DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/28/2011
The debate between two factions of Edsa I celebrants, Jim Paredes and Sen. Gringo Honasan, has become quite a conversation piece. It started with a tweet from user @janicegamos who said, “I would’ve believed in the spirit of Edsa 1986 if not for the fact that its so-called heroes, et al. became opportunistic.” This tweet was referred to Honasan, which he reacted to with apparent agitation: “Opportunistic?! In & out of jail, 7 years underground, 17 yrs soldier, bullet wounds in body... Opportunism?!”
Honasan certainly felt aggrieved given his military service but was Gamos actually referring to him? Then again, was Ces Drilon being judicious in referring it to Greg since he was only a protégé of Johnny Enrile? If another had been asked, there would have been no bullet wounds to speak of — only outstanding wealth and political advancement all throughout.
That Twitter follower who started it all indeed raised an extremely valid point, given the hard sell that Edsa I and the “people power” story have amounted to each year — more so on its 25th anniversary. And the obvious reason is, after 25 years, it has offered no benefit to the people while its major heroes — the Aquinos, Cojuangcos, and other elite families such as the Lopezes, Ayalas, et al.; and politicos from Enrile, FVR, to the many Yellows — all continue to make it big… very big. (Ditto the likes of Kris Aquino, who can neither sing, dance, nor act.)
Gamos and the nation as a whole wouldn’t question the spirit of Edsa I if, 25 years later, Filipinos hadn’t actually lost so much in quality of life and standard of living; in jobs; in food and physical security; in social coherence; and in moral and national dignity. Yet, in spite of it all, a crop of Yellow delunoids continue to live in dreamland.
Fireworks certainly flew when Edsa I celebrity Jim Paredes joined in, blasting Honasan, et al.: “They joined Edsa to save their asses against Marcos. When it was safe again, they launched their coups,” describing them as “Serial coup plotters who never accepted the people’s will except when they won in elections,” then adding, “They owe the people an apology. They were plain users without the nation’s good in mind.”
Honasan then retorted, “Until U have faced the business end of a gun as a soldier, for God, country & family HERE, U know nothing;” and added, “I didn’t go abroad” to rub in Paredes’ publicized migration to Australia in 2006 (an obvious cop-out move that left his “Handog sa Mundo” ringing hollow).
Paredes returned from Australia only when the prospects of a Yellow win in 2010 became believable, showing his feet of clay. And so Paredes evasively tweeted, “Until you can be honest about your true motives, then I can’t believe you.” Really, has Paredes himself been honest about his motives? Who is he now to question others?
Such a mindset is so typical of the Yellow crowd. They think revolutions are a songwriting stint; or, like Leah Navarro, a singing contest; or, like the Makati socialites, a sandwich-making proficiency game; or, like the religious flock, a show of their novena power against bullets. These even when it’s just their habits or cacique complexions (and scents) that paralyze the trigger-fingers of robotic soldiers, who otherwise wouldn’t think twice about mowing down masa demonstrators, as they have done so often — from the Mendiola Farmers’ Massacre, to the carnage at Edsa III, to the Hacienda Luisita Massacre a few years back.
All told, members of Paredes’ ilk live manicured lives and migrate when they chose. Even their sainted icon, Cory Aquino, was always under American care, as Gringo admits, “We were protecting Cory since 1985…” But then why were Honasan’s men into protecting Cory when their sworn duty was to protect their Commander-in-Chief and the Constitution?
US magazine The Executive Intelligence Review reported that “By November (1985), the plans for insurrection were unveiled publicly, as the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the home of Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, carried out a ‘war game’ against the Philippines … The CSIS’ work in Asia was largely financed by the CV Starr insurance empire run by Maurice ‘Hank’ Greenberg (which) owned most of the insurance industry in the Philippines, and a number of Philippine politicians…”
Though the Edsa I “stars” deny the role of the US against Marcos, it was very, very real. As former US State Secretary George Schultz wrote in his auto-bio, Turmoil and Triumph, the 1986 “people power” was cooked behind the back of Ronald Reagan from within the State Department.
Moreover, as Foreign Policy magazine reported: “In his Heritage speech (Paul) Wolfowitz (another former US Secretary of State) also took credit for the downfall of Marcos (stating)… ‘The private and public pressure on Marcos to reform… contributed in no small measure to emboldening the Philippine people to take their fate in their own hands and to produce what eventually became the first great democratic transformation in Asia in the 1980s.’”
These “pressures” included currency attacks; 45-percent interest rates; cuts in US military aid channeled to Cardinal Sin; stepped-up demonization of Marcos; the forced “snap election;” and later, the walk-out of computer technicians associated with Honasan’s group, which was already coordinating with the Americans.
We must henceforth rise from this “Twitter Dee and Dum” level of debate and go into a genuinely honest, objective and comprehensive review that leaves nothing out from scrutiny. A joint government-civilian investigation of Edsa I should be established to arrive at the whole truth — including the Ninoy assassination. We owe it to all the @janicegamos-es of the land, to our children and their future.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Reviewing the Marcos Path;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our select radio and GNN shows)
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Commentaries on a "suicide"
CRITIC'S CRITIC
Mentong Laurel
2/21-27/2011
General Angelo Reyes was corrupted and corrupt. He said so himself in his pre-interview notes to PCIJ's Malou Mangahas. "I did not invent corruption. I walked into it. Perhaps my first fault was in having accepted aspects of it as a fact of life,” Reyes reportedly told his aide as the latter scribbled his thoughts verbatim. All through that supposed preparatory exercise, Reyes presented himself as someone who accepted the corruption that confronted him as he worked up the ladder in his military, government, or political career.
Contrast this to the oft-repeated declaration of one young officer of the Bagong Katipuneros (erroneously dubbed by an ABS-CBN reporter as Magdalo during Oakwood) in the person of Marine Capt. Gary Alejano, and the difference could never be more unambiguous.
We saw corruption
From our panel interview on my Global News Network TV show, Alejano simply repeated: “We saw the corruption in the AFP and we had to take a stand against it; take action against it, or we would be compelled like… our predecessors to accept it and be part of it… This we couldn’t accept.”
For accepting corruption, Gen. Angelo Reyes rose to be an AFP general and then attained four Cabinet positions. It was an enviable government career matched only by Senator Juan Ponce-Enrile who also had as many Cabinet posts but likewise had to lie (as in the self-assassination attempt to justify Martial Law) and perform all the consequential deeds that go with such capacity for prevarication.
For not accepting corruption and, instead, denouncing it and acting against it, the Bagong Katipuneros spent between six to seven years behind bars; endured tremendous mental torture as well as lost incomes, and suffered family difficulties--even marital separation.
Truth Prevailed
Yet over time, justice and truth prevailed. Philippine society finally came through with the right judgment, as those who stood by their moral and lofty principles are now vindicated while those who violated the Honor Code are chastised -- except by a number of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) hacks in Philippine media.
GMA and all those associated with her, such as FVR and the tainted generals (among others), have a lot at stake in the Angelo Reyes “suicide” drama. Turning Reyes into a hero, instead of the knave that he was, lightens the burden on them for their unprecedented nine-year period of maximum decadence.
GMA & Trillanes
It’s not surprising then that the marching orders to all of GMA’s assets in media are to: 1) prettify the “death” of Angie Reyes, picturing it as akin to a Samurai’s hara-kiri (or the ultimate self-sacrifice); 2) extol his “record” in public service, ad infinitum, and 3) create diversionary targets for lambasting and demonizing so as to distract from the sordid facts about Reyes (and his benefactors).
The prime target for the third ploy is, of course, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who has been lambasted with such inconsequential labels as “mayabang (arrogant),” “self-righteous,” “uncavalier,” “coup plotter,” ad nausea, all by the usual GMA barkers howling in unison for over a week over the alleged “high handedness” of some Senate interrogators.
Carmen Pedrosa, for instance, in her Feb. 12 Philippine Star column, stated: “I do not think Senator Jinggoy Estrada and Senator Trillanes should be let off that lightly for General Angelo Reyes’ death.” Let off from what “crime,” may I ask? For doing their sworn duty as senators of this Republic; for producing results in unveiling long-rumored and kept secrets about the GMA military cabal’s corruption (which I had already written about years ago)?
Guilty Conscience
Last Feb. 14 in the Manila Standard Today was ex-GMA spokesman Gary Olivar’s turn to sound silly. He said: “…The consequences of irresponsible sensationalism were driven home by the recent suicide of Secretary Angie Reyes… rumors were already flying that Sec. Angie’s suicide was the product of a guilty conscience. This is self-evidently stupid: self-destruction would be an even likelier recourse for someone who is innocent but has no way to properly defend himself, as well as his family and friends.” Whaaat? Is this guy for real? Angie Reyes’ family already has a paid professional spokesperson by the name of Patricia Daza, who’s touted to be very expensive, and with at least P50 million in pabaon to his name, couldn’t Reyes have easily hired the best lawyers too?
But then, the arbiter of self-evident stupidity continues: “…It would also be a fitting coda if our send-off for the general serves to trigger a re-examination of the slow death through trial by publicity.” Now, now, anyone who puts Reyes’ less than 12 hours of intense Senate grilling side-by-side with the seven years and seven months of incarceration of the Bagong Katipuneros will see that this guy, Olivar, is only exaggerating for Reyes to the point of absurdity.
Missing the Point
Oh, not to be left behind, Armando Doronilla of the Inquirer last Feb. 16 claimed: “The soldiers of the Republic closed ranks around him (Reyes), hailing him as a hero.” Obviously, Doronilla never asked if any of the young officers and foot soldiers out in the fields with worn boots and reused Coke plastic bottles for water canteens (who definitely outnumber those handfuls of generals in cushy posts) shared the same sentiment.
He even bewailed “the nefarious methods used by the investigation that stripped citizens subpoenaed by the Senate to testify at its hearings (better described as torture chambers) of their honor and dignity, as well as of members of their family.” Gee, doesn’t Doronilla know the difference between the mental anguish of, say, CoA’s Heidi Mendoza and Lt. Col. Antonio Ramon Lim, who, while facing interrogation, shed tears not of shame or humiliation but of remorse over the corruption they witnessed, versus those of Reyes, Garcia, Ligot et al., neither of whom had the courage to admit the truth openly?
Doronilla even continued by accusing Senate investigators of making Reyes “a convenient fall guy, vilified, unable to defend himself from slander, by self-righteous detractors using the privilege of legislative immunity as a platform to settle scores for his decisions and actions (military or civilian related)…” Sadly, Doronilla deliberately misses the point of the exercise.
Personal Indictment
Even granting that human motives may have been a factor, why on earth was Reyes only able to answer with “Have I been selfish?” “Did I ever ask for anything?” or “Didn’t I share?” in the face of a direct indictment against him on those corrupt practices? Surely, these can only be construed as an indirect admission on his part that, yes, he did share something and, though he never asked, he did get something--in other words, his pabaon.
And if you think we’ve had enough comedy for now, think again. On that same day in The Manila Times, another of GMA’s stooges, Ricardo Saludo, called the congressional hearings into AFP corruption as “hearings in aid of demolition,” claiming “that cavalier attitude toward public accusations triggered tragedy with the death of Angelo Reyes.” But if we were to follow this logic, then there should already have been a long history of suicides by resources persons or witnesses invited to congressional hearings, since these had been instituted as a “check-and-balance” mechanism in the Philippine political system long ago.
Just think of how many subjects the acerbic Miriam Defensor-Santiago has humiliated with her loose artillery language since she became senator in 1995, and how many of them could have already succumbed to self-destruction if words and shame alone were enough to trigger suicide.
Lastly, while I have critiqued other critics in this column, I reserve the last critique for myself: I erred in naming retired Col. Proceso Maligalig in one of my columns in anoth er newspaper, as well as on my radio program, as the former RAM man who disjointedly criticized Trillanes’ conduct in the investigation of Reyes. It was not Proceso but Col. Leopoldo Maligalig. My apologies to Proceso.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on the “Sorry Yellow Movement” with Charito Planas and Linggoy Alcuaz; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and watch or listen to our select radio and GNN shows)
Mentong Laurel
2/21-27/2011
General Angelo Reyes was corrupted and corrupt. He said so himself in his pre-interview notes to PCIJ's Malou Mangahas. "I did not invent corruption. I walked into it. Perhaps my first fault was in having accepted aspects of it as a fact of life,” Reyes reportedly told his aide as the latter scribbled his thoughts verbatim. All through that supposed preparatory exercise, Reyes presented himself as someone who accepted the corruption that confronted him as he worked up the ladder in his military, government, or political career.
Contrast this to the oft-repeated declaration of one young officer of the Bagong Katipuneros (erroneously dubbed by an ABS-CBN reporter as Magdalo during Oakwood) in the person of Marine Capt. Gary Alejano, and the difference could never be more unambiguous.
We saw corruption
From our panel interview on my Global News Network TV show, Alejano simply repeated: “We saw the corruption in the AFP and we had to take a stand against it; take action against it, or we would be compelled like… our predecessors to accept it and be part of it… This we couldn’t accept.”
For accepting corruption, Gen. Angelo Reyes rose to be an AFP general and then attained four Cabinet positions. It was an enviable government career matched only by Senator Juan Ponce-Enrile who also had as many Cabinet posts but likewise had to lie (as in the self-assassination attempt to justify Martial Law) and perform all the consequential deeds that go with such capacity for prevarication.
For not accepting corruption and, instead, denouncing it and acting against it, the Bagong Katipuneros spent between six to seven years behind bars; endured tremendous mental torture as well as lost incomes, and suffered family difficulties--even marital separation.
Truth Prevailed
Yet over time, justice and truth prevailed. Philippine society finally came through with the right judgment, as those who stood by their moral and lofty principles are now vindicated while those who violated the Honor Code are chastised -- except by a number of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) hacks in Philippine media.
GMA and all those associated with her, such as FVR and the tainted generals (among others), have a lot at stake in the Angelo Reyes “suicide” drama. Turning Reyes into a hero, instead of the knave that he was, lightens the burden on them for their unprecedented nine-year period of maximum decadence.
GMA & Trillanes
It’s not surprising then that the marching orders to all of GMA’s assets in media are to: 1) prettify the “death” of Angie Reyes, picturing it as akin to a Samurai’s hara-kiri (or the ultimate self-sacrifice); 2) extol his “record” in public service, ad infinitum, and 3) create diversionary targets for lambasting and demonizing so as to distract from the sordid facts about Reyes (and his benefactors).
The prime target for the third ploy is, of course, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who has been lambasted with such inconsequential labels as “mayabang (arrogant),” “self-righteous,” “uncavalier,” “coup plotter,” ad nausea, all by the usual GMA barkers howling in unison for over a week over the alleged “high handedness” of some Senate interrogators.
Carmen Pedrosa, for instance, in her Feb. 12 Philippine Star column, stated: “I do not think Senator Jinggoy Estrada and Senator Trillanes should be let off that lightly for General Angelo Reyes’ death.” Let off from what “crime,” may I ask? For doing their sworn duty as senators of this Republic; for producing results in unveiling long-rumored and kept secrets about the GMA military cabal’s corruption (which I had already written about years ago)?
Guilty Conscience
Last Feb. 14 in the Manila Standard Today was ex-GMA spokesman Gary Olivar’s turn to sound silly. He said: “…The consequences of irresponsible sensationalism were driven home by the recent suicide of Secretary Angie Reyes… rumors were already flying that Sec. Angie’s suicide was the product of a guilty conscience. This is self-evidently stupid: self-destruction would be an even likelier recourse for someone who is innocent but has no way to properly defend himself, as well as his family and friends.” Whaaat? Is this guy for real? Angie Reyes’ family already has a paid professional spokesperson by the name of Patricia Daza, who’s touted to be very expensive, and with at least P50 million in pabaon to his name, couldn’t Reyes have easily hired the best lawyers too?
But then, the arbiter of self-evident stupidity continues: “…It would also be a fitting coda if our send-off for the general serves to trigger a re-examination of the slow death through trial by publicity.” Now, now, anyone who puts Reyes’ less than 12 hours of intense Senate grilling side-by-side with the seven years and seven months of incarceration of the Bagong Katipuneros will see that this guy, Olivar, is only exaggerating for Reyes to the point of absurdity.
Missing the Point
Oh, not to be left behind, Armando Doronilla of the Inquirer last Feb. 16 claimed: “The soldiers of the Republic closed ranks around him (Reyes), hailing him as a hero.” Obviously, Doronilla never asked if any of the young officers and foot soldiers out in the fields with worn boots and reused Coke plastic bottles for water canteens (who definitely outnumber those handfuls of generals in cushy posts) shared the same sentiment.
He even bewailed “the nefarious methods used by the investigation that stripped citizens subpoenaed by the Senate to testify at its hearings (better described as torture chambers) of their honor and dignity, as well as of members of their family.” Gee, doesn’t Doronilla know the difference between the mental anguish of, say, CoA’s Heidi Mendoza and Lt. Col. Antonio Ramon Lim, who, while facing interrogation, shed tears not of shame or humiliation but of remorse over the corruption they witnessed, versus those of Reyes, Garcia, Ligot et al., neither of whom had the courage to admit the truth openly?
Doronilla even continued by accusing Senate investigators of making Reyes “a convenient fall guy, vilified, unable to defend himself from slander, by self-righteous detractors using the privilege of legislative immunity as a platform to settle scores for his decisions and actions (military or civilian related)…” Sadly, Doronilla deliberately misses the point of the exercise.
Personal Indictment
Even granting that human motives may have been a factor, why on earth was Reyes only able to answer with “Have I been selfish?” “Did I ever ask for anything?” or “Didn’t I share?” in the face of a direct indictment against him on those corrupt practices? Surely, these can only be construed as an indirect admission on his part that, yes, he did share something and, though he never asked, he did get something--in other words, his pabaon.
And if you think we’ve had enough comedy for now, think again. On that same day in The Manila Times, another of GMA’s stooges, Ricardo Saludo, called the congressional hearings into AFP corruption as “hearings in aid of demolition,” claiming “that cavalier attitude toward public accusations triggered tragedy with the death of Angelo Reyes.” But if we were to follow this logic, then there should already have been a long history of suicides by resources persons or witnesses invited to congressional hearings, since these had been instituted as a “check-and-balance” mechanism in the Philippine political system long ago.
Just think of how many subjects the acerbic Miriam Defensor-Santiago has humiliated with her loose artillery language since she became senator in 1995, and how many of them could have already succumbed to self-destruction if words and shame alone were enough to trigger suicide.
Lastly, while I have critiqued other critics in this column, I reserve the last critique for myself: I erred in naming retired Col. Proceso Maligalig in one of my columns in anoth er newspaper, as well as on my radio program, as the former RAM man who disjointedly criticized Trillanes’ conduct in the investigation of Reyes. It was not Proceso but Col. Leopoldo Maligalig. My apologies to Proceso.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on the “Sorry Yellow Movement” with Charito Planas and Linggoy Alcuaz; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and watch or listen to our select radio and GNN shows)
Friday, February 25, 2011
After 25 years: 'No change?'
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/25/2011
I looked up on the Internet some cues on “Delusional Disorder Treatments” and found prescriptions ranging from psychotherapy, medication, to psychosurgery. Sadly, I couldn’t find the cure for what I wanted to remedy — the delusional “Edsa I People Power Syndrome” afflicting certain people, which is propagated by the present ruling order. Special among this crop of delunoids are a number of opinion writers in mainstream media. They continue to sing paeans to 25 years of Edsa I in the face of overwhelming evidence against their grand delusion.
Once such indictment against Edsa I came via a dimwitted assertion by their presidential icon Aquino III in his speech at Ocampo, Camarines Sur three days ago, where he said, “After 25 years, was there change? Unfortunately, nothing really changed — corruption is still rampant and the result, the needs of the people were left unattended…” What??? Twenty-five years with trillions of pesos of budgets, and still “no change?”
The fact is, there has been tremendous change over the past 25 years: CHANGE FROM BAD TO WORSE. Corruption isn’t the same; it has worsened geometrically. In the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), for instance, as Linggoy Alcuaz can attest to (since he was with a communications company supplying equipment to the AFP during Marcos’ time), military comptrollers used to get only 1 percent of the 10 percent set aside for “intermediation.” But since Cory Aquino’s time, as attested to by retired Gen. Romeo Padiernos and reported in mainstream media this week, military corruption has expanded by leaps and bounds, leading to what we now shockingly witness in the Gen. Carlos Garcia “pabaon” mess.
Marcos could not have subdued the MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) and the NPA (New People’s Army) if the rate of AFP corruption seen during the Cory years down to the FVR and GMA regimes had already prevailed then. Now, the AFP can’t even provide decent boots.
Cory Aquino became the dog that was wagged by the AFP tail during her time. Afterwards, the military was led by none other than the chief of the Philippine Constabulary and the entire AFP, Fidel Ramos. One retired general told me over a regular breakfast meet with other retired officers: “When FVR took over the AFP and visited the camps for inspection, he would have a stack of envelopes with money to hand out to the officers saying, ‘Go improve your image.’” That same general said the practice of conversion became rampant only after Mrs. Aquino became Commander-in-Chief.
Yet the profligacy that followed her assumption to office was not only limited to the AFP; it swept the entire Cabinet. While Marcos had only 12 Cabinet secretaries, Cory had a whopping 34 and cost P4.4 billion yearly to maintain because every Big Business and “civil society” faction wanted a seat.
A major and fundamental change that overcame the Philippines after Edsa I has been the rapid transition of the country from a rice self-sufficient nation and occasional exporter to its status today as the “world’s top (and most expensive) rice importer.” Now, that’s something to be proud of, isn’t it? It’s a question I’d like to address to some of my fellow columnists in the other papers fawning over Cory Aquino and her “democracy” (as if economics and rice aren’t fundamental to human rights and human dignity).
Never mind that we had the beginnings of a car industry already thanks to Marcos, at a time when South Korea was still dreaming of it, or that electricity sufficiency for 25 years had already been planned with the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant already set to operate in 1984, seven years before the People’s Republic of China’s first nuclear power plant in 1991.
A month’s worth or eight 1,000-word columns of mine couldn’t summarize the deterioration from what the Marcos era left behind in terms of socio-economic infrastructure, along with the devastation Mrs. Cory Aquino and the succeeding Yellow regimes wrought later. Marcos’ prescient energy program included geothermal, dendro-thermal, bio, and solar energy; we were growing cotton and grapes to achieve self-sufficiency in these; ship building was starting with Baseco, far ahead of South Korea; cultural centers were built, and never duplicated since.
In contrast, Cory Aquino, “civil society,” and the Makati Business Club only brought in factories of delusions, such as Conrado de Quiros’ “We are the one country that invented people power” — a really shameless historical plagiarism of France’s Storming of the Bastille or Korea’s April 19 Movement against Syngman Rhee, (among many) precedents to Edsa I of deposing elite or US-backed tyrants.
The facts of history must be learned: The 21st century’s rising stars, ranging from China, Singapore, to Malaysia, strengthened their growth by way of nationalist authoritarian governance. Political and economic laissez -faire merely led to the internal collapse of the 20th century superpower, the USA.
Another lesson is that popular insurrection mistakenly called revolutions, and daubed with whatever color, can lead to rightist-elitist victory as well as popular-progressive triumph. Venezuela had the latter under a populist leadership, where nationalization of state assets proceeded posthaste; Ukraine, meanwhile, had the elitist, Western-oriented version and, like the Philippines, saw its own corruption and impoverishment multiply within a decade of its reversing course.
Western-nurtured “people power” are for Western interests only; hence, the privatization of a nation’s wealth. Only nationalist people power benefits the nation.
“NO CHANGE” is unacceptable; we need REAL CHANGE for the better. Onwards with True People Power… the spirit of Edsa III continues!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “National Development versus Yellow Economics” with Charito Planas and Linggoy Alcuaz; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and watch or listen to our select radio and GNN shows)
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/25/2011
I looked up on the Internet some cues on “Delusional Disorder Treatments” and found prescriptions ranging from psychotherapy, medication, to psychosurgery. Sadly, I couldn’t find the cure for what I wanted to remedy — the delusional “Edsa I People Power Syndrome” afflicting certain people, which is propagated by the present ruling order. Special among this crop of delunoids are a number of opinion writers in mainstream media. They continue to sing paeans to 25 years of Edsa I in the face of overwhelming evidence against their grand delusion.
Once such indictment against Edsa I came via a dimwitted assertion by their presidential icon Aquino III in his speech at Ocampo, Camarines Sur three days ago, where he said, “After 25 years, was there change? Unfortunately, nothing really changed — corruption is still rampant and the result, the needs of the people were left unattended…” What??? Twenty-five years with trillions of pesos of budgets, and still “no change?”
The fact is, there has been tremendous change over the past 25 years: CHANGE FROM BAD TO WORSE. Corruption isn’t the same; it has worsened geometrically. In the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), for instance, as Linggoy Alcuaz can attest to (since he was with a communications company supplying equipment to the AFP during Marcos’ time), military comptrollers used to get only 1 percent of the 10 percent set aside for “intermediation.” But since Cory Aquino’s time, as attested to by retired Gen. Romeo Padiernos and reported in mainstream media this week, military corruption has expanded by leaps and bounds, leading to what we now shockingly witness in the Gen. Carlos Garcia “pabaon” mess.
Marcos could not have subdued the MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) and the NPA (New People’s Army) if the rate of AFP corruption seen during the Cory years down to the FVR and GMA regimes had already prevailed then. Now, the AFP can’t even provide decent boots.
Cory Aquino became the dog that was wagged by the AFP tail during her time. Afterwards, the military was led by none other than the chief of the Philippine Constabulary and the entire AFP, Fidel Ramos. One retired general told me over a regular breakfast meet with other retired officers: “When FVR took over the AFP and visited the camps for inspection, he would have a stack of envelopes with money to hand out to the officers saying, ‘Go improve your image.’” That same general said the practice of conversion became rampant only after Mrs. Aquino became Commander-in-Chief.
Yet the profligacy that followed her assumption to office was not only limited to the AFP; it swept the entire Cabinet. While Marcos had only 12 Cabinet secretaries, Cory had a whopping 34 and cost P4.4 billion yearly to maintain because every Big Business and “civil society” faction wanted a seat.
A major and fundamental change that overcame the Philippines after Edsa I has been the rapid transition of the country from a rice self-sufficient nation and occasional exporter to its status today as the “world’s top (and most expensive) rice importer.” Now, that’s something to be proud of, isn’t it? It’s a question I’d like to address to some of my fellow columnists in the other papers fawning over Cory Aquino and her “democracy” (as if economics and rice aren’t fundamental to human rights and human dignity).
Never mind that we had the beginnings of a car industry already thanks to Marcos, at a time when South Korea was still dreaming of it, or that electricity sufficiency for 25 years had already been planned with the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant already set to operate in 1984, seven years before the People’s Republic of China’s first nuclear power plant in 1991.
A month’s worth or eight 1,000-word columns of mine couldn’t summarize the deterioration from what the Marcos era left behind in terms of socio-economic infrastructure, along with the devastation Mrs. Cory Aquino and the succeeding Yellow regimes wrought later. Marcos’ prescient energy program included geothermal, dendro-thermal, bio, and solar energy; we were growing cotton and grapes to achieve self-sufficiency in these; ship building was starting with Baseco, far ahead of South Korea; cultural centers were built, and never duplicated since.
In contrast, Cory Aquino, “civil society,” and the Makati Business Club only brought in factories of delusions, such as Conrado de Quiros’ “We are the one country that invented people power” — a really shameless historical plagiarism of France’s Storming of the Bastille or Korea’s April 19 Movement against Syngman Rhee, (among many) precedents to Edsa I of deposing elite or US-backed tyrants.
The facts of history must be learned: The 21st century’s rising stars, ranging from China, Singapore, to Malaysia, strengthened their growth by way of nationalist authoritarian governance. Political and economic laissez -faire merely led to the internal collapse of the 20th century superpower, the USA.
Another lesson is that popular insurrection mistakenly called revolutions, and daubed with whatever color, can lead to rightist-elitist victory as well as popular-progressive triumph. Venezuela had the latter under a populist leadership, where nationalization of state assets proceeded posthaste; Ukraine, meanwhile, had the elitist, Western-oriented version and, like the Philippines, saw its own corruption and impoverishment multiply within a decade of its reversing course.
Western-nurtured “people power” are for Western interests only; hence, the privatization of a nation’s wealth. Only nationalist people power benefits the nation.
“NO CHANGE” is unacceptable; we need REAL CHANGE for the better. Onwards with True People Power… the spirit of Edsa III continues!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “National Development versus Yellow Economics” with Charito Planas and Linggoy Alcuaz; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and watch or listen to our select radio and GNN shows)
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