Diversion, deception

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

9/24/2012

The original issue now buried under tons of media debris from the Trillanes-Enrile imbroglio was not the China back channeling, it was the Camarines Sur gerrymandering bill and the alleged Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo lobbying with the Senate president to pass the bill. This issue was tabled in the Senate for Monday, Sept. 17 but Senator Trillanes was absent due to a leg injury. It was in that Senate session that Enrile, irked at the questions over his pet CamSur gerrymandering bill that the Senate president lambasted Trillanes for being a "coward" in failing to appear in the Senate debate on the issue. Trillanes could only attend on Wednesday, declaring his loss of confidence in Enrile's leadership and to bolt the Senate majority coalition.

Solita Collas-Monsod wrongly asserts in her Sept. 22 Inquirer column that, "It is very clear that the fight between Senators J.P. Enrile and A. Trillanes was started by the latter when he named Enrile as the reason he was quitting the majority bloc… complete with attacks on the quality of Enrile's leadership (supposedly dictatorial at the very least) and motives (alleged lackey of Gloria Arroyo)." Monsod attenuated the timeline and arrived at the wrong conclusion. Enrile cast the first stone on Monday, Sept. 17 calling Trillanes a coward. On Tuesday, some newspapers were already bannering Trillanes' back channeling vis-à-vis China on the Scarborough Shoals question. But the back channeling was a confidential State mission, confirmed by Malacañang lately by BS Aquino III himself. Who leaked the Trillanes back channeling to the press?

It doesn't appear to be an accident that on Wednesday Enrile responded to Trillanes' privileged speech not by answering the issues squarely but with a grand diversionary move. Enrile diverted the proceedings from CamSur to China-Philippine relations, lambasting the Trillanes back channeling with highly charged, emotional ad hominem such as "traitor." Enrile conveniently had in hand former RP ambassador to China, Sonia Brady's notes which he read and annotated with derogatory and bombastic bias against Trillanes. Subsequently, revelations involving DFA Secretary Albert Del Rosario and Manny V. Pangilinan surfaced revolving around MVP and the US interests. Recognizable radio hacks immediately went to work on morning radio, many former appointees of Gloria Arroyo (whose hatred of Trillanes is well known) to government sinecures.

Enrile's use of Brady's notes dragged other issues in, such as the links of Del Rosario's antagonistic bellicosity against China, relations to Manny Pangilinan and the latter's Recto Bank interests, the US "pivot" and "refocus" on Asia, and the unfortunate mismanagement of Malacañang of a "good cop, bad cop" strategy with China that otherwise would be a valid strategy in dealing with the Scarborough Shoal issue. People should pause to ponder: Was it kosher or proper that Enrile read confidential government diplomatic records and exchanges without following protocol? This is prima facie treason. That's why Trillanes had to walk out a while, as discussing the Brady notes in the open jeopardizes national security. As it turns out now, Enrile's impropriety really embarrasses the country.
Enrile cast a lot of aspersions. But while engaging in trapo gerrymandering and avoiding to face the issue, does he have the right to call anybody else a "coward?" Enrile called Trillanes a "fraud."

Let's consider Enrile's admitted lie in staging his own fake assassination in 1971, his 1995 dagdag-bawas proven by Nene Pimentel, his betrayal of the anti-PPA cause we started in 2001, ad nausea. Who's the fraud? I have known Trillanes and the Magdalo soldiers since Oakwood 2003. These young men stayed together through the hardest of times, with many among their families literally on the verge of starvation during their incarceration; only their word of honor kept them together and through thick and thin. Enrile should not think his billions can besmirch the Magdalo members or "sno-pake" his own vacuity.

DFA career officers say Del Rosario is a green card holder. Graduated from Xavier High School in New York and New York University, a member of the Asia Society (a John Rockefeller organization) and its International Council, Del Rosario is very qualified for a green card. Del Rosario sat in MVP companies: the Philippine Telecommunications Investment, Philex Mining, PT Indofood Sukses Makbur Tbk (Indonesia), Metro Pacific Investments, Metro Pacific Tollways Development, Manila North Tollways and more; headed Pacific Plaza Towers' development, Metro Pacific Corp.'s signature project at the Fort. Del Rosario's SALn has P 650 million. MVP called Trillanes a "liar," asking why he would conspire with Del Rosario if he (MVP) is negotiating with China. It's not only in diplomacy that "good cop, bad cop" is useful.

Gloria Arroyo awarded Del Rosario the Edsa II Heroes Award in recognition of efforts in promoting Philippine democracy, the one described by former Supreme Court Justice and ConCom chairman Cecilia Muñoz Palma described as a "Rule of Force." With the most critical foreign relations issues in his hands, shouldn't these questions about Del Rosario be clarified first?

(Watch Destiny Cable GNN's HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m. and Sunday, and on www.gnntv-asia.com: this week "Dollars, Pesos and Gold" with FDC's Sonny Africa and KME's Hiro Vaswani; tune to 1098AM radio every Thursday 3p.m.; visit http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)

The presidency or the republic?

BACKBENCHER

Rod P. Kapunan

9/22-23/2012

(An excerpt from the author's forthcoming book)

Had it not for our misplaced values and oblique perceptions of things, Mrs. Marcos would be right in saying that the declaration of martial law by her late husband, Ferdinand E. Marcos, was his greatest political act as President. It could have been his greatest heroism, for then he acted to save the republic from being violently fragmented by an ideology determined to overthrow the constitutionally established government. Positively looking at that fateful decision, maybe in that sense Mrs. Marcos was right. It was an ultimate act of self-defense, for often the painful process connotes a degree of suppression to those who purposely sought to realize their objective outside the parameter of a peaceful process.

Many historians judged martial law not on the basis how it was successfully enforced to restore order, but often misjudged it on the basis that it exacted a price on the liberties of the people. Those who opposed Marcos judged him not for why he imposed it, but for the drastic measures to precisely deal with the national emergency. From that angle, Marcos is viewed negatively. The ratio decidendi why in the first place martial law was conceived as a constitutional and a valid defense is short-circuited by the cry of suppression without reexamining the nobility it sought to achieve. Having succeeded in negatively depicting martial law, Marcos, for all his heroism in wanting to preserve the Republic he presided, was demonized.

From a philosophical standpoint, the declaration of martial law deserves to be given a priori and apriori reexamination. It is only by understanding what led to its imposition could we, as a nation, judge that (un)historic action whether Marcos stands to be glorified or to be condemned permanently by history. It is most excruciating for one who was affected to detach himself from the person or to judge history with the end view of giving premium to the commonweal. by standing on higher ground could we visualize the events beyond the vistas of recrimination, detached from that dilemma of either to praise or condemn him. In that sense, we also liberate ourselves from the encapsulated bias of what happened.

First, we condemn Marcos for his decision to declare martial law without us knowing the circumstances that led him to impose it. For that, we tend to judge martial law as arbitrary and capricious, and not a necessary and defensive legal mechanism of the State.

Second, we tend to judge the effects of martial law on a personal basis, like how it affected us individually, and not from a collective point of view that it will do good to restore tranquility in our society.

Third, we tend to equate his decision as personally motivated, and not as an exacting duty reposed upon him as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces.

Fourth, we tend to ignore that martial law constitutionally mandated the President to exercise that emergency power.

Fifth, being an extreme exercise of power for the defense of the State, we often fail to balance between its positive and negative effects to our people and to our society.

Sixth, since martial law was bound to affect people who sought to have it declared, paradoxically, they should have anticipated the high price for their participation.

On the first issue, many of us condemned Marcos for imposing martial law on September 21, 1972, than in asking whether there were valid grounds that compelled him to impose it. Such question is crucial because the circumstances that led to its declaration remain irrefutable; that martial law was used to save the republic. It was rebellion and subversion that they conceived, and "not a tea party or a picnic" as Mao Zedong would succinctly put it. For the State or for the Marcoses to accede to their demand for compensation is to admit that martial law was, at the outset, wrong and unconstitutional.

Martial law is an emergency political instrument used to surgically remove the abscess that is causing the social and political unrest. The circumstances of rebellion, secessionism, subversion, murder, kidnapping, arson, ambuscades, violent demonstrations, sporadic bombings, assassinations, and arson were carried out in broad day light and with impunity. Only a foolhardy President would ignore them. The reasons were enumerated in the "Whereas" clauses of Proclamation No. 1081 or Proclaiming A State of Martial Law.

It must be recalled that on October 22, 1950 President Quirino issued Proclamation No. 210 suspending the writ of habeas corpus. Fear gripped the people that the communists were at the outskirts of the city. The difference however is that, when President Quirino suspended the writ, the communist HUKBALAHAP was operating outside Metro Manila, while during the time of Marcos, the communists and their newly organized armed group New People's Army were operating almost freely inside Metro Manila. They managed to immerse themselves with the radical students and with labor organizations.

Those irrefutable facts stated in the "whereas" clauses were all verified to have taken place. The orchestrated violence waged against the civilians and the duly constituted authority proved beyond doubt that his suspension of the writ and the imposition of martial law were not fancy alibis to justify his desire to hold on to power.

Even the members of the opposition who sought to distance themselves from that doctrine seeking to overthrow the government admitted of the need to declare martial law. The Supreme Court, acting on the several petitions to nullify the declaration of martial law, including the early decision upholding the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in the aftermath of the August 21, 1971 Plaza Miranda bombing, held that it would be the height of irresponsibility for the President to stand idly as violent chaos engulfed the nation.

• rpkapunan@gmail.com

Fears for our times

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

9/21/2012

Are we at the trigger point for new major wars and conflicts? The murder of the US ambassador to Libya is now accepted as a conspiracy of Zionist-funded career "Islamophobes" and state intelligence apparatuses. Before whipping up the crowds, a network of agitators on the ground in Libya and Egypt waited for the YouTube insult to the Prophet Mohammed as the perfect cover for the attack that was carried out with military precision. Libya's General National Congress president Izzat al-Megaryef said the assault "was prepared, especially since it coincided with the date of Sept. 11… (with) non-Libyan elements on Libyan soil," adding that "the manner in which (it) occurred… confirms that this was planned and programmed to achieve a purpose," which allegedly does not "exclude discovering things that will link al-Qaeda (to) the US consulate attack."

In Asia, evidence is clear of a provocation by the Japanese with their purchase of the controversial Diaoyu Islands disputed between their country and China. The Japanese government obviously chose not to "let sleeping dogs lie" by, take note, signing the official contract with the Kurihara family (the so-called private owner of those islands) on Sept. 11, 2012 to nationalize the territory under the name of the Japanese state.
I was bewildered by the uncanny coincidence of the Japanese provocation to the date signifying the 21st Century's Day of Infamy (from either conventional or conspiratorial points-of-view). There are only 365 days to a regular year and coincidences over time can happen often, but the frequency of destabilizing 9/11 events seems to have increased since 2001.

The other notable 9/11 events in history: On Sept. 11, 1990, President George Bush (Sr.) delivered a speech to the US Congress entitled, "Moving Toward a New World Order." (Exactly 11 years later in 2001, the 9/11 World Trade Center terror attacks occurred.) On Sept. 11, 1941, official construction on the world's symbol of imperial power — the Pentagon — started. On that same date in 1972, the Munich Olympic Massacre took place, indubitably the first terror act aired live worldwide. Earlier, the proclamation of the British mandate for Palestine happened on Sept. 11, 1922; then, two and a half centuries further back, Western civilization defeated the Ottoman Muslim Turks in the Battle of Zenta in 1697. While we do not accept numerologists' unscientific views of such coincidences, there could be psychological reasons among historic leader-personalities to such occultist dates and numbers fixations.

As we speak, the ruling powers in the West are again ratcheting up the containment of other powers via a global war. Who are the ruling powers? Are they the so-called elected leaders like Barack Obama? No. They are the financial cabals comprising the global financial center (called the City of London) where the recent interest rate manipulation scandal broke and where the Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) controls the interest rates of the world; same with Wall Street banks like J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs that control the US Federal Reserve.

Unfortunately for them, the Western financial system is in its death throes as its "hypothetication," or its practice of pledging property or debt papers as security or collateral for debts without any transfer of title or possession — and without limit for the bankers of London and Wall Street — has finally caught up to it. The millions who have joined Occupy Wall Street, for instance, will lynch these "banksters" as only war without and within can spring these modern Shylocks.

Meanwhile, 4,000 US Marines are now on their way to Africa after Ambassador Steven's assassination in Benghazi, while an Armada of US, British, and French warships are sailing for the most massive naval exercise yet in the Straits of Hormuz — these as Google feigns loyalty to "freedom of information" in keeping the insulting 15-minute video vs Islam running while banning ideological controversial but decent videos of American dissenter Alex Jones; and as the US expands its Okinawa military base over protests of the Japanese people; as it crushes coral reefs in Jeju, South Korea to set up a 120-hectare military base; and as it expands its Darwin, Australia secret bases as well as tighten control of the Zamboanga bases such as Andrews Airfield where Filipino troops' presence is restricted, ad nausea.

Unfortunately, oligarchy-controlled media impose obliviousness by dwelling on petty scandals and quarrels of the natives. Yet equally worse, the nation's political leadership continues to kowtow to Western diktats by dutifully paying an annual tribute (P440-billion amortization, same amount on interest on the national debt) and genuflecting before the war god. Its economists, too, hype humps on the road as signs of "economic progress," all papering over the fears for our world and our times.

Frankly, there is no hope from the current political system. We must persist in hoping and struggling to awaken the people with real information and critical thinking if we are to wean them from entertainment opiates.

Let us unite the people in enlightenment so that we can reinstate our nation's dream of a decent life for all, coupled with security and economic prosperity for all our children.

(Watch Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m. and 8 a.m. Sunday, on GNN Destiny Cable Channel 8 and on http://www.gnntv-asia.com, this week, "Economics, Money, and Gold" with Ibon's Sonny Africa and KME's Hiro Vaswani; tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)