SOPA, ACTA and A-Claw

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

10/5/2012

The Philippines hit the international cyber news with a big bang, typified by the headline of RT (Russia Today) "Philippines gags Internet with 'draconian' cyber crime law."
I describe the Philippine anti-internet freedom law as "A-Claw," Anti-Cyber freedom Law, to depict the claws of a monstrous bird-of-prey that crept stealthily through the Philippine legislature and then pounced on the nation. The dark shadows of the monster birds wings cover the continents of America and Europe under the names of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) in Europe, and now in the Philippines as A-Claw. The US has another bill, the "PIPA" or Protect IP Act and they all purport to protect intellectual property (IP) but curtail Internet and cyber freedoms in their coverage.

The Philippine version passed like a thief in the night, and with the "draconian" feature of opening up the criminalization of anything linked, posted and referred by a cyber surfer that may be construed as "libelous." That is why A-Claw is aptly described by the wider world, looking at the Philippines and its ongoing struggle over the cyber freedom suppression law as "draconian." As usual, the Philippine legislature become more popish than the Pope and outdoes (as it did in GATT-WTO) the proponents of cyber security and IP protection in the major countries. Let's hope the Philippine netizens outdo the anti-cyber restrictions opposition in Europe and the US like "Anonymous," with its guy Fawkes mask, in raising hell against the draconian A-Claw, shut down more government websites in protest and raise more signatures than the 4.5-million registered in one campaign in the US.

I recall the other law that has become one of the banes of our society and economy, similarly smuggled through the legislature, passed posthaste without serious public hearings and scrutiny, and suddenly foisted on the public. This is the Epira or Electric Power Industry Reform Act. Unfortunately for all Filipinos then there was no social network community focused and intimately interested in the issue and an entire nation complacently allowed its implementation. A-Claw faced netizens that had already been alerted by the struggles of "Anonymous" and many global netizens in the US and Europe, and with the speed-of-light they achieved fission and exploded rage of millions of Filipino on-line activist on the most visible faces of the A-Claw menace — Angara, Sotto, BS Aquino III, Lacson, Honasan and Pangilinan.

The Epira and A-Claw share one thing that may have allowed them to pass the Senate so smoothly: both are lobbied for by foreign and globalist interests. The world Bank lobbied for Epira. The SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and now the A-Claw are a part of the US corporate-government campaign of monopoly of Intellectual Property rights (patenting, copyrighting and controlling everything from genetic materials to Internet content) working through multilateral (UN, GATT-WTO, etc.) and national governments. Our legislators swallow advice from US and international experts as gospel truth. We have not yet identified lobbyists for the A-Claw (in GATT-WTO's it was USAid that funded AGILE) but they are certainly there, most likely hovering over the cyber-crime law sponsor Angara. Hence, the Senate didn't' question the A-Claw or even study it first, and as in SOPA and ACTA secrecy kept the public in the dark.

A-Claw is part of a global campaign to curtail economic and information liberties, as Eric Kain in Forbes magazine wrote on efforts to fight this up to the level of the US sponsored trade agreement TPP, entitled "'If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA'… According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, there are 'other plurilateral agreements, such as the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), which contains a chapter on IP enforcement that would have state signatories adopt even more restrictive copyright measures than ACTA. Similarly, negotiations over TPP are also held in secret and with little oversight by the public or civil society. These initiatives, negotiated without participation from civil society or the public, are an affront to a democratic world order. EFF will remain vigilant against these international initiatives that threaten to choke off creativity, innovation, and free speech."

With the Philippine anti-Cyber crime law's threatening content against basic freedoms so obvious, and so many petitions against it and appeals for temporary restraining order or TRO to momentarily stop its implementation (nine petitions by the last count), we wonder why the Sereno Supreme Court has thumbed down four appeals for TRO.

This brings me back to our contention several months back when we predicted that Sereno would be appointed Chief Justice on the basis of her allegiance to the Foreign power and its corporate agents in the Philippines. The A-Claw is a core interest of these vested interests, and nothing will be allowed to stop it — except maybe the nation's outrage and Cyper insurrection.

(Watch Destiny Cable GNN's HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m. and Sunday, and on www.gnntv-asia.com; tune to 1098AM radio Tuesday to Friday 5 to 6p.m. http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com) 

Good riddance

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

9/28/2012

For what one party in the China back channeling controversy says is the "gulo" (Pilipino for mess) and another party considered his "shabby treatment", one threatened to leave the country for his business home Hong Kong and the other leaks a threat of resigning his cabinet post. These are Manny Pangilinan (MVP) and Ambassador Albert del Rosario, embroiled in what Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes charged as Del Rosario's escalation of tensions with China to benefit his long time business associate MVP in oil deals negotiations with China. MVP is reported to say in reaction "Kung ako lang… I'd pack up and go back to Hong Kong. Ang gulo-gulo n'yo." Del Rosario's rsignation threat circulated by way of a "leak" from the DFA.

Pangilinan flatters himself. He, MVP would have remained the pudgy, dumpy little underling of Indonesian tycoon Sudono Salim, a.k.a. Liem Sioe Liong, if he didn't have the Philippines to bring the outdated Hong Kong cellphone equipment to transplant to and built his telecoms empire, parlaying that success with incognito international financiers into ventures in real estate, public infrastructure and transportation, broadcast and print media, sports entertainment; taking off massively after entering into the premier power distribution utility company Meralco which began the onset of the highest power rate increases of almost yearly 100% hikes from 2006 to the present and into the next "regulatory periods" until 2015. Filipinos have been footing the bill for MVP's spectacular economic clout today, so who owes whom and who needs whom?

My (and many other Filipinos') response to MVP's self-flattery and threat of packing off to Hong Kong, is: "Layas ka na" or "Scram". The country will surely be better off without the likes of International Finance Mafia (IFM) backed MVP who possess the guiles of the Snake in Paradise, Shylock and Blackbeard the Pirate to cause an entire economy to turning its wallet over. It can be argued that MVP's projects, particularly Meralco (almost highest rates in the World), Maynilad Water, MNTC (Manila North Tollways Corp.), and other privatized utilities firms charging exorbitant rates, constitutes the biggest factor in the continuing debacle of the National Economy, the decline in middle class living standards and impoverishment of the already poor tantamount to a major cause for the widening gap between rich and poor, corporate bonanzas and people's incomes.

MVP's charm bewitches some like Mandaluyong Congressman Neptali "Boyet" Gonzales who is appealing to MVP to "…. pause and rethink this repatriation to Hong Kong. The steady performance of our economy today is the result of a confluence of factors that a daring investor int eh like of him has greatly contributed to." That may take care of Boyet's campaign funds for 2013, but that certainly will cost the Filipino public utility consumers again. By the way, the Ateneo University and the Jesuits have saved their own souls for now with MVP bolting from their bosom in protest of some Jesuits' opposition to MVP corporate mining greed and the RH "condoms profits" bill. It's redemption for the Ateneo and the Jesuits who may be a little poorer now but still far from impoverished. However, MVP will no longer have the religious halo to sanctify his pillaging of the economy.

The latest on Secretary Albert del Rosario is he is not resigning to "… remain true to his commitment to serving the country." A day later, Del Rosario is in Washington making a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and headlined as "Del Rosario: Philippines will respond to China ships". Back home BS Aquino III's special envoy to Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping, Mar Roxas is taking pains reporting on "easing of tensions" and renegotiation and/or payment of the $ 500-M North Rail project fiasco. Was Del Rosario, as green card holder (when are they going to investigate this) and foreign affairs secretary reporting to his real bosses? A retired veteran Filipino diplomat, writing his regular Malaya column, comments on Del Rosario, entitled "'Resign' …If Del Rosario is wondering why it was only spokesman Lacierda who said Noynoy still has confidence in him, I think it is Noynoy's way of giving him an opportunity to exit gracefully by resigning."

  Speaking to support Del Rosario's continuance at the DFA were Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Cuisia and former AIG (British agent C.V. Starr and fraud-indicted mogul Hank Greenberg's American International Group) Philippine manager, and wife of the late Reginald Lewis of the P 1.5-Billion company TLC Beatrice, Loida Nicolas-Lewis "boycott China goods crusader" who made a ton of dollars in China selling its chain to food stores to Chinese interests. All of them: MVP, Del Rosario, Cuisia, Nicolas-Lewis are in the U.S. and international corporate networks with ambiguous loyalties and hands in Philippine policy and government. Should we wait for them to volunteer to go?

(Watch Destiny Cable GNN's HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m. and Sunday, and on www.gnntv-asia.com; tune to 1098AM radio Tues. To Fri. 5 to 6pm http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)