DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/25/2013
I didn't want to write another 27th column on the 27th Anniversary of Edsa Uno just to expose and criticize the events of that day, which everyone seems to be doing each year. It has gotten so monotonous and boring that Edsa Shrine celebrations have become a mere banality for the nation — hardly ever taken seriously, even by their organizers. Sure, there are the perfunctory fun runs for the day; a few helping of celebrities gathered to regale the almost-empty crowd; or even some pre-Edsa Uno programs extolling the late Cardinal Sin and replaying the self-praising narrations of so-called Edsa leaders, Fidel V. Ramos and Juan Ponce-Enrile, as well as the Edsa anthem ("Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo") of a musical "has-been" that is hardly ever played in the country any more than it is known to the world.
That is why all I want now is to learn from the history of the past 27 years. And what better way to pick up some lessons than to ask a series of "what if" questions on how the course of Philippine history could have changed, starting with:
1. What if Nikita Khrushchev of Russia never denounced the Stalinist era, recognized Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia (who was proven wrong by history as his country does not exist anymore) and his dissolution of the Cominform (Communist Information Bureau, an international forum of the communist movement) that created the rift with Mao Zedong of China, which led to its support in the Philippines of a new communist party distinct from the old Jose Lava PKP (Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas), would there have ever been a Jose Ma. Sison faction of the communist movement that eventually led to a new Communist Party of the Philippines in 1968 and the founding of the New People's Army in 1969?
2. What if President Ferdinand Marcos never aspired for an extension of his second term which was to end in 1972, would the Philippine military have been commissioned to prepare the "Operation Sagittarius" martial law plan that was eventually implemented on Sept. 21, 1971? Could the Laurels have won the 1972 elections, defeating the Liberals' Aquino or Gerry Roxas? Could the Nacionalistas have done an alternating Putin and Medvedev or something like what the Chinese Communist Party has done in changing its old guards every 12 years while maintain continuity? (Martial law was what led Batangas congressman and Speaker of the House, Jose "Pepito" Laurel, who championed nationalist industrialization, and his younger brother "Doy" to form the anti-Marcos Unido coalition.)
3. What if Sen. Ninoy Aquino or Jose "Apeng" Yap never introduced Jose Ma. Sison to Bernabe Buscayno, would the New People's Army ever have been set up, which lent credence to Marcos' "red scare" and martial law? Would Marcos and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have been given the justification to investigate, prosecute, incarcerate, and later exile Aquino, which all led to the ill-fated return to the country of the latter, as part of a series of events leading up to Edsa I?
4. What if in 1968 Ninoy Aquino never exposed the Jabidah commando unit under Operation Merdeka, the plan for the destabilization and eventual restoration of Sabah to the Philippine that started from the time of President Diosdado Macapagal and continued on to Marcos, would the Philippines have been embroiled in the decisively costly Mindanao war with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the Muslim rebellion started by protesting UP Muslim students triggered by Ninoy's exposé that claimed at least 80,000 Filipino lives? Could the Philippines have actually won back Sabah and subsequently earned billions of dollars from its oil revenues, thereby establishing Marcos' legacy in the annals of Philippine history?
5. What if Marcos had never contracted lupus, which caused all the speculation and jockeying for a post-Marcos era, would Ninoy Aquino have even hazarded a return trip to the country as Marcial Bonifacio with a fake passport, passing through US and Taiwanese immigration, only to be assassinated as he walked out of the plane, sparking three years of massive protests as well as the destabilization of the economy with massive foreign exchange attacks and capital flights? Would the US have demanded a "snap election"? Would Marcos' then defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile and then AFP chief-of-staff Fidel V. Ramos hazarded to plan a coup against him that eventually led to the defections, with Cardinal Sin calling on his "flock" to protect the two at Camps Aguinaldo and Crame?
6. What if Cory Aquino had never declared a revolutionary government and had never become president, would the public assets established under Marcos have been transferred to private corporations and oligarchs and scrapped outright at a great loss to the people (such as the National Power Corp.; Manila Electric Co. Foundation; Philippine National Oil Corp.; Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System; the North and South Expressways; the National Food Authority flour trading operations that subsidized local rice purchases; BASECO; hydro and geothermal energy development; Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Corp.; PICOP (paper mill); Iligan Integrated Steel Mill; PASAR's copper smelting; ARMSCOR arms production, etc.)?
These are the endless "what ifs." Please contribute yours through newkatipunan.blogspot.com.
(Tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN's HTL show, GNN Channel 8, Saturdays, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m., 11:15 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m., and over at www.gnntv-asia.com, with this week's topic, "Pangilinan's Philex Mining Disaster;" also visit http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)
