WHO’LL SAVE THE FILIPINOS FROM PRIVATIZATION???

October 23, 2015 BLOG

 
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WHO'LL SAVE THE FILIPINOS FROM PRIVATIZATION???

 

 

Privatize-failure/sabotage-bailout/buyback routine

 

It's a sad storyline the Philippine ruling class inflicts on the Filipino people, played out often and wreaking havoc on the lives of Filipinos and their economy--but the tragedies and lessons are quickly forgotten.

 

It's that recurrent story: Mainstream media trumpets government inefficiency and corruption while bestowing glowing praises on privatization and its promises.  But, after privatization to the oligarchs, the companiescommit wanton abuse followed by operational collapse.  Mainstream media, owned by the same oligarchs, cover up by obfuscation and corrupt oligarchy-controlled politicians sponsor measures to save these oligarch-masters' thick hides.

 

The 1997 privatization of water services under Maynilad Water Services, Inc. was one such story.  Set up by the Lopez family (of the infamous privatization-of-all-privatizations,Meralco) through holding company Benpres,it took control of the West Zone of Metro Manila's water services.  Three years later, under the dismal management of Rafael Alunan, and after failing to provide the services and improvements as promised, Mayniladsuffered currency losses due to the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and went bankrupt.

 

Government later infused $31 million to assist the company and then took it back to have it re-bid.  When it was awarded to D.M. Consunjiand Manny Pangilinan (a.k.a. the dummy fronting for Indonesia's Salim Group), the Philippine government and taxpayers not only failed to recover the$31-million golden parachute, but on top of that also had to fork out another $31 million in interest payments for loans that the MWSS (Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System) shouldered,owing toMaynilad's unpaid concession fees.  The Lopezes, thus, walked away without any scratch while the Filipino people all became poorer by $62 million in an instant.

 

Now it's the MRT: $1.26-B (₱56-B) gov't buyback from fattened "privateers"

 

The past week the DoTC (Department of Transportation and Communications) announced that it would obtain a ₱56-billion loan for the buyback of the MRT-3 project. In 1997 the B-O-T (Build-Operate-Transfer) commuter train line running from Taft to North EDSA was launched.  Filipinos were given the impression that the private sector financed the whole thing costing $678 million.  The truth was that these private "investors" shelled out only $190 million while it was government that borrowed $488 million, which it had since fully paid.

 

When the project was completed, government through DoTC leased and paid rent for the infrastructure and rolling stock from the Metro Rail Transit Corp.(MTRC) of the Ayalas, Sobrepeñas, Agustines, Camposes, and a few others.  Thus, after 20 years, government and taxpayers paid the lucky company the following sums: ₱85 billion in rental payments;₱32 billion in state-guaranteed private sectorloans;₱20 billion for private sector taxes; and ₱10 billion for maintenance.  As a result, these original private "investors" have earned at least 10 times their "investment."

 

Under Gloria Arroyo, the MRT-3 infrastructure and rolling stock had begun to breakdown, but the worse was seen after the second year of the BS Aquino administration. By 2014, only 8 out of 48 carriages were in running condition while signaling equipment broke down on a daily basis at its worst point. New carriages were ordered from China; but even this the private investors tried to block.  Then, a politically sourced maintenance contractor made the breakdowns much worse, slowing down the running speed of the trains tremendously.

 

Thisman-made catastrophe in the MRT's operations was blamed on government's management; Mar Roxas and mainstream media tried to sic the provincial peoples against Metro Manila MRT riders for the false charge of "unfair subsidy" (this as commuters' fareshave left enough surplus profit for the MRT, despite government actually subsidizing the privateinvestors' guaranteed profits); and the crisis was touted as the compelling reason for government's"buyback"of the MRTC from the private investors.

 

How investment bankers, oligarchs, and corrupt politicians connive

 

It's really a triumvirate of greed and evil of Wall Street bankers, the oligarchy, and corrupt politicians that rules this land with the support of "civil society" and the neoliberal academic community that have called for "privatization, liberalization  and deregulation" that all came with the anti-State, Western-oriented, bourgeois eliteEdsa Uno revolt.

 

For all the imperfections of the 21-year Marcos regime, it had some of the basic qualities of many post-World War II Third World governments that were inspired by the 19^th and 20^th Century struggles of emerging nations: It aspired for emergence from the colonial era as the country led in initiatives and hosted a 1954 meeting in Baguio on the road towards the historic 1995 Non-Aligned Nations meet in Bandung, Indonesia.

 

While necessarily accommodating the demands of the United States (the dominant power of the post-World War II world), Ferdinand Marcos had tried to slowly wean the country away from that power and its economic domination. Like many Third World leaders, Marcos had to gradually strengthen the State, especially after the lesson of the early '70s U.S. Dollar and Oil Shock Crisis, which led government to establish many State economic institutions.

 

Marcos expanded the role of such government corporations and entitiesas the National Power Corp., MWSS, Philippine National Oil Corp. (PNOC), Bataan Shipyard and Engineering Co., National Steel Corp., and many more, which was clearly not to the advantage of the global economic power then, the U.S.  Moreover, the Central Bank and its Monetary Board was still dominated by government at that time.  But all this has been reversed as all these State entities have been privatized since Edsa Uno.

 

The main U.S. instrument to destabilize Marcos from 1983 on, using the U.S.-facilitated assassination of Ninoy Aquino, as the U.S. Dollar was (and still is essential) to the Philippine financial system was financial destabilization through capital flight. The U.S. banks in the Philippines easily triggered this, and this caused the crash of the Philippine Peso and the subsequent economic crisis, which in turn created massive disenchantment.

 

With the fall of Marcos, the Wall Street bankers with their Philippine subalterns went to work dismantling the economic foundation of a strong State, removing tariffs on 1,000 import goods that caused hundreds of billions of lost government revenues; the takeover of government functions (as seen through Ernesto Aboitiz' taking charge of National Power Corp.); the removal of the foundations of energy sovereignty through the mothballing of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant; and, under Ramos, the selling off of PNOC, Petron, ad nausea.

 

Wall Street investment bankers back local oligarchs and "finance" takeovers of government assets signed over by corrupt politicians from Cory Aquino to Ramos, Arroyo, and Aquino on tax-free, giveaway terms with sovereign guarantees for profits, loans, price, and rate increases.  All three of them have happily laughed all the way to their banks, again, with the Filipino people picking up all the bills.

 

Wall Street and oligarchy vultures pick MRT flesh

 

The MRT was owned by the MRTC consortium.  It was Fidel V. Ramos who signed thecontract guaranteeing the company's 15% profit on the basis of a ₱60-maximum fare from Taft to North EDSA, which, Joseph Estrada reduced to ₱20, to make the MRT financially viable with hordes of commuters filling the erstwhile empty carriages.  But then, he was ousted early on in his term.

 

It should be underscored that just four years into the MRT's operations, the original "investors" (except Ayala)had already securitized or monetized their future dividends with the MRT III Funding Corp (MRT3FC).  Thus, the dividends in the coming years directly go to the MRT3FC's financiers--who they are we don't know.

 

To illustrate the opaqueness of these financial vultures, here is an excerpt from a 2009 Philippine Starnews article by Zinnia delaPeña: "The asset-backed notes issue is a securitization of future dividends from Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC) which flow through a series of holding companies and special purpose vehicles, to MRT III Funding Corp., the Issuer of the Notes."

 

Even though theSobrepeñas, Ramoses, Camposeset al.had already sold their future profits, they still retain ownership of MRTC shares, which Manny Pangilinan's MPIC (Metro Pacific Investment Corp.) bought and accumulated 48% ownership over.

 

At about the same time, the Gloria Arroyo governmentwas said to have fallen behind its Equity Rental Payments to the MRT3FC,allegedly due to currency problems and commuter subsidy (even as the DoTC then admitted that the financial crisis was due to financial obligations and not operational costs).

 

And so MRT3FC's bondholders filed for arbitration in Singapore and The Netherlands for $230 million in damages.Ayala, on the other hand, sold its share to Wall Street top gun Goldman Sachs, reportedly to use its clout to pressure Arroyo's thenFinance secretary, Gary Teves, ostensibly to reduce the financial obligations proposed to buyout MRT3FC bonds and 80% preferred shares of MRTC without voting rights.  Meanwhile, MRTC is still controlled by MPIC of Manny Pangilinan, from whom current DoTC Secretary Jun Abaya now wants to borrow ₱53 billionfor the MRT's buyout.

 

A few years ago, the DBP and Land Bank (both being GFIs or government financial institutions) were reported tohave fundedGary Teves' buyout plan, extending a $180-million loan (₱8.6 billion then) to an offshore company,Global Air Services (GAS),with $2 in capital and $400,000 debt obligations (and where Bobby Ongpin'ssecretary Josephine Manalo and his lawyer Rodolfo Ponferradawere company signatories).In April 2009, the GFIs bought GAS by offsetting the loan against the purchase price. So why did the GFIs need GAS to intermediate in the first place? Gary Teveswas reported to have later become a director of Ongpin'sAlphaland Corp.

 

So let's sum up this Triumvirate of Evil's take for its$190 million investment in 1995: (a) the financial transfer of $488 million paid for by the Philippine government and taxpayers to complete the financing for MRTC; (b) $2.5-billion return-on-investment via a 15% profit guarantee by government; (c) $780 million in "equity rental payments" paid for by the Philippine government; (d) $200 million for the first 10 years to private contractual management; (e) $200 million in maintenance contracts; and now (f)₱53 billion for the "buyback."  But here's the clincher: After the buyback and rehabilitation,the DoTC says it will privatize the MRT again.  What idiocy!

 

Such have been the disastrous consequences of privatization.  With more of it under the new name, PPP (Public-Private Partnership), what will be left for Filipinos?

 

WHO'LL SAVE FILIPINOS FROM PRIVATIZATION?  ONLY FILIPINOS THEMSELVES REVOLTING AGAINST THIS EVIL TRIUMVIRATE.

 

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BRITISH LORD MARC MALLOW-BROWN AS TRACER OF US-BRITISH INTELLIGENCE COOPERATION

BY: PROF. JOSE MARIA SISON

BRITISH LORD MARC MALLOW-BROWN AS TRACER
OF US-BRITISH INTELLIGENCE COOPERATION

In the years of 1985 and 1986, the US Central Intelligence had a major say in the political strategy and public relations of both the Marcos and Aquino camps through two US public relations firms, sabotaged the Marcos camp by pushing Marcos to call for the 1986 snap presidential elections and ultimately favored the Aquino camp by creating the situation for the overthrow of Marcos and the ascendance of Aquino to the presidency.

As provided by US President Reagan himself through Senator Paul Laxalt, the Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly public relations firm served the Marcos camp. But the CIA discreetly assigned to the Aquino camp the US-based Sawyer-Miller Group,a communications consultancy group, even as the Aquino camp publicly jeered at the Marcos camp for having a US public relations firm.

The Sawyer-Miller Group was a joint enterprise of US and British intelligence, with British Lord Marc Malloch-Brown as the lead British partner of his American partners. A British team of psywar experts directed by the aforesaid British lord himself took care of the political strategy and public relations of Cory Aquino.

A crucial task in their mission was to make the preemptive claim through exit polls in the 1986 elections that Aquino was the real winner and victim of cheating, as indeed Marcos cheated through control of the Comelec, and to help stir up the outrage of the Filipino people and help generate the Edsa uprising, which was patterned after the uprising that had overthrown Duvalier on the charge of electoral cheating.

Now, British Lord Marc Mallow-Brown is once more on the Philippine scene. He is board chairman of SGO, the London-based parent company of Smartmatic that screwed up the automated electoral system with pre-programmed results in the 2010 and 2013 elections.

We can see more clearly than ever before that the CIA and its British partners and operatives have something to do with Smartmatic. They are poised to manipulate the 2016 elections and pre-program the results. Many people are trying to figure out who is the CIA favorite among the presidential candidates.

On change

BY JAMES AARON MANGUN

So there is so much indignation from the supposed "elite" and "enlightened expert" class on social media that a tricycle driver, a home economics graduate, a retired policeman, a Pinoy-Russian and an interior designer are all filing their candidacies for President, often citing the fact that they belong to lower economic classes and that they do not have the sufficient educational background required to become President, hence do not have the skill or knowledge to run a country and is a "reflection of our skewed political system" and our supposed "anti-intellectualism"

Except if these upper class lemmings, other than whining and showing off their supposed "expertise" and "superiority" ever dug deeper, would realize that change and the fight for a better country was always started from the BOTTOM. The architects of change and revolutions throughout history in many countries, were ordinary people.Even those with elite backgrounds who either started or join these movements lived as ordinary men. Our own heroes, such as Andres Bonifacio , Macario Sakay, and the co founders of the Katipunan, Ladislao Diwa and Deodato Arellano, were all from modest backgrounds. Even the members of the Illustrado class among our heroes, who founded the La Liga Filipina and Propaganda Movement all lived as ordinary men and fought for equality and things like a public education system, something that would incense these "upper class" members, who want to keep education accessible only to the well-off and keep the rest of the public uneducated so they can have a pool of cheap household help and "yayas".

In the course of history, change NEVER happened by "enlightening the elite", coddling with the ruling classes or selecting any of their representatives, It always starts from the masses, from the ordinary people who work and pay their bills who fight for change because they have a direct stake or involvement in society

Xi disarms the hordes at the gates

September 27, 2015
Xi disarms the hordes at the gates

One of the most significant historical events happening before the eyes of the 21^st Century world, and riveting every political observer's attention, has been the Chinese leader President Xi Jinping's recent state visit to the U.S. The U.S. and its President Barack Obama fittingly hosted a spectacular welcome, complete with 21-gun salute. Everything about the visit was positive. The aggressive U.S. right wing, anti-China elements could not even stage any disruptive actions to mar the visit.

From the touchdown of President Xi in Seattle where he signed the immediate take-off of the world's unprecedented deal of 300 units of Boeing planes (of over 6,000 needed in the next two decades) to the various meetings of the two countries' major business leaders. President Xi arrived in Washington welcomed by President Obama and the speeches of the two presidents that vanquished all the fears the past few months from festering issues over alleged cyber-spying.

Sorry, Loida; Obama's got priorities.
Filipinos associated with the West Philippine Sea Coalition and a small group of Fil-Ams, identified with Loida Nicolas-Lewis and U.S. lawyer Rodel Rodis, want Filipinos in the Philippines to have the impression that the South China Sea issue is the top concern for Americans in relation to China. As the Xi-Obama talks went it is clear the U.S. have other higher priorities.

This is highlighted by the Reuters report of September 25, 2015 saying, "Speaking after White House talks during Xi's first U.S. state visit, Obama quickly homed in on the thorniest dispute between the world's two biggest economies--growing U.S. complaints about Chinese hacking of government and corporate databases, and the suspicion in Washington that Beijing is sometimes behind it."

The same report said, "Xi reiterated China's denial of any government role in the hacking of U.S. corporate secrets and said the best way to address the problem was through bilateral cooperation and not to 'politicize this issue'… China has routinely insisted that it too is a victim of cyber hacking… Analysts said the agreement was significant."

Edward Snowden on Obama's mind?
The British paper The Guardian reports Obama's words: "President Xi indicated to me that with 1.3 billion people he can't guarantee the behaviour of every single person on Chinese soil.  I understand that… What I can guarantee, though, and what I am hoping that President Xi will show me is that we are not sponsoring these activities and that … we take it seriously and will cooperate to enforce the law."

I note the word "we" Obama used which may be a polite editorial "they" or "he" or may also be a slip of the tongue in light of NSA (National Security Agency) whistle-blower Edward Snowden's revelations, as far back as 2013 while hiding in Hong Kong, that the US with its PRISM program has been massively cyber-spying on China for years.  However, it is clear that Obama is conciliatory in this regard.

Cool climate between Xi, Obama.
The two presidents reached a "common understanding" on steps to move toward greenhouse gas emission target limits set in previous agreements.  But President Xi had a new card from his sleeve: China would advance from its seven regional carbon cap-and-trade system to making the program "national" in 2017 covering the whole of China to put the lid on the country's emissions, building up from seven regional pilot markets that have already been established and operating in the past years.

Apparently after the years of experiments in the regional level China is confident enough today to establish more stringent carbon emission standards on its industries and on a national level - than even the U.S. does for its industries. However, based on the many expert evaluations of China proposed national cap-and-trade system insufficient details are available for a complete appreciation of the plan. One hope from a Third World perspective is that China's cap-and-trade will not export pollution to smaller countries. China is big enough to do the trading within its own vast borders.

Obama-Xi security trade-off.
The South China Sea issue did not figure as prominently in the Xi-Obama summit in Washington as anti-China rabble-rousers would have wanted. This should be obvious to all since the trade and Climate Change discussions overshadowed it.  Still, it is particularly important for Filipinos be informed of what was most likely the reason the issue was subdued. A credible reason for the downplaying of the SCS issues comes from a Western observer from Forbes magazine, Donald Kirk:

"President Obama and China's President Xi Jinping made an implicit trade-off … The U.S. side of the bargain, in language you won't see in any formal statement, goes like this: You keep North Korea from doing anything crazy, and we won't stop you from whatever you're doing in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.  The Chinese side of the bargain is just as basic: We'll do what we can to talk the North Koreans out of launching a long-range missile… and we won't build military bases in the Spratlys."

BS Aquino imperils R.P. interests
With their dashed hopes for highlighting the West Philippine Sea issue in the Xi-Obama summit, the failure of BS Aquino and his alter egos in Philippine foreign and defence policies have become obvious. They have seriously misread the economic and geopolitical realities of the times.  Since 2011 the BS Aquino government has opted for unquestioning obeisance to American initiatives to re-establish its preeminent power over Asia. China forcefully and skilfully drew its "red lines" forcing the stalemate today that will eventually be the status quo.

Failing to study the concrete, strategic economic-political and military situations of the major countries players involved, Aquino and his alter-egos in the Foreign Affairs and defence department signed on to the "Asia Pivot" of the U.S. to play the role of "agent provocateur". They started with the provocative act of sending in a war vessel, BRP Del Pilar, to arrest Chinese fishermen at the Scarborough Shoal in 2012 to incessant disinformation, such as Voltaire Gazmin's false "concrete blocks" in 2014 in the same area, and continuing agitation.

The EDCA (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement) that BS Aquino signed in April 2014 with Obama  prompted China on August 2014 to start the massive and breakneck reclamation at the Johnson Reef and other areas.  Obviously, neither BS Aquino nor his foreign and defence secretaries have had an accurate reading of China's strategic mind when they signed the EDCA and opened all Philippine military bases to U.S. military use. R.P.'s interests were not served by any of these

China: winning without fighting.
The strategic decision-makers of China obviously know their Sun Tzu enough to be several steps ahead of the other players in the region.  They have learned Sun Tzu well to know that to "subdue the enemy without fighting" (or as some others quote, "win the war without fighting"), they stay ahead of any credible threat by demonstrating the will and capability to give unequivocal punishment to any aggressor while assuaging aggressive intentions with constructive engagement.

China's heightened firmness on the Nine-Dash Line when challenged, backed by military muscles exhibited in its 70th Year Victory Parade and construction of the South China Sea island facilities shows a tough China, but it is followed up by soft power. President Xi's U.S. visit shows its soft panda power - offering billions in trade with the U.S., and billions more in aid to the U.N. and debt relief to poor nations presented at the Sustainable Development Summit speech.

Stupid as Stupid does
The Philippines' Forrest Gump in Malacañang was simply being "Stupid is as Stupid does" when on September 22, 2015, as the local newspapers put it Aquino "poked fun at Beijing's South China Sea claims, (while praising) Japan."  This, after being chastised black-and-blue twice earlier this year for his "Nazi" comments against China and this, despite the "Palace hoping Xi will attend APEC Summit" just two months before the leaders' November gathering in Manila.

It is to the credit of President Xi that he has decided to attend the APEC summit, as Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines H.E. Zhao Jianhua has hinted, according to the Philippine Star's September 27, 2015 report, which quoted him: "China will continue to support the Philippines for the smooth and successful hosting of the coming APEC meetings… China and the Philippines, he said, are not only neighbours, but are close relatives as well with their shared history … We should and we can be better friends and better partners…"

That is how a confident major world power should speak and relate with the World -- staying above the pettiness of antiquated Cold War geopolitics and "barbarian" past, with only a view for the betterment of humanity.  It's the way I would like to see any major power act and indicates that China is a power that we and the World can trust. ###

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Atty. Alan Paguia (1954-2015)

It is with great sadness that we announce Atty. Alan Paguia has passed away. His wake is at the St. Peter's Chapel in Araneta Avenue, Quezon City until tomorrow.

He was known as a strict constitutionalist, as well as becoming the counsel of Former President and now Manila Mayor "Erap" Joseph Ejercito Estrada during EDSA Dos. He will be missed.

RP’s newest PPP: Penal Prison for Profit

(This did not appear in the Tribune as scheduled for today, and future articles, reflections from me will no longer appear in Tribune as its real owners have finally, using a ridiculous excuse, pushed me to leave it and start a new blog to bring truth out. Tribune is funded by Binay as is obvious from its headlines and front page stories, also by Manny Pangilinan and his ilk among the financial predators fleecing this entire nation. It's a good time to move on for me and start up new drives to expose the sordid truth about this decaying society - hoping that in knowing it may someday be freed. - htl)

 

RP's newest PPP: Penal Prison for Profit

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 08-26-2015 WED)

 

Here's an item from the British news publication The Independent: "An American judge known for his harsh and autocratic courtroom manner was jailed for 28 years for conspiring with private prisons to hand young offenders maximum sentences in return for kickbacks amounting to millions of dollars.  Mark Ciavarella Jr. was ordered to pay $1.2 million (£770,000) in restitution after he was found to be a 'figurehead' in the conspiracy that saw thousands of children unjustly punished in the name of profit in the case that became known as 'kids for cash.'"

 

Now pan your attention to this Philippine news item on a diversified conglomerate and some construction giants "seeking to prequalify to join the auction of the P50.2-billion contract to construct and operate a new prison facility that will soon rise within Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija.  (They are said to be) interested in the regional prison PPP project just as they vied and won PPP projects to construct schools and hospital infrastructure."

 

It's just a matter of time that this privatized Philippine privatization will spawn the likes of Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. feeding the privatized prison systems for their personal profit.

 

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had to overturned 4,000 convictions issued by that Luzerne County judge in over five years of court work for violating the constitutional rights of his juvenile victims--denying them the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea to ensure a fast and furious conviction rate.

 

With the kind of abusive judicial culture in the Philippines, I shudder to think of the consequences here.

 

The privatization scourge has been spreading around the world while the global oligarchy's reign expands and intensifies with the globalization and financialization of economics.  The latest to fall victim to the privatization swindle is Greece as the entire nation was gypped in connivance with its corrupt liberal democratic government into transferring "bankster" (banker ganster) debts of private banks resulting from the 2008 Financial Crisis into public debts.  This was what happened in 1986 when Cory Aquino pledged before the US Congress to pay all, even unjust, debts of all previous administrations.

 

Like the Philippines post-Edsa 1986, the Greek nation today is seeing its state-owned power, water, transportation, infrastructure, and many other sectors for a penny to the dollar (or cent to the euro).  Greeks and Filipinos must understand that this privatization scheme goes to feed the bottomless pit of finance capital greed which produces nothing but worthless paper currencies and electronic credit that are backed up by nothing--just the political power of the world's financial class backed by US military might.  It's time to raise the pitchforks and set the guillotines if the working masses are to survive.

 

Tina Ebro, the ageless activist from our 1970s era, sent us these new analyses and report, "What lies beneath? A critical assessment of public private partnerships and their impact on sustainable development," evaluating experience of PPPs from Tanzania to Peru.  Overall the report finds that:

 

"PPPs are, in most cases, the most expensive method of financing, significantly increasing the cost to the public purse.

 

PPPs are typically very complex to negotiate and implement and all too often entail higher construction and transaction costs than public works.

 

PPPs are all too often a risky way of financing for public institutions.

 

The evidence of impact of PPPs on efficiency is very limited and weak.

 

PPPs face important challenges when it comes to reducing poverty and inequality, while avoiding negative impacts on the environment.

 

Implementing PPPs poses important capacity constraints to the public sector, and particularly in developing countries.

 

PPPs suffer from low transparency and limited public scrutiny, which undermines democratic accountability…

 

As this report is published, the post-2015 and the financing for development agendas are being negotiated.  PPPs are proposed as a key component of the financing for development agenda in response to pressing infrastructure needs.  However, it is crucial to take into account what has happened so far and examine whether PPPs will help the world's poorest countries to finance the roads, schools, hospitals, energy and other infrastructure facilities they need to grow and thrive.

 

We recommend a set of concrete actions that can have a crucial impact in this debate: Stop hiding the true costs of PPPs; be transparent and accountable; put development outcomes at the forefront; put developing countries in the driving seat…

 

You can find the specificities of these in the ​​full report: http://eurodad.org/whatliesbeneath"

 

The PPPs are the new monopoly by the global finance-capitalists hiding behind the local oligopoly for a few corporations now controlling Filipinos' lives.  It is replacing the monopoly of the State or genuine People's Government, which is the "wholesale buyer of the people for finance and services."

 

The oligarchic puppets' other moves, such as Bam Aquino's Philippine Competition Act, target only State Monopoly in order to coddle the Oligarchy's Corporate Oligopoly.

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

We salute Adm. Taccad

We salute Adm. Taccad

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 08-24-2015 MON)

 

US Naval Academy emanation Roilo Golez has been on a rampage.  He first ran amok against Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Hernando Iriberri and other AFP higher officers for putting into proper perspective the country's internal security needs relative to its realistic external threats.

 

The AFP leadership had just reallocated P6.5 billion for the purchase of Israeli missiles, which at best would just be decorations, to the much needed procurement for our troops of better equipment (such as night vision goggles), more powerful weapons, and better protective gear in their fight against proliferating insurgency groups.

 

Golez called Gen. Iriberri and other high staff officers "incompetent," which the Association of Generals and Flag Officers (AGFO) in a letter to media countered by holding a mirror to Golez's face, declaring him the incompetent.

 

That AGFO reaction was again reflected in a social media topic among the country's naval experts under the heading, "Will Taccad reverse the Golez/Pama decline (in the Navy)?"  That, of course, was in reference to Rear Admiral Taccad, the new Navy chief appointed very recently, as well as, Golez, former National Security Adviser under Gloria Arroyo, and one of the more recent top Navy officers.

 

What apparently got Golez foaming at the mouth was Rear Admiral Taccad's pronouncements in an interview with media on the situation in the West Philippine/South China Sea (WPS/SCS), where he said: "It was much heated before.  I think we are in a better position now.  We are communicating with China, and more or less not as threatened as before.  You know what they are trying to do and we try to maintain more or less peaceful coexistence or settlement of what issue we have… They have been there for a long time and they are guarding what they think is their interest in the South China Sea.  No expansion is happening…"

 

Golez tweeted on Aug. 18, 2015: "Admiral Taccad, you owe the people an explanation," attaching an article by Perry Diaz, a US citizen of Filipino decent blogging on Philippine issues.  Ten years ago I debated with Diaz on the Internet when he adulated Mrs. Arroyo.  But, when the Amboys of Hyatt 10 turned against their erstwhile patron, Diaz also did.  I challenged him to a personal debate on these Philippine issues here in Manila but he insisted to have it in Hawaii--where perhaps the US State Department can be his audience.

 

The American Diaz seems to feel that he has every right to insult a Filipino officer and gentleman by titling his article, "To whom does Taccad owe his loyalty?" even when Taccad had already prefaced everything by saying, "We will continue to protect our seas and secure the future of our nation and its people.  We shall continue to be a dependable naval force, prompt in response, and sharp in action… I shall steer the Philippine Navy towards continued transformation, modernization, professionalization, and overall progress in order to provide the maritime defense and security that is expected from a strong and formidable navy."

 

Adm. Taccad was only trying to be objective and accurate when he proclaimed that the situation in the WPS/SCS is cooling down; that communication between the militaries of the two countries has improved (which is one of the actions taken by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations); and that the Philippines is not as "threatened as before."

 

Taccad also factually stated that China is just protecting its interests over its claims, much like what the Philippines is similarly doing.  If pursuing one's claim is expansionist, then Vietnam and the Philippines are also "expansionist."  It's good that the Asean has called for a freeze and gladly that is happening.

 

While Diaz uses "aggression" in describing China's actions, he conveniently glosses over the other claimants.  Vietnam, which is currently occupying the largest number of islands (22) in the South China Sea and is also building structures there, should, by Diaz's twisted standards, be accused of being an aggressor.  The same should be true of the Philippines as well in its continued occupation of nine islands, which are more than China's eight.

 

Moreover, to verify such naked charges of aggression, I reviewed a four-page list of incidents among the claimants at the Boston Globe Forum (http://bostonglobalforum.org/wp-content/uploads/Recent-Trends-changes-in-the-South-China-Sea-Disputes.pdf) and found that, since 1999, the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard have sunk two Chinese fishing boats and killed two Chinese fishermen.  I looked elsewhere on the Internet for any Chinese sinking or killing of Filipino fishermen and found absolutely none.  So who's the aggressor?

 

Recently, another American franchise, CNN Philippines, added a twist, quoting Magdalo Party-list Rep. Ashley Acedillo at Taccad's installation, saying: "This is now a big problem, because once BRP Sierra Madre disintegrates and we leave the area, the Chinese can immediately take over…"

 

But why make it such a big deal when Acedillo was merely voicing out a legitimate fear of a prospective situation that could result from a standoff due to a breakdown of communication and BS Aquino's failure of diplomacy with the Chinese government?  Verily, the offer of "dialog without preconditions" is still on the table.  And dialog may still result in shared responsibility over the area and a fisheries agreement.

 

We have no doubt Party-list Rep. Acedillo and Rear Adm. Taccad are loyal, faithful, and genuinely patriotic Filipinos who are just stating the facts.  It is the Amboys like Golez, Diaz, and their cohorts who distort and exaggerate in order to create wrong impressions that feed the tension between China and the Philippines.

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

Pretending

Pretending

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 07-27-2015 MON)

 

It's time for another massive dose of deception.  It's the Palace Idiot's State of the Nation Address (SoNA) and another day of pretend.

 

Pretend this country is a democracy.  Pretend that the bumbling Idiot is reporting to and not deceiving the nation in another annual SoNA.  Pretend that the nation's political leadership cares for anything other than its own perpetuation in undeserved privilege and power.  Pretend that this country is a republic, independent and sovereign.  Pretend that the economy is growing.  Pretend that the nation's poor are getting a better deal now than before.  Pretend ad nausea.

 

Outside of politics: Pretend that this nation is blessed because of religion, and this WE proclaim this to the World.  Pretend that religions, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant, Evangelical, Iglesia ni Cristo, Dating Daan, Tamang Daan, Jehovah's Witness, Mormon, Islam, and what have you are savings souls.  Pretend they don't instead enrich their own clergy and the economic oligarchies--the real masters who share billions of the loot.  Pretend to keep the masses from realizing that they have a right to this world and not just the next.

 

In foreign relations: Pretend that this country has a right to more territories when it does not and cannot defend and develop territories it is already entrusted with by history.  Pretend that this country must fight for its international rights when it cannot even preserve and protect its own people's rights to basic food, health care, education, housing, creativity, productivity, and family life.

 

Pretend that the most fundamental guarantees of its Constitution--written, too, by the most pretentious people--entitle Filipinos to "a just and humane society, and… a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity, the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace…"

 

Pretend that all this is true even when 50 percent of the nation is assured of permanent unemployment or underemployment due to the oligarchic structure of this society's finance, credit, property rights, and economy.

 

Pretend as well that this country can and should aggressively prepare for "credible defense" when all of the nation's economic surplus, amounting to a trillion pesos or over $20 billion a year, is appropriated as profits by 40 oligarchic families or corporations in cahoots with transnationals while the national budget is left with a pittance to partition among 100 million hapless Filipinos.

 

Pretend still that the Philippines' defense budget of $500 million isn't paltry compared to Vietnam's $4 billion or China's $150 billion.  Pretend, as some self-proclaimed US-succoring Filipino patriots do, that a $15-million Israeli missile system is "credible defense."

 

Can we stop pretending and, as a nation, start reclaiming even only half of the P1 trillion in annual profits the 40 or so oligarchic families and corporations siphon off into their bank accounts?  Can we finally devote such resources to this nation's social welfare, economic and defense development, for a stronger population with a stronger will, and a stronger defense force?  Can we seriously build a self-reliant economy by way of self-sufficient agriculture and industry so as to break free of the perpetual cycle of mendicancy?

 

Can we stop our religious pretense and return to secularism, science, and technology as the liberators of our people, and end the nurturing of the myth of religion as the savior of this nation?  Can we wake up to the fact that religious groups are granted tax free status on billions of their annual revenues from collections and behest businesses with government, even when they do not produce real goods and render only service to the oligarchy to keep the masses and the nation docile, uninformed, and prostrate?  Let's stop pretending that religiosity is spirituality--one is slavery and only the latter is authentic.

 

Some of the young leaders I am investing hope in have seemingly lost faith in the essential goodness of man.  They have begun to believe in the articles of faith of the capitalist and oligarchic system, that "Greed is good" and there can be no genuine altruism, no natural instinct, among human beings for the collective good.  They have been indoctrinated with the pretense that capitalism promotes, that all men are greedy at the core.  That is the greatest sham one can delude himself into accepting even if, deep down, we must love all of creation since we are part of it.

 

We pretend today that there is no more "ism" to debate about; but as we can see in the stark and desperate realities our suffering society and people now face, the "ism" debate is still vital to our nation and our family's and our individual survival as human beings with human values.

 

Capitalism--along with its most grotesque embodiment, imperialism--is a failed god while the old "mixed economy," with new names of "social-market" or "market-socialism," is proving to serve nations and the peoples of the World better.  Of course, there's the shift from unipolarism to multipolarism that this nation is still oblivious to.

 

So let's stop pretending!

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

Futile end games to every Yellow problem

Futile end games to every Yellow problem

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 07-22-2015 WED)

 

It's a feeling of exasperation when one takes stock of this country's trajectory--from its elections to its foreign policy, its economic realities, and so on.

 

Elections here are a proven farce with its election body and its automated election system completely discredited.  Yet the freak show goes on.

 

Its major foreign policy pursuit is mired in a hopeless conundrum: UP Maritime Affairs Director Jay Batongbacal recently wrote that the UN arbitral tribunal may still rule in favor of China despite the latter's absence, a disaster as much as any hoped for win that will never yield any compliance even for a hundred years.

 

The Philippine "No Dialogue with China" crowd believed it had struck on a very powerful argument in the international stage when it raised the "island building" issue against China.  But brought to wider attention by US and French-reared geopoliticist Peter Lee's July 18 article on Asia Times ("Okinotorishima-ization: South China Sea arbitration case enters middle game") on the Okinotorishima rock features near Taiwan and mainland China, visible during high tide and built up by Japan into a huge facility with a lighthouse, four-story structures, etc., and the basis of their argument becomes flimsy at best.  Google the word and you'll see the huge Japanese "island," which these rabble-rousers are silent on.

 

At the conclusion of the lengthy article and to point out the futility of it all, Lee referred to our Iranian-Filipino colleague, Ateneo political science professor Richard Javad Heydarian, as "the leading defender of the Philippine strategy in the Western media, (who) endeavored to manage expectations if the Philippines does not prevail in the arbitration case… or prevails and the PRC disregards the ruling…" I texted to Richard that Lee apparently does not read enough of what he has written as I know that Richard has been calling on BS Aquino to start engaging in dialogue with China.

 

Richard texted back to me, "Actually even in my TV interviews on GMA and CNN, I emphasized on the need to have diplomatic engagement and on The Diplomat (an Australian foreign policy-military magazine) they have asked me to analyze the downside of pure confrontation with China.  But there's a lot of negative reaction from the hardliners here when I talk about engagement…"

 

The hardliners he's referring to include the likes of the so-called West Philippine Sea Coalition and big mainstream papers, including the Inquirer, working non-stop to muffle broadminded discussion that could break the "information gulag," which they obviously would like to fence the Filipino public in.

 

But broadminded and visionary discussions calling for productive engagement with China and promising multiple bounties from such actions are eliciting positive responses.  To our last column ("Thailand gets trains; RP, bases"), we received this text from a former multiple-term congressman: "Tnx.  Quarreling with China deprives us of opportunities to link up the whole country by rail.  Huhuhu…"

 

Of course, we also get our share of brickbats and name-calling (like "Fifth Columnist"… hahaha) from the hardliners who can articulate no more than such Neanderthal grunts.

 

The defense alliance of Filipino anti-China and Amboy crowds hoping to rope in to backstop their offensives against China are facing rough seas at home.  The US, though still the world's largest military, is cutting back its forces by 40,000 troops and its budget by $90 billion, both of which do not augur well for its "Asia Pivot."

 

Meanwhile, Japan's Shinzo Abe government that is leading the "reinterpretation" of that country's Constitution to allow its military to join other allied armed forces (like those of the US and Philippines) is being opposed by 66 percent of the Japanese people (represented by a hundred thousand who protested before the Diet's deliberations).

 

Back home, Philippine mainstream media and a premier survey group are hyping the "lowest hunger rate" in a decade, which uncannily comes just before presidential election year, hoping to gloss over the country's continued dependence on food importation to complete its food requirements, its agricultural sector still trapped in marginal productivity, or its institutions for agricultural development wallowing in corruption.

 

What they won't say is that the Philippines continues to be trapped in "austerity programs," as evinced by the real 50 percent under- and unemployment rate for the past 30 years after the International Monetary Fund's structural adjustments saw millions leave for jobs abroad--this much Greece shall begin to see in the years ahead.

 

The Filipino nation is made to hope that the unending cycle of problems, among the many others that cannot fit here, can be solved in the next presidential elections.  But the same old personality game of oligarchy-endorsed, media moguls cum US embassy- nurtured candidates are still in it while the political parties are the wagging tail to the celebrity candidate and not the other way around as it should be in a genuine democracy.  And, to top it all, a foreign-controlled, non-transparent, graft-ridden election company and its machines are still usurping the electoral process.

 

Smartmatic was disqualified twice by the Commission on Elections' briefly reigning, straight and honest Bids and Awards Committee, headed by Helen Flores.  But the Right Honorable Lord Mark Malloch Brown, newly-minted British full owner of Smartmatic (whom the US-based LaRouche movement calls the "guru of color revolutions" and finance predator George Soros' associate), arrives in Manila, sups with BS Aquino in Malacañang, and a week later Ms. Flores is removed, with Smartmatic getting the contracts for 170,000 Smartmatic voting machines.  Where does this end?  Only Noytards will pretend not to know what this end game will be.

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

Thailand gets trains; RP, bases

Thailand gets trains; RP, bases

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 07-20-2015 MON)

 

Thailand is on a train-building spree.  Thais rightly find that trains can develop their nation's wealth.  The Thai government, for example, is cooperating with China on the Bt400-billion Bangkok-Nong Khai 160 to 180 kilometers-per-hour trains for linkage of trade and services and goods transportation in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) mainland.  Thais are also very wise.  They're cashing in on the China-Japan rivalry by getting the Japanese to outbid the Chinese on other train projects.  Thailand is getting Japan to develop and fund the high-speed train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai (its premier tour destinations).

 

China has been dominating Asean economic developments for the past decades; only recently did Japan wake up to the need for it to start competing effectively.  Japanese PM Shinzo Abe raised his country's ante in the Asean courting game by 30 percent late last year to $110 billion.

 

The train export and development has become one of the initial battle grounds for Japan and China.  Asean countries are taking advantage: Indonesian President Joko Widodo has asked the Chinese government to develop the high-speed Jakarta-Bandung bullet train--and Japan is hurrying to put up its own offer.

 

In Cambodia, the Chinese are ahead in their development plans with that country for an $11-billion, 400-kilometer rail line cum steel mill from its northern Preah Vihear province to the commercial island of Koh Kong.  Japan is attempting to vie for such projects too.

 

Even Vietnam has a 13-kilometer-long rapid transit train project with China, cutting travel time from Cat Linh to Hanoi.  The list of Asean train projects with China is just too long to list in this column, and Japan is now close on the heels of China to catch up with Asean's modernization of its railway systems.

 

Here in the Philippines, decision-makers are pathetically misleading the Filipino people, isolating the country from productive, beneficial relationships that other Asean member-states are establishing with China.  With Japan waking up to the need to upgrade its competitiveness, most of Asean are using this rivalry to their countries' benefit.  But not here in the Philippines, where supposed "patriots" rally to isolate the country from China; futilely "boycott" its goods; and rally for the importation of "foreign (US and Japanese) military bases" disguised as Philippine installations and lobby for missiles and gunships.

 

 

Of course, the Philippine government begrudgingly has to deal with China.  In the MRT upgrading project of its coaches, the government had to buy from China's Dalian Locomotive because it is the most affordable and one of the best among the world's suppliers.  But that was not without a fight from the country's economic elite rulers who tried to stop it, or from the Western supplying company working through an ambassador, who tried to bribe its way through the top Filipino political family, to impose its train coaches that are four times more expensive than the ones from China.

 

The Philippines is being misled not just on missing out on theses trains but in hundreds of billions of opportunities for trade, tourism, and financing.  The AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) is a golden opportunity to tap the huge financing pool China has set up, as well as the NDB (New Development Bank) in cooperation with the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), but the Philippines has been corralled out of them by its ruling powers, i.e. Western powers and their cohort ruling class in the Philippines, who all want to keep the Philippines under their control economically, financially, and militarily.

 

And so the Filipino people are kept in mental, intellectual, and information "concentration camps" while these powers "hamlet" the warmongers both inside and outside the country and peddle their war materiel--like this retired US Naval Academy graduate cum Gloria Arroyo National Security Adviser cum hard-selling vendor for Israeli missiles, who insists on these missiles against the better judgment of our Armed Forces' incumbent authorities who prefer to provide protection to our troops fighting terrorists and the Malaysian-supported Muslim insurgency.  How more insane can these "patriots" get?

 

However, even in military equipment, the Philippines is missing out on the most affordable and among the highest quality defense materiel.  Thailand, for instance, has bought submarines from China worth $1 billion.  These submarines, arguably, should fulfill more effectively the overall need of the Philippines for external defense--to stop arms smuggling in the South that supplies the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, BangsaMoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Abu Sayyaf, and others, as well as to interdict shipments that result in both economic, political, and military sabotage or to resupply Philippine-controlled islands in the South China Sea.

 

But I am being waylaid to military purchases issues when the real need of the country is economic development in order to afford bigger and more legitimate defense budgets in the future.  The Philippines is the "kulelat" in trade with China while the most economically advanced in Asean have up to triple that trade volume, with Indonesia having double that of the Philippines with China.

 

The Philippines needs trains and other economic goods--not the US and Japanese military bases nor missiles and gunboats.

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

A nation waylaid by its traitor class

A nation waylaid by its traitor class

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 07-15-2015 WED)

 

As if he had a stroke of genius, one columnist at the Malaya wrote: Win first then talk.  He was, of course, referring to winning in The Hague on the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea issue.  The writer apparently thinks the intellectual level of China's leadership is at the same level as his or the present ruling class' in the Philippines.  He forgets the revolutionary tradition from which the present leadership of China springs and its victorious 60-year struggle to achieve its present proud status.  A "victory" by the Philippine junket team at The Hague won't matter an iota.

 

The BS Aquino government obviously expects a victory at The Hague given its estimate of the self-interest of the Tribunal to insist its relevance, which is what some of the pro-litigation proponents have stated.  They have warned the Tribunal in so many statements, which I paraphrase, "The ITLoS will become irrelevant if it does not support Secretary Albert del Rosario's case."  What is also apparent is their notion that the employment of the four foreign, Caucasian lawyers will provide a clear advantage to the Philippines' case.  That is certainly laughable.

 

Regarding this pricey legal team, Ado Paglinawan (formerly with our Washington embassy) emailed us from the US: "The Hague is clearly for optics… the show of force, massive propaganda with a lot emotional sound bites.  All those monkeys spending our tax dollars can now proceed to our rouges' gallery… Ta..g ina, 30 million of our people are below poverty line and they waste our money that easily.  There are two court trials to my best witness where we hired expensive attorneys and not just lost millions of dollars in the litigation but lost the case altogether.

 

"I watched this up close as Philippine press attache--first the Imelda trial in New York, and second the Westinghouse case in New Jersey.  In keeping with the 'Aquino' and 'Liberal Party' hang-up for legalism, this is the third time we will lose millions of dollars and lose… Will the remaining idiots please line up at the left yellow row?"

 

If after the jurisdiction issue is settled in favor of The Tribunal itself then the other issues follow.  With China explicitly not participating, Justice Carpio's three generations of argumentation will still not see China responding to any of this.

 

Ado Paglinawan is our Dialog-with-China advocacy group's first book author to be published through crowd-funding.  It'll be out in a few months and others will follow.  It's surprising how many others are seeing our point of view.  Ado's first hundred-page book will be on "BS Aquino's Toxic Foreign Policy"; another book forming the compendium is entitled "A Problem for Every Solution," on how BS Aquino and the Yellows scuttle every solution to the nation's crisis--including the Mamasapano crime and others that only BS Aquino's ilk can inflict on this nation.

 

The spectacle at The Hague is the ruling class's project to regale the Filipino public with while their half-wit commentators persuade themselves and the nation of their supposed genuine patriotism.

 

Meanwhile, the MRT and LRT operations are deteriorating by the day: After several months laying off the mass transit trains, I took the LRT from Cubao to Doroteo Jose where I and thousands of commuters sweated a torrent of sweat.  Hoping to get to Central station with my stored value card I was told to buy a single trip ticket as the turnstile card reader wasn't working.

 

I climbed down three stories of stairs (ALL escalators not working) to get a taxi; none passed.  As I was already late for my two appointments, I gave up and climbed up those three flights of stairs and took the LRT back to Cubao.  And, yes, all these after they raised fares by a hundred percent or so (I've lost rack), with the Supreme Court still sitting on the TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) for six months now, to stop the fare hikes for commuter protection advocates like Riles Network, which proves the LRT (and MRT) fare hikes are wholly unjustified.

 

Nothing works in this society under the treasonous ruling class and collaborationist intelligentsia, like that economist of the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) who urged his readers to "Connect the Dots" as he and his peers support the same "austerity measures" on the Philippines in the 1980s as the IMF, ECB, and EU now impose on Greece.

 

With the Philippines' de-industrialization, it suffered 50-percent unemployment (and underemployment), forced millions to migrate for jobs, and countless Filipinos were locked in impoverishment while foreign and local oligarchs became ever more enriched.

 

This is a nation waylaid by its traitor class from its promising and prosperous future that its natural wealth was meant for.

 

(Tune to: Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tues. to Fri., 5-6 p.m.; GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 21, Sat., 8 p.m. and replay Sun., 8 a.m.; search Talk News TV and Saturday date on YouTube; text reactions to 0917-8658664)

BS Aquino makes a fool of RP

BS Aquino makes a fool of RP

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 07-13-2015 MON)

 

They just couldn't restrain themselves.  BS Aquino's factotums had to have an all-out junket at The Hague.  With Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto del Rosario was a delegation reportedly consisting of 50 people.  They didn't even try to mask their intent. Including the irrelevant likes of Ronald Llamas and a few more hangers-on with absolutely no role in the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLoS) case makes the junket all the more obvious.  Then there's the Philippine "all White" plus one miniscule brown man legal panel led by Green Card holder Del Rosario for good measure.

 

When the Philippines was pursuing the other, really important territorial case called the "Sabah claim," which BS Aquino and his ilk desperately want people to forget, the erudite legal experts expounding on the issues and representing the Philippines then were Filipino legal heavyweights Diosdado Macapagal, Arturo Tolentino, Jovito Salonga, and others.

 

We are told by Filipino lawyers that the hiring of these foreign legal experts involves hefty commissions.  Whatever the real motivation behind this is, hiring foreign lawyers already compromises the image of the Philippines' case at the ITLoS.  I can only imagine other Association of Southeast Asian Nations states laughing.

 

Another irrelevance to The Hague team is Sonny Belmonte.  He claimed the big delegation is to impress the court.  I would think that the judges would prefer to be impressed by the power of legal arguments rather than the number of delegates--but Belmonte's view is really very Filipino, thinking that the "mob" can replace thinking.  I will not comment on Belmonte's meeting with Jose Ma. Sison for I have too much respect for the "reaffirmists" here I work with on various people's issues in the country.  But, of course, Joma's position has implications on the World's anti-imperialist struggle.

 

The same day as the start of oral arguments on the Philippines' case against China's claims at the ITLoS, two historic anti-Western imperialist conferences convened in Ufa, Russia.

 

The first, consisting of the BRICS alliance of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, represents the major countries of four continents and almost half of the World's population and economy. Indonesia, representing the Islamic world, is the next major country at the door step of the BRICS, an alliance that has been dubbed not just an alliance of civilizations but also of cultures--unlike the G7 that's homogenous (except for junior partner Japan).

 

The second, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) consisting of China, Russia, and the Central Asian states (with India and Pakistan as incoming members) met from July 7 to 9.

 

Vladimir Putin hosted both meetings, debunking the West's isolation of Russia.  While the SCO is preparing the unity of its members to combat terrorism (read ISIS and related terror groups engineered by the US and its client states), the BRICS has set up, among others things, the $100-billion New Development Bank and a $100-billion currency stabilization fund to counter the frequent currency attacks conducted by the West.

 

The BRICS and SCO are affirmations of the rise of the Asian Century with Eurasian giant Russia tilting toward the East.  This ends the era of Western Imperialism.

 

Brick by brick, the multipolar world is being laid.  It is in this context that China's security is essential in the struggle to end the resuscitation of the US "Asia pivot" and its hegemony.

 

A Philippines that is part of the liberation of the world would expand its consciousness to appreciate the imperatives of solidarity of all anti-imperialist countries--including China--while sharing in the opportunities and responsibilities.

 

To speak too directly about the real implications of members of the Philippine Left being waylaid into the campaign to restore US hegemony in Asia would be too hurtful.  The united front is too important for this to be allowed to happen.

 

We in the campaign to restore the anti-imperialist perspective in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea issue are patiently explaining the issues with individuals overwhelmed by the well-funded tri-media and social media propaganda (reportedly managed by Campaigns and Grey, a US PR firm with a $20-million budget for the Philippines).

 

This project has been very successful in shifting the raging emotions of the Filipino public away from the Mamasapano fiasco and apparently reversing the trend toward more productive attitudes to bilateral talks with China.

 

However, I am impressed that the latest surveys still show a staunch 17 percent of Filipinos trusting China despite the Great Wall of Disinformation of the Inquirer and other mainstream media.  We will still reverse this soon as our forces for liberation from Western hegemony start cranking up books, pamphlets, comics, and other education materials.

 

The best allies of this anti-Western hegemony campaign are the incompetent and corrupt forces of the Americans themselves who cannot hide their sham.  The junket at The Hague and the American legal panel supplanting any genuine Filipino effort, as much as the Mamasapano fiasco making fools of the Philippines, exposes them for what they are.

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; visithttp://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

Soho wiser than Carpio

Soho wiser than Carpio

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 07-06-2015 MON)

 

On the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea (SCS/WPS) dispute, seasoned public affairs TV news anchor Jessica Soho displayed more intelligence and wisdom with her plain common sense than the much vaunted Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.

 

That Soho interview was the culmination of Carpio's organized lecture series cum "experts' discussion" that kicked off last June at the plush Discovery Suites (sponsored no less by a Japanese neo-nationalist institute) and continued at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, as well as in the media circuit.

 

The July 2, 2015 episode of State of the Nation with Jessica Soho was where Carpio belabored the fact that the Philippines' International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLoS) case will "…take time…even an inter-generational struggle… (where even) if we will win … this generation will get the ruling… the next will convince the world… and maybe the next… after that will convince China…"

 

Since one generation is 25 years, Carpio is effectively talking of 75 years before any potential benefits.  To this Soho reacted with plain common sense: "Will there be anything left in the SCS/WPS after that time?"

 

After stumping Carpio with that question, Soho then led him to reflect on the question of the growing majority of Filipinos as to why the Philippines is not engaging China in bilateral talks over the SCS/WPS dispute between the two countries.  Soho asked Carpio why the Philippines has not taken the track of bilateral dialog at the same time (as many suggest, a two-track policy that includes dialog--especially after China spoke through its envoy, Ambassador Zhao Jianhua, last June 12 that it is open to dialog "without any precondition").

 

Carpio took pains to persuade his listeners that bilateral dialog is not a viable option as it would "jeopardize" the ITLoS case if China invokes the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLoS) requirement that disputants first submit to choice "peaceful means" of resolution, among which are dialog and negotiations, to resolve issues; and only upon the inability to come to terms through such initial "peaceful means" can the matter be brought to the court.

 

China contends that no such peaceful dialog has happened and Carpio's caveat may indicate that such can be claimed.

 

To buttress his arguments for the Philippines to desist from any effort to engage China in dialog and bilateral negotiations, Carpio was not beyond comparing bananas to lychees to make his case.

 

Citing the Nicaragua vs United States case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)--not ITLoS--where the US was rapped for laying naval mines in Nicaragua's harbors against the Sandinista government (which, again, is not a territorial dispute) and where the ICJ decided in favor of Nicaragua with a $30-million award in damages (which the US repeatedly ignored), Carpio claimed that the US complied after mounting international pressure grew out of Nicaragua's repeated attempts at securing a resolution before the UN General Assembly.

 

The truth is the US did not even want to appear at the slightest bit to be complying with that ICJ ruling as it first required the repeal of a Nicaraguan law requiring compensation before even extending a politically motivated "aid" package of roughly over $500 million (not $1 billion as claimed by Carpio) to the US-backed Violeta Chamorro administration that succeeded the Sandanistas.

 

Carpio, as a member of the high court, demeans the stature of his position when he stoops that low as to attempt to deceive the public.  His apparent need to dissuade the Filipino people from engaging in "bilateral talks" with China seems so overriding that he had no qualms doing this.

 

Many international judicial and quasi-judicial bodies, by their very nature, are not beyond the reach of geopolitical influences.  The world has seen this, from Slobodan Milosevic's trial to the abuse of the International Criminal Court against African political leaders not allied to Western powers.

 

Many countries, including China in this case, do not countenance involvement of such multilateral institutions controlled by the West.  In conflicts such as those in Libya, Côte d'Ivoire, or the Rwandan genocide, these institutions were part of the problem and not the solution.  Conversely, the Tribunal may also be used to turn against the Philippines' interest.

 

Carpio and his like-minded anti-dialog clique are really getting desperate as more and more Filipinos are wishing for dialog and bilateral talks with China over the SCS/WPS impasse.  As we wrote recently, "In the Laylo Survey from May 8 to 18 among 1,500 respondents, 53 percent of Filipinos supported a diplomatic solution (i.e. dialog) versus 47 percent who 'believe it is better'… to have filed a case… (which was followed by a) June SWS poll (that) reported 46 percent of Filipinos disapprove of the government's actions (filing the case at the ITLoS), which is a sea change from the SWS' 2013 survey where only 27 percent disapproved of the government's moves."

 

Note the advice from a young but internationally recognized Filipino writer, Ateneo professor Richard Javad Heydarian, in his Huffington Post article last June 30: "'Time for the Philippines to Adjust its South China Sea Approach' … Manila should pursue dialog with Beijing while it still can… the Philippines can still learn some lessons from its neighbors on how to better manage the ongoing disputes and best deal with the Chinese juggernaut.  Diplomacy isn't only about mobilizing… against your foes.  It is also about… managing differences with even the bitterest foes."

 

Got that, Carpio?

 

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