The plunder ‘elite’

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / 10/14/2013 / Daily Tribune

For three decades now we have heard and read how establishment institutions, from school books to Western media, such as Time/CNN, to local mainstream and the addled social media, have portrayed how "plundering" Ferdinand Marcos was. But the desire of BS Aquino, expressed through Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, to expand presidential discretion over, for instance, the disposition of government's share of revenues from the Malampaya natural gas facility reveals just who has the real plundering mindset. And it's none other than the jaundiced, Yellow Edsa I power elite led by the likes of the Aquino family and cronies such as Belmonte.

Marcos' earmarking of the Malampaya Fund to energy-related projects at the project's inception defined a clear sense of priority, propriety and foresight. It indicated the clear understanding of the Philippines' need for continued dedication to indigenous energy source development and protecting the revenues from the Malampaya project from diversion to anything other than that goal. Decades after Marcos set up the energy development programs to create a self-sufficient energy base for the country, we have been witness to a progressive dismantling of that energy self-sufficiency program and, now, the imminent threat of dissipating one of the last sources of funds dedicated to it.

Is the idea of dissipating the Malampaya Fund really BS Aquino's or is it simply Belmonte manipulating his little "tyke" from the Boston years of Ninoy Aquino's exile? The current House Speaker is seen as the epitome of the greed that marks the Yellow decades of governance in this country. In fact, if the public were to look for the root of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) schemes, it should call for the investigation of Belmonte and his coterie known as "the Quezon City mafia" that includes Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa and a one-time treasury chief who is a master in packaging financial instruments to plunder government coffers. Not surprisingly, Belmonte, in the name of BS Aquino, has now set his sights on frittering away the Malampaya Fund to "alleviate poverty and job creation."

Just think about it: BS Aquino and his top House henchman have passed a national budget of over P2 trillion every year. They have allocated over P100 billion for the anti-poverty conditional cash transfer (CCT) program the past years and over P48 billion for 2014. Yet one cannot see where the poverty and unemployment alleviation goes. It's so bad that even BS Aquino and Yellow crony Walden Bello had to admit that recently in the news article, "Global poverty down, Philippine poverty remains high," given the National Statistics Coordination Board data that 27.9 percent live below the poverty line. Worse, National Economic Development Authority chief Arsenio Balisacan, in "Unemployment rate inches up to 7.3 percent in July 2013," even had to admit that the "September 2013 underemployment rate rose to 22.7 percent — the highest since July 2006."

So why is Belmonte coming up with this scheme to divert the roughly P150-billion Malampaya Fund? With three years left of the BS Aquino administration, this gang is showing its intent on cleaning out every fund it can lay its hands on, no matter the scandal that may ensue. This proposal for opening the use of the Malampaya Fund to other than energy-related purposes will ensure its travel down the long drains of official greed and corruption.

While we are wary of any "ouster" moves against a government or president without a prepared alternative, I'm afraid we have to join the call as nothing may be left of the government treasury after BS Aquino and his Yellow cronies are through with it.

Although weakened by the sinking US dollar, the Yellow ruling class, being a collaboration of the US neocolonial overlords and their traditional financial-economic-political oligarchy, prevails because of divisiveness built into Philippine society — from obscurantist religious sects, a military indoctrinated against genuine nationalism, to the addled middle class and "social media," etc.

Impoverished Filipinos now see through the Yellow Edsa I "democracy" and "growth" frauds. Hope lies in the rise of reformist young officers, the militant nationalists, principled "rejectionists" of the Left, and the latent Edsa III forces (if revived in the face of oppression), among other reform movements.

But for genuine social reformers to win, weaving a thread of unity across the progressive nationalist elements is a precondition. Only a meeting of minds of these anti-Yellow forces will suffice.

The time to stop and end the plundering elite around BS Aquino and the Yellows is now. The opportunity to coalesce and win for genuine change is approaching with the anti-presidential pork crusade rising and the US continuing its downward spiral into social and political chaos that not even the resolution of its "shutdown" and its "debt ceiling" crises will stop.

(Tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN Destiny Cable Channel 8, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m., also on www.gnntv-asia.com, this week on "Gaddafi's struggle: Lessons for RP"; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0923-4095739)

Boomerang

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / 10/7/2013 / Daily Tribune


Ireceived this from a source monitoring the anti-pork activities on the Web: "Peachy Bretaña is one of the organizers of the first Luneta anti-pork rally and the just concluded Ayala rally. The following post on her Facebook timeline is interpreted by many as an admission of her yellow agenda:

"It is with utmost sadness that I withdrew my video message for the MPM@Ayala just now, being in Singapore for a scheduled trip since June. I can't personally gauge it and reports have reached me that there are strong groups trying to hijack the messaging at the Ayala rally and turning it into an oust P-Noy messaging. 'This is not the intent.' Please, to these groups and you know who you are, 'Manggagamit lang din kayo.' You are no different from the congressmen and senators who have taken advantage of us all these years. 'Mahiya sana kayo sa ginagawa ninyo.'"

Tracing the Million People March (MPM) activities, we noted that Bretaña, after some Internet debate with other so-called "leaders," such as Inday Varona of ABS-CBN, missed the Sept. 21 activity at the Edsa Shrine (led by another PR operator Junep Ocampo) where anti-government protest placards were supposedly banned. Actually, from the very beginning, Bretaña and her ilk not only banned the "oust" message but all reference to BS Aquino's "porks."

Obviously, Bretaña was referring to the groups associated with Bayan Muna when she decried them as "trying to hijack the messaging at the Ayala rally."
I congratulated these militant groups even at the first Luneta rally for staging their own pocket rallies on the anti-pork issue, thereby unmasking the likes of Bretaña, whom I have long believed to be Malacañang operators using "pork" to divert from the Ballsy Aquino-Eldon Cruz Metro Rail Transit scandal.

These "militant" groups deserve thanks and kudos for being the only ones serious enough to be organized on the ground and deliberate in their strategy of "boomeranging" Malacañang's "anti-pork" diversionary attack on the legislative opposition, always bringing the rallies to Malacañang's doorstep at Mendiola.

While these militant groups worked on the ground, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada set the tone for the "boomerang" in his Sept. 24 privileged speech by exposing the gamut of pork of this administration and its party mates. Then, former Sen. Joker Arroyo exploded an even bigger bomb with his exposé of the Aquino-Abad Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) of P72 billion worth of pork.

On the Internet, the campaign to "boomerang" the anti-pork crusade was most effectively conducted by the group, Tanggulang Demokrasya (Tandem). Its members were among the first to spot the similarities between Bretaña's anti-pork posters for the first Luneta MPM drumbeating and those of BS Aquino's 2010 presidential campaign.

Later, Bretaña was compelled to admit that she indeed lifted the design from BS Aquino's 2010 posters. Moreover, she, too, has admitted to being a publicist or PR person for an international agency, a fact that took time to be discovered. But isn't it ironic that while she accuses others to be "users" ("manggagamit"), she herself spurs some rallies then disappears to foreign lairs?

When we discovered the MPM posters as a facsimile of BS Aquino's 2010 run, it became very clear what Malacañang's intention was on the supposed anti-pork campaign. I recall emailing to Tandem that we must begin figuring out some moves to "jujitsu" Malacañang's plot and turn it against the Palace. Little did I know then that the efforts of various groups to expand the search for truth would trip

Malacañang's plans completely, now having BS Aquino, Butch Abad, and all their partisans tightly by their necks with a "poor Nelson" wrestling hold. On the other hand, because Bretaña and company kept insisting on a no-Aquino-criticisms-allowed policy, their rallies just kept dwindling.

Malacañang had a complete PR plan laid out — starting with the anti-pork campaign then culminating in the musical advocacy we now see on the Internet. The "Kayanihan" song, penned by Ryan Cayabyab (the composer of choice of the Yellows), suddenly made the rounds on the Internet just before the MPM@Ayala, with a music video akin to "Ako'y Ninoy" and "Ako Mismo" targeting the youth with young faces interwoven with known images.

But PR or propaganda has its limits. As we can see the whole truth that is coming out, BS Aquino and his regime, much like the previous Arroyo government, are as synonymous to corrupted human nature at its core, where everyone and everything can be bought and sold, and where bribery rules the day.

Now, as for the Yellow taboo of ousting PeNoy, that actually is already in the minds of an unprecedented number of people I come in contact with — from FX and taxi drivers, to media camera crew, office staff, even priests and nuns, as well as radio anchors and listeners, ad nausea.

But, as we've had so many ousters before where we were merely thrown from the frying pan to the fire and then to purgatory, the next one for us might just be hell — unless we are prepared with a collective coalition that has a vision inspiring enough to overcome the fears of major power factions of society and capable enough to contain the financial mafia. Only the ripening crisis will reveal this to the nation; but now the forces have begun to coalesce.

(Tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN Destiny Cable Channel 8, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m., also on www.gnntv-asia.com, this week on "Thorium nuclear power"; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0923-4095739)

It's still a class war

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / 10/2/2013 / Daily Tribune

If what we are witnessing is just a negative media campaign against Jinggoy Estrada, then we might consider it in a more limited light. But given that fresh from this pounding comes another political assault, this time using one of the oldest charges of "election overspending" to oust another Estrada from elected office — who, by the way, heads a province with the largest voting population in the country — and that these are happening amid rumors (and texts) of an impending disqualification of President-Mayor Joseph Estrada from the City of Manila based on the "whereas" clauses of his political pardon, it's clear that the old war of the elite against the masa's Erap is raging again.

What has triggered this renewed war against Estrada and his family? The anti-pork crusade is clearly not just an anti-pork campaign as the media focus is not on all porkers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in various pork orgies. The Angaras and Cayetanos are prominent among those who have huge pork barrel allocations but very little attention is paid to them by mainstream media. It took Jinggoy to expose the Liberal Party (LP)'s other major porkers (such as Mandaluyong's Boyet Gonzales) before Frank Drilon attracted attention to himself by becoming the Senate President — among the noisiest during the impeachment of Renato Corona — who now has brought upon himself the onus of the impeachment-linked P100-million bribe.

The speculation going around among analysts and pundits regarding this targeted crucifixion of the Estradas is one of two — first, the spectacular electoral victory of Mayor Estrada against incumbent and administration- (as well as automated machine-) backed Alfredo Lim, allowing him to overcome the pessimism over his capacity to introduce improvement in Manila; and second, the electoral victory of ER Ejercito in Laguna, which planted a flag in the province with the largest voting base to become a solid jumping board for any future plans the Estradas may have. Did they fear Erap running for Malacañang again, with the memory of US President Ronald Reagan winning his second term at 73?

There is no consensus that Mayor Estrada is of a mind to run again in any presidential contests. Estrada himself has said that younger leaders should take over.

It is well known that Jinggoy is being groomed only for the second top post. The other speculation is that the vilification campaign against the Estradas is really the first stage of the campaign against Vice President Jejomar Binay.

It is no secret that Binay is the top bet for 2016 and behind him are the Estradas who can command at least 30 percent of the nation's votes — that is, if the 2010 elections are to be believed. LP strategists are surely up to an early start to erode that base expected to be cast for Binay by the Estrada family.

Behind the LP is an array of supporters from the ruling class that can trust only one of its own, i.e. Mar Roxas. While Binay has played his cards very well, keeping the Yellows at arm's length, the ruling class is not only uncomfortable but is very uncompromising over absolute control of the presidency, especially at this critical juncture where Western powers are gearing for a comeback in the world stage but getting beaten along the way. All these forces need total control in the next administration to put in place every detail for the next major global scenario.

The rabid anti-Estrada tier in the upper crust of Philippine society is being made to focus on so-called corruption but only on a limited in scope. They know that the entire system is corrupt from the top feeders in the food hierarchy down to their prey. International and local bankers feed on the usurious system of unnecessary foreign and local debt imposed on the nation; then the top 50 corporations feed on the population through price gouging in service utilities; and only then do the politicians and bureaucrats provide the legislation and administration for these top feeders through privatization laws, financial usury rules, the flawed electoral system, the dispensing of pork barrel, etc.

Foreign and local elite corruption over the centuries is untouchable so much so that political and bureaucratic corruption is made endemic by the culture of impunity promoted by the ruling class for its "controlled" politicians and bureaucrats; this, as uncontrollable political and bureaucratic elements are selectively persecuted as the situations demand.

Especially dangerous to the corrupt ruling class is competitive or rival leadership that can rouse the masses into consciousness and consolidation, which Erap Estrada can still singularly achieve when he so decides.

In the 2010 presidential elections where the ruling class' candidate had the advantage of the "funereal sympathy wave," the masa, who should have been solidly tapped for the Estrada campaign, were unfortunately drawn in. Even as his campaigners debated the use of the "final solution" — that of sending out the "class war" message — Erap never wanted it framed that way, given his appreciation of Cory Aquino's "apology." But that, in reality, is still the main issue: The war the ruling class is waging against the people (including the middle class), impoverishing everyone below the "upper crust."

(Tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN Destiny Cable Channel 8, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m., also on www.gnntv-asia.com, this week on "Thorium nuclear power"; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0923-4095739)