but I know how he’s been taxing businesses there to death!
The next leader (or leaders) will be Filipinos who have a track record of correct policies and actions that protect the nation from predation, from injustice and exploitation, and possess a proven record of self-sacrifice for higher values and aspirations of the nation. I’d point to Bishop Antonio Tobias who raised the public debate on the economic issues in his last sermon on a Channel 5 celebration of the mass and has a record of giving haven to dissidents seeking genuine change and uplift of the country. I’d point to President Estrada who’s sacrificed five years in jail to stand up for justice and against FVR’s “sovereign guarantees”.
President Estrada was elected with a 60% margin over FVR’s chosen candidate in the 1998 election – Joe de Venecia. President Estrada mandate is still running. His continuing popularity attests to his correct leadership. His only fault was to abide by reason instead of force, shunning even the popular force like Mexico’s Lopez Obrador calling for his popular base to takeover Mexico until his votes are fully counted - and the Mexican ruling party isn’t shooting at protesters yet. Now, the Filipino people know better, there will be no viable “next president” until the last legitimate President is restored along with the Rule of Law.
(Tune in M-W-F to 1098AM 6-7pm; T-Th to 1242AM, 7:30-8:30am)
Struggle with tranquility
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
7/28/2006
Dr. Alejandro “Ding” Lichauco gave us one advice he packed up from psychic Uri Geller’s book: “We must struggle, but struggle with tranquility”. That I accept to be the ideal state of mind while a person wages this eternal struggle for redemption from the angst of life, the good we fight for while mired in the evil of this world. It was very timely because I am again enraged by what I see in the continuous hypocrisy and abuse of our people by the corrupt power factions still prevailing in our country and on the global stage.
One can find a bright side in everything to strike a balance, like Senate President Manny Villar’s “mea culpa” over radio the day before this was written, over his role in as Speaker of Congress in 2000 in the railroading the impeachment petition against President Estrada. Of course we know his mea culpa today is self-serving, for his ambition to run for the presidency in 2010 (if the upheaval does not overtake things) as he was self-serving in his blatant violation of the constitutional impeachment process in 2000.
We salute to a good deed unconditionally if it were done without any other consideration, but politicians like Villar invariably always act only on self-interest. The bright side in this, despite the sham of it all, is that Villar’s mea culpa buttresses our call for the immediate exoneration of President Estrada and the elevation of the restoration issue of the legitimate presidency of the country. If the Estrada impeachment was attended by a transgression, the outcome must wrong; and a wrong must be righted.
Another bright spot is Villar’s promise to be “independent” and I surmise that was a major factor for President Estrada benediction for the PMP swing vote of Villar. At this very early stage Villar has already signaled that he will be balancing on the tightrope instead of pulling in the direction of what is right, just and good for the Filipino people. He will be “non-adversarial” that may mean “collaborative” with GMA and his being “independent” can mean that he will only side with himself and not the public interest.
We will watch what Villar does, with healthy skepticism. We are ready to lobby for the reversal of President Estrada support for Villar once Villar shows any weakness towards GMA’s dirty politics and vascillation in the investigations of Joc-Joc, Mayuga Report and other Gloria scandals – the Senate has no excuse to dilly-dally now that E.O. 464 has been junked by the Supreme Court. Can Villar wield the powers of the senate to force open the truth and satisfy the people’s clamor for justice?
An angering development is the Aboitiz oligarchs’ move to block competition in Cebu’s electricity supply sector. They “obliged” their puppet president GMA to fire Tranco chief Alan Ortiz for signing an agreement with Korea Electric Power Corp. and Salcon Power Corp. for construction of a 200-megawatt plant in Naga, Cebu, which is in direct competition to the Aboitiz family in the power sector business in the region. The Aboitiz’s dowager heckled anti-impeachment senators and lawyers
during Erap’s impeachment and joined Ayala at Edsa Shrine on January 2001.
Cebuanos will not know for more time to come the benefit of competition in their power sector. So, what’s Makati Business Club preaching about competition when they their members are posing the most obstacles to it – like Meralco’s Lopezes. Our condemnation of the GMA-Aboitiz defense of monopoly here is not an endorsement of Ortiz who has also supported the privatization of energy which he may also bee taking advantage of in the “deals”, we continue to be for state control of such strategic utlities.
The silver lining above in the Ortiz debacle is exposé of the true character of these oligarchs-cum-plutocrats who now rule the country after Edsa Dos. The “people” in People Power no longer matter because the oligarchs already got their hands on the power. By the way, Transco reported a 7% increase in profit, an additional P 605-M profits or P 9.13-B over last half year’s P 8.35-B. Is it moral and correct to have increasing profits in the midst of increasing difficulty of the consumer to pay for increasing power costs?
The second question is: is it responsible to the Filipino public to sell off such public companies that is earning so much? It is simple stupidity to privatize these profitable public companies when it’s the public who put up the start-up capital and built up the asset base through their payments. The political opposition should bring up these issues in the for a provided for it – the Congress, and not leave these to the NGOs. But who among the politico is not afraid of the power of the oligarchs? Sadly, hardly any.
A prayer-rally will be held on Sunday which will commemorate among other things the Oakwood protest of the Bagong Katipunero (misleadingly dubbed by media “Magdalo”). Their protest echoes today and deserves our kudos. It reverberates in the AFP today as evidenced by the February 2006 turmoil. Kudos too to Philippine Airlines for its 60th Anniversary which also commemorates the first Asian airline flight across the Pacific to Oakland, USA; to be marked by a fete hosted by PAL Chairman Dr. Lucio Tan.
(Tune in M-W-F to 1098AM, 6-7pm; T-Th to 1242AM, 7:30-8:30am.)
Herman Tiu Laurel
7/28/2006
Dr. Alejandro “Ding” Lichauco gave us one advice he packed up from psychic Uri Geller’s book: “We must struggle, but struggle with tranquility”. That I accept to be the ideal state of mind while a person wages this eternal struggle for redemption from the angst of life, the good we fight for while mired in the evil of this world. It was very timely because I am again enraged by what I see in the continuous hypocrisy and abuse of our people by the corrupt power factions still prevailing in our country and on the global stage.
One can find a bright side in everything to strike a balance, like Senate President Manny Villar’s “mea culpa” over radio the day before this was written, over his role in as Speaker of Congress in 2000 in the railroading the impeachment petition against President Estrada. Of course we know his mea culpa today is self-serving, for his ambition to run for the presidency in 2010 (if the upheaval does not overtake things) as he was self-serving in his blatant violation of the constitutional impeachment process in 2000.
We salute to a good deed unconditionally if it were done without any other consideration, but politicians like Villar invariably always act only on self-interest. The bright side in this, despite the sham of it all, is that Villar’s mea culpa buttresses our call for the immediate exoneration of President Estrada and the elevation of the restoration issue of the legitimate presidency of the country. If the Estrada impeachment was attended by a transgression, the outcome must wrong; and a wrong must be righted.
Another bright spot is Villar’s promise to be “independent” and I surmise that was a major factor for President Estrada benediction for the PMP swing vote of Villar. At this very early stage Villar has already signaled that he will be balancing on the tightrope instead of pulling in the direction of what is right, just and good for the Filipino people. He will be “non-adversarial” that may mean “collaborative” with GMA and his being “independent” can mean that he will only side with himself and not the public interest.
We will watch what Villar does, with healthy skepticism. We are ready to lobby for the reversal of President Estrada support for Villar once Villar shows any weakness towards GMA’s dirty politics and vascillation in the investigations of Joc-Joc, Mayuga Report and other Gloria scandals – the Senate has no excuse to dilly-dally now that E.O. 464 has been junked by the Supreme Court. Can Villar wield the powers of the senate to force open the truth and satisfy the people’s clamor for justice?
An angering development is the Aboitiz oligarchs’ move to block competition in Cebu’s electricity supply sector. They “obliged” their puppet president GMA to fire Tranco chief Alan Ortiz for signing an agreement with Korea Electric Power Corp. and Salcon Power Corp. for construction of a 200-megawatt plant in Naga, Cebu, which is in direct competition to the Aboitiz family in the power sector business in the region. The Aboitiz’s dowager heckled anti-impeachment senators and lawyers
during Erap’s impeachment and joined Ayala at Edsa Shrine on January 2001.
Cebuanos will not know for more time to come the benefit of competition in their power sector. So, what’s Makati Business Club preaching about competition when they their members are posing the most obstacles to it – like Meralco’s Lopezes. Our condemnation of the GMA-Aboitiz defense of monopoly here is not an endorsement of Ortiz who has also supported the privatization of energy which he may also bee taking advantage of in the “deals”, we continue to be for state control of such strategic utlities.
The silver lining above in the Ortiz debacle is exposé of the true character of these oligarchs-cum-plutocrats who now rule the country after Edsa Dos. The “people” in People Power no longer matter because the oligarchs already got their hands on the power. By the way, Transco reported a 7% increase in profit, an additional P 605-M profits or P 9.13-B over last half year’s P 8.35-B. Is it moral and correct to have increasing profits in the midst of increasing difficulty of the consumer to pay for increasing power costs?
The second question is: is it responsible to the Filipino public to sell off such public companies that is earning so much? It is simple stupidity to privatize these profitable public companies when it’s the public who put up the start-up capital and built up the asset base through their payments. The political opposition should bring up these issues in the for a provided for it – the Congress, and not leave these to the NGOs. But who among the politico is not afraid of the power of the oligarchs? Sadly, hardly any.
A prayer-rally will be held on Sunday which will commemorate among other things the Oakwood protest of the Bagong Katipunero (misleadingly dubbed by media “Magdalo”). Their protest echoes today and deserves our kudos. It reverberates in the AFP today as evidenced by the February 2006 turmoil. Kudos too to Philippine Airlines for its 60th Anniversary which also commemorates the first Asian airline flight across the Pacific to Oakland, USA; to be marked by a fete hosted by PAL Chairman Dr. Lucio Tan.
(Tune in M-W-F to 1098AM, 6-7pm; T-Th to 1242AM, 7:30-8:30am.)
Horsemen of Apocalypse 2007
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
7/17/2006
The one great malady the GMA regime continuous to suffer and it fears it will eventually die from is the cancer of illegitimacy. GMA and cupporters hoped that unrelenting demonization of the legitimate president Estrada including the filing of spurious cases, would solve it but it hasn’t. It hoped it’s “victory” in 2004 would be the cure but it was exposed as quack medicine, fake and fraudulent. It has tried Cha-cha and it’s been rejected even before it could begin. Now Gloria is installing her Four Horsemen of the electoral Apocalypse hoping to finish off Philippine democracy once and for all.
Gloria and her supporters’ want to make the 2007 a “plebiscite” on her regime, you hear this too from Christian Monsod and Raul Concepcion of “One Voice” – the voices of the present Establishment. They are designing the 2007 elections to ensure that the “plebiscite” affirms GMA’s regime and the latest cabinet appointment to the Deped will help assure that: a shady but slick politician, co-accused of Fidel Ramos in the Centennial scam, author of one-too-many Land Bank tales of looting, amorous adventurer, ad nausea is named Deped secretary.
The new Deped secretary they are forcing down our public educators was a one time bra and panty salesman for the bankrupted company of “speedy Gonzales”. Those who know this character are wondering how such a morally decrepit congressman can be named to such a sacred task of molding of our nation’s youth– just ask that plump Metro-Manila congresswoman he had taken for a ride. By the way, ask Gloria too what she and this new Deped secretary did to the garments quota of Mindanao Textile when she was GTEB chief!
Jesli Lapus is the perfect man for the shady job Gloria want done, totally amoral and efficiently so. He’s so good that even opposition politicians support him and extol his many credentials, his masters and doctorates. That’s because he scratched everybody’s back while in the various government posts Ramos and Gloria entrusted him. In the Land Bank alone he pioneered a cattle fattening program that lost over half-a-billion pesos that fattened a few special bank accounts, and he anomalously lent billions of its agricultural loans to that restauranteur who promptly lost it in an abortive Subic mega-hotel project.
With the unscrupulous Lapus controlling the half-a-million department of education employees in two thousand towns and cities and 57,000 baranggays for the 2007 elections, while general Esperon command soldiers the soldiers supposed to “protect” and “transport” ballots, and notorious Sulo Hotel election operations mastermind Ronnie Puno control the police around the polling centers, and the infamous Comelec Chairman Abalos ensuring that the countless other Garci clones in Comelec operate – the Four Horsemen of the 2007 electoral Apocalypse are in place.
Ballot stuffing, switching, COC manufacturing, ballot box stealing will reign in 2007; but that would not be complete without the Namfrel, the Concepcion brothers and Gus Lagman (Abalos’ competitor in computer supply) doing “trending”. It’s Apocalype for Philippine democracy they are planning, its absolute destruction followed by eventual fascist suppression of all opposition to follow on the bases of the “plebiscite”– that Christian Monsod, the Concepcions and the Makati Business Club’s reign shall continue ‘til Kingdom Come.
The Deped career professional and truthful Fe Hidalgo, all career professionals and the hundreds of thousands of teachers and their mission no longer matter. The Deped is being pushed to the deep end for Gloria’s 2007 election Apocalypse. But the Deped employees have more respect for their mission are asking, “Why did we replace Erap for this Gloria? Erap appointed high level educators to the Deped post, like Bro. Andrew Gonzales of La Salle!” Never had the Deped had such a shady head as today under Gloria. They’re fighting back.
We must appreciate the larger picture: it’s a fight against the tentacles of the corporatocracy moving with Gloria for a final solution – “credible” legalization of Gloria and her oppressively pro-corporatocracy or plutocratic regime. They intend to silence Vox Populi, that found itself again in Estrada’s inauguration at Barsoain Church which continues to win its struggle to overcome the Edsa Dos lies. The Filipino nation must recognize and do what is imperative to save the nation, restore Vox Populi, restore its own voice and the voice of God.
Suppression of Vox Populi caused the Oakwood young officers to re-echo Bonifacio’s Cry of Balintawak. The fraudulent 2004 elections and suppression of Gen. Lim and company today will not silence it either. In fact, the next time it will really be bloody. So long as a decent Filipino lives the voice of the people will not be silenced, more Filipinos will echo it until the oppressor is vanquished and the ramparts of tyranny come down like the walls of Jericho. Let us raise the level of struggle in stopping Lapus from despoiling the Deped.
While we wage our struggle for justice here we can not help but raise our voice over the injustice Israel is committing against the civilian population of Palestine and Lebanon. The Zionists have become worse than Nazis. Three kidnapped Israeli soldiers does not justify genocide; besides Israel is holidng 10,000 Palestinian and Lebanese men, women and children. The U.S. shamelessly defends Israel because Jews control the U.S. Federal Reserve.
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th 7:30 to 8:30am to 1242AM)
Herman Tiu Laurel
7/17/2006
The one great malady the GMA regime continuous to suffer and it fears it will eventually die from is the cancer of illegitimacy. GMA and cupporters hoped that unrelenting demonization of the legitimate president Estrada including the filing of spurious cases, would solve it but it hasn’t. It hoped it’s “victory” in 2004 would be the cure but it was exposed as quack medicine, fake and fraudulent. It has tried Cha-cha and it’s been rejected even before it could begin. Now Gloria is installing her Four Horsemen of the electoral Apocalypse hoping to finish off Philippine democracy once and for all.
Gloria and her supporters’ want to make the 2007 a “plebiscite” on her regime, you hear this too from Christian Monsod and Raul Concepcion of “One Voice” – the voices of the present Establishment. They are designing the 2007 elections to ensure that the “plebiscite” affirms GMA’s regime and the latest cabinet appointment to the Deped will help assure that: a shady but slick politician, co-accused of Fidel Ramos in the Centennial scam, author of one-too-many Land Bank tales of looting, amorous adventurer, ad nausea is named Deped secretary.
The new Deped secretary they are forcing down our public educators was a one time bra and panty salesman for the bankrupted company of “speedy Gonzales”. Those who know this character are wondering how such a morally decrepit congressman can be named to such a sacred task of molding of our nation’s youth– just ask that plump Metro-Manila congresswoman he had taken for a ride. By the way, ask Gloria too what she and this new Deped secretary did to the garments quota of Mindanao Textile when she was GTEB chief!
Jesli Lapus is the perfect man for the shady job Gloria want done, totally amoral and efficiently so. He’s so good that even opposition politicians support him and extol his many credentials, his masters and doctorates. That’s because he scratched everybody’s back while in the various government posts Ramos and Gloria entrusted him. In the Land Bank alone he pioneered a cattle fattening program that lost over half-a-billion pesos that fattened a few special bank accounts, and he anomalously lent billions of its agricultural loans to that restauranteur who promptly lost it in an abortive Subic mega-hotel project.
With the unscrupulous Lapus controlling the half-a-million department of education employees in two thousand towns and cities and 57,000 baranggays for the 2007 elections, while general Esperon command soldiers the soldiers supposed to “protect” and “transport” ballots, and notorious Sulo Hotel election operations mastermind Ronnie Puno control the police around the polling centers, and the infamous Comelec Chairman Abalos ensuring that the countless other Garci clones in Comelec operate – the Four Horsemen of the 2007 electoral Apocalypse are in place.
Ballot stuffing, switching, COC manufacturing, ballot box stealing will reign in 2007; but that would not be complete without the Namfrel, the Concepcion brothers and Gus Lagman (Abalos’ competitor in computer supply) doing “trending”. It’s Apocalype for Philippine democracy they are planning, its absolute destruction followed by eventual fascist suppression of all opposition to follow on the bases of the “plebiscite”– that Christian Monsod, the Concepcions and the Makati Business Club’s reign shall continue ‘til Kingdom Come.
The Deped career professional and truthful Fe Hidalgo, all career professionals and the hundreds of thousands of teachers and their mission no longer matter. The Deped is being pushed to the deep end for Gloria’s 2007 election Apocalypse. But the Deped employees have more respect for their mission are asking, “Why did we replace Erap for this Gloria? Erap appointed high level educators to the Deped post, like Bro. Andrew Gonzales of La Salle!” Never had the Deped had such a shady head as today under Gloria. They’re fighting back.
We must appreciate the larger picture: it’s a fight against the tentacles of the corporatocracy moving with Gloria for a final solution – “credible” legalization of Gloria and her oppressively pro-corporatocracy or plutocratic regime. They intend to silence Vox Populi, that found itself again in Estrada’s inauguration at Barsoain Church which continues to win its struggle to overcome the Edsa Dos lies. The Filipino nation must recognize and do what is imperative to save the nation, restore Vox Populi, restore its own voice and the voice of God.
Suppression of Vox Populi caused the Oakwood young officers to re-echo Bonifacio’s Cry of Balintawak. The fraudulent 2004 elections and suppression of Gen. Lim and company today will not silence it either. In fact, the next time it will really be bloody. So long as a decent Filipino lives the voice of the people will not be silenced, more Filipinos will echo it until the oppressor is vanquished and the ramparts of tyranny come down like the walls of Jericho. Let us raise the level of struggle in stopping Lapus from despoiling the Deped.
While we wage our struggle for justice here we can not help but raise our voice over the injustice Israel is committing against the civilian population of Palestine and Lebanon. The Zionists have become worse than Nazis. Three kidnapped Israeli soldiers does not justify genocide; besides Israel is holidng 10,000 Palestinian and Lebanese men, women and children. The U.S. shamelessly defends Israel because Jews control the U.S. Federal Reserve.
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th 7:30 to 8:30am to 1242AM)
Mexico, R.P., Peru, et al
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
7/10/2006
The recent Mexico elections was marked by what its opposition calls massive “fraud”: three million votes “lost” at a crucial moment (part of what we call here as “trending”) then found again but of which 500,000 would not be counted, 900,000 votes “voided”, irregularities in 50,000 out of 130,000 polling stations recorded, opposition votes found in dumps sites and opposition areas shut out from voting (like re-districting here). The 243,000 wining margin could be easily overturned by a ballot-by-ballot recount but the official electoral body refuses (like in the Philippines, 2004).
The battle is between PRD’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a.k.a. AMLA, against Felipe Caldreron of the incumbent President Fox’s PAN. Obrador, former Mexico city mayor improved lives of the poor and senior citizens, and opposes privatization of Mexico’s oil, gas and electricity resources. Calderon is stand-in for Fox who was billed as the “great reformist president” six years ago who never “really reform Mexico's stratified social class system and monopolies on power” as international reporter Georgic Geyer described in BBC.
The official electoral body IFE is naturally controlled by the ruling party PAN. Investigative journalist Alfredo Jalife-Rahme of the “Rebelion” says the favorite pastime of IFE’s head Luis Carlos Ugalde Ramirez is “magic”. The computer programs used in the crucial preliminary electoral count software was purchased from Hildebrando, brother-in-law of PAN candidate in the elections Felipe Calderon. Ugalde’s prior job was at a right wind group think tank CIDE, he also arranged the purchase of the election software from Calderon’s brother-in-law. All in the family!
500,000 Mexicans rallied protesting the election fraud and demanding a ballot-by-ballot recount. The case is being elevated to the highest court. While the Mexican masses are waging the struggle to overcome the election fraud, U.S. and Western media have been hailing Caldreon as the winner and sending congratulations. The Washington Post editorialized the Mexican election as “clean” and demanded Obrador accept it, at the same time the PAN and mainstream media demonizes Obrador as a “threat” due to his 500,000 man rally!
Why should mass demonstrations become a threat to “democracy”? We have become familiar with this line under Gloria Arroyo’s regime too. When the masses protest they become threats to democracy, but when minority elite cliques steal elections everyone is expected to accept it? Obrador says the mammoth rally demanding a recount is only the beginning, “Should it be the case that they block us in the mass media, we will have direct communication with the citizenry" through informational committees being set up.
Obrador urged to mobilize peacefully, without blocking highways, and without succumbing to provocations. He said the rallies "in defense of democracy" would not cease until the vote was actually counted and not just the tally sheets reviewed just as the Comelec and Gloria’s minions in Congress did for the 2004 elections controversy. The controversial Mexican elections comes in the long wake of similar “hung” elections in Philippines (FPJ vs. GMA, Peru (Humala vs. Garcia) and other countries where transition from U.S. backed plutocratic regimes to popular leadership were about to transpire.
Venezuela Headline commentarist Stephen Lendman that the troubles besetting the Mexican election shares common ground with the Colombia and Peru 2006 elections where he say “In each case, the outcome was ‘arranged’ and known in advance before voters went to the polls. They're what economist and media and social critic Edward Herman calls ‘Demonstration Elections’ -- the characterization and title he gave his 1980s book analyzing and documenting sham elections in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Vietnam.”
“Professor Herman is an expert, and although his book was written over 20 years ago, it's clear little has changed except for the added sophistication … to make elections turn out the way they wish. …Elections that only appear democratic happen throughout the developing world wherever the US has a strategic interest, which these days means everywhere. But they also happen in at least some developed countries, most notably the last two US presidential elections.” And where they fail to manipulate elections they launch “people power” as against Estrada in 2001 and Ukraine in 2004.
Lendman cites longtime Mexico observer John Ross saying “… the fine art of election theft … certainly was in evidence on July 2 as that election just completed and final results announced on July 6 looked just like the one held there in 1988 when Cuauhtemoc Cardenas (son of the country's last leftist president from 1932 - 38) ran against the US choice Carlos Salinas of the ruling PRI… until … President Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN). Both those parties represent wealth and power so it was of little concern to the US which of them runs the Mexican political system.”
The Filipino people must learn from the historical and country-by-country experiences where election frauds by the ruling elite continue to be perpetrated and perpetuated. Honest elections is easy to have so long as there is not powerful bloc intent to cheat, and its seldom the opposition that is with the power to cheat. In the U.S. where the plutocrats are intent on control through Bush they have cheated to ensure victory, but in India where genuine democracy prevails even an election with 600-M voters can be smooth and quick.
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
Herman Tiu Laurel
7/10/2006
The recent Mexico elections was marked by what its opposition calls massive “fraud”: three million votes “lost” at a crucial moment (part of what we call here as “trending”) then found again but of which 500,000 would not be counted, 900,000 votes “voided”, irregularities in 50,000 out of 130,000 polling stations recorded, opposition votes found in dumps sites and opposition areas shut out from voting (like re-districting here). The 243,000 wining margin could be easily overturned by a ballot-by-ballot recount but the official electoral body refuses (like in the Philippines, 2004).
The battle is between PRD’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a.k.a. AMLA, against Felipe Caldreron of the incumbent President Fox’s PAN. Obrador, former Mexico city mayor improved lives of the poor and senior citizens, and opposes privatization of Mexico’s oil, gas and electricity resources. Calderon is stand-in for Fox who was billed as the “great reformist president” six years ago who never “really reform Mexico's stratified social class system and monopolies on power” as international reporter Georgic Geyer described in BBC.
The official electoral body IFE is naturally controlled by the ruling party PAN. Investigative journalist Alfredo Jalife-Rahme of the “Rebelion” says the favorite pastime of IFE’s head Luis Carlos Ugalde Ramirez is “magic”. The computer programs used in the crucial preliminary electoral count software was purchased from Hildebrando, brother-in-law of PAN candidate in the elections Felipe Calderon. Ugalde’s prior job was at a right wind group think tank CIDE, he also arranged the purchase of the election software from Calderon’s brother-in-law. All in the family!
500,000 Mexicans rallied protesting the election fraud and demanding a ballot-by-ballot recount. The case is being elevated to the highest court. While the Mexican masses are waging the struggle to overcome the election fraud, U.S. and Western media have been hailing Caldreon as the winner and sending congratulations. The Washington Post editorialized the Mexican election as “clean” and demanded Obrador accept it, at the same time the PAN and mainstream media demonizes Obrador as a “threat” due to his 500,000 man rally!
Why should mass demonstrations become a threat to “democracy”? We have become familiar with this line under Gloria Arroyo’s regime too. When the masses protest they become threats to democracy, but when minority elite cliques steal elections everyone is expected to accept it? Obrador says the mammoth rally demanding a recount is only the beginning, “Should it be the case that they block us in the mass media, we will have direct communication with the citizenry" through informational committees being set up.
Obrador urged to mobilize peacefully, without blocking highways, and without succumbing to provocations. He said the rallies "in defense of democracy" would not cease until the vote was actually counted and not just the tally sheets reviewed just as the Comelec and Gloria’s minions in Congress did for the 2004 elections controversy. The controversial Mexican elections comes in the long wake of similar “hung” elections in Philippines (FPJ vs. GMA, Peru (Humala vs. Garcia) and other countries where transition from U.S. backed plutocratic regimes to popular leadership were about to transpire.
Venezuela Headline commentarist Stephen Lendman that the troubles besetting the Mexican election shares common ground with the Colombia and Peru 2006 elections where he say “In each case, the outcome was ‘arranged’ and known in advance before voters went to the polls. They're what economist and media and social critic Edward Herman calls ‘Demonstration Elections’ -- the characterization and title he gave his 1980s book analyzing and documenting sham elections in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Vietnam.”
“Professor Herman is an expert, and although his book was written over 20 years ago, it's clear little has changed except for the added sophistication … to make elections turn out the way they wish. …Elections that only appear democratic happen throughout the developing world wherever the US has a strategic interest, which these days means everywhere. But they also happen in at least some developed countries, most notably the last two US presidential elections.” And where they fail to manipulate elections they launch “people power” as against Estrada in 2001 and Ukraine in 2004.
Lendman cites longtime Mexico observer John Ross saying “… the fine art of election theft … certainly was in evidence on July 2 as that election just completed and final results announced on July 6 looked just like the one held there in 1988 when Cuauhtemoc Cardenas (son of the country's last leftist president from 1932 - 38) ran against the US choice Carlos Salinas of the ruling PRI… until … President Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN). Both those parties represent wealth and power so it was of little concern to the US which of them runs the Mexican political system.”
The Filipino people must learn from the historical and country-by-country experiences where election frauds by the ruling elite continue to be perpetrated and perpetuated. Honest elections is easy to have so long as there is not powerful bloc intent to cheat, and its seldom the opposition that is with the power to cheat. In the U.S. where the plutocrats are intent on control through Bush they have cheated to ensure victory, but in India where genuine democracy prevails even an election with 600-M voters can be smooth and quick.
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
GMA: give up, get out!
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
7/7/2006
The Gen. Lim video and list of civilian supporters of the “withdrawal of support” adds to the long list of active anti-Gloria diehards, a list growing immeasurably. Gloria can only get more unpopular as time goes on because the nation simply will not accept a liar, cheat, oppressor, “plastic” character who has not sense of propriety, principle, pride and other the normal attributes of a respectable human being. Imagine, now the highly respected and popular Oscar Orbos is openly speaking out his mind on radio and TV. Gloria just hasn’t got anymore highly regarded people on her side anymore.
Oscar Orbos has been an executive secretary in Malacañang and a congressman of several terms, and no one has ever heard of any insinuation of corruption of the man. That is the stuff that the public respects and the same stuff that makes a man indignant over the corruption and decay that has been inflicted by Gloria and her corrupt and cheating gang on Philippines society. That Oscar Orbos was chosen by the Gen. Lim groups to be amongst the civilian leadership to help start the clean up of Philippine society reflects the clean intentions of Lim and company.
Gen. Danilo Lim is not indecisive as some quarters claim and to which they attribute the abortion of the February “withdrawal of support”, as the information surfacing now reveal if Lim and the reformist officer had their way they would have surrounded Malacañang immediately. As we heard last February, it was elements from the clergy who insisted that the change be “non-violent” and prevailed upon the reform movement to desist from decisive action and use the march to the Edsa Shrine to trigger the mass withdrawal of support.
A decent approach to GMA is never going to work because Gloria does not understand decency. This is a character trait we have witnessed since 2001 when she ordered the cold blooded murder of dozens of protesters at the May 2001 Edsa Tres demonstration in front of Malacañang. That has been followed by a bloody trail of violence against peaceful civilian popular protest climaxing in GMA’s infamous CPR and E.O. 1017. Lim and company, like Estrada, hoped to preserve Filipino lives GMA’s enforcers were too ready to fire upon fellow soldiers last February 24 and 26.
What ado does dissipated Malacañang executive secretary Ermita want to raise about Lim’s video? I propose that we show beside Lim’s video GMA’s video taken at the COPA Manila Peninsula ballroom February 2001 celebration of Edsa Dos boasting of her conspiracy with five active generals to oust the elected President Estrada, and on the other side GMA’s “I am sorry” video sequel to the “Hello Garci” tapes. Ermita and other GMA minion’s campaign to besmirch Lim is not going to work because people know it is GMA and her gang is the most guilty of treason and betrayal of Philippine democracy.
The overwhelming public reaction is in fact one of admiration of and support for Gen. Danilo Lim. Just try interviewing taxi and jeepney drivers. It’s still unanimous as far as my interviews go, and the condemnation of Gloria is universal. It would be great if after Gen. Senga retires that GMA appoints Esperon as Chief-of-Staff as the gang of cheaters can be easier to isolate from the rest of the population and the AFP rank-and-file. Esperon should do what he threatened, transfer Lim to Tanay’s maximum security prison and expose his and GMA’s depravity even more.
We salute “Boy” Miranda for standing by all the officers accused by GMA in the February incidents and challenged the regime to file the charges against him instead because the officers were only acted in support of him. That is the officer and gentlemen we visualize our soldiers to be, not the cheats and cowards that Esperon and company represents who operated in the cover of darkness to manipulate the elections results. If Esperon and company have any dignity then let them call for the release of the Mayuga report and they face the truth and its consequence.
Meanwhile, economic racketeering under Gloria continues. The Masinloc project delay is blamed on Meralco’s refusal to give a “supply contract” to any new operator; buy Meralco has supply contracts with its own IPPs. These so-called hard working business groups are really just riding on the guaranteed and risk free “supply contracts” we consumers assure them – there’s no competition! So why did we privatize at all. The announced WESM (wholesale electricity spot market) is also a scam making residential consumers subsidize the 1-megawatt consumers like Raul Concepcion’s businesses.
More rice importations from Thailand and China is scheduled, happy days for Malacañang’s cronies again; sad for our rice farmers and dollar reserves. While NEDA is claiming the “slowing” of the inflation rate to make a good impression, we all should know that this is actually being caused by the shrinking consuming power of the public. While oil deregulation continues to be in force and oil companies rake in windfall profites, jeepney drivers are compelled now to ask for an P8.75 rate from the present P7.00. National rage grows!
Gloria’s betrayals are leading this country to greater civil conflict, she’s no choice but to give up and get out!
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
Herman Tiu Laurel
7/7/2006
The Gen. Lim video and list of civilian supporters of the “withdrawal of support” adds to the long list of active anti-Gloria diehards, a list growing immeasurably. Gloria can only get more unpopular as time goes on because the nation simply will not accept a liar, cheat, oppressor, “plastic” character who has not sense of propriety, principle, pride and other the normal attributes of a respectable human being. Imagine, now the highly respected and popular Oscar Orbos is openly speaking out his mind on radio and TV. Gloria just hasn’t got anymore highly regarded people on her side anymore.
Oscar Orbos has been an executive secretary in Malacañang and a congressman of several terms, and no one has ever heard of any insinuation of corruption of the man. That is the stuff that the public respects and the same stuff that makes a man indignant over the corruption and decay that has been inflicted by Gloria and her corrupt and cheating gang on Philippines society. That Oscar Orbos was chosen by the Gen. Lim groups to be amongst the civilian leadership to help start the clean up of Philippine society reflects the clean intentions of Lim and company.
Gen. Danilo Lim is not indecisive as some quarters claim and to which they attribute the abortion of the February “withdrawal of support”, as the information surfacing now reveal if Lim and the reformist officer had their way they would have surrounded Malacañang immediately. As we heard last February, it was elements from the clergy who insisted that the change be “non-violent” and prevailed upon the reform movement to desist from decisive action and use the march to the Edsa Shrine to trigger the mass withdrawal of support.
A decent approach to GMA is never going to work because Gloria does not understand decency. This is a character trait we have witnessed since 2001 when she ordered the cold blooded murder of dozens of protesters at the May 2001 Edsa Tres demonstration in front of Malacañang. That has been followed by a bloody trail of violence against peaceful civilian popular protest climaxing in GMA’s infamous CPR and E.O. 1017. Lim and company, like Estrada, hoped to preserve Filipino lives GMA’s enforcers were too ready to fire upon fellow soldiers last February 24 and 26.
What ado does dissipated Malacañang executive secretary Ermita want to raise about Lim’s video? I propose that we show beside Lim’s video GMA’s video taken at the COPA Manila Peninsula ballroom February 2001 celebration of Edsa Dos boasting of her conspiracy with five active generals to oust the elected President Estrada, and on the other side GMA’s “I am sorry” video sequel to the “Hello Garci” tapes. Ermita and other GMA minion’s campaign to besmirch Lim is not going to work because people know it is GMA and her gang is the most guilty of treason and betrayal of Philippine democracy.
The overwhelming public reaction is in fact one of admiration of and support for Gen. Danilo Lim. Just try interviewing taxi and jeepney drivers. It’s still unanimous as far as my interviews go, and the condemnation of Gloria is universal. It would be great if after Gen. Senga retires that GMA appoints Esperon as Chief-of-Staff as the gang of cheaters can be easier to isolate from the rest of the population and the AFP rank-and-file. Esperon should do what he threatened, transfer Lim to Tanay’s maximum security prison and expose his and GMA’s depravity even more.
We salute “Boy” Miranda for standing by all the officers accused by GMA in the February incidents and challenged the regime to file the charges against him instead because the officers were only acted in support of him. That is the officer and gentlemen we visualize our soldiers to be, not the cheats and cowards that Esperon and company represents who operated in the cover of darkness to manipulate the elections results. If Esperon and company have any dignity then let them call for the release of the Mayuga report and they face the truth and its consequence.
Meanwhile, economic racketeering under Gloria continues. The Masinloc project delay is blamed on Meralco’s refusal to give a “supply contract” to any new operator; buy Meralco has supply contracts with its own IPPs. These so-called hard working business groups are really just riding on the guaranteed and risk free “supply contracts” we consumers assure them – there’s no competition! So why did we privatize at all. The announced WESM (wholesale electricity spot market) is also a scam making residential consumers subsidize the 1-megawatt consumers like Raul Concepcion’s businesses.
More rice importations from Thailand and China is scheduled, happy days for Malacañang’s cronies again; sad for our rice farmers and dollar reserves. While NEDA is claiming the “slowing” of the inflation rate to make a good impression, we all should know that this is actually being caused by the shrinking consuming power of the public. While oil deregulation continues to be in force and oil companies rake in windfall profites, jeepney drivers are compelled now to ask for an P8.75 rate from the present P7.00. National rage grows!
Gloria’s betrayals are leading this country to greater civil conflict, she’s no choice but to give up and get out!
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
Honoring sacrifice
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
7/5/2006
Fugitive of Conscience Senator Gringo Honasan missed the wedding of two of his children and a graduation rite of another. Being a parent myself and very close to my children I can imagine how sad this can be for Greg who is certainly close to and proud of his children. It must be equally sad for his children, the family and the friends of the Honasans. Did Senator Honasan commit a great malfeasance, or stole money from government or commit murder that he must suffer this? No, he did none of these. The only guilt he has is to lead a movement for peaceful change of a terribly corrupt society.
Major General Danilo Lim, Col. Ariel Querubin and thirty eight other officers plus twenty seven men are facing court martial in the coming days, all for a show of protest and “withdrawal of support” from what Gen. Lim has called the “bogus president” Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. They men who will not be accused of having stolen anything from governmentor any graft and corruption, committing heinous human rights violations, disloyalty to the Constitution’s principles, or any such crimes. They are guilty only of knowing the truth, that Gloria is bogus.
Like Senator Honasan these officers and men will be separated from their families and their mission in life to serve the security of our nation, all for the preservation the lie, prevarication, fabrication that is the Gloria presidency of the country. They are being prosecuted for their loyalty to the principles that make a society honorable, respectable and harmonious – honesty, integrity, loyalty to principles and to the welfare of the people. They are, of course, the latest addition to a long line of military men who have staked their comforts and careers – i.e. the Oakwood young officers, Kawal, et al.
We must not forget President Estrada who is still sacrificing in the struggle for truth, spurning Gloria’s offer of exile to face what has now been five years of incarceration in alternately perilous and depressing conditions. Anytime, President Estrada can be liquidated by Gloria’s minions; and this is the whole point - keeping him hostage especially as charges against him are now demonstrably weak and inutile. Now Estrada has to sacrifice some more for the peace of the land by staying in detention until just before the 2007 elections to prevent him from being a factor.
In contrast is the coterie of conspirators wallowing in the cesspool of corruption, graft, economic exploitation and social decay of Philippine society today, enjoying themselves in Gloria’s pig sty. Gloria and her First Gentleman enjoying themselves in Italy shopping in the expensive stores and playing forbidden games while the country sink deeper into poverty, hunger and debt (in case you missed it, our local debt service increased 45% in the first half and foreign debt rose to $ 55.3-B); and GMA generals Esperon, Calderon et al continue their institutions’ tradition of corruption and jueteng.
The charges being raised by the corrupt Gloria regimes against all those conscientiously resisting this cozy conspiracy of corruption of Gloria will all eventually suffer the same fate as the charges against President Estrada – they will be exposed as sinister, false and betrayals of truth, the Rule of Law and the Constitution. Charges against Gen. Lim and company, for example, will inevitably succumb to the fatal contradiction posed by Gen. Angelo Reyes’ similar act that helped install GMA in her illegal post today – withdrawal of support from Estrada’s government.
This issue of Gen. Reyes’ original “withdrawal of support” will come alive again as the military trial of Gen. Lim starts and GMA’s gang will face the dilemma that will expose the lie to survive on. The nation will realize that the matter of the 2001 theft of the national mandate to Joseph E. Estrada can not be escaped from, can not be evaded no matter what obfuscation the conspirators in Edsa Dos attempt be it Cha-cha, impeachment or the 2007 elections. The ghost of democracy that died in 2001 will not rest until truth and genuine democracy is resurrected.
General Reyes is another character that will go down in the annals of Philippine history as one of the major villains against our democracy, and we will see him in court someday. In Latin America, the violators of human rights and democracy are now facing trial by the governments that have taken over from the fallen dictatorships (for that matter, even the economic managers that sold their country out to foreign interests and financial speculators). Five years have passed and truth has triumphed in Estrada’s case, only a little more and the rest of the truth will surface to overwhelm the liars.
Propaganda efforts by GMA’s gang to besmirch Gen. Lim through one-sided annotations of the video tape of his “withdrawal of support” will not succeed. This ANC anchors who say this is a smoking gun deliberately miss the more fundamental issues, and Senator Biazon is right on the mark when he raised the 2001 “withdrawal of support” as a correlated issue that must be taken into account. Gen. Lim will stand out as a man and soldier of the highest conviction and loyalty to the Constitution and Truth: “Mabuhay siya at silang lahat na naninindigan sa katotohanan.”
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
Herman Tiu Laurel
7/5/2006
Fugitive of Conscience Senator Gringo Honasan missed the wedding of two of his children and a graduation rite of another. Being a parent myself and very close to my children I can imagine how sad this can be for Greg who is certainly close to and proud of his children. It must be equally sad for his children, the family and the friends of the Honasans. Did Senator Honasan commit a great malfeasance, or stole money from government or commit murder that he must suffer this? No, he did none of these. The only guilt he has is to lead a movement for peaceful change of a terribly corrupt society.
Major General Danilo Lim, Col. Ariel Querubin and thirty eight other officers plus twenty seven men are facing court martial in the coming days, all for a show of protest and “withdrawal of support” from what Gen. Lim has called the “bogus president” Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. They men who will not be accused of having stolen anything from governmentor any graft and corruption, committing heinous human rights violations, disloyalty to the Constitution’s principles, or any such crimes. They are guilty only of knowing the truth, that Gloria is bogus.
Like Senator Honasan these officers and men will be separated from their families and their mission in life to serve the security of our nation, all for the preservation the lie, prevarication, fabrication that is the Gloria presidency of the country. They are being prosecuted for their loyalty to the principles that make a society honorable, respectable and harmonious – honesty, integrity, loyalty to principles and to the welfare of the people. They are, of course, the latest addition to a long line of military men who have staked their comforts and careers – i.e. the Oakwood young officers, Kawal, et al.
We must not forget President Estrada who is still sacrificing in the struggle for truth, spurning Gloria’s offer of exile to face what has now been five years of incarceration in alternately perilous and depressing conditions. Anytime, President Estrada can be liquidated by Gloria’s minions; and this is the whole point - keeping him hostage especially as charges against him are now demonstrably weak and inutile. Now Estrada has to sacrifice some more for the peace of the land by staying in detention until just before the 2007 elections to prevent him from being a factor.
In contrast is the coterie of conspirators wallowing in the cesspool of corruption, graft, economic exploitation and social decay of Philippine society today, enjoying themselves in Gloria’s pig sty. Gloria and her First Gentleman enjoying themselves in Italy shopping in the expensive stores and playing forbidden games while the country sink deeper into poverty, hunger and debt (in case you missed it, our local debt service increased 45% in the first half and foreign debt rose to $ 55.3-B); and GMA generals Esperon, Calderon et al continue their institutions’ tradition of corruption and jueteng.
The charges being raised by the corrupt Gloria regimes against all those conscientiously resisting this cozy conspiracy of corruption of Gloria will all eventually suffer the same fate as the charges against President Estrada – they will be exposed as sinister, false and betrayals of truth, the Rule of Law and the Constitution. Charges against Gen. Lim and company, for example, will inevitably succumb to the fatal contradiction posed by Gen. Angelo Reyes’ similar act that helped install GMA in her illegal post today – withdrawal of support from Estrada’s government.
This issue of Gen. Reyes’ original “withdrawal of support” will come alive again as the military trial of Gen. Lim starts and GMA’s gang will face the dilemma that will expose the lie to survive on. The nation will realize that the matter of the 2001 theft of the national mandate to Joseph E. Estrada can not be escaped from, can not be evaded no matter what obfuscation the conspirators in Edsa Dos attempt be it Cha-cha, impeachment or the 2007 elections. The ghost of democracy that died in 2001 will not rest until truth and genuine democracy is resurrected.
General Reyes is another character that will go down in the annals of Philippine history as one of the major villains against our democracy, and we will see him in court someday. In Latin America, the violators of human rights and democracy are now facing trial by the governments that have taken over from the fallen dictatorships (for that matter, even the economic managers that sold their country out to foreign interests and financial speculators). Five years have passed and truth has triumphed in Estrada’s case, only a little more and the rest of the truth will surface to overwhelm the liars.
Propaganda efforts by GMA’s gang to besmirch Gen. Lim through one-sided annotations of the video tape of his “withdrawal of support” will not succeed. This ANC anchors who say this is a smoking gun deliberately miss the more fundamental issues, and Senator Biazon is right on the mark when he raised the 2001 “withdrawal of support” as a correlated issue that must be taken into account. Gen. Lim will stand out as a man and soldier of the highest conviction and loyalty to the Constitution and Truth: “Mabuhay siya at silang lahat na naninindigan sa katotohanan.”
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
At the end of the tunnel
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
7/3/2006
Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson was reported to have gone into histrionics yesterday, threatening to withdraw his support for Gloria if and when President Joseph E. Estrada is acquitted in the Sandidganbayan trial. In acting this way Chavit is clearly showing that he’s feeling the heat that his world may be finally closing in on him. Besieged would be the word – besieged by the truth staring him in the eye. That he would use such threats shows how little his regard is for law under Gloria’s, but the mighty light of truth is now shining through the end of the tunnel.
By the spiel accompanying his histrionics, Chavit would like the public to believe that President Estrada can never be acquitted of the charges lodged against him unless there’s a “compromise deal” with Gloria. That is the general impression of justice under Gloria’s regime, the present Supreme Court and the whole judicial system controlled by The Firm. But obviously with truth on President Estrada’s side and the skillful legal defense the undeniable facts of the cases have been brought out, and with equally skillful public information Estrada has vindicated himself before the people.
The expected exoneration of President Estrada has reached such a crescendo that the public has been texting around the belief that “Estrada will be released”. I got that from a doctor who is associated with the military and police community. All this optimism has got many people to wonder whether the Sandidganbayan justices are specimen of the long lost, honest and truthful justices that we thought were extinct in the Philippine legal landscape. Some say that with the political trends showing the way out for the Edsa Dos conspirators the justices can now genuinely practice “cold impartiality”.
We have to wait and see the final results of the Sandiganbayan process which may last at the minimum until December, or may even extend beyond that if the prosecution chooses to prolong the process by calling new witnesses again. What is incontrovertible now is that a conviction on any of the charges against Estrada will not be credible to the public, thanks to Chavit’s historionics and the prosecution’s collapse at the cross-examination. The worst some lawyers expect is that the Sandidganbayan may acquit but with extremely derogatory remarks to blacken the triumph of the defense.
A few months ago I didn’t think there was even a shadow of a chance that justice could be served by the justices appointed by the Gloria regime, but now the chance of this happening is better than good. Gloria will have to use physical blackmail to force the Sandiganbayan justice to bow to her will on this case now, but that may backfire even more, the enticements such as appointment of some of the justices to the Supreme Court may not be believable coming from a besigned government like Gloria’s. We’re hoping for the best.
We now turn to the impeachment campaign which incorporates a time-bomb question that few may realize – that a successful culmination of the impeachment process against Gloria will result in another anomaly – installation of a vice-president that is not legitimate either. No election exercise under the shadow of the 2001 power grab and illegal removal of the elected President Estrada can be a legal exercise. Even the late 2004 presidential candidate’s spouse Susan Roces recognized that when she declared that Gloria stole the presidency “not once, but twice”.
The original holder of the title of what was stolen and stolen again does not go to whoever it was stolen from the second time, the original holder still has the right. This column does not obstinately insist on this point for the benefit of President Estrada but for the principle of truth and historical integrity, for the benefit of historical integrity of the nation - matters that Christian Monsod, Raul Concpecion and those in the “One Voice” group and even among many in the impeachment drive do not appreciate. We look to our history to find our destiny, let not our future be a lie moving on.
The end of the tunnel of Estrada’s case may be near but the track ahead is still perilous; some are determined to derail the train, as it has with Chavit Singson (who’ll face hundreds of billions of Tobacco Tax cases eventually) before the whole truth catches up with them: The Big Business elements for taking undue advantage of the people after privatization of utilities and public projects, the Supreme Court justices who committed the original heinous crimes against the Constitution will face prosecution, the corrupt AFP and PNP generals will face the line up, ad nausea.
With visible glee Malacañang through Mike Defensor made much of President Estrada’s disavowal, when asked what he would do if acquitted, of any interest to reclaim his stolen presidency. He said he would just spend his time to help uplift the poor. But it is not for President Estrada to decide although his expression of disinterest in power elevates him to statesmanship. It is the integrity of our nation, the Constitution and the Rule of Law that demands the restoration of the elected leader of the land and his policies of caring for the people. Vox Populi, Vox Dei!
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM, T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
Herman Tiu Laurel
7/3/2006
Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson was reported to have gone into histrionics yesterday, threatening to withdraw his support for Gloria if and when President Joseph E. Estrada is acquitted in the Sandidganbayan trial. In acting this way Chavit is clearly showing that he’s feeling the heat that his world may be finally closing in on him. Besieged would be the word – besieged by the truth staring him in the eye. That he would use such threats shows how little his regard is for law under Gloria’s, but the mighty light of truth is now shining through the end of the tunnel.
By the spiel accompanying his histrionics, Chavit would like the public to believe that President Estrada can never be acquitted of the charges lodged against him unless there’s a “compromise deal” with Gloria. That is the general impression of justice under Gloria’s regime, the present Supreme Court and the whole judicial system controlled by The Firm. But obviously with truth on President Estrada’s side and the skillful legal defense the undeniable facts of the cases have been brought out, and with equally skillful public information Estrada has vindicated himself before the people.
The expected exoneration of President Estrada has reached such a crescendo that the public has been texting around the belief that “Estrada will be released”. I got that from a doctor who is associated with the military and police community. All this optimism has got many people to wonder whether the Sandidganbayan justices are specimen of the long lost, honest and truthful justices that we thought were extinct in the Philippine legal landscape. Some say that with the political trends showing the way out for the Edsa Dos conspirators the justices can now genuinely practice “cold impartiality”.
We have to wait and see the final results of the Sandiganbayan process which may last at the minimum until December, or may even extend beyond that if the prosecution chooses to prolong the process by calling new witnesses again. What is incontrovertible now is that a conviction on any of the charges against Estrada will not be credible to the public, thanks to Chavit’s historionics and the prosecution’s collapse at the cross-examination. The worst some lawyers expect is that the Sandidganbayan may acquit but with extremely derogatory remarks to blacken the triumph of the defense.
A few months ago I didn’t think there was even a shadow of a chance that justice could be served by the justices appointed by the Gloria regime, but now the chance of this happening is better than good. Gloria will have to use physical blackmail to force the Sandiganbayan justice to bow to her will on this case now, but that may backfire even more, the enticements such as appointment of some of the justices to the Supreme Court may not be believable coming from a besigned government like Gloria’s. We’re hoping for the best.
We now turn to the impeachment campaign which incorporates a time-bomb question that few may realize – that a successful culmination of the impeachment process against Gloria will result in another anomaly – installation of a vice-president that is not legitimate either. No election exercise under the shadow of the 2001 power grab and illegal removal of the elected President Estrada can be a legal exercise. Even the late 2004 presidential candidate’s spouse Susan Roces recognized that when she declared that Gloria stole the presidency “not once, but twice”.
The original holder of the title of what was stolen and stolen again does not go to whoever it was stolen from the second time, the original holder still has the right. This column does not obstinately insist on this point for the benefit of President Estrada but for the principle of truth and historical integrity, for the benefit of historical integrity of the nation - matters that Christian Monsod, Raul Concpecion and those in the “One Voice” group and even among many in the impeachment drive do not appreciate. We look to our history to find our destiny, let not our future be a lie moving on.
The end of the tunnel of Estrada’s case may be near but the track ahead is still perilous; some are determined to derail the train, as it has with Chavit Singson (who’ll face hundreds of billions of Tobacco Tax cases eventually) before the whole truth catches up with them: The Big Business elements for taking undue advantage of the people after privatization of utilities and public projects, the Supreme Court justices who committed the original heinous crimes against the Constitution will face prosecution, the corrupt AFP and PNP generals will face the line up, ad nausea.
With visible glee Malacañang through Mike Defensor made much of President Estrada’s disavowal, when asked what he would do if acquitted, of any interest to reclaim his stolen presidency. He said he would just spend his time to help uplift the poor. But it is not for President Estrada to decide although his expression of disinterest in power elevates him to statesmanship. It is the integrity of our nation, the Constitution and the Rule of Law that demands the restoration of the elected leader of the land and his policies of caring for the people. Vox Populi, Vox Dei!
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM, T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
Eighty-four million stressed by GMA
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
6/26/2006
What’s this drama of Gloria going to the hospital for a mere “diarrhea” - if that is what it really was. Some newspapers describe Gloria’s intestinal mishap as the result of a “killer work schedule”, but does that hold? Gloria has over two dozen department secretaries and literally hundreds of factotums to delegate to. She has financial leeway over billions of pesos that no Philippine occupant of Malacañang ever had before, a pressure off her shoulder thanks to her budget re-enactment. Gloria’s either a very poor manager or she’s greatly conflicted, and maybe both, stirring up her intestines.
“Acute Infectious Diarrhea” the St. Luke doctors diagnosed Gloira’s condition to be, but others are more descriptive. One text translates it to Gloria being “full of shit, another said “diarrhea of lies and constipation of truth”. Some doubt the veracity of the whole story, as our source in the diplomatic circuit said “It may all just be a ruse to cover up the fact a diplomatic faux pas of Gloria has caused her trip to Spain and Libya to be called off while ruffles were being straightened out. You see, Gloria made an ugly scene at the rites for Spain’s donation to PGH and her OIC bid simply won’t fly right now.
If Gloria’s PR people are trying to create sympathy with the “killer work schedule” spin they’re not succeeding. Three taxi drivers I rode with said , “Sana matuluyan na.” The reaction from the salesladies I asked at one bookstore and one mall was the same; but its not only the masa that’s not empathizing with Gloria as the businessmen and professionals I talked to had one and the same reaction. There simply is no sympathy for Gloria from the eighty-four million Filipino facing debilitating stress and exasperation with the hard life, anarchy and violence under Gloria’s rule.
The “killer work schedule” sob story doesn’t hold water (or sweat) as most Filipinos have “killer work schedule” without the benefit of the good life in Malacañang, all its perks, the golden parachute good to last until Gloria’s great-great grandchildren. The average Filipino family has to rise five in the morning, prepare for breakfast, work or school, brave the daily traffic for up to two hours in the morning and evening, and for starvation wages. Even businessmen, harassed by increasing costs of power, taxes, water, and dwindling consumer purchasing power, cannot have an iota of rest.
So, Gloria, save us the sob story. If there is a source of fatigue and stress for Gloria that’s believable it is the problems she created for herself – her isolation springing from the people’s hate for her that began when she mowed down scores of protesters at Edsa Tres, a murderous pattern of oppression that continues to this day with the murders and abductions of activists and journalists. The disgust and scorn of a nation reeling from the devastation of her economic and pro-oligarchy policies, her corruption, her association with the warlords like Chavit Singson - the list is endless.
After “Hello Garci”, the fertilizer scam, Impsa, President Estrada’s exposês of Gloria’s perfidy, Gloria’s is certainly endlessly stressed from the fact that at any moment more scandals about her power grab, her cheating (daya-rhea, one text goes), her corruption, can surface anytime. Gloria knows that these truths damning her will never cease and, therefore, the honorable people in our society will not rest until regime change is finally completed – like what Gen. Danny Lim, Cols. Querubin, De Leon and Segumalian, Bishops Labayen, Tobias and Iniguez, are clamoring for.
Gloria knows that she is bound to end up in jail while President Estrada is homeward bound. Gloria knows that her happy days will come to an end, and the tiger she is riding will devour her eventually. Her karma is her problem. That is what conflicts her, the source of stress the doctors would just too polite to say. If she expects the public to believe her “in charge” and “all fine” spiel on her third day in the hospital, her pictures showing her bloated face and overdone make-up tells the public that she is far from getting well at all.
Gloria’s is a life of a hounded fugitive, running away each day from her own bratty, confused and scared conscience which even exchanged the human lives for political consvenience – like making political capital out of capital punishment on Echegaray who must be haunting her from his grave now. Karma? One doctor texted us, “Bloody diarrhea is also seen in colonic tumors, diverticulitis or polyposis.” Why didn’t Mike Defensor in the first media advisory that first night of Gloria at the hospital answer the question of one media man regarding the polyp of Gloria?
The other side down under – Australia is destabilizing East Timor’s Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri (supported by Fretelin, the liberation force during Indonesia’s rule) who bargains tough against Australia’s grab of Timor Sea oil rights. Australia wants Fernando de Araujo, whose wife teaches political science at Melbourne University, backed by Australian-trained Col. Alfredo Reinado and a small armed rebel group. Australian TV interviewed a military group allegedly ordered by Alkatiri to hunt down Reinado, but would such a group seek publicity? Dili riots burning down Alkatiri’s home and government buildings may have been “planned attack”, UN mission chief says.
Herman Tiu Laurel
6/26/2006
What’s this drama of Gloria going to the hospital for a mere “diarrhea” - if that is what it really was. Some newspapers describe Gloria’s intestinal mishap as the result of a “killer work schedule”, but does that hold? Gloria has over two dozen department secretaries and literally hundreds of factotums to delegate to. She has financial leeway over billions of pesos that no Philippine occupant of Malacañang ever had before, a pressure off her shoulder thanks to her budget re-enactment. Gloria’s either a very poor manager or she’s greatly conflicted, and maybe both, stirring up her intestines.
“Acute Infectious Diarrhea” the St. Luke doctors diagnosed Gloira’s condition to be, but others are more descriptive. One text translates it to Gloria being “full of shit, another said “diarrhea of lies and constipation of truth”. Some doubt the veracity of the whole story, as our source in the diplomatic circuit said “It may all just be a ruse to cover up the fact a diplomatic faux pas of Gloria has caused her trip to Spain and Libya to be called off while ruffles were being straightened out. You see, Gloria made an ugly scene at the rites for Spain’s donation to PGH and her OIC bid simply won’t fly right now.
If Gloria’s PR people are trying to create sympathy with the “killer work schedule” spin they’re not succeeding. Three taxi drivers I rode with said , “Sana matuluyan na.” The reaction from the salesladies I asked at one bookstore and one mall was the same; but its not only the masa that’s not empathizing with Gloria as the businessmen and professionals I talked to had one and the same reaction. There simply is no sympathy for Gloria from the eighty-four million Filipino facing debilitating stress and exasperation with the hard life, anarchy and violence under Gloria’s rule.
The “killer work schedule” sob story doesn’t hold water (or sweat) as most Filipinos have “killer work schedule” without the benefit of the good life in Malacañang, all its perks, the golden parachute good to last until Gloria’s great-great grandchildren. The average Filipino family has to rise five in the morning, prepare for breakfast, work or school, brave the daily traffic for up to two hours in the morning and evening, and for starvation wages. Even businessmen, harassed by increasing costs of power, taxes, water, and dwindling consumer purchasing power, cannot have an iota of rest.
So, Gloria, save us the sob story. If there is a source of fatigue and stress for Gloria that’s believable it is the problems she created for herself – her isolation springing from the people’s hate for her that began when she mowed down scores of protesters at Edsa Tres, a murderous pattern of oppression that continues to this day with the murders and abductions of activists and journalists. The disgust and scorn of a nation reeling from the devastation of her economic and pro-oligarchy policies, her corruption, her association with the warlords like Chavit Singson - the list is endless.
After “Hello Garci”, the fertilizer scam, Impsa, President Estrada’s exposês of Gloria’s perfidy, Gloria’s is certainly endlessly stressed from the fact that at any moment more scandals about her power grab, her cheating (daya-rhea, one text goes), her corruption, can surface anytime. Gloria knows that these truths damning her will never cease and, therefore, the honorable people in our society will not rest until regime change is finally completed – like what Gen. Danny Lim, Cols. Querubin, De Leon and Segumalian, Bishops Labayen, Tobias and Iniguez, are clamoring for.
Gloria knows that she is bound to end up in jail while President Estrada is homeward bound. Gloria knows that her happy days will come to an end, and the tiger she is riding will devour her eventually. Her karma is her problem. That is what conflicts her, the source of stress the doctors would just too polite to say. If she expects the public to believe her “in charge” and “all fine” spiel on her third day in the hospital, her pictures showing her bloated face and overdone make-up tells the public that she is far from getting well at all.
Gloria’s is a life of a hounded fugitive, running away each day from her own bratty, confused and scared conscience which even exchanged the human lives for political consvenience – like making political capital out of capital punishment on Echegaray who must be haunting her from his grave now. Karma? One doctor texted us, “Bloody diarrhea is also seen in colonic tumors, diverticulitis or polyposis.” Why didn’t Mike Defensor in the first media advisory that first night of Gloria at the hospital answer the question of one media man regarding the polyp of Gloria?
The other side down under – Australia is destabilizing East Timor’s Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri (supported by Fretelin, the liberation force during Indonesia’s rule) who bargains tough against Australia’s grab of Timor Sea oil rights. Australia wants Fernando de Araujo, whose wife teaches political science at Melbourne University, backed by Australian-trained Col. Alfredo Reinado and a small armed rebel group. Australian TV interviewed a military group allegedly ordered by Alkatiri to hunt down Reinado, but would such a group seek publicity? Dili riots burning down Alkatiri’s home and government buildings may have been “planned attack”, UN mission chief says.
People's victories
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
6/23/2006
The 2.5-M people and power consumers of Panay Island should be rejoicing now. Our colleague in the anti-PPA crusade, Atty. Romeo Gerochi has just won a P 3-B refund for the people of Panay after the ERC decided last June 9, 2006 that the Panay Electric Company (Peco) overcharged it customers. Peco violated the law requiring power companies to supply electricity to customers at prices equal to or lower than the price that the Napocor can supply. Do you know what this means for the rest of the country? It means that we national consumers can still get hundreds of billions refund from Meralco!
Peco gets its electricity exclusively from PPC an independent power producer (independent power producers), to supply to its 40,000 consumers. It’s like Meralco getting its power supply from its own IPPs, i.e. First Gas, Quezon Power, Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo, and several others which we could not keep track of because of the Lopezes’ new acquisitions. Let’s look at an example of the rip-offs the Lopez IPPs have inflicted on its electricity consumers: Napocor's 2.40 pesos per kilowatt-hour versus First Gas' and San Lorenzo's 6.25 pesos per kilowatt-hour during the 2002 period.
Meralco and the Lopezes are undoubtedly guilty of the same offense against the public as the Peco, but the ERC has apparently done the correct thing in Panay and is stonewalling the effort of the Manila based power consumer groups like the Nasecore (National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms) led by Pete Ilagan and the FDC (Freedom from Debt Coalition), my group Sulo ng Pilipino, and others to enforce the provision of the EPIRA that requires power costs to consumers to be equal or lower than what Napocor charges.
Meralco serves 64% of the power needs of the people and the rest of the 36% is shared by about 130 other power companies and Peco, which will refund P 3-B serves only 40,000 of the 5.5-M power customers nationwide, a refund of Meralco’s overcharging of its 3.7-M customers could amount to a P 277-B refund! This estimate is on a conservative P 17,500.00 overcharging based on the ERC’s decision on Peco, and the Meralco overcharging is definitely a lot higher that Peco. Unfortunately, Meralco and the ERC have not produced the documents we have been demanding to prove our case.
Why did the ERC decide with apparent fairness in the Peco decision and, so far, not on the Meralco overcharging? What is Peco but a power company constituting may be only less than half percent of the country power supply, while Meralco represents money, political and media clout that challenges even the presidents of the country. We doubt that the ERC ever intended to judge fairly, but it was cornered by Atty. Gerochi. At any rate, the Peco decision gives new impetus to our struggle for a remedy to the years of criminal overcharging by Meralco and the crusade against power piracy and privatization.
Meralco persists in its gluttony: on June 27 and July 11 there will be all important hearings on Meralco’s petition for additional 14.76 centavos rate increase to attain 15.96% Return-On-Rate-Base (RORB) which it claims to be its right under the EPIRA law. The RORB before was limited to 8% and later increased to 12%, and Meralco is still not content. What Meralco claims to be “international” rates is based on genuine competitive enterprise, but Meralco has monopoly and public subsidy – even its capex (capital expenditure) is charged to customers. It’s maximum RORB should be 8% only.
Nasecore is calling on electricity consumers to show up at the ERC hearings June 27 and July 11 at Ortigas Center, San Miguel Avenue, 9am, to support the fight against the unjust Meralco rate petition by filling the hearing room with oppositors. We must stop the further increases and reverse the unjust RORB the corrupt politicians made into law, and at the same time pursue with new aggressiveness the investigation and filing of cases against the overcharging by Meralco for the past years. Gloria has been horse-trading on this with the Lopezes, rackets we must stop completely to protect consumers.
Truth is on the people’s side and this inspires us to continue and patient struggle is rewarded by successes such as Atty. Gerochi’s victory against the Peco, we can win more of these struggles by persistence and improving our strategies as the fight progresses. It is no different from the struggle of President Estrada to bring out the truth in the cases unjustly and oppressively lodged against him, steamrolling Chavit Singson’s schemes that have attempted to use Mark Jimenez’s lies twisting the Impsa story that has no shred of credibility. Erap’s victories are the people’s victories.
Meanwhile, Erap’s challenge to Gloria to face the impeachment process is catching fire among the citizenry. Gloria’s failure to accept speaks volumes and persuades more citizens’ to join the citizens’ impeachment of Gloria. Although we agree with Atty. Paguia and Digs Dilangalen that a fake president should just be ousted, it is still good for the people to go through the Gloria impeachment process again. As we end this column we hail another people’s victory: it faith that there are still honorable military officers is vindicated by Col. Orlando de Leon’s resignation. We salute you, sir!
(Tune in M-W-F, 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th 7:30-8:30am ,1242AM)
Herman Tiu Laurel
6/23/2006
The 2.5-M people and power consumers of Panay Island should be rejoicing now. Our colleague in the anti-PPA crusade, Atty. Romeo Gerochi has just won a P 3-B refund for the people of Panay after the ERC decided last June 9, 2006 that the Panay Electric Company (Peco) overcharged it customers. Peco violated the law requiring power companies to supply electricity to customers at prices equal to or lower than the price that the Napocor can supply. Do you know what this means for the rest of the country? It means that we national consumers can still get hundreds of billions refund from Meralco!
Peco gets its electricity exclusively from PPC an independent power producer (independent power producers), to supply to its 40,000 consumers. It’s like Meralco getting its power supply from its own IPPs, i.e. First Gas, Quezon Power, Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo, and several others which we could not keep track of because of the Lopezes’ new acquisitions. Let’s look at an example of the rip-offs the Lopez IPPs have inflicted on its electricity consumers: Napocor's 2.40 pesos per kilowatt-hour versus First Gas' and San Lorenzo's 6.25 pesos per kilowatt-hour during the 2002 period.
Meralco and the Lopezes are undoubtedly guilty of the same offense against the public as the Peco, but the ERC has apparently done the correct thing in Panay and is stonewalling the effort of the Manila based power consumer groups like the Nasecore (National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms) led by Pete Ilagan and the FDC (Freedom from Debt Coalition), my group Sulo ng Pilipino, and others to enforce the provision of the EPIRA that requires power costs to consumers to be equal or lower than what Napocor charges.
Meralco serves 64% of the power needs of the people and the rest of the 36% is shared by about 130 other power companies and Peco, which will refund P 3-B serves only 40,000 of the 5.5-M power customers nationwide, a refund of Meralco’s overcharging of its 3.7-M customers could amount to a P 277-B refund! This estimate is on a conservative P 17,500.00 overcharging based on the ERC’s decision on Peco, and the Meralco overcharging is definitely a lot higher that Peco. Unfortunately, Meralco and the ERC have not produced the documents we have been demanding to prove our case.
Why did the ERC decide with apparent fairness in the Peco decision and, so far, not on the Meralco overcharging? What is Peco but a power company constituting may be only less than half percent of the country power supply, while Meralco represents money, political and media clout that challenges even the presidents of the country. We doubt that the ERC ever intended to judge fairly, but it was cornered by Atty. Gerochi. At any rate, the Peco decision gives new impetus to our struggle for a remedy to the years of criminal overcharging by Meralco and the crusade against power piracy and privatization.
Meralco persists in its gluttony: on June 27 and July 11 there will be all important hearings on Meralco’s petition for additional 14.76 centavos rate increase to attain 15.96% Return-On-Rate-Base (RORB) which it claims to be its right under the EPIRA law. The RORB before was limited to 8% and later increased to 12%, and Meralco is still not content. What Meralco claims to be “international” rates is based on genuine competitive enterprise, but Meralco has monopoly and public subsidy – even its capex (capital expenditure) is charged to customers. It’s maximum RORB should be 8% only.
Nasecore is calling on electricity consumers to show up at the ERC hearings June 27 and July 11 at Ortigas Center, San Miguel Avenue, 9am, to support the fight against the unjust Meralco rate petition by filling the hearing room with oppositors. We must stop the further increases and reverse the unjust RORB the corrupt politicians made into law, and at the same time pursue with new aggressiveness the investigation and filing of cases against the overcharging by Meralco for the past years. Gloria has been horse-trading on this with the Lopezes, rackets we must stop completely to protect consumers.
Truth is on the people’s side and this inspires us to continue and patient struggle is rewarded by successes such as Atty. Gerochi’s victory against the Peco, we can win more of these struggles by persistence and improving our strategies as the fight progresses. It is no different from the struggle of President Estrada to bring out the truth in the cases unjustly and oppressively lodged against him, steamrolling Chavit Singson’s schemes that have attempted to use Mark Jimenez’s lies twisting the Impsa story that has no shred of credibility. Erap’s victories are the people’s victories.
Meanwhile, Erap’s challenge to Gloria to face the impeachment process is catching fire among the citizenry. Gloria’s failure to accept speaks volumes and persuades more citizens’ to join the citizens’ impeachment of Gloria. Although we agree with Atty. Paguia and Digs Dilangalen that a fake president should just be ousted, it is still good for the people to go through the Gloria impeachment process again. As we end this column we hail another people’s victory: it faith that there are still honorable military officers is vindicated by Col. Orlando de Leon’s resignation. We salute you, sir!
(Tune in M-W-F, 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th 7:30-8:30am ,1242AM)
Bureauc-rats and Corpo-rats
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
6/19/2006
With Gloria at the helm of a teetering-tottering Ship of State unable to do anything else but to keep herself afloat, it is inevitable that the rats are running amuck raiding the ship’s stores. Bureauc-rats and corpo-rats associated with Gloira are stealing, looting and plundering the ship’s holds dry. Gloria’s cabinet continue to run away with growing graft.The corporations that backed Gloria in Edsa Dos are incessantly raking in it while the people’s hunger grow. The Lopezes and Ayalas report new windfall profits, while cabinet members elude investigations.
Senate reporters and the DOLE labor union say the Pat Sto. Tomas resignation was prompted by an impending senate investigation on a P 1-M employee fund she withdrew and placed in a bank account only she knows. The amount has not been turned over to the employees or anyone else, and the DOLE union is hot on her heels. Sto. Tomas’ only option was to resign to escape the inquiry. Sto. Tomas may be articulate enough to impress the unknowing public but those who have gotten a close look at her work like the DOLE union know better.
Sto. Tomas collaborated with Gloria in her 2001 power grab and the 2004 election fraud. Hence, the rat has to be kept quiet and now she is appointed to another lucrative post – the DBP directorship which gives a few hundred thousand peso monthly sinecure, but wouldn’t she start chewing into the coffers again? Meanwhile, at the executive and police rat holes the latest news from the grapevine is that the P 1-billion Gloria is releasing to “fight the reds” will be divvied up amongst the Andaya and the police generals whose legmen is a certain Col. Egdon Liscano and a brother named Vic Liscano.
Why should there be a special fund for the anti-red campaign when there’s the entire budget of the AFP and the PNP, and intelligence funds of the President and other executive departments for it. If they haven’t subdue the Reds with the hundred of billions spent the past years another P 1-B won’t be any help. It’s logical to conclude that the special fund from Gloria is not going to the “anti-red campaign” but to be a slush fund for all of them to do as they please. They are “rewards” to corrupt and compliant PNP and the AFP generals.
Let’s turn to the corpo-rats: a columnist wrote about “Oscar’s winner”, i.e. the Lopezes’ whopping P 1.5-B windfall profit from the first year of the Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) with only 48 regular employees. Another affiliate which operates the NLEX raked in P 217.3-M on its first year revenues of P 1.3-B; all that is taken out of the “biyaheros” and bus companies hard earned revenues. The worse news from this group is yet to come: they will link up the Subic-Clark-Tarlac road and then connect NLEX with the C-5 and the SLEX.
Brace for more astronomical toll fees on those new roads they will take over. No one else is alerting the public except this columnist, and the hundred million peso “defamation suit” against us won’t silence me nor intimidate an enlightened public about their highway holdups. There is a Philippine against undue profiting from the public, some day an investigation will uncover this and send the Lopezes to jail as the U.S. has sent the likes of Enron’s Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling to prison for corporate plunder of the public.
The Ayalas also last week announced windfall dividends for itself and stockholder. The report goes, “…The increased cash dividend is reflective of the company’s improved cash flow generation given the financial strength attained by its key subsidiaries and the substantially lower debt at the parent level”, but the subsidiaries are not mentioned in the report lest it embarrasses the Ayalas. For certain, the big earner the past year is Manila Water which has finagled tax holidays despite water rates raised by up to 1,000%.
"Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today": Mahatma Gandhi said. The Tribune reports that the U.S. “plays Big Brother, to help Gloria fight graft” by contributing $ 21-M (over P 1-B) to be administered by USAID. Which would, among other things, establish partnerships with “local universities, foundations and international and local non-government organizations, or NGOs; and build capacity for quality data development …” But is this their real aim?
On the ICH website American David Sirota rages about America’s corruption: “… Ninety thousand dollars in a Democratic Congressman's freezer. A Republican House Majority Leader indicted for money laundering, and a senior Republican thrown in jail for accepting bribes. Washington's biggest lobbyist thrown in jail for trying to buy off lawmakers…” America cradled democratic corruption, enshrined in turn-of-the-century New York senator Geroge Washington Plunkitt’s famous “honest graft”. And these guys want to teach other countries anti-corruption values!
Sirota reserves his biggest condemnation for corpo-rats: “Today, the lifeblood of American politics is money. Candidates must raise enormous sums of private cash to run for office -- sums that the wealthy and corporate interests are only too happy to provide in exchange for legislative favors.” The bureauc-rats and corpo-rats with its Big Money reign, and they must be reined in by pest exterminators.
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th &:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
Herman Tiu Laurel
6/19/2006
With Gloria at the helm of a teetering-tottering Ship of State unable to do anything else but to keep herself afloat, it is inevitable that the rats are running amuck raiding the ship’s stores. Bureauc-rats and corpo-rats associated with Gloira are stealing, looting and plundering the ship’s holds dry. Gloria’s cabinet continue to run away with growing graft.The corporations that backed Gloria in Edsa Dos are incessantly raking in it while the people’s hunger grow. The Lopezes and Ayalas report new windfall profits, while cabinet members elude investigations.
Senate reporters and the DOLE labor union say the Pat Sto. Tomas resignation was prompted by an impending senate investigation on a P 1-M employee fund she withdrew and placed in a bank account only she knows. The amount has not been turned over to the employees or anyone else, and the DOLE union is hot on her heels. Sto. Tomas’ only option was to resign to escape the inquiry. Sto. Tomas may be articulate enough to impress the unknowing public but those who have gotten a close look at her work like the DOLE union know better.
Sto. Tomas collaborated with Gloria in her 2001 power grab and the 2004 election fraud. Hence, the rat has to be kept quiet and now she is appointed to another lucrative post – the DBP directorship which gives a few hundred thousand peso monthly sinecure, but wouldn’t she start chewing into the coffers again? Meanwhile, at the executive and police rat holes the latest news from the grapevine is that the P 1-billion Gloria is releasing to “fight the reds” will be divvied up amongst the Andaya and the police generals whose legmen is a certain Col. Egdon Liscano and a brother named Vic Liscano.
Why should there be a special fund for the anti-red campaign when there’s the entire budget of the AFP and the PNP, and intelligence funds of the President and other executive departments for it. If they haven’t subdue the Reds with the hundred of billions spent the past years another P 1-B won’t be any help. It’s logical to conclude that the special fund from Gloria is not going to the “anti-red campaign” but to be a slush fund for all of them to do as they please. They are “rewards” to corrupt and compliant PNP and the AFP generals.
Let’s turn to the corpo-rats: a columnist wrote about “Oscar’s winner”, i.e. the Lopezes’ whopping P 1.5-B windfall profit from the first year of the Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) with only 48 regular employees. Another affiliate which operates the NLEX raked in P 217.3-M on its first year revenues of P 1.3-B; all that is taken out of the “biyaheros” and bus companies hard earned revenues. The worse news from this group is yet to come: they will link up the Subic-Clark-Tarlac road and then connect NLEX with the C-5 and the SLEX.
Brace for more astronomical toll fees on those new roads they will take over. No one else is alerting the public except this columnist, and the hundred million peso “defamation suit” against us won’t silence me nor intimidate an enlightened public about their highway holdups. There is a Philippine against undue profiting from the public, some day an investigation will uncover this and send the Lopezes to jail as the U.S. has sent the likes of Enron’s Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling to prison for corporate plunder of the public.
The Ayalas also last week announced windfall dividends for itself and stockholder. The report goes, “…The increased cash dividend is reflective of the company’s improved cash flow generation given the financial strength attained by its key subsidiaries and the substantially lower debt at the parent level”, but the subsidiaries are not mentioned in the report lest it embarrasses the Ayalas. For certain, the big earner the past year is Manila Water which has finagled tax holidays despite water rates raised by up to 1,000%.
"Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today": Mahatma Gandhi said. The Tribune reports that the U.S. “plays Big Brother, to help Gloria fight graft” by contributing $ 21-M (over P 1-B) to be administered by USAID. Which would, among other things, establish partnerships with “local universities, foundations and international and local non-government organizations, or NGOs; and build capacity for quality data development …” But is this their real aim?
On the ICH website American David Sirota rages about America’s corruption: “… Ninety thousand dollars in a Democratic Congressman's freezer. A Republican House Majority Leader indicted for money laundering, and a senior Republican thrown in jail for accepting bribes. Washington's biggest lobbyist thrown in jail for trying to buy off lawmakers…” America cradled democratic corruption, enshrined in turn-of-the-century New York senator Geroge Washington Plunkitt’s famous “honest graft”. And these guys want to teach other countries anti-corruption values!
Sirota reserves his biggest condemnation for corpo-rats: “Today, the lifeblood of American politics is money. Candidates must raise enormous sums of private cash to run for office -- sums that the wealthy and corporate interests are only too happy to provide in exchange for legislative favors.” The bureauc-rats and corpo-rats with its Big Money reign, and they must be reined in by pest exterminators.
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th &:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
Supreme court jester(s)
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
6/14/2006
I almost admired this Supreme Court justice who, in public reflection on the death penalty admitted the Supreme Court’s error in condemning Echegaray to death. Then a former justice secretary exposed that the seemingly brave SC justice did not argue against the death penalty nor cast a dissenting opinion or vote in the SC deliberations. Now Artemio V. Panganiban’s anguished reflection smacks of a publicity stunt intended to earn favor with the Vatican and the Catholic Church for which GMA dramatically reversed position on the death penalty.
Maybe it was for the benefit of his fellow members of the anti-death penalty Couples for Christ group he hopes to appease now, after failing them at the height of the Echegaray controversy. Whatever the motive the whole episode strikes one as a gimmick that went seriously awry, putting the entire Supreme Court, from Davide’s time to Panganiban’s, in a very bad light. It highlights Panganiban as an unprincipled acitons: silent at the most crucial deliberations of the Echegaray death penalty and blabbering off now as the anti-death penalty position is sustained by subsequent political decisions.
Now Pangniban and the Supreme Court spokesman Ismael Kahn has to perform all sorts of juggling of words and somersault of official clarifications. It’s has become a big joke, a joke that some of those who have been following the foibles of the Davide-Panganiban Supreme Court have long seen and known. To find more of these foibles of this batch of Supreme Court jesters try to find a copy of a pamphlet entitlted “Prostituting the Judiciary”, put together by some lawyers chronicling some of the transgressions of this tandem that has become disastrous for Philippine jurisprudence of.
It’s all about Panganiban’s book “Reforming the Judiciary” where he brags about exploits with Davide during the Edsa Dos crisis where he admits that the Davide Supreme Court’s decision on the removal of President Estrada and the swearing in Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was based his and Davide’s reading of the Bible and not on the provisions of the Constitution. “Weird” Panganiban narrates in the book:
“I am still wondering up to now how I (Panganiban) summoned the courage to propose the oath-taking of Mrs. Arroyo even if she had not requested it, and even when President Estrada was still in Malacañang; and why Chief Justice Davide immediately agreed to it, even prior to consultation with other justices… when I called him up at 5:30, he was spiritually … ready for my … “weird sounding” proposal.” So the weird proposal became a Supreme Court act and twisted a nation’s fate and history up to this day.
Panganiban also narrates how now SC justice Antonio Carpio was party to the conspiracy to subvert the Constitution and the duly elected government in writing the letter Gloria purportedly sent to the Supreme Court requesting it to swear her into office.
With such dissolute, Machiavellian people in the Supreme Court, what do we expect our justice system to become? How can we entrust the fate of the entire society to a Supreme Court of such dunces, jesters – nay – knaves, wielding the power as the final arbiter of our Constitution and laws?
Pity Echegaray had to die for the foibles of politicians like Gloria and court jesters like Panganiban, but pity more the Filipino people who have been plunged into an unprecedented era of political chaos and murderous political environment created by the Davide-Panganiban tandem to allowed conspirators to consummate the Edsa Dos destruction of the Rule of Law. Davide and Panganiban pushed our Constitution down the high perch of the Law, like Humpty-Dumpty, for the big fall and now we’re all at a loss how to put it back together again.
Panganiban eventually withdrew his proud book “Reforming the Judiciary” from all the bookshelves in a vain attempt to retrieve the beans he had spilled. That’s useless, for that book is already in many shelves in original or photocopied form, and now we have this pamphlet citing the key self-incriminating admission of Panganiban’s improprieties. A jester of the Supreme Court like Panganiban is what you get for appointing a cheap travel agent and businessman (and a small time provincial politician like Davide) to head that august institution.
While Panganiban’s apparent act of public contrition over the injustice to Echegaray stirred the hornets nest, now the hornets have come to swarm over the Davide-Panganiban decisions on the Estrada case. While in Echegaray’s case a misinterpretation of the charge particulars had caused the serious miscarriage of justice, in Estrada’s case it was not even a mis-interpretation but a clear concoction of what they eventually called “constructive resignation” which exists nowhere in the Constitution. A wrong has clearly been committed here and rectification must be demanded.
No one can restore Echegaray’s life, that’s the tragedy of the death penalty; but the voice of close to eleven million voters, intimations of the voice of God, can be restored to rectify a grievous national injustice. Today we witness a specter of over 600 extra-judicial killings, and abductions of citizens by the “agents of the law”; they arise from a Rule of Terror over the Rule of Law. Panganiban can yet save society and redeem his name if he begins the rectification.
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM; text your request for “Prostituting the Judiciary” to 0920-9523393)
Herman Tiu Laurel
6/14/2006
I almost admired this Supreme Court justice who, in public reflection on the death penalty admitted the Supreme Court’s error in condemning Echegaray to death. Then a former justice secretary exposed that the seemingly brave SC justice did not argue against the death penalty nor cast a dissenting opinion or vote in the SC deliberations. Now Artemio V. Panganiban’s anguished reflection smacks of a publicity stunt intended to earn favor with the Vatican and the Catholic Church for which GMA dramatically reversed position on the death penalty.
Maybe it was for the benefit of his fellow members of the anti-death penalty Couples for Christ group he hopes to appease now, after failing them at the height of the Echegaray controversy. Whatever the motive the whole episode strikes one as a gimmick that went seriously awry, putting the entire Supreme Court, from Davide’s time to Panganiban’s, in a very bad light. It highlights Panganiban as an unprincipled acitons: silent at the most crucial deliberations of the Echegaray death penalty and blabbering off now as the anti-death penalty position is sustained by subsequent political decisions.
Now Pangniban and the Supreme Court spokesman Ismael Kahn has to perform all sorts of juggling of words and somersault of official clarifications. It’s has become a big joke, a joke that some of those who have been following the foibles of the Davide-Panganiban Supreme Court have long seen and known. To find more of these foibles of this batch of Supreme Court jesters try to find a copy of a pamphlet entitlted “Prostituting the Judiciary”, put together by some lawyers chronicling some of the transgressions of this tandem that has become disastrous for Philippine jurisprudence of.
It’s all about Panganiban’s book “Reforming the Judiciary” where he brags about exploits with Davide during the Edsa Dos crisis where he admits that the Davide Supreme Court’s decision on the removal of President Estrada and the swearing in Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was based his and Davide’s reading of the Bible and not on the provisions of the Constitution. “Weird” Panganiban narrates in the book:
“I am still wondering up to now how I (Panganiban) summoned the courage to propose the oath-taking of Mrs. Arroyo even if she had not requested it, and even when President Estrada was still in Malacañang; and why Chief Justice Davide immediately agreed to it, even prior to consultation with other justices… when I called him up at 5:30, he was spiritually … ready for my … “weird sounding” proposal.” So the weird proposal became a Supreme Court act and twisted a nation’s fate and history up to this day.
Panganiban also narrates how now SC justice Antonio Carpio was party to the conspiracy to subvert the Constitution and the duly elected government in writing the letter Gloria purportedly sent to the Supreme Court requesting it to swear her into office.
With such dissolute, Machiavellian people in the Supreme Court, what do we expect our justice system to become? How can we entrust the fate of the entire society to a Supreme Court of such dunces, jesters – nay – knaves, wielding the power as the final arbiter of our Constitution and laws?
Pity Echegaray had to die for the foibles of politicians like Gloria and court jesters like Panganiban, but pity more the Filipino people who have been plunged into an unprecedented era of political chaos and murderous political environment created by the Davide-Panganiban tandem to allowed conspirators to consummate the Edsa Dos destruction of the Rule of Law. Davide and Panganiban pushed our Constitution down the high perch of the Law, like Humpty-Dumpty, for the big fall and now we’re all at a loss how to put it back together again.
Panganiban eventually withdrew his proud book “Reforming the Judiciary” from all the bookshelves in a vain attempt to retrieve the beans he had spilled. That’s useless, for that book is already in many shelves in original or photocopied form, and now we have this pamphlet citing the key self-incriminating admission of Panganiban’s improprieties. A jester of the Supreme Court like Panganiban is what you get for appointing a cheap travel agent and businessman (and a small time provincial politician like Davide) to head that august institution.
While Panganiban’s apparent act of public contrition over the injustice to Echegaray stirred the hornets nest, now the hornets have come to swarm over the Davide-Panganiban decisions on the Estrada case. While in Echegaray’s case a misinterpretation of the charge particulars had caused the serious miscarriage of justice, in Estrada’s case it was not even a mis-interpretation but a clear concoction of what they eventually called “constructive resignation” which exists nowhere in the Constitution. A wrong has clearly been committed here and rectification must be demanded.
No one can restore Echegaray’s life, that’s the tragedy of the death penalty; but the voice of close to eleven million voters, intimations of the voice of God, can be restored to rectify a grievous national injustice. Today we witness a specter of over 600 extra-judicial killings, and abductions of citizens by the “agents of the law”; they arise from a Rule of Terror over the Rule of Law. Panganiban can yet save society and redeem his name if he begins the rectification.
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM; text your request for “Prostituting the Judiciary” to 0920-9523393)
Five years of mourning
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
6/12/2006
Today, June 12, has been declared a Day of Mourning by the Pagkakaisa movement, the growing solidarity of forces led by the progressive bishops, namely Labayen, Tobias and Iñiguez, and the KME (Kilusan ng Makabansang Ekonomista). A broad spectrum of forces have joined its call for a prayer-rally to be held at the Bonifacio Shrine, at Balintawak symbolic of the first cry of the 1896 Revolution, at the Clover Leaf at the margins of Caloocan and Novaliches and then a protest march to Monumento.
The Edsa Tres forces are in full support of the Pagkakaisa but maybe it would like to expand the catchphrase for the day to be: half a decade of mourning. For indeed, the death of Independence and Freedom climaxed in 2001 when the numerically minuscule but powerful corrupt elements of the armed forces and police coalesced with Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the foreign and domestic oligarchy, using segments of the “civil society” like naïve cattle and sheep as cannon fodder, conspired to subvert the will of the people expressed in the elections of 1998 and deposed as elected leadership.
The nation fell under the control of the dark forces that have turned our state institutions into instruments of corruption, made Congress into a rubber stamp to legalize exploitation by the foreign corporatocracy in cahoots with the local oligarchy, quadrupled taxation and basic utility rates privatized as never before, and entrenched the corrupt in the nation’s political structure as cabinet men and government functionaries. To drive the nail into the coffin of democracy, that same conspiracy stole the 2004 elections with massive use of the people’s money and Comelec fraud.
Only providence and fate, and the dogged intransigence of the sole authentic opposition political leader, whose moral support for the conscience-stricken and brave Filipinos allowed all the truth to break the dark and oppressive farce of progress and democracy under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Gloria and the conspirators scheme to exploit the people were eventually found out through the PPA, swelling water rates and taxes, runaway corruption. President Joseph E. Estrada’s principled intransigence and inspiration allowed the likes of Pic Marcelo, Sammy Ong, Sandra Cam to surface.
Truth to tell, even events such as Oakwood with the idealist young officers moving against corruption in the AFP and the political system was strongly inspired by the example of President Joseph E. Estrada. I recall vividly what Capt. Maestrecampos said to me when I met him at one of his hearings in Makati, “President Etrada was illegally removed, they (the plotters) defiled our Constitution). Unfortunately, Gloria has an inhuman way of blackmailing an upright man with the power to starve a man’s family. Credit goes to the heroes Trillanes and company who have stuck it out.
With five years passing and Gloria’s grand scam unable to fly, with her Cha-cha to legitimize her reign under a new constitution foiled, they have resorted to mayhem and murder in the hopes of cowing the nation into submission, imposing the CPR (Calibrated Pre-emptive Response) to suppress protests leading to PP 1017 to repress the media (trying to close the Tribune) and the people, blocking investigations with E.O. 464, and the most chilling campaign of terror in assassinations and abductions of journalists, dissenters and finally, no longer able to hold back the frustration, the Estrada supporters.
It is significant that in the fifth year of this dark period under the tyranny of Gloria, the progressive members of the Catholic hierarchy have begun to review the facts. In doing so they have liberated the truth and issued the Christian verdict about the events: an apology for the injustice done to the victim of the Edsa Dos travesty, President Joseph E. Estrada, accompanied by spiritual advice to avoid the frailties of the past; and a condemnation of Gloria’s campaign of lies in the Cha-cha and her murder of justice and democracy in the country.
These events mark the beginning of Gloria’s end despite Bunye's insistence that she is “durable” by having survived the February 24-26, 2006 events that saw General Lim, Colonel Querubin and others stand up to protest the illegitimate regime. What Bunye claims as “survival” is but a momentary pause of the forces for change, justice and peace to forestall a scorched earth policy of the Gloria gang to burn down the country when they lose their hold on power. Gloria always promised that after her would be the deluge, we will not allow her to take the nation down with her.
Pagkakaisa represents one of two battering rams for change, the other being the reform oriented AFP. They are also the two vital social pillars. It was perilous to shift only one pillar, with both pillars stability can be ensured and the country can work towards ending the fifty years of error of mendicancy. As President Estrada says: “Walang tutulong sa Pilipino kundi ang kapwa niyang Pilipino.” At this juncture it is important to refresh a lesson form history: The Left-Right conspiracy is the bogeyman of the Right which the Left welcomes to draw the middle towards it.
The right path is the broad center of which Pagkakaisa represents - it is this that must lead to end the mourning and bring a new morning to the land.
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM, T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
Herman Tiu Laurel
6/12/2006
Today, June 12, has been declared a Day of Mourning by the Pagkakaisa movement, the growing solidarity of forces led by the progressive bishops, namely Labayen, Tobias and Iñiguez, and the KME (Kilusan ng Makabansang Ekonomista). A broad spectrum of forces have joined its call for a prayer-rally to be held at the Bonifacio Shrine, at Balintawak symbolic of the first cry of the 1896 Revolution, at the Clover Leaf at the margins of Caloocan and Novaliches and then a protest march to Monumento.
The Edsa Tres forces are in full support of the Pagkakaisa but maybe it would like to expand the catchphrase for the day to be: half a decade of mourning. For indeed, the death of Independence and Freedom climaxed in 2001 when the numerically minuscule but powerful corrupt elements of the armed forces and police coalesced with Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the foreign and domestic oligarchy, using segments of the “civil society” like naïve cattle and sheep as cannon fodder, conspired to subvert the will of the people expressed in the elections of 1998 and deposed as elected leadership.
The nation fell under the control of the dark forces that have turned our state institutions into instruments of corruption, made Congress into a rubber stamp to legalize exploitation by the foreign corporatocracy in cahoots with the local oligarchy, quadrupled taxation and basic utility rates privatized as never before, and entrenched the corrupt in the nation’s political structure as cabinet men and government functionaries. To drive the nail into the coffin of democracy, that same conspiracy stole the 2004 elections with massive use of the people’s money and Comelec fraud.
Only providence and fate, and the dogged intransigence of the sole authentic opposition political leader, whose moral support for the conscience-stricken and brave Filipinos allowed all the truth to break the dark and oppressive farce of progress and democracy under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Gloria and the conspirators scheme to exploit the people were eventually found out through the PPA, swelling water rates and taxes, runaway corruption. President Joseph E. Estrada’s principled intransigence and inspiration allowed the likes of Pic Marcelo, Sammy Ong, Sandra Cam to surface.
Truth to tell, even events such as Oakwood with the idealist young officers moving against corruption in the AFP and the political system was strongly inspired by the example of President Joseph E. Estrada. I recall vividly what Capt. Maestrecampos said to me when I met him at one of his hearings in Makati, “President Etrada was illegally removed, they (the plotters) defiled our Constitution). Unfortunately, Gloria has an inhuman way of blackmailing an upright man with the power to starve a man’s family. Credit goes to the heroes Trillanes and company who have stuck it out.
With five years passing and Gloria’s grand scam unable to fly, with her Cha-cha to legitimize her reign under a new constitution foiled, they have resorted to mayhem and murder in the hopes of cowing the nation into submission, imposing the CPR (Calibrated Pre-emptive Response) to suppress protests leading to PP 1017 to repress the media (trying to close the Tribune) and the people, blocking investigations with E.O. 464, and the most chilling campaign of terror in assassinations and abductions of journalists, dissenters and finally, no longer able to hold back the frustration, the Estrada supporters.
It is significant that in the fifth year of this dark period under the tyranny of Gloria, the progressive members of the Catholic hierarchy have begun to review the facts. In doing so they have liberated the truth and issued the Christian verdict about the events: an apology for the injustice done to the victim of the Edsa Dos travesty, President Joseph E. Estrada, accompanied by spiritual advice to avoid the frailties of the past; and a condemnation of Gloria’s campaign of lies in the Cha-cha and her murder of justice and democracy in the country.
These events mark the beginning of Gloria’s end despite Bunye's insistence that she is “durable” by having survived the February 24-26, 2006 events that saw General Lim, Colonel Querubin and others stand up to protest the illegitimate regime. What Bunye claims as “survival” is but a momentary pause of the forces for change, justice and peace to forestall a scorched earth policy of the Gloria gang to burn down the country when they lose their hold on power. Gloria always promised that after her would be the deluge, we will not allow her to take the nation down with her.
Pagkakaisa represents one of two battering rams for change, the other being the reform oriented AFP. They are also the two vital social pillars. It was perilous to shift only one pillar, with both pillars stability can be ensured and the country can work towards ending the fifty years of error of mendicancy. As President Estrada says: “Walang tutulong sa Pilipino kundi ang kapwa niyang Pilipino.” At this juncture it is important to refresh a lesson form history: The Left-Right conspiracy is the bogeyman of the Right which the Left welcomes to draw the middle towards it.
The right path is the broad center of which Pagkakaisa represents - it is this that must lead to end the mourning and bring a new morning to the land.
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM, T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
Gloria's cesspool of violence
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
6/5/2006
In the wake of the harrowing experience of the Erap Five, my colleagues in the Edsa Tres movement and crusaders for justice for the oppressed President Estrada are now the targets of violence and more threats of violence. I take it upon myself to make known to the public, without the permission of some of those being victimized as they prefer to deal with it in silence, that Boy Morales and his group has been receiving intimidating communications meant to scare them into submission. All these we blame solely on the criminal gang of Gloria, Mike Arroyo, Chavit Singson et al.
No one is intimidated, if anything at all our movement’s resolve to oust Gloria’s regime of official criminal gangs and violence is further strengthened. Anyway, a regime based on violence is a pushover for our broad mass based crusade based on the call for justice for all Filipinos and for President Estrada as the embodiment of the nation’s victimization. We shall overcome and soon because our weapons of truth, reason, faith and the appeal to other oppressed and victimized sectors and movements of Filipinos is undoubtedly overpowering and always subdues falsehood and injustice.
Already, Gloria’s pogrom to wipe out dissenters and opposition activists that reached a crescendo with the Erap Five abduction and Sotero Llamas assassination is mobilizing an interfaith response calling for an end to the violence, bringing perpetrators to justice, and an end to the roots of this violence – none other that the regime of Gloria and all her machinations to cling to power like the Cha-cha. Gloria is the root of the violence in our society today as her regime was born in violence, and all Filipinos should be reminded of the blood and murder that attended Gloria’s debut during Edsa Tres.
“The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles”, is what Mahatma Gandhi once explicated to the world. Look through the quotation and you will see Gloria in some of the main elements of Gandhi’s deep insight, starting from the last which reflects the underhanded politics of Gloria from the very start and through her vice-presidency to Estrada while plotting with the corrupt generals from Day 1 to illegally grab power.
The rest describes the local and global society today which a good and visionary leadership would and should seek to start changing. We see in almost all religions the lust for power more than sanctity through service; new technologies are churned out but all for profit and none for charity; corporate profit dictates over all in globalization, free trade, liberalization, deregulation and privatization; at no time has knowledge been so available than this age of the Internet dominated by child pornography; and money begets money and leisure here and globally while poverty multiply.
Only a society guided by leadership with vision will see the nation and the people to see through the violence, pain and hunger and rise above it all and aim to liberate itself and the entire country from the entangled roots of violence. Once it was proposed the corporate world is the hope with its “corporate social responsility”– but after Enron in the U.S. or here with Mirant and the Lopezes’ PPA plunder, Yuchengcos’ Pacific Education or the Sobrpeñas’ CAP, they are clearly part of the roots of violence. The leadership for the nation will have to confront these corporate oppressors.
The military and police brass today are among the roots of violence through cowardice of the likes of Senga or outright conspiracy of corruption that the AFP and PNP participants in Edsa Dos are continuously committing. The violence against the Batangas governor cannot be without the participation of the military or police with the C4 explosives used – but that is not surprising, if as they themselves say it is part of a “jueteng war” then how can the PNP or AFP protectors not be involved? Thank goodness for the idealistic young officers who are stirring up the AFP and PNP.
Will the hope come from the CPP/NPA/NDF which has touted its nationalist ideology and “people’s war”? But its engaged in violence itself and not against the real perpetrators of Establishment violence but against the small soldiers and policemen, which alienates it from the vast majority of the people even though its organized force can manage to win a number of party list seats that’s never going to unite the vast majority; it won’t succeed anymore than the INC or Dating Daan factions with their respective millions can hope to dominate the religious scene even in the next lifetime.
A new leadership will arise, and it will be a coalition of leaders, groups, faiths and forces that will understand Gandhi’s insight on the roots of violence, use his non-violent struggle and even use his “civil disobedience” (as some of the Oakwood officers have called for), for that is the only way to unite the people and overwhelm Gloria and her criminal cabal, and smother her violence and greed (including that of the corporatocracy) with love, for the nation, its children and grandchildren, that can propel it to change in the manner that other oppressed societies in Latin America are now liberating themselves.
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
Herman Tiu Laurel
6/5/2006
In the wake of the harrowing experience of the Erap Five, my colleagues in the Edsa Tres movement and crusaders for justice for the oppressed President Estrada are now the targets of violence and more threats of violence. I take it upon myself to make known to the public, without the permission of some of those being victimized as they prefer to deal with it in silence, that Boy Morales and his group has been receiving intimidating communications meant to scare them into submission. All these we blame solely on the criminal gang of Gloria, Mike Arroyo, Chavit Singson et al.
No one is intimidated, if anything at all our movement’s resolve to oust Gloria’s regime of official criminal gangs and violence is further strengthened. Anyway, a regime based on violence is a pushover for our broad mass based crusade based on the call for justice for all Filipinos and for President Estrada as the embodiment of the nation’s victimization. We shall overcome and soon because our weapons of truth, reason, faith and the appeal to other oppressed and victimized sectors and movements of Filipinos is undoubtedly overpowering and always subdues falsehood and injustice.
Already, Gloria’s pogrom to wipe out dissenters and opposition activists that reached a crescendo with the Erap Five abduction and Sotero Llamas assassination is mobilizing an interfaith response calling for an end to the violence, bringing perpetrators to justice, and an end to the roots of this violence – none other that the regime of Gloria and all her machinations to cling to power like the Cha-cha. Gloria is the root of the violence in our society today as her regime was born in violence, and all Filipinos should be reminded of the blood and murder that attended Gloria’s debut during Edsa Tres.
“The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles”, is what Mahatma Gandhi once explicated to the world. Look through the quotation and you will see Gloria in some of the main elements of Gandhi’s deep insight, starting from the last which reflects the underhanded politics of Gloria from the very start and through her vice-presidency to Estrada while plotting with the corrupt generals from Day 1 to illegally grab power.
The rest describes the local and global society today which a good and visionary leadership would and should seek to start changing. We see in almost all religions the lust for power more than sanctity through service; new technologies are churned out but all for profit and none for charity; corporate profit dictates over all in globalization, free trade, liberalization, deregulation and privatization; at no time has knowledge been so available than this age of the Internet dominated by child pornography; and money begets money and leisure here and globally while poverty multiply.
Only a society guided by leadership with vision will see the nation and the people to see through the violence, pain and hunger and rise above it all and aim to liberate itself and the entire country from the entangled roots of violence. Once it was proposed the corporate world is the hope with its “corporate social responsility”– but after Enron in the U.S. or here with Mirant and the Lopezes’ PPA plunder, Yuchengcos’ Pacific Education or the Sobrpeñas’ CAP, they are clearly part of the roots of violence. The leadership for the nation will have to confront these corporate oppressors.
The military and police brass today are among the roots of violence through cowardice of the likes of Senga or outright conspiracy of corruption that the AFP and PNP participants in Edsa Dos are continuously committing. The violence against the Batangas governor cannot be without the participation of the military or police with the C4 explosives used – but that is not surprising, if as they themselves say it is part of a “jueteng war” then how can the PNP or AFP protectors not be involved? Thank goodness for the idealistic young officers who are stirring up the AFP and PNP.
Will the hope come from the CPP/NPA/NDF which has touted its nationalist ideology and “people’s war”? But its engaged in violence itself and not against the real perpetrators of Establishment violence but against the small soldiers and policemen, which alienates it from the vast majority of the people even though its organized force can manage to win a number of party list seats that’s never going to unite the vast majority; it won’t succeed anymore than the INC or Dating Daan factions with their respective millions can hope to dominate the religious scene even in the next lifetime.
A new leadership will arise, and it will be a coalition of leaders, groups, faiths and forces that will understand Gandhi’s insight on the roots of violence, use his non-violent struggle and even use his “civil disobedience” (as some of the Oakwood officers have called for), for that is the only way to unite the people and overwhelm Gloria and her criminal cabal, and smother her violence and greed (including that of the corporatocracy) with love, for the nation, its children and grandchildren, that can propel it to change in the manner that other oppressed societies in Latin America are now liberating themselves.
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM; T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
Anti-terror and other laws
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/31/2006
There’s a turnabout amongst Filipino legislators who once supported the anti-terror legislation Arroyo and the U.S. embassy has been trying to push through Congress. They say they fear that such powers will be abused by Gloria to terrorize, torture, murder and oppress innocent citizens and dissenters. I am glad they have come around to my view from the onset of the anti-terror gig in 2001, although their understanding of the dangers is still limited to shortsighted anti-Gloria posturing, not appreciating that it’s intended to kill Philippine sovereignty and democracy.
Power corrupts and the corrupted hankers for absolute power which the anti-terror laws proposed will give. Yet, even in the U.S. the popular fear of anti-terror laws such as the Patriot Act is growing and even institutions such as the CIA, Pentagon and the Defense Department are revealing serious cracks over this because they know its meant to kill democracy. The clamor for impeachment of the anti-terror Bush and Cheney have also been growing. A report by Allan Uthman lists ten signs of conflict over the impending U.S. police state:
The clampdown on the Internet, the U.S. Patriot Act, the “long war” against terrorism theory of Bush (to justify endless conflict), establishment of “prison camps” in the U.S., “touchscreen voting machines” to manipulate elections, warrantless wiretapping (recently uncovered), “free speech zones” (much like our Freedom Parks) where right to free speech is limited to, high ranking protesters (six generals calling for Rumsfeld resignation) and the CIA counter-leaks to Bush’s leaks.
The temporizing in Filipino politicians’ change of heart is dangerous as they also say it may be all right under a new and different Philippine ruler. They are in effect still going to justify tyranny so long as it’s a different face? What they miss or deliberate keep silent about is that these anti-terror gigs is all about the Global Corporate Dictatorship the world corporatocracy (or kleptocracy) wants to install, and anti-terror laws will stifle the resistance to being taken over and exploited. It’ll be a world for their profit, and damn people’s sovereign will.
Look at the centers of the anti-terror war: Afghanistan, democracy so long as former Unocal executive, now Afghan President Karzai can open the pipeline of for Central Asian oil through Afghanistan; Iraq’s chaotic democracy so long as U.S. controls its oil. The Afghans and Iraqis know they are being robbed of their birthrights and the insurgencies there are growing stronger. No anti-terror war is needed where those who in power have wisdom, humanity and vision; any community ruled by such values would not have any terror threat.
It is the corporatocratic interests’ control of American power that engendered modern world terrorism in Afghanistan’s mountains in the 80’s - to feed the industries of war and control regions of the world. Where there is no terrorism they will create it, like terrorism in U.S. soil or in Europe and in our own backyard Mindanao, to introduce the “need” for anti-terror legislation. But even before the terrorism bogey there are other means to squeeze the vise, like the RP-US defense agreement now that allows the U.S. to “help” in crimes and other none defense problems.
There are other mechanisms too like Goebellian methods. A classic case is the Ozone scare their global media and NGOs whipped up. As we said years ago, the human CO² and CFC emission-global warming thesis is a hoax but it allowed their controlled politicians to ram through laws that force us to pay for products the West seek markets for. The ozone scare is now proven to be a hoax in a scientific work by Westhead and Andersen appearing in the May issue of Nature showing how the ozone layer has been recovering by nature’s own ways.
The Philippine Land Transportation Office is enforcing a law for car air-conditioning to shift from CFC’s to expensive HFC refrigerants which needs costly retooling. As I said when they passed that Clean Air Act: we are being forced to buy expensive coolants based on misinformation! Ditto for the mining law opening us to foreign exploitation: beware of media and government panhandlers to Lafayette and giant mining interests. No African country got rich from giving foreign miners free rein to their minerals; they are impoverished to virtual genocide.
On another killer, the debt trap: the West forced Third World “automatic appropriations” legislation for debt service which keep us in perpetually growing debt. Then they feign charity with “debt relief”, but a new World Bank report finds the HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) given debt relief deeper in debt after ten years. What the World Band cannot say is that the conditions for debt relief, i.e. power, water, and even education privatization cause further indebtedness. Do we now see the connection of Western gimmicks with laws they instigate in our country that adversely impact on us?
The nation’s focus today is on the anti-terror bill today but we must see the broader connection of the corporatocratic power in the world and how they use corrupt local politicians to legislate their immoral and illegitimate methods and ends. The culmination of the Western corporatocracy’s legalization of their global corporatocratic control is the anti-terror laws which they will use to clamp down on opposition to global exploitation.
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM, T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/31/2006
There’s a turnabout amongst Filipino legislators who once supported the anti-terror legislation Arroyo and the U.S. embassy has been trying to push through Congress. They say they fear that such powers will be abused by Gloria to terrorize, torture, murder and oppress innocent citizens and dissenters. I am glad they have come around to my view from the onset of the anti-terror gig in 2001, although their understanding of the dangers is still limited to shortsighted anti-Gloria posturing, not appreciating that it’s intended to kill Philippine sovereignty and democracy.
Power corrupts and the corrupted hankers for absolute power which the anti-terror laws proposed will give. Yet, even in the U.S. the popular fear of anti-terror laws such as the Patriot Act is growing and even institutions such as the CIA, Pentagon and the Defense Department are revealing serious cracks over this because they know its meant to kill democracy. The clamor for impeachment of the anti-terror Bush and Cheney have also been growing. A report by Allan Uthman lists ten signs of conflict over the impending U.S. police state:
The clampdown on the Internet, the U.S. Patriot Act, the “long war” against terrorism theory of Bush (to justify endless conflict), establishment of “prison camps” in the U.S., “touchscreen voting machines” to manipulate elections, warrantless wiretapping (recently uncovered), “free speech zones” (much like our Freedom Parks) where right to free speech is limited to, high ranking protesters (six generals calling for Rumsfeld resignation) and the CIA counter-leaks to Bush’s leaks.
The temporizing in Filipino politicians’ change of heart is dangerous as they also say it may be all right under a new and different Philippine ruler. They are in effect still going to justify tyranny so long as it’s a different face? What they miss or deliberate keep silent about is that these anti-terror gigs is all about the Global Corporate Dictatorship the world corporatocracy (or kleptocracy) wants to install, and anti-terror laws will stifle the resistance to being taken over and exploited. It’ll be a world for their profit, and damn people’s sovereign will.
Look at the centers of the anti-terror war: Afghanistan, democracy so long as former Unocal executive, now Afghan President Karzai can open the pipeline of for Central Asian oil through Afghanistan; Iraq’s chaotic democracy so long as U.S. controls its oil. The Afghans and Iraqis know they are being robbed of their birthrights and the insurgencies there are growing stronger. No anti-terror war is needed where those who in power have wisdom, humanity and vision; any community ruled by such values would not have any terror threat.
It is the corporatocratic interests’ control of American power that engendered modern world terrorism in Afghanistan’s mountains in the 80’s - to feed the industries of war and control regions of the world. Where there is no terrorism they will create it, like terrorism in U.S. soil or in Europe and in our own backyard Mindanao, to introduce the “need” for anti-terror legislation. But even before the terrorism bogey there are other means to squeeze the vise, like the RP-US defense agreement now that allows the U.S. to “help” in crimes and other none defense problems.
There are other mechanisms too like Goebellian methods. A classic case is the Ozone scare their global media and NGOs whipped up. As we said years ago, the human CO² and CFC emission-global warming thesis is a hoax but it allowed their controlled politicians to ram through laws that force us to pay for products the West seek markets for. The ozone scare is now proven to be a hoax in a scientific work by Westhead and Andersen appearing in the May issue of Nature showing how the ozone layer has been recovering by nature’s own ways.
The Philippine Land Transportation Office is enforcing a law for car air-conditioning to shift from CFC’s to expensive HFC refrigerants which needs costly retooling. As I said when they passed that Clean Air Act: we are being forced to buy expensive coolants based on misinformation! Ditto for the mining law opening us to foreign exploitation: beware of media and government panhandlers to Lafayette and giant mining interests. No African country got rich from giving foreign miners free rein to their minerals; they are impoverished to virtual genocide.
On another killer, the debt trap: the West forced Third World “automatic appropriations” legislation for debt service which keep us in perpetually growing debt. Then they feign charity with “debt relief”, but a new World Bank report finds the HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) given debt relief deeper in debt after ten years. What the World Band cannot say is that the conditions for debt relief, i.e. power, water, and even education privatization cause further indebtedness. Do we now see the connection of Western gimmicks with laws they instigate in our country that adversely impact on us?
The nation’s focus today is on the anti-terror bill today but we must see the broader connection of the corporatocratic power in the world and how they use corrupt local politicians to legislate their immoral and illegitimate methods and ends. The culmination of the Western corporatocracy’s legalization of their global corporatocratic control is the anti-terror laws which they will use to clamp down on opposition to global exploitation.
(Tune in M-W-F 6-7pm to 1098AM, T-Th 7:30-8:30am to 1242AM)
A mid-year political assessment
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/29/2006
We are entering the year’s sixth month and an assessment is timely after: Countless massive popular demonstrations, several anti-Arroyo serious military protests by young officers and then higher officers, a number of dramatic reversals such as the bishopric apology to Estrada and the virtual exoneration by the results of the detained president’s testimonies in the Sandiganbayan, the defeat of the Cha-cha initiative, the resurrection of Estrada and the Edsa Tres forces as the principal and leading opposition leadership. The situation is crystallizing and polarizing.
Global events relative to the Philippine situation must be taken into account, and foremost among these is the revolution transpiring in our fraternal Latin American countries: the patriotic ex-colonel and once-deposed President Hugo Chavez’s triumph in Venezuela, Argentina successful debt re-negotiation and phenomenal economic growth afterwards, social activist Evo Morales victory in Bolivia and nationalization of it natural gas, Ecuador’s nationalization of oil company Occidental, deposed Fujimori impending return to Peru and expected victory of ex-colonel Ollanta Humala in the Peru’s elections.
These Latin American countries have many similarities to the Philippines. It’s not only their colonial past but also their domination by the U.S. and the conservative Catholic hierarchy, centuries of oppression by compradors classes that control and abuse their natural resources and economies, the internal communist-vs.-military conflicts triggered by the 50’s to 70’s proxy Cold War, the banana republic syndrome, and the debt trap and poverty that ensnared them all. Yet now all these countries of Latin America today are breaking the chains of the past.
A most significant insight we found in studying the Latin American situation is the triumphs of the patriotic, nationalist and popular leaders that come from the ranks of retired military officers, non-communist social activists and even from a “elite” patrician. Chavez and Humala are ex-colonels, Morales an indigenous populist leader, Argentina’s Krichner the anti-IMF patrician, while Tabara of Uruguay is a socialist and da Silva of Brazil a labor leader. Chile’s President Bachelet was a political prisoner during the Pinochet regime and now a liberal leader. They’re all break free U.S. stranglehold now.
Notable in all these countries is the earlier withering of the armed communist and anarchist movements. This apparently allowed the patriotic-nationalist forces such as military officers, social and political activists, to focus on the national problems instead of being diverted by the violent insurrection and insurgency. That’s confirmed by our reading of Chavez’s biography and now priming Peru to move forward after Fujimori’s capture of the Sendero Luninoso’s Abimail Guzman (which civil society and U.S. sponsored President Armando Toledo, who deposed Fujimori, wants to release).
The question can now be raised in the Philippines: is the CPP-NPA’s insurgency distracting the Filipino people from the true national-democratic liberation? That is what the Lava-ites have long contended. The CPP-NPA tactics in the field of engaging and liquidating small AFP units and small fry soldiers give the Establishment forces the propaganda ammunition raise the bogeyman of communism and lump all opposition forces, including the Estrada and Edsa Tres forces, idealist and reformist military officers, with it and isolate them all.
Picking up from the lessons of Latin America, it should become clear that when “vanguardist”, i.e. ideologically chauvinist, parties that tend to split the patriotic and nationalist constituencies are sidelined, the broad unity of the people may be attained more quickly. The CPP-NPA is not helping in the unity of the patriotic-nationalist forces with its obsession to promote Jose Ma. Sison as the sole inspiration for revolution, an armed struggle that only alienates the broad masses that still identifies with the lowly small soldier, and insistence on calling itself communist knowing full well that the overwhelming majority of Filipinos are religious and are turned of by that.
As bad as the “re-affirmists” (those who reaffirm Joma’s leadership) are the “rejectionists” led by Etta Rosales who have become as dissolute as the trapos, and their unprincipled flexibility made them tools of Gloria in the 2004 cheating and proclamation.
The worst among the split-ists are those of the Right, i.e. the Black and White (B&W) movement which would not count for anything (being without any mass base or support) if not for the not-so-hidden hand of the U.S. Embassy, the USAID, the Makati Business Club, Transparency Int’l and that caboodle of CIA fronts subverting Philippine sovereignty.
These people of the B&W abided by Gloria-Manapat’s slander against FPJ and the 2004 cheating results until the SGV gave instructions to pressure Gloria for the EVAT. But B&W is inconsequential compared to the “re-affirmists” who provide the Establishment the greatest ammunition to divide the people, giving GMA the excuse to constrain some AFP leaders who might otherwise have joined the movement for change. The anti-thesis to these split-tists is the emerging genuine patriotic-nationalist-reformist retired and active military officers, the progressive Catholic Church-nationalist economics coalition, and the popular Edsa Tres movement.
With President Estrada and FPJ’s (represented by Susan Roces) 40-50% support amongst the people, the unity of these genuine patriotic-nationalist forces could easily steamroller GMA and the oppressive forces. If we hope to see the same kind of liberating but peaceful politics of change as in Latin America then let us learn our lessons: leave behind split-tism and support the unity of genuine patriotic-nationalist forces until victory.
(Tune in M-W-F to 1098AM, 6-7pm and T-Th to 1242AM, 7:30-8:30am)
Herman Tiu Laurel
5/29/2006
We are entering the year’s sixth month and an assessment is timely after: Countless massive popular demonstrations, several anti-Arroyo serious military protests by young officers and then higher officers, a number of dramatic reversals such as the bishopric apology to Estrada and the virtual exoneration by the results of the detained president’s testimonies in the Sandiganbayan, the defeat of the Cha-cha initiative, the resurrection of Estrada and the Edsa Tres forces as the principal and leading opposition leadership. The situation is crystallizing and polarizing.
Global events relative to the Philippine situation must be taken into account, and foremost among these is the revolution transpiring in our fraternal Latin American countries: the patriotic ex-colonel and once-deposed President Hugo Chavez’s triumph in Venezuela, Argentina successful debt re-negotiation and phenomenal economic growth afterwards, social activist Evo Morales victory in Bolivia and nationalization of it natural gas, Ecuador’s nationalization of oil company Occidental, deposed Fujimori impending return to Peru and expected victory of ex-colonel Ollanta Humala in the Peru’s elections.
These Latin American countries have many similarities to the Philippines. It’s not only their colonial past but also their domination by the U.S. and the conservative Catholic hierarchy, centuries of oppression by compradors classes that control and abuse their natural resources and economies, the internal communist-vs.-military conflicts triggered by the 50’s to 70’s proxy Cold War, the banana republic syndrome, and the debt trap and poverty that ensnared them all. Yet now all these countries of Latin America today are breaking the chains of the past.
A most significant insight we found in studying the Latin American situation is the triumphs of the patriotic, nationalist and popular leaders that come from the ranks of retired military officers, non-communist social activists and even from a “elite” patrician. Chavez and Humala are ex-colonels, Morales an indigenous populist leader, Argentina’s Krichner the anti-IMF patrician, while Tabara of Uruguay is a socialist and da Silva of Brazil a labor leader. Chile’s President Bachelet was a political prisoner during the Pinochet regime and now a liberal leader. They’re all break free U.S. stranglehold now.
Notable in all these countries is the earlier withering of the armed communist and anarchist movements. This apparently allowed the patriotic-nationalist forces such as military officers, social and political activists, to focus on the national problems instead of being diverted by the violent insurrection and insurgency. That’s confirmed by our reading of Chavez’s biography and now priming Peru to move forward after Fujimori’s capture of the Sendero Luninoso’s Abimail Guzman (which civil society and U.S. sponsored President Armando Toledo, who deposed Fujimori, wants to release).
The question can now be raised in the Philippines: is the CPP-NPA’s insurgency distracting the Filipino people from the true national-democratic liberation? That is what the Lava-ites have long contended. The CPP-NPA tactics in the field of engaging and liquidating small AFP units and small fry soldiers give the Establishment forces the propaganda ammunition raise the bogeyman of communism and lump all opposition forces, including the Estrada and Edsa Tres forces, idealist and reformist military officers, with it and isolate them all.
Picking up from the lessons of Latin America, it should become clear that when “vanguardist”, i.e. ideologically chauvinist, parties that tend to split the patriotic and nationalist constituencies are sidelined, the broad unity of the people may be attained more quickly. The CPP-NPA is not helping in the unity of the patriotic-nationalist forces with its obsession to promote Jose Ma. Sison as the sole inspiration for revolution, an armed struggle that only alienates the broad masses that still identifies with the lowly small soldier, and insistence on calling itself communist knowing full well that the overwhelming majority of Filipinos are religious and are turned of by that.
As bad as the “re-affirmists” (those who reaffirm Joma’s leadership) are the “rejectionists” led by Etta Rosales who have become as dissolute as the trapos, and their unprincipled flexibility made them tools of Gloria in the 2004 cheating and proclamation.
The worst among the split-ists are those of the Right, i.e. the Black and White (B&W) movement which would not count for anything (being without any mass base or support) if not for the not-so-hidden hand of the U.S. Embassy, the USAID, the Makati Business Club, Transparency Int’l and that caboodle of CIA fronts subverting Philippine sovereignty.
These people of the B&W abided by Gloria-Manapat’s slander against FPJ and the 2004 cheating results until the SGV gave instructions to pressure Gloria for the EVAT. But B&W is inconsequential compared to the “re-affirmists” who provide the Establishment the greatest ammunition to divide the people, giving GMA the excuse to constrain some AFP leaders who might otherwise have joined the movement for change. The anti-thesis to these split-tists is the emerging genuine patriotic-nationalist-reformist retired and active military officers, the progressive Catholic Church-nationalist economics coalition, and the popular Edsa Tres movement.
With President Estrada and FPJ’s (represented by Susan Roces) 40-50% support amongst the people, the unity of these genuine patriotic-nationalist forces could easily steamroller GMA and the oppressive forces. If we hope to see the same kind of liberating but peaceful politics of change as in Latin America then let us learn our lessons: leave behind split-tism and support the unity of genuine patriotic-nationalist forces until victory.
(Tune in M-W-F to 1098AM, 6-7pm and T-Th to 1242AM, 7:30-8:30am)
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