Pinoy saps

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / March 31, 2014


Reading the official propaganda from several of the BS Aquino government’s mouthpieces, i.e. Edwin Lacierda, Voltaire Gazmin, and Albert del Rosario, as well as a host of “experts” on the China Sea dispute, one gets the distinct impression that all these voices are making a big deal out of the so-called support of Malaysia, Vietnam, and the West for the Philippines’ filing of a “memorial” on March 30 before the International Tribunal on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea at The Hague.

What saps they are making of Filipinos, especially the youngish “social media” crowd swallowing the bluff. Malaysia and Vietnam are getting billions of dollars in benefits from their dialogs with China (while egging RP’s adversarial position) while the West and its allies rake it in from arms sales to the Philippines.

The three years of disinformation, misinformation, strategy-of-tension propaganda, and provocations to create news media and social media stories have laid the ground for the brainwashing of many segments of the Philippine populace to accept whatever the ruling powers want to happen — from creating widespread myopia to gloss over US imperialism’s plot to create tension via its Asia “pivot,” disrupting Asian prosperity, to distracting from China’s “dialog” overtures by instilling an adversarial mood in the Filipino mind in order to prepare RP as eventual cannon fodder in the US’ strategy of “Offshore Control” to cut China’s freedom of navigation and trade routes. The US, its lackeys, and the controlled mainstream media have so far been very successful.

Just to recap the three years of “pivot” and its attendant propaganda and mass brainwashing campaign, recall all the contrived situations that have constituted the provocations from the Philippine government, particularly its Defense and Foreign Affairs chiefs: April 2012 — Philippine Navy arrest of eight Chinese fishing vessels provoked China’s maritime ships to intervene and not vice-versa; October 2012 — Secretary Gazmin accuses China of installing “concrete blocks” to construct a new base which was debunked by his own Armed Forces of the Philippines investigation that these are actually US target practice anchors; January 2014 — Hysteria over non-existent Chinese demand for all fishing vessels plying disputed China Sea areas to register with Hainan, with the Philippine Star triggering a baseless report of China invading Pag-asa within the year.

More recently, the scion of a World War II former Japanese puppet Agriculture and Commerce minister raised the bogeyman of China sabotaging by remote control the National Grid Corp. that controls the 19,500-circuit-kilometer of the country’s electricity backbone; not mentioning that the US Carlyle Group was key to the corporate takeover or that US-British control of Malampaya may have been deliberately planned to allow the market manipulation of electricity prices by the players last Dec. 2013 and Jan. 2014 that saw an overprice.

All these have been abetted by US and local PR trolls in social media (see Infowars: “Yes, there are paid government trolls on social media, blogs, forums and Web sites thanks to documents leaked by Edward Snowden”).
So, now, Philippine officials are “commissioning” the purchase of P20 billion worth of FA-50 fighter jets, which, according to aviation expert, US Marine combined services specialist Jorge Rillona, have the “capability in terms of performance and weaponry of a genuine multirole jet fighter plane that the Philippine Air Force badly needs to defend the country’s airspace in light of rising tensions in the region.”

On the other hand, China and its first aircraft carrier will rely on the SU-30MKK/MK2 Flander-G, which RHK 111’s Military and Arms page compares with the FA-50 in terms of: “Payload difference: Favor the Flanker-G as it can carry 117 percent (4,320 kg) more load. It can travel much further as it carries more internal fuel (9,400 kg versus 2,150 kg)… more equipment and arms (8,000 kg vs 3,680 kg). The Flanker-G is a much better offensive weapon… the capability of both aircraft in terms of Within Visual Range sand Beyond Visual Range… enables the Flanker-G to have a lot more opportunities to fire its weapons first. It (FA-50) also is no match against the Flanker-G in BVR combat as it is not yet certified to carry medium range air-to-air missiles as… it would be nothing short of suicide to ask our Geagle (FA-50) pilots to try to engage the Flanker-G in any sort of air combat given its deficiencies against that aircraft.”

PAF pilots will thus be made braver than the Japanese Kamikazes, with the former ready for suicide even without targets. With the FA-50, Philippine Air Force pilots will have the distinction of being target practice magnets of “over the horizon” radars and missiles of the Flanker-G, which will make them face their martyrdom even before they realize it is coming. Philippine government officials, who pushed the deal, will only send lavish wreaths afforded by their lifetime sinecures from “commissioning” such flying coffins.

(Tune in to “Sulo ng Pilipino” on 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.; catch GNN’s Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8:00 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m., this week on “Fascism on the rise?” with Satur Ocampo and “From truck ban to market clean-up” with Councilors Let-Let Zarcal and Dennis Alcoreza; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

Global and local media cover-ups

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / March 24, 2014


Last week saw several media cover-up operations that we would like to point out to the public. First, we have the Department of Justice (DoJ)’s National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor) — PDAF “media payola” issue sustained by the Inquirer, where the latter had this March 21 headline: “Media men in payoff may face bribe raps… No special treatment for broadcasters tied to pork scam — Palace.” That was, of course, a defense strategy cooked up by DoJ Secretary Leila de Lima and Malacañang against the devastating revelation from the two unjustly sacked National Bureau of Investigation deputies, Reynaldo Esmeralda and Ruel Lasala, that a video tape exists (and will be released) of De Lima and BS Aquino’s appointed former NBI irector Nonnatus Rojas meeting with the alleged pork barrel scam queen Janet Lim-Napoles.

Rojas resigned after media exposed NBI “leaks” of the impending arrest of Napoles while De Lima and Malacañang cast diversionary aspersions on the other NBI officials and subsequently raised the media payola issue.
Media payola is nothing new and the habitual takers of these “envelopes” are known to most savvy members of the media community as well as PR agents. Politicians, major government agencies, and giant corporations have long engaged in this practice; and so it is barely headline material at all. Instead, what is of vital importance is the incontrovertible video evidence that can lead to an investigation of Rojas, who may just directly link De Lima and BS Aquino to his “secret” talks with Napoles.

Meanwhile, on the international front, the most significant media diversion is the headline, “Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for 9/11 attacks, says son-in-law.” Suleiman Abu Ghaith, married to bin Laden’s daughter Fatima, recounted a meeting in an Afghanistan cave hideaway on the night of Sept. 11, 2001, where bin Laden supposedly said about the attacks: “Did you learn what happened? We are the ones who did it.” But isn’t that hearsay?

A 10-year bin Laden manhunt ended with him supposedly shot dead by US Navy SEALs in an Abbottabad, Pakistan raid. This latest “Osama did it” story has long been discredited as a yarn diverting blame from the conspiracy among Bush, Cheney, Jewish oligarch Silverstein, and Saudi and Israeli intelligence for profit and the “perpetual war.”

A 2013 YouGov US survey showed that one in two Americans doubt the official US government investigation blaming bin Laden. Forty-six percent believe the third building, Building 7, which collapsed on its own footprint, was caused by controlled demolition; only 28 percent still believe that fires caused it. Forty-one percent now support a new investigation, compared to 21 percent who don’t.

Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, composed of 1,500 top professionals and scientists, are campaigning to reopen the 9/11 investigations.

And what about that Navy SEALs team (whose members, by the way, were all killed in a suspicious copter crash a year later) raid on bin Laden? Famed My Lai Massacre and Abu Ghraib prison journalist Seymour Hersh in a book says, “not one word of it is true” and everything is “one big lie”; a gigantic stage production to reinforce the “bin Laden did it” diversion.

(Tune in to “Sulo ng Pilipino” on 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.; catch GNN’s 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., this week on “Manila’s truck ban” and “The Napoles-De Lima scandal”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

De Lima's dilemma grows

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / March 19, 2014


A week ago, Justice Secretary Leila De Lima fired National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) deputy directors Reynaldo Esmeralda and Ruel Lasala.  She justified the sacking of these career NBI officials — of which one, Lasala, has been a 30-year veteran — saying that they should have resigned instead of NBI Director Nonnatus Rojas (appointed by Malacañang upon the recommendation of De Lima in July 2012), who quit at the onset of the Janet Lim-Napoles scandal in 2013. News reports back then arose of NBI “leaks” alerting the alleged multi-billion NGO scammer to imminent arrest, which purportedly prompted BS Aquino to say that there are “less trustworthy” NBI officials. But at that time, Malacañang was already scrambling to contain the suspicion that Napoles was being coddled by BS Aquino’s Palace men.

Rojas resigned or, as most analysts believe, was requested to resign on command responsibility to take the heat off BS Aquino, whose administration was already mired in the controversy. Remember Mar Roxas referring to Napoles as “Ma’am” Janet and the Palace giving the accused pork barrel scam artist the red carpet treatment that provoked public ire? Rojas was a crucial scapegoat at that point to take the spotlight off Malacañang. De Lima could not have demanded the resignation of those other deputy directors then because she was not able to show cause; neither could she do it now without questions being raised as she still cannot show an iota of justifiable cause.  The only difference a year later is that De Lima apparently thinks that she can now throw propriety out the window by simply sacking the named deputy directors on mere suspicion.

But De Lima’s dilemma has exploded right in in  her face as the two recently sacked NBI officials, Esme and Ruel as they are called, are reported to have possession of a video showing her original ward and Palace appointee to the agency, who resigned with a lot of tearjerker drama and fanfare, meeting with Napoles — information Rojas never revealed to the public because it is a vital piece of information that could have shed light on the newspaper reports of an “NBI leak.” Rojas was made to appear in De Lima’s public pronouncements as heroic and self-sacrificing, which may turn out to be just worthy of a Famas award. Worst for De Lima are the implications for her, being the endorser of Rojas for appointment.

De Lima says she and Malacañang are free to dismiss the two presidential appointees at any time, but the rights of Esme and Ruel cannot be so callously considered when they are career officials, too. Take Lasala, a veteran in the service for 30 years, for instance: Why was he summarily sacked and not just reassigned, which is the only correct course of action if there is no specific cause that can be cited? De Lima will have her dilemma multiplying even more when Lasala brings the matter to court. But then her dilemma will become even more insurmountable when the video of Rojas meeting with Napoles is made public, as further investigation of this will certainly lead to the question: Did Rojas meet Napoles on De Lima and Malacañang’s behalf?

BS Aquino and De Lima have new NBI appointees in place, i.e. Ricardo Pangan Jr. replacing Esmeralda and Antonio Pagatpat assuming Lasala’s post, with Edward Villarta and Jose Doloiras taking over as head of the NBI.  De Lima said this reorganization aims at “ensuring the integrity and competency of our nation’s premier investigative agency.” But that claim can only be believable if the head of the Department of Justice herself, as the endorser to the appointing power in Malacañang, is above suspicion — which is absolutely not the case.
BS Aquino, in attempting to whitewash his and his factotums’ involvement with “Ma’am” Janet, has inadvertently opened a new can of worms.

I have to pick up a share of the cudgels for the Lasala family because I have come to know its members over the years when, in the early years of the Edsa Dos government of Gloria Arroyo, Ruel Lasala’s wife, former National Treasurer Nina Lopez-Lasala, stood up to oppose then Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Gov. Rafael Buenaventura’s privatization of government securities custodianship and information and clearing transactions involving trillions of pesos that resulted in billions in losses to government. Mrs. Lasala was eased out of her post within months of this tussle with the late BSP governor. Ruel Lasala will therefore not allow his tiff with De Lima to sully his family’s name and honor.

Meanwhile, in the global struggle against Western hegemony, we rejoice with the people of Crimea who voted 96.77 percent (on a referendum turnout of 85 percent) to be free to join their motherland Russia and reject vassalage to US imperialism. Also, we rejoice with Latin America whose ever increasing anti-imperialist bloc now has a new member: Chile’s new socialist president Michelle Bachelet who promises to join independent countries such as Venezuela and Cuba in solidarity while its new Senate speaker, Isabel Allende, bears the name of a family that has come full circle in that nation’s long and bloody anti-imperialist struggle, being the daughter of the late US-Pinochet-assassinated Chilean president, Salvador Allende.

(Tune in to “Sulo ng Pilipino” on 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.; catch GNN’s Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8:00 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m., this week on “Manila’s truck ban” and “The Napoles-De Lima scandal”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)