Another Japanese atrocity remembered

Another Japanese atrocity remembered

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 02-25-2015 WED)

 

Traveled the previous night by bus.  Through the South Expressway and the suburban roads leading to San Pablo City, I saw overhead street lights whiz by, punctuating the dark sky and twinkling dots of thousands of vehicles darting past and forward.  It reminded me of all the nighttime road travels through the cities and expressways of every country I had visited.  At night roads and cities everywhere seem the same.  But there is a rumble across the world today that may one day destroy all these basic structures of modern civilization--the rumble of global war.

 

I have traveled to San Pablo, Laguna to participate in the unveiling of one historical monument.  It is a small but very important event, which I am helping to report to the Filipino nation to refresh its memory of wars--especially of global wars--that nobody should ever want and that everybody should instead actively work on to banish from the future of mankind.

 

The Second World War saw at least one million Filipino civilians killed when its total population then was only 16 million or around seven percent of its people.  That’s not counting the many more who died from hunger and disease as a result of that war.

 

There is this famous Doomsday Clock established in 1947 by members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and originally hung on its office wall at the University of Chicago.  The Clock is there to represent a “countdown to possible global catastrophe” from nuclear war, originally set at seven minutes to midnight and reset 20 times since reflecting the highs and lows of the chances of nuclear war.

 

Last Jan. 22 this was again reset two minutes forward, bringing the world just three minutes before midnight.  The next nuclear war (World War II was the first since the US used atomic bombs) can indeed wipe out civilization as we know it today.

 

Before I digress too far, let me quote the text of the monument against militarization and war in remembrance of the massacre:

 

“In Memoriam: San Pablo City Chinese Massacre Victims Feb. 24, 1945

 

“After the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II, Japanese soldiers invaded the Philippines.  Countless overseas Chinese were tortured and killed.

 

“On Feb. 24, 1945, more than 600 Chinese males aged 16 to 50 who lived in San Pablo City were called to assemble in the town cathedral, without reason, and massacred.  The cruel act of the Japanese soldiers was atrocious.  After the defeat of Japan, the Chinese in San Pablo City collected the scattered remains of their dead and buried them in San Pablo Chinese Cemetery.  The victims were remembered and revered annually.

 

“Feb. 23, 2015 marks the 70th death anniversary of the massacre.  In memory of the massacre, the San Pablo Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce resolved to build a monument to commemorate the massacre of Chinese town-mates and to invoke the people’s awareness against the possible resurgence of Japanese militarism and atrocities.

 

“With the inscription of President Ma Ying-jeou, we raise this monument for the next generations to remember the death of the innocents and against Japanese militarism.

 

“By San Pablo Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce

Feb. 24, 2015”

 

The Second World War reduced the Philippines from an idyllic country of agricultural abundance and industrial promise to a nation savaged economically and morally.  Its pre-war capital Manila, the Pearl of the Orient, became WWII’s second most devastated city (as often cited, second only to Warsaw, Poland).  That war was a war of imperialist powers seeking to subjugate other nations to exploit their natural resources and markets.  Out of that war, owing to its unique geographical assets, only one super-imperialist triumphed, making it Fortress America.

 

Today, under the direction of the US of A, the Japanese ruling class is being led to a revival of its militarism--even though this is opposed, as confirmed by surveys, by 70 percent of the Japanese people.  By any measure, the US is prepping its Asian ally for the “next war.”

 

The Washington Blog had a recent article, “America Has Been At War 93 Percent of the Time--222 Out of 239 Years--Since 1776” and listed all its wars down to the latest in 2015, the “War on Terror in Somalia, Syria and Yemen; Civil war in Ukraine,” adding that “Indeed, most of the military operations launched since World War II have (been) launched by the US.”

 

America needs a new major war and Japan is joining no matter the howls of protest--ditto the Philippines.

 

We are, thus, reminded of this George Santayana quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it...”

 

That monument to a Japanese massacre of innocents in San Pablo City serves as a major addition to the already countless reminders dotting this land--even as this nation is always in danger of forgetting.

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tues. to Fri., 5-6 p.m.; watch GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; search You Tube Talk News TV Feb 21 2015; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 02-25-2015 WED)

 

Traveled the previous night by bus.  Through the South Expressway and the suburban roads leading to San Pablo City, I saw overhead street lights whiz by, punctuating the dark sky and twinkling dots of thousands of vehicles darting past and forward.  It reminded me of all the nighttime road travels through the cities and expressways of every country I had visited.  At night roads and cities everywhere seem the same.  But there is a rumble across the world today that may one day destroy all these basic structures of modern civilization--the rumble of global war.

 

I have traveled to San Pablo, Laguna to participate in the unveiling of one historical monument.  It is a small but very important event, which I am helping to report to the Filipino nation to refresh its memory of wars--especially of global wars--that nobody should ever want and that everybody should instead actively work on to banish from the future of mankind.

 

The Second World War saw at least one million Filipino civilians killed when its total population then was only 16 million or around seven percent of its people.  That’s not counting the many more who died from hunger and disease as a result of that war.

 

There is this famous Doomsday Clock established in 1947 by members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and originally hung on its office wall at the University of Chicago.  The Clock is there to represent a “countdown to possible global catastrophe” from nuclear war, originally set at seven minutes to midnight and reset 20 times since reflecting the highs and lows of the chances of nuclear war.

 

Last Jan. 22 this was again reset two minutes forward, bringing the world just three minutes before midnight.  The next nuclear war (World War II was the first since the US used atomic bombs) can indeed wipe out civilization as we know it today.

 

Before I digress too far, let me quote the text of the monument against militarization and war in remembrance of the massacre:

 

“In Memoriam: San Pablo City Chinese Massacre Victims Feb. 24, 1945

 

“After the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II, Japanese soldiers invaded the Philippines.  Countless overseas Chinese were tortured and killed.

 

“On Feb. 24, 1945, more than 600 Chinese males aged 16 to 50 who lived in San Pablo City were called to assemble in the town cathedral, without reason, and massacred.  The cruel act of the Japanese soldiers was atrocious.  After the defeat of Japan, the Chinese in San Pablo City collected the scattered remains of their dead and buried them in San Pablo Chinese Cemetery.  The victims were remembered and revered annually.

 

“Feb. 23, 2015 marks the 70th death anniversary of the massacre.  In memory of the massacre, the San Pablo Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce resolved to build a monument to commemorate the massacre of Chinese town-mates and to invoke the people’s awareness against the possible resurgence of Japanese militarism and atrocities.

 

“With the inscription of President Ma Ying-jeou, we raise this monument for the next generations to remember the death of the innocents and against Japanese militarism.

 

“By San Pablo Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce

Feb. 24, 2015”

 

The Second World War reduced the Philippines from an idyllic country of agricultural abundance and industrial promise to a nation savaged economically and morally.  Its pre-war capital Manila, the Pearl of the Orient, became WWII’s second most devastated city (as often cited, second only to Warsaw, Poland).  That war was a war of imperialist powers seeking to subjugate other nations to exploit their natural resources and markets.  Out of that war, owing to its unique geographical assets, only one super-imperialist triumphed, making it Fortress America.

 

Today, under the direction of the US of A, the Japanese ruling class is being led to a revival of its militarism--even though this is opposed, as confirmed by surveys, by 70 percent of the Japanese people.  By any measure, the US is prepping its Asian ally for the “next war.”

 

The Washington Blog had a recent article, “America Has Been At War 93 Percent of the Time--222 Out of 239 Years--Since 1776” and listed all its wars down to the latest in 2015, the “War on Terror in Somalia, Syria and Yemen; Civil war in Ukraine,” adding that “Indeed, most of the military operations launched since World War II have (been) launched by the US.”

 

America needs a new major war and Japan is joining no matter the howls of protest--ditto the Philippines.

 

We are, thus, reminded of this George Santayana quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it...”

 

That monument to a Japanese massacre of innocents in San Pablo City serves as a major addition to the already countless reminders dotting this land--even as this nation is always in danger of forgetting.

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tues. to Fri., 5-6 p.m.; watch GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; search You Tube Talk News TV Feb 21 2015; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

Airheads and strategic realities

Airheads and strategic realities

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 02-23-2015 MON)

 

To paraphrase Albert Einstein: “An airhead (a person with nothing between the ears) is someone doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

 

I see a few hundred airheads and an airheaded Philippine mainstream media doing the same Edsa “people power” demonstrations again and again expecting “regime and systems change” but getting the same worsening corrupt, oligarchic and oppressive system.  Even worse, airheadedness is expecting regime change even when the indispensable requirement of US blessing is absent; hence, no forthcoming Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) “withdrawal of support” or direct military action as in Edsa I.

 

Rallies galore are heading to the Edsa Shrine from Feb. 22 to 28 where motley groups promise “a million” rallyists to force BS Aquino to resign (even when the popular anti-pork Million Man March managed only over 100,000 in spite of Sunday promenaders mixing in as kibitzers).

 

The groups range from the National Transformation Council (NTC) to Peping and Tingting’s Council on Philippine Affairs (COPA-cabana) loyalists, from Fr. Jose C. Blanco’s defunct creation Kasapi, to the Anti-Dynasty Coalition and Occupy Edsa movements, and groups from the progressive Left to FVR-linked Jose Malvar Villegas’ unknown crime watch group, and countless others trying to get their names into the news.

 

Subsumed under the common “Resign Noynoy” agenda are multifarious personal and subgroup agendas.  There is no hope for Aquino’s resignation since he enjoys the unmitigated blessings of Uncle Sam, to whom he has shown his ultimate canine devotion with the bloody sacrifice of the Philippine National Police (PNP)’s SAF (Special Action Forces) 44 on the altar of its “War on Terror” and BangsaMoro Basic Law (BBL) Balkanization.  Sans Uncle Sam’s blessing, there can be no AFP-PNP “withdrawal of support” a la Gen. Angelo Reyes against Erap Estrada (Edsa II) or military rebellion a la RAM (Reform the Armed Forces Movement) essential to Edsa I.

 

A genuine “people power” revolution without Uncle Sam can only succeed if and when a core of AFP officers joins the cause without US benediction.  Countries of Latin America have achieved this through relatively peaceful electoral revolutions, breaking free of US neocolonialism and pursuing independent economic development and foreign policies by way of people power and independent military factional support.  This was the case in Hugo Chavez’ liberation of Venezuela through the nationalization of its oil wealth, which was followed by Bolivia, Ecuador et al.

 

Among the anti-Aquino Edsa rallies since Feb. 22, the strategic movers are a small minority.  The progressive Left is one among such group: It boycotted Edsa I and found itself out of the political rigmarole that followed.  Its members then joined Edsa II and advanced their parliamentary struggle beyond their wildest dreams, albeit with strings attached.  Some individual strategists have clear objectives, too, like Ado Paglinawan of the NTC network who believes that a minimum target would be the crippling of the Aquinos’ and the Liberal Party’s political leverage for 2016.

 

The basic issue for the Philippines is the strategy of “perpetual war” of the US-British-Old European oligarchy.  This group, also known as the Trans-Atlantic Alliance, is using its proxies in Ukraine and has embroiled the European Union and Russia in economic-political tensions.  Fortunately, Germany, France, and Russia have rejected this in the recent Minsk Agreement for peace in Ukraine.  This Trans-Atlantic Imperial Alliance is doing the same in Africa and the Middle East, creating proxy terror groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic State to create chaos.

 

Peacefully prospering Asia is the final target; hence, the US’ Asian pivot positioning 60 percent of its military forces here by 2020; its push for Shinzo Abe’s Japanese militarization; and its promotion of Xinjiang and Mindanao secessionism.

 

Systematic mainstream media misinformation, like in the Inquirer’s recent hyper-exaggerated reports of “ramming” of three Filipino fishing boats and a BBC journalist’s baseless claim that “China has no friends,” blind Filipinos to the US’ hegemonic agenda and buries Deng Xiaoping’s offer of mutual beneficial joint development of China Sea islands (which is impliedly also a security partnership against any war).

 

Since the implied security alliance is rejected in favor of an RP alliance with the hegemonic US agenda, China has no choice but to proceed to beef up its perimeter defenses to counter preemptive US-Australian military facilities against the all-important access to sea lanes.

 

BS Aquino’s approval of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, granting unlimited US use of all Philippine military bases ensures US rejection of any regime change against him.

 

To ensure a successful genuine People Power in the future, the AFP young officers corps should be awakened to such injustices as the sacrifice of ordinary Filipinos as well as the SAF 44 massacre.

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tues. to Fri., 5-6 p.m.; watch GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; search You Tube Talk News TV Feb 21 2015; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

The coup

The coup

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 02-18-2015 WED)

 

It was an open secret since early 2014: Some bishops, together with political, media, and retired military figures associated with the previous regime started a call to oust BS Aquino III.  The bishops had a litany of issues--the reproductive health (RH) law was one; but the massive Janet Lim-Napoles (remember her?) pork barrel funds scam certainly took the cake.

 

The attendant blackmail of Napoles by the National Bureau of Investigation soon morphed into a Malacañang cover-up.  The principal suspect’s “surrender” was arranged, with Mar Roxas chauffeuring his “Ma’am” to meet (with a warning to cooperate) with BS Aquino.  Then, the “Million Man” march followed.

 

Catholic Church notables led rallies at the Luneta.  But the backlash against Aquino exploded when Sen. Jinggoy Estrada exposed the trillion-peso presidential pork (confirmed by former National Treasurer Liling Briones) called the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

 

The crescendo reached its loudest when Napoles wrote a letter, channeled through the bishops and read at the Club Filipino in mid-2014, where she pinned Aquino’s Budget Secretary Butch Abad as the biggest DAP-porker in the land.  From there, the clergy-led National Transformation Council (NTC) evolved.

 

From having attended an NTC meeting and reading its papers, I had quite a few misgivings about the group.  It said its leadership would remain confidential--which is certainly starting on the wrong foot.  Moreover, what is NTC’s stand on power, water and public transportation rates abuse by the oligarchs?  I haven’t heard any answers.  Still, I egged it on since the more dissent, the better to shake up the demonstrably corrupt and oppressive system and its rulers.

 

The NTC was far from being alone.  Other crusaders revolved around the MRT/LRT fare and water rate hikes, the power rate abuses, the Smartmatic-PCOS Comelec scandals, and other issues.  The whirlwinds were there even when there was no eye to the storm.

 

But the Jan. 25 Mamasapano Massacre changed all that.  The horrific killings and the rage against the treasonous Malacañang tenant’s cowardly acts raised a maelstrom against BS Aquino.  In a flash, his history of fiascos welled up in the memory of the nation--from his insane Executive Order No. 1 to the Luneta Massacre, to his presidential pork scandal as well as intractable poverty and unemployment, and endless rising costs of living.  Thus, when the gallant SAF (Special Action Forces) 44 were slaughtered at the altar of BS Aquino’s BangsaMoro Basic Law obsession, all hell broke loose.  The little whirlwinds of dissent fueled and fired by a nation’s revulsion gathered a storm against him, which some saw as the winds of Jericho.

 

Great political storms have gathered before: Edsa III almost toppled the walls of Gloria Arroyo’s Jericho.  That great storm had mighty elders of another church and a lay religious movement as well but did not draw in the nation’s men-of-arms nor the winds from the West that once blew phantoms (such as the 1989 coup) to snuff out the fires of rebellion from those men-of-arms.

 

It remains to be seen if the maelstrom today can draw in the forces to gather enough momentum to sweep away the Tower of Babel that Malacañang has become.  The completed coups, in 1986 and 2001, disguised as “People Power,” had both elements joined in.

 

Past failed coup attempts (1987, 2003, 2006, and 2007) had varying shades of “people power” configurations but failed to muster the military’s commitment or the blessings of the Western Lord of the Winds.

 

The present effort at a coup is, at this stage, still trying to draw in the military while hoping to create a fait accompli for the Western power to abandon Aquino.  Groups of young officers are being courted but consensus is not easy.

 

The NTC avoids what it perceives as “trapo” politics, hence its “resign all” call.  Disgruntled presidential uncle Peping Cojuangco shuttles between factions and young officers.  Sen. Antonio Trillanes disrupts what he sees as pro-coup consolidation by calling out former National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales.  The principled Left initiates its own moves to contribute to the gathering storm.  But while there’s no legal alternative, much as Arroyo was for Edsa II, coupled with a nonchalant US Embassy, the military will be hard put to consolidate any putsch.

 

Aquino’s credibility is zilch.  Many Filipinos would certainly be happy to see a new “people power” push through.  But two presidential ousters only had them thrown from the frying pan to the fire and then the fiery coals.

 

People are now both wary and weary of “instant revolutions” that show no demonstrably capable leadership and program of reforms beyond motherhood statements.  The people themselves, too, have much to learn, no thanks to their dumbing down by mainstream media.

 

The people must rise from being sheep to becoming critical human beings.  After all, the best teachers have been the pains of the failed promises of Edsa I and the Aquinos.

 

 

(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 You Tube Talk News TV Feb 14 2015; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

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Remember to be silent and reflect upon yourself from time to time.

Cover up upon cover up

Cover up upon cover up

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 02-04-2015 WED)

 

The BS Aquino government has been on the brink of collapse since the nation learned of its treachery against its own Philippine National Police-Special Action Forces (PNP-SAF) heroes at Mamasapano, Maguindanao.  PNP officials and men, active and retired, with the sympathy of millions upon millions of Filipinos, have been staging marches and vigils.  Civilians have been forming coalitions for mobilization.  The “Occupy Edsa” alliance that includes the bishops-led National Transformation Council (NTC), which started an anti-Comelec-PCOS vigil called yesterday for an “Occupy Mendiola mass and rally (on) February 7 requested by the wives of PNP Officers in honor of the Fallen 44.”

 

Emissaries from groups organizing mass actions have visited or called us to solicit support.  I encouraged all of them and promised whatever support I can give but gave one caveat: “Be prepared to be frustrated if you do not attack the root problem and the real support behind BS Aquino’s government--the US operators and their Fifth Column in this country that wield inordinate power over the affairs of this nation.  This Fifth Column is now covering up with massive propaganda the basic treachery involved in the sacrifice of the Fallen 44 as well as the facts of the case through the controlled “Board of Inquiry” (BoI) it is setting up.

 

Last Saturday at the Anabel’s Kapihan a representative of the PNP joined the media discussion panel, but the first thing the PNP representative advised the audience was to avoid “speculation” and wait for the BoI’s findings.  My adverse reaction was immediate, and the former SAF member surprisingly nodded in agreement.  I said, “I pity your situation, you are sworn to protect and defend the authority above you but you cannot speak freely and those authorities invariably have more, it is our job (in media) to connect-the-dots and find the truth behind the obstacles authorities put before the truth.”

 

The only really important question that the BS Aquino government must answer is why the Fallen 44 were never given succor in over 12 hours of entrapment enemy fire even after they ran out of ammunition.  The question for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)--Big Brother to the BangsaMoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), which is a party to “peace talks” with the Government of the Philippines is why they treated the Fallen 44 as “all-out enemy” in a seeming “all-out war” at that point--finshing off the SAF 44 as they lay dying.  Now they decry the “all-out war” call of the nation.

 

BS Aquino’s “rhetorical” shrug off of direct responsibility and the MILF seeking empathy for their own dead answer nothing.

 

BS Aquino’s “No need for my signal” is a “go signal” while a “no signal” from a president is a “no go signal” to the PNP-SAF and Armed Forces of the Philippines troops eager to rescue their comrades whose hands are tied by “ceasefire” loose ends.  But these are key questions a BoI by BS Aquino would never face squarely.  Mr. Murad’s “Don’t blame us, we suffered casualties too...” is no answer to the question as to why international terrorists and bomb makers are in the territory the MILF claims.

 

Moreover, there would be no casualty on any side if terrorist bomb makers were not traced by Federal Bureau of Investigation information to the MILF’s bosom.

 

A long, drawn out inquiry by the powers-that-be will be another opportunity to cover up and din out the fundamental contradictions of creating a state within a state.  Former National Treasurer Liling Briones cited to us the National Government’s P40-billion “grant” to the BangsaMoro entity upon signing, to grow every year for 10 years while the entity will keep the records and not the Commission on Audit--a glaring and fundamental violation of the Constitution allowing the BangsaMoro to purchase anything including arms to build a rival military to the AFP and the PNP, the essential step to the last stage of complete secession.

 

Media last year reported the AFP Office of Strategic Studies (OSS) study by Cesar Pobre and UP Political science professor Raymond Jose Quilop under the headline, “MILF pact could allow US bases in BangsaMoro homeland,” where General Santos City in South Cotabato is a projected base site.  It said, “from 1999 to 2008, six meetings between US government officials and MILF leaders have reportedly taken place.  In February 2008, [Former] US Ambassador Kristie Kenney… met with MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad and Central Committee members,... the visit was done apparently with no prior coordination with the appropriate government authorities.”

 

This is the final cover-up: the US bases are being prepared for the full implementation of the “Asia Pivot” of the US aimed at transferring 60 percent of its military forces to Asia by 2020.  From thence the greatest war the world will ever see becomes imminent.

 

(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)

BS Aquino: 'USIP-sip'

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