'Ap-piece-ment'

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

10/12/2012

The acknowledged territory of the Republic of the Philippines has since Edsa I been apportioned to foreign countries: a piece here, a piece there. Sabah, ARMM and now the expanded Bangsamoro and the Sulu Sea. This is "ap-piece-ment" of the Republic to the foreign powers and interests. Led by a scion of the Yellow ruling class, the country now submits again the Filipino people to humiliation and imperial victimization again in an onerous, destructive ceding of Cotabato City, Isabela City, and the municipalities of Baloi, Munai, Nunungan, Pantar, Tagoloan and Tangkal in Lanao del Norte province, barangays from Kabacan, Carmen, Aleosan, Pigkawayan, Pikit and Midsayap towns in Cotabato City, and the greatest prize of all — the Sulu Sea where Exxonmobile and others have has set its eyes on.

GRP peace panel negotiator Marvic Leonen says no foreign influence figured in the peace deal, but not so secret "dirty little secret" is that the USIP (United Institute for Peace) led by J. Robinson West of the largest energy consulting firm PFC Energy, has its dirty hand all over it. Leonen's prevarication shows that the peace talk panel representing the Philippines and its work deserves no respect from the Filipino people as the panel is devoid of integrity. The peace talks are an expensive sham. The UNDP stepped up to gift the major Philippine peace panel negotiator an N-Peace Network award, to reinforce the respectability of this ap-piece-ment and the negotiators who carved off more pieces of Filipino flesh to the Western oil interest. UN agencies are invariably used as tools of US and Western powers to legitimize imperial projects with such honorific blessings, such as in Kosovo which was wrest from Serbia.

The other title for this article is "Pipsqueak Leaders," highlighting how small or insignificant this country's leadership is before the subterfuges and pressures of the US and Britain (represented by client Malaysia) to negotiate away 75 percent of the economic wealth of the country. As the rebel MILF band's vice chief for Political Affairs Ghadzali Jaafar told the Philippines over a radio interview their 75 percent share is non-negotiable. Ninety percent of that 75 percent will go to the US and Britain while crumbs will be thrown to the likes of Jaafar empowering them to be little potentates like the US surrogates in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, etc. Can Bangsamoro ever become a developed state? Not in anyone's lifetime. It'll be just like feudal, archaic Middle Eastern kingdoms the US controls and ready when needed to be used to control US hegemony as the potentates do in the Middle East.

Pipsqueak Philippine media pushes "ap-piece-ment," too: from Inquirer: "The glowing praises are richly deserved. After a protracted internecine war, one that has brought untold suffering on Muslim Mindanao, there's real hope the war may finally end."  What about he "untold suffering" of Filipino soldiers who fought to defend all Filipinos' sovereignty and the Filipinos' continuing impoverishment with the looting of 75 percent of its economic wealth in the Sulu Sea? In the Philippine Star one writes, "Leonen has convinced me from a distance that it is providential the Bangsamoro will be born during the watch of President Aquino whose only concern is peace and prosperity for the people of Mindanao … Since I see no alternative, I am willing to take my chance with it." Providential my eye, curses instead: Cory Aquino gave Sabah away; BS Aquino III cedes even more territories.

No alternative? The alternative is clear — defend national sovereignty over all our territory undisputed in any international forum. President Marcos defended that sovereignty, won and laid the basis for a durable peace with the Tripoli Agreement; but after he was deposed in 1986 by the conspiracy of the US and local oligarchs, the US stooge who succeeded him, Corazon Aquino, returned to the country the leader of the defeated MNLF and reinvigorated the secession movement. Likewise, under President Estrada the MILF was demolished at Camp Abubakar and its leader Hashim Salamat fled to Malaysia and beseeched US President Bush to restore him in Mindanao. When Estrada was deposed by the same forces that deposed Marcos, the Edsa II successor Gloria Arroyo restored the MILF to its former glory. Forgetting is not an option.

Two years back I wrote "The Traitor Class," about the Yellows cabal in Philippine politics that serve as handmaiden of the foreign powers. While that class runs the show in the country the Philippines will never win any of its struggles against the imperial and neo-colonial powers. How I envy those countries in Latin America that are already in the process of successfully throwing off the yoke of colonialism by nationalizing foreign resource-extraction and public utilities corporations, striking independent foreign policies, respecting each other's sovereignty, opposing foreign interventionism. Venezuela just overwhelmed the US sponsored presidential candidate for Hugo Chavez. In the Philippines, time will come when we can revisit the Mindanao issues and recreate a truly just peace that keeps the national intact for all Filipinos benefit and welfare.

(Watch Destiny Cable GNN's HTL edition channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., replay 11:15 p.m. and Sunday, and on www.gnntv-asia.com: this week "Filipino Homegrown Franchises Expo"; tune to 1098AM radio Tuesday to Friday 5 to 6 p.m. http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)