Polarize: Binay's only way
(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 11-05-2014 WED)
In an arrogant jab at his erstwhile "guardian" back when he, as an
Armalite-toting teenager, was on the lookout for coup plotters against
his sainted mother, BS Aquino retorted to a plaintive expression of
frustration from beleaguered Vice President Jejomar Binay with this
dare: "You are free to leave the Cabinet."
Bedeviled by charges of corruption and ownership of unimaginable
illicit wealth, the VP has seen his popularity ratings slide from the
unprecedented high of any potential candidate, amid threats of even
more lethal attacks as the 2016 election year nears. A subsequent
appeal to his "ward" apparently fell on deaf ears; hence, the present
falling out.
BS Aquino was reacting to what some press reports described as "a
barely veiled attack on (his) administration" by Vice President
Jejomar Binay two Saturdays ago at a Lions' district meeting at the
Manila Hotel, where the latter enumerated complaints of the public, to
wit: "There is a power crisis, (together with) the rising prices of
oil and other commodities, the rampant crimes plaguing the country,
the hellish traffic jams, unsafe MRT and LRT, the recurrent flooding
and the wrath of nature that we must all prepare for... But instead of
giving all their time and thoughts to achieve solutions to these
problems, they chose to advance their own interests by destroying my
name and those of my loved ones..."
At that speech the electrical charge that would have polarized the
nation's pressing problems into genuine people's issues against the
public utilities privatization price abuse, alongside national
government incompetence versus the triviality of the corruption issue,
flashed for a moment.
Having initiated that charge, it would have been ideal if Binay had
waged thereon an unrelenting, fight-to-the-finish polarization to
serve as a turning point in a long political war, where he has
suffered constant reversals due to very nature of the political system
he is in.
Binay's enemies are by no means the frontline political warriors or
soldiers in the phalanx. They are part of the same ilk who will be
called into account in the Yellows' Winter of Discontent--a fear that
compels them to want to ensure their perpetuation beyond the life span
of their self-generated People Power myth.
The people's cries embodied in the issues Binay lined up before the
Lions, if repeated with a growing lion's roar, would easily drown out
all the accusations hurled against him by the sheer fury a nation deep
in poverty, hunger, and hopelessness.
Just imagine the resounding impact on the people from Batanes to Jolo:
"Power crisis, the rising prices of oil and other commodities, the
rampant crimes plaguing the country... the wrath of nature." Just think
of the gut issues affecting the nation's capital: "The hellish traffic
jams, unsafe MRT and LRT, the recurrent flooding."
Unfortunately for Binay (though we hope it's not too late for him), he
decided to turn the other cheek by claiming, "I have the highest
respect for President Aquino and I will continue to be a team player."
And to think that it is the same team whom the VP accuses of choosing
"to advance their own interests" instead of looking for solutions.
Binay, it seems, chooses to still put his fate in the hands of the
very people who are skinning him alive. How then will half the
people, who had seen their faith in him as a champion of the poor and
downtrodden flounder, be restored in their faith now?
With the way the battle is being waged, we will see no great
turnaround for the besieged to become a victor, unless he charges on
as the Greeks at Marathon turned a lost cause into victory against an
enemy that outnumbered them 20 to one.
(Listen to 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, 8:15 p.m. and replay Sunday,
8:15 a.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; and
visit http://newsulongpilipino.blogspot.com)
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
The port scam
The port scam
(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 11-03-2014 MON)
"Manila truck ban knocks Philippines nine notches down World Bank's
Doing Business rank," declared a GMA News Online on Oct. 29 shortly
before noon. Nine hours later, that same site declared, "Philippines
rises 13 spots on WB's revised Doing Business ranking." In between
the two contradictory headlines at midpoint, or at 4:22 in the
afternoon, this was the reaction: "Government downplays Philippines'
slip in WB Doing Business report."
What is evident in the twist and turns of these headlines is the
pliability of the World Bank's reports. Were these the result of
simple PR or other elaborate efforts to portray certain interests in a
better light?
Particularly but not exclusively in the Philippines, government and
business inordinately value image, and generally do cover up unsavory
truth. That's because government and business--Big Business in
particular--are engaged in the sordid abuse of their powers to take
advantage of the nation. But the so-called multilateral institutions,
such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, are in on
it too. So to them, perception is all important.
The contradictions in the said news outfit's reportage exposes the WB
as an unreliable source of information because it is similarly subject
to the allures and lobbying of vested interests.
For example, the WB said the Philippines raised its business ranking
by "improvements in... (ease of) getting electricity..." But that is
hardly an issue in this age of countries providing full spectrum
services, especially of power at cheap rates, to get business
investments.
The Arangkada Philippines Project of the Joint Foreign Chambers of
Commerce stated in 2012 that "The very high cost of power remains a
common complaint of businesses ... and a very important negative factor
... In 2010 a factory in the Philippines could pay more than twice as
much for power than a factory in Indonesia and Vietnam and almost
twice as much as a factory in Malaysia and Thailand."
The unwillingness to define the electricity issue correctly becomes
understandable only when one recalls that in 2001 it was the WB that
inveigled the Philippines to pass the Electric Power Industry Reform
Act and its radical privatization program of the state's power assets,
which is the root cause of the "highest power cost in Asia" bedeviling
the Philippines today. High power costs are without doubt the most
fundamental obstacle in the "ease of doing business" in the
Philippines, but the WB can't be expected to expose its own perfidy in
its survey and report. It is the journalist's duty to expose such
duplicity of the WB.
Going back to the first headline: Just four days earlier on Oct. 24
this was presented in another newspaper, "'Port logjam still a
scourge' ... Despite the recent lifting of the truck ban in Manila, the
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said port
congestion remains a major threat to the expansion of the country's
external trade..."
Correlating this with another headline of May 29, which said, "Cargo
traffic rose 4.7 percent in first quarter despite truck ban -- PPA
(Philippine Ports Authority)," it becomes clear that someone is lying
about the truck ban and port congestions connection.
I talked to two port users, both importers, and it became clear to me
that the port congestion problem does not have anything to do with the
Manila truck ban--but has everything to do with the operators in
cahoots with two ruling party leaders (both in the cabinet of BS
Aquino, with one preparing to run in the next presidential race), as
well as port managers sharing the loot from the overtime charges
imposed on shippers, traders, exporters, and importers. Let us wait
for concerned legislators to open a formal investigation.
The question I'd like the public to ask are: 1) who caused the WB
reportage to be "revised" from a "nine-notch" fall to a rise of "13
spots" within nine hours and 2) why the persistence in laying the
blame for port congestion to the truck ban despite official
pronouncements to the contrary.
It is obvious to me that only the well-connected giant players have
both the vested interest, money, and the political clout with the
media, government, and even the WB to get these perfidious results.
If there's any doubt about the WB's capacity to connive with
oligarchs, one should study the exposés of its former officer turned
whistle-blower Karen Hudes on the Internet.
(Listen to 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, 8:15 p.m. and replay Sunday,
8:15 a.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; and
visit http://newsulongpilipino.blogspot.com)
(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 11-03-2014 MON)
"Manila truck ban knocks Philippines nine notches down World Bank's
Doing Business rank," declared a GMA News Online on Oct. 29 shortly
before noon. Nine hours later, that same site declared, "Philippines
rises 13 spots on WB's revised Doing Business ranking." In between
the two contradictory headlines at midpoint, or at 4:22 in the
afternoon, this was the reaction: "Government downplays Philippines'
slip in WB Doing Business report."
What is evident in the twist and turns of these headlines is the
pliability of the World Bank's reports. Were these the result of
simple PR or other elaborate efforts to portray certain interests in a
better light?
Particularly but not exclusively in the Philippines, government and
business inordinately value image, and generally do cover up unsavory
truth. That's because government and business--Big Business in
particular--are engaged in the sordid abuse of their powers to take
advantage of the nation. But the so-called multilateral institutions,
such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, are in on
it too. So to them, perception is all important.
The contradictions in the said news outfit's reportage exposes the WB
as an unreliable source of information because it is similarly subject
to the allures and lobbying of vested interests.
For example, the WB said the Philippines raised its business ranking
by "improvements in... (ease of) getting electricity..." But that is
hardly an issue in this age of countries providing full spectrum
services, especially of power at cheap rates, to get business
investments.
The Arangkada Philippines Project of the Joint Foreign Chambers of
Commerce stated in 2012 that "The very high cost of power remains a
common complaint of businesses ... and a very important negative factor
... In 2010 a factory in the Philippines could pay more than twice as
much for power than a factory in Indonesia and Vietnam and almost
twice as much as a factory in Malaysia and Thailand."
The unwillingness to define the electricity issue correctly becomes
understandable only when one recalls that in 2001 it was the WB that
inveigled the Philippines to pass the Electric Power Industry Reform
Act and its radical privatization program of the state's power assets,
which is the root cause of the "highest power cost in Asia" bedeviling
the Philippines today. High power costs are without doubt the most
fundamental obstacle in the "ease of doing business" in the
Philippines, but the WB can't be expected to expose its own perfidy in
its survey and report. It is the journalist's duty to expose such
duplicity of the WB.
Going back to the first headline: Just four days earlier on Oct. 24
this was presented in another newspaper, "'Port logjam still a
scourge' ... Despite the recent lifting of the truck ban in Manila, the
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said port
congestion remains a major threat to the expansion of the country's
external trade..."
Correlating this with another headline of May 29, which said, "Cargo
traffic rose 4.7 percent in first quarter despite truck ban -- PPA
(Philippine Ports Authority)," it becomes clear that someone is lying
about the truck ban and port congestions connection.
I talked to two port users, both importers, and it became clear to me
that the port congestion problem does not have anything to do with the
Manila truck ban--but has everything to do with the operators in
cahoots with two ruling party leaders (both in the cabinet of BS
Aquino, with one preparing to run in the next presidential race), as
well as port managers sharing the loot from the overtime charges
imposed on shippers, traders, exporters, and importers. Let us wait
for concerned legislators to open a formal investigation.
The question I'd like the public to ask are: 1) who caused the WB
reportage to be "revised" from a "nine-notch" fall to a rise of "13
spots" within nine hours and 2) why the persistence in laying the
blame for port congestion to the truck ban despite official
pronouncements to the contrary.
It is obvious to me that only the well-connected giant players have
both the vested interest, money, and the political clout with the
media, government, and even the WB to get these perfidious results.
If there's any doubt about the WB's capacity to connive with
oligarchs, one should study the exposés of its former officer turned
whistle-blower Karen Hudes on the Internet.
(Listen to 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, 8:15 p.m. and replay Sunday,
8:15 a.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; and
visit http://newsulongpilipino.blogspot.com)
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Westernocracy of addled minds
Westernocracy of addled minds
(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 10-06-2014 MON)
It was once the playbook of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) but
when it got too hot to handle, the US hid the same behind various
fronts and international foundations handing out funds to domestic
non-government organizations (NGOs), institutions, and parties for
falsely claimed "democracy" education and "good governance"
initiatives, but with the old CIA aim of using these paid elements as
5th Columns in societies where they are imbedded.
Back in 1953, the CIA's job was exemplified in the coup against
elected President Mohammad Mosaddegh of Iran. Many assassinations,
coups, and wars in aid of the US' various regime change programs had
been carried out since then. Most recently, it was in Ukraine,
particularly at the Maidan in February 2014. Now they are trying it
in the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong.
But Hong Kong and its mother country, China, are no European versions
of the "banana republics" of Latin America or of captive Eastern Bloc
states such as Ukraine, nor is any region or province of China one of
those struggling, impoverished countries that have seen the worst of
chaos and disastrous "failed state" scenarios of recent years, namely,
the "Arab Spring," where excited youths and smatterings of the middle
class, tickled by Twitter and Facebook bandwagons, create upheavals
praised by the New York Times, Foreign Policy magazine, et al., but
which end in heaps of broken dead bodies in endless civil wars,
countless suicide and IED bombings, or militia warfare.
Hong Kong is a premier world city that has prospered with its handover
to China, a milestone for Asia freeing itself from 19th Century
Western imperialism that I personally witnessed in 1997. The People's
Republic of China is not only the country that has lifted 500 million
of its people out of poverty within 30 years of its triumphant
revolution in 1949; it is also soon to bring its nation's economy to
become the largest in the history of mankind.
The US playbook for destabilization and "people power" programs may
work in impoverished and desperately stagnating countries, such as the
Philippines, but certainly not in Hong Kong and China.
Those British-accented parrots in Hong Kong, from British-Chinese
civil servants such as Martin Lee and Anson Chan pining for the days
of British Rule, as well as the infantile British-accented Occupy
Central student leaders, are not crusading for democracy but for
Westernocracy--the rule of the Western powers over Hong Kong again.
It was not surprising that rarefied Yellow tabloid, the Philippine
Daily Inquirer, hailed the Occupy Central agitators--for it was (and
still is) the newspaper that has moved for the restoration of total US
control of the Philippines ever since the US-engineered ouster and
kidnap to Hawaii of President Ferdinand Marcos aboard US Air Force
jets.
The PDI, to wit, headlined on its October 2, 2014 issue, "Filipinos
join HK protest" with a half-page shot of two supposed Filipinas and a
placard that says "Because I Love HK." It then quotes a certain Mang
Ben as claiming, "We brought along our kids because this is a teaching
opportunity for them to learn that, 'You know, your freedom, you have
to fight for it..."
Yeah. And that's why Mang Ben and 250,000 OFWs are in Hong Kong as
maids and peons.
But the irresponsible part of PDI's front page story goes beyond that;
it is its endangerment of Filipinos' jobs and security from possible
backlash in these tense times in Hong Kong.
Review Philippine reports the past few years on foreigners joining
Philippine protests: "BI: Foreigners joining protests to be deported"
(philstar.com, Oct. 29, 2008); "Canadian citizen who joined SONA rally
to be deported" (rappler.com, Sept. 14, 2013); "Foreigners warned
against marching vs pork" (inquirer.net, Sept. 17, 2013); and many
more.
Besides, these Yellow dumbos (and their US-funded Akbayan cohorts)
obviously know nothing about the Hong Kong Basic Law provision
pertaining to the autonomous region's elections and the background to
the players behind Occupy Central.
Tony Cartalucci on GlobalResearch writes, "Behind the so-called
'Occupy Central' protests ... is a deep and insidious network of foreign
financial, political, and media support. Prominent among them is the
US State Department and its National Endowment for Democracy (NED), as
well as NED's subsidiary, the National Democratic Institute (NDI)."
Mark Simon and Jimmy Lai, the men behind the anti-China Apple Daily
and Occupy Central back-stoppers, were caught with emails discussing
links with the CIA and "financial support for pan-democrats and the
planned Occupy Central pro-democracy protests, and Simon's role in the
transfer of money" (Ng Kang-chung, South China Morning Post, Aug. 11,
2014).
Yet the most disgusting image of Occupy Central is The Guardian's
photo on the founders of the movement: Rev. Chu Yiu-ming, academic
Benny Tai, and Chan Kin-man, in front of a huge Christian cross.
What's this, the Crusades in Asia, again, like the white man's
invasion of Japan, China, and Korea?
Obviously, there is a more fundamental fight underneath all these: The
attempt to stoke not just Westernocracy but the Clash of Civilizations
in this part of the world. So patsies and suckers beware! Your
addled brains may just flatline for good.
(Listen to 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, 8:15 p.m. and replay Sunday,
8:15 a.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; and
visit http://newsulongpilipino.blogspot.com)
(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 10-06-2014 MON)
It was once the playbook of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) but
when it got too hot to handle, the US hid the same behind various
fronts and international foundations handing out funds to domestic
non-government organizations (NGOs), institutions, and parties for
falsely claimed "democracy" education and "good governance"
initiatives, but with the old CIA aim of using these paid elements as
5th Columns in societies where they are imbedded.
Back in 1953, the CIA's job was exemplified in the coup against
elected President Mohammad Mosaddegh of Iran. Many assassinations,
coups, and wars in aid of the US' various regime change programs had
been carried out since then. Most recently, it was in Ukraine,
particularly at the Maidan in February 2014. Now they are trying it
in the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong.
But Hong Kong and its mother country, China, are no European versions
of the "banana republics" of Latin America or of captive Eastern Bloc
states such as Ukraine, nor is any region or province of China one of
those struggling, impoverished countries that have seen the worst of
chaos and disastrous "failed state" scenarios of recent years, namely,
the "Arab Spring," where excited youths and smatterings of the middle
class, tickled by Twitter and Facebook bandwagons, create upheavals
praised by the New York Times, Foreign Policy magazine, et al., but
which end in heaps of broken dead bodies in endless civil wars,
countless suicide and IED bombings, or militia warfare.
Hong Kong is a premier world city that has prospered with its handover
to China, a milestone for Asia freeing itself from 19th Century
Western imperialism that I personally witnessed in 1997. The People's
Republic of China is not only the country that has lifted 500 million
of its people out of poverty within 30 years of its triumphant
revolution in 1949; it is also soon to bring its nation's economy to
become the largest in the history of mankind.
The US playbook for destabilization and "people power" programs may
work in impoverished and desperately stagnating countries, such as the
Philippines, but certainly not in Hong Kong and China.
Those British-accented parrots in Hong Kong, from British-Chinese
civil servants such as Martin Lee and Anson Chan pining for the days
of British Rule, as well as the infantile British-accented Occupy
Central student leaders, are not crusading for democracy but for
Westernocracy--the rule of the Western powers over Hong Kong again.
It was not surprising that rarefied Yellow tabloid, the Philippine
Daily Inquirer, hailed the Occupy Central agitators--for it was (and
still is) the newspaper that has moved for the restoration of total US
control of the Philippines ever since the US-engineered ouster and
kidnap to Hawaii of President Ferdinand Marcos aboard US Air Force
jets.
The PDI, to wit, headlined on its October 2, 2014 issue, "Filipinos
join HK protest" with a half-page shot of two supposed Filipinas and a
placard that says "Because I Love HK." It then quotes a certain Mang
Ben as claiming, "We brought along our kids because this is a teaching
opportunity for them to learn that, 'You know, your freedom, you have
to fight for it..."
Yeah. And that's why Mang Ben and 250,000 OFWs are in Hong Kong as
maids and peons.
But the irresponsible part of PDI's front page story goes beyond that;
it is its endangerment of Filipinos' jobs and security from possible
backlash in these tense times in Hong Kong.
Review Philippine reports the past few years on foreigners joining
Philippine protests: "BI: Foreigners joining protests to be deported"
(philstar.com, Oct. 29, 2008); "Canadian citizen who joined SONA rally
to be deported" (rappler.com, Sept. 14, 2013); "Foreigners warned
against marching vs pork" (inquirer.net, Sept. 17, 2013); and many
more.
Besides, these Yellow dumbos (and their US-funded Akbayan cohorts)
obviously know nothing about the Hong Kong Basic Law provision
pertaining to the autonomous region's elections and the background to
the players behind Occupy Central.
Tony Cartalucci on GlobalResearch writes, "Behind the so-called
'Occupy Central' protests ... is a deep and insidious network of foreign
financial, political, and media support. Prominent among them is the
US State Department and its National Endowment for Democracy (NED), as
well as NED's subsidiary, the National Democratic Institute (NDI)."
Mark Simon and Jimmy Lai, the men behind the anti-China Apple Daily
and Occupy Central back-stoppers, were caught with emails discussing
links with the CIA and "financial support for pan-democrats and the
planned Occupy Central pro-democracy protests, and Simon's role in the
transfer of money" (Ng Kang-chung, South China Morning Post, Aug. 11,
2014).
Yet the most disgusting image of Occupy Central is The Guardian's
photo on the founders of the movement: Rev. Chu Yiu-ming, academic
Benny Tai, and Chan Kin-man, in front of a huge Christian cross.
What's this, the Crusades in Asia, again, like the white man's
invasion of Japan, China, and Korea?
Obviously, there is a more fundamental fight underneath all these: The
attempt to stoke not just Westernocracy but the Clash of Civilizations
in this part of the world. So patsies and suckers beware! Your
addled brains may just flatline for good.
(Listen to 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, 8:15 p.m. and replay Sunday,
8:15 a.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; and
visit http://newsulongpilipino.blogspot.com)
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