Saturday, March 30, 2013
Tejada: Wages of privatization
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/20/2013
In the Philippines, public education funds are channeled to support the finances of private — often religious — schools through the voucher system. That is, students enrolled in public schools, where there are shortages of facilities, are given vouchers to study in the nearest private school instead. How much these vouchers cost has never been explained in detail to the public, even as private schools are clearly making good money from them. Thus, instead of public funds being managed properly to ensure that growing public school needs are met each year, the privatization-oriented government churns out these harebrained ideas fed by the neoliberal "educators" who now control the Department of Education (DepEd).
A prime example of this is the schoolhouse building scheme under PeNoy's public-private partnership (PPP) program that will cost P1.2 million (PPP figures) while government construction of the same will cost only P700,000. The Filipino-Chinese business community donates similar schoolhouses and its chamber even reports these as costing only P300,000 per unit (with the same set of specifications).
The suicide of the bemedaled 16-year-old UP Manila Behavioral Science scholar Kristel Tejada for failing to cover even the discounted "socialized" UP tuition must be put in the context of the overall neoliberal economic, social and ideological regime. The schoolhouse building crisis is but an illustration of commercialization and privatization raising costs.
NUSP, the student group, errs in personalizing the issue but is correct in critiquing the State Universities and Colleges' "socialized tuition" policy as a mask for commercial tuition impositions where it should be free and subsidized.
Kristel's death seems more senseless than many reported suicides of the poor as Filipino society still has a special place in its heart for young "scholars." Others not so regarded, like ordinary laborers who jump from pedestrian overpasses or kill themselves after losing their jobs and then kill every member of their kin, merit only momentary tabloid attention to draw the curious among readers.
‘Hasta Siempre’ — A tribute
DIE HARD III
A diverse stream of ideologues from the political intelligentsia came, too. Not long after Cuban Ambassador Jorge Jimenez arrived and sat at the front row beside Ka Dodong Nemenzo, veteran activist cum theater and TV director Joel Saracho opened the event, followed by the Philippine National Anthem. Ka Dodong was the first to speak and explained that the Venezuelan ambassador could not make it due to a sudden health issue. The Venezuelan flag did arrive later and was installed beside our national flag — though we missed the Venezuelan anthem which the embassy didn't bring.
Ka Dodong gave a comprehensive and humorous account of President Hugo Chávez's struggles, especially toward building his Bolivarian socialist reforms in Venezuela as well as his constant jousts with US imperialism, particularly against Bush Jr. Following Ka Dodong were songs from Noel Cabangon, including the emotional chorus from everyone of "The Internationale" in Filipino. I was seated on the aisles as I lost my seat when I went out of the auditorium a second. That was how crowded it was. I stood to sing "The Internationale" which never fails to well up the emotions from the dreams of my youth, which I suppose was also the case for everyone in the auditorium at that moment. Dr. Ed Tadem, UP Professor of Asian Studies, explained the experience of change and social justice in Venezuela under Chávez's socialist revolution.
Then I was called to speak my piece. In brief, I said: "Hugo Chávez has already done a lot for the Philippines. For one, I notice that personalities identified with the Old CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines, Lava tradition) as well as the New CPP, the "rejectionists" and the "reaffirmists" (pro- and anti-Jose Ma. Sison factions from the National Democratic Movement), the Social Democrat and Democratic Socialist movements, pro-Marcos, pro-Trillanes, anti- and pro-PeNoy elements from the "Left" have been brought together under one roof and in one forum by Hugo Chávez. That is no simple feat. And it is the inspiration of Hugo Chávez that brings us together, we people who have no greed in our soul the way Hugo Chávez represented all people with no greed in the soul."
I went on to narrate the other good deeds Chávez would have done for the Filipino people and the world, like his offer of very cheap petroleum to President Joseph Estrada during his state visit to the Philippines in 1999, which, unfortunately, Venezuela could not work out as this ran counter to the interests of the private US-controlled oil companies that benefited from the privatization of Petron and PNOC (Philippine National Oil Co.).
Estrada and Chávez had many similarities as presidents. Both were extremely popular and populist; they were elected almost at the same time and deposed by coups d'etat backed by US corporatists (Erap in 2001 and Chávez in 2002). Their only difference: Erap's pro-poor and patriotic intentions were framed in a mainly civilian, patrician and paternalist approach while Chávez had a clear socialist-nationalist framework backed by militant socialist and reformist military movements.
I finished my tribute flashing the front page of a newspaper that used an article of mine, which had the word "Poison" boldly emblazoned over a portrait of Chávez. Yes, the late Venezuelan leader was most likely poisoned and murdered, as what had happened to many anti-imperialist, anti-US-Israel political figures, from Gen. Omar Torrijos of Panama to the six current Latin American heads-of-state struggling with cancer, as well as Yasser Arafat a few years back. So half-jokingly, I turned to Ka Dodong and said, "Please be careful."
For now, we offer "Hasta Siempre" (Till Forever), the title of the popular tribute to Che Guevara, which Noel Cabangon sang and is now also aptly dedicated to our "Comandante Eternal" Hugo Chávez:
"Till eternity
"We learned to love you/ From the heights of history
"Where your sun-bright courage/ Laid siege to death
"For us on earth you left behind
"The clear and deep transparency, of your beloved presence
"Comandante Che Guevara (Hugo Chávez)
"Like the revolutionary, who led a new enterprise
"Your liberating strength, awaits and guides us still…
"We will carry on now, as we followed you then."
And with Fidel we say to you: Till eternity, Comandante…
(Tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over at www.gnntv-asia.com, with this week's topic, "Catholic Argentina: The Dark Years;" also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/18/2013
Last March 14, Thursday, at three in the afternoon, the Science Auditorium of the University of the Philippines-Diliman on Velasquez St. was filled to its rafters. Former UP president Francisco "Dodong" Nemenzo organized a gathering to pay tribute to the recently martyred President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez. I was one of the earliest at the auditorium and saw the crowds streaming in; to my surprise, it filled in no time. Groups came in. The masa were very well-represented and I thought: How encouraging that so many of them have taken the time for Chávez. Maybe there's hope that enlightenment can overtake Willie Revillame and the Sotto brothers."
A diverse stream of ideologues from the political intelligentsia came, too. Not long after Cuban Ambassador Jorge Jimenez arrived and sat at the front row beside Ka Dodong Nemenzo, veteran activist cum theater and TV director Joel Saracho opened the event, followed by the Philippine National Anthem. Ka Dodong was the first to speak and explained that the Venezuelan ambassador could not make it due to a sudden health issue. The Venezuelan flag did arrive later and was installed beside our national flag — though we missed the Venezuelan anthem which the embassy didn't bring.
Ka Dodong gave a comprehensive and humorous account of President Hugo Chávez's struggles, especially toward building his Bolivarian socialist reforms in Venezuela as well as his constant jousts with US imperialism, particularly against Bush Jr. Following Ka Dodong were songs from Noel Cabangon, including the emotional chorus from everyone of "The Internationale" in Filipino. I was seated on the aisles as I lost my seat when I went out of the auditorium a second. That was how crowded it was. I stood to sing "The Internationale" which never fails to well up the emotions from the dreams of my youth, which I suppose was also the case for everyone in the auditorium at that moment. Dr. Ed Tadem, UP Professor of Asian Studies, explained the experience of change and social justice in Venezuela under Chávez's socialist revolution.
Then I was called to speak my piece. In brief, I said: "Hugo Chávez has already done a lot for the Philippines. For one, I notice that personalities identified with the Old CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines, Lava tradition) as well as the New CPP, the "rejectionists" and the "reaffirmists" (pro- and anti-Jose Ma. Sison factions from the National Democratic Movement), the Social Democrat and Democratic Socialist movements, pro-Marcos, pro-Trillanes, anti- and pro-PeNoy elements from the "Left" have been brought together under one roof and in one forum by Hugo Chávez. That is no simple feat. And it is the inspiration of Hugo Chávez that brings us together, we people who have no greed in our soul the way Hugo Chávez represented all people with no greed in the soul."
I went on to narrate the other good deeds Chávez would have done for the Filipino people and the world, like his offer of very cheap petroleum to President Joseph Estrada during his state visit to the Philippines in 1999, which, unfortunately, Venezuela could not work out as this ran counter to the interests of the private US-controlled oil companies that benefited from the privatization of Petron and PNOC (Philippine National Oil Co.).
Estrada and Chávez had many similarities as presidents. Both were extremely popular and populist; they were elected almost at the same time and deposed by coups d'etat backed by US corporatists (Erap in 2001 and Chávez in 2002). Their only difference: Erap's pro-poor and patriotic intentions were framed in a mainly civilian, patrician and paternalist approach while Chávez had a clear socialist-nationalist framework backed by militant socialist and reformist military movements.
I finished my tribute flashing the front page of a newspaper that used an article of mine, which had the word "Poison" boldly emblazoned over a portrait of Chávez. Yes, the late Venezuelan leader was most likely poisoned and murdered, as what had happened to many anti-imperialist, anti-US-Israel political figures, from Gen. Omar Torrijos of Panama to the six current Latin American heads-of-state struggling with cancer, as well as Yasser Arafat a few years back. So half-jokingly, I turned to Ka Dodong and said, "Please be careful."
For now, we offer "Hasta Siempre" (Till Forever), the title of the popular tribute to Che Guevara, which Noel Cabangon sang and is now also aptly dedicated to our "Comandante Eternal" Hugo Chávez:
"Till eternity
"We learned to love you/ From the heights of history
"Where your sun-bright courage/ Laid siege to death
"For us on earth you left behind
"The clear and deep transparency, of your beloved presence
"Comandante Che Guevara (Hugo Chávez)
"Like the revolutionary, who led a new enterprise
"Your liberating strength, awaits and guides us still…
"We will carry on now, as we followed you then."
And with Fidel we say to you: Till eternity, Comandante…
(Tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over at www.gnntv-asia.com, with this week's topic, "Catholic Argentina: The Dark Years;" also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
Sunday, March 17, 2013
‘Malaysiagate’
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/13/2013
At this time when a domestic media war is raging to define the Sabah issue, when hardcore Yellows in the press (and a few in international media) are trying to portray the Sulu sultanate as "opportunist," "irresponsible," and, lately, "deceptive," as opposed to the rest who try to report on historical and current facts objectively, it is very helpful to note that a similar media war is being waged in the United States by the same country Filipinos are up in arms against today — Malaysia.
That country's perfidy and corruption of media to sway global opinion for its interests was the centerpiece of an exposé by Rosie Gray, staff of Internet news magazine BuzzFeed, on March 1 entitled, "Covert Malaysian Campaign Touched a Wide Range of American Media."
That country's perfidy and corruption of media to sway global opinion for its interests was the centerpiece of an exposé by Rosie Gray, staff of Internet news magazine BuzzFeed, on March 1 entitled, "Covert Malaysian Campaign Touched a Wide Range of American Media."
The report uncovered how US media outlets "carried pieces financed by the Malaysian government," where payments for such "propaganda for the government of Malaysia" to "conservative American opinion writers — whose work appeared in…the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner to the Washington Times to National Review and RedState — emerged in a filing this week to the Department of Justice."
That filing "under the Foreign Agent Registration Act" outlined "a campaign spanning May 2008 to April 2011" led by conservative pundit Joshua Trevino, "who received $389,724.70 under the contract and paid smaller sums to a series of conservative writers" whereby based on "Trevino's belated federal filing, the interests paying (him) were in fact the government of Malaysia, 'its ruling party, or interests closely aligned with either.'"
A follow through in McCain and Smitty's blog reports: "'MalaysiaGate' Day Four: Conspicuous Silence and Convenient Memory Lapses… Questions about the 'MalaysiaGate' controversy — in which American bloggers were paid as part of a foreign government's public-relations campaign — continued to be asked… The Malaysian PR campaign generated online articles in a number of publications including RedState, National Review, Huffington Post and the Washington Times. An October 2010 article Ben Domenech wrote for the San Francisco Examiner ('The search for moderate Muslims')…promoted the Malaysian ruling party's leadership."
We are thankful to our US-based patriot, Ado Paglinawan, for sending us these news reports exposing Kuala Lumpur's insidious ways in molding public opinion. A YouTube video he sent, however, is currently unavailable to RP netizens.
There are countless bloggers and email operators who are sadly paid hacks, many of them focused on the Philippines whom I have come to identify over the decade in the World Filipino Association (WFA) forum that counts among its members many Filipino migrants in the US who still style themselves as "patriots" while already being US citizens, constantly interfering and simply muddling the debates on Philippine issues.
One of the issues that had become their Waterloo was their universal support for Edsa Dos and Gloria Arroyo as the "economist who would save the Philippines," which support vanished when they quickly turned anti-Gloria upon the Hyatt 10's defection in 2005. It pays to have a memory of these things as only in a historical perspective can many truths be revealed.
One very active emailer these days is a former army captain in the Philippine military who now lives and works in the US. This character had been in touch for years, joining one of the blogs that our movement set up in the course of the Edsa Tres struggle. Lately, some of our blog members have noticed an apparent campaign in very well written essays, lambasting the Kirams. I received a complaint from one of our colleagues, asking me the check out this character's mails. I finally caught up with him in a letter published in a column in Malaya writing, "Let us also ask ourselves who is the fool who convinced other fools that 200 armed men could take Sabah from Malaysia. That is sheer stupidity!"
The real fool, in the first place, is the one who could think that anyone sending a 200-man armed force expects to get Sabah from Malaysia just like that. The fool is the one who does not or pretends not to understand that the courageous force of 200 men was a symbolic act and the shedding of blood was a sacrifice embodying the spirit and determination of a nation.
The fact now is, the Sultanate of Sulu and its people's daring, courage, and sacrifice have achieved victory beyond their wildest expectations, as the issue is now again on the agenda of the United Nations and the international community, so much so that the Philippine ruling class has been spurred into a defensive position for its dereliction of duty and into action against the atrocities of Malaysia's coercions — this, as Filipino nationhood and historical sense is rekindled once more.
I don't think there's a Malaysiagate brewing here just yet; but there has long been a continuing Yellowgate in the Philippines that produces such blatantly disingenuous articles as "A pattern of sultanate deception" — which omits historical facts to favor Malacañang and Malaysian-British perfidy — and "Fallout" — which feigns sympathy for Filipinos in Sabah harassed by Malaysian authorities despite their inalienable birthright to live, thrive, and be sovereign in their historical homeland.
(Note: President Estrada will speak at the "Tribute to Pres. Hugo Chávez" this Thursday, March 14, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., at the UP Diliman College of Science Auditorium, Velasquez Street; tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over at www.gnntv-asia.com, with this week's topic, "Sabah: An Eternal Struggle;" also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
Chávez vs neoliberalism
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/11/2013
"Comandante Eternal," he is now called by some — to be preserved and placed in full view of his nation, his continent, and the whole world in the same manner as Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh, embalmed and exalted as a paradigm of leadership and heroism. If Latin America still had the body of Simon Bolivar who preceded Hugo Chávez by almost 240 years, the two would be placed side by side in the pantheon of the continent's heroes against colonialism and imperialism — first, against Spain and, today, against the government of the United States of America. But Chávez will be known for something more — the struggle against neoliberalism (the philosophy of economic greed that epitomizes Western imperialism today) and the pursuit of social justice and development under a "Socialism of the 21st Century."
And while there is another heroic military leader cum social reformer looked up to by some of our idealist young Filipino officers, both in the active service and elsewhere, in the person of Col. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a Turkish independence revolutionary statesman credited for modernizing and westernizing Turkey, the similarity ends there. Atatürk's militarist approach to social and political leadership, which continues to be an issue in modern Turkey today, as well as the shift in orientation that his state-led economic push eventually took by turning over state assets to capitalists, are without a doubt important distinctions.
It is most important to remember that Col. Hugo Chávez's ascent to leadership came as a logical development of the historical continuity of Latin America's aspiration for genuine independence; hence, the Bolivarian ideal from Simon Bolivar (just as idealist Filipinos continue to revere Rizal, Bonifacio and the Katipunan on their lips), simultaneous with the continuity of the progressive nationalist and socialist ideals that Chávez first encountered when he entered the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences in Caracas under a curriculum known as the Andres Bello Plan instituted by a group of progressive, nationalistic military officers.
Likewise, The Diary of Che Guevara, the Cuban revolution, and his constant contact with the Venezuelan progressive movements of the Left have all made a profound impact on the mind and vision of Col. Hugo Chávez.
Those ideals were mobilized into action when in 1989 the Venezuelan government accepted an International Monetary Fund proposal for "structural adjustments," embodied by what then evolved as the "Washington Consensus," in exchange for a $4.5-billion loan. That, of course, spelled the liberalization, deregulation, and privatization of the Venezuelan economy that involved increasing taxation, raising interest rates, plunging the domestic exchange rate, and the transfer of state assets to private interests. The implementation of these neoliberal "reforms" in turn caused fuel prices and other public utilities such as water to skyrocket, resulting in massive popular protests that government crushed with violent repression, causing deaths estimated between 3,000 and 10,000, leading to a declaration of a state of emergency.
Chávez, already organizing the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement since the early 1980s, sprung into action in 1992, when he led the MBR in a coup attempt against the neoliberal government of President Carlos Andrés Pérez, for which he was imprisoned.
In the aftermath of the failed coup, Chávez spoke on nationwide broadcast media calling on his soldiers to yield and famously accept defeat "por hora" (for now). For that, Chávez's dedication, courage and determination won him the adoration of the people.
Released from prison two years later, Chávez founded the Fifth Republic Movement, a social democratic party, and was elected president of Venezuela in 1998.
In 2007, this group merged with other parties to become the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Thus, with the political ideology of Bolivarianism and his "Socialism of the 21st Century," Chávez launched the Bolivarian Revolution. He organized Bolivarian Circles as the foundation of democracy; nationalized the oil industry; funded health care and education (with 50,000 Cuban professionals in exchange for oil); and caused significant reductions in poverty, according to government figures. Even a UN study attests that poverty rates fell from 48.6 percent in 2002 to 29.5 percent in 2011 under Chávez.
But Chávez was not only to be a Venezuelan leader; he became a Pan-Latin American leader who used his country's oil wealth to support other progressive Latin American and Caribbean nations under ALBA (Alliance of Latin American Bolivarian States) and CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States). Chávez also became a leader on the world stage, linking Latin America with the rest of the anti-Western imperialist nations that include, among others, Iran, China, Russia and Muammar Kadhafi's Libya.
Chávez engaged the poor and progressive forces of the US as well by donating 200 million gallons of heating oil to ex-Rep. Joe Kennedy's charity, Citizens' Energy, in order to heat the US poor's homes, and even offered subsidized oil to the Philippines when he met with President Joseph Estrada in 1999.
Chávez could have done so much more for the world had he not met his untimely passing; but most likely, he will still continue to do so as our "Comandante Eternal," inspiring global change for people everywhere.
(Note: President Estrada will speak at the "Tribute to President Hugo Chávez" this Thursday, March 14, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., UP Diliman College of Science Auditorium, Velasquez St.; tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over at www.gnntv-asia.com, with this week's topic, "Malaysia Invades Sabah;" also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Ethnic cleansing in Sabah
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/6/2013
Initial reports in one local mainstream newspaper early this week claimed that 300 Filipinos in Sabah had "returned" to the Philippines as refugees fleeing the fighting there. That same figure or a figure close to it was earlier reported by international media as Filipinos being deported from Sabah. Lately, this has been clarified as 289 Filipinos being deported from Sabah and "worrying about their relatives" there.
Deportation of Filipinos from Sabah by the Malaysian government, however, is nothing new. It has been going on for years now. At the same time, the transfer of population from the Malay Peninsula to Sabah has been ongoing for years as well. The intention is, of course, the marginalization of the original inhabitants of Sabah — the Filipino Tausugs. This is ethnic cleansing.
Deportation of Filipinos from Sabah by the Malaysian government, however, is nothing new. It has been going on for years now. At the same time, the transfer of population from the Malay Peninsula to Sabah has been ongoing for years as well. The intention is, of course, the marginalization of the original inhabitants of Sabah — the Filipino Tausugs. This is ethnic cleansing.
Ethnic cleansing is a term evolved from the experience of the United Nations in dealing with conflict situations in different countries or nations involving "the process or policy of eliminating unwanted ethnic or religious groups by deportation, forcible displacement, mass murder or by threats of such acts, with the intent of creating a territory inhabited by people of a homogeneous or pure ethnicity, religion, culture and history."
The implicit threat of the Malaysian government of "drastic action," aside from the military crackdown and "elimination" (or massacre) of defiant members of the Filipino Tausug nation in Sabah engaged in the symbolic return of the "Sultan's army," which has turned into a bloody confrontation, is the launching of undisguised ethnic cleansing, which the recent 289 deportees may be the beginning of.
The Aquino government is just continuing the policy of appeasement and capitulation to the British-Malaysian illegal occupation of Sabah. Its figurative and literal "mother," the Cory Aquino government, foisted onto the nation by the fraudulent Edsa I counter-revolution, had, as its counter-revolutionary high point, the attempted ceding of Philippine territory long held in Philippine history as part of the nation's patrimony.
Cory Aquino began the process of "losing" the territory with the removal of the provision previously included in the Philippine Constitution on the National Territory: "The national territory comprises the Philippine archipelago, with all the islands and waters … and all the other territories belonging to the Philippines by historic or legal title, including the territorial sea, the air space…" Cory's — or the Western powers' — Constitutional Commission omitted "historic or legal title."
Sandakan, for example, was the site for Jose Rizal's dream "Utopia" to move landless peasants from his hometown Calamba to form the New Calamba. From Ckomyonisxt's Blog: "Dr. Rizal went to Sabah to negotiate with the British authorities and this mission was a success. They were intended to settle at Bengkoka river and Maradu as well. The British Gov't was willing to give this Filipino colony…100,000 acres of land free of all charges for 999 years. The fact (is) that the long run Sabah Patrimony was one to be the greatest dream(s) of Rizal. Sabah is…our heritage land…"
But for the latest Aquino in Malacañang, like the first one there, this "heritage land" is but a mere commodity to give away in exchange for the family name to carry on as part of the ruling class — a ruling class of families subservient to Western powers.
To divert from the real issue of this government's "a-piece-ment" policy, Aquino is turning to shake the voodoo doll, Mr. Bogeyman, the scarecrow, and the "multo" of "conspirators, plotters, and "critics" behind the growing conflict between Malaysian authorities and the Tausug patriots in Sabah. Aquino's two major media cronies in the Inquirer and Philippine Star are attempting to ridicule the sacrifice of Tausug blood as being like the Marcos-era cult "Lapiang Malaya," besides being "subversive" for "inciting to war;" this, as Malacañang simultaneously uses the age-old ploy of conjuring "other sultans and claimants" to muddle the issue.
None will succeed in erasing the words written in the blood of the patriot Tausug — spoken by Princess Jaycel Kiram — rejecting surrender: "The decision remains the same because honor is above life. This is a clear message of the sultanate. What's the use of life if we lose our honor?"
Princess Jaycel will not find an ear in Malacañang today where — by the tradition handed down from grandfather and Japanese puppet-leader to the son who committed treason in the "Jabidah" exposé in the service of the British, to the mother who "Snopaked" Sabah from the Philippine map for the same master, to the grandson who does not and cannot know anymore the meaning of "honor," with "surrender" written into his DNA — treason is de rigueur.
As Malacañang looks for wriggle room to extricate itself and its tradition of treason from the Sabah bind, the noose gets tighter while the Malaysian occupation government's ethnic cleansing and murder will find even greater opposition from the Tausugs —for all Filipinos are now Tausug.
(Tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over at www.gnntv-asia.com, with this week's topic, "Philippine Astronomical Society on Asteroid Threats;" also visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
On Sabah, from Ado
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/4/2013
The following significant piece on the Sabah issue — edited to fit space limits — is from Filipino journalist and diplomat Ado Paglinawan. Ado, as he is fondly called, was a member of the 1986 GRP Peace Panel under Ambassador Emmanuel Pelaez that renegotiated the Jeddah Accord with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). He served as special assistant to the Ambassador and press officer of the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC from April 1986 to February 1994. He also served in the United Nations Philippine Mission in New York. Since 1994, Paglinawan has been performing as a strategic public relations consultant and freelance journalist between Washington DC and Manila, and a missionary for Couples for Christ to Africa and the Caribbean. Ado wrote in the said piece:
"…As national security adviser, (Norberto) Gonzales conspired with Farouk Hussein in 2001 to 'expel' Misuari as chairman of MNLF and engineer its Committee of Fifteen sans Misuari. Hussein became the standard bearer for Gloria Arroyo in the ARMM elections, subsequently serving as Governor. As a result, Misuari declared his intentions to revive his secessionist aspirations and, when accused (of) terrorism by the Arroyo government, escaped to Malaysia. The Arroyo government cancelled his passports; he was eventually deported back to the Philippines. Nur Misuari (was) held as a political prisoner without the benefit of due process of indictment, arraignment, and trial up to the time the Court order(ed) his release in 2008... (which is why) a tale picturing Gonzales, Arroyo, Misuari, and now the Sultanate in cahoots is definitely a looooong stretch of one's imagination.
"…The Arroyo government shifted dalliance with the MNLF to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front when Gonzales became defense secretary … The MoA-AD (Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain) was crafted by Malacañang in conspiracy with British intelligence, the MI6 that James Bond popularized, fronted by the United States Institute of Peace under the tutelage of the US State Department through the American Embassy in Manila. The timely intervention of the Supreme Court prevented the signing of the MoA-AD... (when) it issued a TRO (temporary restraining order) on Oct. 14, 2008 declaring the agreement as 'unconstitutional'… Ambassador Kristie Kenney would immediately disavow any foreknowledge of the MoA-AD, even if she went to Kuala Lumpur to attend the frustrated signing, as public opinion in the country developed to consider the document as an act of treachery…
"The stupid government now under BS Aquino, whose main occupation since he was sworn into office has been mainly to demonize Gloria Arroyo, Xeroxes the MoA-AD, gets Marvic Leonen, a relatively naive professor from the University of the Philippines, to edit the document, changing a few terminologies like Bangsamoro 'state or substate' to 'entity,' and re-introduced the idea to the Filipino people as the Framework Agreement for Bangsamoro. If there is any sabotage going on, it is the Aquino government (that) is guilty of recycling an unconstitutional and treasonous, and discredited trash… to amputate the Republic by reintroducing concepts that are foreign to our Constitution and national interest… gloss(ing) over all considerations involving the claims of the Sultanate of Sulu on Sabah at a time when the British/Malaysian lease on that territory is expiring March 2013.
"…The Aquino government obviously does not know that in 1962, when the British (were) in the process of grabbing Sabah from the Philippines and Sarawak from the Indonesians, the sultanate of Sulu signed an agreement subjugating the claim to Sabah to the Republic of the Philippines. That document, however, had a caveat — a condition that the Philippines will pursue the claim in their behalf. But the contrary is as true — that in the event it does not or fails to do so, the Sultanate reserves the right to pursue the claim on its own… The sultanate (was therefore forced into) action because of the impending expiration of the lease… (and) the turn of events caught the Aquino government by surprise despite a slew and progression of initiatives by the sultanate to all parties involved in the Sabah issue, especially the Philippines and Malaysia, that even the Department of Foreign Affairs did not take these signals seriously. So Aquino now feigning he was caught flatfooted is more of an admission that he has been 'Noynoying'…
"This impostor was installed by the Americans through Smartmatic in the botched 2010 presidential elections that will go down in our history as the state-of-the-art 'dagdag-bawas' automated election system. What is more despicable than that is that it seems 100 million people are expecting him to morph into some 'messiah' that will extradite the Filipino people to kingdom come. It is about time we wake up to the foregone conclusion that this American puppet is instead a time bomb that can ignite the current social volcano in our country evolving into a civil war. Please, the Sabah standoff is no longer in the realm of video games, it is objective reality, a pendant of the imminent destruction of our sovereignty and democracy…"
(Tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over at www.gnntv-asia.com, with this week's topic, "Philippine Astronomical Society on Asteroid Threats;" also visit http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
