BS Aquino makes a fool of RP

BS Aquino makes a fool of RP

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 07-13-2015 MON)

 

They just couldn't restrain themselves.  BS Aquino's factotums had to have an all-out junket at The Hague.  With Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto del Rosario was a delegation reportedly consisting of 50 people.  They didn't even try to mask their intent. Including the irrelevant likes of Ronald Llamas and a few more hangers-on with absolutely no role in the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLoS) case makes the junket all the more obvious.  Then there's the Philippine "all White" plus one miniscule brown man legal panel led by Green Card holder Del Rosario for good measure.

 

When the Philippines was pursuing the other, really important territorial case called the "Sabah claim," which BS Aquino and his ilk desperately want people to forget, the erudite legal experts expounding on the issues and representing the Philippines then were Filipino legal heavyweights Diosdado Macapagal, Arturo Tolentino, Jovito Salonga, and others.

 

We are told by Filipino lawyers that the hiring of these foreign legal experts involves hefty commissions.  Whatever the real motivation behind this is, hiring foreign lawyers already compromises the image of the Philippines' case at the ITLoS.  I can only imagine other Association of Southeast Asian Nations states laughing.

 

Another irrelevance to The Hague team is Sonny Belmonte.  He claimed the big delegation is to impress the court.  I would think that the judges would prefer to be impressed by the power of legal arguments rather than the number of delegates--but Belmonte's view is really very Filipino, thinking that the "mob" can replace thinking.  I will not comment on Belmonte's meeting with Jose Ma. Sison for I have too much respect for the "reaffirmists" here I work with on various people's issues in the country.  But, of course, Joma's position has implications on the World's anti-imperialist struggle.

 

The same day as the start of oral arguments on the Philippines' case against China's claims at the ITLoS, two historic anti-Western imperialist conferences convened in Ufa, Russia.

 

The first, consisting of the BRICS alliance of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, represents the major countries of four continents and almost half of the World's population and economy. Indonesia, representing the Islamic world, is the next major country at the door step of the BRICS, an alliance that has been dubbed not just an alliance of civilizations but also of cultures--unlike the G7 that's homogenous (except for junior partner Japan).

 

The second, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) consisting of China, Russia, and the Central Asian states (with India and Pakistan as incoming members) met from July 7 to 9.

 

Vladimir Putin hosted both meetings, debunking the West's isolation of Russia.  While the SCO is preparing the unity of its members to combat terrorism (read ISIS and related terror groups engineered by the US and its client states), the BRICS has set up, among others things, the $100-billion New Development Bank and a $100-billion currency stabilization fund to counter the frequent currency attacks conducted by the West.

 

The BRICS and SCO are affirmations of the rise of the Asian Century with Eurasian giant Russia tilting toward the East.  This ends the era of Western Imperialism.

 

Brick by brick, the multipolar world is being laid.  It is in this context that China's security is essential in the struggle to end the resuscitation of the US "Asia pivot" and its hegemony.

 

A Philippines that is part of the liberation of the world would expand its consciousness to appreciate the imperatives of solidarity of all anti-imperialist countries--including China--while sharing in the opportunities and responsibilities.

 

To speak too directly about the real implications of members of the Philippine Left being waylaid into the campaign to restore US hegemony in Asia would be too hurtful.  The united front is too important for this to be allowed to happen.

 

We in the campaign to restore the anti-imperialist perspective in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea issue are patiently explaining the issues with individuals overwhelmed by the well-funded tri-media and social media propaganda (reportedly managed by Campaigns and Grey, a US PR firm with a $20-million budget for the Philippines).

 

This project has been very successful in shifting the raging emotions of the Filipino public away from the Mamasapano fiasco and apparently reversing the trend toward more productive attitudes to bilateral talks with China.

 

However, I am impressed that the latest surveys still show a staunch 17 percent of Filipinos trusting China despite the Great Wall of Disinformation of the Inquirer and other mainstream media.  We will still reverse this soon as our forces for liberation from Western hegemony start cranking up books, pamphlets, comics, and other education materials.

 

The best allies of this anti-Western hegemony campaign are the incompetent and corrupt forces of the Americans themselves who cannot hide their sham.  The junket at The Hague and the American legal panel supplanting any genuine Filipino effort, as much as the Mamasapano fiasco making fools of the Philippines, exposes them for what they are.

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 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 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; visithttp://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

Soho wiser than Carpio

Soho wiser than Carpio

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 07-06-2015 MON)

 

On the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea (SCS/WPS) dispute, seasoned public affairs TV news anchor Jessica Soho displayed more intelligence and wisdom with her plain common sense than the much vaunted Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.

 

That Soho interview was the culmination of Carpio's organized lecture series cum "experts' discussion" that kicked off last June at the plush Discovery Suites (sponsored no less by a Japanese neo-nationalist institute) and continued at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, as well as in the media circuit.

 

The July 2, 2015 episode of State of the Nation with Jessica Soho was where Carpio belabored the fact that the Philippines' International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLoS) case will "…take time…even an inter-generational struggle… (where even) if we will win … this generation will get the ruling… the next will convince the world… and maybe the next… after that will convince China…"

 

Since one generation is 25 years, Carpio is effectively talking of 75 years before any potential benefits.  To this Soho reacted with plain common sense: "Will there be anything left in the SCS/WPS after that time?"

 

After stumping Carpio with that question, Soho then led him to reflect on the question of the growing majority of Filipinos as to why the Philippines is not engaging China in bilateral talks over the SCS/WPS dispute between the two countries.  Soho asked Carpio why the Philippines has not taken the track of bilateral dialog at the same time (as many suggest, a two-track policy that includes dialog--especially after China spoke through its envoy, Ambassador Zhao Jianhua, last June 12 that it is open to dialog "without any precondition").

 

Carpio took pains to persuade his listeners that bilateral dialog is not a viable option as it would "jeopardize" the ITLoS case if China invokes the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLoS) requirement that disputants first submit to choice "peaceful means" of resolution, among which are dialog and negotiations, to resolve issues; and only upon the inability to come to terms through such initial "peaceful means" can the matter be brought to the court.

 

China contends that no such peaceful dialog has happened and Carpio's caveat may indicate that such can be claimed.

 

To buttress his arguments for the Philippines to desist from any effort to engage China in dialog and bilateral negotiations, Carpio was not beyond comparing bananas to lychees to make his case.

 

Citing the Nicaragua vs United States case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)--not ITLoS--where the US was rapped for laying naval mines in Nicaragua's harbors against the Sandinista government (which, again, is not a territorial dispute) and where the ICJ decided in favor of Nicaragua with a $30-million award in damages (which the US repeatedly ignored), Carpio claimed that the US complied after mounting international pressure grew out of Nicaragua's repeated attempts at securing a resolution before the UN General Assembly.

 

The truth is the US did not even want to appear at the slightest bit to be complying with that ICJ ruling as it first required the repeal of a Nicaraguan law requiring compensation before even extending a politically motivated "aid" package of roughly over $500 million (not $1 billion as claimed by Carpio) to the US-backed Violeta Chamorro administration that succeeded the Sandanistas.

 

Carpio, as a member of the high court, demeans the stature of his position when he stoops that low as to attempt to deceive the public.  His apparent need to dissuade the Filipino people from engaging in "bilateral talks" with China seems so overriding that he had no qualms doing this.

 

Many international judicial and quasi-judicial bodies, by their very nature, are not beyond the reach of geopolitical influences.  The world has seen this, from Slobodan Milosevic's trial to the abuse of the International Criminal Court against African political leaders not allied to Western powers.

 

Many countries, including China in this case, do not countenance involvement of such multilateral institutions controlled by the West.  In conflicts such as those in Libya, Côte d'Ivoire, or the Rwandan genocide, these institutions were part of the problem and not the solution.  Conversely, the Tribunal may also be used to turn against the Philippines' interest.

 

Carpio and his like-minded anti-dialog clique are really getting desperate as more and more Filipinos are wishing for dialog and bilateral talks with China over the SCS/WPS impasse.  As we wrote recently, "In the Laylo Survey from May 8 to 18 among 1,500 respondents, 53 percent of Filipinos supported a diplomatic solution (i.e. dialog) versus 47 percent who 'believe it is better'… to have filed a case… (which was followed by a) June SWS poll (that) reported 46 percent of Filipinos disapprove of the government's actions (filing the case at the ITLoS), which is a sea change from the SWS' 2013 survey where only 27 percent disapproved of the government's moves."

 

Note the advice from a young but internationally recognized Filipino writer, Ateneo professor Richard Javad Heydarian, in his Huffington Post article last June 30: "'Time for the Philippines to Adjust its South China Sea Approach' … Manila should pursue dialog with Beijing while it still can… the Philippines can still learn some lessons from its neighbors on how to better manage the ongoing disputes and best deal with the Chinese juggernaut.  Diplomacy isn't only about mobilizing… against your foes.  It is also about… managing differences with even the bitterest foes."

 

Got that, Carpio?

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 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 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

The DFA’s information war

The DFA's information war

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 07-01-2015 WED)

 

It was the strangest news.  The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced that it was going into comic books publication to explain its South China Sea/West Philippine Sea (SCS/WPS) policy.  This followed an earlier announcement that the agency will start producing videos on the matter for distribution to the population.

 

The DFA engaging in such mass communication projects, when the nation's chief executive has other more competent agencies for such tasks, such as the Departments of Education and Local Government, is truly unprecedented.

 

Discussing this enigma with Philippine-China policy analysts, including Chito Sta. Romana, Rod Kapunan, and others, a consensus was evident: The DFA's impetus for this strange decision to produce videos and comic books must have been borne by the recent surveys showing the Filipino public, from Batanes to Jolo, favoring dialog and diplomacy over litigation and the contentious case filed against China at the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLoS).  The two recognized public opinion surveys seem to have the DFA worried that its anti-China tirade and propaganda need to be boosted.

 

In the Laylo Survey from May 8 to 18 among 1,500 respondents, 53 percent of Filipinos supported a diplomatic solution (i.e. dialog) versus 47 percent who "believe it 'is better' for the Philippines to have filed a case" against China over their disputed SCS/WPS claims.

 

Meanwhile, a June SWS poll reported 46 percent of Filipinos disapproving of the government's actions (mainly, filing the case at the ITLoS), which is a sea change from the SWS' 2013 survey where only 27 percent disapproved of the government's moves.  On the concern over war with China, the SWS surveyed the question in March 2015 and found that 84 percent of Filipinos were worried about it.

 

The Filipino public is learning, despite the "great wall of disinformation" set up by the DFA (with the Department of Defense's help, such as the September 2013 misreporting of US target anchors as "concrete foundations of China's new construction" to exaggerate tensions) and the distortions by mainstream media--with the latest being GMA News' "Taiwan claims Batanes" headline last June 3, failing to take into account an overlapping EEZ dispute, or "Chinese shoots guns at Philippine planes," which was later reported as a flare gun, then revised into a searchlight.  The list just goes on and on.

 

China has opened every chance for the Philippines to reopen "without any precondition" the dialog between the two countries over the issues, which Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua prominently reiterated in his visit to BS Aquino on Philippine Independence Day.

 

Looking deeper and wider, the BS Aquino government's obstinacy in keeping its door shut to dialog is a pretext for sustaining tensions, which serve to justify the "US' Pivot to Asia," as well as the drafting of a visiting forces agreement with Japan, all contrary to the wisdom and wishes of the Filipino people.

 

The Filipino people's concern over war brings me to the question about Tsinoys or Filipinos of Chinese descent that was triggered by Francisco Sionil Jose, who admits receiving $10,000 annually in the 1960s (worth P4 million today) from CIA front Congress for Cultural Freedom, when he argued last June 7 in the Inquirer that in case of a Philippine-China War, "many Chinese Filipinos will side with China."

 

Sionil Jose conveniently glosses over the fact that in the 1,500 years of engagement between the native inhabitants of the Philippines and the Chinese, there has never been any war.  Why then is he so overcome by the forebodings of such a war that 84 percent of Filipinos seek to avoid, to the point that he baselessly questions the fidelity of Tsinoys to the Republic?

 

The reputedly Amboy Sionil Jose knows more than he is saying and it becomes obvious when you read American geopolitical theoreticians such as Robert Kaplan.  In Kaplan's 2005 article, "How We Would Fight China," it says that "The Middle East is just a blip.  The American military contest with China in the Pacific will define the twenty-first century."

 

Filipinos would do well to recall what then US President Lyndon B. Johnson said on his country's conduct of the Vietnam War: "We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves (later paraphrased to 'Let Asians fight Asians')."

 

The way Filipinos are being brainwashed against China by Amboys and born-again Japboys (such as BS Aquino III and Rafael Alunan III, being grandchildren of Japanese collaborators), US gofers (such as Albert del Rosario, Voltaire Gazmin, Annapolis cadet Roilo Golez), steak commandoes (such as Loida Nicolas-Lewis and Rodel Rodis), and mainstream media (namely, Inquirer and PhilStar), we will again see Filipinos dying for America's gain.

 

Genuine patriotic Filipinos, including Chinese-Filipinos, should expose these Amboys' information war and break their "Great Wall of Disinformation."

 

Every effort must be made to explain how cooperation with China will bring the bright and promising future the people seek, by becoming pillars of the Asian Century and the new multipolar BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) world.

 

Genuine pro-Filipino Filipinos should similarly produce videos, pamphlets, books, and comic books, and bring these to the masses, the middle class, as well as to social media.  The stakes are high; the US intends to suck us into a limited proxy way and it's something that we must prevent.

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 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 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)