A nation waylaid by its traitor class

A nation waylaid by its traitor class

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 07-15-2015 WED)

 

As if he had a stroke of genius, one columnist at the Malaya wrote: Win first then talk.  He was, of course, referring to winning in The Hague on the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea issue.  The writer apparently thinks the intellectual level of China's leadership is at the same level as his or the present ruling class' in the Philippines.  He forgets the revolutionary tradition from which the present leadership of China springs and its victorious 60-year struggle to achieve its present proud status.  A "victory" by the Philippine junket team at The Hague won't matter an iota.

 

The BS Aquino government obviously expects a victory at The Hague given its estimate of the self-interest of the Tribunal to insist its relevance, which is what some of the pro-litigation proponents have stated.  They have warned the Tribunal in so many statements, which I paraphrase, "The ITLoS will become irrelevant if it does not support Secretary Albert del Rosario's case."  What is also apparent is their notion that the employment of the four foreign, Caucasian lawyers will provide a clear advantage to the Philippines' case.  That is certainly laughable.

 

Regarding this pricey legal team, Ado Paglinawan (formerly with our Washington embassy) emailed us from the US: "The Hague is clearly for optics… the show of force, massive propaganda with a lot emotional sound bites.  All those monkeys spending our tax dollars can now proceed to our rouges' gallery… Ta..g ina, 30 million of our people are below poverty line and they waste our money that easily.  There are two court trials to my best witness where we hired expensive attorneys and not just lost millions of dollars in the litigation but lost the case altogether.

 

"I watched this up close as Philippine press attache--first the Imelda trial in New York, and second the Westinghouse case in New Jersey.  In keeping with the 'Aquino' and 'Liberal Party' hang-up for legalism, this is the third time we will lose millions of dollars and lose… Will the remaining idiots please line up at the left yellow row?"

 

If after the jurisdiction issue is settled in favor of The Tribunal itself then the other issues follow.  With China explicitly not participating, Justice Carpio's three generations of argumentation will still not see China responding to any of this.

 

Ado Paglinawan is our Dialog-with-China advocacy group's first book author to be published through crowd-funding.  It'll be out in a few months and others will follow.  It's surprising how many others are seeing our point of view.  Ado's first hundred-page book will be on "BS Aquino's Toxic Foreign Policy"; another book forming the compendium is entitled "A Problem for Every Solution," on how BS Aquino and the Yellows scuttle every solution to the nation's crisis--including the Mamasapano crime and others that only BS Aquino's ilk can inflict on this nation.

 

The spectacle at The Hague is the ruling class's project to regale the Filipino public with while their half-wit commentators persuade themselves and the nation of their supposed genuine patriotism.

 

Meanwhile, the MRT and LRT operations are deteriorating by the day: After several months laying off the mass transit trains, I took the LRT from Cubao to Doroteo Jose where I and thousands of commuters sweated a torrent of sweat.  Hoping to get to Central station with my stored value card I was told to buy a single trip ticket as the turnstile card reader wasn't working.

 

I climbed down three stories of stairs (ALL escalators not working) to get a taxi; none passed.  As I was already late for my two appointments, I gave up and climbed up those three flights of stairs and took the LRT back to Cubao.  And, yes, all these after they raised fares by a hundred percent or so (I've lost rack), with the Supreme Court still sitting on the TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) for six months now, to stop the fare hikes for commuter protection advocates like Riles Network, which proves the LRT (and MRT) fare hikes are wholly unjustified.

 

Nothing works in this society under the treasonous ruling class and collaborationist intelligentsia, like that economist of the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) who urged his readers to "Connect the Dots" as he and his peers support the same "austerity measures" on the Philippines in the 1980s as the IMF, ECB, and EU now impose on Greece.

 

With the Philippines' de-industrialization, it suffered 50-percent unemployment (and underemployment), forced millions to migrate for jobs, and countless Filipinos were locked in impoverishment while foreign and local oligarchs became ever more enriched.

 

This is a nation waylaid by its traitor class from its promising and prosperous future that its natural wealth was meant for.

 

(Tune to: Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tues. to Fri., 5-6 p.m.; GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 21, Sat., 8 p.m. and replay Sun., 8 a.m.; search Talk News TV and Saturday date on YouTube; text reactions to 0917-8658664)

BS Aquino makes a fool of RP

BS Aquino makes a fool of RP

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 07-13-2015 MON)

 

They just couldn't restrain themselves.  BS Aquino's factotums had to have an all-out junket at The Hague.  With Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto del Rosario was a delegation reportedly consisting of 50 people.  They didn't even try to mask their intent. Including the irrelevant likes of Ronald Llamas and a few more hangers-on with absolutely no role in the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLoS) case makes the junket all the more obvious.  Then there's the Philippine "all White" plus one miniscule brown man legal panel led by Green Card holder Del Rosario for good measure.

 

When the Philippines was pursuing the other, really important territorial case called the "Sabah claim," which BS Aquino and his ilk desperately want people to forget, the erudite legal experts expounding on the issues and representing the Philippines then were Filipino legal heavyweights Diosdado Macapagal, Arturo Tolentino, Jovito Salonga, and others.

 

We are told by Filipino lawyers that the hiring of these foreign legal experts involves hefty commissions.  Whatever the real motivation behind this is, hiring foreign lawyers already compromises the image of the Philippines' case at the ITLoS.  I can only imagine other Association of Southeast Asian Nations states laughing.

 

Another irrelevance to The Hague team is Sonny Belmonte.  He claimed the big delegation is to impress the court.  I would think that the judges would prefer to be impressed by the power of legal arguments rather than the number of delegates--but Belmonte's view is really very Filipino, thinking that the "mob" can replace thinking.  I will not comment on Belmonte's meeting with Jose Ma. Sison for I have too much respect for the "reaffirmists" here I work with on various people's issues in the country.  But, of course, Joma's position has implications on the World's anti-imperialist struggle.

 

The same day as the start of oral arguments on the Philippines' case against China's claims at the ITLoS, two historic anti-Western imperialist conferences convened in Ufa, Russia.

 

The first, consisting of the BRICS alliance of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, represents the major countries of four continents and almost half of the World's population and economy. Indonesia, representing the Islamic world, is the next major country at the door step of the BRICS, an alliance that has been dubbed not just an alliance of civilizations but also of cultures--unlike the G7 that's homogenous (except for junior partner Japan).

 

The second, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) consisting of China, Russia, and the Central Asian states (with India and Pakistan as incoming members) met from July 7 to 9.

 

Vladimir Putin hosted both meetings, debunking the West's isolation of Russia.  While the SCO is preparing the unity of its members to combat terrorism (read ISIS and related terror groups engineered by the US and its client states), the BRICS has set up, among others things, the $100-billion New Development Bank and a $100-billion currency stabilization fund to counter the frequent currency attacks conducted by the West.

 

The BRICS and SCO are affirmations of the rise of the Asian Century with Eurasian giant Russia tilting toward the East.  This ends the era of Western Imperialism.

 

Brick by brick, the multipolar world is being laid.  It is in this context that China's security is essential in the struggle to end the resuscitation of the US "Asia pivot" and its hegemony.

 

A Philippines that is part of the liberation of the world would expand its consciousness to appreciate the imperatives of solidarity of all anti-imperialist countries--including China--while sharing in the opportunities and responsibilities.

 

To speak too directly about the real implications of members of the Philippine Left being waylaid into the campaign to restore US hegemony in Asia would be too hurtful.  The united front is too important for this to be allowed to happen.

 

We in the campaign to restore the anti-imperialist perspective in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea issue are patiently explaining the issues with individuals overwhelmed by the well-funded tri-media and social media propaganda (reportedly managed by Campaigns and Grey, a US PR firm with a $20-million budget for the Philippines).

 

This project has been very successful in shifting the raging emotions of the Filipino public away from the Mamasapano fiasco and apparently reversing the trend toward more productive attitudes to bilateral talks with China.

 

However, I am impressed that the latest surveys still show a staunch 17 percent of Filipinos trusting China despite the Great Wall of Disinformation of the Inquirer and other mainstream media.  We will still reverse this soon as our forces for liberation from Western hegemony start cranking up books, pamphlets, comics, and other education materials.

 

The best allies of this anti-Western hegemony campaign are the incompetent and corrupt forces of the Americans themselves who cannot hide their sham.  The junket at The Hague and the American legal panel supplanting any genuine Filipino effort, as much as the Mamasapano fiasco making fools of the Philippines, exposes them for what they are.

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN 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.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; visithttp://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

Soho wiser than Carpio

Soho wiser than Carpio

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 07-06-2015 MON)

 

On the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea (SCS/WPS) dispute, seasoned public affairs TV news anchor Jessica Soho displayed more intelligence and wisdom with her plain common sense than the much vaunted Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.

 

That Soho interview was the culmination of Carpio's organized lecture series cum "experts' discussion" that kicked off last June at the plush Discovery Suites (sponsored no less by a Japanese neo-nationalist institute) and continued at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, as well as in the media circuit.

 

The July 2, 2015 episode of State of the Nation with Jessica Soho was where Carpio belabored the fact that the Philippines' International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLoS) case will "…take time…even an inter-generational struggle… (where even) if we will win … this generation will get the ruling… the next will convince the world… and maybe the next… after that will convince China…"

 

Since one generation is 25 years, Carpio is effectively talking of 75 years before any potential benefits.  To this Soho reacted with plain common sense: "Will there be anything left in the SCS/WPS after that time?"

 

After stumping Carpio with that question, Soho then led him to reflect on the question of the growing majority of Filipinos as to why the Philippines is not engaging China in bilateral talks over the SCS/WPS dispute between the two countries.  Soho asked Carpio why the Philippines has not taken the track of bilateral dialog at the same time (as many suggest, a two-track policy that includes dialog--especially after China spoke through its envoy, Ambassador Zhao Jianhua, last June 12 that it is open to dialog "without any precondition").

 

Carpio took pains to persuade his listeners that bilateral dialog is not a viable option as it would "jeopardize" the ITLoS case if China invokes the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLoS) requirement that disputants first submit to choice "peaceful means" of resolution, among which are dialog and negotiations, to resolve issues; and only upon the inability to come to terms through such initial "peaceful means" can the matter be brought to the court.

 

China contends that no such peaceful dialog has happened and Carpio's caveat may indicate that such can be claimed.

 

To buttress his arguments for the Philippines to desist from any effort to engage China in dialog and bilateral negotiations, Carpio was not beyond comparing bananas to lychees to make his case.

 

Citing the Nicaragua vs United States case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)--not ITLoS--where the US was rapped for laying naval mines in Nicaragua's harbors against the Sandinista government (which, again, is not a territorial dispute) and where the ICJ decided in favor of Nicaragua with a $30-million award in damages (which the US repeatedly ignored), Carpio claimed that the US complied after mounting international pressure grew out of Nicaragua's repeated attempts at securing a resolution before the UN General Assembly.

 

The truth is the US did not even want to appear at the slightest bit to be complying with that ICJ ruling as it first required the repeal of a Nicaraguan law requiring compensation before even extending a politically motivated "aid" package of roughly over $500 million (not $1 billion as claimed by Carpio) to the US-backed Violeta Chamorro administration that succeeded the Sandanistas.

 

Carpio, as a member of the high court, demeans the stature of his position when he stoops that low as to attempt to deceive the public.  His apparent need to dissuade the Filipino people from engaging in "bilateral talks" with China seems so overriding that he had no qualms doing this.

 

Many international judicial and quasi-judicial bodies, by their very nature, are not beyond the reach of geopolitical influences.  The world has seen this, from Slobodan Milosevic's trial to the abuse of the International Criminal Court against African political leaders not allied to Western powers.

 

Many countries, including China in this case, do not countenance involvement of such multilateral institutions controlled by the West.  In conflicts such as those in Libya, Côte d'Ivoire, or the Rwandan genocide, these institutions were part of the problem and not the solution.  Conversely, the Tribunal may also be used to turn against the Philippines' interest.

 

Carpio and his like-minded anti-dialog clique are really getting desperate as more and more Filipinos are wishing for dialog and bilateral talks with China over the SCS/WPS impasse.  As we wrote recently, "In the Laylo Survey from May 8 to 18 among 1,500 respondents, 53 percent of Filipinos supported a diplomatic solution (i.e. dialog) versus 47 percent who 'believe it is better'… to have filed a case… (which was followed by a) June SWS poll (that) reported 46 percent of Filipinos disapprove of the government's actions (filing the case at the ITLoS), which is a sea change from the SWS' 2013 survey where only 27 percent disapproved of the government's moves."

 

Note the advice from a young but internationally recognized Filipino writer, Ateneo professor Richard Javad Heydarian, in his Huffington Post article last June 30: "'Time for the Philippines to Adjust its South China Sea Approach' … Manila should pursue dialog with Beijing while it still can… the Philippines can still learn some lessons from its neighbors on how to better manage the ongoing disputes and best deal with the Chinese juggernaut.  Diplomacy isn't only about mobilizing… against your foes.  It is also about… managing differences with even the bitterest foes."

 

Got that, Carpio?

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; watch GNN 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.; search Talk News TV and date of showing on YouTube; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)