SOPA, ACTA and A-Claw

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

10/5/2012

The Philippines hit the international cyber news with a big bang, typified by the headline of RT (Russia Today) "Philippines gags Internet with 'draconian' cyber crime law."
I describe the Philippine anti-internet freedom law as "A-Claw," Anti-Cyber freedom Law, to depict the claws of a monstrous bird-of-prey that crept stealthily through the Philippine legislature and then pounced on the nation. The dark shadows of the monster birds wings cover the continents of America and Europe under the names of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) in Europe, and now in the Philippines as A-Claw. The US has another bill, the "PIPA" or Protect IP Act and they all purport to protect intellectual property (IP) but curtail Internet and cyber freedoms in their coverage.

The Philippine version passed like a thief in the night, and with the "draconian" feature of opening up the criminalization of anything linked, posted and referred by a cyber surfer that may be construed as "libelous." That is why A-Claw is aptly described by the wider world, looking at the Philippines and its ongoing struggle over the cyber freedom suppression law as "draconian." As usual, the Philippine legislature become more popish than the Pope and outdoes (as it did in GATT-WTO) the proponents of cyber security and IP protection in the major countries. Let's hope the Philippine netizens outdo the anti-cyber restrictions opposition in Europe and the US like "Anonymous," with its guy Fawkes mask, in raising hell against the draconian A-Claw, shut down more government websites in protest and raise more signatures than the 4.5-million registered in one campaign in the US.

I recall the other law that has become one of the banes of our society and economy, similarly smuggled through the legislature, passed posthaste without serious public hearings and scrutiny, and suddenly foisted on the public. This is the Epira or Electric Power Industry Reform Act. Unfortunately for all Filipinos then there was no social network community focused and intimately interested in the issue and an entire nation complacently allowed its implementation. A-Claw faced netizens that had already been alerted by the struggles of "Anonymous" and many global netizens in the US and Europe, and with the speed-of-light they achieved fission and exploded rage of millions of Filipino on-line activist on the most visible faces of the A-Claw menace — Angara, Sotto, BS Aquino III, Lacson, Honasan and Pangilinan.

The Epira and A-Claw share one thing that may have allowed them to pass the Senate so smoothly: both are lobbied for by foreign and globalist interests. The world Bank lobbied for Epira. The SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and now the A-Claw are a part of the US corporate-government campaign of monopoly of Intellectual Property rights (patenting, copyrighting and controlling everything from genetic materials to Internet content) working through multilateral (UN, GATT-WTO, etc.) and national governments. Our legislators swallow advice from US and international experts as gospel truth. We have not yet identified lobbyists for the A-Claw (in GATT-WTO's it was USAid that funded AGILE) but they are certainly there, most likely hovering over the cyber-crime law sponsor Angara. Hence, the Senate didn't' question the A-Claw or even study it first, and as in SOPA and ACTA secrecy kept the public in the dark.

A-Claw is part of a global campaign to curtail economic and information liberties, as Eric Kain in Forbes magazine wrote on efforts to fight this up to the level of the US sponsored trade agreement TPP, entitled "'If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA'… According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, there are 'other plurilateral agreements, such as the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), which contains a chapter on IP enforcement that would have state signatories adopt even more restrictive copyright measures than ACTA. Similarly, negotiations over TPP are also held in secret and with little oversight by the public or civil society. These initiatives, negotiated without participation from civil society or the public, are an affront to a democratic world order. EFF will remain vigilant against these international initiatives that threaten to choke off creativity, innovation, and free speech."

With the Philippine anti-Cyber crime law's threatening content against basic freedoms so obvious, and so many petitions against it and appeals for temporary restraining order or TRO to momentarily stop its implementation (nine petitions by the last count), we wonder why the Sereno Supreme Court has thumbed down four appeals for TRO.

This brings me back to our contention several months back when we predicted that Sereno would be appointed Chief Justice on the basis of her allegiance to the Foreign power and its corporate agents in the Philippines. The A-Claw is a core interest of these vested interests, and nothing will be allowed to stop it — except maybe the nation's outrage and Cyper insurrection.

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Good riddance

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

9/28/2012

For what one party in the China back channeling controversy says is the "gulo" (Pilipino for mess) and another party considered his "shabby treatment", one threatened to leave the country for his business home Hong Kong and the other leaks a threat of resigning his cabinet post. These are Manny Pangilinan (MVP) and Ambassador Albert del Rosario, embroiled in what Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes charged as Del Rosario's escalation of tensions with China to benefit his long time business associate MVP in oil deals negotiations with China. MVP is reported to say in reaction "Kung ako lang… I'd pack up and go back to Hong Kong. Ang gulo-gulo n'yo." Del Rosario's rsignation threat circulated by way of a "leak" from the DFA.

Pangilinan flatters himself. He, MVP would have remained the pudgy, dumpy little underling of Indonesian tycoon Sudono Salim, a.k.a. Liem Sioe Liong, if he didn't have the Philippines to bring the outdated Hong Kong cellphone equipment to transplant to and built his telecoms empire, parlaying that success with incognito international financiers into ventures in real estate, public infrastructure and transportation, broadcast and print media, sports entertainment; taking off massively after entering into the premier power distribution utility company Meralco which began the onset of the highest power rate increases of almost yearly 100% hikes from 2006 to the present and into the next "regulatory periods" until 2015. Filipinos have been footing the bill for MVP's spectacular economic clout today, so who owes whom and who needs whom?

My (and many other Filipinos') response to MVP's self-flattery and threat of packing off to Hong Kong, is: "Layas ka na" or "Scram". The country will surely be better off without the likes of International Finance Mafia (IFM) backed MVP who possess the guiles of the Snake in Paradise, Shylock and Blackbeard the Pirate to cause an entire economy to turning its wallet over. It can be argued that MVP's projects, particularly Meralco (almost highest rates in the World), Maynilad Water, MNTC (Manila North Tollways Corp.), and other privatized utilities firms charging exorbitant rates, constitutes the biggest factor in the continuing debacle of the National Economy, the decline in middle class living standards and impoverishment of the already poor tantamount to a major cause for the widening gap between rich and poor, corporate bonanzas and people's incomes.

MVP's charm bewitches some like Mandaluyong Congressman Neptali "Boyet" Gonzales who is appealing to MVP to "…. pause and rethink this repatriation to Hong Kong. The steady performance of our economy today is the result of a confluence of factors that a daring investor int eh like of him has greatly contributed to." That may take care of Boyet's campaign funds for 2013, but that certainly will cost the Filipino public utility consumers again. By the way, the Ateneo University and the Jesuits have saved their own souls for now with MVP bolting from their bosom in protest of some Jesuits' opposition to MVP corporate mining greed and the RH "condoms profits" bill. It's redemption for the Ateneo and the Jesuits who may be a little poorer now but still far from impoverished. However, MVP will no longer have the religious halo to sanctify his pillaging of the economy.

The latest on Secretary Albert del Rosario is he is not resigning to "… remain true to his commitment to serving the country." A day later, Del Rosario is in Washington making a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and headlined as "Del Rosario: Philippines will respond to China ships". Back home BS Aquino III's special envoy to Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping, Mar Roxas is taking pains reporting on "easing of tensions" and renegotiation and/or payment of the $ 500-M North Rail project fiasco. Was Del Rosario, as green card holder (when are they going to investigate this) and foreign affairs secretary reporting to his real bosses? A retired veteran Filipino diplomat, writing his regular Malaya column, comments on Del Rosario, entitled "'Resign' …If Del Rosario is wondering why it was only spokesman Lacierda who said Noynoy still has confidence in him, I think it is Noynoy's way of giving him an opportunity to exit gracefully by resigning."

  Speaking to support Del Rosario's continuance at the DFA were Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Cuisia and former AIG (British agent C.V. Starr and fraud-indicted mogul Hank Greenberg's American International Group) Philippine manager, and wife of the late Reginald Lewis of the P 1.5-Billion company TLC Beatrice, Loida Nicolas-Lewis "boycott China goods crusader" who made a ton of dollars in China selling its chain to food stores to Chinese interests. All of them: MVP, Del Rosario, Cuisia, Nicolas-Lewis are in the U.S. and international corporate networks with ambiguous loyalties and hands in Philippine policy and government. Should we wait for them to volunteer to go?

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Amboys at work?

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

10/1/2012

Watching Malacañang and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) pronouncements on relations with China it is clear there is a huge divergence between the two. The Palace statements are conciliatory as reflected in headlines by the media, such as "Palace: Mar Roxas' talks with China's Xi Jinping 'constructive, cordial,' or 'Palace hopes RP-China ties will move forward'" and many other projecting positive tones and rosy prospects. The DFA is projecting a different outlook on the relations, such as the statement emanating from Secretary Albert del Rosario a few days after his reported threat to resign and speaking in Washington to the CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies) which was headlined in the Philippine newspapers with an ominous "Philippines will respond to China ships" and threatening to send RP ships back to the shoals.

Del Rosario's visible deviation from Malacañang on the country's attitude to China may mean a few things, all of them bad for the administration and the country: first, Malacañang doesn't really have an official line with regard to relations and the issues with China; second, Malacañang is not coordinating its various branches of government relative to a most critical foreign policy question; third, the DFA secretary has gone "rogue" and is going on his own with regard to China related policy positions; fourth, the DFA secretary is taking instructions from other than the official chain-of-command leading to the president; and the worse, the DFA secretary is following the chain-of-command from across the seas in Washington and disregarding Malacañang completely. Is Del Rosario an Amboy?
Del Rosario qualifies for the title of Amboy due to the alleged "green card" status that the DFA ranks insists he maintains, plus the fact that there has been strong speculation about the Malacañang doubts about him. Retired diplomat Ambassasor Rey Arcilla's writes in his columns in Malaya, such as Sept. 24 in the aftermath of Tillanes' exposé of Del Rosario's alleged conspiracy with Manny Pangilinan, "'If Del Rosario is wondering why it was only spokesman Lacierda who said Noynoy still has confidence in him, I think it is Noynoy's way of giving him an opportunity to exit gracefully by resigning… He is dense. He does not know the meaning of loss of confidence or delicadeza or amor propio."'

Amboy means American Boy, and in political terms it means more than just loving things American but one who does the bidding of the US. One historical example of the Amboy is former Philippine diplomatic icon, the late Carlos P. Romulo who is venerated as the little man who walked up the shores of Leyte Gulf with Gen. Douglas Macarthur fulfilling his vow "I shall return." One of Romulo's progenies followed in his footsteps to become the DFA secretary, Roberto (Bobby) Romulo who keenly supported the assignment of Sonia Brady to China recently despite her ill health and very advanced age. Some say Brady was supported heartily by Amboys for the post to China as she herself is very pliant to the US. Just a last week Romulo commented on whom he believes should not be assigned to China to replace Sonia Brady.

In his newspaper column "Diplomacy 101" Bobby Romulo wrote last week, "I have received reports that a prominent member of the local Filipino-Chinese community as well as a long time Filipino refugee or exile in China are being considered to replace Ambassador Brady… I was shocked that the two are candidates for the most sensitive and important post in our Foreign Service … A member of the Filipino-Chinese community… does not fit the bill because of ethnic ties … these work against the detachment and objectivity (needed) … Neither does a political exile who has spent something like the last 40 or his to odd years in this world in China pass all the test of objectivity. That candidate has been fed, sheltered and cared for by the Chinese for four decades during which he must have accumulated a long list of IOU's …"

The present US ambassador to China, Gary Locke's is ethnic Chinese whose forebears hale from Taishan, China. Ethnicity doesn't bother the non-discriminatory Americans. But what about Brady who, if my DFA source is correct, is married to an American; couldn't that becloud her loyalty? Obviously referring to ex-exile Chito Sta. Romana, Romulo must understand that patriotism and idealism that led to Sta. Romana's exile. He led a student delegation to China when Martial Law was imposed in Manila Sept. 21, 1972. He was advised to stay put there to escape arrest while the Romulo clan enjoyed the privileged life in the US backed Martial Rule life in the Philippines. True patriots, like Sen. Antonio Trillanes or Chito Sta. Romana, are helping the country breakaway from mendicancy to the US to chart a free, independent and peaceful course of the Philippines with Asia.

(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; tune to 1098AM radio Tues. To Fri. 5 to 6p.m. http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)