DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/14/2011
As of the last count, I read that 577,000 hits had already registered for YouTube video, “Aquino-Cojuangco: Facts they don’t want you to know.” That’s what some would call having gone “viral.” Made by “PinoyMonkeyPride Production,” the opening sequence introduces us to a riveting historical account while offering a glimpse into the makers’ real intentions.
The story begins with the Philippine Revolution and Gen. Antonio Luna taking the gold of the revolutionary movement from the Ilocos treasury and the Governor of Pampanga to Paniqui, Tarlac, specifically to the home of Luna’s supposed girlfriend, Ysidra Cojuangco. Three days later, Luna was assassinated by Aguinaldo officers and the “gold treasures of the First Philippine Republic suddenly disappeared,” which “even the American forces couldn’t find.”
By the year 1900, “Ysidra Cojuangco became one of the richest women in the Philippines,” leading to the expansion of Cojuangco lands across central Luzon, the establishment of the Paniqui Sugar Mills, the Finance and Investments Corp. and the Philippine Bank of Commerce, among other things.
By the 1930s, the family owned 12,000 hectares and controlled the rice trade of the entire province of Tarlac. It goes on to tell of the Cojuangcos’ invasion of politics, beginning with Melecio Cojuangco in Congress, followed by a long, long line down to Gibo, with special highlights on Corazon Aquino and son Noynoy. A voice fired off a list of all Cojuangco politicos in machinegun mode while decrying the lack of progress in the family’s home turf.
The narrative then moves on to the union of the two Tarlac clans, with the wedding of Ninoy Aquino and Corazon Cojuangco, whose matrimonial ninong was President Ramon Magsaysay.
With the crony deal concluded in 1958 for the Cojuangcos’ purchase of Compania Tabacalera’s Azucarera with government money, Magsaysay provided two conditions: The inclusion of the adjoining Hacienda Luisita and the distribution of hacienda lands to its farmers after 10 years.
We all know where that story ends and the video names the hundreds killed in the course of the Cojuangcos’ defense of the hacienda over the decades, including the Luisita Massacre and the murder of farmer-supporter Bishop Alberto Ramento, plus, the violation of the land reform law by Cory herself when she was president.
The video goes on to present Ninoy as the non-hero who died only for his ambition (as distinguished from Jose Rizal), as well as of Cory restoring the oligarchs; of Kris being the “Mary Magdalene of Media;” and of Noynoy as the “blame game” rock star.
I have been telling almost the exact same story in debunking the myths of the Yellow media, which the video brands as “Pro-Poor, Pro-Poverty, Pro-Oligarchy” Yellow Propaganda.
While I am happy that it is somehow shattering the hold that the Yellows still have over the mind of many Filipinos, especially the youth, there is one caveat that the public should take note of: It is part of a more insidious campaign to subvert a more basic issue for our nation.
The subliminal message does this so well by first latching on to the popular antipathy against oligarch families like the Aquino-Cojuangcos and then intersperses this with the argument that since the nationalist economic provisions in our Constitution only protects the oligarchs, the charter must be changed to open the country to foreigners.
This “Aquino-Cojuangco” video is part of a seemingly very well-funded Web campaign that clamors for Charter change (Cha-cha) and the removal of the protectionist provisions in our Constitution, as well as the shift to a parliamentary form of government. It is part of a series of YouTube videos that links up with GetRealPhilippines.com and AntiPinoy.com.
While I have issues in these sites that I can enthusiastically agree with, this one enigma — their push for the opening up of the Philippines to untrammeled entry of foreign capital and control of its economy; and for the removal of restrictions on foreign ownership of our national patrimony and media through Cha-cha by any means (including constituent assembly), which they say will end the rule and abuse of the local oligarchy — casts a very dark shadow on all the rest.
Given that we can already see the West having tumultuous revolts in the occupy protests against their own oligarchs, from the Wall Street mafia, Warren Buffet, et al., General Motors, to even Rupert Murdoch and the other media mega-corporations, that call to get rid of the local oligarchs, and in their place welcome their foreign counterparts, is simply inane. How can anyone think that giving the Philippines to these voracious profit gorgers will make things better for us?
The global oligarchs won’t be kinder and gentler than the local oligarchs have been to the Filipino public all these decades. The two will only reinforce each other.
Therefore, the antithesis to the local oligarchy is not the global oligarchy. The antithesis to both is national or popular ownership!
If there is to be any change in the Constitution, what’s needed is the further protection of the nation and the people’s fundamental economic rights. This can only be done through the nationalization and/or cooperativization of, among other things, basic and strategic utilities and industries, basic function of issuing money and credit management, the fundamental right to work, and the right to be free from the abuse and exploitation of private monopolies. Only through these can the state ensure the right of every citizen to employment, affordable food, low-cost government services, medical care, education and basic shelter.
PinoyMonkeyPride, AntiPinoy, and GetRealPhilippines are really insulting the Filipino intelligence if, like Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile and House Speaker Sonny Belmonte, they think Filipinos of all classes don’t already know that the country’s highest power costs in Asia is the very thing keeping local and foreign investments away — instead of the restriction on foreigners from owning properties and corporations in the Philippines, who, it must be said, already own the local oligarchs here.
(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; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
