“The circus goes on…” is how mainstream media the world over conduct their affairs. Because of the globalization of news and information by the western conglomerates’ control of international news and wire services, you can’t find anything of serious note about news anymore. That’s why a certain Web site now refers to headlines as “headlies” (omitting the “n”) to highlight the sorry state of today’s sensationalized news. Reading local mainstream media gives much of the same problem; although it feels more like “headlice” as we are further impelled to scratch our heads out of sheer exasperation. Take the “headlice” of our local newspapers, which have become the stuff of the two major networks: The “Hayden Cam” scandal and its many variations.
This saga, involving Hayden Kho and a handful of his sexploits like Katrina Halili and Maricar Reyes, has been kept alive for over a week now by some media-manic legislators, prodded along by our sensation-stalking media. I didn’t even want to touch on the subject and add to the prevailing inanities even when a PR man sought me for a favorable comment for Ms. Halili. As I have always maintained, this is not a subject for legislators like Bong Revilla to pore over because this is simply a ridiculous sensational story. That was, until I got wind of Bohol politicians jumping into the act by declaring Kho persona non grata and Sen. Alan Cayetano saying Kho shouldn’t be allowed anywhere in the country. By stepping on the fundamental right of citizen Kho to be presumed innocent, these characters have obviously gone too far.
For instance, I ask the Bohol Board Members: Why don’t you seek out the corrupt and proven evils like Joc-joc Bolante or Chavit Singson to be declared persona non grata in your province? Likewise, Sen. Alan Cayetano, for uttering such a statement that is patently violative of a citizen’s basic rights, has shown that he doesn’t deserve to be considered seriously as a senator of the Republic (not that a lot of them should). As for this “pabling” senator-son of the former senator who, by his own admission, has sired more children by as many wives, what right does he have to moralize about Kho’s amorous adventures when he himself is known to have gallivanted with some of those who had their trysts with Kho?
In a real sense, Kho is also a victim in this series of scandals. Take that dermatologist cum cosmetic surgeon, whose face on those huge billboards my driver likens to a drag queen’s: Is she paying Kho’s salary (or allowance, as some report) for his medical expertise or for other services? As for Ms. Halili, isn’t she getting the most out of this imbroglio, as this is desperately-needed publicity for her sagging career and reputation? But, as always, in a damaged entertainment-driven culture such as ours, may other quarters have cashed in on this controversy. Thanks to Hayden and his sex partners, pirated DVD hawkers can now fetch up to P1,000 per video. Thanks to them, too, mainstream dailies have had an easy week of “headlies” to distract the nation from its miseries--from the 73-percent fall of coconut exports from the same period last year to the 1.2-percent Q1 contraction of the economy.
Meanwhile, the other “headlice” that continue to paste over other really significant news revolve around the H1N1 panic being fanned by the global health institutions and media. What is not being reported that is very vital for all to know is that there is a raging debate among members of the World Health Organization (WHO) itself about the manner in which its alerts are being made. Dr. Margaret Chan, a former Hong Kong health minister elected to head the WHO in 2006, is announcing alert levels based on where and how many countries have found cases of infections. But there are other representatives there, like those from China and other Asian countries, who have instead proposed that alert levels be based on the severity of the virus and not simply the spread. Even though H1N1 has been shown to be far less severe than first projected, a global panic still ensued, which immediately sent vaccine sales through the roof.
My serious indignation over such manufactured flu panics may seem an over-reaction to some, but the naïve obviously do not know the extent to which western powers would go into pressuring target countries. Mexico , for instance, lost $2.5 billion in economic activity (or 0.3 percent of its GDP) during the few weeks of the H1N1 panic, with its tourism suffering the most, just as it was being hit by the drugs war and US border issues. Strangely enough, the swine flu scare also coincided with the visit of Obama. Was it just a gimmick to accentuate the panic over the spread of the virus? Speculations aside, Dr. Leonard Horowitz, a doctor-advocate of natural healing, believes that this whole episode was designed by laboratories such as Novavax to sell its stock of vaccines. You can view his exposé, complete with names and details of Big Pharma experiments, on YouTube.
The last item I have space for in this porno-circus is the Lakas-Kampi merger which is as corrupt and lewd as any political-porno can be. As President Estrada asserts, this pair has always been in coitus--in exploiting and oppressing the Filipino people and the nation’s rich resources. And as they wish to prolong their ecstasy, we are sure to be subjected to the biggest porno act yet: The 2010 elections, starring Jose Melo and the computer voting that’s designed to fail, all in furtherance of the Lakas-Kampi screw job!
(Tune in to 1098AM, Sulong Pilipinismo, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.: Monday with Atty. Alan Paguia, Wednesday with former Mayor Jun Simon, Friday with UMDJ’s Ver Eustaquio / Teachers for National Transformation [New], 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday; Talk News TV, Destiny Cable, Channel 3, 8:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Tuesday on “Hello Garci Whistleblowers;” also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Friday, May 29, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
“Reelection,” ban for incumbents
In a recent long vituperative article, Randy David continued his Edsa II harangue against President Joseph Estrada. As usual, he raised his usual litany of personal diatribes against the immensely popular leader without raising any policy issues. Just think: If personality idiosyncrasies were to be the basis of statesmanship, then US President John F. Kennedy, with his flings with Marilyn Monroe, or Chairman Deng Xiao Ping, with his penchant for mahjong, and Chairman Mao Tse-tung, with his weakness for farm lasses, would never have made it to the leaders’ pantheon of fame. That’s why Randy David, like the rest of his fellow Edsa II intelligentsia, has never gotten anything right--tracing five decades of failures of their social reforms and of becoming obstacles to the revolution themselves.
Randy David did diverge from one Edsa II party line though: He took the position that Estrada should be allowed to run for the presidency in 2010. Notably, this is tangential to Edsa II “legal luminary” Jesuit Joaquin Bernas, who’s at the forefront of blocking the candidacy of Estrada. Referring to the line, “The President shall not be eligible for any reelection” in the Constitution, Bernas gives his account of discussions in the Constitutional Commission (Con-com), where he claims the “absolutists” won and passed the single term and permanent non-eligibility of anyone who has served a term of office as president of the Republic.
Of course, mainstream media purports to treat the issue with balance. But one example pointing to the contrary has been GMANews’ May 5, 2009 report by Sophia Regina M. Dedace, wherein she absolutely did not present any contrary view to the official “non-eligibility” line that Estrada’s detractors keep mouthing. The four so-called “experts” she interviewed were Joaquin Bernas, Christian Monsod, Romulo Macalintal, and Marlon Manuel. Bernas and Monsod, as we know, are both Edsa II conspirators against Estrada while Macalintal is the vacuous Gloria Arroyo election lawyer. Marlon Manuel, meanwhile, turns out to be an Ateneo Law School functionary who’s certainly not going to contradict his dean. So how credible could they be?
Only one Ateneo law professor--probably the most principled who ever taught in that law school--Atty. Alan Paguia, gave his view on the constitutional question. Paguia’s opinion on the Estrada “pardon” has been much misunderstood recently, particularly in relation to Estrada’s run for the presidency, as he had advised caution, knowing that Gloria Arroyo can twist that double-entendre in the language of the pardon to persecute Estrada again.
Constitutionally, however, Paguia is actually of the opinion that Estrada is eligible to run again by virtue of what he explains as the “parity of reasoning.” He says that Gloria Arroyo, who acted as “president,” got the legal justification to have her run in 2004. How? With the same provision quoted by Bernas.
Thus, to fully understand its meaning, let us expand and contextualize what was quoted: “The President shall not be eligible for any reelection. No person who has succeeded as President and has served as such for more than four years shall be qualified for election to the same office at any time.”
By the same reasoning that took into account Arroyo’s less than four-year stint, Estrada, who served as president for only two and half years, should therefore be eligible to run. But Macalintal argues that the provision applies only to one who “succeeds” the presidency. But isn’t it the serving of more than four years that defines the term and the eligibility to run? Of course, if we were to only go by Paguia’s theory of “The Constitutional Clock,” then Estrada is still the rightful president today.
Moreover, the term “reelection” is always a key point in such discussions. Based on countless Web sites I have reviewed the past several days, the term “reelection” always applies to an incumbent running for the same office and not to elections where there have been an interruption or discontinuity in the incumbency. I have discovered that the term and the controversies surrounding it have had a very long history, as can be gleaned below from contemporary Latin American politics:
“(Colombian president) Uribe has already changed the Constitution once to allow himself to run for reelection. Like most of Latin America—that is, until recently, Colombia didn’t allow for presidential reelection. This was in part due to the region’s long history of dictatorial rulers. ‘No reelection!’ was even the battle cry of the 1910 Mexican Revolution. True to post-revolutionary form, Mexico today has a strict no reelection policy; it doesn’t even allow former presidents to seek election after an intervening term.”
From this and many other examples, it is clear that a former president running for the same office after an intervening period is universally called an “election,” and not a “reelection.” We see that the intent behind “no reelection” is the prevention of “dictatorial rulers,” evolving from an incumbent using his or her powers to become a permanent tyrant.
Since it’s sufficiently clear that “reelection” involves an incumbent running for the same office to succeed his or herself, Bernas and company can only rely on the ambiguity of the word “any” to obfuscate the true and elemental meaning of that constitutional provision. While Randy David evades the real issues of poverty, sovereignty, and integrity that President Estrada, in his time, had addressed, Bernas evades the real issue by delving into the word “any” and by masking the Con-com delegates’ intent. But the most elemental issue here is the true intention of the Filipino people who ratified the 1987 Constitution: To ban any incumbent from taking undue advantage to perpetuate a continuing rule with all its attendant evils. For sure, the Filipino people never intended to deny themselves the right to elect non-incumbents, especially those who may have gained wisdom and competence from experience.
As what Chief Justice Reynato Puno expressed in the case of Tecson vs. Comelec: “The better policy approach is to let the people decide who will be the next president. For on political questions, this court may err but the sovereign people will not. To be sure, the Constitution did not grant to the unelected members of this court the right to elect in behalf of the people.”
(Tune in to 1098AM, Sulong Pilipinismo, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.: Monday with Atty. Alan Paguia, Wednesday with former Mayor Jun Simon, Friday with UMDJ’s Ver Eustaquio / May Pag-asa, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday; Talk News TV, Destiny Cable, Channel 3, 8:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Tuesday on “People, Power, and Poverty” with Nasecore; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Randy David did diverge from one Edsa II party line though: He took the position that Estrada should be allowed to run for the presidency in 2010. Notably, this is tangential to Edsa II “legal luminary” Jesuit Joaquin Bernas, who’s at the forefront of blocking the candidacy of Estrada. Referring to the line, “The President shall not be eligible for any reelection” in the Constitution, Bernas gives his account of discussions in the Constitutional Commission (Con-com), where he claims the “absolutists” won and passed the single term and permanent non-eligibility of anyone who has served a term of office as president of the Republic.
Of course, mainstream media purports to treat the issue with balance. But one example pointing to the contrary has been GMANews’ May 5, 2009 report by Sophia Regina M. Dedace, wherein she absolutely did not present any contrary view to the official “non-eligibility” line that Estrada’s detractors keep mouthing. The four so-called “experts” she interviewed were Joaquin Bernas, Christian Monsod, Romulo Macalintal, and Marlon Manuel. Bernas and Monsod, as we know, are both Edsa II conspirators against Estrada while Macalintal is the vacuous Gloria Arroyo election lawyer. Marlon Manuel, meanwhile, turns out to be an Ateneo Law School functionary who’s certainly not going to contradict his dean. So how credible could they be?
Only one Ateneo law professor--probably the most principled who ever taught in that law school--Atty. Alan Paguia, gave his view on the constitutional question. Paguia’s opinion on the Estrada “pardon” has been much misunderstood recently, particularly in relation to Estrada’s run for the presidency, as he had advised caution, knowing that Gloria Arroyo can twist that double-entendre in the language of the pardon to persecute Estrada again.
Constitutionally, however, Paguia is actually of the opinion that Estrada is eligible to run again by virtue of what he explains as the “parity of reasoning.” He says that Gloria Arroyo, who acted as “president,” got the legal justification to have her run in 2004. How? With the same provision quoted by Bernas.
Thus, to fully understand its meaning, let us expand and contextualize what was quoted: “The President shall not be eligible for any reelection. No person who has succeeded as President and has served as such for more than four years shall be qualified for election to the same office at any time.”
By the same reasoning that took into account Arroyo’s less than four-year stint, Estrada, who served as president for only two and half years, should therefore be eligible to run. But Macalintal argues that the provision applies only to one who “succeeds” the presidency. But isn’t it the serving of more than four years that defines the term and the eligibility to run? Of course, if we were to only go by Paguia’s theory of “The Constitutional Clock,” then Estrada is still the rightful president today.
Moreover, the term “reelection” is always a key point in such discussions. Based on countless Web sites I have reviewed the past several days, the term “reelection” always applies to an incumbent running for the same office and not to elections where there have been an interruption or discontinuity in the incumbency. I have discovered that the term and the controversies surrounding it have had a very long history, as can be gleaned below from contemporary Latin American politics:
“(Colombian president) Uribe has already changed the Constitution once to allow himself to run for reelection. Like most of Latin America—that is, until recently, Colombia didn’t allow for presidential reelection. This was in part due to the region’s long history of dictatorial rulers. ‘No reelection!’ was even the battle cry of the 1910 Mexican Revolution. True to post-revolutionary form, Mexico today has a strict no reelection policy; it doesn’t even allow former presidents to seek election after an intervening term.”
From this and many other examples, it is clear that a former president running for the same office after an intervening period is universally called an “election,” and not a “reelection.” We see that the intent behind “no reelection” is the prevention of “dictatorial rulers,” evolving from an incumbent using his or her powers to become a permanent tyrant.
Since it’s sufficiently clear that “reelection” involves an incumbent running for the same office to succeed his or herself, Bernas and company can only rely on the ambiguity of the word “any” to obfuscate the true and elemental meaning of that constitutional provision. While Randy David evades the real issues of poverty, sovereignty, and integrity that President Estrada, in his time, had addressed, Bernas evades the real issue by delving into the word “any” and by masking the Con-com delegates’ intent. But the most elemental issue here is the true intention of the Filipino people who ratified the 1987 Constitution: To ban any incumbent from taking undue advantage to perpetuate a continuing rule with all its attendant evils. For sure, the Filipino people never intended to deny themselves the right to elect non-incumbents, especially those who may have gained wisdom and competence from experience.
As what Chief Justice Reynato Puno expressed in the case of Tecson vs. Comelec: “The better policy approach is to let the people decide who will be the next president. For on political questions, this court may err but the sovereign people will not. To be sure, the Constitution did not grant to the unelected members of this court the right to elect in behalf of the people.”
(Tune in to 1098AM, Sulong Pilipinismo, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.: Monday with Atty. Alan Paguia, Wednesday with former Mayor Jun Simon, Friday with UMDJ’s Ver Eustaquio / May Pag-asa, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday; Talk News TV, Destiny Cable, Channel 3, 8:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Tuesday on “People, Power, and Poverty” with Nasecore; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Friday, May 22, 2009
The only alternative: Estrada
Our alert Christian communities in Cotabato City , serving at the forefront of the nation’s successful exposés on the GRP-MILF Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD), are now alerting us to new and alarming developments. The MILF, they say, is getting new, sophisticated arms from American sources. So pressing is this that a number of retired AFP generals have even come forward to confirm this, with one personally travelling to Mindanao to assess the conditions himself. So, as we look at this situation in light of the early presidential hustings, we ask: Who among the self-proclaimed candidates can really stop Mindanao from being Balkanized in the next round of US-MILF attacks?
Is there anyone among them who can stand up to the pressure that will be brought to bear on the winning candidate, assuming we do have elections in 2010? Villar has never stood for anything other than his vested interest as a real estate tycoon, especially in using state resources to further his financial empire, which Senate investigations into his “C5 at taga” case are proving beyond doubt. Noli de Castro, meanwhile, can’t stand up to his old network bosses for they catapulted him to political fame even when that conglomerate has continued to suck the blood of the electricity-consuming masses dry. Chiz, on the other hand, cannot be expected to bite the hand that shepherded him to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington , as well as, those in local Big Business who are grooming him for the top post.
For sure, Mindanao is doomed to be lost unless we can install a leader who is tried and tested in fighting for our sovereignty and national integrity all the way. Only one presidential timber has that political will. Only President Joseph Estrada-- who had once defiantly crushed the US ’ proxy army, the MILF--can defeat the machinations of a global superpower and its Trojan Horses in Mindanao . We remember the raising of the Philippine flag on the MILF’s headquarters after its leader, the late Hashim Salamat, was driven off to Malaysia . We also recall the price exacted by the US for that defeat--the ouster of Erap, which was facilitated by its local oligarchic surrogates when they instigated ex-General Angelo Reyes to betray the Republic and the duly-constituted authority of the land.
While President Estrada has not yet proclaimed his final intention to run in 2010, the nation is already debating his eligibility. The debates, however, have only centered on constitutional and legal gibberish, led by the “Heswitik” Bernas, who’s been conjuring up impediments through sophistry and deception. Ditto for the rest of the Edsa II parties such as the Inquirer, which ran a recent editorial claiming that Estrada is fooling the people anew with a new run for the presidency. Certainly, these quarters think that they can fool the people again; but proof of their eroding credibility is Estrada’s growing ability to win against the odds, which must be striking terror in their hearts.
President Estrada is eligible to run again if the people so wish and vote for him. There is no higher power in a democracy than the sovereign will of the people, and what the legalistic gibberish simply shows is that they, the few, want to usurp the will and the power of the people once more. Bernas had been doing this even at the 1987 Constitutional Commission (Con-com) which, it must be noted, was an appointed body and not an elected and representative forum. Because of its elite-controlled set-up, even if there were principled individuals trying to ensure the democratic character of the commission’s mandate, black ops were always at work to safeguard the interest of the elite.
Bernas and his ilk repeatedly refer to the phrase, “The President shall not be eligible for any re-election,” stressing the word “any” to imply each and every election. Constitutional experts and researches, however, have pointed out that the term “any” was not discussed at all in the drafting of said provision. The term was inserted only by a “style” committee’s sleight-of-hand to change the entire meaning of the intended provision that should have read: “The President shall not be eligible for re-election,” where “re-election” means “to run and succeed oneself in a position,” as I have gathered from various Internet sources, including Black’s Law Dictionary.
I am continuing my own layman’s research into the terms involved, which I will complete in Part II of this column. I believe that we cannot leave the matters of our democracy and the survival of our Republic to the arbitrary, sophistic legal interpretations of so-called experts like Bernas or to a handful of Con-com delegates who constitute clandestine committees. UP Law Dean Pacifico Agabin correctly said in last Wednesday’s Ciudad Fernandina Forum that even delegates to the 1987 Con-com cannot supersede the intent of the people who ratified the Charter to prevent the abuse of power by a sitting president who seeks re-election--and not to disqualify a non-incumbent former president.
President Joseph Estrada must run again to lead this nation as President for only he has the will and the experience to overcome the daunting forces threatening to dismember the nation; the profit-predators exploiting and sucking the economic life out of our people; and the forces laying to waste this Republic that our 1896 revolutionaries fought and died for to establish for all time.
(Tune in to 1098AM, Sulong Pilipinismo, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.: Monday with Atty. Alan Paguia, Wednesday with former Mayor Jun Simon, Friday with UMDJ’s Ver Eustaquio / May Pag-asa, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday; Talk News TV, Destiny Cable, Channel 3, 8:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Tuesday; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Is there anyone among them who can stand up to the pressure that will be brought to bear on the winning candidate, assuming we do have elections in 2010? Villar has never stood for anything other than his vested interest as a real estate tycoon, especially in using state resources to further his financial empire, which Senate investigations into his “C5 at taga” case are proving beyond doubt. Noli de Castro, meanwhile, can’t stand up to his old network bosses for they catapulted him to political fame even when that conglomerate has continued to suck the blood of the electricity-consuming masses dry. Chiz, on the other hand, cannot be expected to bite the hand that shepherded him to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington , as well as, those in local Big Business who are grooming him for the top post.
For sure, Mindanao is doomed to be lost unless we can install a leader who is tried and tested in fighting for our sovereignty and national integrity all the way. Only one presidential timber has that political will. Only President Joseph Estrada-- who had once defiantly crushed the US ’ proxy army, the MILF--can defeat the machinations of a global superpower and its Trojan Horses in Mindanao . We remember the raising of the Philippine flag on the MILF’s headquarters after its leader, the late Hashim Salamat, was driven off to Malaysia . We also recall the price exacted by the US for that defeat--the ouster of Erap, which was facilitated by its local oligarchic surrogates when they instigated ex-General Angelo Reyes to betray the Republic and the duly-constituted authority of the land.
While President Estrada has not yet proclaimed his final intention to run in 2010, the nation is already debating his eligibility. The debates, however, have only centered on constitutional and legal gibberish, led by the “Heswitik” Bernas, who’s been conjuring up impediments through sophistry and deception. Ditto for the rest of the Edsa II parties such as the Inquirer, which ran a recent editorial claiming that Estrada is fooling the people anew with a new run for the presidency. Certainly, these quarters think that they can fool the people again; but proof of their eroding credibility is Estrada’s growing ability to win against the odds, which must be striking terror in their hearts.
President Estrada is eligible to run again if the people so wish and vote for him. There is no higher power in a democracy than the sovereign will of the people, and what the legalistic gibberish simply shows is that they, the few, want to usurp the will and the power of the people once more. Bernas had been doing this even at the 1987 Constitutional Commission (Con-com) which, it must be noted, was an appointed body and not an elected and representative forum. Because of its elite-controlled set-up, even if there were principled individuals trying to ensure the democratic character of the commission’s mandate, black ops were always at work to safeguard the interest of the elite.
Bernas and his ilk repeatedly refer to the phrase, “The President shall not be eligible for any re-election,” stressing the word “any” to imply each and every election. Constitutional experts and researches, however, have pointed out that the term “any” was not discussed at all in the drafting of said provision. The term was inserted only by a “style” committee’s sleight-of-hand to change the entire meaning of the intended provision that should have read: “The President shall not be eligible for re-election,” where “re-election” means “to run and succeed oneself in a position,” as I have gathered from various Internet sources, including Black’s Law Dictionary.
I am continuing my own layman’s research into the terms involved, which I will complete in Part II of this column. I believe that we cannot leave the matters of our democracy and the survival of our Republic to the arbitrary, sophistic legal interpretations of so-called experts like Bernas or to a handful of Con-com delegates who constitute clandestine committees. UP Law Dean Pacifico Agabin correctly said in last Wednesday’s Ciudad Fernandina Forum that even delegates to the 1987 Con-com cannot supersede the intent of the people who ratified the Charter to prevent the abuse of power by a sitting president who seeks re-election--and not to disqualify a non-incumbent former president.
President Joseph Estrada must run again to lead this nation as President for only he has the will and the experience to overcome the daunting forces threatening to dismember the nation; the profit-predators exploiting and sucking the economic life out of our people; and the forces laying to waste this Republic that our 1896 revolutionaries fought and died for to establish for all time.
(Tune in to 1098AM, Sulong Pilipinismo, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.: Monday with Atty. Alan Paguia, Wednesday with former Mayor Jun Simon, Friday with UMDJ’s Ver Eustaquio / May Pag-asa, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday; Talk News TV, Destiny Cable, Channel 3, 8:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Tuesday; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Monday, May 18, 2009
The Bilderbergers and the Philippines
The global corporatocratic network and its media persist in spreading the “swine flu” scare despite the dud it has turned out to be. The World Health Organization (WHO), which is reported to be still intent on upping the ante to a Phase 6 alert, seems to be giving politicians under the corporatocracy’s control another excuse to procure flu vaccines that will not only be stocked forever but also cause grievous harm. Britain has just ordered 90 million doses of the flu vaccine from Baxter and Glaxo--this, even after Baxter was caught sending out avian flu vaccines to 18 countries that carried the live avian flu virus, which was discovered in the Czech Republic when some of its inoculated lab ferrets died.
Meanwhile, in the US and Britain , military recruitment is on the upsurge. The reason: The dwindling jobs market. Worse, this surge is happening just nine months into the recession. So as these economies deteriorate further, the number of jobseekers lining up for military work will grow even more. Wouldn’t it then be very bad for these countries to simply let their soldiers lay idle for long without any forthcoming military adventures? Perhaps this is why US and Nato military exercises are edging closer and closer to Russia and China .
International analysts, like Adrian Salbuchi of Argentina --who’s produced a series of YouTube videos analyzing the reasons behind the global financial collapse, see this build-up as the start of the West’s strategy toward global war. Gerald Celente of The Trends Research Institute in the US , who is now immensely credible for having accurately predicted last year’s financial collapse, predicts a new and bigger bubble from the latest Wall Street uptick.
He writes: “At this time we are not forecasting a war. However, the trends in play are ominous… While we cannot pinpoint precisely when the ‘Bailout Bubble’ will burst, we are certain it will. When it does, it should be understood that a major war could follow.”
At every super-exclusive Bilderberg meeting, the direction of world events is deliberated on and threshed out by super-powerful individuals who represent western monarchies and corporations. From the selection of presidents to the policies imposed on countries, as well as, the United Nations (UN)--such as population control as enunciated by Henry Kissinger’s National State Security Memo 200, the Bilderberg group is always the fountainhead. What this group is up to this time in its current Athens meet should thus be everyone’s concern.
Despite the usual news blackout in such meetings, an industry of enterprising investigative reporters has sprouted and more information is now being leaked to the world. Thanks to Web sites like Alex Jones’ PrisonPlanet, we can now catch a glimpse into the group’s 2009 agenda.
Veteran investigative journalist Jim Tucker reported that former Swedish Prime Minister and regular Bilderberg attendee Carl Bildt, “(advocated) turning the World Health Organization into a world department of health (and) turning the IMF (International Monetary Fund) into a world department of treasury, both of course, under the auspices of the United Nations.”
Bildt discussed global warming and the global tax on carbon emissions, which will be introduced gradually--first, as a tax at the gas pump, before being hiked. Of course, this will be institutionalized through local legislative bodies, in the same manner that privatization, liberalization, and deregulation laws were put in place (such as here in RP).
This carbon tax concept is reminiscent of reportage on glacial melting in the Polar and Antarctic ice regions while ignoring expanding areas such as the Hubbard Glacier, growing by two meters per day, and East Antarctica, now four times the size of West Antarctica , where shrinking of the Wilkins ice shelf was overblown by global media. It’s sensationalized and reeks of a scam.
Another investigative reporter, Daniel Estulin, exposed the Bilderberg discussion on whether to sink the global economy quickly or drag it along a tortuous ride. As reported in PrisonPlanet.com, “Treasury Secretary Geithner and Carl Bildt touted a shorter recession, not a 10-year recession… partly because a 10-year recession would damage Bilderberg industrialists… (And inasmuch) as they want to have a global department of labor and a global department of treasury, they still like making money and such a long recession would cost them big bucks industrially because nobody is buying their toys… (The) tilt is towards keeping it short.” Fellow journalist Jim Tucker added that as ordinary folks wise up to this group, the Bilderbergers’ programs face more hurdles.
Sadly, the Philippines is still one of the most helpless victims of the Bilderbergers. Its political and financial elite work under Bilderberg underlings; its intelligentsia is enslaved by global academe and mainstream media; its “civil society” is funded by international foundations that subvert national and economic sovereignty; and its population is still blinded by global entertainment culture. Worse, every one of it’s declared presidential candidates is either ignorant of this global tyranny or is pining to be selected as a new puppet--if the present bitchy troll in Malacañang will vacate at all.
Will we become victims of these bio-terror germs for profit? Will we eventually end up impoverished and broken up like Somalia ? Will we serve as a diversionary magnet in a looming World War III? Will we pay carbon taxes at the cost of taking food away from our tables?
In the face of the Bilderbergers’ policies of enforced poverty, economic stagnation and retrogression, nationalism is the only response to this group’s tyranny. Let’s fight pandemic panic with our indigenous resources like virgin coconut oil to strengthen our immune systems, advocate global pacifism, and build an independent industrial economy.
(Tune in to 1098AM, Sulong Pilipinismo, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.: Monday with Atty. Alan Paguia, Wednesday with former Mayor Jun Simon, Friday with UMDJ’s Ver Eustaquio / May Pag-asa, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday; Talk News TV, Destiny Cable, Channel 3, 8:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Tuesday; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Meanwhile, in the US and Britain , military recruitment is on the upsurge. The reason: The dwindling jobs market. Worse, this surge is happening just nine months into the recession. So as these economies deteriorate further, the number of jobseekers lining up for military work will grow even more. Wouldn’t it then be very bad for these countries to simply let their soldiers lay idle for long without any forthcoming military adventures? Perhaps this is why US and Nato military exercises are edging closer and closer to Russia and China .
International analysts, like Adrian Salbuchi of Argentina --who’s produced a series of YouTube videos analyzing the reasons behind the global financial collapse, see this build-up as the start of the West’s strategy toward global war. Gerald Celente of The Trends Research Institute in the US , who is now immensely credible for having accurately predicted last year’s financial collapse, predicts a new and bigger bubble from the latest Wall Street uptick.
He writes: “At this time we are not forecasting a war. However, the trends in play are ominous… While we cannot pinpoint precisely when the ‘Bailout Bubble’ will burst, we are certain it will. When it does, it should be understood that a major war could follow.”
At every super-exclusive Bilderberg meeting, the direction of world events is deliberated on and threshed out by super-powerful individuals who represent western monarchies and corporations. From the selection of presidents to the policies imposed on countries, as well as, the United Nations (UN)--such as population control as enunciated by Henry Kissinger’s National State Security Memo 200, the Bilderberg group is always the fountainhead. What this group is up to this time in its current Athens meet should thus be everyone’s concern.
Despite the usual news blackout in such meetings, an industry of enterprising investigative reporters has sprouted and more information is now being leaked to the world. Thanks to Web sites like Alex Jones’ PrisonPlanet, we can now catch a glimpse into the group’s 2009 agenda.
Veteran investigative journalist Jim Tucker reported that former Swedish Prime Minister and regular Bilderberg attendee Carl Bildt, “(advocated) turning the World Health Organization into a world department of health (and) turning the IMF (International Monetary Fund) into a world department of treasury, both of course, under the auspices of the United Nations.”
Bildt discussed global warming and the global tax on carbon emissions, which will be introduced gradually--first, as a tax at the gas pump, before being hiked. Of course, this will be institutionalized through local legislative bodies, in the same manner that privatization, liberalization, and deregulation laws were put in place (such as here in RP).
This carbon tax concept is reminiscent of reportage on glacial melting in the Polar and Antarctic ice regions while ignoring expanding areas such as the Hubbard Glacier, growing by two meters per day, and East Antarctica, now four times the size of West Antarctica , where shrinking of the Wilkins ice shelf was overblown by global media. It’s sensationalized and reeks of a scam.
Another investigative reporter, Daniel Estulin, exposed the Bilderberg discussion on whether to sink the global economy quickly or drag it along a tortuous ride. As reported in PrisonPlanet.com, “Treasury Secretary Geithner and Carl Bildt touted a shorter recession, not a 10-year recession… partly because a 10-year recession would damage Bilderberg industrialists… (And inasmuch) as they want to have a global department of labor and a global department of treasury, they still like making money and such a long recession would cost them big bucks industrially because nobody is buying their toys… (The) tilt is towards keeping it short.” Fellow journalist Jim Tucker added that as ordinary folks wise up to this group, the Bilderbergers’ programs face more hurdles.
Sadly, the Philippines is still one of the most helpless victims of the Bilderbergers. Its political and financial elite work under Bilderberg underlings; its intelligentsia is enslaved by global academe and mainstream media; its “civil society” is funded by international foundations that subvert national and economic sovereignty; and its population is still blinded by global entertainment culture. Worse, every one of it’s declared presidential candidates is either ignorant of this global tyranny or is pining to be selected as a new puppet--if the present bitchy troll in Malacañang will vacate at all.
Will we become victims of these bio-terror germs for profit? Will we eventually end up impoverished and broken up like Somalia ? Will we serve as a diversionary magnet in a looming World War III? Will we pay carbon taxes at the cost of taking food away from our tables?
In the face of the Bilderbergers’ policies of enforced poverty, economic stagnation and retrogression, nationalism is the only response to this group’s tyranny. Let’s fight pandemic panic with our indigenous resources like virgin coconut oil to strengthen our immune systems, advocate global pacifism, and build an independent industrial economy.
(Tune in to 1098AM, Sulong Pilipinismo, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.: Monday with Atty. Alan Paguia, Wednesday with former Mayor Jun Simon, Friday with UMDJ’s Ver Eustaquio / May Pag-asa, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday; Talk News TV, Destiny Cable, Channel 3, 8:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Tuesday; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Friday, May 15, 2009
Ho-hum
How can anyone get excited about the presidential primaries, if the ANC Leadership Forum at the Ateneo were to be the gauge? One candidate had his fiancée chosen by his stage mother who went around inquiring about a prospective daughter-in-law who can draw the masa to their camp. Another is an unapologetic nominee of a ravenous oligarch; while yet another is this same oligarch’s estranged nephew who has now turned to suckle from his midget mama’s bountiful milk. There, too, was the “cry baby” of Philippine politics-- who embarrassed himself for hamming up with tears over the Red Cross workers’ kidnap in Sulu that drew flak from the AFP.
Then, there’s that newcomer whom everybody knows is kicking himself upstairs because he failed to fulfill the expectations of his provincemates who helped secure his fluke of a slim win, who wouldn’t be able to win again given his situation today. This fellow, a priest whom we laud for his personal integrity, is sadly possessed of a hyperbolic perception of his own significance, who clings to an ideology that is too limited to the anti-corruption issue, betraying an ignorance or denial of neo-colonialism, as well as, corporatocratic feudalism as the real problems of this country.
As you know, I don’t follow presidential debates, even those in the US , for statesmanship cannot be reduced to oratorical or debating prowess. If only such were the case, then snake oil salesmen would have made for great presidents. Yet that’s what the system today is all about--a system run by mainstream media, which in today’s so-called “democracies” are controlled by none other than the oligarchs and their neo-colonial masters.
Because of this, discussions or debates are tightly controlled. In the case of the ANC Forum, we were correct in expecting the moderator, Tina Monson-Palma, not to ever ask what the presidential candidates would do about the highest Asia-wide power rates of the biggest distribution franchise in the Philippines for the simple reason that this would be against the oligarchic media owners’ interest.
Monson-Palma’s questions did revolve around Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, however, and no doubt, Gloria worsened the national crisis by leaps and bounds. But all of the nation’s deep-seated problems preceded her and will continue long after she’s gone unless a fundamental redirection of the structure of this society is instituted. Unless we raise the people’s welfare to the highest priority of government, we will merely continue to relinquish control of all our political and economic affairs to the “money masters” and the political charlatans serving as their puppets.
I set very high standards for leadership. I must first see these qualities indubitably proven by those seeking my support. I must first see the clarity and consistency in these people’s principles, along with their obstinacy and readiness to face any odds to see these through--traits commonly seen in revolutionary leaders like Fidel Castro, Mao Tse Tung or Ho Chi Minh; and in the likes of the US’ Founding Fathers or the heroes of the Philippine Revolution that culminated in the 1896 anti-colonial uprising. In today’s world, there are also elected leaders who exhibit these traits, like Venezuela ’s Hugo Chavez, who first suffered incarceration, or Bolivia ’s Evo Morales, who previously faced persecution.
Most leaders of western democracies since the 1960s, in contrast, have been weak and opportunistic charlatans engineered by the power of money through the Bilderberg Group and its ancillary councils such as the Royal Institute of International Studies in Britain and the Council of Foreign Relations in New York .
The real guiding lights in the West today are those in the anti-establishment socio-political movements--from the anti-war protesters like former attorney-general Ramsey Clark and Cindy Sheehan, to former Marine Scott Ritter and Fil-Am Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba (who’s leading the torture charges against Bush and Co.), to alternative media leaders like Michel Chussodovsky and Alex Jones, and the many groups around them.
The neo-colonial reality in the Philippines sets the limits for Philippine political leaders. Thus, only a few have dared to challenge this. From the Lava and the Taruc brothers to Recto, Constantino and Lichauco, to Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada, the tradition of defiance against neo-colonialism has been sustained albeit costly.
Marcos fought in the Second World War for the country and put forth RP’s economic development, which no amount of demonization can erase. Although he danced to the West’s neo-colonial tune for a while, he eventually asserted Philippine sovereignty and was deposed by a conspiracy of foreign and domestic forces.
In similar fashion, Estrada championed the welfare of the masses and asserted Philippine sovereignty in Mindanao by demolishing the MILF, despite a note of warning from then President Clinton. By facing the wrath of the almighty US, he ended up with a coup and almost seven years of illegal incarceration. Earlier, Estrada had already been arrested and detained twice for defying Martial Law, but his real test came after his fall from power, where, despite Mrs. Arroyo’s twice-offered lures of comfortable exile, he chose incarceration while arguing his case before Gloria’s kangaroo court. And, as we now can see in the aftermath of the MoA on Ancestral Domain imbroglio, the MILF and the US are definitely in cahoots!
The other leaders who have shown proof of their dedication to their principles are the likes of Gen. Danilo Lim, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, the Bagong Katipuneros, Capt. Dante Langkit (the only one detained in Ft. Bonifacio), the group of Gen. Renato Miranda, the groups in Camp Aguinaldo and Tanay, many of the leaders of left-wing movements, and my own colleagues in Edsa III who have faced harassment, arrests, abductions and torture but who have remained true. If only these were the leaders being considered, I’d wake up and take notice.
Then, there’s that newcomer whom everybody knows is kicking himself upstairs because he failed to fulfill the expectations of his provincemates who helped secure his fluke of a slim win, who wouldn’t be able to win again given his situation today. This fellow, a priest whom we laud for his personal integrity, is sadly possessed of a hyperbolic perception of his own significance, who clings to an ideology that is too limited to the anti-corruption issue, betraying an ignorance or denial of neo-colonialism, as well as, corporatocratic feudalism as the real problems of this country.
As you know, I don’t follow presidential debates, even those in the US , for statesmanship cannot be reduced to oratorical or debating prowess. If only such were the case, then snake oil salesmen would have made for great presidents. Yet that’s what the system today is all about--a system run by mainstream media, which in today’s so-called “democracies” are controlled by none other than the oligarchs and their neo-colonial masters.
Because of this, discussions or debates are tightly controlled. In the case of the ANC Forum, we were correct in expecting the moderator, Tina Monson-Palma, not to ever ask what the presidential candidates would do about the highest Asia-wide power rates of the biggest distribution franchise in the Philippines for the simple reason that this would be against the oligarchic media owners’ interest.
Monson-Palma’s questions did revolve around Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, however, and no doubt, Gloria worsened the national crisis by leaps and bounds. But all of the nation’s deep-seated problems preceded her and will continue long after she’s gone unless a fundamental redirection of the structure of this society is instituted. Unless we raise the people’s welfare to the highest priority of government, we will merely continue to relinquish control of all our political and economic affairs to the “money masters” and the political charlatans serving as their puppets.
I set very high standards for leadership. I must first see these qualities indubitably proven by those seeking my support. I must first see the clarity and consistency in these people’s principles, along with their obstinacy and readiness to face any odds to see these through--traits commonly seen in revolutionary leaders like Fidel Castro, Mao Tse Tung or Ho Chi Minh; and in the likes of the US’ Founding Fathers or the heroes of the Philippine Revolution that culminated in the 1896 anti-colonial uprising. In today’s world, there are also elected leaders who exhibit these traits, like Venezuela ’s Hugo Chavez, who first suffered incarceration, or Bolivia ’s Evo Morales, who previously faced persecution.
Most leaders of western democracies since the 1960s, in contrast, have been weak and opportunistic charlatans engineered by the power of money through the Bilderberg Group and its ancillary councils such as the Royal Institute of International Studies in Britain and the Council of Foreign Relations in New York .
The real guiding lights in the West today are those in the anti-establishment socio-political movements--from the anti-war protesters like former attorney-general Ramsey Clark and Cindy Sheehan, to former Marine Scott Ritter and Fil-Am Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba (who’s leading the torture charges against Bush and Co.), to alternative media leaders like Michel Chussodovsky and Alex Jones, and the many groups around them.
The neo-colonial reality in the Philippines sets the limits for Philippine political leaders. Thus, only a few have dared to challenge this. From the Lava and the Taruc brothers to Recto, Constantino and Lichauco, to Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada, the tradition of defiance against neo-colonialism has been sustained albeit costly.
Marcos fought in the Second World War for the country and put forth RP’s economic development, which no amount of demonization can erase. Although he danced to the West’s neo-colonial tune for a while, he eventually asserted Philippine sovereignty and was deposed by a conspiracy of foreign and domestic forces.
In similar fashion, Estrada championed the welfare of the masses and asserted Philippine sovereignty in Mindanao by demolishing the MILF, despite a note of warning from then President Clinton. By facing the wrath of the almighty US, he ended up with a coup and almost seven years of illegal incarceration. Earlier, Estrada had already been arrested and detained twice for defying Martial Law, but his real test came after his fall from power, where, despite Mrs. Arroyo’s twice-offered lures of comfortable exile, he chose incarceration while arguing his case before Gloria’s kangaroo court. And, as we now can see in the aftermath of the MoA on Ancestral Domain imbroglio, the MILF and the US are definitely in cahoots!
The other leaders who have shown proof of their dedication to their principles are the likes of Gen. Danilo Lim, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, the Bagong Katipuneros, Capt. Dante Langkit (the only one detained in Ft. Bonifacio), the group of Gen. Renato Miranda, the groups in Camp Aguinaldo and Tanay, many of the leaders of left-wing movements, and my own colleagues in Edsa III who have faced harassment, arrests, abductions and torture but who have remained true. If only these were the leaders being considered, I’d wake up and take notice.
Monday, May 11, 2009
The problem: Ikaw mismo
A massively-funded campaign with huge ads emerged the past week called, Ako mismo. It is challenging the youth to “take a stand and take action for the causes that (they themselves) can pursue to make real.” It has, among many fancy gimmicks, a red dog tag to identify joining members, as well as, big-named celebrities as endorsers. But behind this so-called “movement” is one of RP’s richest CEOs, who also just recently bought into other privatized public utilities. Naturally, my reaction was: What moral standing does this guy have? He, for one, lobbied for the removal of the “no pass-on provision” on the additional rVAT that was slapped onto hapless consumers, which isn’t a mark of a good leader.
Such maneuver, despite the fact that the then contemplated tax measure was originally intended for cellphone service providers is the least of this CEO’s many financial legerdemain. As former NEDA chief Romulo Neri revealed in the course of the ZTE hearings, this CEO is part of the local cartel that charges one of the highest cellphone service rates in the world. Anyone who has a bit of corporate intelligence knows that behind this CEO is an Asean transnational family, acting as ventriloquist, that flourished through crony capitalism in Indonesia . Then, of course, we should note that this CEO also joined the conspiracy in 2001 against the will of the Filipino electorate.
Everything he did has only increased the burden upon the people. From supporting the Edsa II installation of Gloria Arroyo, he and his less prominent fellow corporate backers have dirtied their hands with the crimes of this regime, benefitting immensely from all the lopsided laws designed for more profits for their companies and with all their new “acquisitions” that seem to have no end.
How has this CEO managed to get all the laws passed in favor of his conglomerate? The same manner as the rest of the corporate behemoths: Enticing those in authority to approve laws favorable to them even at the expense of public welfare. In most countries, for instance, cellphone texting costs are subsidized by cellphone call rates, which is what’s being done in Venezuela . Thus, with exorbitant text and voice call charges and the planned spreading out of the rVAT to include cellphone use, Mr. CEO and his foreign masters are sure to rake in unimaginable profits. Such windfall so far has, in effect, allowed them to venture into the power company that charges the highest power prices in Asia —which, upon their entry, immediately got from Arroyo the “performance-based rate” system that ensures unregulated rate increases till kingdom come.
Because of these, we should instead tell him straight to his face that the problem in Philippine society is Ikaw mismo (you, yourself). But then, the “icons” that Mr. CEO’s movement is setting for the youth to emulate are also, Sila mismo (themselves), part of the problem that is the Philippines ’ damaged culture.
Let us start with that Arroyo-appointed anti-piracy czar, who has been known for nothing other than being a playboy, who’s had several failed attempts at becoming a talk show host a la Letterman, as well as, a local politician. Sure, he’s been very aggressive in demolishing small pirated DVD vendors, but in this impoverished country where vending illegal wares constitutes the only source of income, this doesn’t seem to be a very creative and helpful stereotype for this society.
Some others, although having outstanding talent, are unfortunately used for little substance. Some allow themselves to convey the wrong message that girls and women should rush to buy skin whiteners and Glutathione, while others only sing splendidly of mushy, sentimental songs to no avail. Even if these celebrities came out to say that they did not receive any pay for their appearances, perhaps betraying a little sense of guilt, certainly, they can look forward to the next paid appearances for one of this CEO’s many subsidiaries. Thus, Mr. CEO’s choice of mascots sets the tone: It’s entertainment.
The dominance of entertainment is, in and of itself, a major problem in Philippine society. It’s designed for mass consumption of frivolous stuff; not for the production of goods which our economy needs. This then shrinks the real incomes of families, and sinks them deeper and deeper into hunger. Entertainment only distracts the people from the real problems and their growling stomachs.
This is why producer-writer Ferdinand Dimadura, Berlin Film Festival top prize winner for Chicken ala Carte, which vividly depicts a family eating out of fast food trash cans, can never be Mr. CEO’s choice of endorser. Mr. CEO only chooses among those whom philosopher Michael K. Hooker worries about: “…people who don’t dwell on the meaninglessness of their lives, or the meaningfulness of it--(those) who just pursue mindless entertainment.”
So can a project of a dyed-in-the-wool corporate “Gordon Gecko” (from the movie Wall Street) be altruistic? I wouldn’t bet on it. And just as I write this, I see in one of the front pages that Mr. CEO may actually be preparing to support Mr. Noli de Castro. So as I observe Mr. CEO and his Ako mismo campaign, the more I realize that he most probably hasn’t looked into the mirror for sometime, because then he would see that the problem would really be staring him in the face.
Such maneuver, despite the fact that the then contemplated tax measure was originally intended for cellphone service providers is the least of this CEO’s many financial legerdemain. As former NEDA chief Romulo Neri revealed in the course of the ZTE hearings, this CEO is part of the local cartel that charges one of the highest cellphone service rates in the world. Anyone who has a bit of corporate intelligence knows that behind this CEO is an Asean transnational family, acting as ventriloquist, that flourished through crony capitalism in Indonesia . Then, of course, we should note that this CEO also joined the conspiracy in 2001 against the will of the Filipino electorate.
Everything he did has only increased the burden upon the people. From supporting the Edsa II installation of Gloria Arroyo, he and his less prominent fellow corporate backers have dirtied their hands with the crimes of this regime, benefitting immensely from all the lopsided laws designed for more profits for their companies and with all their new “acquisitions” that seem to have no end.
How has this CEO managed to get all the laws passed in favor of his conglomerate? The same manner as the rest of the corporate behemoths: Enticing those in authority to approve laws favorable to them even at the expense of public welfare. In most countries, for instance, cellphone texting costs are subsidized by cellphone call rates, which is what’s being done in Venezuela . Thus, with exorbitant text and voice call charges and the planned spreading out of the rVAT to include cellphone use, Mr. CEO and his foreign masters are sure to rake in unimaginable profits. Such windfall so far has, in effect, allowed them to venture into the power company that charges the highest power prices in Asia —which, upon their entry, immediately got from Arroyo the “performance-based rate” system that ensures unregulated rate increases till kingdom come.
Because of these, we should instead tell him straight to his face that the problem in Philippine society is Ikaw mismo (you, yourself). But then, the “icons” that Mr. CEO’s movement is setting for the youth to emulate are also, Sila mismo (themselves), part of the problem that is the Philippines ’ damaged culture.
Let us start with that Arroyo-appointed anti-piracy czar, who has been known for nothing other than being a playboy, who’s had several failed attempts at becoming a talk show host a la Letterman, as well as, a local politician. Sure, he’s been very aggressive in demolishing small pirated DVD vendors, but in this impoverished country where vending illegal wares constitutes the only source of income, this doesn’t seem to be a very creative and helpful stereotype for this society.
Some others, although having outstanding talent, are unfortunately used for little substance. Some allow themselves to convey the wrong message that girls and women should rush to buy skin whiteners and Glutathione, while others only sing splendidly of mushy, sentimental songs to no avail. Even if these celebrities came out to say that they did not receive any pay for their appearances, perhaps betraying a little sense of guilt, certainly, they can look forward to the next paid appearances for one of this CEO’s many subsidiaries. Thus, Mr. CEO’s choice of mascots sets the tone: It’s entertainment.
The dominance of entertainment is, in and of itself, a major problem in Philippine society. It’s designed for mass consumption of frivolous stuff; not for the production of goods which our economy needs. This then shrinks the real incomes of families, and sinks them deeper and deeper into hunger. Entertainment only distracts the people from the real problems and their growling stomachs.
This is why producer-writer Ferdinand Dimadura, Berlin Film Festival top prize winner for Chicken ala Carte, which vividly depicts a family eating out of fast food trash cans, can never be Mr. CEO’s choice of endorser. Mr. CEO only chooses among those whom philosopher Michael K. Hooker worries about: “…people who don’t dwell on the meaninglessness of their lives, or the meaningfulness of it--(those) who just pursue mindless entertainment.”
So can a project of a dyed-in-the-wool corporate “Gordon Gecko” (from the movie Wall Street) be altruistic? I wouldn’t bet on it. And just as I write this, I see in one of the front pages that Mr. CEO may actually be preparing to support Mr. Noli de Castro. So as I observe Mr. CEO and his Ako mismo campaign, the more I realize that he most probably hasn’t looked into the mirror for sometime, because then he would see that the problem would really be staring him in the face.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Crystallize and polarize toward change
Lest anyone forgets, last Friday, May 1, was the eighth anniversary of Edsa Tres, by far, the only genuine political expression of the Filipino masses in recent history. It was a protest of “the great unwashed,” real victims of the ruling class’ massive economic exploitation, against the prevailing oligarchic neo-colonial system comprising Big Business, the conservative Church, the corrupt political order, as well as, the prostituted police-military hierarchy. It was, by sheer number, their stinging rebuke against this US-controlled elite’s illegal overthrow of our overwhelmingly elected leader, President Joseph Estrada, whose only great “fault” was his repudiation of the elite’s demands of sovereign guarantees for privatized projects, adopting separatist doctrines (like federalism and “appeasement”), and prioritizing debt payments above all else.
Issues of corruption, murder, and mayhem were all hurled against Estrada--from illegal gambling payoffs to stock market manipulation, to Mindanao genocide, economic incompetence, and even political tyranny. Yet eight years on, under the aegis of those plotters and conspirators, corruption has reached unprecedented heights, illegal gambling has tripled, summary executions have multiplied, debt service has leapfrogged over social spending (versus Estrada’s reversal of this 20-year trend), and the national economy is in shambles.
Worse, exploitation by corporate predators has grown more intense under the Arroyo regime. For instance, as soon as Meralco was taken over by two more conglomerates, continuous hikes for the highest power cost in Asia were immediately institutionalized through a new “performance based” formula that increases profit to well over 20 percent from what started out at 8 percent decades ago. Our water rates, also among the highest in the world, are constantly on the rise too. Meanwhile, the state’s cheap hydro-electric and geothermal power plants are being apportioned to the Lopezes and Aboitizes while deteriorating and costly fossil fuel plants are left to the publicly-owned National Power Corp., dooming it to charge higher rates in the long run.
Nine years ago in 2000, during the last full year of Estrada as president, Muslim secessionists and criminal gangs were already almost wiped off the Mindanao map. Last year, in stark contrast, the Philippines almost lost half of Mindanao to the US and secessionist elements, which the Arroyo government had consented to with other Edsa II originals like the National Democratic Front--a goal which is still in effect through efforts to convert the republic into a federal state and to remove the Constitution’s protectionist provisions, with or without Gloria.
However, after countless rallies and demonstrations, four major military protests (Oakwood, Ft. Bonifacio Stand-off, and Manila Pen), innumerable political and financial scandals (“Hello Garci,” Road Users’ Tax and PhilHealth diversions, Joc-joc Fertilizer Fund scam, ZTE, Northrail, etc.), serious deterioration in the poverty and hunger problems, the nosedive in government approval ratings, and major “mea culpas” from various Edsa II purveyors, Gloria Arroyo is still in Malacañang, with the last touted hope of a “withdrawal of support” going kaput over new sinecures and other charades.
It seems the delay in the final triumph over this corrupt regime only comes from the muddle-headedness inflicted on the Filipino people by a combination of factors--the lack of a moral and patriotic fervor among the neo-colonial elite that is passed down to every level of society, US control of the Philippine Military Academy’s training, an educational system de-nationalized by Catholic and other religious educational institutions, the economy’s de-industrialization and marginalization of the nationalistic business sector, the co-optation of the intelligentsia and establishment of a canine-loyal “civil society,” and the domination by Big Business of mass media, among a long list of maladies.
Thankfully, the real gain in the past eight years is that all the above have begun to unravel. The neo-colonial elite has been exposed for its rapacious greed for profits from the privatization of public utilities, and weakened by successive infighting over these feeding frenzies. The financial elite has been discredited by the failure of many pre-needs funds while the Catholic Church has been seriously damaged by the failed promises of Edsa II that there is now as much as a 30-percent fallout rate among its flock. Most of all, and perhaps serendipitously, we are now witnessing the collapse of the US as the sole superpower which will gradually free the Philippines from its clutches.
The greatest task of genuine leaders for change then is to sharpen the real issues, by crystallizing ideas and polarizing opinions on economic emancipation from the global and local oligarchy, on seeking solidarity with the people’s aspirations, on the need to put nationalism and anti-imperialism hand-in-hand with anti-corruption advocacies, and on supporting true leaders like Estrada, Gen. Danny Lim, Sen. Trillanes, et al. as against opportunist-charlatans from various political persuasions. As we establish new alliances with domestic and international forces, we must realize that all who are enemies of US and western imperialism are friends to our cause of national emancipation. Only after taking stock of issues in this light will we ever get to see the end of the US-Gloria era soon.
Issues of corruption, murder, and mayhem were all hurled against Estrada--from illegal gambling payoffs to stock market manipulation, to Mindanao genocide, economic incompetence, and even political tyranny. Yet eight years on, under the aegis of those plotters and conspirators, corruption has reached unprecedented heights, illegal gambling has tripled, summary executions have multiplied, debt service has leapfrogged over social spending (versus Estrada’s reversal of this 20-year trend), and the national economy is in shambles.
Worse, exploitation by corporate predators has grown more intense under the Arroyo regime. For instance, as soon as Meralco was taken over by two more conglomerates, continuous hikes for the highest power cost in Asia were immediately institutionalized through a new “performance based” formula that increases profit to well over 20 percent from what started out at 8 percent decades ago. Our water rates, also among the highest in the world, are constantly on the rise too. Meanwhile, the state’s cheap hydro-electric and geothermal power plants are being apportioned to the Lopezes and Aboitizes while deteriorating and costly fossil fuel plants are left to the publicly-owned National Power Corp., dooming it to charge higher rates in the long run.
Nine years ago in 2000, during the last full year of Estrada as president, Muslim secessionists and criminal gangs were already almost wiped off the Mindanao map. Last year, in stark contrast, the Philippines almost lost half of Mindanao to the US and secessionist elements, which the Arroyo government had consented to with other Edsa II originals like the National Democratic Front--a goal which is still in effect through efforts to convert the republic into a federal state and to remove the Constitution’s protectionist provisions, with or without Gloria.
However, after countless rallies and demonstrations, four major military protests (Oakwood, Ft. Bonifacio Stand-off, and Manila Pen), innumerable political and financial scandals (“Hello Garci,” Road Users’ Tax and PhilHealth diversions, Joc-joc Fertilizer Fund scam, ZTE, Northrail, etc.), serious deterioration in the poverty and hunger problems, the nosedive in government approval ratings, and major “mea culpas” from various Edsa II purveyors, Gloria Arroyo is still in Malacañang, with the last touted hope of a “withdrawal of support” going kaput over new sinecures and other charades.
It seems the delay in the final triumph over this corrupt regime only comes from the muddle-headedness inflicted on the Filipino people by a combination of factors--the lack of a moral and patriotic fervor among the neo-colonial elite that is passed down to every level of society, US control of the Philippine Military Academy’s training, an educational system de-nationalized by Catholic and other religious educational institutions, the economy’s de-industrialization and marginalization of the nationalistic business sector, the co-optation of the intelligentsia and establishment of a canine-loyal “civil society,” and the domination by Big Business of mass media, among a long list of maladies.
Thankfully, the real gain in the past eight years is that all the above have begun to unravel. The neo-colonial elite has been exposed for its rapacious greed for profits from the privatization of public utilities, and weakened by successive infighting over these feeding frenzies. The financial elite has been discredited by the failure of many pre-needs funds while the Catholic Church has been seriously damaged by the failed promises of Edsa II that there is now as much as a 30-percent fallout rate among its flock. Most of all, and perhaps serendipitously, we are now witnessing the collapse of the US as the sole superpower which will gradually free the Philippines from its clutches.
The greatest task of genuine leaders for change then is to sharpen the real issues, by crystallizing ideas and polarizing opinions on economic emancipation from the global and local oligarchy, on seeking solidarity with the people’s aspirations, on the need to put nationalism and anti-imperialism hand-in-hand with anti-corruption advocacies, and on supporting true leaders like Estrada, Gen. Danny Lim, Sen. Trillanes, et al. as against opportunist-charlatans from various political persuasions. As we establish new alliances with domestic and international forces, we must realize that all who are enemies of US and western imperialism are friends to our cause of national emancipation. Only after taking stock of issues in this light will we ever get to see the end of the US-Gloria era soon.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Swine-dler’s flu: Be very suspicious
A mortality rate of 45 persons per day is recorded for one of the
Worldwide death numbers from SARS have reached only 774 since 2000, and from avian flu, 254 from 2003 to 2009--both paling in comparison to the annual rates of 20,000 and 1.7 million TB deaths in the
While we do not want to downplay any real danger of an influenza pandemic, the hype which attended all the special flu scares in the past had also been overblown and linked to “Big Pharma.” Through global mainstream media’s ferocious scare reporting, countries are fast being forced to join the bandwagon for fear of being branded as irresponsible or travel ban-worthy. Their governments are likewise pressured to stock up on anti-influenza drugs and vaccines from pharmaceutical firms partly owned by individuals in the centers of political power.
The company that produces Tamiflu, for example, is partly owned by former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former
However, one simple but un-reported fact that should dispel the panic over SARS, avian, and swine flu is that there are a million flu deaths every year that aren’t related to any of these three viruses.
Mainstream media all over the world carry sensationalistic flu news without question because, for one, sensationalism has its intrinsic benefits. Another reason is because Big Pharma is one of the biggest sources of advertising revenues for both print and broadcast media. As a result, the role of critical, watchdog news reporting is left to anti-globalist Web sites or blogs and to anti-Establishment spaces like this column.
But, there are, indeed, a great deal of gigantic con games being played by Big Pharma, especially in this age of global mass communication. From the stock market boom and busts to the subprime mortgage frauds, to hoaxes like the Millennium Bug, and now, the various flu panics, the power of media to manipulate the mass psyche for corporate interests has never been as obvious. Thus, billions of dollars have been spent by governments to buy up Tamiflu and other drugs for years while anti-poverty and health programs in the
Still and all, proper nutrition and a strong immune system are the best defense against disease, including the various flu viruses. In countries where the avian flu has struck, Tamiflu has proven ineffective, leaving patients with psychotropic side effects--sometimes lethal--as seen in several of
Dr. Patricia A. Doyle, DVA, PhD, BA (Tropical Agricultural Economics) of the University of West Indies makes a plea to the general public not to take any flu vaccines as wrote that she was “one of the people duped into taking a Swine Flu shot and it made me so sick… in bed for three months…”
Furthermore,
There is a belief that the latest swine flu originated not in the alchemy of nature but in the biochemistry of covert laboratories, deliberately released for political or commercial purposes. And there is an established historical precedent to this: Remember the anthrax scare in 2001 which authorities attributed to “terrorists” but was later exposed to be from a
We in Third World countries, who are frequently made the dumping ground of Big Pharma, should especially be wary about this new “swine-dler’s flu” scare. Let’s not be hoodwinked into shelling out billions for useless vaccines but, instead, direct our health care toward basic public hygiene, health support, and disease prevention.
(Tune in to 1098AM, Sulong Pilipinismo, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.: Monday with Atty. Alan Paguia, Wednesday with former Mayor Jun Simon, Friday with Ver Eustaquio / May Pag-asa, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday; Talk News TV, Destiny Cable, Channel 3, 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Tuesday; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Monday, April 27, 2009
The chaff from the grain
Gen. Alexander Yano’s retirement as Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the
Gen. Yano is indeed the “professional” soldier that he’s touted to be. So “professional” is he that it seems more priority is placed on this career move rather than on saving the nation from the continuing oppression of the ruling class. Predictably, the rest of the AFP top brass are no different either. They have all been in step with Gloria’s game plan: Satisfy the career issues of promotion and PMA class prerogatives, and the country can go hell. Of course, much more is at stake for Yano--a traditional P50 million “pabaon,” as well as, an additional P150-million sweetener Gloria has reportedly arranged as his golden parachute. Yano is no Hugo Chavez, that’s clear.
All this leaves the “transition government” of Chief Justice Puno high and dry. And since Puno can’t win in an election, that leaves his “moral revolution” on the dry docks too. Thus, all options lynch-pinned on a hoped-for Puno-Yano formula are now kaput, demolished by this “professionalism” in the military.
Providentially, it is this same “professionalism” which also separates the chaff from the grain. The few who dared to stand up, going beyond professionalism to uphold patriotism and nationalism, are seen in the likes of Gen. Danilo Lim, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Gen. Renato Miranda, Col. Ariel Querubin, Maj. Jason Aquino, Lt. Dante Langkit, the Bagong Katipuneros (a.k.a. Magdalo), Capt. Nic Faeldon, et al.
Yano, in contrast, will only be joining the ranks of the elite while the country he is supposed to serve sinks deeper in the morass of the following worsening exploitative conditions: 1) industrial power rates--already the highest--and residential rates--second highest in Asia--set to go higher with the approval of the larcenous “performance-based” scheme, giving windfall profits to two new Meralco investors; 2) the perverted globalization-dependent economic paradigm yielding zero growth for the Philippines and more unemployment (which we had predicted from the very start of the crisis).
Speaking of our burdensome power rates, the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reform (Nasecore) protested the manner in which Psalm is carrying out the privatization of government’s power plants--including hydro and geothermal. Even as the law intends the sale to be in different power mixes, Psalm is selling off the most economical hydroelectric plants first, then leaves Napocor only with the operationally expensive fossil fuel plants that perpetually keep power rates high. Is it any wonder that only the oligarchs win in either instance? So would Yano still care about this now that he’s about to join the ranks of the filthy rich?
The triumph of “professionalism” over patriotism, as exemplified by this apparent Yano sell-out, gives ample pause to those who believed that the armed forces, like in many South American countries today, can be a source of our patriotic hope. For as long as the AFP mindset continues to be limited to its officers’ “professional” aspirations--with no regard for principles of nationhood, there can hardly be any truth to the Philippines ’ independence and sovereignty. So as I look at the aftermath of the Daniel Smith-“Nicole” case, I can only laugh, because I only see a comedy from the very start. “Nicole” is the quintessential poor Filipino girl, same as any extremely poor African, Thai or Indonesian lass, who chooses to escape from poverty and misery by succumbing to the wiles of a
Thank God for the grains of gems in our midst, symbolized by the continuing sacrifices of Gen. Danilo Lim, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and company. They are proof that we can continue to hope in our AFP. Maybe the next time around, we’ll have patriotism triumph over careerism and opportunism for a change. Right now, though, the one benefit we can derive from this Yano letdown is a renewed awareness of our need to wage a continuing political conscientization campaign among our military. And as we cling to civilian leadership for the greater part of this mission, let us bear in mind that President Joseph Estrada and the Edsa III forces are the only ones capable of forging opposition leadership, unity, and eventual victory.
Friday, April 24, 2009
An opposition political convention
Convening an opposition political convention to try to agree on a common set of presidential and vice-presidential candidates, and even a common senatorial slate, is a capital idea. There’s no one else that the public will recognize to convene such an event except for the most well-regarded opposition leader. And no one but President Joseph Estrada has stood out as the undisputed opposition symbol and impresario throughout the past eight years of the corrupt, malevolent, and oppressive rule of force of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her foreign patrons. From his strict adherence to the rule of law to his patriotic economics, Estrada is the antithesis to the Arroyo regime.
In our latest Talk News TV episode with the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) Secretary-General Mr. Milo Tanchuling, one crucial difference between the Arroyo and Estrada regimes was highlighted by a graph in the FDC’s 36-page report entitled, “FDC on the 2009 National Government Budget.” As it correlated “debt per capita” and expenditure on “social service per capita,” it found that only in the years between 1998 and 2000 (Estrada’s presidency) did social spending exceed debt payment. Compared to available data on the rest and especially on Gloria’s years from 2001 to 2007, where debt payment tripled against social service expenditure, it was shown that Gloria, aside from accumulating more debt than her three predecessor-administrations combined, even reduced social service spending drastically!
There are, of course, many opposition pretenders today for there is tremendous benefit in being identified with the opposition. Gloria Arroyo is Public Enemy No. 1 to 80 percent of Filipino voters, so to be against her is to be with that 80 percent. And yet no one else has sacrificed as much to stand against every transgression of law and morality that Gloria Arroyo and her allies have committed as President Estrada has by choosing to suffer detention for six years and six months, and the humiliation from eight years of lies and calumnies against his self and family. No one else but Estrada has herded the opposition slates through the 2001, 2004 (with FPJ), and 2007 elections by mustering disparate anti-Gloria elements, and has raised the necessary funds and provided winning strategies.
No one but Estrada has also helped inspire decent officers in the military to live up to their principles to take action before corruption overtook them, like the young Bagong Katipuneros a.k.a. Magdalos who staged “Oakwood,” as well as, the February 2006 dissenters whose leaders, Gen. Danilo Lim and Col. Ariel Querubin, were closest to him.
Major exposés against Arroyo’s corruption were likewise initiated by whistleblowers who took inspiration from Estrada’s resistance--from Atty. Samuel Ong in “Hello Garci” to Sandra Cam in the Arroyo Juetengate. Protest movements throughout the past eight years were largely coordinated under Estrada as well. Many political bigwigs, as a result, had to re-examine their consciences and take back their support for Edsa II and what it spawned--all because of Estrada’s sway.
A lot of our young and budding politicians today were nurtured under Estrada’s guidance too. While some have shown their debt of gratitude by staying true to their ideals, others have either turned their backs on him completely or have chosen to work with Mrs. Arroyo, albeit clandestinely, perhaps thinking that the public won’t see through it. Some of the latter would even deign talk about Gloria, claiming she’s no longer a candidate, as if her errors and transgressions are irrelevant to the future conduct of this country, and as if there aren’t any issues of justice and rectification involved.
Beyond all these, though, the most important quality that separates Estrada from these self-proclaimed opposition leaders is policy advocacy. One pretender, for instance, claims to champion the poor and shows himself on TV ads shaking hands with a farmer and wiping his dirtied hand on his clean shirt, just as another poses in his jeans and flashes his matinee idol smile, while another champions environmental issues. But what’s the real issue? Is it not the poverty (and hunger) spawned by neo-colonial policies of perpetual debt, of granting sovereign guarantees to private Big Business backed by foreign partners, of dependence on foreign “investors” who are nothing more than swindlers, of servitude to the oligarchy, ad nausea? Just look at the pretenders today. They are either openly courting US sponsorship or are being open and willing tools of Big Business and corporate scam artists--all of whom Estrada fought head on, which is why a conspiracy was hatched against him.
Don’t get me wrong: Opposition unity remains to be ideal. The public should demand it even if only to ensure polarization between what Gloria represents and the change that we want. But in all, it’s not about Left vs. Right ideology, but about genuine integrity vs. corruption, sovereignty vs. subservience, debt control vs. profligacy, democracy vs. cabalism, and the rule of law vs. the rule of force.
Let the candidates face the public’s questions and let the people have their say. If any candidate is found worthy, then President Estrada will be compelled to support him or her. Otherwise, Estrada should continue on with his candidacy. Candidates who are unwilling to participate in such exercise should rightly be exposed as Arroyo Trojan Horses, with giant stamp pads stating so marking all their campaign materials when the time comes.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Sick ‘doctors,’ sick prescriptions
I am down with LBM. The whole family went down with it in sequence, including the househelp. Either the heat triggers some hibernating bacteria or it’s because I didn’t fork over some more money to change our water filters when I already should have. Thankfully, I am recovering faster thanks to my “biozapper,” which positively charges my body’s good bacteria to neutralize the negative ones. I am also upbeat in trying this new, all-natural Chinese powder that’s made up of animal parts, roots, and oils--instead of the cheaper watermelon powder--against another irritant. Stomatitis, which brings out white patches in the mouth, is prevalent in this weather because of how the body reacts to the summer heat. (Since all the males in my family have consistent bouts with it, it’s probably genetic as well.) Coupled with mentholated virgin coconut oil, I’m sure this powder will beat all the western medicines out there by a huge mile!
You’re probably wondering why I am discussing herbal medicines. It’s because former Mayor Jun Simon, in our Saturday radio program, made a parallel between economists prescribing solutions and doctors prescribing medicines.
If so-called doctors and their prescriptions fail, we immediately replace them and their approaches to our illness. But in the nation’s case, RP economists, whether academics from UP or the Ateneo, or those in media and government, like Solita Monsod, Cielito Habito, or Victor Paderanga, have all been advocating failed economic “medicines” that have presided over the deterioration of the Philippine economic well-being and brought it to the ICU. Looking back the past 28 years, their economic prescriptions have been nothing but bitter pills which the country has swallowed, but which have only made us sicker and sicker. Yet mainstream media continue to laud their “expert” economic advice, by giving them various platforms (columns, TV or radio programs) with which to continually spew the poisons that kill our economy.
What are these latest poisons? One, the World Bank (WB) prescribes the
Second, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas chief is welcoming as a good sign the news that “hot money” is starting to pour into the
The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), in examining the 2009 National Budget, has exposed many anomalies, including new taxes such as the rVAT and excise taxes, of which a whopping 70 percent presently go to ever-increasing debt repayments. It found that in 2006, for the first in Philippine history, the debt repayment amount exceeded the collection of revenues, which means that our debt is increasing by leaps and bounds. Because of this, there will come a time when “banksters” (bankers cum gangsters) will pull the rug from under us, as what they had done to
I have said on my radio programs that the Abu Sayyaf will not behead the whites as they’re only capable of beheading their fellow “brownies.” Moreover, the kidnapping was timed for Blair’s arrival and his message of “a-peace-ment,” as well as, for mainstream media to extol the US Balikatan forces before the Filipino public, with daily news of their house-painting and medicine distribution for poor Filipinos. Similarly, human rights abuse issues are being lobbed against one of the few who have stood up against the VFA, Mayor Rudy Duterte. Although many may not like him because he is, no doubt, a “trapo,” the more important issue is his willingness to stand up to the imperialist’s claws, coupled with his peace and order record, of which majority of Davaoeños hold Duterte in high esteem.
Just as there are illnesses of the body, and of our economic and political well-being, that have been dealt poorly by countless prescriptions, suffice it to say that if the present situation persists, we are really hopeless. But, as we continue to live, we continue to breathe hope, and that will be the subject of Friday’s column.
(Tune in to 1098AM, Sulong Pilipinismo, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.: Monday with Atty. Alan Paguia, Wednesday with former Mayor Jun Simon, Friday with Ver Euistaquio / May Pag-asa, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday; Talk News TV, Destiny Cable, Channel 3, 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Tuesday, with FDC on “Rising from Debt: The Imperative for Survival;” also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Injustice upon the Thai people
What happened in
Let us clarify the real issues by looking at the timeline of events that led to the present crisis. Thaksin Shinawatra was legally elected as prime minister in 2001, and again in 2005, with the largest voter turnout in Thai history. As chief administrator of
Because Thaksin’s actions on the privatization programs imposed by the globalists were neither here nor there, as the privatization of the electricity generation and distribution sectors became long-drawn-out, such elicited the latter’s displeasure. What followed was that the controversial sale of the Thaksin family’s Shin Corp. to Temasek Holdings of the
A prime mover of the “yellow shirts” in their siege of the Thai airports in December 2008 (which the police and military did nothing to control), failed media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul, had his shrill anti-Thaksin tirades carried prominently by the Dow Jones-owned English newspaper, The Nation. His protracted rallies, meanwhile, funded by bankers to the tune of $25,000 a day, as he later admits, became the platform for their demands to shift from an elected parliament to one selected by the crown to their complaints against what they branded as Thaksin’s “fiscal irresponsibility,” all because the popular leader was well-loved for having distributed funds to poor communities for their development. Limthongkul, thus, led a coalition of activist, labor, professional and Buddhist religious groups--much like our evil civil society, composed of Catholic priests and laity,
Foolishly, some western media anchors opined that now it seems that only the Thai King can resolve the crisis, overlooking the simple truth that the Thai monarchy has been the root of the problem. For one, the King’s Privy Council, led by US-trained ex-general Prem Tinsulanonda, staged the coup against the twice-elected Thaksin in 2006. Plus, the monarchy not only acquiesced to the sabotage of the economy via the yellow shirts’ occupation of
The Thai royalty still gets good press from the West; that’s true. But this shouldn’t be surprising anymore as the West is still actually controlled by the monarchies of old, through their control of the western financial system, as evidenced by the Bilderberg group.
Domestically, there is absolutely no criticism of the monarchy too because
I can’t imagine anyone defending such a state of affairs in any modern society, but several columnists in the
Truth to tell: Aside from fomenting political instability in Thailand through the outright suppression of the will of the people in two elections (which sounds familiar to Susan Roces’ “Not once, but twice” charge against Gloria Arroyo), the Thai monarchy is responsible for even worse offenses against its own people:
(1) Thailand, with its 64-million population, ranks third in the world in prostitution, with NGO estimates of up to 1.8 million women and children engaged in the officially-sanctioned trade linked to the promotion of its tourism industry that has spawned one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the world; (2) up to 20 percent of the population have no sustainable access to clean water, and (3) amid the 30-percent poverty rate, the King is reported by Fortune magazine to be the world’s richest monarch with $35 billion in wealth.
These conditions of injustice have thus led to the call among many for the abolition of the Thai monarchy. What is unfolding in
(Tune in to 1098AM, Sulong Pilipinismo, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.: Monday with Atty. Alan Paguia, Wednesday with former Mayor Jun Simon, Friday with Ver Euistaquio / May Pag-asa, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday; Talk News TV, Destiny Cable, Channel 3, Tuesday, 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
US-UK’s one step forward in Mindanao
Of the many urgent subjects that have piled up over the week, there’s one that mustn’t escape our full and undivided attention: The latest in the US-UK’s drive to take away the richest parts of Mindanao . While the MILF “Ancestral Domain” (AD) ruse suffered a setback when practically the whole nation stood up against it, the US-UK plots have not seized at all. Blair’s visit to Manila to sell “a-peace-ment,” for instance, was one such step, but the more sinister is the recent “human rights” campaign against one of Mindanao’s most militant law-and-order stalwarts: Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
Last April 6, 2009, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) suddenly charged Duterte for being behind the “Davao Death Squads.” The Human Rights Commission of the Philippines, in turn, kowtowed by acknowledging the report posthaste, producing nothing but a propaganda windfall for Duterte’s would-be rival Nograles in the next local election.
Just what is the HRW? Birmingham University -New York Prof. James Petras says it is “a US-based group claiming to be a non-governmental organization, but which is in fact funded by government-linked quasi-private foundations and a Congressional-funded political propaganda organization, the National Endowment for Democracy…”
HRW has been at the forefront of the destabilization of states such as Yugoslavia and Venezuela. It published a report critical of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez which was shot with “blatant falsifications and outright fabrications.” It also defended the criminal gang in Kosovo--the KLA--which the West used to sow terror in Yugoslavia to justify its destruction and subsequent break-up.
It builds up credibility through such campaigns as the ban on land mines, but also uses this to undermine countries that are unwilling to yield to the West’s imperial demands.
To my mind, the reason why Duterte is suddenly on the HRW’s radar is the heightened drive of the US-UK tandem to press the MILF-MoA-AD in a more radical fashion--that is, through the increased use of terrorism and the strategy of tension to justify internationalization of the issue for more intervention. Tough patriots and crusaders like Mayor Duterte will be a major stumbling block to the “Balkanization” of Mindanao by the West. All Filipinos should therefore take this struggle very seriously for the future is in Mindanao, with its oil, gas and natural deuterium in great abundance.
Meanwhile, our apology for the slip-up in last Monday’s column; something got lost in the transmission. We touched on two of the four measures of Barack Obama and Gordon Brown in the recent G20 summit. These were: 1) a $1.1-trillion for the IMF, and 2) a re-regulation of the financial sector. The first is just to ensure continued flow of Third World (including Eastern Europe ) debt with many strings attached. The second, meanwhile, remains useless for as long as USURY is the name of the game. As what American artist Jim Kirwan, in Usury Remains Untouched, argues: “We have dismantled the most ancient of human laws, the law against usury… We have not focused enough on the big deregulation… (on) the amount of interest that banks can get… (And today,) banks can charge 17, 18, 19, 30, 35 percent, not to mention payday lenders charging 200, 300, 400 percent in states like Illinois (and) California.”
The main point against re-regulation sans de-institutionalizing usury is: “If you’re able to charge 30 percent... You (will) want people to go into debt… This addicted the financial sector to very, very, very high rates of return compared to what investors were used getting in the real economy, the manufacturing sector, General Motors…”
Now, on to the third and fourth measures that were cut out--climate change issues and a clamor against “protectionism.” It is quite funny that Obama and Brown stressed the issues of man-made global warming, in spite of the fact that the weather these days isn’t agreeing with them, as cooling patterns are everywhere--from US cold spells to nice cool evenings in Manila . Marina Litvinsky, writing for the International Press Service, headlined: “G20 Leaders Wrangle over Kyoto Successor,” to stress that there is no consensus over this proposed new climate protocol.
World leaders know that the US-British aim in the global warming scare is to institute the “carbon tax” scheme, to tax everything from power plant emissions to methane from cows’ dung (a greenhouse gas, as reported by The New York Times--I’m not kidding--which would make milk more expensive). Carbon credits trading has already reached $59 billion in the first half of 2008. Once they fool more countries like the Philippines into accepting it because the G20 and the UN say so, it’ll run to the trillions globally, stunt Third World industrialization, and enrich global carbon traders.
Carbon credits trading has already reached $59 billion in the first half of 2008. Once they fool more countries like the Philippines into accepting it because the G20 and the UN say so, it’ll run to the trillions globally, stunt Third World industrialization, and enrich global carbon traders.
The fourth proposal--the G20’s warning against protectionism--is, of course, to be expected. Clearly, the US , Britain , China , India , and even Brazil , are all eager to keep markets open for their agricultural and industrial exports. But this would only perpetuate the centralization of the global economy around a few giant economies that want to be super-rich and super-powerful. What we, instead, should do is democratize the global economy by fostering a Nationalist Development Economy (NDE) model for every nation, making each one a positive contributor to the global economy in a trickle up fashion, and reduce their dependency on the global superpowers. We, Filipinos, should champion this NDE paradigm and lead the world into genuine global democracy.
(Tune in to 1098AM: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. / Saturday, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Destiny Cable, Channel 3, Tuesday, 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Last April 6, 2009, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) suddenly charged Duterte for being behind the “Davao Death Squads.” The Human Rights Commission of the Philippines, in turn, kowtowed by acknowledging the report posthaste, producing nothing but a propaganda windfall for Duterte’s would-be rival Nograles in the next local election.
Just what is the HRW? Birmingham University -New York Prof. James Petras says it is “a US-based group claiming to be a non-governmental organization, but which is in fact funded by government-linked quasi-private foundations and a Congressional-funded political propaganda organization, the National Endowment for Democracy…”
HRW has been at the forefront of the destabilization of states such as Yugoslavia and Venezuela. It published a report critical of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez which was shot with “blatant falsifications and outright fabrications.” It also defended the criminal gang in Kosovo--the KLA--which the West used to sow terror in Yugoslavia to justify its destruction and subsequent break-up.
It builds up credibility through such campaigns as the ban on land mines, but also uses this to undermine countries that are unwilling to yield to the West’s imperial demands.
To my mind, the reason why Duterte is suddenly on the HRW’s radar is the heightened drive of the US-UK tandem to press the MILF-MoA-AD in a more radical fashion--that is, through the increased use of terrorism and the strategy of tension to justify internationalization of the issue for more intervention. Tough patriots and crusaders like Mayor Duterte will be a major stumbling block to the “Balkanization” of Mindanao by the West. All Filipinos should therefore take this struggle very seriously for the future is in Mindanao, with its oil, gas and natural deuterium in great abundance.
Meanwhile, our apology for the slip-up in last Monday’s column; something got lost in the transmission. We touched on two of the four measures of Barack Obama and Gordon Brown in the recent G20 summit. These were: 1) a $1.1-trillion for the IMF, and 2) a re-regulation of the financial sector. The first is just to ensure continued flow of Third World (including Eastern Europe ) debt with many strings attached. The second, meanwhile, remains useless for as long as USURY is the name of the game. As what American artist Jim Kirwan, in Usury Remains Untouched, argues: “We have dismantled the most ancient of human laws, the law against usury… We have not focused enough on the big deregulation… (on) the amount of interest that banks can get… (And today,) banks can charge 17, 18, 19, 30, 35 percent, not to mention payday lenders charging 200, 300, 400 percent in states like Illinois (and) California.”
The main point against re-regulation sans de-institutionalizing usury is: “If you’re able to charge 30 percent... You (will) want people to go into debt… This addicted the financial sector to very, very, very high rates of return compared to what investors were used getting in the real economy, the manufacturing sector, General Motors…”
Now, on to the third and fourth measures that were cut out--climate change issues and a clamor against “protectionism.” It is quite funny that Obama and Brown stressed the issues of man-made global warming, in spite of the fact that the weather these days isn’t agreeing with them, as cooling patterns are everywhere--from US cold spells to nice cool evenings in Manila . Marina Litvinsky, writing for the International Press Service, headlined: “G20 Leaders Wrangle over Kyoto Successor,” to stress that there is no consensus over this proposed new climate protocol.
World leaders know that the US-British aim in the global warming scare is to institute the “carbon tax” scheme, to tax everything from power plant emissions to methane from cows’ dung (a greenhouse gas, as reported by The New York Times--I’m not kidding--which would make milk more expensive). Carbon credits trading has already reached $59 billion in the first half of 2008. Once they fool more countries like the Philippines into accepting it because the G20 and the UN say so, it’ll run to the trillions globally, stunt Third World industrialization, and enrich global carbon traders.
Carbon credits trading has already reached $59 billion in the first half of 2008. Once they fool more countries like the Philippines into accepting it because the G20 and the UN say so, it’ll run to the trillions globally, stunt Third World industrialization, and enrich global carbon traders.
The fourth proposal--the G20’s warning against protectionism--is, of course, to be expected. Clearly, the US , Britain , China , India , and even Brazil , are all eager to keep markets open for their agricultural and industrial exports. But this would only perpetuate the centralization of the global economy around a few giant economies that want to be super-rich and super-powerful. What we, instead, should do is democratize the global economy by fostering a Nationalist Development Economy (NDE) model for every nation, making each one a positive contributor to the global economy in a trickle up fashion, and reduce their dependency on the global superpowers. We, Filipinos, should champion this NDE paradigm and lead the world into genuine global democracy.
(Tune in to 1098AM: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. / Saturday, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Destiny Cable, Channel 3, Tuesday, 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
NDE versus G20 globalization
The G20 summit in London was a great show, but what did it set out to achieve? It promised to solve the global financial and economic collapse but ended with an agenda that only threatens to worsen the crisis.
Danny Schechter of Global Research says, “Unemployment is climbing. The real estate contagion is now claiming condos and even shopping malls. It’s bad and by most accounts, getting worse. And, all the ‘leaders’ of the world can do is devote ONE DAY to a forum that must have cost millions to stage?”
All in all, it was a G7 show, with 13 others, including China , India , Brazil , Indonesia , and South Africa , keeping a polite silence as supporting cast. Throughout the summit, Gordon Brown and Barack Obama kept hamming it up with: 1) a $1.1-trillion fund to poor nations through the IMF; 2) re-regulation of the financial sector; 3) climate change issues; and 4) a clamor against turning to “protectionism.”
Let’s examine the measures closely. First, the $1.1 trillion is ostensibly for the poor, developing countries’ stimulus investments--this, notwithstanding the IMF’s need for massive replenishment after bailing out Ireland, Iceland and the new US satellites in Eastern Europe. Remember that the IMF is mandated to extend loans only to stabilize a country’s exchange rates and assist in its balance-of-payment problems. Funding real stimulus projects for infrastructure or industrial development are therefore not part of it.
So, here we have another con game that is being played on the rest of the world: The IMF will lend this money to Third World countries hardest hit by the present global crisis only to help pay for their old debts.
As Michel Chussodovsky explains, “The IMF will lend two more dollars so (that) poor countries can continue to pay their four dollar debt amortization every year”--which naturally, will go back to the banks again!
For sure, this new money will come with the usual “structural adjustments,” such as more deregulation, liberalization and privatization. Although Brown and Obama believe that they can help their crashing economies this way, it certainly won’t help the poor countries.
Second, while the two leaders promise, on one hand, to re-regulate the financial sector, they, on the other hand, continue to feed the bankers’ swindle of the world. Such re-regulation is, thus, meaningless as it avoids confronting the fundamental problem that causes the global financial system to run amuck endlessly--the mother of all Ponzi schemes: Usury.
The Bretton Woods system set up after the Second World War mandated not only fixed exchange rates for the world’s currencies but also a stable interest rate regime limited to 8 and 9 percent. The deregulation of interest rates, however, since the 1970s, simultaneous with the dollar decoupling from gold--making it a fiat currency, spun off the spiraling of interest rates, then pushed these even higher through the entry of creative financial instruments. What we call here “5-6” by “ Bombay ” lenders started happening all over the world.
As American artist Jim Kirwan, in his Usury Remains Untouched, says: “We have dismantled the most ancient of human laws, the law against usury… We have not focused enough on the big deregulation that precedes all other deregulation, and that’s the ceiling that (is)… the amount of interest that banks can get… In the 1970s we began to deregulate this… And we have today, taken as common, that banks can charge 17, 18, 19, 30, 35 percent, not to mention payday lenders charging 200, 300, 400 percent in states like Illinois, California.”
His main point then follows: “If you’re able to charge 30 percent... You (will) want people to go into debt… This addicted the financial sector to very, very, very high rates of return compared to what investors were used getting in the real economy, the manufacturing sector, General Motors…”
Thus, the single biggest stumbling block to the resurgence of the Philippine economy is the foreign (and domestic) debt it is endlessly paying to the bankers’ mafia. As of August 2007, RP’s outstanding debts were placed at $81.9 billion or P3.871 trillion--not including the contingent liabilities conservatively placed at over half a trillion.
We are taxed more and more to pay for these debts, including 70 percent of the rVAT, with less than 10 percent going to the Katas ng VAT dole-outs of the DSWD, touted by Arroyo ignoramuses as a solution to the crisis. Still, they want to tax us even more--on tobacco and alcoholic beverages, and now, on text. Even if the Philippines is not among the Highly Indebted Poor Countries--as many in Africa are--as yet, we’re headed toward that.
Quite simply, the G20 did not address the debt bomb because the G7 won’t allow it. Instead, it will exacerbate the problem with this new IMF loan to indebt countries like us even more.
Third, Obama and Brown stressed the issues of climate change or man-made global warming, in spite of the fact that the weather these days isn’t agreeing with them. Cooling patterns are everywhere--from US cold spells to nice cool evenings in Manila .
Marina Litvinsky, writing for the International Press Service headlined: “G20 Leaders Wrangle over Kyoto Successor.” There is thankfully no consensus over this proposed new climate protocol because every nation knows the US-British aim in the global warming scare is to institute the “carbon tax,” to tax everything from power plant emissions to methane from cows’ dung (a greenhouse gas, as reported by The New York Times).
Carbon credits trading has already reached $59 billion in the first half of 2008. Once they fool more countries like the Philippines into accepting it because the G20 and the UN say so, it’ll run to the trillions globally, stunt Third World industrialization, and enrich global carbon traders.
Fourth, the G20 warned against protectionism--of course! The US, Britain , China , India , and even Brazil , are all eager to keep markets open for their agricultural and industrial exports. But this would only perpetuate the centralization of the global economy around a few giant economies that want to be super-rich and super-powerful. Instead, we should democratize the global economy by fostering the Nationalist Development Economy (NDE) for every country, making every nation positive contributors to the global economy in a trickle up fashion, and reduce dependency on the control of global superpowers.
Continued Friday...
Danny Schechter of Global Research says, “Unemployment is climbing. The real estate contagion is now claiming condos and even shopping malls. It’s bad and by most accounts, getting worse. And, all the ‘leaders’ of the world can do is devote ONE DAY to a forum that must have cost millions to stage?”
All in all, it was a G7 show, with 13 others, including China , India , Brazil , Indonesia , and South Africa , keeping a polite silence as supporting cast. Throughout the summit, Gordon Brown and Barack Obama kept hamming it up with: 1) a $1.1-trillion fund to poor nations through the IMF; 2) re-regulation of the financial sector; 3) climate change issues; and 4) a clamor against turning to “protectionism.”
Let’s examine the measures closely. First, the $1.1 trillion is ostensibly for the poor, developing countries’ stimulus investments--this, notwithstanding the IMF’s need for massive replenishment after bailing out Ireland, Iceland and the new US satellites in Eastern Europe. Remember that the IMF is mandated to extend loans only to stabilize a country’s exchange rates and assist in its balance-of-payment problems. Funding real stimulus projects for infrastructure or industrial development are therefore not part of it.
So, here we have another con game that is being played on the rest of the world: The IMF will lend this money to Third World countries hardest hit by the present global crisis only to help pay for their old debts.
As Michel Chussodovsky explains, “The IMF will lend two more dollars so (that) poor countries can continue to pay their four dollar debt amortization every year”--which naturally, will go back to the banks again!
For sure, this new money will come with the usual “structural adjustments,” such as more deregulation, liberalization and privatization. Although Brown and Obama believe that they can help their crashing economies this way, it certainly won’t help the poor countries.
Second, while the two leaders promise, on one hand, to re-regulate the financial sector, they, on the other hand, continue to feed the bankers’ swindle of the world. Such re-regulation is, thus, meaningless as it avoids confronting the fundamental problem that causes the global financial system to run amuck endlessly--the mother of all Ponzi schemes: Usury.
The Bretton Woods system set up after the Second World War mandated not only fixed exchange rates for the world’s currencies but also a stable interest rate regime limited to 8 and 9 percent. The deregulation of interest rates, however, since the 1970s, simultaneous with the dollar decoupling from gold--making it a fiat currency, spun off the spiraling of interest rates, then pushed these even higher through the entry of creative financial instruments. What we call here “5-6” by “ Bombay ” lenders started happening all over the world.
As American artist Jim Kirwan, in his Usury Remains Untouched, says: “We have dismantled the most ancient of human laws, the law against usury… We have not focused enough on the big deregulation that precedes all other deregulation, and that’s the ceiling that (is)… the amount of interest that banks can get… In the 1970s we began to deregulate this… And we have today, taken as common, that banks can charge 17, 18, 19, 30, 35 percent, not to mention payday lenders charging 200, 300, 400 percent in states like Illinois, California.”
His main point then follows: “If you’re able to charge 30 percent... You (will) want people to go into debt… This addicted the financial sector to very, very, very high rates of return compared to what investors were used getting in the real economy, the manufacturing sector, General Motors…”
Thus, the single biggest stumbling block to the resurgence of the Philippine economy is the foreign (and domestic) debt it is endlessly paying to the bankers’ mafia. As of August 2007, RP’s outstanding debts were placed at $81.9 billion or P3.871 trillion--not including the contingent liabilities conservatively placed at over half a trillion.
We are taxed more and more to pay for these debts, including 70 percent of the rVAT, with less than 10 percent going to the Katas ng VAT dole-outs of the DSWD, touted by Arroyo ignoramuses as a solution to the crisis. Still, they want to tax us even more--on tobacco and alcoholic beverages, and now, on text. Even if the Philippines is not among the Highly Indebted Poor Countries--as many in Africa are--as yet, we’re headed toward that.
Quite simply, the G20 did not address the debt bomb because the G7 won’t allow it. Instead, it will exacerbate the problem with this new IMF loan to indebt countries like us even more.
Third, Obama and Brown stressed the issues of climate change or man-made global warming, in spite of the fact that the weather these days isn’t agreeing with them. Cooling patterns are everywhere--from US cold spells to nice cool evenings in Manila .
Marina Litvinsky, writing for the International Press Service headlined: “G20 Leaders Wrangle over Kyoto Successor.” There is thankfully no consensus over this proposed new climate protocol because every nation knows the US-British aim in the global warming scare is to institute the “carbon tax,” to tax everything from power plant emissions to methane from cows’ dung (a greenhouse gas, as reported by The New York Times).
Carbon credits trading has already reached $59 billion in the first half of 2008. Once they fool more countries like the Philippines into accepting it because the G20 and the UN say so, it’ll run to the trillions globally, stunt Third World industrialization, and enrich global carbon traders.
Fourth, the G20 warned against protectionism--of course! The US, Britain , China , India , and even Brazil , are all eager to keep markets open for their agricultural and industrial exports. But this would only perpetuate the centralization of the global economy around a few giant economies that want to be super-rich and super-powerful. Instead, we should democratize the global economy by fostering the Nationalist Development Economy (NDE) for every country, making every nation positive contributors to the global economy in a trickle up fashion, and reduce dependency on the control of global superpowers.
Continued Friday...
Saturday, April 4, 2009
From slaves to servant-leaders
When the Philippines imported “amahs” for its elite families and the US indentured Chinese coolies by the tens of thousands to work on its railroad system in the 18th Century, the term “nation of servants” could have been hung on the necks of the Chinese people. But then a revolution transpired in China after a few hundred years, and today, no one can describe the Chinese as a “nation of servants” anymore.
The Chinese know that Filipinos are a nation of servants because they see them in this role everywhere--from house maids in Hong Kong to lounge act entertainers in mainland China . How then can we Filipinos argue against this fact? Why, we even tout with pride the millions of our countrymen slaving away in foreign lands as our national “heroes.” So if we don’t relish such an image, we should have our “revolution” first, as the Chinese did, and set up a strong, independent economy.
It is, thus, silly for some sectors to protest that “insult” from a Hong Kong columnist since they have done nothing to raise the standing of our nation in the world stage. Looking especially ridiculous is the Blas Ople Institute because the late labor minister and senator was one of the architects of RP’s “labor export” industry. Another one that doth protest too much is Sen. Pia Cayetano, who has only jogged for pet causes (like breast-feeding and cancer awareness) and stood as product endorser for a fabric conditioner, but has totally not championed any legislation to industrialize our economy to create employment so that OFWs may return home.
Filipinos have been insulted ever since the first white man stepped on our island shores. The Spaniards called our natives ladrones while the Americans labeled us as “monkeys.” From the US media, we can come up with an almost endless list of anti-Filipino insults as well. In recent memory, American radio sensation Howard Stern said that Filipinos “…eat their young and sell their daughters for sex,” which riled local radio anchor Rene Sta. Cruz, who challenged Stern to a square off in the US of A. However, this Rene, whom I have partnered with on DZXL, was always the first to denigrate Filipinos too with his “Only in the Philippines ” tag for every fault he saw. The Congress of Filipino-American Citizens, meanwhile, had filed a $65-million lawsuit against Stern, but 16 years later, nothing has really changed--except that now, a Filipina chef serves the White House kitchen. Then, there’s the Desperate Housewives TV series, which, in one of its episodes, cast aspersions on RP medical schools churning out phony doctors’ diplomas, which we all know has basis in fact.
In all these instances, Filipinos would rage yet do nothing about the roots of the continuing economic crises that have led to the deterioration of jobs and the erosion of our social and moral fabric. Even though we’ve had some leading lights in the cultural scene, like Freddie Aguilar with his opus “Anak,” they seem to be all but forgotten today.
If Filipinos want to finally end the insults to our nation and race, we should wage a social and national revolution; and not just stay on the level of rage without addressing the main reasons for our low self- and global-esteem. If not, then we’re just stuck in a sadomasochistic theater of the absurd. To assert our national dignity, we must hoist the flag of revolution by installing genuine Filipino public servants or servant-leaders such as President Joseph Estrada, Gen. Danilo Lim, Sen. Sonny Trillanes, Gen. Miranda, the Magdalos or Bagong Katipuneros, Maj. Jason Aquino, Capt. Nic Faeldon, and the like.
If we want radical change in our society, we have to reject all insults to our intelligence, such as the coming farcical 2010 elections and all such exercises under prevailing neo-colonial conditions--which limit the field of aspirants to only those who kowtow to the neo-colonial system.
Just taking a look at the present instance, from the advancement of the date for the filing of candidacies, to the SWS survey that deceptively solicited three multiple choices for a single presidential post, we can see how everything is being set to block the return of one genuine alternative leader, President Estrada. This recent survey, despite being presented as a non-commissioned, “academic” exercise, is especially insidious given the track record of SWS, which, in its 2004 exit poll made Gloria Arroyo lead FPJ in Metro Manila, only to be debunked by FPJ’s overwhelming win except in Villar’s Las Piñas.
All these, however, will be under the water as the real plan of the GMA regime, as floated by National (In)Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, is a “transition (read: holdover) government” to pre-empt the elections. I am not automatically against a transition government per se. In fact, we have been pushing for it since 2005. But that can only come after a “regime change,” which all patriotic Filipinos have desired since “Hello Garci.” If we are ready to transition from a state of servitude to a noble nation of servant-leaders, then let’s do the revolution now!
The Chinese know that Filipinos are a nation of servants because they see them in this role everywhere--from house maids in Hong Kong to lounge act entertainers in mainland China . How then can we Filipinos argue against this fact? Why, we even tout with pride the millions of our countrymen slaving away in foreign lands as our national “heroes.” So if we don’t relish such an image, we should have our “revolution” first, as the Chinese did, and set up a strong, independent economy.
It is, thus, silly for some sectors to protest that “insult” from a Hong Kong columnist since they have done nothing to raise the standing of our nation in the world stage. Looking especially ridiculous is the Blas Ople Institute because the late labor minister and senator was one of the architects of RP’s “labor export” industry. Another one that doth protest too much is Sen. Pia Cayetano, who has only jogged for pet causes (like breast-feeding and cancer awareness) and stood as product endorser for a fabric conditioner, but has totally not championed any legislation to industrialize our economy to create employment so that OFWs may return home.
Filipinos have been insulted ever since the first white man stepped on our island shores. The Spaniards called our natives ladrones while the Americans labeled us as “monkeys.” From the US media, we can come up with an almost endless list of anti-Filipino insults as well. In recent memory, American radio sensation Howard Stern said that Filipinos “…eat their young and sell their daughters for sex,” which riled local radio anchor Rene Sta. Cruz, who challenged Stern to a square off in the US of A. However, this Rene, whom I have partnered with on DZXL, was always the first to denigrate Filipinos too with his “Only in the Philippines ” tag for every fault he saw. The Congress of Filipino-American Citizens, meanwhile, had filed a $65-million lawsuit against Stern, but 16 years later, nothing has really changed--except that now, a Filipina chef serves the White House kitchen. Then, there’s the Desperate Housewives TV series, which, in one of its episodes, cast aspersions on RP medical schools churning out phony doctors’ diplomas, which we all know has basis in fact.
In all these instances, Filipinos would rage yet do nothing about the roots of the continuing economic crises that have led to the deterioration of jobs and the erosion of our social and moral fabric. Even though we’ve had some leading lights in the cultural scene, like Freddie Aguilar with his opus “Anak,” they seem to be all but forgotten today.
If Filipinos want to finally end the insults to our nation and race, we should wage a social and national revolution; and not just stay on the level of rage without addressing the main reasons for our low self- and global-esteem. If not, then we’re just stuck in a sadomasochistic theater of the absurd. To assert our national dignity, we must hoist the flag of revolution by installing genuine Filipino public servants or servant-leaders such as President Joseph Estrada, Gen. Danilo Lim, Sen. Sonny Trillanes, Gen. Miranda, the Magdalos or Bagong Katipuneros, Maj. Jason Aquino, Capt. Nic Faeldon, and the like.
If we want radical change in our society, we have to reject all insults to our intelligence, such as the coming farcical 2010 elections and all such exercises under prevailing neo-colonial conditions--which limit the field of aspirants to only those who kowtow to the neo-colonial system.
Just taking a look at the present instance, from the advancement of the date for the filing of candidacies, to the SWS survey that deceptively solicited three multiple choices for a single presidential post, we can see how everything is being set to block the return of one genuine alternative leader, President Estrada. This recent survey, despite being presented as a non-commissioned, “academic” exercise, is especially insidious given the track record of SWS, which, in its 2004 exit poll made Gloria Arroyo lead FPJ in Metro Manila, only to be debunked by FPJ’s overwhelming win except in Villar’s Las Piñas.
All these, however, will be under the water as the real plan of the GMA regime, as floated by National (In)Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, is a “transition (read: holdover) government” to pre-empt the elections. I am not automatically against a transition government per se. In fact, we have been pushing for it since 2005. But that can only come after a “regime change,” which all patriotic Filipinos have desired since “Hello Garci.” If we are ready to transition from a state of servitude to a noble nation of servant-leaders, then let’s do the revolution now!
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