DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
01/3/2010
First on my agenda for my first 2011 column is exposing the lie of one regular Yellow writer of a mainstream newspaper. This loud-mouthed lady charged Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV in her Christmas Day column with “silence” on the Gen. Carlos Garcia plunder case and subjected the vastly popular senator to a barrage of abusive language. She even hypocritically claimed to have had second thoughts about it in view of her so-called “Christian spirit” during the holidays. But it’s good that she wrote it anyway as it allows the public a glimpse into her Yellow bigotry.
If only she were genuinely out to correctly inform her readers, that columnist wouldn’t have failed to note that on various news media last Dec. 22, Trillanes lambasted the Ombudsman’s “plea bargain” deal with Garcia. The Manila Standard Today, for instance, headlined, “Replace Gutierrez, Trillanes proposes” while various radio broadcasts repeated Trillanes’ statement: “I believe we have to change the Ombudsman. That’s the only way.” Fact is, the Trillanes-led Oakwood protest was instrumental in helping flush out the kind of corruption perpetrated by Garcia and his ilk.
The columnist I am referring to is none other than the opinionated lady much pampered by mainstream print and broadcast media, who has been given shows left and right by the rival networks. She is really one hell of a pampered personality. Even the global oligarchy’s History Channel features her on its “Tale of Two Filipino Presidents” teaser in time for the Edsa anniversaries this year. Here, she is depicted with her usual histrionics as saying, “My God, how can you say he did a good job…” referring to Marcos vis-à-vis her then boss, the disastrously inept yet vindictive Cory Aquino.
Yet no matter how much support she gets from the powers-that-be, the Filipino public doesn’t seem to be impressed at all, as the electorate had given her a trouncing defeat when she ran as senator under Gloria Arroyo’s K4 coalition — this after prominently figuring in the destabilization and ouster of the popularly- and legitimately-elected President Joseph Estrada.
Coinciding with media reports on Trillanes’ call for the removal of Ombudsman Gutierrez was “A Christmas tribute to Trillanes” written by lawyer and columnist Harry Roque Jr. In it he says, “I was ambivalent when I first saw Antonio Trillanes IV on television. But there he was, a very young man, taking a clear and unequivocal stand against evil in government.”
Reporters, pundits, and ordinary citizens alike most probably got wind of what Trillanes said about the Garcia case, and yet the columnist chose to disregard this and damned Trillanes three days later for his “silence” on the matter, which is absolutely false and malicious.
Trillanes and the Bagong Katipuneros (a.k.a. Magdalos, an erroneous tag by ABS-CBN) are the most upright, clean, and idealistic young Filipinos one can ever meet. With a record of principled actions to back up their idealism and honesty, they have proven themselves to be absolutely sincere in their quest for reforms in society.
Meanwhile, these pristine traits are in direct contrast to the hypocrisy, treachery, deceit, and greed of all those who have been deliberately engaging in character assassination against Trillanes and company. It is obvious that such a sinister campaign will be a sustained one.
In her January opening salvo, she falls back on the Feliciano Commission report on the Oakwood protest, deliberately obscuring the fact that members of that commission were handpicked by Gloria to make sure the only credible member would always be outvoted. She kicks this further with her volley across the bow on so-called “military adventurism, selective idealism.”
But what are the facts of history? It is the Yellow clique of Monsod’s corrupt masters in the Big Business cabal that conspired with corrupt military superiors of General Garcia et al. with the usurping “President Evil” Gloria Arroyo, in connivance with the American financial mafia, led by the likes of Hank Greenberg (who would later become part of Arroyo’s “Council of Economic Advisers”) that ran destabilization operations against a pro-people president, collaborated with wayward Islamic insurgent elements in the F-I-D-E-L bombings — all in the run-up to January 2001, and consummated in Edsa II the anti-constitutional and anti-democratic coup that led to massive AFP demoralization.
What resulted was an unprecedented nine-and-a-half year reign of greed and corruption for which others like Bishop Tobias and Cory Aquino have apologized but to which the columnist would never deign murmur a mea culpa to redress.
The Makati Business Club (MBC) along with its bevy of crony groups sanctimoniously lambasted the plea bargain with Garcia a few days after it was announced. Truthfully, though, that was just a red herring since members of the MBC had been the biggest beneficiaries of Gloria’s corrupt reign through the unabated grant of privatization tax breaks and exorbitant rate increases for power, water, infrastructure, and other projects in the past decade.
Arroyo economic mouthpiece Joey Salceda, in defending his erstwhile boss against perfunctory attacks by the MBC, even said: “You (MBC members) have never had it so good!” And with P10 trillion in profits all raked in during Gloria’s reign, is it still any wonder why this columnist and her like-minded Yellow hacks never ever criticize any Big Business exploitation and price gouging?
This 2011 will be a continuation of our struggle against the exploitative and oppressive oligarchy whose interests she and her colleagues represent. While we are waging a continuing information war against their unceasing deceptions, there is now a big difference: Their double cross and treason against the people have been exposed by their decade-long complicity with Gloria Arroyo. We must keep pressing this point amid their sham criticisms of the previous dispensation and their feeble attempts to throw mud at the real heroes of the people. 2011 thus begins a decade of enlightenment for the nation and an end to the Yellows’ regime of lies.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics Today with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on Global News Network, Destiny Cable channel 8 on the “2011 Review” with Gov. Bono Adaza and political economist Hans Palacios; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com; P.S.-“10 minutes lights out vs power plunderers,” 7 to 7:10 p.m., Monday nights)
Monday, January 3, 2011
2011: Off with the oligarch's heads!
CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Mentong Laurel
01/3-9/2011
One of the enduring scenes from the closing year of the first decade of this century will undoubtedly be the snapshot of the spider web crack on Prince Charles’ Rolls Royce window. His face aghast with his lady Camilla in shock, this came about when rampaging British “yobs” (or juveniles) protested the UK government’s economic austerity plans for the British people, particularly students, after British banks were bailed out to the tune of billions over the past two years.
”Off with their heads,” the rioting crowds shouted, evoking images of the French Revolution against King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Depending on how one sees it, the “yobs” can actually be the good boys who are demonstrating indignation at the threefold increase in tuitions in the next three years. It’s good because they are standing up for their rights--for justice and equity in their society.
The closest thing to the European royalty of kings and queens in the Philippines is the local corporate and bureaucrat aristocracy, or the “corporatocracy” that rules over our economy, government, and society.
The corporatocracy is a phenomenon emanating from the two-and-a-half decades of globalization and privatization of the nation and its economy: From the massive trade tariff revenues forgone by the state with forced liberalization, to the transfer of great revenue generating state assets to private corporations that started with Corazon Aquino, accelerated under Fidel Ramos and peaked under Gloria Arroyo’s 10-year rule, which was summed up by her economic adviser Joey Salceda’s “You never had it so good” retort to Big Business criticism against Arroyo in the last election debates.
After the 2001 power grab, Big Business raked in a whopping P10 trillion, mainly in the electricity, water, ports, toll ways and other public utility “businesses.” What this proves is that the corporatocracy is antithetical to the people’s cherished dreams of democracy and popular prosperity since time immemorial. What prevails today is a government of, for, and by the corporatocracy sucking the people dry through exploitative public utility and privatized public service rates and fees.
The premier power company Meralco exacts a 50 to 80% increase in profit every year while the SLEX toll fees are rising this January by up to 300%--this as water rates in both the east and west sectors are also rising anew, same with the port fees and power rates that are already among the highest in the world. Simply put, regulatory agencies such as the ERC, TRC, and MWSS are captured and controlled by the oligarchs in the same way that their corruption money lords over our national and local elections. There is no government of, by, and for the people anymore.
As in the olden days, insatiable greed is destroying society. Come January, this writer and advocate, with the help of OpinYon, will start releasing car stickers protesting this regime of stratospheric power rates. The revolution starts here. Join the struggle; share a few coins to stick it to the ERC and power pirates’ ass!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Talk News TV with HTL, Tuesday, January 4, 2011, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., for the “2010 Year-ender” on Global News Network, Destiny Cable channel 8; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Mentong Laurel
01/3-9/2011
One of the enduring scenes from the closing year of the first decade of this century will undoubtedly be the snapshot of the spider web crack on Prince Charles’ Rolls Royce window. His face aghast with his lady Camilla in shock, this came about when rampaging British “yobs” (or juveniles) protested the UK government’s economic austerity plans for the British people, particularly students, after British banks were bailed out to the tune of billions over the past two years.
”Off with their heads,” the rioting crowds shouted, evoking images of the French Revolution against King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Depending on how one sees it, the “yobs” can actually be the good boys who are demonstrating indignation at the threefold increase in tuitions in the next three years. It’s good because they are standing up for their rights--for justice and equity in their society.
The closest thing to the European royalty of kings and queens in the Philippines is the local corporate and bureaucrat aristocracy, or the “corporatocracy” that rules over our economy, government, and society.
The corporatocracy is a phenomenon emanating from the two-and-a-half decades of globalization and privatization of the nation and its economy: From the massive trade tariff revenues forgone by the state with forced liberalization, to the transfer of great revenue generating state assets to private corporations that started with Corazon Aquino, accelerated under Fidel Ramos and peaked under Gloria Arroyo’s 10-year rule, which was summed up by her economic adviser Joey Salceda’s “You never had it so good” retort to Big Business criticism against Arroyo in the last election debates.
After the 2001 power grab, Big Business raked in a whopping P10 trillion, mainly in the electricity, water, ports, toll ways and other public utility “businesses.” What this proves is that the corporatocracy is antithetical to the people’s cherished dreams of democracy and popular prosperity since time immemorial. What prevails today is a government of, for, and by the corporatocracy sucking the people dry through exploitative public utility and privatized public service rates and fees.
The premier power company Meralco exacts a 50 to 80% increase in profit every year while the SLEX toll fees are rising this January by up to 300%--this as water rates in both the east and west sectors are also rising anew, same with the port fees and power rates that are already among the highest in the world. Simply put, regulatory agencies such as the ERC, TRC, and MWSS are captured and controlled by the oligarchs in the same way that their corruption money lords over our national and local elections. There is no government of, by, and for the people anymore.
As in the olden days, insatiable greed is destroying society. Come January, this writer and advocate, with the help of OpinYon, will start releasing car stickers protesting this regime of stratospheric power rates. The revolution starts here. Join the struggle; share a few coins to stick it to the ERC and power pirates’ ass!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Talk News TV with HTL, Tuesday, January 4, 2011, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., for the “2010 Year-ender” on Global News Network, Destiny Cable channel 8; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Friday, December 24, 2010
2011: Decade of change begins
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/24/2010
"Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings."
-John F. Kennedy
Ten years ago the country and the world were full of hope. It was a transition not only from an old decade to another, not only from an old century to a new one but also from one old millennium to another. Hope abounded. The Cold War had ended and the nuclear MAD-ness (mutual assured destruction) was believed to be a thing of the past. The Dot.com boom reached dizzying heights and its wealth effect would touch every member of the global economy for the better. Political change was in the air; Bush Jr. became president in the US under the most questionable circumstances while in the Philippines Georgetown economics student Gloria Arroyo became president through a power grab, but the euphoria of change carried the day. Even the dreaded doomsday Y2K bug proved a dud, thereafter nothing seemed to be in the way of the new century and new millennium to spoil the good times ahead.
Little did the people of the World and of the Philippines realize that the forces that made a disaster of the last century were already at work to turn the new decade the start of another century of wars, exploitation and oppression. In the US, even before the old century ended, plans for global resurgence of US global pre-eminence was drawn up in the PNAC (Project for a New American Century) in 1997. It included a wish for "a new Pearl Harbor" is which many believe envisioned the 9/11 WTC "inside job" terror strike leading to the Iraq and Afghan wars. In the Philippines, a conspiracy to depose the elected president and install the vice-president already worked out in 1998 when the coup should happen (that is, less than half the official presidential term) to allow the installed vice-president to legally run for a new term and gain a full decade to solidify their gains.
The omens were clear: Bush Jr.'s electoral coup d'etat aided by the Florida voting machine fraud and the Republican dominated US Supreme Court thwarting the popular will of the American people, and in the Philippines, the Edsa Dos coup d'etat aided by the Davide Supreme Court thwarting the Filipino's popular will.
What followed in both countries was a record of misuse and massive abuse of political power triggering endless wars by the US president and endless larceny by the Philippine president, all of which benefitted the global and local corporatocratic aristocracy, institutionalizing their systematic looting and monopoly of political power and economic plunder. As that decade ended they prepared for the next with new elections that installed their own again; no change in American, no change in the world, no change in the Philippines.
Elections generally achieve only an illusion or change, little real change happens when structural foundations stay the same. The real power behind America today is still the financial class, despite its mess that collapsed the US economy and caused massive American jobs losses; Obama and the US Congress bails out the financial class and not the people. The same in the Philippines: New names on old, old programs, like old roads given new street names: the Build-Operate-Transfer law is still the basis for the "new" Public-Private Partnership projects, the Conditional Cash Transfer replaces the old Millennium Fund dole-outs same same. Some cosmetic changes have more psychological impact than others, such as the release of political prisoners that does not change the political equation but releases revolutionary fervor of formerly imprisoned reform leaders.
However, real change still can come under these difficult situations, such as from an unexpected turn of mind of those installed by elections, compelling drastic moves from the powers behind the throne, such as assassination, and frequently in US history. In the Philippines, a coup d'etat is normally sufficient, or its threat is usually enough to keep the installed leader on "good" behavior. The forces for real change, leaders that identify themselves with the welfare of the people, can also rise within the system and work stealthily both within and outside in springing surprises on the forces of the neo-aristocracy or corporatocracy. There will always be a sufficient number of leaders and forces for real change because oppression and exploitation are real. Suffering of all oppressed classes is real, and heightening of consciousness continues unabated especially in the alternative media like the Internet.
A holiday get together highlighted four generations of genuine and progressive change-leaders with ideologies ranging from communist/socialist, Marcos military, Yellow officers, young officers, church laity and Edsa Tres stalwarts, I was told by one reformist politician that the army for change is now three times larger than it was when it shook the Marcos and Aquino regimes; I added that the people's bitter experiences (as in the electric power plunder issue) and failed economic promises (increasing unemployment, for example) of the new US and Philippine establishment leadership also prepare the population to an insurrection against the oppressive order (as we see in Europe and smashing of Prince Charles' car window). One caveat was expressed, "When we strike against the oligarchy, it must be finished completely in one blow." I can see it all happening, beginning 2011.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics Today with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., replay 11 p.m., Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com; P.S.: "10 Minutes Lights Out vs Power Plunderers," 7 to 7:10 p.m., Monday nights)
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/24/2010
"Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings."
-John F. Kennedy
Ten years ago the country and the world were full of hope. It was a transition not only from an old decade to another, not only from an old century to a new one but also from one old millennium to another. Hope abounded. The Cold War had ended and the nuclear MAD-ness (mutual assured destruction) was believed to be a thing of the past. The Dot.com boom reached dizzying heights and its wealth effect would touch every member of the global economy for the better. Political change was in the air; Bush Jr. became president in the US under the most questionable circumstances while in the Philippines Georgetown economics student Gloria Arroyo became president through a power grab, but the euphoria of change carried the day. Even the dreaded doomsday Y2K bug proved a dud, thereafter nothing seemed to be in the way of the new century and new millennium to spoil the good times ahead.
Little did the people of the World and of the Philippines realize that the forces that made a disaster of the last century were already at work to turn the new decade the start of another century of wars, exploitation and oppression. In the US, even before the old century ended, plans for global resurgence of US global pre-eminence was drawn up in the PNAC (Project for a New American Century) in 1997. It included a wish for "a new Pearl Harbor" is which many believe envisioned the 9/11 WTC "inside job" terror strike leading to the Iraq and Afghan wars. In the Philippines, a conspiracy to depose the elected president and install the vice-president already worked out in 1998 when the coup should happen (that is, less than half the official presidential term) to allow the installed vice-president to legally run for a new term and gain a full decade to solidify their gains.
The omens were clear: Bush Jr.'s electoral coup d'etat aided by the Florida voting machine fraud and the Republican dominated US Supreme Court thwarting the popular will of the American people, and in the Philippines, the Edsa Dos coup d'etat aided by the Davide Supreme Court thwarting the Filipino's popular will.
What followed in both countries was a record of misuse and massive abuse of political power triggering endless wars by the US president and endless larceny by the Philippine president, all of which benefitted the global and local corporatocratic aristocracy, institutionalizing their systematic looting and monopoly of political power and economic plunder. As that decade ended they prepared for the next with new elections that installed their own again; no change in American, no change in the world, no change in the Philippines.
Elections generally achieve only an illusion or change, little real change happens when structural foundations stay the same. The real power behind America today is still the financial class, despite its mess that collapsed the US economy and caused massive American jobs losses; Obama and the US Congress bails out the financial class and not the people. The same in the Philippines: New names on old, old programs, like old roads given new street names: the Build-Operate-Transfer law is still the basis for the "new" Public-Private Partnership projects, the Conditional Cash Transfer replaces the old Millennium Fund dole-outs same same. Some cosmetic changes have more psychological impact than others, such as the release of political prisoners that does not change the political equation but releases revolutionary fervor of formerly imprisoned reform leaders.
However, real change still can come under these difficult situations, such as from an unexpected turn of mind of those installed by elections, compelling drastic moves from the powers behind the throne, such as assassination, and frequently in US history. In the Philippines, a coup d'etat is normally sufficient, or its threat is usually enough to keep the installed leader on "good" behavior. The forces for real change, leaders that identify themselves with the welfare of the people, can also rise within the system and work stealthily both within and outside in springing surprises on the forces of the neo-aristocracy or corporatocracy. There will always be a sufficient number of leaders and forces for real change because oppression and exploitation are real. Suffering of all oppressed classes is real, and heightening of consciousness continues unabated especially in the alternative media like the Internet.
A holiday get together highlighted four generations of genuine and progressive change-leaders with ideologies ranging from communist/socialist, Marcos military, Yellow officers, young officers, church laity and Edsa Tres stalwarts, I was told by one reformist politician that the army for change is now three times larger than it was when it shook the Marcos and Aquino regimes; I added that the people's bitter experiences (as in the electric power plunder issue) and failed economic promises (increasing unemployment, for example) of the new US and Philippine establishment leadership also prepare the population to an insurrection against the oppressive order (as we see in Europe and smashing of Prince Charles' car window). One caveat was expressed, "When we strike against the oligarchy, it must be finished completely in one blow." I can see it all happening, beginning 2011.
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics Today with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., replay 11 p.m., Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com; P.S.: "10 Minutes Lights Out vs Power Plunderers," 7 to 7:10 p.m., Monday nights)
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