The US hand

The US hand is never absent from any political-economic situation in countries such as the Philippines . To discount it is to be ignorant of history and reality.

The fall of Quirino, Garcia, Marcos, and Estrada were all US-engineered. Col. Edward Lansdale established Namfrel and propped up Magsaysay to trump the nationalist Quirino. The American Manufacturers Association generously funded Macapagal versus the “Filipino First” advocacy of Garcia. The Schultz-Wolfowitz-Casey operations against Marcos culminated in the 1986 Edsa I coup; and similar moves against Estrada by the Rumsfeld-Hank Greenberg group led to the infamy that was Edsa II.

Today, the US is at it again. It grooms the new Yellow dummy while mobilizing local mainstream media and Big Business to ride on “Mister” Panfilo Lacson’s wicked stratagem.

Nationalist Filipinos understand President Estrada’s struggle. They know there is far more at stake than just the elections of 2010. Estrada is the only leader in the horizon who has taken a patriotic stand when he preserved the national territory by vanquishing the MILF in 1999.

Thus, in whatever attack against Estrada’s leadership, any treasonous agreement that yields huge swathes of land (and sea) in the furtherance of a select group’s or foreign power’s objectives always becomes the core issue.

Contrast this to the new Yellow dummy, whose family of Quislings has left a disgraced legacy--from the grandfather’s leadership of the Kalibapi (Kapisanan ng Lingkod ng Bagong Pilipinas) or the pro-Japanese occupation legislature; followed by the father’s betrayal of RP’s effort to reclaim Sabah ; and then, the mother’s contraction of Philippine territorial limits in her so-called “Freedom Constitution.”

To support this new Yellow dummy is to therefore surrender Mindanao to the MILF. But beyond that, it is also to turnover Mindanao, along with Palawan , to the US Congress-backed United States Institute for Peace (USIP) on a silver platter. USIP is, of course, headed by J. Robinson West, the founder of PFC Energy.

The mission statement of West’s company reads: “…strategic advisors in global energy committed to providing innovative insights and solutions that help our clients make quality decisions and succeed… with deep industry knowledge and a profound understanding of the geopolitical landscape.” But what all that euphemism obscures is the use of intelligence and other operations.

PFC Energy can only obtain its goals for western oil and gas companies if there is a compliant Philippine government, which it had found in Gloria Arroyo. But since Arroyo is already too weak politically to enforce the already junked Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, a new surrogate is needed.

In Lacson’s latest tirade against Estrada, timing is of the essence. It is not to expose any truth but to wage a baseless character assassination, serving both as a distraction from his supposed role in the Dacer-Corbito case, as well as, a monkey wrench on Estrada’s 2010 campaign and the unification of the popular will. Simultaneously, the public is denied media space to examine the new Yellow dummy.

But there is a more sinister angle in the claims that Estrada directly ordered those under Ping to harass the Yuchengco son or that he was involved in rice smuggling: It tries to impress upon the audience that it is Estrada’s practice to undercut the military and civilian chain-of-command.

Lacson is clearly laying the ground for accusing Estrada in the kidnap-murder of Dacer and Corbito. The remaining witnesses will be made not forget the fate of others like Jimmy Lopez and his companion who were recently killed. They can be persuaded to tell the lies that are necessary to get Lacson off the hook and pin Estrada just as well.

Another party that has even more persuasive powers, with an even more pressing interest in Mindanao, is the US government. Since it has Michael Ray Aquino in the palm of its hands in the same way it has Lacson by the balls, it could then offer Michael Ray a way out in exchange for pinning down Estrada. Likewise, the US-based Dacer family is very much within its reach.

With regard to the Yuchengcos, the public wouldn’t get the chance to find out if the son is really into drugs. Their media handlers will keep issues moving so fast that spectators won’t have any more time to look into the details.

The PeaceBonds scam, which the Yuchengcos packaged with civil society group CodeNGO in the wake of Edsa II, was a P10-billion loan ten years ago that the people will have to repay to the tune of P35 billion today..

The Yuchengcos’ Pacific Educational Plans racket, meanwhile, had duped thousands of policy planholders; yet mainstream media is not focusing on this. Neither will they headline the PLDT officials’ announcement that no pressure was exerted on the sale of PTIC shares and that they, in fact, jacked up the price upon the Yuchengcos’ request.

Lacson’s tirades by themselves signify nothing; same with all the black propaganda of mainstream and Internet media against Estrada. What is of true significance is the power behind these pawns. From Lansdale’s mascot to the present dummy, the US government has always pushed hard for its candidates from the dummy pedigrees because that power has always assaulted the sovereignty and patrimony of this nation.

Inasmuch as taxi and jeepney drivers love their pro-masa man, there is still that subliminal lure from the media campaigns of ABS-CBN, Inquirer, Mon del Rosario et al. that package their bet “like a virgin”--uncomplicated, canned, and ready to eat tinapa for free.

But once the people bite, two years down the road, they’ll discover--as they did after Cory, FVR and Arroyo--that from one worst fire, they’ve been thrown to hell yet again. That has been the case since 1986 to 2009. There is just no end to the downward spiral as long as the US and the oligarchs rule with their puppets and dummies.

(Tune in to 1098AM, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m; Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 7’s Talk News TV, Tuesday, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m. on “Sept. 21, Martial Law Revisited” with the FDC, Party-list Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz, and Tribune columnist Rod Kapunan; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)