---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mentong Tiu <mentong2011@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Aug 20, 2014 at 2:25 PM
Subject: Fwd: HTL DieHard III Column for 08-20-2014 WED
To: annalizagaspar <annalizagaspar@gmail.com>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Laurence Siao <lcsiao@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 12:46 AM
Subject: HTL DieHard III Column for 08-20-2014 WED
To: Tribune <mlatdt@gmail.com>, Tribune <mlatdt@yahoo.com>, Tribune-
Ninez <ninezolivares@yahoo.com>
Cc: Herman Tiu Laurel <mentong2011@gmail.com>, herman laurel
<htlnow@fastmail.fm>
People Power-less Revolution
(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 08-20-2014 WED)
Today, 14 years after the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA)
was signed into law a few months after the Edsa II coup of 2001, the
Philippines is faced with another power supply crisis. The EPIRA was
supposed to have solved the shortage of power that began when Cory
Aquino and Joker Arroyo cancelled the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant and
appointed a power oligarch to head the National Power Corp. (Napocor)
after the Edsa I "People Power Revolution" of 1986.
The crisis worsened under the term of Fidel V. Ramos, who then signed
a host of horrendously overpriced supply contracts from independent
power producers, whose so-called power purchase agreements required
government (and, of course, consumers) to pay even for power that had
never been used, which resulted in a humongous debt for Napocor.
When the EPIRA was still being sold to the public in the euphoric wake
of Edsa II, its proponent packaged the power industry privatization
plan as the guarantee for the Napocor debt of $15 billion to be paid
off through sale of the state agency's assets, besides fostering
competition among private power companies that would ensure lower
power rates and foreign investments in the industry that would lead to
ample supply for always.
The reality 14 years after those promises were made, however, has
become absolutely disheartening, if not depressing, for the country's
power consumers and economy. The Napocor debt was never reduced and
the company that stands today under the name of PSALM (Power Sector
Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.) has its interest costs at a
whopping $16 billion or P650 billion, despite 90 percent of its assets
having been privatized!
Today the Philippines proudly touts the highest power cost in Asia, if
not the world (since 2001), and continues to have annual power crises
and shortages plaguing Mindanao, as well as Luzon and the rest of the
country.
No new capacity has really been installed despite a decade and a half
of profits going to the major power companies. In fact, just this
year, an industry giant, in partnership with its mother company, even
opened a new power plant in Singapore worth P800 billion.
Two years after the EPIRA became law, Filipino power consumers began
to understand that none of its promises were being fulfilled. As
such, one of the anti-Arroyo campaign issues in 2004 was the high
power cost.
From 2008 to this day, Mindanao suffers 12-hour daily brownouts
despite its rich hydroelectric capacities. Every year the Department
of Energy warns of supply shortfalls and asks for emergency
presidential powers to rent expensive diesel power barges, which
government had privatized before.
Twenty-six years after the Edsa I and Edsa II "People Power"
uprisings, the Filipino people find themselves without sufficient
electric power despite the highest price for it they are paying; and
they find themselves powerless to do anything about it. The same is
true for their supposed representatives in the Senate, Congress,
Malacañang, the courts, or even activists and consumer protection
groups, having been ironically blocked in all their efforts by those
institutions of government and the media that the private power
oligarchs control.
Today not only the people and power consumers find themselves
powerless in both the electrical and political senses of the word,
even real industry and labor organization leaders find themselves in
the same boat.
Since 2013, the different chambers of commerce and labor groups such
as the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines have demanded action on
the power crisis (such as the repeal of the EPIRA) but to no avail.
It seems that after the Edsa I and II "People Power" revolutions, the
real power in Philippine society turned out to be the "power
oligarchs" who became the plutocrats with the privatization of state
assets.
What we have witnessed the past 20 or so years is in reality a people
made "power-less" through economic and political policies that have
transferred the economic power of government and the state to the
rich.
It is time to realize this and reverse it through the genuine populist
revolution. Who's to lead this? They are already there; the people
need only to recognize them.
(Watch GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable
Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8:00 p.m. and replay
Sunday, 8 a.m.; tune in to 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.;
search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; and visit
http://newsulongpilipino.blogspot.com)
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Monday, August 4, 2014
Fwd: HTL DieHard III Column for 08-04-2014 MON
We need a good 'coup'
(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 08-04-2014 MON)
Why is most of the newspaper reportage on Sen. Sonny Trillanes'
comments on the possibility of a coup against BS Aquino skewed to the
negative? Is it because "mainstream media," which comprise most of
the broadsheets owned and run by those who have a stake in the
prevailing system, have a vested, self-serving interest to preserve
the current political-economic order in Philippine society?
Could it be that, just like their principals or alter egos in Big
Business, those in control of the information gateway would not want a
sudden change that could threaten their proximity to power, which only
a coup can bring?
I certainly want change in the Philippines, ASAP, as most Filipinos
do. This is why symbols of change are very popular in the country,
like the sensation that "Juana Change" has become at rallies,
demonstrations, and over social media.
Juana Change, as a character, has become a potent symbol, even though
the call for change has had far more profound advocates antedating
Juana by half-a-century, such as Renato Constantino or Alejandro
Lichauco--both nationalist intellectuals. The problem, though, with
the Juana Change genre is it dwells on forms and not essences, the
superficial and not the roots.
The Juana Change campaigns against political dynasties and the PDAF
(although not all are against the DAP) perennially flail against
"martial law" and "dictatorship," crying out for freedom and
democracy, but fail to go deeper into the real dynasties, the real
corruption, the real martial law and dictatorship, or the rhinestone
freedom and democracy that they claim to at least enjoy under the
present system.
That's why that type of reformism of the Yellows, resurgent after Edsa
Uno, has not brought about any change in their 25 years of being the
dominant "civil society" power.
Edsa Uno and the Yellow types have, in fact, worsened the situation of
the country and its people. Where before electricity, water, toll
fees, and housing provisions were affordable, if not cheap, under the
authoritarian government committed to national development, the
Yellows had condemned all these in favor of the prevailing system: the
authoritarianism of money for, of, and by the oligarchy and the
foreign powers behind it (the USA and its global plutocrats) in
extracting their gargantuan share of the nation's wealth through
enforced national debt, privatization, hiking of all prices, etc.
Forces from both the Left and the Right call for revolution. The
former promotes a people's revolution whereas the latter merely
subverts it through the various "color," "flower," or "season"
revolutions, as what we had witnessed with the Yellow Edsa Uno,
Georgia's Rose Revolution, or Egypt's Arab Spring--all with strong
backing from the National Endowment for Democracy, a US Central
Intelligence Agency adjunct.
The Left's revolution takes a lot more time and needs a confluence of
events to neutralize the foreign power's control, neither of which
Filipinos have time for before the total collapse of Philippine
society. That was what Thailand was facing just a few months ago
before the Thai military took over and stabilized the situation.
Unfortunately for the Thais, the military coup that took over kowtows
to their traditional ruling powers, where there will be no serious
structural change, no matter how thankful they might be for the
temporary restoration of order.
There can be better combinations of coups and counter-coups, which are
really one and the same species of political-military moves for
change. The coup and counter-coup of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela from
1992 to 2002, for instance, jumpstarted political and electoral
victories against US-oligarchic control in Venezuela and allowed the
nationalization of that country's oil resources, which are now devoted
to the welfare of the people.
Hugo Chavez had an intellectually developed core of military officers
guided by Bolivarianism and other progressive ideologies, and allied
with social movements. I know that Alejandro "Ding" Lichauco is an
admirer of the late leader. Renato Constantino, who passed away in
1999 and did not live to see the victory of Chavismo, would have
admired him too.
I would like to see a Chavismo group in the Philippines, participated
in by officers allied to a broad range of progressive movements who
will institute the following upon the completion of a successful
seizure of power:
1) The establishment of a "Constitutional Transition Government" as
preached by former Misamis Oriental governor Homobono Adaza, as well
as a National Unity council comprising all institutional stakeholders;
2) The restoration of basic utility services to public ownership and
control that will cut power and water rates radically to redistribute
the wealth monopolized by oligarchs to consumers themselves;
3) The postponement of elections until the Commission on Elections is
cleaned up and manual voting and precinct counting is restored, and
the scheduling of new elections within one year;
4) The renegotiation all national debt where immediate pay-offs shall
be made that will also lead to the removal of the nefarious Value
Added Tax system.
Juana Change, maybe when properly enlightened, can transform to Juana
Coup. That would take that genre of reformism one step higher.
In light of the Yellow Establishment domination of the current power
structure, people should ask themselves why "Yellow coups" such as
Edsa Uno and Edsa Dos are praised, while the others are despised by
mainstream media.
It's a pity Edsa Tres was aborted; we could have already seen real change then.
(Watch GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable
Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8:00 p.m. and replay
Sunday, 8 a.m.; tune in to 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.;
search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; and visit
http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 08-04-2014 MON)
Why is most of the newspaper reportage on Sen. Sonny Trillanes'
comments on the possibility of a coup against BS Aquino skewed to the
negative? Is it because "mainstream media," which comprise most of
the broadsheets owned and run by those who have a stake in the
prevailing system, have a vested, self-serving interest to preserve
the current political-economic order in Philippine society?
Could it be that, just like their principals or alter egos in Big
Business, those in control of the information gateway would not want a
sudden change that could threaten their proximity to power, which only
a coup can bring?
I certainly want change in the Philippines, ASAP, as most Filipinos
do. This is why symbols of change are very popular in the country,
like the sensation that "Juana Change" has become at rallies,
demonstrations, and over social media.
Juana Change, as a character, has become a potent symbol, even though
the call for change has had far more profound advocates antedating
Juana by half-a-century, such as Renato Constantino or Alejandro
Lichauco--both nationalist intellectuals. The problem, though, with
the Juana Change genre is it dwells on forms and not essences, the
superficial and not the roots.
The Juana Change campaigns against political dynasties and the PDAF
(although not all are against the DAP) perennially flail against
"martial law" and "dictatorship," crying out for freedom and
democracy, but fail to go deeper into the real dynasties, the real
corruption, the real martial law and dictatorship, or the rhinestone
freedom and democracy that they claim to at least enjoy under the
present system.
That's why that type of reformism of the Yellows, resurgent after Edsa
Uno, has not brought about any change in their 25 years of being the
dominant "civil society" power.
Edsa Uno and the Yellow types have, in fact, worsened the situation of
the country and its people. Where before electricity, water, toll
fees, and housing provisions were affordable, if not cheap, under the
authoritarian government committed to national development, the
Yellows had condemned all these in favor of the prevailing system: the
authoritarianism of money for, of, and by the oligarchy and the
foreign powers behind it (the USA and its global plutocrats) in
extracting their gargantuan share of the nation's wealth through
enforced national debt, privatization, hiking of all prices, etc.
Forces from both the Left and the Right call for revolution. The
former promotes a people's revolution whereas the latter merely
subverts it through the various "color," "flower," or "season"
revolutions, as what we had witnessed with the Yellow Edsa Uno,
Georgia's Rose Revolution, or Egypt's Arab Spring--all with strong
backing from the National Endowment for Democracy, a US Central
Intelligence Agency adjunct.
The Left's revolution takes a lot more time and needs a confluence of
events to neutralize the foreign power's control, neither of which
Filipinos have time for before the total collapse of Philippine
society. That was what Thailand was facing just a few months ago
before the Thai military took over and stabilized the situation.
Unfortunately for the Thais, the military coup that took over kowtows
to their traditional ruling powers, where there will be no serious
structural change, no matter how thankful they might be for the
temporary restoration of order.
There can be better combinations of coups and counter-coups, which are
really one and the same species of political-military moves for
change. The coup and counter-coup of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela from
1992 to 2002, for instance, jumpstarted political and electoral
victories against US-oligarchic control in Venezuela and allowed the
nationalization of that country's oil resources, which are now devoted
to the welfare of the people.
Hugo Chavez had an intellectually developed core of military officers
guided by Bolivarianism and other progressive ideologies, and allied
with social movements. I know that Alejandro "Ding" Lichauco is an
admirer of the late leader. Renato Constantino, who passed away in
1999 and did not live to see the victory of Chavismo, would have
admired him too.
I would like to see a Chavismo group in the Philippines, participated
in by officers allied to a broad range of progressive movements who
will institute the following upon the completion of a successful
seizure of power:
1) The establishment of a "Constitutional Transition Government" as
preached by former Misamis Oriental governor Homobono Adaza, as well
as a National Unity council comprising all institutional stakeholders;
2) The restoration of basic utility services to public ownership and
control that will cut power and water rates radically to redistribute
the wealth monopolized by oligarchs to consumers themselves;
3) The postponement of elections until the Commission on Elections is
cleaned up and manual voting and precinct counting is restored, and
the scheduling of new elections within one year;
4) The renegotiation all national debt where immediate pay-offs shall
be made that will also lead to the removal of the nefarious Value
Added Tax system.
Juana Change, maybe when properly enlightened, can transform to Juana
Coup. That would take that genre of reformism one step higher.
In light of the Yellow Establishment domination of the current power
structure, people should ask themselves why "Yellow coups" such as
Edsa Uno and Edsa Dos are praised, while the others are despised by
mainstream media.
It's a pity Edsa Tres was aborted; we could have already seen real change then.
(Watch GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable
Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8:00 p.m. and replay
Sunday, 8 a.m.; tune in to 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.;
search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; and visit
http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
Monday, July 7, 2014
P347-billion added debt burden
DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / July 7, 2014 / Daily Tribune
National government debt increased year-on-year in May by P347 billion or 6.57 percent. Gloria Arroyo left the country a P4.9-trillion debt. BS Aquino’s now stands at P5.6 trillion.
This debt is unnecessary in light of the huge amounts wasted in the so-called BS Aquino Disbursement Acceleration Program cum presidential “pork barrel” (BADAP) or on Congress’ wastage of P35 billion last year passing only one law postponing the Sangguniang Kabataan elections.
This is especially so considering the country’s over $20 billion in foreign exchange surplus or its Special Deposit Account with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) of P1.7 trillion ($ 40 billion) costing 2.5 percent to keep idle, or BS Aquino’s June 2012 boast of lending $1 billion to help keep the Eurozone afloat.
Taking all that into account, does it still make sense for the Philippines to continue growing its debt principal and interest? No!
The Philippines continues to borrow “only” because of subservience to the US-led Western financial-political mafia. As domestic banks get 70 percent of such borrowings, so too are local banks exploiting the people in this unnecessary debt.
The global banking mafia has had, and continues to make, many impositions deleterious to the country, one of which is the invasion of foreign capital into our rural banks, which will result in control by these global “too-big-to-fail” banks that had brought about regular financial collapses such as the 2008 financial meltdown.
The only alternative to this cycle of financial looting is People’s or National Banking, which is part of the broader monetary system in its many forms, from cooperative banks to nationalized or government dominated banks, to the modern evolution called “crypto-currencies.”
This is the banking system of the main economic tigers of Asia, namely, China, Vietnam, Singapore, etc. The people create the wealth and the surplus and savings out of it are lent to projects that benefit the people in a perpetual cycle of enriching people’s communities instead of private bankers.
There is no opposition from the Philippine establishment, i.e. the present ruling class of corrupt politicians and financial mafias (or banks) with interlocking ownership by mega-corporations, because the present financial-political-economic system benefits only them and excludes the people (the middle class and the masses).
BADAP and legislative “pork” are just the share of the system’s political cronies to keep the present system going. Hence, there will eventually be a resurrection of BADAP and “pork” if the present system is to survive, which the powers-that-be are determined to do — unless, there is genuine change or revolution.
Revolution (peaceful desirably) is possible only if the ideological foundation of the prevailing system is undermined, by bringing to light values of right and wrong in matters such as ownership of the nation’s common wealth (land, capital-financial system, public utilities) or of public vs private ownership and control of such resources.
Without such public ownership or control (especially of the financial system), a government dedicated to the peoples’ welfare will never have the wherewithal to serve them. Instead, a government controlled by private wealth will only protect private wealth and grow more private wealth — exactly the situation we have today.
Congressional “pork” was allegedly diverted to the personal coffers of Janet Lim-Napoles and various politicians. But BADAP, now revealed, was used by BS Aquino to rid the Supreme Court (SC) of Chief Justice Renato Corona, who was an obstacle to the Aquino-Cojuangco clan’s desire of obtaining a P10-billion (instead of P490-million) government compensation for the distribution to farmers of Hacienda Luisita.
Unable to skirt clear constitutional separation-of-powers provisions, the current SC struck down BADAP but gave BS Aquino an escape hatch, mindful of his possible retaliation on the high court’s own “pork,” the Judiciary Development Fund.
The Makati Business Club’s “Coalition Against Corruption” made a call to abolish the P25-billion congressional “pork barrel,” but “pork” goes all the way down to the city council level. Moreover, “pork” is public funds meant for public good, too.
But what about the P5.67-trillion debt, 70 percent of which goes to domestic banks and 30 percent to foreign banks? Where do these banks get the money to lend government from which they charge taxpayers interest? Renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith says, “The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled.”
Positive Money cites from England, “Where does money come from? In the modern economy, most money takes the form of bank deposits. But how those bank deposits are created is often misunderstood. The principal way in which they are created is through commercial banks making loans: whenever a bank makes a loan, it creates a deposit in the borrower’s bank account, thereby creating new money.”
The loans banks issue (including to governments) create bank assets, from which they can loan money out again, ad infinitum. We are taxed to pay the interest to them.
Why don’t the people earn the interest by being the bankers themselves — through publicly-owned People’s or National Banks?
Napoles and company are certainly no match for the Ponzi schemes of the private banking mafia.
(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., this week on “New PCA vs Cocolisap”; tune in to 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; and visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
National government debt increased year-on-year in May by P347 billion or 6.57 percent. Gloria Arroyo left the country a P4.9-trillion debt. BS Aquino’s now stands at P5.6 trillion.
This debt is unnecessary in light of the huge amounts wasted in the so-called BS Aquino Disbursement Acceleration Program cum presidential “pork barrel” (BADAP) or on Congress’ wastage of P35 billion last year passing only one law postponing the Sangguniang Kabataan elections.
This is especially so considering the country’s over $20 billion in foreign exchange surplus or its Special Deposit Account with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) of P1.7 trillion ($ 40 billion) costing 2.5 percent to keep idle, or BS Aquino’s June 2012 boast of lending $1 billion to help keep the Eurozone afloat.
Taking all that into account, does it still make sense for the Philippines to continue growing its debt principal and interest? No!
The Philippines continues to borrow “only” because of subservience to the US-led Western financial-political mafia. As domestic banks get 70 percent of such borrowings, so too are local banks exploiting the people in this unnecessary debt.
The global banking mafia has had, and continues to make, many impositions deleterious to the country, one of which is the invasion of foreign capital into our rural banks, which will result in control by these global “too-big-to-fail” banks that had brought about regular financial collapses such as the 2008 financial meltdown.
The only alternative to this cycle of financial looting is People’s or National Banking, which is part of the broader monetary system in its many forms, from cooperative banks to nationalized or government dominated banks, to the modern evolution called “crypto-currencies.”
This is the banking system of the main economic tigers of Asia, namely, China, Vietnam, Singapore, etc. The people create the wealth and the surplus and savings out of it are lent to projects that benefit the people in a perpetual cycle of enriching people’s communities instead of private bankers.
There is no opposition from the Philippine establishment, i.e. the present ruling class of corrupt politicians and financial mafias (or banks) with interlocking ownership by mega-corporations, because the present financial-political-economic system benefits only them and excludes the people (the middle class and the masses).
BADAP and legislative “pork” are just the share of the system’s political cronies to keep the present system going. Hence, there will eventually be a resurrection of BADAP and “pork” if the present system is to survive, which the powers-that-be are determined to do — unless, there is genuine change or revolution.
Revolution (peaceful desirably) is possible only if the ideological foundation of the prevailing system is undermined, by bringing to light values of right and wrong in matters such as ownership of the nation’s common wealth (land, capital-financial system, public utilities) or of public vs private ownership and control of such resources.
Without such public ownership or control (especially of the financial system), a government dedicated to the peoples’ welfare will never have the wherewithal to serve them. Instead, a government controlled by private wealth will only protect private wealth and grow more private wealth — exactly the situation we have today.
Congressional “pork” was allegedly diverted to the personal coffers of Janet Lim-Napoles and various politicians. But BADAP, now revealed, was used by BS Aquino to rid the Supreme Court (SC) of Chief Justice Renato Corona, who was an obstacle to the Aquino-Cojuangco clan’s desire of obtaining a P10-billion (instead of P490-million) government compensation for the distribution to farmers of Hacienda Luisita.
Unable to skirt clear constitutional separation-of-powers provisions, the current SC struck down BADAP but gave BS Aquino an escape hatch, mindful of his possible retaliation on the high court’s own “pork,” the Judiciary Development Fund.
The Makati Business Club’s “Coalition Against Corruption” made a call to abolish the P25-billion congressional “pork barrel,” but “pork” goes all the way down to the city council level. Moreover, “pork” is public funds meant for public good, too.
But what about the P5.67-trillion debt, 70 percent of which goes to domestic banks and 30 percent to foreign banks? Where do these banks get the money to lend government from which they charge taxpayers interest? Renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith says, “The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled.”
Positive Money cites from England, “Where does money come from? In the modern economy, most money takes the form of bank deposits. But how those bank deposits are created is often misunderstood. The principal way in which they are created is through commercial banks making loans: whenever a bank makes a loan, it creates a deposit in the borrower’s bank account, thereby creating new money.”
The loans banks issue (including to governments) create bank assets, from which they can loan money out again, ad infinitum. We are taxed to pay the interest to them.
Why don’t the people earn the interest by being the bankers themselves — through publicly-owned People’s or National Banks?
Napoles and company are certainly no match for the Ponzi schemes of the private banking mafia.
(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., this week on “New PCA vs Cocolisap”; tune in to 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; and visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
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