The beating continues....and the Philippines, not GMA, is in the ropes this early in the bout.
ZTE, Spratlys, Artificial Rice Crisis, and now the so-called Swine scam.
What next?
In the well-kept timetable of the brains behind the present crisis, timing is everything. The Domino Effect: everything is leading up to a penultimate round of confrontation with obnoxious effects on us, common folks. Expect the impeachment process at round 11 and 2010 elections at round 12. Today we’re just in Round 4. Expect security issues (i.e. failure to contain and defeat the Abu Sayyaf, MILF and CPP-NPA) at around Round 5 or 6.
And what happens to GMA? What now for the Philippines? This boxing match between the Big Bully and the resident in Malacanang could only result in one of two things.
First, she distances herself from China. She redraws her INDEPENDENT Foreign Policy to toe the American line of Limiting Chinese Influence in Asia. And whoever she endorses in 2010 will lose. She will be unpopular, isolated and condemned in history. All because she embarrassed her US allies by withdrawing from the Coalition of the Willing in 2004 in Iraq to save Angelo De la Cruz. The price we pay for trying to be independent!
Second, she falls. How? If she remains stubborn with her China-friendly policy, they’ll push for an impeachment trial very similar to Erap: All the legal remedies and avenues will be afforded her and she will be have the upper hand, meaning all those charges thrown at her will remain unproven and lacking in evidence. But in a popular, MTV-generation coverage of a Senate Investigation, the people’s anger will boil over and we will, it is hoped, take to the streets, leading to her resignation.
The first scenario is more feasible and sensible from US foreign policy viewpoint. Once GMA rescinds all those contracts and curtsies before our US Masters/Allies. The second is more unstable, unpredictable, security-wise for US interests. (Consider the risk of Trillanes and the threat from the Left).
What’s happening now is very similar to the post-Edsa moves by the US (using Enrile and Gringo with the quizzical indifference of Fidel Ramos. God save the Queen was a move to drive Cory to the Right. She was perceived as too soft to the left (freeing Joma Sison, Satur Ocampo, Jalandoni, Dante Buscayno, etc; engaging in the a Peace Talks which the Left effectively used for propaganda) and her government was riddled with closet communists (partly true). In the aftermath she “unsheathed the sword of war” against the Communists, and the Oplan Lambat Bitag drawing from the Low-Intensity Conflict textbooks of the CIA and South America.
The US intent could be good. For the country, for the region, for their interests. But the methods are undemocratic, disrespectful and Uncle Sam deserves a kick in the balls for it. One day we’ll be truly free. They’ll see.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Kuryente!
It’s one whole big kuryente.
First off, Jun Lozada framed the administration up with his Hong Kong caper and set up the PNP and Manny Gaite. Second, Ping Lacson set the Senate up for the shocking kuryente by Leo San Miguel. Somebody had been had. And in everybody’s mind, somehow, someone’s going to pay for that slap on the face of Ping Lacson. Ask Bubby Dacer’s widow. Third, the whole ZTE-NBN brouhaha is turning out to be on big kuryente on the Arroyo administration and, in effect, on the Filipino people.
Kuryente is a media axiom of false alarm or false lead. And the whole ZTE-NBN brouhaha is one big kuryente meant to result in several things: For Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to toe the American line with regards to her bi-lateral relations with China; for the Philippine opposition and people to be sucked into the vortex of US manipulations and for influencing the outcome of the 2010 elections.
When Jun Lozada dramatically barged into the Filipino consciousness on the wee hours of February __ 2008, he was playing on our sympathy for the underdog. When he in fact was setting us all up with his lachrymose mea culpas (how many now, by the way? It seems that he has this penchant for quickly owning up to a fault when he is confronted with one. I’ve actually lost count of his guilty pleas), he hit upon all the right buttons to gain public sympathy. Yet by now it is clear that he set Gaite up, he set the PNP up, he set Atienza and Malacanang up. In short, nakuryente sila lahat.
Now here comes Lacson. Throughout the years, Lacson had carefully set himself up to the image of Mr. Clean, a no-nonsense anti-corruption crusader. He has won many a votes for this (although FPJ’s admirers have not yet fully forgiven him for splitting the opposition in 2004, creating rumor that he did so deliberately and for certain concessions). In this same spirit he had doggedly tried to expose and, some say, bring down the Arroyo administration. He had a hand in almost all the scandals that had rocked the present administration.
Yet the crusader had met some electrifying mini-scandals of his own. First was when he was questioned by the fellow Senator Juan Ponce Enrile regarding his prior knowledge of Lozada’s plans before and after the latter flew to London – err, Hong Kong. The usually eloquent and poised Lacson came close to stammering and resorted to the detested line “ I cannot seem to remember.” And lately fate had been rather cruel to Ping Lacson, and that cruelty was named Leo San Miguel. The latter, brought to the Senate supposedly as an opposition witness, brilliantly and effectively parried Lacson’s questions and insinuations on the ZTE-NBN pay-offs. After red-facedly bearing the entire 12 hours of Senate session with San Miguel, Lacson could only say “You have been lying whole day” and meekly “Somebody must have gotten to him.” We e all know Lacson can bounce back from this as he did from Kuratong Baleleng, Aragoncillo and Bubby Dacer. Yet the whole country could never forget the day when the good senator became a victim of kuryente.
Yet the biggest kuryente regarding the ZTE-NBN deal was not Lacson and Lozada misleading the left, the right, the Catholic church, the youth and civil society – though that would qualify as another kuryente in itself. The biggest the kuryente is the American policy of intervention in our affairs. They Americans have long been irritated by President Arroyo’s playing the China. It began when Gloria sacrificed bi-lateral relation with the US by leaving the coalition of the willing n Iraq in 2004. She is also being blamed for the continued embarrassing existence of the Abu Sayyaf and the presence of Jemaah Islamiyah in Southern Philippines. The latter appears only to be an excuse to “legitimize” moves to make GMA toe the line with regards to China.
The saddest and most tragic part of the whole thing is the US view of the world as their own: that it is their right to meddle in ANY part of the world to protect American business and political interest. They have no respect whatsoever for national freedoms and they have always shown a proclivity to subvert friend or foe. That’s the biggest kuryente in the world.
First off, Jun Lozada framed the administration up with his Hong Kong caper and set up the PNP and Manny Gaite. Second, Ping Lacson set the Senate up for the shocking kuryente by Leo San Miguel. Somebody had been had. And in everybody’s mind, somehow, someone’s going to pay for that slap on the face of Ping Lacson. Ask Bubby Dacer’s widow. Third, the whole ZTE-NBN brouhaha is turning out to be on big kuryente on the Arroyo administration and, in effect, on the Filipino people.
Kuryente is a media axiom of false alarm or false lead. And the whole ZTE-NBN brouhaha is one big kuryente meant to result in several things: For Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to toe the American line with regards to her bi-lateral relations with China; for the Philippine opposition and people to be sucked into the vortex of US manipulations and for influencing the outcome of the 2010 elections.
When Jun Lozada dramatically barged into the Filipino consciousness on the wee hours of February __ 2008, he was playing on our sympathy for the underdog. When he in fact was setting us all up with his lachrymose mea culpas (how many now, by the way? It seems that he has this penchant for quickly owning up to a fault when he is confronted with one. I’ve actually lost count of his guilty pleas), he hit upon all the right buttons to gain public sympathy. Yet by now it is clear that he set Gaite up, he set the PNP up, he set Atienza and Malacanang up. In short, nakuryente sila lahat.
Now here comes Lacson. Throughout the years, Lacson had carefully set himself up to the image of Mr. Clean, a no-nonsense anti-corruption crusader. He has won many a votes for this (although FPJ’s admirers have not yet fully forgiven him for splitting the opposition in 2004, creating rumor that he did so deliberately and for certain concessions). In this same spirit he had doggedly tried to expose and, some say, bring down the Arroyo administration. He had a hand in almost all the scandals that had rocked the present administration.
Yet the crusader had met some electrifying mini-scandals of his own. First was when he was questioned by the fellow Senator Juan Ponce Enrile regarding his prior knowledge of Lozada’s plans before and after the latter flew to London – err, Hong Kong. The usually eloquent and poised Lacson came close to stammering and resorted to the detested line “ I cannot seem to remember.” And lately fate had been rather cruel to Ping Lacson, and that cruelty was named Leo San Miguel. The latter, brought to the Senate supposedly as an opposition witness, brilliantly and effectively parried Lacson’s questions and insinuations on the ZTE-NBN pay-offs. After red-facedly bearing the entire 12 hours of Senate session with San Miguel, Lacson could only say “You have been lying whole day” and meekly “Somebody must have gotten to him.” We e all know Lacson can bounce back from this as he did from Kuratong Baleleng, Aragoncillo and Bubby Dacer. Yet the whole country could never forget the day when the good senator became a victim of kuryente.
Yet the biggest kuryente regarding the ZTE-NBN deal was not Lacson and Lozada misleading the left, the right, the Catholic church, the youth and civil society – though that would qualify as another kuryente in itself. The biggest the kuryente is the American policy of intervention in our affairs. They Americans have long been irritated by President Arroyo’s playing the China. It began when Gloria sacrificed bi-lateral relation with the US by leaving the coalition of the willing n Iraq in 2004. She is also being blamed for the continued embarrassing existence of the Abu Sayyaf and the presence of Jemaah Islamiyah in Southern Philippines. The latter appears only to be an excuse to “legitimize” moves to make GMA toe the line with regards to China.
The saddest and most tragic part of the whole thing is the US view of the world as their own: that it is their right to meddle in ANY part of the world to protect American business and political interest. They have no respect whatsoever for national freedoms and they have always shown a proclivity to subvert friend or foe. That’s the biggest kuryente in the world.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Cry Treason
How quick the blows are coming now. From the ZTE-NBN to Spratlys and Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU). Why the sudden change in tune?
Far beyond the posturings of Ping Lacson and others from the uncivil society who are trying to unseat the President of the Philippines, far beyond the ineffectual Jun Lozada as the icon of and rallying point for truth, indeed far beyond the ZTE - and now the Spratlys controversy - is the fact that there are unseen hands in the current political crisis besetting our country. The turmoil we are in goes much more deeper than Jun Lozada and Ping Lacson though they are an active part of the plot. Almost the entire political spectrum is being sucked into the US moves trying to get back at GMA for perceived sins of defiance – of showing INDEPENDENCE! Ever since GMA pulled out Filipino troops from Iraq – to save a Filipino OFW’s life – that embarrassed the Americans and for her seemingly warming relationship with China.
The American government had shown time and again that it has no qualms about abusing its allies when the latter step out of bounds and doesn’t care about our political or economic growth. Remember they supported a dictator for twenty years in exchange for military bases. They supported efforts to oust Joseph Estrada yet supplied him with crucial intelligence data (thru Lacson, recipient of “leaks” by the Fil-Am US Marine Sgt., Leandro Aragoncillo, formerly of the FBI and who later worked in the White House staff of Dick Cheney. Aragoncillo turned out to be a double agent) that the opposition used against President Arroyo.
They were meddling then, they are meddling now.
Admittedly the President is paying for the China gambit. Yet as nationalists, isn’t it high time we show the US that they cannot have everything they want, much less a political hegemony? If the current political troubles being faced by GMA are absent, in another less politically-turbulent times, we might have declared her a hero, much as we did the Senate 12 who kicked out the American military bases in 1991. In politically calm waters, we would be hailing her a nationalist. Yet the US had chosen, as always, the perfect political climate to sow their vengeance.
It is not the President who is committing treason. Those who willingly and shamelessly dance to the marching tune of Uncle Sam do.
Far beyond the posturings of Ping Lacson and others from the uncivil society who are trying to unseat the President of the Philippines, far beyond the ineffectual Jun Lozada as the icon of and rallying point for truth, indeed far beyond the ZTE - and now the Spratlys controversy - is the fact that there are unseen hands in the current political crisis besetting our country. The turmoil we are in goes much more deeper than Jun Lozada and Ping Lacson though they are an active part of the plot. Almost the entire political spectrum is being sucked into the US moves trying to get back at GMA for perceived sins of defiance – of showing INDEPENDENCE! Ever since GMA pulled out Filipino troops from Iraq – to save a Filipino OFW’s life – that embarrassed the Americans and for her seemingly warming relationship with China.
The American government had shown time and again that it has no qualms about abusing its allies when the latter step out of bounds and doesn’t care about our political or economic growth. Remember they supported a dictator for twenty years in exchange for military bases. They supported efforts to oust Joseph Estrada yet supplied him with crucial intelligence data (thru Lacson, recipient of “leaks” by the Fil-Am US Marine Sgt., Leandro Aragoncillo, formerly of the FBI and who later worked in the White House staff of Dick Cheney. Aragoncillo turned out to be a double agent) that the opposition used against President Arroyo.
They were meddling then, they are meddling now.
Admittedly the President is paying for the China gambit. Yet as nationalists, isn’t it high time we show the US that they cannot have everything they want, much less a political hegemony? If the current political troubles being faced by GMA are absent, in another less politically-turbulent times, we might have declared her a hero, much as we did the Senate 12 who kicked out the American military bases in 1991. In politically calm waters, we would be hailing her a nationalist. Yet the US had chosen, as always, the perfect political climate to sow their vengeance.
It is not the President who is committing treason. Those who willingly and shamelessly dance to the marching tune of Uncle Sam do.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Seizin' the City: The enemy within
Joma Sison: “As in the gigantic mass actions of 1970, 1986 and 2001, the communists will exercise their right to join the protest actions in the national capital region and in the provinces…….The broad participation of youth and student demonstrators was significant. College and university campuses in Metro Manila and the provinces have been transformed into hotbeds of anti-Arroyo protests and fora for seeking truth behind the regime's lies. The upsurge and expansion of the youth and student protest movement to more campuses, factories, communities and streets should rouse anew and invigorate the propaganda movement against the hopelessly rotten regime and ruling system.”
“The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) calls on the Filipino people to further intensify their protest actions, muster the force of several hundred thousands up to millions all over the country and proceed to launch another people power uprising for the ouster of the Arroyo regime.”
If you listen to Lozada's speeches this days, he is dangerously crowing the same things as the above paragraph taken from the official site of the National Democratic Front. The point is, Lozada is not a communist but he may wittingly or unwittingly play into the hands of these people. Here's more, for future protests:
“The CPP supports the efforts of the organized forces and the broad anti-Arroyo united front in arousing, organizing and mobilizing the people for massive and powerful protest actions. At the same time, the revolutionary armed forces are instructed to intensify their tactical offensives against the fascist forces of the corrupt, brutal, lying and moribund US-Arroyo regime in a parallel effort to punish it and hasten its downfall.”
Now there. It says something isn’t it?
“The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) calls on the Filipino people to further intensify their protest actions, muster the force of several hundred thousands up to millions all over the country and proceed to launch another people power uprising for the ouster of the Arroyo regime.”
If you listen to Lozada's speeches this days, he is dangerously crowing the same things as the above paragraph taken from the official site of the National Democratic Front. The point is, Lozada is not a communist but he may wittingly or unwittingly play into the hands of these people. Here's more, for future protests:
“The CPP supports the efforts of the organized forces and the broad anti-Arroyo united front in arousing, organizing and mobilizing the people for massive and powerful protest actions. At the same time, the revolutionary armed forces are instructed to intensify their tactical offensives against the fascist forces of the corrupt, brutal, lying and moribund US-Arroyo regime in a parallel effort to punish it and hasten its downfall.”
Now there. It says something isn’t it?
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Another side of the coin
A couple of activities prior to the Feb. 29 Interfaith Rally by the opposition is worth noting. One was the “Peace Camp” by a group calling itself Kongreso ng Mamamayan held at the Welcome Rotonda in Quezon City while another is the mass for “peace and unity” by a group called Mahal Ko Bayan Ko in Makati. These activities are in themselves very revealing. Not only does it show that those who support the President are capable of mobilizing (as in the Rotonda camp-out) but also, and more importantly, that there may indeed be another aspect, another side of the Jun Lozada coin.
Such activities are not to be dismissed as mere “hakot” or staged political action. These are expressions of this very different viewpoint of the ZTE-NBN scandal now hounding the government. It is a physical expression of another point of view which genuinely exists among a significant section of society. These two events serve notice that there are still people in our society today that wants to uphold and support the present dispensation.
As such it should be taken seriously, especially by those pondering on grabbing political power from the president. Arroyo maybe unpopular in the media these days yet it cannot be denied that certain segments of our population have also a very regard for her and for what she had been able to do for them through the delivery of social services. To grab political power through extra-legal means is to invite political divisiveness and civil strife. To force the issue of unseating the presidency could provoke civil war.
Certain members of the so-called civil society and the academe insists that we have to chose between the lesser evil of a continued Arroyo presidency and the incessant political conflict which could settle in wake of her ouster. As I have always argued, we must allow our judiciary and electoral system to grow even if we perceive such political processes as flawed. To resort to extra-constitutional means of succession every time we see an incumbent president as “corrupt" would not only denigrate our democracy but also poses the danger of playing into the hands of those who stand to gain from the unrest. We must use the processes enshrined in our laws and the constitution and have faith in our democratic system, which maybe imperfect for now, but will shall ultimately mature.
Such activities are not to be dismissed as mere “hakot” or staged political action. These are expressions of this very different viewpoint of the ZTE-NBN scandal now hounding the government. It is a physical expression of another point of view which genuinely exists among a significant section of society. These two events serve notice that there are still people in our society today that wants to uphold and support the present dispensation.
As such it should be taken seriously, especially by those pondering on grabbing political power from the president. Arroyo maybe unpopular in the media these days yet it cannot be denied that certain segments of our population have also a very regard for her and for what she had been able to do for them through the delivery of social services. To grab political power through extra-legal means is to invite political divisiveness and civil strife. To force the issue of unseating the presidency could provoke civil war.
Certain members of the so-called civil society and the academe insists that we have to chose between the lesser evil of a continued Arroyo presidency and the incessant political conflict which could settle in wake of her ouster. As I have always argued, we must allow our judiciary and electoral system to grow even if we perceive such political processes as flawed. To resort to extra-constitutional means of succession every time we see an incumbent president as “corrupt" would not only denigrate our democracy but also poses the danger of playing into the hands of those who stand to gain from the unrest. We must use the processes enshrined in our laws and the constitution and have faith in our democratic system, which maybe imperfect for now, but will shall ultimately mature.
The greater task is not organizing and mobilizing the people to participate in sedition and confrontational political action. There is much more that has to be done with regards to our countrymen’s political education and values formation. Efforts and resources spent trying to unseat a president would be more meaningful if used towards the upliftment of our collective well-being.
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