USIP calls the Big Guns

USIP calls the Big Guns

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 03-30-2015 MON)

 

Why BS Aquino is still so bullheaded in pushing the BangsaMoro Basic Law (BBL) despite the collapse of his public trust and approval ratings and in the face of his Senate supporters urging him to wait for a new administration in about a year’s time continues to baffle the mind.  Neither can he be presumed to be following the logic of peace, since even the peace panel officials on both sides have admitted: Signing the BBL would not stop other rebel groups and minorities from using force to attain their own objectives.  What or who then can exert so much pressure as to compel a supposed president to act so adversely against his own interest and legacy?

 

One has to look back to the history of the BBL to understand.  Here we can recall the near total demise of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) after President Joseph Estrada demolished its network of rebel camps, including its Camp Abubakar headquarters.  That forced its leader Hashim Salamat to flee to the coddling arms of his sponsors in Kuala Lumpur.

 

In desperation, Salamat wrote a plea in 2003 (no doubt with Malaysian and British prodding) to then US President George W. Bush--an appeal that led to what G. Eugene Martin and Astrid S. Tuminez wrote as a report in Feb. 1, 2008, which we quote below:

 

“’Toward Peace in the Southern Philippines,’ A Summary and Assessment of the USIP (United States Institute for Peace--in which Board sits the CIA, NSA, et al.) Philippine Facilitation Project, 2003-2007…  In 2003, the US Department of State asked USIP to undertake a project to expedite a peace agreement between the two sides (MILF and Government of the Philippines)… US policymakers must give higher priority to the… negotiations … When an agreement is reached… (this will) accomplish US foreign policy goals… (And because) of its ability to deal with non-state actors and sensitive issues underlying civil conflict, USIP can be a useful instrument for advancing US interests.”

 

Who could make the EU and Japan get involved, sponsoring seminars, contributing funds, and inviting BS Aquino to meet MILF representatives in Tokyo, on a purely Philippine domestic issue?  Only be the US could.

 

But even the internationalization of the issue could not convince the Filipino people on the BBL, especially after the Mamasapano barbarity of the MILF and the incoherence of all the pro-BBL Filipino patsies and their MILF cohorts in defending the BBL proposal.

 

So it’s time for the “non-state actors” to be called in to exercise “soft power” on the Filipino public to sell the BBL.

 

Last Friday, BS Aquino formed a “peace council” to “educate the public on (the) proposed BBL,” naming Cardinal Tagle, Big Business tycoon Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, ex-Chief Justice Hilario Davide, and BS Aquino in-law Ambassador Howard Dee.  Only two really count, representing powerful social institutions that twice helped oust presidents.

 

In 1986, Cardinal Sin called his flock to Edsa I as Don Jaime Zobel de Ayala opened Shell’s gasoline spigots for Butz Aquino’s nationwide protest caravans.  In 2001, Sin convened Edsa II rallies against Estrada that saw Don Jaime dancing awkwardly as the elite crowd proclaimed Gloria Arroyo president.

 

Cardinal Tagle now sits in Sin’s stead while Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (JAZA) sits at the helm of the Makati Business Club (MBC).  Both represent, by historical and business ties, the Philippines’ umbilical cord to Western civilization and economic subsidiarity.

 

On the BBL, these Big Guns among the “non-state actors” are now called in to be in the firing line, as they were when the fledgling independent Asian leader Ferdinand Marcos spread his wings and opened relations with the Socialist World (among other issues) and Erap pushed to establish a truly sovereign security policy for Mindanao.

 

Calling in these Big Guns reflects the primordial importance of the BBL to US “foreign policy goals” in Asia.  In this era of the rise of China, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank), etc., 70 years of US hegemony in this part of the world is undoubtedly threatened.

 

The US is thus racing against time and history to restore its preeminence in Asia by way of the “Asia Pivot” that would see 60 percent of its military forces deployed to the region--and the BBL obviously plays a key role in this.

 

But given that the pervasive interference of the US that led to the Mamasapano tragedy is as much to blame as BS Aquino is in the BBL debacle, they are now tapping the “non-state” actors to assuage the nation.

 

Will the Filipino people have their legs pulled again by these Big Guns?  Let’s hope not.  They should, by now, have sufficiently learned from the endless betrayals they have experienced--from Edsa I to Edsa II and, now, the Mamasapano massacre.

 

(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)

On Jabidah: Inquirer dupes nation

On Jabidah: Inquirer dupes nation

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 03-23-2015 MON)

 

On March 19, 2015, the Philippine Daily Inquirer front-paged a huge photo of Corregidor’s military ruins with two smiling Muslim women taking a selfie.  The caption read: “It began with Marcos military plot.”  And on the site that now sports “a new marker on the Jabidah massacre 47 years ago” is where the newspaper claims, “Soldiers shot Muslim recruits who tried to escape Corregidor where they were being trained for a Sabah invasion.  When the Muslims discovered the plot, they rebelled but were executed.  Only one survived.”

 

All this is, of course, based on a lie, with the marker an all-out farce.

 

As the Yellow tale goes, then Sen. Ninoy Aquino supposedly exposed the alleged massacre on the Senate floor.  This notion by itself has formed the basis of almost 50 years of unrelenting disinformation spewed from Philippine mainstream media onto social media and beyond.

 

But anyone really interested in the truth only has to type in his search engine, “’Jabidah! Special Forces of Evil?’ by Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr., March 28, 1968,” and the 5,708-word speech will reveal Ninoy’s own words belying the claims of a massacre.   Here are some:

 

“This morning (March 28, 1968), the Manila Times… quoted me as saying that I believed there was no mass massacre on Corregidor Island.  And I submit it was not a hasty conclusion, but one borne out by careful deductions… For the truth, as I found it in Sulu, is: the probability of a mass massacre is dim… I could make big political capital out of all of this.  But, Mr. President (Senate President Arturo Tolentino), I say: Let us pin blame only where the blame is.  And, by my findings, a wanton massacre is not among the things that we must hang on Mr. Marcos’ conscience and Mr. Marcos’ soul...

 

“Meanwhile, in Jolo yesterday, I met the first batch of 24 recruits aboard RP-68.  This group was earlier reported missing--or, even worse, believed ‘massacred.’  William Patarasa, 16 years old, one of the leaders of the petitioners, in effect corroborated all the points raised by Jibin Arula (the supposed lone survivor).  But he denied knowledge of any massacre.  Like Jibin Arula, up to yesterday he claimed he had no knowledge of what had happened to their four leaders (supposed mutineers)… though, (there’s) suspicion among the petitioners that the four had been ‘liquidated’ by Major (Eduardo) Martelino’s boys.  One of the leaders has since presented himself to army authorities.

 

“Some quarters have advanced the theory that the trainees were liquidated in order to silence them.  But then, 24 boys have already shown up in Jolo safe and healthy.  To release 24 men who can spill the beans and liquidate the remaining 24 ‘to seal’ their lips would defy logic… Jibin Arula… his fears, which in his place may be considered valid, may not be supported by the recent turn of events.  Twenty-four recruits have turned up.”

 

Arula claimed he swam straight to Cavite to seek refuge with Cavite Gov. Delfin Montano; he later changed his story, saying he was picked up by fishermen.  The courts found Arula’s testimony incredible.

 

Instead, the beginnings of the many variations of Muslim independence and secessionist movements should be traced to the UK’s wanton disregard of the decision by the British Court’s North Borneo Chief Justice C.F.C. McCaskie who said that “It is abundantly clear that the successors in sovereignty of the Sultan of Sulu are the Government of the Philippines Islands.”  It was followed by the treacherous act of the British on July 10, 1946 in annexing North Borneo (Sabah), a few days after the Philippines gained independence.  It was an annexation that Gov. Francis Burton Harrison, the American advocate of self-determination, called an “act of political aggression.”

 

Then, on July 31, 1963, in the Manila Accord signed by Malayan Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Razak Hussein (father of PM Najib Razak), Indonesian FM Dr. Subandrio, and Philippine VP Emmanuel Pelaez, registered as UN document No. 8029, the three governments agreed to “bring the (Philippines’) claim to a just and expeditious solution by peaceful means, such as negotiation, conciliation, arbitration, or judicial settlement,” which the newly-formed Malaysia later treacherously refused.

 

And that’s where “it all began”--before the launching by Malaysia and its Philippine Fifth Column of the Jabidah disinformation.

 

Thus, it is only fitting for the Inquirer, the congressmen who signed the 47th Jabidah memorial press statement (led by Dina Abad and Sitti Hataman), the ignoramus nuns, the National Historical Commission chair, and BS Aquino’s Peace Panel members to all be charged with treason--along with BS Aquino and his mother who dropped from the 1987 Constitution the Philippines’ territories “by historic right or legal title.”

 

The patently fake Jabidah marker and all its sponsors should rightly be placed in the nation’s historical Hall of Shame, along with the assassins of Andres Bonifacio and the quislings who served the Japanese puppet government during World War II.

 

(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)

More 'Great Train Robberies'

More ‘Great Train Robberies’

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 03-18-2015 WED)

 

“That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.” – Noam Chomsky

 

We just have to revise the Chomsky quote to expand on the last part; that is, after people get angry and have been bamboozled into believing there’s no alternative to privatization, the “you” (government captured by corporate oligarchs) then spends to rehabilitate the utility with public funds and raise rates or fares just prior to handing it over to private capital--saving the latter the rehab and political costs.

 

This is what happened to the country’s power, water, and transport utilities (from toll ways to trains) the past 29 years since Cory Aquino and the Yellows started the privatization onslaught in the Philippines.

 

Now it’s the once legendary Bicol Express, the 1920s-era Manila-to-Calamba-to-Southern Tagalog Philippine National Railways’ (PNR) turn to be subjected to the Third Degree of “make sure things don’t work.”  Only 6 of 50 PNR trains are working.  With its revenues dwindling, its privatization commences and government funds are allocated for rehabilitation and acquisition of new engines and coaches.  P35.15 billion from 2005 to the next years from the General Appropriations Act (GAA) are allocated.

 

Predictably, fares are being raised by 30 percent even as PNR General Manager Joseph Dilay let loose massive revenue leakages (thousands don’t pay fares) and contractors with conflicts-of-interest.

 

It is reported by Riles Network--the watchdog group over the Philippines’ public train systems, which has numerous PNR labor union sources--that a major PNR contractor for maintenance services and supplies (having shades of the MRT 3, the DoTC-Liberal Party Mafia, and the Kamag-anak Inc. scandal) is owned by a direct relation of the present PNR manager.  The wife is alleged to be a prime contractor of the PNR, clearly an abhorrent situation.  The Senate and Congress would be complicit if they allow this situation reeking of corruption and nepotism to persist before even considering any action on PNR fare hikes or, worse, privatization proposals.

 

The most sensitive issue to the hundreds of thousands of commuters on the Tutuban-Calamba PNR route is the 30-percent fare hike, raising the minimum fare of P10 to P15 and the maximum fare of P45 to P60.  Bus fares from Calamba to Manila, by the way, cost at least P100.

 

PNR management says that, yearly, revenues amount to P330 million while costs total P683 million.  The PNR, however, receives subsidy from government annually ranging from P300 million to P400 million.  Therefore, PNR revenues are sufficient to cover its operation and maintenance despite the massive leakages, as admitted by the PNR management, when it said that the fares increases will be allotted for payment of financial obligations.

 

Details of the PNR debt has not been reported to the public but GM Dilay said in a Feb. 27 news item, “Everyday na hindi namin nai-implement ‘yan, palaki nang palaki yung lugi.  Kung maari, bukas na…” (Everyday the fare hike is not implemented the debt grows; if possible fares should be hiked tomorrow…)  But reports reiterated on my GNN TV show by “Strike the Hike Network,” another citizens’ commuter trains watchdog against the PNR fare hike, attests to the fact that PNR stations are so disorganized and unruly, and ticket checking is totally absent that thousands get on the trains literally for free--burdening the paying passengers instead.

 

Where did that PNR debt emanate from?  Why did the 29 years and four governments of the Yellows (excluding Estrada, which did not serve out even half its term) allow the deterioration of the PNR to such a degree that only 12 percent of its train assets are operational?  The PNR is the last of the Philippines’ train system to be given attention to the past 30 years, now only to conveniently highlight the crisis it’s in and justify the rush to privatization.

 

But we’ve all seen what disaster privatization has turned out to be in the MRT 3, and now the LRT 1.  Last Monday, I waited by an LRT 1 coach for 30 minutes, while avoiding the MRT 3 due to its safety issues.

 

Noam Chomsky, the renowned American social justice activist, really put the finger on the method behind the corporate and corrupt political system to steal public utilities from the people.  The “Great Train Robberies” of the Philippines under the 29-year regime of the Yellow oligarchy and privatization are really testing the limits of the people’s patience and sufferance.  It may yet prove to be the railroad to revolution.

 

(Watch GNN, Talk News TV with HTL, every Sat. 8pm and Sun. 8am replay Destiny Cable chn. 8/ Skycable chn. 213 – uploaded to You Tube, search Talk New TV… date; tune to 1098AM, Tues. to Fri. 5 to 6pm “Sulo ng Pilipino”)

From the Philippines to Ukraine

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Whats wrong with US anti-terror aid?

Whats wrong with US anti-terror aid?
(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 03-11-2015 WED)

The question has been raised by several senators and some media pundits in the course of the investigation of the Mamasapano tragedy. There is a widespread public belief that the cause of the senseless sacrifice of the Special Action Forces (SAF) 44 plus 20 is BS Aquino’s prioritizing of a US-funded and guided anti-terror project to neutralize international jihadist-bomb maker Zulkifli Abdhir alias “Marwan,” and that not even the lives of the fallen SAF commandos should jeopardize an even higher priority US geopolitical “gerrymandering” project--the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)-BangsaMoro Basic Law that shall effectively carve out a new state in Mindanao. This belief has led many to question Philippine reliance on US “aid” against terrorist forces.

Marwan is accused of the 2002 Bali Bombing, classified as an international terror incident; hence, the US and international arrest warrant against Marwan. He is said to be the leader of Jemaah Islamiya (JI) in the Philippines but may only be a figurehead used to create the impression of numerous organizations that actually only share one general, limited mass base. Wikipedia says Marwan is protected by the purported MILF splinter group, BangsaMoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), but documents filed before the US District Court in California confirm Marwan is protected by the MILF. Yet the US plays Big Brother to the MILF in the BBL project--indeed, an inconvenient truth for those who have swallowed the US anti-terror mantra hook-line-and-sinker in justifying US anti-terrorism “aid” so readily.

Let us look into other cases of real US attitudes toward terrorism, such as the bomb that exploded in 2002 at the Davao Evergreen Hotel. There, a frequent American tenant, Michael Meiring, was discovered to be assembling bombs when one accidentally went off and severely injured him. Brought to the Davao Medical Mission Hospital, the US Embassy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) swooped in, secured the hospital, prevented Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and the police from investigating, paid the hospital bills, and flew Meiring out to the US of A. Meiring’s bombs are believed to have been among those used in several Davao blasts, including those in the wharf and airport at that time.

Another example of US terrorism duplicity is the 2000 abduction case of Afro-American Jeffrey Schilling, who was allegedly “kidnapped” by the Abu Sayyaf but later discovered to be related to a top Abu Sayyaf leader through Schilling’s girlfriend, and supplying communications equipment and arms to the Abu Sayyaf. When President Joseph Estrada ordered an assault on the Abu Sayyaf, then US President Bill Clinton sent his Defense Secretary William Cohen with a handwritten note requesting Malacañang to halt the assault as US citizen Schilling may be put in harm’s way. Of course, the Abu Sayyaf bandits would also have been saved from the onslaught of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that could have wiped them out. Erap naturally did not oblige.

So the question now is: Did the US hunt down Marwan in the Philippines in the common interest of both countries, or was it because only the Philippines will you find so-called leaders who would allow such an operation that smacks of total surrender of national sovereignty? Countless news reports confirm that the funding, training, equipping, monitoring, up to the immediate export to the US of Marwan’s finger for DNA testing was by the US. Now, based on Aquino’s claim that he was lied to amid the “gaps” in Alan Purisima’s testimonies, even who the top man is in the Philippine chain-of-command is put in doubt. Moreover, we can’t imagine neighboring Malaysia or Indonesia agreeing to such a totally US-run operation.

My answer to those who ask “What's wrong with US anti-terror help?” is this, “Are you sure they are here to help fight terrorism in the Philippines?”

Confirmed US support for the MILF--an organization that has taken up arms against the Philippine Republic and has given aid and comfort to the likes of Marwan and the BIFF, which fronts for the protection of Marwan, and defends the Abu Sayyaf whenever the AFP is running after it--is an indirect support of terrorism against the Philippines and its people. This is no different from US Gen. Wesley Clark admitting last February 22 on TV that “ISIS Got Started with Funding From our Closest Allies” (i.e. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, et al.).

President Joseph Estrada proved once and for all that we are better off without outside help when he crushed the MILF in 1999. It's worth remembering that US allies in the Organization of Islamic Conference funded the Moro National Liberation Front while the US would not even sell ammunition to then President Marcos and the AFP; yet we still won militarily and diplomatically.

Whenever foreign countries help, they help our enemies for fear of a stronger and more independent Philippines. Malaysia funds the MILF while the US gives it international legitimacy for it to set conditions that hamstring government law enforcement repeatedly, leading to such fiascos as Mamasapano.

Only Filipinos will solve problems of Filipinos for the real benefit of Filipinos.

(Watch GNN, Talk News TV with HTL, every Sat. 8pm and Sun. 8am replay Destiny Cable chn. 8/ Skycable chn. 213 – uploaded to You Tube, search Talk New TV… date; tune to 1098AM, Tues. to Fri. 5 to 6pm “Sulo ng Pilipino”)

Imponderable BBL haste?

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