It's still a class war

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / 10/2/2013 / Daily Tribune

If what we are witnessing is just a negative media campaign against Jinggoy Estrada, then we might consider it in a more limited light. But given that fresh from this pounding comes another political assault, this time using one of the oldest charges of "election overspending" to oust another Estrada from elected office — who, by the way, heads a province with the largest voting population in the country — and that these are happening amid rumors (and texts) of an impending disqualification of President-Mayor Joseph Estrada from the City of Manila based on the "whereas" clauses of his political pardon, it's clear that the old war of the elite against the masa's Erap is raging again.

What has triggered this renewed war against Estrada and his family? The anti-pork crusade is clearly not just an anti-pork campaign as the media focus is not on all porkers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in various pork orgies. The Angaras and Cayetanos are prominent among those who have huge pork barrel allocations but very little attention is paid to them by mainstream media. It took Jinggoy to expose the Liberal Party (LP)'s other major porkers (such as Mandaluyong's Boyet Gonzales) before Frank Drilon attracted attention to himself by becoming the Senate President — among the noisiest during the impeachment of Renato Corona — who now has brought upon himself the onus of the impeachment-linked P100-million bribe.

The speculation going around among analysts and pundits regarding this targeted crucifixion of the Estradas is one of two — first, the spectacular electoral victory of Mayor Estrada against incumbent and administration- (as well as automated machine-) backed Alfredo Lim, allowing him to overcome the pessimism over his capacity to introduce improvement in Manila; and second, the electoral victory of ER Ejercito in Laguna, which planted a flag in the province with the largest voting base to become a solid jumping board for any future plans the Estradas may have. Did they fear Erap running for Malacañang again, with the memory of US President Ronald Reagan winning his second term at 73?

There is no consensus that Mayor Estrada is of a mind to run again in any presidential contests. Estrada himself has said that younger leaders should take over.

It is well known that Jinggoy is being groomed only for the second top post. The other speculation is that the vilification campaign against the Estradas is really the first stage of the campaign against Vice President Jejomar Binay.

It is no secret that Binay is the top bet for 2016 and behind him are the Estradas who can command at least 30 percent of the nation's votes — that is, if the 2010 elections are to be believed. LP strategists are surely up to an early start to erode that base expected to be cast for Binay by the Estrada family.

Behind the LP is an array of supporters from the ruling class that can trust only one of its own, i.e. Mar Roxas. While Binay has played his cards very well, keeping the Yellows at arm's length, the ruling class is not only uncomfortable but is very uncompromising over absolute control of the presidency, especially at this critical juncture where Western powers are gearing for a comeback in the world stage but getting beaten along the way. All these forces need total control in the next administration to put in place every detail for the next major global scenario.

The rabid anti-Estrada tier in the upper crust of Philippine society is being made to focus on so-called corruption but only on a limited in scope. They know that the entire system is corrupt from the top feeders in the food hierarchy down to their prey. International and local bankers feed on the usurious system of unnecessary foreign and local debt imposed on the nation; then the top 50 corporations feed on the population through price gouging in service utilities; and only then do the politicians and bureaucrats provide the legislation and administration for these top feeders through privatization laws, financial usury rules, the flawed electoral system, the dispensing of pork barrel, etc.

Foreign and local elite corruption over the centuries is untouchable so much so that political and bureaucratic corruption is made endemic by the culture of impunity promoted by the ruling class for its "controlled" politicians and bureaucrats; this, as uncontrollable political and bureaucratic elements are selectively persecuted as the situations demand.

Especially dangerous to the corrupt ruling class is competitive or rival leadership that can rouse the masses into consciousness and consolidation, which Erap Estrada can still singularly achieve when he so decides.

In the 2010 presidential elections where the ruling class' candidate had the advantage of the "funereal sympathy wave," the masa, who should have been solidly tapped for the Estrada campaign, were unfortunately drawn in. Even as his campaigners debated the use of the "final solution" — that of sending out the "class war" message — Erap never wanted it framed that way, given his appreciation of Cory Aquino's "apology." But that, in reality, is still the main issue: The war the ruling class is waging against the people (including the middle class), impoverishing everyone below the "upper crust."

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The forest's afire, stupid!

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / 9/30/2013 / Daily Tribune

There is a forest fire but social media trolls were chopping away at one tree. That was the picture in a newspaper reporting some social media tweets day after Jinggoy Estrada's privileged speech last week. Jinggoy didn't dwell on the charges against him, that's for the courts now and he had already said so in his speech.

Jinggoy's offensive was an extensive exposé of systemic corruption of the Yellows' system. The Yellows don't want that. Jinggoy dwelt on the comprehensive picture, exposing presidential use of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and other levers to bribe politicize and distort legislation, fiscal conduct and justice, the perfidy of Commission on Audit (CoA) with its BS Aquino appointees, etc. Jinggoy didn't start the fire, it raged angrily even before he got there.

The hostile tweets on Jinggoy reflected, also from the usual civil society-yellow types, foaming-in-the-mouth anti-Estradas neurosis from the Edsa II days. They afflicted fume at a personality but are blinded to the broader systemic crisis. Rabid "evil society" types refuse to see the CoA turned from fiscal watchdog into attack dog against Liberal Party rivals, or the channeling of the PDAF for Malacañang's bribery, or the LP "sow-lons'" pork orgies from the diarist whose fabricated entries "convicted" Erap in 2001, to political-porker-with-wings (butterflies are passé) Drilon and P 6-million burger gorger look alike's pork, or the P70-billion unaudited PDAF likely going to other LP "sow-lons."

The newspaper that front-paged the anti-Jinggoy tweets also headlined Jinggoy's exposé comprehensively. But focusing attention on the anti-Jinggoy tweets already tilts some readers' perception is led to various stages of cognitive dysfunction. Cognitive dysfunction is the inability to think clearly, organize thoughts, analyze that obsessive hate can cause. It's the same as some of those who have absorbed the hate Marcos psychosis. This is the mass mania cultivated by the Yellow machine in the mainstream media over the past 25 years which is still effective in deflecting any potential frustration and rage away from the present Yellow power wielders.

The pork barrel controversy has so overtaken the national psyche that the nation, and not accidentally, has lost the balanced and comprehensive perspective required to solve the national crisis. One cannot douse the forest fire by chopping down or spraying water on just one tree. The individual trees are singed or are burning because the forest was ablaze long before the conflagration exploded with Janet Lim Napoles today.

Jinggoy didn't start the fire. Ah, yes, that was in 1989 when under Cory Aquino's watch the PDAF formally made its way into the General Appropriations Act. Point this out to anyone of the tweeting Yellows and they'll pull your hair out.

This space has long fought for the causes that could restore sanity and balance to the politics of this country. It is among the first to expose the insanity of burning down the house to drive out from power the imagined "rat" from Malacañang in 2001. Edsa II, of course, eventually led to the whole house being taken over by the biggest rats. We exposed the fraudulence of the digital elections based on countless violations of security safeguards provided by law. We were among the first to raise the "pork" issue but saw how the Yellows redirected it as a political ploy to divert from an Aquino sibling's shenanigans in the Metro Rail Transit deals and eventually from Malacañang's own pork-related corruption.

For Oct. 4, "patsies" of the financial and economic interests that have maneuvered all "people power" exercises since Edsa I (only too happy to redirect the rage against them to the "sow-lons") have organized a "Million Man March" again but at the Ayala-Paseo junction. It will be a Friday afternoon affair, easy for the social media yuppies to congregate at before partying in the evening. The choice of place and time was made because the last Sept. 21 "Million Man" activity flopped after the Sept. 11 Edsa Shrine gathering had more cops than rallyists because of their insistence not to link the issue to BS Aquino's pork.

Tsk, tsk. That's just so typical of the Yellows.

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Officer salutes MNLF

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / 90/25/2013 / Daily Tribune

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in early September 2013 officially informed the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that the Philippine government had terminated the tripartite review of the full implementation of the parties' 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA). Even as Absalom Cerveza, a member of the MNLF peace panel, relayed his group's desire for the full implementation of the 1996 peace accord, the stand of the Philippine government was already "irreversible." And that, says former Tawi-Tawi Gov. Al Tillah, was what "broke the camel's back."

Since the OIC still recognizes the leadership of Nur Misuari over the MNLF as representative of the so-called Bangsamoro in the Philippines, the MNLF is thus continuing its "decolonization" of Mindanao to this day.

BS Aquino clearly underestimated the implication of his letter terminating the 1996 FPA that led to the recent MNLF offensive. He also clearly didn't fathom that added threats would only spur warrior Tausugs to further resistance. As a Tausug saying cited by Al Tillah goes, "In a fight it's better to see the white of one's bones than the white of the sole of one's feet."

Thus, from a renowned retired Philippine Air Force Gen. Nick Sotelo comes this letter dated Sept. 22, 2013 saluting the 200 MNLF fighters, the vital parts of which we quote: "I pray that the debacle in Zamboanga City in the south will soon be over … While I do not wish death upon them, the measly band of 200 MNLF fighters, I would say, have balls of steel since they know that they will be martyred when going into the hornet's nest.

"Our government seems to have sidelined the importance of their group in the peace agreements … Let's not forget that even just having the capability to sting like a small bee, they chose to, with about the same number of fighters, challenge Malaysia on the issue of Sabah … (Now) we go back to poverty, the root of most, if not all, rebellion in the Philippines. We go back to our masters of the last 30 years who have created a very conducive climate for such activities. I am sure, without poverty, nobody in their right mind would join the communist NPA (New People's Army), the MNLF, the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) … We go back to recent revelations that our elected and appointed officials are, in fact, part of the biggest syndicate of them all…
"Now, we have a political leadership that is trying its best to maintain the 'daang matuwid' or the straight path. But how straight is it, really? Does this path also apply for his circle of friends and party mates? … We will see. And when we do see, we will judge how real their quest for a better Philippines really is. Let us all pray that our country starts bettering itself, like a body fighting off an infection. I am sure we are not a hopeless or terminal case. There are still a lot of men and women in our nation who are willing and able to make the sacrifice of doing things the right way … Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!"

We say "Mabuhay" as well to Gen. Sotelo, whom we remember from the Edsa I days when he flew his helicopters in favor of change.

Would it be correct for me to read his saying, "We go back to our masters of the last 30 years who have created a very conducive climate for such (rebellious?) activities" as an indictment of the succession of Edsa I political leaderships (or the "Yellows" as many call them) and their failure? If so, this is significant as it represents a rethinking of our nation's view of the legacy of Edsa I that's about 30 years now — a legacy leaving the Philippines worse off than ever before 1986.

Gen. Sotelo's zeroing in on "poverty" as the unresolved root of rebellion and a legacy of the past 30 years is absolutely on target, but naming the "elected and appointed officials" of government as the "biggest syndicate of all," I would say, is short of the mark.

Even tripling the corruption of these "elected and appointed officials" would not reach half of the plunder of the foreign, traditional and corporate oligarchy who are the real abettors of the country's farcical elections and economy through funding all sides and paying off politicians to legalize the immoral — from the privatization of public utilities and services to their monopoly of mineral projects, such as Malampaya, the gold mines, ad nausea.

The oligarchy remits trillions abroad or just earns interest from the people in the P1.8-trillion Special Deposit Account with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Just a fraction of that already makes them rich beyond imagination; yet they deny the nation it's just share of the wealth from its labors and its territory's riches.

Like all of our gallant soldiers, Gen. Sotelo has served and sacrificed for the nation — but most have only protected this present system and not the people. When patriots like him start joining the broader struggle against the entire "system" and allow the genuine transfer of power to policies and programs that truly represent "the greater good for the greatest number of people," then we shall have begun changing this country.

(Tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN Destiny Cable Channel 8, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m., also on www.gnntv-asia.com, this week on "Kudos MWSS: Water rates reduced"; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0923-4095739)