Dope Republic

The current imbroglio over the Alabang Boys and illegal drugs subculture among the rich and (in)famous amuses me quite a bit. Why is there so much ado over this when the illegal drug scourge has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past two decades since Edsa I’s so-called “revolution” liberalized virtually everything--from the unfettered trade of goods and human cargo, down to the exchange of cultural values, regardless of their negative impact? Though many issues can be leveled against the Marcos regime, toleration of the illegal drugs trade isn’t one of them. He, in fact, carried out a well-publicized execution of a drug pusher by the name of Lim Seng. His nemeses from Edsa I and II should then be asked: Why did the illegal drug scourge escalate after their so-called revolutions?

In the 20 years since the fall of Marcos and the takeover by “civil society” of the reigns of government, the Philippines has become an internationally-acknowledged transshipment point for the global drugs trade. Larry Chin of Center for Research on Globalization writes in his six-part series on The US and the Philippines: Post 9/11 Imperatives: “The Philippines is a major transit route for heroin from the Golden Triangle to markets in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States. The Philippines exports locally produced marijuana and hashish to East Asia, the US and other Western markets, according to the CIA World Fact Book. The country serves as a transit point for heroin and crystal methamphetamine, or ‘Shabu,’ most of which is sourced from China, passes through the Philippines into Guam, Australia and rest of Southeast Asia.”

He continues: “The US State Department's 1999 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report identifies the Philippines as a ‘country of concern’ because of its rising crime, pervasive corruption, strict bank secrecy laws and lack of legislation against money laundering. The drug trade accounts for some 8 percent of the nation's gross national product.”

Was this part of the promise of Edsa I, a “revolution” so enthusiastically supported by the US? Liberalization of trade, international travel and financial transactions under the Edsa I regime apparently facilitated the turn of the Philippines into a “narco state” or what I call a Dope Republic (with a double entendre I will explain later). Was this facilitation an accident? Or was it by design? History offers us many specific instances to learn from.

Wherever Britain and the US set its foothold, the illegal drugs scourge begins to grow, and there is no way for this scourge to enter a country unless its borders, trade, travel and finance are liberalized. The most recent case in point is Afghanistan. When the Taliban was running that country in 2000 poppy production dropped by 60 percent as reported by the UN. As soon as the US “War on Terror” brought its troops to that country, poppy production increased drastically over the years. Afghanistan is now reportedly supplying 90 percent of the world’s opium production today. Flashback to the decade before is the example of Kosovo, where the CIA-sponsored Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) traded drugs to fund Yugoslavia’s destabilization. Now, the KLA leader is president of the independent Kosovo.

In the 1960s, it was Latin American that was afflicted by the scourge of illegal drugs as spread by US subversion. One of the celebrated cases involved drugs found in the US company Chiquita Banana’s ships plying the Columbia fruit trade. Of course, another one is the notorious “Iran Contra” drugs-for-arms deals under Reagan, with Col. Oliver North, where the US traded drugs to buy and supply arms to the Contras fighting Nicaragua’s leftist rebels. Farther back in history, one also finds the British Opium Trade that brought China to its knees. The opium trade also victimized the Philippines as the British had agents selling in the Philippines, among whom is a certain Barreto family, now British immigrants and citizens.

In 2001, a report came out on the seizure of 39.8 kilos of shabu from a FedEx shipment from Hong Kong to the Philippines on September 11 by the Bureau of Customs. A similar case occurred in July 30, 2002. While we can’t say that there was a corporate involvement in these instances, it is very clear that the liberal entry of goods via various means has abetted the expansion of illegal trade supplies in and outside the Philippines. Although countries like Malaysia, Singapore and China certainly get equally large shipments of goods through FedEx, UPI and other courier services, we can safely say that their customs, anti-smuggling and anti-drugs services are certainly not as porous as ours. Aggravating all this is the essentially corrupt government and Philippine National Police (PNP).

Invariably, the PNP, since its Edsa I beginnings down to the purported Edsa II “anti-jueteng” revolution, has lived on the expansion of illegal jueteng under its nose. Archbishop Oscar Cruz has stated that this illegal numbers game had doubled since Gloria’s coup in 2001. Clearly, after each such revolution, the country gets poorer and poorer, compelling the keepers of law and order to rely more and more on corruption money for survival. Imagine that 60 percent of cops are now squatters! Are we such dopes that we as a nation have not realized this?

The Alabang Boys’ case has pushed the corruption of the Arroyo regime to media’s forefront; while our AFP young officers have done well with Maj. Marcelino, following the proud tradition of the Magdalos (Bagong Katipuneros). But I am afraid that everybody might have still missed the larger picture. Like the decaying economy, the illegal drugs scourge comes with the neo-colonial, corrupt institutions (from the “hoodlums in uniform” to the “hoodlums in robes” as Erap called), and a globalized socio-political-economic system led necessarily by a corrupt bureaucrat-capitalist leadership.

We need a revolution to cut off the cancer of illegal drugs in our society. And to achieve it, we need leaders of integrity and honor, and of dedication to the national welfare and goals proven by demonstrated self-sacrifice. That’s why I am rooting for those who have paid the price of incarceration for standing against the corrupt regime, - the tried and tested triumvirate of Pres. Estrada, Gen. Danilo Lim and Sen. Antonio Trillanes to take charge. (Tune in to 1098AM, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.; Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Destiny Cable, Channel 3, Tuesday, 8:45 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., featuring :“Integrated Coconut Processing Centers for National Recovery;” also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)

The ‘systemic’ solution

Yesterday’s Tribune editorial, “Desperately Looking,” correctly criticized Malacañang spokesman Jess Dureza’s retort to critics on his regime’s total failure to meet the challenges of the global “free market“ system’s unfolding collapse, including the massive job losses in store for OFWs and the domestic sector. The fact that he challenged critics to come up with concrete steps, instead of him supplying the answers, reflects his administration’s wide-ranging bankruptcy.

Dureza has obviously not been reading up on the right solutions to the crisis. For if he did, the first thing someone in his position ought to have done is to step back and see the fire that is spreading across the forest from the individual burning trees. Moreover, Dureza is ill-equipped to comprehend complex matters, which is par for the course for all of Gloria’s men and so-called opposition trapos.

However, this inability to appreciate the “whole picture” is true even of more “educated” people, as can be gleaned from Internet articles like “The Crisis of Common Sense: Is It So Difficult to Understand the Financial Crisis?” by Matthias Chang, or “We Can’t Rely on Superficial Mainstream Media Reporting at a Time of Deep Crisis-As the New Year Begins: Things to Think about More Deeply” by Danny Schechter, and “Capitalism in Crisis: Actually, ‘It’s the System, Stupid’” by Prof. Rick Wolff.

Everyone, thus, can benefit from sources such as the Center for Research on Globalization, for the best political-forensic economists and geopolitical analysts from all over the world. And to condense voluminous data, thereby understanding the problem faster, we can apply such simple common sense thinking as: 1) There’s never any free lunch, 2) When an offer sounds too be good to be true, then it’s not, 3) If you’re enticed to get something for nothing, you’ll be the sorry loser in the end, and 4) Never judge a book by its cover--because bankers, investment advisers, and “economists” dress the best.

But even before we get to understand, we must first remove the “blinders” that hamper our vision. The Guerilla News Network, another helpful Web site, for one, has an article, “Financial Meltdown Decolonizing Asian Minds,” on the connection between colonial thinking and economic subjugation.

Across the region, the Filipino mind is sadly the most colonized in Asia , with Filipino intelligentsia and media being the worst of the lot. In fact, the better “educated” one is, whether he’s from Ateneo, La Salle , or AIM, the more colonized and inutile he becomes without even being aware of it.

Worse, our traditional political leaders are not just of this colonial mold, they are even conscious and willing colonial servants, side by side with Gloria Arroyo in her sickening sycophancy to western leaders, from Bush to Juan Carlos, or in Joe de Venecia’s sucking up to the Heritage Foundation’s “free trade” advocacy.

In the same way, Philippine media is as seriously afflicted with colonial mentality. Take Melinda Quintos de Jesus’ Center for Media Freedom, which is tied to CIA front National Endowment for Democracy, or the PCIJ, which has a USAid ad crawling on the masthead of its Web site, promoting western colonial liberalism and economics; or CNN veteran cum western asset Maria Ressa’s readiness to air via ABS-CBN the official US State Department line on the Mumbai Massacre blaming “al-Qaeda,” even when the fog of war had not yet lifted (a line that has been discredited by more exhaustive investigations that pointed to the Pakistan-based, CIA-Mossad-Hindu underworld).

Other than that, these media “professionals” are used regularly by US and Makati corporate predators to demonize Filipino leaders and dish out disinformation on the Philippine economic crisis.

This “colonial mentality” issue is important because it is part of the root problem of RP’s society in general, and its economy in particular. Nothing is ever done by government, business and “civil society” intelligentsia without first waiting for the signals, if not direct instructions, of the US .

Thus, at the very start of the financial collapse in August-September of last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) continued to raise interest rates even as other Asian governments, particularly China , announced rate cuts posthaste to stimulate their domestic economy. The BSP only reduced interest rates after the US Federal Reserve cut rates last December--a subservience to US economic policy that is the real obstacle to our nation’s economic survival, recovery and take-off.

For the real solutions, I have long posited that interest rates be cut drastically and a “debt moratorium” be instituted to channel such money to “pump-priming” programs, such as the P100-billion package mouthed by the Arroyo regime, hopefully not for “fertilizers in urban jungles” and grass cutting schemes, but directed toward economic self-sustainability. This can run the gamut from geothermal energy production facilities, integrated coconut production centers for every thousand hectares of coconut land, brown rice consumption education, System of Rice Intensification (SRI) technology dissemination, import-substitution industries, to the revival of indigenous raw materials like abaca and ramie, among other programs.

Alas, these real solutions cannot come because leadership still lacks the nationalistic will and the independent economic imagination that similarly plagues the economic elite, which controls the direction of the economy. Thus, the entire system must be changed, beginning with a change of people from the top of every institution in government and society, to be purged of the colonially-enslaved and replaced with nationalists and patriots.

In a “dying society” such as ours, the urgency to act--and act fast--for the common weal becomes all the more apparent. Because, as it has often been said, “Dissent without action is consent.” And such action can only come from, and be directed at, all of us collectively as a people because: “Walang tutulong sa Pilipino kundi kapwa Pilipino.” If such themes sound familiar, it is because these are the battle cries of our genuine patriotic leaders, Pres. Estrada, Sen. Trillanes and Gen. Danny Lim.

Since genuinely nationalistic and patriotic leadership is fundamental to begin this process of “systemic” change, with the current dearth of such leaders in the political horizon, we then ask: Can elections even hope to achieve this?

(Tune in to 1098AM, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.; Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Destiny Cable, Channel 3, Tuesday, 8:45 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., featuring “2009 Projections with ‘Futurist’ Tony Gatmaitan”; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)

Survival: 2009 and beyond

The challenge of 2009 is to let Filipinos’ hopes survive. As my generation saw the Philippines ’ boom in the 1950s, then its bust during the past two decades, it became clear that life has gotten increasingly worse with each passing year. One gauge of this continuing decline, the United Nations Human Development Index, saw the Philippines plunge from No. 77 to 90 under Mrs. Arroyo, behind Peru , Lebanon and Ecuador . Another indicator, the Food and Agricultural Organization 2006 Hunger Index, had Myanmar at No. 68, better than the Philippines ’ 72nd ranking.

Today, hunger in our lands is even worsening, with four million families or 20 million Filipinos going without food regularly. So how do we still hope, much less survive, amid all this gloom? First, we need to be armed with the truth.

The precipitous crash of RP’s economic and social well-being--marked by rising corruption, criminality, and drug addiction--definitely got worse after Edsa I with the economic liberalization and globalization that followed. It took over two decades, made worse by Edsa II, for most Filipinos to realize the big swindle this “free trade” and liberal economic model brought, as they witnessed the US economy’s crash, and the trashing of its previously sacrosanct export-, import- and debt-dependent policies.

The problem is, few among the architects of this economic swindle are willing to admit their errors to institute the only salvation for the Philippine economy: Self-reliance and import substitution programs.

In the same vein, the local ruling cliques will not allow any inch of their comfort zones of power and privilege to be eroded--even if it involves poisoning the fountainhead of our historical knowledge.

These are why Establishment economists like Solita Monsod still perpetuate the lies of liberal economics even when the whole world already sees it without clothes. Ditto for politicians like Dick Gordon, Noynoy Aquino, and talking heads like state-owned Channel 9 director Deedee Siytangco and opinion writer Billy Esposo for demeaning earnest historical judgments or expressions of intellectual integrity, like Cory Aquino’s mea culpa over Edsa II, even when such are necessary, given the untold hardships their collective acts have wrought upon this nation.

These, too, are why since 2001, this column has exposed the myths and lies of the ruling powers, both local and international, and targeted the evil of this profit-manic “corporatocracy,” finally laid bare in the historic 2008 global financial and economic meltdown. Although some have erred in branding our efforts as the musings of a “conspiracy theorist,” time and time again, we have been vindicated with succeeding events.

The last laugh is on those who still refuse to admit these truths despite confirmations from reality of our analyses and those of our circle of socio-political nationalists, as well as, our global online community of anti-Establishment dissenters.

In the past decade-and-a-half, we have fought and dispensed with the myth of globalization. But many battles still lie in this information war, or “infowar,” to free people’s minds from the clutches of mainstream media and years of miseducation by western financial masters, who, even though are now on the decline, are still bent on pursuing the world’s destruction to dash all prospects for genuine peace and brotherhood.

Thus, Samuel Huntington and the West’s lie about the inevitability of the “Clash of Civilizations” must be replaced with the 21st Century Confucian ethic of “Harmony of Civilizations,” as enunciated by the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Other complementary myths perpetrated by the ruling corporatocracy must also be debunked. For instance, the “global warming” con game is currently being discredited by such contrary weather findings for 2008 cited by Christopher Booker in The Telegraph of UK :

1) The sharp drop of global temperatures after years of flat-lining, enough to offset much of their 20th Century net rise; 2) The Alps’ best snow records in a generation that are set to beat all records by New Year’s Day; and 3) A “worse” winter than last year with Canada and half of the US under snow.

All these, deemed to contradict the “computer models” of alarmists that drive their scare, led Booker to state that “2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved.”

Then, he adds, “Man-made global warming is an anti-industrialization myth to lead to a ‘carbon tax’ scam,” and this convinces me all the more of my correctness in fighting the “nuclear power danger” myth of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant debates, which now ex-anti-nuke Greenpeace co-founder Peter Moore has junked as well.

But then, I will have to dismiss today any calls to revive nuclear power for the Philippines because that would make us dependent on imported uranium, which will become more costly as more nations turn nuclear. And, since we have practically unlimited geothermal energy reserves to tap for the next 50 years, along with the fact that Filipinos are acknowledged to be among the best with this technology, only opportunists or nincompoops will go that route.

So, as 2009 starts, as we renew our “DIE HARD” commitment to engage the nation in our “INFOWAR” for truth and political-economic progress, we affirm our continued support for:

(a) Leaders of change like Pres. Estrada, Gen. Danilo Lim, Sen. Trillanes, and all nationalist, non-trapo forces; (b) Recovery-driving economic sectors and measures such as the Philippine Cooperative for VCO and Allied Industries, local producers, import substitution, debt repudiation, geothermal energy, power sector cooperativization; and (c) Our very own Second Propaganda and Enlightenment Crusade through radio, TV, Internet and DVD campaigns.

Hopefully, as we reap decisive victories in this “infowar,” a lot more will awaken to take action for our nation’s survival in 2009 and beyond.

(Tune in to 1098AM, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.; Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Destiny Cable, Channel 3, Tuesday, 8:45 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)

Hope springs eternal

“Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all they have.” — Anonymous

Seven out of 10 Filipinos still believe there’s hope in the Philippines ; they should. Our hope lives on while there are still outstanding leaders who keep setting the example of sacrifice and determination to liberate this country from poverty, mental stupor and national mendicancy. Gen. Danilo Lim, Sen. Trillanes, the Bagong Katipuneros and President Joseph E. Estrada—with his slogan, “Walang tutulong sa Pilipino kundi kapwa Pilipino”—are all such leaders who lead us toward national emancipation.

In historical terms, our struggle is still shot compared to the awakened giant of Asia, China , which decayed and languished for 500 years before revolutionary, anti-colonial, and nationalist leadership emerged 59 years ago. If measured from the year of the Malolos Republic of 1899 when the Philippine struggle set up its sovereign government, it will only be 100 years next year.

We thus have no reason to believe that this historical event may finally be completed soon. But with the right leadership to galvanize this nation’s energy, we can achieve a turnaround in 10 years of what China has achieved for itself in 60. By then, we would have returned to our pre-eminent stature in the Asean community—something that we took for granted in the 50’s. But these positive aspirations should be first stoked in all Filipinos’ hearts that they may be fired up to achieve the socio-political and economic changes we so direly need. For where there is no hope, there can be no progress.

It is therefore heartening news that hope still springs from the Filipino soul as the recent Pulse Asia survey found. Yet, there is another factor that increases the likelihood of our much-needed changes: The return of thousands of OFWs who are now jobless.

All the decades since the 70’s, the only pressure relief valve for scores of unemployed but able-bodied and talented Filipinos was the OFW deployment. Millions had left the country to earn a living, including many leaders from the activist movement and the intelligentsia. But now that these foreign jobs are disappearing, OFWs still with boundless energies will be forced to return home with little prospect of employment.

Where are they going to work here? Where are the kinds of factories they’re used to when they were in Taiwan , for example? What about construction workers from the Middle East who are coming home to a construction slump? Workers in the electronics sector, meanwhile, will come home to the news that Texas Instruments had just laid off 400 workers in its Baguio plant. Then, as Filipino white collar OFWs from the US also come home, to what office will they be recruited when retrenchments here have already begun?

Radically changing the present paradigm is thus the only way to solve this impending unemployment tsunami: By reorienting the country’s economy toward import substitution to produce what we import today such as milk, diapers, rice, meat, etc.

Buttressing this is the latest PhilExport News sent via e-mail: “Exporters increase sales to domestic market… A manufacturer and exporter of handcrafted Christmas and other holiday décors…said since sales abroad went down because of stiff competition from China and other Asian countries three years ago, exporters have been participating more in domestic trade fairs. She bared that the local market now comprises around 20 percent of their total sales, while that of a furniture company is much higher at 40 percent… So over the years, we have found out what the Filipinos are looking for. We already produce for the domestic market…and it is enough to take care of our overhead cost.”

For sure, increased earnings will take care of more than just the overhead if there is a full blown government-led policy to cultivate the domestic market henceforth. However, it’s more than just furniture and Christmas décor we should make for the domestic market. We need agricultural implements, organized organic fertilizer production, production of skim milk from coconuts to replace almost all milk imports, and more high tech people to put up big and micro-geothermal power plants all over the country. You see, it just takes some little imaginative twists to shift our orientation from export-dependence to import-substitution.

Then again, there are macro-economic issues to take care of too, like reviewing our debt amortizations to shift resources to domestic pump-priming, as well as, cutting down power and water costs, which, despite declining oil and exchange rates, are still going through the roof with petitions from Meralco, the NPC, and the new Maynilad owners, to increase charges yet again.

These are the things that all Filipinos should be focused on while struggling to remove the one big obstacle to all these remedies—Gloria Arroyo, together with the foreign and local oligarchs propping her up. All the other carping from diverse anti-Gloria groups are only secondary to this. The debate on the CARP law, for instance, is moot and academic, as any land reform program won’t work while the landlord class still controls Malacañang and Congress. Moreover, all investigations of corruption will come to naught while Gloria Arroyo is in power for she serves to cover all their asses.

All forces for positive change against Gloria’s tyranny must therefore come together and concentrate on the removal of Gloria and the establishment of a genuine leadership dedicated to the welfare of this nation and its shift to an independent and progressive economy.

Thankfully, the nation is coming close to a final turnover of power to a new leadership that can and will change this country. The previous Friday, all soldiers were confined to barracks with a headcount conducted to ensure that no one was out to join any unauthorized movements, an intel major confirmed. The Gloria Arroyo regime is suffering from violent nervous convulsions because it knows that there are unceasing efforts to break open the floodgates of change. Their diversionary bombings won’t help them anymore. The odds are all against Gloria and her corrupt henchmen as she and her FG’s billions will be inutile when the social volcano erupts.

(Tune in to 1098AM, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.; Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Destiny Cable, Channel 3, Tuesday, 8:45 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., featuring Mrs. Aloy and Ms. Aika Lim, wife and daughter of Gen. Danilo Lim; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)

United toward victory

The two huge rallies staged by two major anti-Gloria movements signify a resurgence and imminent victory of the fight for justice and truth that was started at Edsa Tres in May 2001.
Last November 10, six Catholic bishops and the KME (Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomista) mustered one of the largest rallies of the past year in front of St. Peter’s Cathedral along Commonwealth Ave. What distinguished it was the active mobilization of thousands of Catholic school students by the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP). With them too were thousands of farmers from various land reform advocates such as Unorca, the group of Bishop Labayen, and fellow Manila Pen veteran Ka Vangie.
On November 12, Friday, it was the turn of the political opposition -- from the Left to the Middle Forces – to gather up to 30,000 people at the juncture of Ayala Ave. and Paseo de Roxas. Though it was a very positive show of force, it didn’t match the 60,000-strong October 2003 march on Ayala that our own Edsa Tres groups organized -- the one where I was able to block a phalanx of at least half a dozen riot policemen with my outstretched body pressing against their riot shields until I collapsed from tear gas asphyxiation. Still, a significant thing about this recent gathering was the broad spectrum of forces represented in the rally -- except for the presence of tradpols and political opportunists like Frank Drilon and Butch Abad who, aside from spearheading Edsa Dos, continue to promote globalization and power privatization policies that are so discredited today. If only the rallies at St. Peter’s and Ayala were combined, we would have had one of the largest rallies ever assembled.
Few people know that the St. Peter’s rally was just a glimpse of the movement’s nationwide character. Bishop-led rallies in six other provinces were held simultaneously in Zamboanga, Samar, Naga, etc., with Bishop Navarra mustering 30,000 rallyists in Bacolod City alone.
I am sure there will soon be a convergence of those two opposition movements, provided that nationalist objectives form the basis of their anti-Gloria unity. These developments prove once and for all that the struggle started in May 2001 for a just cause will bring the nation to final victory. Already, President Estrada’s role in the anti-Gloria, anti-Cha-cha struggle has been accepted by all significant sectors of the opposition. He was not only welcomed but eagerly awaited in the march, which he unfortunately had to miss at the last minute due to his ailing mother’s condition.
On another front of our struggle, another victory is being won: The Senate is now working on the teleconferencing attendance of Sen. Trillanes in its sessions. This will be a sweet triumph for supporters of the Oakwood young officers and the Manila Pen protest, as they’ve kept faith in the peaceful struggle by Gen. Lim and Sen. Trillanes.
While we have no love lost for the likes of Juan Ponce Enrile, we have to acknowledge his act of making amends by helping in this action, if it does finally push through. The Senate is sorely missing the contributions of Sen. Trillanes who has continued to perform despite incarceration; participating or sponsoring over a hundred Senate resolutions and legislations the past year.
In Sen. Trillanes’ latest blog entry, for instance, he discussed energy generation from garbage incinerators, which is an advocacy of mine too. In 1991, I built one neighborhood incinerator with a wet scrubber pollution control mechanism in Quezon City , and it worked very well. Only environmental nincompoops and energy saboteurs like Meralco’s Bantay Kalikasan spew the lie that incinerators are bad, even when Japan already has 2,500 of them. This is but one necessary component in our country’s quest for energy independence -- part of the economic liberation this nation should realize in the midst of the global economic crisis.
While the political fight continues to expand, we must also be aware that the economic struggles of this country will be escalating.
Partly due to self-preservation, Gloria Arroyo and Congress are now forced to heed some of this column’s warnings and prescriptions. One newspaper headline, for instance, reports Congress readiness to reduce the rVAT from 12 to 10 percent, which, of course, I would like to push even further by calling for a debt default -- the same kind that Ecuador has just officially implemented.
Thanks to the West’s financial collapse, all have now seen the perfidy of international bankers and the double-standard of ratings agencies that pontificate on corruption and credit-worthiness. We should be fighting back now and reject all onerous and unjust debts. For sure, Gloria Arroyo and her “tongresista” are incapable of doing this, which is why we need the change even today.
Pump-priming by infrastructure spending is what every government is doing these days, from Obama to Hu Jintao. Gloria is allocating P100 billion for this, but the question is where to put it. If Gloria will be given her way, she’ll spend it all on grass cutters until Election Day. That’s certainly what her Neda chief Ralph Recto would do as well. After all, he has proven himself stupid by his sponsorship of rVAT during election year (for which he was handsomely rewarded as his own staff admits he got loads of money from oil and power companies for removing the “no pass-on” provision).
Fortunately for us, Gloria, by necessity, has assigned the task of studying where this allocation should go to one professional economist, Romulo Neri, who’s also anti-oligarchy. This proves that despite having called her “evil,” it is actually Neri who has Gloria by the balls; not the other way around.
Neri could thus seize the day by focusing on three areas that offer the greatest economic impact from the P100-billion fund: a crash program for geothermal energy projects; coconut integrated processing centers the Philippine Cooperative of VCO and Allied Products proposes to maximize the 350 million hectares and three million coconut farmers’ coconut resources for skim milk, flour, sugar, pharma- and nutri-ceuticals; and the “System of Rice Intensification” (SRI) from Cornell Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development, taught by Filipino scientist Engr. Obet Verzola, that increases rice farm yields by 50 to 100 percent without chemical fertilizers.
Neri must also work with medium and small scale business associations to include import-substitution industries among the sectors to be supported.
The anti-Gloria forces should talk, then unify and consolidate for another push toward victory while working with all sectors to help the national economy triumph over the global financial and economic collapse.

(Tune in to 1098AM, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.; Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Destiny Cable, Channel 3, Tuesday, 8:45 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)

‘Lord, it’s you!’(?)

There’s very little for Filipinos to celebrate this Yuletide season had the Pacquiao fight didn’t come along. But is it really something to cheer about? I came across a Nevada news website which reported that the three Pacquiao fights the past year saved the Nevada economy, saying that 90 percent of audiences who paid to watch the fights on site and via pay-per-view were Filipinos in the US , in other countries and in the Philippines . That’s hundreds of millions of dollars from Filipino pockets and, indirectly, from the national economy paid to promoters, bookies, and foreign satellite and cable operators. Pacquiao did earn a lot, but the Philippines lost a hundred times more than the fraction he earned.
At the Manila airport, Pacquiao was reported to have credited his win to “the Lord.” Is this the Lord Pacquiao acknowledged first before any other in the speech he made in the boxing ring? I doubt that the Lord of Archbishop Oscar Cruz would find it amusing to be confused with that widely renowned lord of jueteng and other nefarious activities Pacquiao has been effusively praising. We can’t blame the boxing great if he gets a little confused about Lords and Ladies and the issues he raises. Pacquiao advices people to forget politics but he not only wouldn’t stay away from politicians who blatantly use him for their ends, he caters to them. It’s laudable that Pacquiao says he’s going back to school. Maybe he’ll find better company there than the kinds of Lords molding his values today.
For the followers of the true Lord of the season, this Christmas is clearly a very different celebration. Six bishops of the Catholic Church led the Wednesday demonstration at St. Peter’s Cathedral and the march to Batasan. The action was spurred by the failure and junking by Congress of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, as well as, the Cha-cha Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been attempting to sneak through that body. The common arena for these issues is Congress and it’s not going to be a fair fight for the bishops when the congressmen have just enjoyed the impeachment bonus which they used for their trip to Las Vegas to watch Pacquiao. CARP, the oligarchs say, has failed. What no one explains is the sabotage of the farmers from denial of credit and support, to Congress’ reluctance to speak for those without money.
The bishops and the marchers don’t have the money to give congressmen to vote against the Cha-cha; though the fear of the Church consolidating people power may strike the fear of God in them. The bishops’ rally will eventually merge with the Friday anti-Cha-cha demonstration in Makati , but these demonstrations will go the way of countless other bigger rallies of the past eight years if there is no action on the part of our AFP to support change and reforms. Mao has always challenged the lords of peace on this point every time his tenet is uttered: “Power comes from the barrel of the gun.” Even withdrawal of the gun is enough to tip the scales in any situation, but the AFP men of good intentions have been more like lambs -- except for those who have openly protested, who now languish in detention. Still, hope springs eternal and we’ve all learned to wait in waging the struggle peacefully.
The Congress’ fear of God may not equal the power of the god of money that Gloria commands. Besides, there’s a way to genuflect before the bishops and still get more money out of Gloria, through a Con-con or Constitutional Convention. The Church may be persuaded with a Con-con as conservatives have always found this acceptable. A little sweetener for the likes of Bishop Capalla will help smooth the Church’s slide to the Con-con, while opposition politicians may be lulled into thinking this formula automatically disqualifies Gloria Arroyo for lack of time. Or, they’ll think, the US and the new global rich like the South Koreans, Taiwanese, and Chinese, will be too happy to buy hectares upon hectares of Philippine land from congressmen and big businessmen who’ve been land banking the past years -- a sure bonanza for land speculators.
Speaking of Lords, there’s been a lot of talk among local columnists about events involving the Lord of Thailand, the King -- nitpicking with the Thai ambassador who expressed irritation over descriptions of the Thai demonstrations as “immature,” with some comparing these to the Edsa Dos “parliament of the streets” -- altogether missing the core political-economic and geopolitical issues.
The collapse of parliamentary democracy in Thailand was engineered by the Royal Family and the pro-western Privy Council backed by western royalty. At issue are: The drug trade, which the Thai establishment has profitably condoned but which Thaksin cracked down and worked with Myanmar to stamp out (to the chagrin of the opium-trading British and drug legalizer George Soros); Thaksin’s Asean support for Myanmar and their joint projects; Thaksin’s grassroots-up economic development model through massive credit to the villages which started to build a politically consciousness and base that was perceived as a challenge to the Thai monarchy; and the slow shift of economic relations from the West to the East, as symbolized by the sale of the Shinawatra telecoms company to the Chinese-dominated Temasek of Singapore.
Forbes reports that the Thai King is the richest monarch (topping the Sultan of Brunei) with $35 billion in personal fortune while Thai peasants remain poor. EIR’s Michael Billington writes, “Ji Ungpakorn, a professor at Chulalongkorn University… denounced the ‘democratic’ demonstrators for what they are: a ‘royalist’ fascist mob which has powerful backing from the Army, the Queen, the so-called Democratic Party, the courts, the mainstream media and most university academics… with total contempt for the Thai electorate who are poor… (On) Nov. 7, the British government cancelled the visas of both Thaksin and his wife. It is certainly not coincidental that Princess Alexandra, the cousin of Queen Elizabeth, arrived in Bangkok on that very day, at the personal invitation of her close friends, the King and Queen of Thailand.”
In this supposedly democratic day and age, should small power elites still be allowed to lord it over the Rule of the Majority?

Media: Educator or entertainer?

I am writing from a small carinderia just a few meters off the corner of the Bataan National Highway and Alauli, Pilar Road after a two-hour drive from Manila , through the NLEX (which brought me at loggerheads with one of the Lopez potentates) and the SCTex. I am on my way to a mountain farm I’ve put up to grow ginger, leeks, camote, cassava and other vegetables and spices for our family’s little food chain. I lament having to reduce our regular supplier’s income but with the economic tsunami hitting us now, we all have to cut costs. Ginger, for example, now costs P75 a kilo in Manila and I could get it here for the cost of planting and tending it for the next eight months, which is practically free.  
I’m afraid there’s very little being done to prepare Filipinos for self-reliance and sustainability. At the Ka Entrep (entrepreneurial association) assembly held last week at the Adamson University , I was asked how small entrepreneurs should brace for the challenges. I could have chanted the standard mantra: Cut cost, innovate and adjust; but any thinking entrepreneur would be doing all these already. Instead, I advised the 200-strong audience to work more closely together and pressure government to promote the growth of domestic, import-substituting industries, and reverse past policies of mainly promoting exports.
While the G7 and G20 cautioned countries from turning “protectionist,” the undeniable reality is that most are now taking steps to shore up their economic and financial defenses.
For instance, in a direct negation of the West’s demands for China to revalue or appreciate its currency to reduce its trade imbalance with the West, the UK’s Telegraph reported last December 4 that China is set to even devalue the Yuan by 6 percent over the next year. Obviously, China devised this to take other export market shares to offset the precipitous drop in its export sales, which is essential to stemming the tide of social dislocation caused by the US subprime and credit collapse (that’s leading more and more to a US Depression as many fear).
Another case in point: OPEC countries are cutting back production to inflate oil prices. That’s also protectionism.
To this day, it still is a dirty word to prescribe protection for the Philippine economy and its people. But why are our supposed leaders unable to grasp this for the sake of our people?
There are grand talks of an economic “marshal plan” from some administration economic advisers, like investment agent and Arroyo-sponsored Bicol governor Joey Salceda, who recommended a P100-billion stimulus package, which was raised in the Ka Entrep open forum. But where does Salceda propose this to be put and used? For really, there are never any details from him because he doesn’t understand real economics like Gloria, as they’ve been brought up in the Lehman Bros. and AIG tradition of investment speculation.
Unfortunately, these breakfast reflections didn’t carry over to my lunch here at Morong because of Manny Pacquiao’s latest match. The noise from the TV in Donny’s carinderia made it hard for me to “hear” my own thoughts. But then, I also saw why there is so little thinking done in this country. Practically all -- senators, congressmen, the hoi polloi -- prefer the slam-bang of boxing to the task of understanding, mastering and surmounting our national crises.
I imagine that if another TV monitor were set beside the Pacquiao fight TV, and reported on the P1-trillion swindle the 50-year franchise for the Transco privatization wrought, I doubt that anyone else will pay attention.
Even the BIR’s announcement that it will tax consumers for the refund of illegal Meralco meter deposits, amounting to several billions, would probably not distract the audience from the said bout. In addition, despite this being announced two weeks ago, we still seem to be the only ones protesting.
Not even a recent Napocor announcement that it will be charging consumers for its billions of pesos in fuel supply contract losses to foreign and local Independent Power Producers (IPP) the past decade turned heads. No wonder this country is going to the poorhouse while it hapless citizens enjoy the “entertainment!”
At that point, amid the loud and bloodthirsty goading of the audience signifying Pacquiao’s apparent lead, I focused on the problem of information and values in this country.
Many studies have postulated that media molds 80 percent of the public’s views and people’s understanding of their world. It will, thus, explain what we, as a nation, are today. By the same token, progressive countries that can be comparable to our development in recent history, where entertainment and boxing are given lower priority, all seem to be doing much better.
For instance, boxing offers no great shakes for China , South Korea , Malaysia or Taiwan , and they are all progressive. While Japan has Sumo wrestling, it is more a cultural and spiritual ritual rather than a gladiator sport.
True, the Philippines has had several boxing champions; but it undeniably has a failed economy. These reflections lead me to recall a speech at the formal launching of the Global News Network (GNN) of Destiny Cable and its satellite link of over 200 networks of the Philippine Cable TV Association -- making GNN a truly nationwide broadcast soon.
Mrs. Elena Lim, matriarch of the Destiny Cable group, stressed her vision of education over entertainment in shaping the GNN mission -- a visionary declaration I was extremely delighted about.
We need comprehensive information and values education for true democracy. And as Pacquiao just won; thanking the worst of the lot like Chavit Singson and several “tongressmen,” it only means we will have a lot more work to do toward values formation.
(Tune in to 1098AM, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.; Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Destiny Cable, Channel 3, Tuesday, 8:45 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)

Behind the sound and fury

The sound and fury over Gloria’s Cha-cha cum Con-ass are rising. Among those who have joined the anti-Cha-cha bandwagon, El Shaddai’s Mike Velarde and JIL’s Eddie Villanueva are sure to give their “heavenly” stamp to this rallying cry. A supposed Palace ally, meanwhile, the NPC of Danding Cojuangco, is said to be ready to spring a surprise on Gloria too at the proper time.

Of course, President Estrada has long warned about this and is now ready to mobilize the briefly hibernating masa against it. Coupled with Catholic Church progressives, these combined groups will be a force to reckon with.

But lest anyone believes Gloria’s schemes have been thwarted, there is still a Con-con fallback, and it will be foolhardy to think she can’t buy her way into that as well.

The Liberal Party, for example, has already expressed its desire for an elected Con-con in 2010, which would seem to bar the incumbent for a new term on the premise that Gloria can’t get her way with an elected body.

But that’s just wrong on many counts. First, Gloria can pick the winners in a Con-con election with her control of the Comelec. Then, she can control that delegation with her money, in the same way that she has held local executives and Supreme Court justices, among many others, by their balls.

A Con-con could then neutralize the Catholic Church, which has expressed openness to this route since 2007, as objections from progressives will be drowned out by conservatives, who’ll argue for the body’s seeming democratic composition, apart from its expected espousal of federalism, which some quarters in that church have foolishly rendered as a panacea to save the country.

At best, a Con-con would only put the anti-Cha-cha forces in disarray. Come to think of it, this may yet be the best bet for Gloria to open up the Philippine economy, particularly Mindanao, to US ownership.

Filipinos should therefore brush up on global realpolitik to understand the Philippine political-economic milieu today -- an arena where Gloria has outsmarted almost everyone.

Gloria understands that the key to her political longevity is to capitalize on the geopolitical and economic interests of the US to her advantage.

In Edsa II, she promised US transnational corporations the right to plunder the nation through power and other privatizations in exchange for their sponsorship of her coup. And in the years that followed, we saw how her covert Edsa II cohort, the MILF, formally kowtow to the US in a letter to Bush, with its acquiescence for their joint primacy over what should only be RP’s national patrimony in Mindanao.

The US is a superpower because of its economic and military clout. Even with its economic clout now greatly diminished, the “Sword of Damocles” still hovers above any Malacañang occupant because of potential US-instigated subversion through its many elements in the military, police and NGOs or “civil society” groups.

In the 1989 coup attempt by the RAM, for instance, it was the US agent FVR who pleaded with then Gen. Colin Powell to get Phantom jet backing for the Cory Aquino regime, forcing coup leaders to back down in the face of what they perceived to be “superior power.”

But putting military might aside, we also need to discern the deeper issues that are clouded by the sound and fury or the smoke-and-mirrors of what turn out as anti-Cha-cha and anti-Joc-joc “theaters of the absurd.”

Let me point out that the Transco franchise was passed last week by the legislature right from under our very nose despite the Senate’s promise never to allow this P1.1-trillion highway robbery of the Filipino people through.

To refresh, $6 billion worth of Transco assets were sold for a significantly paltry $4 billion sum and on an installment, pay-as-you-earn basis, transferring annual clean profits from public to private hands of at least P20 billion, or P500 billion in its 25-year franchise, without compounded interest. Perhaps, our only consolation is that this “franchise” will expire at some distant point. But still, imagine the glee of this transnational syndication composed of the Carlyle group with the China State Grid and Gloria’s “packager,” renowned for his ZTE role and his port operations that charge the highest fees in the world!

Thus, the real way to stop not only the Con-ass but the Con-con and the US-Gloria collusion is to inform all Filipinos, with special emphasis on the AFP, on the real plan behind Cha-cha by whatever means, to dismember the country and swindle us of our national patrimony, to the detriment of our children and grandchildren. In sum, it is the theft of our country’s chances toward economic security and prosperity that is at stake here.

The only action this country needs to bring about social change and liberation, which neither a Con-ass-ed or Con-con-ned Cha-cha, nor even an election can lead to, is a nationalist revolution lead by civilian and AFP patriots -- the same revolution that harks back to the days of Rizal and Bonifacio.

If the parliamentary opposition remains weak, it’s only because it is still not unified in embracing the true political revolutionary, Erap, who aroused masa power. If the political revolution has yet to push through, it is only because the likes of Gen. Danilo Lim and Sen. Antonio Trillanes continue to be wasted in detention.
Let us have the nationalist revolution first before any constitutional review. Otherwise, we will only fall right into the trap of Gloria and the foreign powers.