The real champions

The real champions

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 04-29-2015 WED)

 

I don’t call them NGOs (non-governmental organizations); that name’s been despoiled not only by Janet Lim-Napoles but even more so by Western-funded civil society groups that have been at the forefront of subverting the Philippine nation-state for the past five decades.

 

I call them citizen-champions who take up causes for the Filipino.

 

Driven only by a fervent desire for truth, justice, and creating a better future for the nation, these citizen-champions who selflessly take up causes for the Filipino have won the recent round of cases against the two giant water concessionaires in the Metro and against the provider of our fraudulent election counting machines.

 

In the former case, our citizen-champions such as the United Filipino Consumers and Commuters (UFCC), which has been at the forefront of this fight, successfully stopped abusive and exploitative private water companies from slapping their corporate income taxes onto water consumers’ bills.  Thus, the rates of the two water companies can be expected to go down by as much as 10 percent per cubic meter, amounting to billions of pesos of savings for us water users.

 

These fighters, these brave citizen-champions, who have sacrificed so much without thought of financial support from any source or rewards of fame and glory, should rightly be the idols of this society more than the likes of Manny Pacquiao et al.

 

Meanwhile, the victory of our citizen-champions over Smartmatic stopped the corrupt midnight repair deal of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines by the former poll body chairman, which is likely to push elections back to variations of manual counting and electronic transmission, guaranteeing transparency and verifiability.

 

This should absolutely not pose any problem to our existing election automation law as pointed by our Tribune publisher Ninez Cacho-Olivares.  Since the voter’s shading of the ballot for the PCOS is done manually, a manual counting and recording procedure can be safely added before the ballot is inserted into the automated counting machine.

 

There is a variation of this voting and balloting system that lawyer Melchor Magdamos, one of the leading crusaders to bring us this victory over the rigged election slot-machine, proposes.  He calls it the “visual system” where the ballots, after being manually filled and taken out of the ballot box, are counted manually before a computer camera and projected onto a wide screen for all to see and take videos and pictures of while encoded into a computer for electronic transmission.  The projector and computer can then be bequeathed to the schools after the elections.

 

Among those at the forefront in our victory over the predatory practices in the water service sector is RJ Javellana, founder of Water for All Refund Movement (WARM), who exposed the wholescale corruption and abuse by the water concessionaires several years ago.  Javellana later expanded his advocacy to include the MRT/LRT commuter issues and, upon forming the UFCC, has also started tackling power issues, aided by anti-power oligarchy champion Jojo Borja of Iligan Light and Power.

 

Recently, the UFCC has been assisting Borja at the hearings of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on a major power distributor’s rate issues.  When UFCC was registering as an “intervenor” (a technical-legal term in ERC rules), the dominant power company submitted its objection and opined that since the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reform (Nasecore) has already been representing consumers, there was no need for others.  It is at this point that I must inform the public of dubious NGOs in the power advocacy sector that must be watched closely.

 

Our new crop of citizen-champions stand on the shoulders of many others who have made sacrifices for the past three generations fighting the system imposed by the Yellows after Edsa I.  The victory over the private water companies’ pass-on of corporate income tax to consumers was based on the struggle of the late Mang Naro Lualhati, his colleague lawyer Cefie Padua, and other petitioners who won the 2003 case against a major power company’s corporate income tax pass-on to consumers (which, the sneaky ERC chairwoman reversed via a sleight of hand insertion).

 

In the struggle against Smartmatic and the fraud of computerized election, credit must go to the Center for People Empowerment in Governance and a number of individuals, such as Gus Lagman and the 60-30-10 discoverer Ado Paglinawan.  This space is organizing a victory celebration for these and other fighters and citizen-champions on our GNN TV show this Saturday.  It is our humble contribution to duly recognize the real fighters who must be extolled and emulated by other citizens of this country.  They are beyond doubt our real heroes.

 

(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., with Chito Sta. Romana, Richard Javad Heydarian, and Hiro Vaswani; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

Princess Jacel for senator

Princess Jacel for senator

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 04-13-2015 MON)

 

The BangsaMoro Basic Law (BBL) has simultaneously become a unifier for the vast majority of Filipinos as well as a major source of division for the Philippine military and police into acrimonious camps.

 

Enemies of the Republic hankering for the permanent separation of North Borneo (Sabah) and parts of Mindanao must be laughing their heads off.

 

The national discussion on our cultural and religious minorities, particularly on the Philippines’ Muslim communities, must be raised to such a height that the nation gains a deeper understanding of the myriad issues stretching across the past and future of what are undoubtedly Filipino lands and seas.

 

Elevating the level of discourse can never be easy when government itself is engaged in shameless disinformation and misinformation that say peace depends solely on yielding to a rebel group, such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and its sponsors’ demands no matter what the cost.

 

Therefore, the task of distracting the nation from forming a rational perspective is as easy as creating the next Mindanao beheading or roadside bombing by some supposed “rogue” elements.

 

Were it not for the MILF’s naked brutality, as caught on video and in the news, and the BS Aquino peace panel’s horrid lies on the Mamasapano tragedy, Filipinos would still be Pied Piper-ed by the MILF-peace panel narratives.

 

BS Aquino, his peace panel cum enemy propagandists, the MILF, and its Western alliance backers (namely, Canada, Australia, Japan, and other US client governments and NGOs comprising the International Monitoring Group) are ganging up on the Filipino public to hammer it with propaganda that equates peace with surrender to MILF terms.

 

Thankfully, the Filipino is no longer too susceptible to the deceptions.  Yet something more is needed to deliver the “coup de grace” to the pro-BBL-MILF propaganda and political badgering: Discrediting it outright by showing that all Filipinos, including Muslims, are united as one nation.

 

Over the Lenten holidays, several parties from various non-partisan political movements conferenced over SMS and the Internet on the relentless US-Malaysian streamroller to pass the BBL by June of this year.  It was Ado Paglinawan, discoverer of the 60-30-10 Smartmatic-PCOS election fraud algorithm, who struck upon what may well become the “coup de grace” against the BBL.  “Why not start a Princess Jacel for Senator Movement,” Paglinawan opined, and raise the symbol of resistance against Malaysian usurpation of Philippine territory and subversion of the Republic’s unity?

 

Princess Jacel Kiram-Hasan was the Philippines’ Joan of Arc in the patriotic quest of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo, together with the Filipino nation, to restore Sabah to its rightful place as an essential and historic part of Philippine patrimony.

 

By force of her charm and wit, Princess Jacel immediately became spokesperson of the Sultan of Sulu at the pivotal moment when the Royal Sultanate Army, under the late Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, returned to Sabah to bring to international attention the Sultanate and the Filipino nation’s rightful claim.

 

Princess Jacel’s name, for those not in the know, is a combination of the first names of her father Jamalul and mother Celia.  If there’s anyone who has shown the articulation and mettle to face down Malaysia and the MILF, it is Princess Jacel.

 

I suggested the move to several parties, arguing that calling for a Muslim senator in the next government would ensure participation of the sector.  But one of those I contacted cited an even better argument--that it would be a referendum on Sabah and the BBL.  Just imagine if the nation gave Princess Jacel an overwhelming endorsement.

 

As a senator of the Republic, Princess Jacel will raise to even more commanding heights the point of view of the vast majority of Filipino Muslims who do not subscribe to the MILF’s treacherous conspiracy with Malaysia.

 

After the passing of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III in 2013 and the assumption of Sultan Esmail Kiram II, support is now being extended by the Wazir of the Sultanate (coordinating its cabinet) Al Marim Centi Tillah, together with spokesperson Abraham Idjirani and Fiscal Basa as chair of the Rumah Bichara or Advisory Council--all learned individuals able to represent the Sultanate and the national Muslim community.  Then there’s also Firdausi Abbas who has lately exposed the military weakness of the MILF due to its aging leadership.

 

But, as any initiative involving the Sultanate should be brought first to the Sultanate’s leadership, we suggest that we permanently put to rest efforts of foreign interests to subvert the Philippine claim to Sabah and divide the Filipino nation by a pivotal move, a “brilliancy” as in chess or a lethal Kani Basani throw in Judo, that checkmates or pins the adversary down with finality.

 

Raising a Joan d’Arc with the message that there is no Muslim-Christian war, that Sabah is an inalienable part of Philippine territory, and that the nation’s Muslim minority is an integral part of the national community is such a move.

 

In the continuing consultations with many parties, we believe that a Joan d’Arc in the person of Princess Jacel, who has become the face of the Philippines’ claim to North Borneo, serves the mission best.  We shall bring this proposition to the Sultanate and its council, to the public, and to the many political parties to consider for universal adoption Princess Jacel Kiram-Hasan as a unity candidate for the entire nation.

 

(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)

After AIIB, BRICS' NDB

After AIIB, BRICS’ NDB

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 04-06-2015 MON)

 

For two weeks the world watched as history shifted inexorably from the Unipolar World, i.e. one centered and controlled from Washington, to the Multipolar World with global power being distributed to other centers.

 

The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) saw traditional European and Asian allies of Washington (except Japan, so far) rushing to beat the deadline to join the institution despite pressure and appeals from the US to shun the new international bank seen as competing with the US-sponsored International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), and Asian Development Bank (ADB).

 

Prominent US allies that have joined the AIIB after overcoming a tense standout with Washington are Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, and South Korea.  The Philippines, surprisingly, had joined even earlier without opposition from the US, which probably considered its most canine ally unimportant enough to bother with.

 

Indeed, the fact that financial and economic heavyweights long considered stalwarts of the Western Alliance have joined the AIIB over Washington’s objections was a shocker to the US and should serve as a wake-up call to the Philippines.  But the AIIB is just the beginning of the end of the Unipolar World.

 

The start of April ushered in the realization of the New Development Bank (NDB) that sprung from the embryonic BRICS Bank proposed in previous BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) summits.

 

Russia this week announced its ratification of its NDB participation, with a Russian to head the bank that will be headquartered in Shanghai.           

 

The NDB will be capitalized at $100 billion.  But South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies says the bank’s capital may not be held in US dollars--in keeping with the BRICS aim to wean the world away from control of the dollar.

 

Aside from bank capitalization, another $100 billion currency pool, with $50 billion coming from China, is set up to help any of the BRICS countries tide over liquidity crises as often happens when an emerging economy comes under Western financial attack, as in the 1998 Asian Contagion when George Soros ravaged the Thai baht.

 

Slowly, the new international world order--one that is fairer and more democratic--comes into being.  This was not by war, as was the experience during the Cold War led by the USSR that, in turn, led to its demise.  Rather, this new international order, the Multipolar World, is being established by financial and economic diversification.

 

Russia’s Vladimir Putin says of this, “BRICS are coordinating their policies on key international issues ever more closely, and are playing an active part in shaping a multi-polar world order and developing modern models for the world’s financial and trading systems…”

 

The NDB of the BRICS is expected to be headed by Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, who has been quoted saying, “We want to move away from the same old, same old way of doing things.  What currencies the capital will be held in is something that will be part of the Sherpa (as in Mt. Everest climbing guides) process with the pace set by Brazil, but we expect substantive progress by the time of the next BRICS summit in Russia…”

 

Russia’s partner in all these is China, which provides at least half the capital for these new Multipolar World projects.

 

As change continues to beckon and even as the staunchest Western allies are accepting its inevitability, riding on the crest of the new wave, Philippine foreign and financial policies continue to hew to Cold War loyalties, which churn out propaganda still antipathetic or hostile to China, Russia, and the other BRICS countries.

 

We cannot expect any change while an incorrigible Western patsy such as BS Aquino is still in charge.  The Filipino nation, especially its intelligentsia, must start the change and educate the rest of society if it wants to be part of the Multipolar World.

 

(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)

 

 

--

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

Flabbergasting Aquino-DFA move.

Flabbergasting Aquino-DFA move.

(Herman Tiu Laurel/ DieHard III/ Tribune column for 4-1-2015 Wednesday)

 

              Was that the DFA’s (Department of Foreign Affairs) way of building up to an April Fools Day prank, the note verbale handed by the department to visitng Malaysian Defense Minister Dato Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein offering to downgrade the Philippines’ claim to Sabah in exchange for support for the Philippines’ case against China on the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea (SCS/WPs) dispute at the ITLOS (International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea). What was the response of the Malaysian government?

 

              The headlines just days before April Fool’s Day said it all “Malaysia FM denies Philippines’ claim to Sabah”. Datuk Seri Anifah Aman retorted to the report saying asking, "What claim? We never recognize any claim, [so] the note is irrelevant," as quoted from the Malaysian news portal The Rakyat Post. But, of course, the validity and legitimacy to the Philippines’ claim to Sabah is unshakeable with every requisite proof, historical or documentary, legal and jurisprudence, and short only of actual physical possession.

 

              The Philippines’ possession of Sabah was pre-empted by the 1946 thieving annexation of Sabah by the British Crown, making it a British colony to hand over to its ward Malaysia. This was done despite British North Borneo High Court Chief Justice C.L.C. MaCaskie’s 1939 decision stating the Philippines’ as “successor in sovereignty” of the Sultan of Sulu. Former Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations Lauro Baja Jr. is quoted by newspapers saying the Philippines’ claim to Sabah will be “prejudiced” if Malaysia grants the DFA’s request.

 

              Baja said, “We are in effect withdrawing our objection to Malaysia’s claim of ownership to Sabah,… Even if we are not formally dropping the Sabah claim, it (the withdrawal of the protest) can be used as evidence against our claim.” Like experts and common sensed observers, Baja sees the Philippine claim on Sabah as much stronger than its claim on the Spratly islands disputed with that of China. Besides Sabah generates billions of dollars in annual revenues from oil and gas while prospects in the disputed SCS/WPS islands are still speculative.

 

              It seems DFA under BS Aquino’s handpicked secretary Albert Del Rosario - aptly named “Super Amboy aka Giant Smiley of a foreign secretary” by veteran diplomat and Malaya newspaper’s resident DFA monitor Rey O. Arcilla - will do anything to spit at China even if the spit flies back right smack against the Philippines’ face. The same newspaper’s Ellen Tordesillas asks if the DFA compromise proposal to Malaysia has the approval of BS Aquino, but isn’t that assumed given the carte blanche the Giant Smiley always gets when it comes to spiting China?

 

              While the whole world is joining China’s bandwagon of “trade-trade” and not “war-war”, jumping on the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Malaysia among the first to join), the Silk Road Economic Belt, the Maritime Silk Road - the Philippines is stuck in its policy of antagonizing China on a matter that China since 1989 has already offered to talk about in a neighbourly manner so both can share, 50/50, benefits and security. But no, Aquino and Del Rosario want all of West Philippine Sea while giving away Sabah ending up with zero.

 

              What is the Philippines’ to do about China’s building on the disputed SCS/WPS islands? We have always attributed this to U.S. and Philippines’ hostile signals. I am happy to note the Malaya’s veteran diplomat-writer’s similar view: “Why did China choose to build military garrisons on our islets in the WPS?…  the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Arrangement (EDCA) that we foolishly entered into with the US. China merely wants to ensure that the US and her allies will not be able to dominate the entire WPS/South China Sea to her disadvantage.”

 

              The Cold War vintage foreign policy of BS Aquino and the “Super Amboy aka Giant Smiley” DFA secretary Albert del Rosario is causing the Philippines to lag behind in foreign policy and international relations that is resulting in economic stagnation and retrogression, not to mention the self-inflicted insults that the DFA commits in its vain attempt to harm the universally friendly China which has sought no  enemy in the decades past and has succeeded in creating countless friends on today’s continents all over the world.

 

(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”; text to 0917-8658664) ###