Sulo ng Pilipino

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Flabbergasting Aquino-DFA move.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Watch GNN, Talk News TV with HTL, every Sat. 8pm and Sun. 8am replay Destiny Cable chn. 8/ Skycable chn. 213 – uploaded to You Tube, search Talk New TV… date; tune to 1098AM, Tues. to Fri. 5 to 6pm “Sulo ng Pilipino”; text to 0917-8658664) ###

Monday, March 30, 2015

USIP calls the Big Guns

USIP calls the Big Guns

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 03-30-2015 MON)

Why BS Aquino is still so bullheaded in pushing the BangsaMoro Basic Law (BBL) despite the collapse of his public trust and approval ratings and in the face of his Senate supporters urging him to wait for a new administration in about a year’s time continues to baffle the mind. Neither can he be presumed to be following the logic of peace, since even the peace panel officials on both sides have admitted: Signing the BBL would not stop other rebel groups and minorities from using force to attain their own objectives. What or who then can exert so much pressure as to compel a supposed president to act so adversely against his own interest and legacy?

One has to look back to the history of the BBL to understand. Here we can recall the near total demise of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) after President Joseph Estrada demolished its network of rebel camps, including its Camp Abubakar headquarters. That forced its leader Hashim Salamat to flee to the coddling arms of his sponsors in Kuala Lumpur.

In desperation, Salamat wrote a plea in 2003 (no doubt with Malaysian and British prodding) to then US President George W. Bush--an appeal that led to what G. Eugene Martin and Astrid S. Tuminez wrote as a report in Feb. 1, 2008, which we quote below:

“’Toward Peace in the Southern Philippines,’ A Summary and Assessment of the USIP (United States Institute for Peace--in which Board sits the CIA, NSA, et al.) Philippine Facilitation Project, 2003-2007… In 2003, the US Department of State asked USIP to undertake a project to expedite a peace agreement between the two sides (MILF and Government of the Philippines)… US policymakers must give higher priority to the… negotiations … When an agreement is reached… (this will) accomplish US foreign policy goals… (And because) of its ability to deal with non-state actors and sensitive issues underlying civil conflict, USIP can be a useful instrument for advancing US interests.”

Who could make the EU and Japan get involved, sponsoring seminars, contributing funds, and inviting BS Aquino to meet MILF representatives in Tokyo, on a purely Philippine domestic issue? Only be the US could.

But even the internationalization of the issue could not convince the Filipino people on the BBL, especially after the Mamasapano barbarity of the MILF and the incoherence of all the pro-BBL Filipino patsies and their MILF cohorts in defending the BBL proposal.

So it’s time for the “non-state actors” to be called in to exercise “soft power” on the Filipino public to sell the BBL.

Last Friday, BS Aquino formed a “peace council” to “educate the public on (the) proposed BBL,” naming Cardinal Tagle, Big Business tycoon Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, ex-Chief Justice Hilario Davide, and BS Aquino in-law Ambassador Howard Dee. Only two really count, representing powerful social institutions that twice helped oust presidents.

In 1986, Cardinal Sin called his flock to Edsa I as Don Jaime Zobel de Ayala opened Shell’s gasoline spigots for Butz Aquino’s nationwide protest caravans. In 2001, Sin convened Edsa II rallies against Estrada that saw Don Jaime dancing awkwardly as the elite crowd proclaimed Gloria Arroyo president.

Cardinal Tagle now sits in Sin’s stead while Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (JAZA) sits at the helm of the Makati Business Club (MBC). Both represent, by historical and business ties, the Philippines’ umbilical cord to Western civilization and economic subsidiarity.

On the BBL, these Big Guns among the “non-state actors” are now called in to be in the firing line, as they were when the fledgling independent Asian leader Ferdinand Marcos spread his wings and opened relations with the Socialist World (among other issues) and Erap pushed to establish a truly sovereign security policy for Mindanao.

Calling in these Big Guns reflects the primordial importance of the BBL to US “foreign policy goals” in Asia. In this era of the rise of China, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank), etc., 70 years of US hegemony in this part of the world is undoubtedly threatened.

The US is thus racing against time and history to restore its preeminence in Asia by way of the “Asia Pivot” that would see 60 percent of its military forces deployed to the region--and the BBL obviously plays a key role in this.

But given that the pervasive interference of the US that led to the Mamasapano tragedy is as much to blame as BS Aquino is in the BBL debacle, they are now tapping the “non-state” actors to assuage the nation.

Will the Filipino people have their legs pulled again by these Big Guns? Let’s hope not. They should, by now, have sufficiently learned from the endless betrayals they have experienced--from Edsa I to Edsa II and, now, the Mamasapano massacre.

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Monday, March 23, 2015

On Jabidah: Inquirer dupes nation

On Jabidah: Inquirer dupes nation

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 03-23-2015 MON)

On March 19, 2015, the Philippine Daily Inquirer front-paged a huge photo of Corregidor’s military ruins with two smiling Muslim women taking a selfie. The caption read: “It began with Marcos military plot.” And on the site that now sports “a new marker on the Jabidah massacre 47 years ago” is where the newspaper claims, “Soldiers shot Muslim recruits who tried to escape Corregidor where they were being trained for a Sabah invasion. When the Muslims discovered the plot, they rebelled but were executed. Only one survived.”

All this is, of course, based on a lie, with the marker an all-out farce.

As the Yellow tale goes, then Sen. Ninoy Aquino supposedly exposed the alleged massacre on the Senate floor. This notion by itself has formed the basis of almost 50 years of unrelenting disinformation spewed from Philippine mainstream media onto social media and beyond.

But anyone really interested in the truth only has to type in his search engine, “’Jabidah! Special Forces of Evil?’ by Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr., March 28, 1968,” and the 5,708-word speech will reveal Ninoy’s own words belying the claims of a massacre. Here are some:

“This morning (March 28, 1968), the Manila Times… quoted me as saying that I believed there was no mass massacre on Corregidor Island. And I submit it was not a hasty conclusion, but one borne out by careful deductions… For the truth, as I found it in Sulu, is: the probability of a mass massacre is dim… I could make big political capital out of all of this. But, Mr. President (Senate President Arturo Tolentino), I say: Let us pin blame only where the blame is. And, by my findings, a wanton massacre is not among the things that we must hang on Mr. Marcos’ conscience and Mr. Marcos’ soul...

“Meanwhile, in Jolo yesterday, I met the first batch of 24 recruits aboard RP-68. This group was earlier reported missing--or, even worse, believed ‘massacred.’ William Patarasa, 16 years old, one of the leaders of the petitioners, in effect corroborated all the points raised by Jibin Arula (the supposed lone survivor). But he denied knowledge of any massacre. Like Jibin Arula, up to yesterday he claimed he had no knowledge of what had happened to their four leaders (supposed mutineers)… though, (there’s) suspicion among the petitioners that the four had been ‘liquidated’ by Major (Eduardo) Martelino’s boys. One of the leaders has since presented himself to army authorities.

“Some quarters have advanced the theory that the trainees were liquidated in order to silence them. But then, 24 boys have already shown up in Jolo safe and healthy. To release 24 men who can spill the beans and liquidate the remaining 24 ‘to seal’ their lips would defy logic… Jibin Arula… his fears, which in his place may be considered valid, may not be supported by the recent turn of events. Twenty-four recruits have turned up.”

Arula claimed he swam straight to Cavite to seek refuge with Cavite Gov. Delfin Montano; he later changed his story, saying he was picked up by fishermen. The courts found Arula’s testimony incredible.

Instead, the beginnings of the many variations of Muslim independence and secessionist movements should be traced to the UK’s wanton disregard of the decision by the British Court’s North Borneo Chief Justice C.F.C. McCaskie who said that “It is abundantly clear that the successors in sovereignty of the Sultan of Sulu are the Government of the Philippines Islands.” It was followed by the treacherous act of the British on July 10, 1946 in annexing North Borneo (Sabah), a few days after the Philippines gained independence. It was an annexation that Gov. Francis Burton Harrison, the American advocate of self-determination, called an “act of political aggression.”

Then, on July 31, 1963, in the Manila Accord signed by Malayan Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Razak Hussein (father of PM Najib Razak), Indonesian FM Dr. Subandrio, and Philippine VP Emmanuel Pelaez, registered as UN document No. 8029, the three governments agreed to “bring the (Philippines’) claim to a just and expeditious solution by peaceful means, such as negotiation, conciliation, arbitration, or judicial settlement,” which the newly-formed Malaysia later treacherously refused.

And that’s where “it all began”--before the launching by Malaysia and its Philippine Fifth Column of the Jabidah disinformation.

Thus, it is only fitting for the Inquirer, the congressmen who signed the 47th Jabidah memorial press statement (led by Dina Abad and Sitti Hataman), the ignoramus nuns, the National Historical Commission chair, and BS Aquino’s Peace Panel members to all be charged with treason--along with BS Aquino and his mother who dropped from the 1987 Constitution the Philippines’ territories “by historic right or legal title.”

The patently fake Jabidah marker and all its sponsors should rightly be placed in the nation’s historical Hall of Shame, along with the assassins of Andres Bonifacio and the quislings who served the Japanese puppet government during World War II.