YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
9/26-28/2011
Last Monday, September 19, PISTON kicked off its transport strike. Initially, this had been billed as the so called, “One Time, Big Time!” National Transport Strike. That was when it appeared like everybody in the land transport sector would be joining the impending strike. That was before P-Noy called the leaders to a meeting at the Palace two weeks ago.
After that meeting, PISTON was left alone in its determination to push through with the strike on its original date, Monday, the 19th of September. As usual, the strike appeared to have fizzled out. That is, in so far as the National Capital Region, Metro Manila, was concerned.
In the provinces, in the places were PISTON was strong, the strike had its impact. Otherwise, the strike was not felt.
PISTON is identified with BAYAN, KMU, ANAKBAYAN and other so called Leftist Organizations. The perception of the general public is that the Left will always rally or strike no matter what. The idea of one big strike was partly designed to dispel the perception that this was just one of those leftist activities. Except on the occasion of Labor Day and the SONA, the Left cannot by itself and without a broader coalition, organize a rally that will be perceived as big enough.
Militant Transport Groups
In the almost three years between the start of the First Quarter Storm and the imposition of Martial Law on September 21-23/24, the situation of the transport sector was quite different. The militant and strike capable transport organizations were not dominated by the Left. There were three major organizations of Jeepney Drivers and Operators. They were MAPAGSAT (GlicerioGervero), PasangMasda and PCDO. There was a new organization of Taxi Drivers called MASTADA. The organizations of taxi operators were also active. The big operators like My and Yellow Taxi were active. The name of an owner that I can recall is the Zamora family.
I belonged to a Jesuit inspired, moderate youth and student organization called KASAPI. KASAPI stood for “Kapulungan ng mga Sandiganng Pilipinas”. Sandigan stood for “pillars” or “sectors”. That meant that we were organizing by sectors.
We were designed to compete with the Left, so we, together with our non-Leftist allies, called ourselves the Democratic Left. We were known as the Moderates while the Leftists were the Radicals. Later on, we would describe ourselves as either Democratic Socialists or Social Democrats.
We had internal committees or modules that were assigned to work in particular sectors of society and with particular individuals and organizations. This was line organizing work.
We also had staff modules that were supposed to perform particular functions. Among the Democratic Left or Moderates, KASAPI was the closest in structure and style to the Communists and National Democrats. We were also the least anti-com among our ranks of Moderates. The most anti-communist as early as then was the Hasik Kalayaan of Archie and Bert. Our most prominent personality who converted to the Left was Edgar Jopson.
Jesuit-inspired Moderates
Our transport module was headed by Rey Andal of Pinamalayan, Mindoro Oriental, Tess Villapando (later on the faithful secretary of Fr. Jose Blanco), Paps Baskinas of Legaspi, Albay, Bicol and Dante Perez of Batangas, among others. Aside from being the full time working members of the committee, they had organized and were the leaders of SKIT. SKIT means Samahanng Kabataan sa Ikauunlad ng Tsuper. In supporting the jeepney drivers, SKIT was assisted by the mother organization KASAPI and sister line or mass organizations like Kampi (Labor), Masa (College) and SPL (High School-RicManapat, Marissa Camacho and Karen Tanada. They were supported by staff organizations like KKPI (Mon Garcia, Jojo Deles). Future Senator and Governor Joey Lina was the KASAPI spokesman.
KASAPI and SKIT were moderate organizations. We had been inspired by Jesuit Missionary to Indonesia Fr. Jose Blanco, S. J. and Ateneo History Professor Rolando Quintos. We were aligned with former Senator Raul S. Manglapus who organized the Christian Social Movement in 1967 or 68. He had run as a senator in 1957 (Party for Philippine Progress or Progressive Party of the Philippinea), 1959 (Grand Alliance) and 1961 (United Opposition Party, which was a political coalition for the 1961 Presidential Elections composed of the Liberal Party [w 1957-1961 Vice President DiosdadoMacapagal as the common Presidential Candidate] and the PPP and GA [w former Senatorial Candidate Emmanuel Pelaez as the common Vice Presidential Candidate]).
In the year before Marcos declared Martial Law, KASAPI was part of a wider progressive political alliance that would be launched as the Kapisanan ng mga Anak pawis ng Pilipinas (KAP). KAP was composed of heavyweights like the CSM (Raul S. Manglapus, Joe Concepcion and Buti Jose), FFF Atty. JeremiasMontemayor, Charlie Avila, Gerry Bulatao, Gerry Esguerra), FFW (Johnny Tan), PAFLU (Cipriano Cid), Philcontu (later on the TUCP=Democrito Mendoza and Ed Nolasco).
Militant Genuine Driver
The then young weights were Buklod Kalayaan (Edgar Jopson), HasikKalayaan (Fr. Archie Intengan, S. J. and Bert Gonzales),KASAPI (Linggoy and Mentong, Joey Lina and Jun Simon), Lakasdiwa (Fr. Ed Garcia, DodieLimcaoco), YCSP (Art Valdez and Ben Maynigo), YCW and others pa rin.
Going back to our starting topic, the “One Time, Big Time!”, we were bigger then. We exercised a bigger and wider influence in the transport sector than the Left. They had a front organization of jeepney drivers and operators. It was not PISTON yet. The jeepney sector was geographical or territorial by route. There were often several competing route level organizations. The big federations competed in recruiting these to affiliate with them.
The newest, most democratic and militant was the MAPAGSAT under Glicerio Gervero. Gervi was a genuine driver unlike the leaders of the Pasang Masda (the brothers Lazaro, one of whom was a lawyer) and the PCDO (Mr.Boni de Luna). We were very closely allied with them and supported them in whatever way we could. However, we understood that we did not have a majority of the players in MAPAGSAT and so we cultivated alliances with them as well as the Left.
The main issue then was the rising price of fuel. This may have been an effect of the Six Day Arab-Israeli War of June 1967. We inspired and supported several bigger than the present strikes. How come we could be bigger then? Simple; in the jeepney sub sector, we got the majority of the federations, route organizations and players together. We got a critical mass of big taxi operators to support the strike with money as well as by keeping their fleets in their garages.
Coerced Bus Sector
The bus sub-sector we simply coerced. With the majority of not only jeepney drivers but also their respective operators on strike, the streets would immediately look different from a regular day. There would be hundreds of striking drivers supported by hundreds of activists at the main intersections and LGU boundaries. If the bus operators insisted on sending their fleets to ply their routes, we would simply burn a couple of them right at the start of the strike.
When the government put armed soldiers aboard the buses, we peppered them with stink bombs made from human shit.
Our smallest “Terrorist” was Dodie Garduce, a member of SPL, our high school student organization. She was deadly with a big screwdriver against the Lawanit Board bus bodies that were popular then. She was the daughter of future Samar Congressman Garduce. She would become the wife of Popoy Lagman. She would die in the field when she and Popoy were cornered by government soldiers in Nueva Ecija. Popoy would survive and later on lead the splitting of the Left into Affirmists and Rejectionists.
Remember in September
In closing, please remember the following who were born or who died in September:
Sept 20 – Edgar Jopson’s (1970 NUSP president and as Marcos said on January 30, 1970, “The son of a grocer, Jopson’s in Sampaloc, Manila.) 40th Death Anniversary;
Sept 21 – Fr. Francisco Zaragoza Araneta, S. J.’s Birthday. He was the President of the Ateneo de Manila University twice, adviser of the CSM and Manglapus and friend and supporter of KASAPI and the Jeepney strikers. We used his Rizal Room office at the Ateneo Padre Faura campus as our HQ;
Sept 29 – Ray Junia’s Birthday. If he did not publish OpinYon, a lot of the history that I know will not get written and published;
Sept 24 – my paternal cousin, Sebastian “Basty’ Alcuaz Munoa’s birthday. He worked for ESSO, the predecessor with Mobil of Petron, but he never took me to task for fighting the oil companies. My brother-in-law, Roberto Lim, worked for Shell;
Sept 27– Our Ateneo High School Honors Class 4 A will hold a reunion in honor of our home room teacher, Fr. Herbert Schnieder (as in Romy),S. J. who celebrated his 75th birthday last March 25. Next year he marks his 50th year either as a Jesuit or in the Philippines.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Priorities
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
9/26/2011
Upon Aquino III’s return from his visit to the US of A, numerous local mainstream newspapers emblazoned the growing critical outspokenness of even the most conservative sectors in Philippine society. The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries (PCCI); the Philippine Steelmakers Association (PSA); the Philippine Exporters Confederation (PhilExport); UP National Engineering Center; the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), including the Associated Labor Union; and, ironically a group that advocated privatization of the power industry, the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF), spoke out on one major issue: The Philippines’ highest power cost in Asia. In a joint statement, they bewailed the fact that “there appears to be no specific and strong action program or roadmap coming from the executive department” to address the current power rate crisis.
TUCP Party-list Rep. Democrito Mendoza, not always the most assertive labor leader, worked up the courage to state: “We ask the Aquino administration to bring power rates down” — this, as the chief operating officer of PhilExport, citing figures from the Department of Energy (DoE) on RP’s power rates at 24 US cents per kilowatthour compared to Thailand and Malaysia’s eight and seven US cents per kwh, respectively, added that it is “the biggest disincentive to the entry of new foreign direct investors to our shores.”
More pointedly, the ALU’s Gerard Seno demanded that Aquino III “make the necessary bold policy interventions… including the suspension and review of all pending power rate increase petitions in the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC),” with Mendoza calling for the scrapping of the 15.8-percent “Performance-Based Rate” (PBR) formula and the restoration of the 12-percent Return on Rate Base (RoRB) price setting mechanism by the ERC, adding that high power rates eat up as much as 11 percent of workers’ income.
Power company director Jojo Borja of Iligan Light, who has been helping us in our fight against the ERC and Meralco (Manila Electric Co.) with documented evidence of the latter’s overpricing, called me to highlight these headlines with enthusiasm, while expressing frustration over the wishy-washy stance of many so-called business leaders. Raul Concepcion, for instance, whom he has sought out for help against the ERC and power companies’ abuses and provided with all the hard evidence, given the former’s leadership of the Oil Price Watch, a supposed consumer protection watchdog that often publishes comments on electricity rates, has sadly only given lip service. This is precisely why Borja stresses that consumers themselves must keep up the pressure.
Still, we should all be happy that the aforementioned groups are now speaking out more boldly, even as they are still short of taking legal and demonstrative actions such as pickets and rallies — maybe even “planking” at Meralco to force the issue further.
As vital as the power price crisis issue is, the other headline that came out of Aquino III’s US trip was his “buko” (coco water) discovery, as if it were a new and fantastic development from his tête-à-tête with Obama.
Readers of this column know that for the past two years, we have promoted the coconut industry as a definitive economic lifesaver for the country. From the development of coco water, to coconut milk as replacement for imported dairy that will save us $1 billion in imports regularly, to coconut fiber textiles against soil erosion, to soil conditioners for many desert regions such as those in China, to high tech coco-chemicals for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical purposes, as well as for fuels and explosives, our coconuts can work wonders.
We have long reported that after commercial beverage brands Gatorade and Powerade were exposed as frauds, their manufacturers PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Co. shifted to coconut water as the base for these sports drinks.
It is enough, however, for the Aquino III government to finally realize the importance and potential of the coconut industry as a game changer for the economy. It is, after all, a sector that it had nary a care for when it appointed a small-time Quezon province lawyer who is ignorant of the coconut industry to head the Philippine Coconut Authority.
Among the coconut’s many applications, which we have enumerated in previous columns, there is also a product from it that will not only help the economy but those infirmed in old age with dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s. Scientific tests reveal that “monolaurin” from virgin coconut oil (VCO) reverses this scourge of the world’s aging population.
But one does not need to be at risk for Alzheimer’s to understand that unless government wakes up to its perilous neglect of the coconut sector, the once 500-million strong coconut tree population that has been reduced to 300 million today may soon no longer provide the miracles it is touted for. From being the top coconut products producer, the Philippines has now been overtaken by Indonesia, with India fast catching up.
The government of Aquino III has been going around in circles with its Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects (that have been delayed for another year) and its expensive Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, with all sorts of rationalizations from foreign case studies (such as from Mexico, now reeling in macro-economic decay and drug-induced anarchy) citing upticks in child nutrition based on doleouts that do not increase a country’s economic viability.
In the power and coconut industry sectors, Aquino III can resort to ready-made high impact projects that can turn around the economy in both the near and medium term. With drastic power rate cuts, the people’s economic hardship will be reduced in as short as a few months’ time. With a crash diversification program for the coconut industry, a bountiful harvest will be reaped in two to three years. Aquino III should therefore set these two as his government’s priorities over and above the prevailing programs that have been proven to be serious duds.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8 on “ERC-Meralco Conspiracies”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
9/26/2011
Upon Aquino III’s return from his visit to the US of A, numerous local mainstream newspapers emblazoned the growing critical outspokenness of even the most conservative sectors in Philippine society. The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries (PCCI); the Philippine Steelmakers Association (PSA); the Philippine Exporters Confederation (PhilExport); UP National Engineering Center; the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), including the Associated Labor Union; and, ironically a group that advocated privatization of the power industry, the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF), spoke out on one major issue: The Philippines’ highest power cost in Asia. In a joint statement, they bewailed the fact that “there appears to be no specific and strong action program or roadmap coming from the executive department” to address the current power rate crisis.
TUCP Party-list Rep. Democrito Mendoza, not always the most assertive labor leader, worked up the courage to state: “We ask the Aquino administration to bring power rates down” — this, as the chief operating officer of PhilExport, citing figures from the Department of Energy (DoE) on RP’s power rates at 24 US cents per kilowatthour compared to Thailand and Malaysia’s eight and seven US cents per kwh, respectively, added that it is “the biggest disincentive to the entry of new foreign direct investors to our shores.”
More pointedly, the ALU’s Gerard Seno demanded that Aquino III “make the necessary bold policy interventions… including the suspension and review of all pending power rate increase petitions in the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC),” with Mendoza calling for the scrapping of the 15.8-percent “Performance-Based Rate” (PBR) formula and the restoration of the 12-percent Return on Rate Base (RoRB) price setting mechanism by the ERC, adding that high power rates eat up as much as 11 percent of workers’ income.
Power company director Jojo Borja of Iligan Light, who has been helping us in our fight against the ERC and Meralco (Manila Electric Co.) with documented evidence of the latter’s overpricing, called me to highlight these headlines with enthusiasm, while expressing frustration over the wishy-washy stance of many so-called business leaders. Raul Concepcion, for instance, whom he has sought out for help against the ERC and power companies’ abuses and provided with all the hard evidence, given the former’s leadership of the Oil Price Watch, a supposed consumer protection watchdog that often publishes comments on electricity rates, has sadly only given lip service. This is precisely why Borja stresses that consumers themselves must keep up the pressure.
Still, we should all be happy that the aforementioned groups are now speaking out more boldly, even as they are still short of taking legal and demonstrative actions such as pickets and rallies — maybe even “planking” at Meralco to force the issue further.
As vital as the power price crisis issue is, the other headline that came out of Aquino III’s US trip was his “buko” (coco water) discovery, as if it were a new and fantastic development from his tête-à-tête with Obama.
Readers of this column know that for the past two years, we have promoted the coconut industry as a definitive economic lifesaver for the country. From the development of coco water, to coconut milk as replacement for imported dairy that will save us $1 billion in imports regularly, to coconut fiber textiles against soil erosion, to soil conditioners for many desert regions such as those in China, to high tech coco-chemicals for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical purposes, as well as for fuels and explosives, our coconuts can work wonders.
We have long reported that after commercial beverage brands Gatorade and Powerade were exposed as frauds, their manufacturers PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Co. shifted to coconut water as the base for these sports drinks.
It is enough, however, for the Aquino III government to finally realize the importance and potential of the coconut industry as a game changer for the economy. It is, after all, a sector that it had nary a care for when it appointed a small-time Quezon province lawyer who is ignorant of the coconut industry to head the Philippine Coconut Authority.
Among the coconut’s many applications, which we have enumerated in previous columns, there is also a product from it that will not only help the economy but those infirmed in old age with dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s. Scientific tests reveal that “monolaurin” from virgin coconut oil (VCO) reverses this scourge of the world’s aging population.
But one does not need to be at risk for Alzheimer’s to understand that unless government wakes up to its perilous neglect of the coconut sector, the once 500-million strong coconut tree population that has been reduced to 300 million today may soon no longer provide the miracles it is touted for. From being the top coconut products producer, the Philippines has now been overtaken by Indonesia, with India fast catching up.
The government of Aquino III has been going around in circles with its Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects (that have been delayed for another year) and its expensive Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, with all sorts of rationalizations from foreign case studies (such as from Mexico, now reeling in macro-economic decay and drug-induced anarchy) citing upticks in child nutrition based on doleouts that do not increase a country’s economic viability.
In the power and coconut industry sectors, Aquino III can resort to ready-made high impact projects that can turn around the economy in both the near and medium term. With drastic power rate cuts, the people’s economic hardship will be reduced in as short as a few months’ time. With a crash diversification program for the coconut industry, a bountiful harvest will be reaped in two to three years. Aquino III should therefore set these two as his government’s priorities over and above the prevailing programs that have been proven to be serious duds.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8 on “ERC-Meralco Conspiracies”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Who’s to save the people?
CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
9/26-28/2011
Tollway expenses are set to go up this first of October. Unless some miracle happens, the cold, cold hearts of those in Malacañang acting as collectors for the Paris Club will never ever be turned. Any hope of civil disobedience to turn the tide of extraction by international “banksters” (banker-gangsters) from people’s pockets is hopeless so long as the Yellow government, in the tradition of Ninoy and Cory Aquino, is all too willing to turn the screws on citizens’ livelihoods by threatening the removal of transport operators’ franchises or drivers’ licenses.
And because this was the Achilles heel of the strike called by Piston (Pinagkaisang Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide) against oil deregulation last week, we can’t really blame the drivers who turned tail. It will be better in the long run to gather all the rage for one final strike in the only action that can change tyrannical regimes: An insurrectionary rampage to replace the existing system.
We hope middle class professionals (doctors, engineers, consultants, etc.) who are now being targeted by an IMF-controlled Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) are beginning to understand the burden over-taxed masses have been under for decades.
From news reports, the official word is that the BIR simply took “its cue from the (last) State of the Nation Address of President Benigno Aquino… (when it) vowed to go after doctors, lawyers, accountants and other professionals who are not paying the right income taxes.” But the tax agency already trained its guns on lesser brained professionals (such as entertainers and the like) much earlier.
This time, however, will the supposedly higher brained doctors and lawyers take this sitting down when they know that taxes in the Philippines never redound to services and infrastructure investments for the people but are instead used to pay off debts, which the country doesn’t need? Don’t they know that taxes are only meant for massive corruption, which, in turn, is necessary to maintain a government under vassalage to the US, its allies, and their “banksters,” who operate behind the cover of a local oligarchy?
In my earlier OpinYon column dialogue with colleagues, I responded on the topic of media consolidation (see Sheila Coronel’s three-part article) by making my point that money is often followed by media. That is why in liberal-capitalist systems, media will inevitably be controlled by the oligarchy and will be antithetical to the people’s welfare, as is the case in the Philippines and much of the world today.
Coronel aptly ends her piece on the Lopezes’ SkyCable network. But do we know who really owns SkyCable? In a despedida for a very close diplomatic friend, I was informed by this diplomat that his compatriot, the right hand man of CNN’s Ted Turner, apprised him of SkyCable’s provenance as one of Turner’s Philippine holdings upon the latter’s recent visit. Judging by that cable service’s channel line-up, one can already see a preponderance of Turner properties, which is another proof that control of Philippine media by foreign interests is largely behind the scenes. Only Destiny Cable has a news channel (Global News Network) that carries RT (Russia Today), which Hillary Clinton revealed in a March 2011 US Senate hearing that her country might lose an information war against.
In that same dialogue, I wanted to tie in the Electric Power Industry R(d)eform Act (EPIRA), climate change, health, and the Agham party list articles to one central issue. The EPIRA, our colleague Bernie Lopez explained, was really written by the IMF-World Bank and rammed down the Philippine government’s throat in exchange for a $300-million loan; but it could only be passed if the Estrada administration was out of the way as the “Ama ng Masa” didn’t approve of sovereign guarantees which all energy privatization programs entail.
The approval of the EPIRA was thus part of the mix of motives of foreign allies of the corrupt local oligarchy and political bureaucracy (including jueteng lords who opposed legalization of their game) in deposing the legitimately-elected president. Therefore, all those who were muddle-headed at Edsa Dos share part of the blame.
Meanwhile, on the issue of climate change (CC), which used to be known as anthropomorphic (i.e. manmade) global warming (AGW), the term only switched (from GW to CC) when the global warming theory suffered due to its computer modeling not squaring up with reality. This was brought about by the following: A decade of debates showing that man was never the greatest generator of carbon (the central theme of AGW) but nature itself; findings which point to the global climate as primarily driven by the sun’s activity since climate fluctuations occurred even before the Industrial Age (or the medieval warm period from 950 to 1100 AD and the Little Ice Age from 1300 to 1850 AD); the “Climate-gate” exposé in the University of East Anglia’s research unit, where leading global warming scientists faked weather data to fit the AGW theory, ad nausea; and, finally, the exposés of scams in the “carbon trading” and RE (renewable energy) programs.
Although we need to keep our environment clean, we need to be alert to the many hoaxes intended to keep the Third World exploited.
Finally, I was delighted to read Louie Montemar’s article on the Agham party-list as it showed uncommon concern for the real issues (as all his columns do) and not the superficial. I’d recommend that we all read the debate between Dr. Flor Lacanilao, retired marine biology professor, and UP Physicist and professor Dr. Roger Posadas, where the former argued that the Philippines was being left behind because it lacked investment in “basic research” while the latter lashed out, asking if Lacanilao knew anything about “the D part of R&D.”
The lack of development (or technological advancement) in the Philippines, argued Posadas, is “not because of our poor research productivity but because our political and business leaders have been brainwashed by mainstream economists into upholding the theory of comparative advantage which says that Filipinos should just import and use advanced equipment and technologies instead of trying to produce our own advanced equipment and technologies.” Thus, it means that we can and should begin on our own NOW.
From the problem of oligarchic media control to our concepts of “people power” and local approaches to global issues, the root of the problem is that we are controlled and conditioned by foreign powers or interests. He (or she) who will save this country must first be one who thinks for his- or herself and, more importantly, for this nation. And this, he or she should do without any hangover from polluted sources such as CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, Forbes, World Wildlife Fund, etc.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8 on “ERC-Meralco-llusions?”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
9/26-28/2011
Tollway expenses are set to go up this first of October. Unless some miracle happens, the cold, cold hearts of those in Malacañang acting as collectors for the Paris Club will never ever be turned. Any hope of civil disobedience to turn the tide of extraction by international “banksters” (banker-gangsters) from people’s pockets is hopeless so long as the Yellow government, in the tradition of Ninoy and Cory Aquino, is all too willing to turn the screws on citizens’ livelihoods by threatening the removal of transport operators’ franchises or drivers’ licenses.
And because this was the Achilles heel of the strike called by Piston (Pinagkaisang Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide) against oil deregulation last week, we can’t really blame the drivers who turned tail. It will be better in the long run to gather all the rage for one final strike in the only action that can change tyrannical regimes: An insurrectionary rampage to replace the existing system.
We hope middle class professionals (doctors, engineers, consultants, etc.) who are now being targeted by an IMF-controlled Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) are beginning to understand the burden over-taxed masses have been under for decades.
From news reports, the official word is that the BIR simply took “its cue from the (last) State of the Nation Address of President Benigno Aquino… (when it) vowed to go after doctors, lawyers, accountants and other professionals who are not paying the right income taxes.” But the tax agency already trained its guns on lesser brained professionals (such as entertainers and the like) much earlier.
This time, however, will the supposedly higher brained doctors and lawyers take this sitting down when they know that taxes in the Philippines never redound to services and infrastructure investments for the people but are instead used to pay off debts, which the country doesn’t need? Don’t they know that taxes are only meant for massive corruption, which, in turn, is necessary to maintain a government under vassalage to the US, its allies, and their “banksters,” who operate behind the cover of a local oligarchy?
In my earlier OpinYon column dialogue with colleagues, I responded on the topic of media consolidation (see Sheila Coronel’s three-part article) by making my point that money is often followed by media. That is why in liberal-capitalist systems, media will inevitably be controlled by the oligarchy and will be antithetical to the people’s welfare, as is the case in the Philippines and much of the world today.
Coronel aptly ends her piece on the Lopezes’ SkyCable network. But do we know who really owns SkyCable? In a despedida for a very close diplomatic friend, I was informed by this diplomat that his compatriot, the right hand man of CNN’s Ted Turner, apprised him of SkyCable’s provenance as one of Turner’s Philippine holdings upon the latter’s recent visit. Judging by that cable service’s channel line-up, one can already see a preponderance of Turner properties, which is another proof that control of Philippine media by foreign interests is largely behind the scenes. Only Destiny Cable has a news channel (Global News Network) that carries RT (Russia Today), which Hillary Clinton revealed in a March 2011 US Senate hearing that her country might lose an information war against.
In that same dialogue, I wanted to tie in the Electric Power Industry R(d)eform Act (EPIRA), climate change, health, and the Agham party list articles to one central issue. The EPIRA, our colleague Bernie Lopez explained, was really written by the IMF-World Bank and rammed down the Philippine government’s throat in exchange for a $300-million loan; but it could only be passed if the Estrada administration was out of the way as the “Ama ng Masa” didn’t approve of sovereign guarantees which all energy privatization programs entail.
The approval of the EPIRA was thus part of the mix of motives of foreign allies of the corrupt local oligarchy and political bureaucracy (including jueteng lords who opposed legalization of their game) in deposing the legitimately-elected president. Therefore, all those who were muddle-headed at Edsa Dos share part of the blame.
Meanwhile, on the issue of climate change (CC), which used to be known as anthropomorphic (i.e. manmade) global warming (AGW), the term only switched (from GW to CC) when the global warming theory suffered due to its computer modeling not squaring up with reality. This was brought about by the following: A decade of debates showing that man was never the greatest generator of carbon (the central theme of AGW) but nature itself; findings which point to the global climate as primarily driven by the sun’s activity since climate fluctuations occurred even before the Industrial Age (or the medieval warm period from 950 to 1100 AD and the Little Ice Age from 1300 to 1850 AD); the “Climate-gate” exposé in the University of East Anglia’s research unit, where leading global warming scientists faked weather data to fit the AGW theory, ad nausea; and, finally, the exposés of scams in the “carbon trading” and RE (renewable energy) programs.
Although we need to keep our environment clean, we need to be alert to the many hoaxes intended to keep the Third World exploited.
Finally, I was delighted to read Louie Montemar’s article on the Agham party-list as it showed uncommon concern for the real issues (as all his columns do) and not the superficial. I’d recommend that we all read the debate between Dr. Flor Lacanilao, retired marine biology professor, and UP Physicist and professor Dr. Roger Posadas, where the former argued that the Philippines was being left behind because it lacked investment in “basic research” while the latter lashed out, asking if Lacanilao knew anything about “the D part of R&D.”
The lack of development (or technological advancement) in the Philippines, argued Posadas, is “not because of our poor research productivity but because our political and business leaders have been brainwashed by mainstream economists into upholding the theory of comparative advantage which says that Filipinos should just import and use advanced equipment and technologies instead of trying to produce our own advanced equipment and technologies.” Thus, it means that we can and should begin on our own NOW.
From the problem of oligarchic media control to our concepts of “people power” and local approaches to global issues, the root of the problem is that we are controlled and conditioned by foreign powers or interests. He (or she) who will save this country must first be one who thinks for his- or herself and, more importantly, for this nation. And this, he or she should do without any hangover from polluted sources such as CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, Forbes, World Wildlife Fund, etc.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8 on “ERC-Meralco-llusions?”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
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