Last words on that useless Sona day

Obama was asked to press Arroyo on human rights. But why should Filipinos expect this when he had already broken his inaugural promise to oppose the corrupt who continually hold on to power through violence and deceit by meeting the most traitorous of them all? What Obama should have done was to actively rein in on his envoy’s continuing subversion of the sovereignty and economic security of this nation. Instead, he has allowed Ambassador Kristie Kenney’s PR work for Mrs. Arroyo, in setting up a “Fifth Column” in this country, to buttress the political stock of the most hated US puppet of the Filipino people to date. Indeed, pinning false hopes on the American factor, thus deceiving the nation, is most abominable and self-defeating. Any genuine opposition must perforce expose Obama as the real employer of Gloria.

In doing so, the nation should similarly deepen its understanding of the real corruption that plagues this country. The overlords using Arroyo to impoverish the people, despite our rich patrimony in land, sea, and human resources, are the financial institutions she proudly proclaimed at her Sona as having raised her fiscal ratings. Looking deeper, one will see the scandalous truth about these ratings agencies. Moody’s (nothing but an institutionalized Madoff), Standard and Poor’s, and Fitch’s were all sued by one of the largest, if not the largest, pension fund, Calpers, or the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, for ratings that “ultimately proved to be wildly inaccurate and unreasonably high” for subprime mortgage investments that caused it billions of dollars in losses.

Meanwhile, Gloria says she is not president to be popular. But she never was president to begin with! And we all know that she only craves for popularity with the likes of Amb. Kenney, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and previously, Bush and Condy Rice, and, of course, with King Juan Carlos, whom she so desperately wanted to engage in her Spanish to gain acceptance despite her lowly pedigree.

Gloria has had to lie, cheat, and steal, among many other things, just to get to her present status. But she has also run scared from the eventual jail that awaits her. Unlike Estrada, who was vindicated by apologies from a bishop and a former president who saw a man wronged, who lived in no “glass house,” Gloria, after losing power, will be condemned by millions and caged in a Petri dish for generations to gawk at as a specimen of Dipylidium Caninum.

Gloria has incurred more debt than three of her predecessors combined, so much so that every man, woman and child in RP now owes P57,000! But fewer still are aware of the fantabulous privatization Gloria has wrought on this nation--around P105 billion from 2001 to 2007--and boy, she ain’t finished yet. Compare that to FVR’s two-year 1996-1998 record of around P12 billion (since we couldn’t find 1992-1995 figures at the time of this writing) and Estrada’s two years of around P10 billion, and easily, Gloria has sold off so much more of the state’s most profitable assets, including PNOC-EDC, which was earning billions--with the figure of P105 billion even excluding the (underpriced by P100 billion) P200-billion crown jewel Transco sold just recently, which was in fact earning P17 billion annually. No wonder Gloria can’t shore up enough revenues to keep the deficit on target; she’s given her oligarch-cronies almost all the state assets that are earning profits for the nation’s coffers!

Gloria Arroyo has been a national disaster and 75 percent of the people know this as surveys show. But as much a calamity as she is are congressmen, senators and some opposition politicians. Noli de Castro on radio touted his arithmetical “prowess” with how many applause for Gloria he observed, counting 125 which he said didn’t tally with someone else’s 126; and he repeated this observation three times as if trying to impress listeners on how “bright” he is. Then, there was the battle of the backless and kabuki faces, involving even so-called “leftist” party-list congresswomen, who’ve all become distractions in this bizarre zarzuela.

At the Iglesia ni Cristo-Rizal Memorial gathering, only a few of the major presidential timbers were invited. As they were introduced, Binay got much more applause than Villar. And since this was a microcosm of the masa sentiment, we should ask how Villar could be number one in the SWS and Ibon surveys, especially since Jinggoy Estrada got even more applause than Binay, and Erap brought the house down.

It seems SWS is doing what it did in 2004, which Mahar Mangahas eventually apologized for, while Ibon is parroting Bayan Muna in parlaying its service to whoever can finance its own candidates for the senate. And, by the way, why is it that despite showing outright political ads, as against the other bets’ product endorsements, Villar is not being cited for this patent violation?

Finally, the cat has been let out of the bag. Mikey says that Chiz has been asking for Gloria’s endorsement while Malacañang says four candidates have already approached it for 2010. As noted by many, Gloria’s speech hit neither Villar nor Chiz; so why are we not surprised? Clearly, the only serious candidates that are beyond suspicion are President Estrada and Mayor Binay.

But for all the uselessness which that Sona day brought, one signal event that became a worthwhile hit was the Bagong Katipunan motorcade from Taguig organized by Lt. James Layug’s congressional campaign picked up by media--a sign, perhaps, of a new grassroots opposition movement a-brewing?

(Tune in to 1098AM, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m; Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 7, Talk News TV, Tuesday, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on the TVU Internet Channel 61713, on “Power, Water Sona;” also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)

A celebration of the struggle

July 27 is a day of significance and celebration in our nation’s history, not because it is Sona day in Congress. That is the least of things to celebrate and is even less of an occasion of significance as the Sona has become a meaningless drivel of half-truths and pompous delusions of an unelected politician, among others who are best at selling the virtues of their once august body. July 27 only becomes a day of celebration because, six years ago, a group of 321 young officers and men of the AFP courageously marched to Oakwood Premier at the Ayala Center to echo their call for the cleansing of the corruption in the Armed Forces and the investigation of high defense and AFP officials in “false flag” activities dubbed “Operation Greenbase.” The charges hurled by the group, correctly named by Wikipedia as the “Bagong Katipuneros,” have been proven true but continue to remain unsolved.

The Arroyo government created the Feliciano Commission with former Supreme Court Justice Florentino Feliciano as head; joined by Jesuit Joaquin Bernas, UP Prof. Carolina Hernandez, Capt. Roland Narciso and Commodore Rex Robles (ret.) as commissioners. Retired Supreme Court justices are regularly appointed to head such investigations to offer a veneer of impartiality and probity; but invariably, from the time of the Agrava Commission that investigated the Ninoy Aquino assassination down to the Melo Commission on the “extra-judicial killings,” they’ve never been impartial nor imbued with probity. Instead, the heads and some members of each one of those commissions reported regularly to the appointing power. In fact, one of the Feliciano Commission members was even said to have attested that Feliciano himself reported to Gloria Arroyo everyday.

Good thing the conscientious Oakwood protestors have been vindicated time and again by the corruption scandals that have rocked the AFP and the PNP since July 27, 2003, such as the “Gen. Carlos F. Garcia & Sons” graft case, the RSBS’ missing billions, and many others. While the Feliciano Commission did recommend some steps to stem the tide of AFP corruption, the problem has, except for a few years when it laid low, since reemerged with a vengeance, reaching new heights with every challenge to the corrupt regime, such as the military protests of Feb. 2006 and other such occasions. Now that the last election under Gloria Arroyo is about to transpire, AFP and PNP corruption is, as usual, on the rise again. But quite apart from the corruption issue, Chairman Feliciano also apparently skimmed over, with deliberate lack of interest, the investigation of “Operation Greenbase.”

Operation Greenbase is the title of a document outlining instructions and events that included the bombing of mosques to trigger a mass evacuation of Muslim populations from certain areas in Mindanao . The document proved to be very accurate as almost 100 percent of the incidents listed thereat eventually happened. It was in this connection that three young officers who joined the Oakwood protest executed an affidavit, claiming they were given instructions to bomb a mosque, purportedly intended to stir up or exacerbate Muslim-Christian tensions. That being the case, Justice Feliciano is squarely responsible for not having seriously investigated the allegations because Operation Greenbase implied not only mayhem and murder but more grievously, treason. And like the beheading of the ten Marines on July 2007 in Basilan and the recent Mindanao bombings, it seems many Operation Greenbases still abound.

The Oakwood soldiers and officers should be given accolades for their courageous exposés of these evils in the AFP and Philippine society; but instead of being offered “amnesty,” as the bloody Abu Sayyaf brigands even had occasion to be given, they’ve been kept under detention for the past six years, denied rightful bail even after already reverting to civilian status, with Senator Trillanes, elected by 11 million Filipinos, still blocked from attending Senate sessions to carry out his duties as a legitimate senator of the republic, having a mandate that even Gloria Arroyo and her minions cannot deny, much as they want to. Albeit often dramatic, the Oakwood soldiers have persistently used peaceful means of protest to capture the world’s attention, and have always been proven true. Yet they and their families are made to suffer while the corrupt and vile continue to ride high in Gloria’s government.

The July 27 Oakwood anniversary is an occasion to celebrate the struggle that began on May 1, 2001, when hundreds of thousands of poor Filipinos marched from the Edsa Shrine to Malacañang to protest the power grab of Gloria Arroyo and her cronies from big business (who’ve lost no time in accumulating hundreds of billions in profits and privatized state assets), the corrupt trapos, “civil society,” the corrupt clerics in the Catholic hierarchy (who seem to have increased in numbers), and the massively corrupt PNP and AFP top brass—all sponsored by discredited US corporate behemoths like AIG, Mirant et al. Oakwood is also a celebration of President Joseph Estrada’s struggle, the first protestor against the injustice of Edsa Dos, which unleashed Gloria Arroyo and company’s power- and wealth-grabbing frenzy.

Oakwood was a watershed in the anti-Gloria Arroyo movement that now, six years hence, it dominates every facet of the yearning for change and progress of the Filipino people. There should be no doubt that the Oakwood protest was in no small measure inspired by the struggle of President Estrada who has set the example of courage in the face of all odds. In late 2003, there were no apologies yet from Bishop Tobias or Corazon Aquino; no beeline of opposition wannabes toward Estrada’s home for any sort of mea culpa. It was lonely then and I was there.

But then, I was at Oakwood too, only blocked from getting close by a police phalanx. And in the years that followed, I visited the young officers consistently, as I did Estrada. Today, there are more visitors than I can recognize; and it’s good to remember those years when there were only a few of us in the struggle.

(Tune in to 1098AM, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m; Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 7, Tuesday, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on the TVU Internet Channel 61713 with the FDC on “Sona: Financing Gloria’s Failures;” also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)

The plots of the parasites

On Wednesday morning, the Internet news edition of a major network highlighted one of the “Three Stooges” of the now defunct Pancho, Villaraza, Cruz law firm, or “The Firm” as it was once called. This stubby fellow was quoted as urging the AFP to defy illegitimate orders and uphold the law, which are things he obviously forgot when he supported Gloria from the 2001 coup down to his last years in her Cabinet.

Without a doubt, “The Firm” has played beyond respectable bounds in the past two decades under every regime, except President Estrada’s, that yielded it untold power and pelf. So it isn’t anymore surprising to hear that this rotund fellow had the ultra-luxurious Amanpulo Resort, costing $3,000/room, all to himself for the exclusive use of his daughter’s wedding, with guests planed in from around the world.

Among political activists, there are plenty of such characters too. There’s even this prominent family that has attempted to ride every wave of “people power” to rake the benefits of each new regime in Malacañang, by fanning out to all Establishment factions while posturing as “change agents.” One ties up with Makati’s oligarch-patriarchs; another gets appointed to the civil service body; while another postures himself as consigliore of a major political opposition figure--all of them converging lately for the “Tindignation,” a thinly veiled front for Mar Roxas’ candidacy. And because of the shift in strategy of the true opposition figure as anti-Arroyo rallies wane, they had to drag some disparate groups of the Left to scrounge for political funds. But then, yet another member of this family sticks to this true opposition figure by using the Far Left as leverage to remain relevant.

These days, as the anti-Arroyo campaign reaches its crescendo, our Filipino version of “carpetbaggers”--opportunists ready to take advantage of the political dislocations to be appointed to positions in the bureaucracy (numbering at least 5,000)—start to re-surface as well.

“Carpetbagger” is a term used for US Northerners who rushed with their things in bags made out of carpet cloth to take over businesses and political positions in the Confederate South when the Northern “Yankees” won. Sadly, the Philippines has its own parasitic class of perennial carpetbaggers waiting for the latest “coup” sponsored by the Establishment class or the US .

The Edsa II cabal is a case in point. While it took advantage of the abrupt regime change in 2001 to get their just rewards from Gloria, a number of them bolted, as typified by the “Hyatt 10,” after the drastic plunge in her standing in the eyes of the people.

It is thus the continuing tragedy of the Filipino nation that these carpetbaggers keep being restored to prominence after taking part in massive perfidy, corruption and treason. Take this plump former Defense chief: After having possibly committed all the possible transgressions for Gloria, he still remains in good standing--nay, even lionized by the legal community--because of his so-called “abilidad.” But another lawyer of the best caliber and integrity, Alan Paguia, continues to suffer for standing up to the Supreme Court’s (SC) “constructive resignation” travesty in 2001.

This tragic injustice is further entrenched, in the case of Paguia, by the fact that the SC even dilly-dallies, requiring him to seek endorsement from the IBP and other institutions to lift his suspension when it was the SC alone that decided on it. And so, as any principled man would, Paguia has rejected these conditions flat-out.

The Philippine Establishment is both at odds and in collaboration with Mrs. Arroyo at this point. Even as Gloria is already too much of a PR liability for them, there are still some who are making use of her to the hilt, such as in the Laiban Dam project or in the transfer of the tollways operations (which we just discovered cost more per kilometer than the Diosdado Macapagal Avenue). At the same time, the local oligarchy and the US are letting their dogs of war loose on Gloria Arroyo, with the carpetbaggers tagging along. These parasites of fellow parasites within the Arroyo regime are also on the move, trying to pass off options to ease Arroyo out peacefully while restructuring the political milieu, by promising that elections will be held and that Gloria will go. This last group has tried to ensnare genuine movements for change in the vain hope of attaining a modicum of credibility.

Such was the occasion of Norberto Gonzales and Jesuit Archie Intengan’s visit to Bishop Tobias to broach their “transition government” trap. Tobias fortunately arranged for another meeting where other witnesses unknown to the duo would be present, paving the way for the exposé last Wednesday of the Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomista (KME) on this, as carried by the Tribune.

Separately, the Gonzales-Intengan duo also “encountered” Chief Justice Reynato Puno on a plane to broach the idea, to which the CJ was said to be unflappable. In short, this, along with their other plots, have amounted to nothing so far. The only plotting that would matter for 2010 is that of Obama and Gloria’s on July 30 or, hopefully for the rest of us, a final consolidation of nationalist civilian-military forces made possible by the chaos that the parasites will stir up.

(Tune in to 1098AM, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m; Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 7, Tuesday, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on the TVU Internet Channel 61713 with the FDC on “Sona 2001-2009;” also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)

Right questions for the “presidentiables”

There have been several “presidential debates” in the past few months but no question or answer seemed outstanding enough for most people to remember. What only struck as noteworthy was the surprising enthusiasm UP students had for President Estrada, contrary to what many had expected. Call it his charm or wit, but that phenomenon was replicated later on, leaving one with a clear impression that the youth now have an open mind about Estrada. It seems none of the demonization of “civil society” has taken root, thanks in large part to “evil society” pet Gloria Arroyo’s dreadfully miserable performance the past nine years.

When I asked people to weigh in on these debates, everyone agreed that since discussions often involved motherhood questions, what could be elicited were only motherhood statements. Worse, pertinent questions on more pressing concerns were apparently being omitted.

In the ANC debates, for example, moderators didn’t ask at all what the presidentiables will do about RP electricity rates being the highest in Asia and among the highest in the world. Is it because it’s still taboo in the media network owned by those who continue to have a stake in the biggest Luzon power monopoly, Meralco? Is it similar to why, in the FVR-sponsored debate, the issue of the onerous independent power producers’ contracts was also skirted--obviously because Ramos is the biggest culprit?

Although in the PPCRV debate, slightly more insightful questions from several sectors were raised, all of these merely boiled down to issues of job availability and security, housing, price and tuition control, fuel price control, etc., with each sector wanting its respective problems solved but without tying everything together into a coherent, national response to the overall problem of economic backwardness and mis-distribution of resources.

Some would say that this is too “high level” an expectation, but isn’t that what debates are supposed to lead to--a level of discourse that will illuminate the road toward progress and prosperity? If we continue to treat each problem as a sectoral problem, then there will be no national solution and the sectors will just quarrel over the same-sized pie that’s always too small.

Other than asking the right questions, quite a number of issues that have recently cropped up also merit attention in successive debates. One such thing involves a new sweetheart deal between the Arroyo regime and one of its mega conglomerate-owning super-cronies (who many say is really fronting for Big Mike). This conglomerate, which took a huge bite out of Meralco recently and has entered the wireless broadband, as well as, infrastructure and mining industries, has reportedly bagged, in its latest foray into water utilities, the highly suspicious contract to build and run the P52 billion Laiban dam without the benefit of public bidding.

It is so fast-tracked and lopsidedly arranged for this conglomerate by the government water authority that proposals from other bidders were given only five days for submission--an impossibility, considering the enormity and complexity of the project.

Sure, the question about this deal was raised by an organization known to be supported by another conglomerate that’s also into water utilities, leaving one to wonder if this is just about competing oligarchic interests. But the bottom line is that this Laiban Dam deal would cost us an additional P20/cu. m. in water charges on top of the already horrendous P33 to P55/cu. m. already being charged by Manila Water and the DMCI-run Maynilad.

Checking on the Internet, I found that water rates in Bangkok are only $0.29/cu. m. or around P15/cu. m., and the ones in Kuala Lumpur are even cheaper at $0.22/cu. m. or just around P10/cu. m. Thus, Philippine power, as well as, water rates are now among the highest in the region!

Going into the future debates, it should be asked: Who among the presidential wannabes will stand against this onerous deal? And what would Chiz and Loren say when they are running under this conglomerate-potentate’s political party? Honestly, who among them will stand up to the oligarchs who have been exploiting the Filipino people for so long, with the highest cost in all the basic utilities--not only in water and electricity but also in tool ways, telecommunications, port handling and power transmission fees?

Let’s see if Villar and Roxas can answer these when they are themselves part of the oligarchic class. Let’s see if Noli de Castro can when he’s beholden to his puppet masters’ media mileage and doesn’t have much else between his ears, much less ask questions about public utility rates.

And then, here’s the final clincher: What will each wannabe do about the MILF problem? If the answer is the usual “peace talks,” then that’s no different from what has been done in the past decades, in keeping with the United States Institute for Peace’s veiled impositions. Verily, peace talks are only an ap-“peace”-ment that will end up with a capitulationist and treasonous Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain-type deal.

A country goes into peace talks only when the State gets the upper hand, the way President Estrada did by launching a strong-willed reassertion of our sovereignty in MILF-claimed areas--territories and riches which the group has since offered to partake with their new-found ally, the US .

Now who among Chiz, Loren, Villar, Roxas or Noli has ever shown any will for an honest-to-goodness fight?

It was only Erap who stood his ground in reclaiming all MILF-held territories back to the nation’s fold. It was also Erap who said “No” to the oligarchs when they sought a water rate hike during his term, leading them to get into the Edsa II coup. Let’s all ask the right questions to get to the right kind of leader. And with the proper leadership next time around, these oligarchs and traitors should be put in their proper places for good.

(Tune in to 1098AM, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m; Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 7, Tuesday, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on the TVU Internet Channel 61713 with ret. Comm. Rex Robles on “Oakwood, Meiring and False Flags;” also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)

Obama blues

“To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist,” declared Obama in his inaugural address to rousing cheers from people across the globe. Later on, when the incorrigibly corrupt, deceitful and oppressive Gloria Arroyo couldn’t get as much as a phone conversation with him, Pinoys cheered even more. Some opposition politicians, in hopes of being anointed by the US someday, also showed their obeisance by effusing over the new US leader’s statement. All that enthusiasm was, of course, only the height of naiveté, if not downright delusion, for what I had long expected of Obama is now coming to fore: He’s more of Bush--just more beguiling.

On July 30, 2009, Gloria will get to wear a magic halo on her head simply by being received at Obama’s White House. Speculation is rife over how she got that long coveted encounter finally calendared. Is it because of Gloria’s cozy relations with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton? Or is it the threat of the growing influence of China in our region? For one, I don’t think the US conducts business on the basis of personal ties; although it is important. On the other hand, the US-China rivalry is no longer new and nothing drastic has changed that would suddenly require a personal meeting between the US and Philippine presidents.

Both China and the US already have a modus vivendi in that it’s economic fair game for them in the Philippines , with the US having a slight edge due to its military presence. A prime example is the Transco privatization packaged by the Carlyle group, which the China State Grid took over courtesy of the Razon and FVR-linked Monte Oro Corp., with all parties merrily raking in, using the nation’s power transmission lines. In other instances where competition can be fierce, the US will simply scuttle, through its various assets in local media and the academe, Chinese “advancements” like the ZTE-NBN and NorthRail projects or the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking between China and the Philippines .

Since none of these cases ever necessitated the US president to receive Gloria who, on the other hand, had to run to China frequently to explain her gouging up on “down payments” without delivering anything, what could be behind this latest caper?

Despite presidential candidate Jojo Binay’s reported warning about an attempt to re-establish US military bases in the Philippines, more specifically in Mindanao, I seriously doubt if the US still needs any formal arrangement since there is already an existing chain of its radar and monitoring facilities dotting Southern Mindanao, along with thousands of its troops, whose pictures pop up regularly on our papers’ front pages, ostensibly giving medical assistance or building school houses, but actually conducting military operations.

The truth is, there are still a few things the US covets here, which it has yet to get its hands on: The Liguasan Marsh natural gas and Sulu Sea oil.

During his time, George W. Bush tried to overtly obtain these via the highly treasonous Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD) that sought to carve out the BangsaMoro Juridical Entity (BJE). Through it, the MILF was to be granted its own territory, plus control of all its resources, including the seas with its own navy. Such a deal, which almost came into effect, was signed and sealed last year until an overwhelming tsunami of popular and military opposition compelled Arroyo to allow the Supreme Court to strike it down for lack of public consultation.

But since the MoA-AD’s freezing last year, the MILF and its “rogue” elements have been on the warpath with over 40 attacks, causing numerous deaths and displacing well over 200,000 Filipino Muslims and Christians--which the US has never condemned. Recently, as terror bombings began spreading anew, calls for a resumption of “peace talks,” egged on by US Ambassador Kristie Kenney, have also re-emerged.

When Obama agreed to receive Arroyo, he and his people knew the political significance this tacit seal of approval brought. They also knew that given Obama’s inaugural address, there will be a great dent on his reputation once his renowned smile beams down on the diminutive tyrant. Gloria, meanwhile, sees this as an ecstatic moment to blunt the continuing crash in her approval and trust ratings, now at below -30. Why, it could even be construed as an approval of her Charter change (Cha-cha) efforts so long as elections are held, with Cha-cha going for federalism to unblock the road toward the MoA-AD’s BJE.

Of course, Kenney says the US expects “free and fair elections” in 2010. But why doesn’t she mention “presidential elections” nor does she say anything about a “proclamation,” both of which are expected loopholes for Mrs. Arroyo? But then again, she might be thinking: Why go through that fuss when Gloria has already ushered in an era of massive election cheating, to be made worse by Melo and Rafanan’s automation foray unless an insider squeals again?

Gloria Arroyo is definitely the US’ kind of leader--infinitely “buyable,” “blackmail-able,” and “coup-able”; a perfect cheat who has moreover killed (in the Edsa III massacre) and is willing to kill more of her own people to stay in power, to continue her entire cabal’s plunderous reign.

No one in the opposition can be that kind of perfect minion just yet. So with that invitation, Obama has undoubtedly given Filipinos a slap in the face. And since all we can say is, “Thanks, we needed that,” let’s now get on with the business of tirelessly exposing Obama, Kenney, Gloria et al. till the final revolution comes!

(Tune in to 1098AM, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m; Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 7, Tuesday, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m., and on the TVU Internet Channel 61713; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)

Will the AFP preserve Philippine territory?

After the aborted signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD) crafted by the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) and Gloria Arroyo, should any thinking Filipino still have doubts about the US ’ wish to rob every ounce of our true, materially valuable wealth? The people seethed over the plan; and for a rare moment there, the AFP (which had sacrificed thousands of lives in Mindanao ) rumbled with a unanimous sense of outrage. Gloria Arroyo knew better than to confront the indignation head on and feigned “no knowledge of the details” while the Supreme Court halted the signing of the agreement and finally declared it unconstitutional. MILF “elements” then went on a rampage, displacing 300,000 civilians and killing scores along the way.

Months later, with those events still unresolved, the recent bombings in Mindanao are but a continuation of the atrocities, be they by “rogue” MILF or other groups like the Abu Sayyaf. Although these elements--who, no matter what intelligence sources say, have mutual links one way or another, even with the MNLF--still do not have the economic base to sustain their expensive firepower, the weapons used by these groups, despite still being inferior to the AFP’s that are sustained by billions of taxpayers’ money, have never run out, courtesy of foreign supporters. Plagued by divisiveness in their own ranks, as seen in the MNLF-MILF split decades ago and the countless “rogue” groups, these rebels possess neither the ethnic nor ideological cohesion their movement once had before Marcos neutralized them with military and diplomatic success in the mid-1970s.

From being a respectable anti-imperialist force, these Muslim rebel groups have now deteriorated into pawns of US neo-colonialism in this part of the world. The late MILF chief Hashim Salamat’s letter to US President George W. Bush on January 2003 undoubtedly signaled this collaboration. Salamat, who wasn’t writing from a base in the Philippines at the time of his exile in Malaysia, where he had been given protection ever since President Joseph Estrada pummeled Camp Abubakar, clearly did not have the support of our local Muslim population for him to have sought succor from Uncle Sam. Today, another indication of MILF’s role as one of the many puppet-agents of the US in destabilizing and “Balkanizing” nation-states is the current US ambassador’s open hobnobbing with MILF leaders.

The August 5, 2008 signing of the MoA-AD was only scuttled because closet political and military patriots, even in the administration, leaked out damaging details of the document, and exposed the complicity to treason of various parties, including the US and British ambassadors, and even the Bayan Muna congressmen. What stopped it, aside from the furious reaction of the population, was, for the first time in a long, long time, the military establishment seemed ready to unite with its more idealistic and nationalistic young officers to take action against this, forcing Gloria and her MILF allies to backtrack.

But it was not a full retreat as events would show; just a shift to new flanking tactics. Since January of this year, 38 attacks and two major terror bombings that killed over a dozen and wounded scores of civilians still remind us of how the MILF considers the MoA-AD to be already “a done deal,” and how it would resort to terror acts as blackmail. And, as if on cue, US Ambassador Kristie Kenney sheds tears for the victims before news cameras, and appeals for “peace talks,” which the USIP--an advocate for carving out a BangsaMoro Juridical Entity (BJE) for the MILF--has been force-feeding on Filipinos. Gloria Arroyo then starts a scare campaign in Metro Manila by raising a veiled Martial Law threat, after which the CIA chief comes a-visiting, with a July 30 Obama-Arroyo meet immediately floated. After Obama’s repeated snubs of Gloria, she must have given them a lot for this to have materialized.

Gloria, with the MILF, will give the MoA-AD-created BJE to the US and American Big Oil. Filipinos will lose the estimated $580 billion natural gas reserves of the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Marsh, a figure once intimated by US engineers to Nur Misuari. But the trillions of pesos worth of natural gas isn’t the only prize, as billions more of Sulu Sea oil are at stake, which the MILF will lay claim to after it establishes its own naval force under the BJE. What’s more: The US would want to get its hands on deuterium in the Philippine Deep so that when technology allows hydrogen to be used for all the world’s energy needs, it can cash in on it as well.

Gloria has shown that she is willing to give anything and everything to the MILF and the US for the right price--her continued stay in power. Meanwhile, the US --no matter who heads it--has shown that it is willing to deal with anyone to get what it wants.

While the nation can get to the bottom of this treasonous deal, we cannot stop it without our patriotic officers. The potential of the AFP to liberate the country was demonstrated when its recalcitrance succeeded to temporarily force Gloria and the US to shelve the MoA-AD. Now that they are about to take their two steps forward again, will the AFP help our nationalists and patriots put a stop to this once and for all?

To Leon Panetta: Where’s Michael Meiring?

Over the past nine years, we have come across many terror bombings and theories. Yet each time, it has been next to impossible to pinpoint the real culprits. Many claims of responsibility are made. Often, though, these only blame the wrong parties, to distract or justify counteractions that benefit the real culprits. With such “false flag” operations in place, ostensibly carried out by governments, powerful corporations, or criminal gangs, usually, the only way to pinpoint true responsibility is to ask: “Cui bono?” or “Who benefits?”

As history, including modern Philippine history, is replete with such terror acts, let us examine these events from this vantage point: From the F-I-D-E-L bombings to the present series of blasts, which I call the Mindanao-Manila bombing axis, to one which occurred in Davao not long ago that remains significant to this day--the Michael Meiring case.

The F-I-D-E-L bombings of December 30, 2000--which started at the Ferguson plaza in Ermita; followed by the Ninoy Aquino International Airport; then Dusit Hotel; then later, inside an Edsan bus; and finally on the LRT--culminated a series of bombings that year, and were blamed on President Estrada for an alleged justification of Martial Law, an accusation that even Cory Aquino leveled against him in January 2001.

It turns out Estrada stood to gain nothing from those bombings because those who reaped the whirlwind were the ones who rose to the crest of usurped power. Of course, since the operatives comprised police and military elements, blame was eventually lodged onto three hapless Muslims.

After Edsa II, came the series of bombings in Davao that started with the Evergreen Hotel on May 16, 2002 and several lesser known blasts thereafter; then the Davao International Airport on March 2003; followed by a blast at the Sasa Wharf a month later. In the Evergreen incident, the Davao City Prosecutor’s investigation concluded that American Michael Meiring was assembling a bomb in his hotel room when it accidentally went off, causing him to lose his legs. Just three days after he was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment and before local authorities could conduct a more thorough probe, the FBI with the US embassy swooped down, paid Meiring’s bills, blocked local investigators, and then whisked him off to the US .

Just the same, a number of anomalies surfaced: US Treasury bills were found in Meiring’s blasted room; and aside from carrying an MNLF member’s card, which was found in his belongings, Meiring was also linked to the MILF, Abu Sayyaf and others. Plus, at the time he moved about in Mindanao , bombings occurred left and right.

According to a Mindanao newspaper, Meiring was whisked away “without the knowledge of any police, military or government official in the city or region,” prompting Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to brand this an “affront to Philippine sovereignty.” Worse, Meiring was even visited by a governor, a congressman and some military officials prior to his flight, which shows that he was well connected.

The Philippines has since requested the US for Meiring’s whereabouts but nothing has happened. Internet sources report him now operating under a new name--Van der Meer--either in Colorado or Texas .

On Sunday, new CIA chief Leon Panetta arrives in Manila for a lightning visit, as US Ambassador Kristie Kenney sheds tears over the recent spate of bombings and calls for more urgency on the MILF-GRP peace talks. But shouldn’t they first clarify the US ’ role in Mindanao by telling us where Meiring is and respond to the Philippines ’ request for his extradition?

US recalcitrance only compounds the treason that is the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD), cooked up by the United States Institute for Peace--headed by J. Robinson West, corporate chief of PFC Energy, the largest petroleum and natural gas consultancy in the world—that advises US oil companies on how to get into the much-coveted BangsaMoro Juridical Entity, which Mindanaoans have vehemently stood against.

On July 27, 2003, a group of young, patriotic officers in Oakwood alleged an Arroyo-US conspiracy, dubbed “Operation Greenbase,” which involved bombing Christian churches in Mindanao to spark a religious war, with some saying, to also justify increased US presence in the country. That exposé also identified the suspicious presence of the shadowy Arroyo cohort Col. (now general) Victor Corpus in those bombings.

Naturally, Arroyo and her military cohorts belied such claims, but why did then Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia tell the Feliciano Commission that a “Third Force” could be behind it, with Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo branding them as a “group of desperate people?”

Fast forward to the present, the government and Ayala executives are still at odds as to what really caused the Glorietta blast in 2007. At first, then PNP chief Avelino Razon said that it was probably a bomb blast, with the NSA blaming it on “terrorists,” despite the fact that a government asset admitted having cased the place a few months before. But just as quickly, Malacañang, the PNP, and the FBI changed their story altogether.

In the latest Mindanao bombings, asking cui bono would ultimately lead us to US oil interests, as well as, the MILF--both of which worked with the Arroyo regime to torpedo the MoA-AD. The unexploded bombs “discovered” in Manila will only accelerate the Gloria Arroyo-Bert Gonzales “August Moon” that signals the appointment of Hermogenes Esperon as DND chief--something which we have been told as far back as a month ago.

Naturally, under the “false flag” doctrine, perpetrators have to be properly situated or positioned to fully benefit from their malevolent “false flag” schemes.

Comelec: Garbage in, garbage out

For a moment, the garbage bin’s cover was shaken ajar and the stink came out. A party to the computerized voting system cried “foul,” breaking up the partnership between Smartmatic and TIM for a while, even though the reasons were never clear. Whether it was, as one report says, about P500 million pesos that TIM wanted or, as another points to, a quarrel over the system’s operational control, other suspicious angles arose, with one partner on the TIM side, an Arroyo oligarch-crony that was also linked to the NBN-ZTE scam, given free rein to store and transport voting machines beyond the watchful eyes of government overseers. Why did such a messy set-up get the Comelec’s nod in the first place, in a bidding that ended up as a negotiated deal with so many questions still unanswered?

For this, I re-watched Robin Williams’ “Man of the Year” about a comedian who runs for the presidency out of sheer disgust over the traditional politics prevailing in the US. Co-star Laura Linney plays a computer expert for a certain firm named, Delacroy, who discovers a glitch in her company’s election tallying program and reports it to the top corporate brass, who, instead of correcting it, which would have cost the company dearly, tries to silence her and fakes her suicide. Williams goes on to win the presidency but Linney confronts him with the truth before his inauguration. Williams remains skeptical at first until a murder attempt on Linney’s character convinces him to renounce his victory on Saturday Night Live with a caveat to the nation: “Don’t put your faith in a machine that has less controls than a Las Vegas slot machine.”

As my favorite computer expert Mr. Manuel “Mano” Alcuaz says, “With the manual system, we know there will be cheating but we can find the cheating. With the computerized voting, we don’t know if there will be cheating, but if there is cheating, we won’t even be able to find the cheating. When there are people in power who are determined to cheat, they will cheat.” Here, we are not only talking of Gloria Arroyo herself but all her cohorts implicated in the treason and massive kleptocracy that have become hallmarks of this government’s past nine years. They include the Davide Supreme Court, the police top brass like Ebdane and Mendoza, and the Makati elite who are Gloria’s cronies today.

Comelec patched up the differences between the two quarreling partners last week. Though citizens’ monitoring arms such as the PPCRV told the public that they are prepared in case things revert back to the manual voting system, what’s being left unsaid is that the manual system, which could have saved the country some P7 billion pesos, could have also rendered manual cheating next to impossible to slip under the public radar, due to the nation’s experience with “Hello, Garci” and “Hello, Bedol.”

But then, Melo had to go out of his way, and out of his mandate, to act as an arbitrator. Now, Comelec and Smartmatic are promising “dream polls,” yet garbage in three days is still no different from garbage in thirty days. Any comparisons made with the “efficiency” of Indian electronic voting is still erroneous because India conducts it in a parliamentary and regional voting scheme that is spread out over a month and not a one-day period.

Cheating is going to happen--through the voting machines and/or other means, like the National Printing Office snafu where more smoke is again billowing from missing poll equipments, which the Tribune yesterday reported. Melo keeps trying to project a determination to conduct clean polls when such is impossible under Gloria. In the same way that Melo’s previous efforts to investigate “extra-judicial killings” never went beyond Palparan, to his being the legal consigliere to disgraced former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos at the NBN-ZTE hearings, he is, as one lawyer puts is, merely “using his venerable age and stature as retired justice to pull the wool over the public’s eyes,” which is the worst kind of deceit I can think of.

No real change can be hoped for from elections while the Gloria Arroyo regime rules. A retired general told us in a private kapihan that the only way to “cause a realignment in the military” is to take Gen. Danilo Lim and Sen. Trillanes out of detention to lead again; to which another said, “President Estrada will have to come out to support them because he is the only one with the constitutional legitimacy to assume authority in such a scenario, and hold elections as soon a possible.”

That’s the “Constitutional Clock” theory that Atty. Alan Paguia maintains to this day. And since parallels are being drawn between the Philippines and Honduras , we should say that what Estrada has is what Honduran President Manuel Zelaya possesses that compels governments all over the world to sustain his legitimacy despite him being physically taken out of office by the military on orders of the oligarchic Honduran Congress and Supreme Court.

President Estrada’s clock of destiny continues to tick no matter what scenario unfolds in the coming months. Everything that has entered the picture to this day, from Gloria’s usurpation of power to the “garbage in, garbage out” conduct of elections under Melo’s Comelec, has so far remained illegal. Like in Honduras , detractors of the deposed president are merely distracting everyone from the main issue--the sovereign will of the people. Whereas Estrada was elected by the majority and deposed by a corrupt few, Zelaya too was only consulting the people but prevented by a corrupt elite from doing so.

(Tune in to Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 7, Tuesday, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m.; 1098AM, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.; and select YouTube broadcasts from http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)

Destiny

We now see the imminent collapse of the Smartmatic-TIM poll automation ruse that the Comelec has tried to ram through despite the system’s apparent vulnerability to manipulation by the powers-that-be. As this plot is finally laid to rest, whatever credibility is left of Chairman Jose Melo and his sidekick Ferdinand Rafanan will also go six feet under for placing us on the verge of yet another massive miscarriage of elections. However, once the dust settles, the nation should see to it that another con job, the Melo-imposed early filing of candidacy, must be quickly junked as well.

Such a deadline was advanced from the usual February, or just three months before the scheduled polls, to November, or a full six months ahead of May, allegedly because an early printing of new ballots is needed for the computerized system. Yet, for all their excuses, the unavoidable conclusion is that this is just GMA and her oligarch-cohorts’ way of disqualifying President Joseph Estrada by ensuring that the clock would not run out on any legal challenge to his candidacy before the Supreme Court.

For most objective, non-partisan, and disinterested legal luminaries, including a number of former SC chiefs, Estrada can indeed run since the constitutional ban on “reelection” only applies to an incumbent who can unfairly use his position toward this end. But for the GMA regime, the oft-repeated line is that this will all depend on the interpretation of the current SC--whose justices, majority of whom are appointed by Gloria, most Filipinos justifiably believe will vote to ban Estrada.

The legal strategy of Estrada’s camp has thus been anchored on the “due process” principle enshrined in legal jurisprudence to ensure that months of filing of motions and petitions for reconsideration can thwart Gloria’s SC appointees from railroading any decision that will enrage the nation.

Corollary to this, of course, is another scenario for Estrada not to be forced to run: That is, if Escudero, Villar, Roxas, and all those desiring to carry the “sure win” anti-Gloria mantle set aside personal ambition and unite under one whom they can accept as primus inter pares. But, at the rate moneyed candidates like Villar and Roxas feel the noblesse oblige to squander a little more of their shameful wealth, there is little prospect of a unified opposition ticket.

Hopefully, the numerous avowed “opposition” candidates will wake up, sooner than later, from any delusion that they can win as a divided force. It is almost a foregone conclusion that since Noli de Castro is this regime’s most likely presidential timber, he will be running a credible lead against them because they lack one thing in common--they are not candidates of the masa. And, if their stubbornness to stay divided persists, Noli (and GMA) will win.

Thus, the only real alternative for the opposition to capture the masa vote is President Estrada who, despite efforts by Villar-commissioned surveys to play down, remains the masses’ main man. Keep in mind that Estrada’s respectable showing already comes without him even expressing any final decision to run, and despite Noli de Castro’s use of hundreds of millions of government funds to stay ahead of him in the polls; with Estrada having spent practically nothing, except gasoline, for his Lakbay Pasasalamat.

What is Estrada’s edge? Well, one of the means by which he has kept his equanimity, perspective, and humor through the past nine years is by telling the dignity of his life story again and again, not just to his intimates but to the entire nation and the world. The latter he has managed through video productions (VCDs, DVDs), expertly put together by Estrada himself, along with his production staff, led by his brother Jessie Ejercito, as well as, loyal writers who’ve remained faithful through those “dark years” after his fall from Malacañang.

All in all, these efforts have yielded four versions of Ama ng Masa, the last of which carries footage from Gloria Arroyo’s giddy COPA (Council on Philippine Affairs) celebration of the Edsa II coup, where she was seen grinning from ear to ear when she named the military and police generals with whom she conspired, while vice-president, to subvert the popular will. Although Ama ng Masa was subsequently banned by the MTRCB from public viewing, that COPA footage will forever haunt Gloria and ensure that she will never escape accountability for her crime of treason against a duly-constituted government of the Republic of the Philippines . Today, another one of Estrada’s latest videos entitled, Destiny (Tadhana for the Filipino version), highlights Cory Aquino’s apology, the constant beeline toward him of remorseful ex-tormentors like Villar, and his Lakbay Pasasalamat.

Estrada’s Tadhana or Destiny is thus being fulfilled with each unfolding event, making certain that he will be the nation’s leader once more or be the power behind the next president from a hoped-for united opposition slate.

(Tune in to Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 7, Tuesday, 8:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.; 1098AM, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.; select YouTube broadcasts with links at http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)