Anachronistic, Part II

By Antonio C. Abaya

In the first part of this essay, I had written that the ultimate reason why a Communist insurgency still lingers in the Philippines, decades after our neighbors had solved their Communist insurgencies, is the failure of one Philippine president after another, from Ferdinand Marcos to Gloria Arroyo, to create broad-based prosperity.

In the East and Southeast Asian context, this failure was caused by wrong choices in economic strategies and policies, most especially in exports and in tourism. Two other East and Southeast Asian countries share our failure: North Korea and Myanmar, both of which have followed autarkic economic policies – meaning they were not interested in importing or exporting anything. Both countries have also deliberately shunned the presence of foreigners, tourists and otherwise, out of a deep-seated xenophobia.

But in the case of the Philippines, our failures in exports and tourism were not the result of deliberate autarkic and xenophobic policies, but rather the result of poor, mediocre, myopic, unimaginative, even stupid, leadership at the very top, from Marcos to Arroyo.

Marcos is pilloried for having been corrupt and authoritarian. But all the other leaders in East and Southeast Asia in the 1970s were corrupt and authoritarian, with the possible exception of Singapore’s Lee Kwan Yew, who was also authoritarian but was apparently incorruptible.

The greatest sin of Marcos, I told my audience at Camp Aguinaldo, was his failure to build an export-oriented economy for the Philippines, as the other Asian leaders had succeeded for their countries at that time.

The Communists and nationalists blame our poverty on the Americans, the Japanese, the IMF and the World Bank. But neither the Americans nor the Japanese, nor the IMF nor the World Bank exerted any pressure on us NOT to develop export industries or tourism. These were the sovereign choices of our leaders, and they have been proven spectacularly wrong.

I wrote in the first part of this essay that our failure in exports and tourism, compared to Malaysia’s success, cost us 12.3 million foregone jobs, one and a half times the number of Filipinos forced to work abroad because they could not find gainful employment in the Philippines, jobs that our domestic economy failed to create because of wrong and poor choices in economic policies and strategies.

The export of manufactured goods was the basis for the industrialization of our neighbors which enabled tens of millions of their citizens to rise from poverty to middle-class status. Broad-based prosperity, generated by exports of manufactured goods, dulled any interest in and appetite for Marxist-Leninist-Maoist revolution.

Aided in no small measure by successful efforts to slow down population growth. As I wrote in comparing Thailand and the Philippines, it is far easier to feed, clothe, house, educate and provide jobs for (Thailand’s) 65 million people than for (our) 89 million.

The growth of enterprises in their export-oriented economies mopped up their pools of unemployed and underemployed, thus raising wages and salaries without the crutch of a minimum wage law, as entrepreneurs bid higher and higher for the workers and employees that they needed

In the light of the current economic crisis ravaging the entire world, there is an upside to our failures. As millions of people in the developed and developing countries lose their jobs and/or reduce their family expenses, markets for everything – including foreign tourism and imported manufactures – will shrink in the next two to four years.

As the East and Southeast Asian country with the least developed export and tourism sectors, the Philippines will suffer the least from the global meltdown, not because of any astute defensive measures taken by our stupid leaders, but because we just happen to have accumulated the least crockery that can be broken as the financial tsunami sweeps through our neighborhood.. This is our consuelo de bobo.

The tsunami also means that, for the time being, exports and tourism will not generate the GDP needed to raise tens of millions of Filipinos from poverty to middle-class status, as they did in the 1970s, 80s and 90s in other Asian countries. It is the enduring tragedy of us Filipinos that, having missed the exports and tourism buses in the past, because of the myopia and stupidity of our leaders, we now see that there is no bus going anywhere anytime soon.

While the tsunami is raging worldwide, GDP has to generated largely in the domestic economy. This means domestic producers have to be encouraged to start and expand their enterprises, with the domestic market, by necessity, their target market. This also means that global trade has to be conducted on a fair or managed trade basis, not on a free trade basis, despite the hue and clamor against protectionism in the recently concluded APEC Summit in Lima, Peru..

Under free trade – embraced foolishly by Gloria Arroyo, even while she was still a senator – rich and developed economies will always have advantages over poor and developing ones. Rich and developed countries have the capital, the technology, the marketing connections to overwhelm poor and underdeveloped ones with their products.

Poor and developing countries will never manage to develop their economies – and generate the jobs they need to survive - if they are overwhelmed right from the start by the superior products of rich and developed ones.

Under fair and managed trade, poor countries should have the option of choosing which products they can import and from which countries, so as to protect their producers and their workers from being overwhelmed by floods of imports, under the rubric of reciprocity. Nations will have to come to mutual agreements that “we will buy your products a, b and c, but only if you will buy our products x, y and z, in more or less equal measures.”

This may be the direction that President-elect Obama is heading, after he promised the American electorate that he would create “five million jobs that cannot be outsourced.” My sense is that American producers and American jobs will be protected under an Obama administration, and rightly so. Copycat Filipinos should do no less.

President Arroyo is correct in proposing a P100 billion package to stimulate the Philippine economy through a crash public works program. The US has set aside a similar bailout package now totaling $1.5 trillion, China more than $530 billion, parts of both of which will go into public works spending.

This would be similar to the New Deal emergency employment program launched by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s to pull the US economy out of Depression. Which, for the information of McCain-Palin supporters who labeled Obama a “socialist”, was socialistic and against the tenets of laissez faire capitalism.

In the Philippine context, however, caveats have to be raised: how much of those P100 billion will really go into building infrastructure and generating jobs, how much will get attached to the sticky fingers of President Arroyo’s relatives and favored bureaucrats, and how much will go into bribing congressmen and women into passing ChaCha that will allow her to stay in power beyond 2010 as prime minister? *****

Anachronistic
By Antonio C. Abaya

The topic assigned to me was “Defeating the Communist insurgency.”

But I told my audience last Friday, Nov. 21, that talking about “defeating the Communist insurgency” was anachronistic because Communism itself has become anachronistic.

My audience was composed of military officers, local government officials, and representatives of various government agencies, taking a five-day seminar on national security at Camp Aguinaldo under the direction of the National Defense College of the Philippines.

Our neighbors in East and Southeast Asia had defeated their Communist insurgencies decades ago, by taking draconian measures against their insurgents: Malaysia and Singapore, by using their Internal Security Act (ISA), inherited from the British colonial government, which gave both governments the right to throw in jail, indefinitely and without trial, anyone suspected of being a Communist or a Communist sympathizer; South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand – confrontational states vis-à-vis North Korea and Maoist China - by crushing the Communist movements in their territories during their periods of military rule in the 70s and 80s; Indonesia by a bloodbath against the Parti Komunis Indonesia which had tried to grab power by machine-gunning to death almost the entire military high command in Halim Air Base outside Jakarta in September 1965. Estimates vary from 300,000 to two million on the number of suspected Communists and Communist sympathizers summarily executed by the military in their counter-coup.

But to use such draconian measures now against our Communist insurgents would no longer be fashionable and would just make this country an international pariah, and would dry up investments and official development aid..

Even before the first decade of the 21st century, Communism has faded as a global threat, having imploded from the accumulated weight of its own failures.

In 1989, millions of East Europeans – Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, etc – literally walked out on their Communist regimes in a spontaneous, leaderless and largely bloodless (except in Romania) civil revolt, People Power in its purest form, that forced their Communist governments to resign.

In 1991, a similar civil revolt broke out in Moscow, primed by the glasnost and perestroika reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev and inspired by the defiance of the Eastern Europeans. The 15-state Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was even outlawed, ironically in the very country where the first Communist revolution had triumphed, only to be restored months later.

Since 1979, Maoism as the definitive national ideology was slowly and systematically dismantled in China by the pragmatic Deng Xiaoping, who restored capitalism and the profit motive, a counter-revolutionary transformation which propelled China to the status of an economic super-power in less than 30 years.

Communism is dead. The only Communists left in Europe are two Filipinos: Jose Ma. Sison and Luis Jalandoni. And even Joma has admitted that the victory of Communism, once considered by its gibbering true believers as inevitable and imminent, would now take “hundreds of years.” (See my article ‘Hundreds of Years’ of Nov. 14, 2006, archived in www.tapatt.org.)

But why is there still a Communist insurgency in the Philippines?

Largely because of the failure of successive Philippine presidents, from Marcos to Arroyo, to build an export-oriented economy. And also due to the failure of these same presidents to conceptualize and articulate a Better Idea. Communism is an Idea. To defeat it, one must have a Better Idea.

In my article Why Are We Poor? of Dec. 14, 2004 and subsequent articles, all archived in www.tapatt.org, I listed down the economic missteps that successive Philippine governments committed in the past fifty years.

One. The passage of the Minimum Wage Law in the late 1950s, which discouraged American companies from locating their factories in the Philippines. They located them instead in Taiwan and Hong Kong because wages there were lower (believe it or not) than here and there was no statutory minimum wage.

Two. In the 1970s, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong (then a British colony) geared their economies towards the export of manufactured goods. The Philippines did not, content as we were with import substitution.

Three. In the 1980s, Malaysia, Thailand and Suharto’s Indonesia followed the original Four Asian Tigers above in gearing their economies towards the export of manufactured goods. The Philippines did not. What few export industries Marcos managed to set up were deliberately wrecked by the Communist KMU unions which staged strike after strike against them, until their owners got fed up and moved their factories to other countries.

When I started writing a column in 1987, I kept on hammering on the theme of export—oriented industries, but President Aquino and her group of allegedly 50 advisers ignored my counsel. It was President Ramos in 1992 onwards who seriously went into export industries., but by then it was too late: China was emerging as the dominant producer and exporter of manufactured goods. (FVR himself told me that he kept a file of my articles, which was confirmed by an American academic who was researching on the Philippine military.)

Four. President Ramos worked at cross purposes with his own export initiative by accepting the advice of Opus Dei economists Jess Estanislao and Bernie Vilegas, who pushed for an accelerated embrace of free trade and globalization, even ahead of fully developed South Korea and Taiwan. The resultant flood of imports drowned local producers, causing them to stop or reduce operations, forcing millions of Filipino workers to look for work overseas.

Five. In the 1990s, the Philippines failed to ride the tourism boom, just as we had failed to ride the export boom earlier. In 1991, Indonesia and the Philippines had exactly the same number of tourist arrivals :one million. In 2007, Indonesia had six million; we managed only three million. (Malaysia had 16 million, Thailand 13 million).

Six. The Philippines failed to manage its population growth. In the 1970s, Thailand and the Philippines had the same population size, 45 million. Because it had an active and successful population management program, Thailand’s population grew to only 65 million in 2007, while the Philippines’, which did not have one, grew to 89 million.

By any yardstick, it is easier to feed, clothe, house, educate and provide jobs for 65 million people than for 89 million.

Prosperity is about jobs. Let us not even talk about South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore because they are so far ahead of us, having embarked on the export of manufactured goods as far back as the 1970s. In 2006, South Korea’s exports totaled $326 billion, Taiwan’s $216 billion, Singapore’s $283.7 billion.

Let’s talk of Malaysia, whose exports in 2006 totaled $158.7 billion, compared to the Philippines’ $47.2 billion, or a difference of $111.5 billion. If we follow the rule of thumb that one billion dollars worth of exports create 100,000 manufacturing jobs, we can conclude that our failure in exports cost us about 11 million foregone jobs.

And consider also that in 2007, Malaysia attracted 16 million tourists, compared to our three million, or a difference of 13 million. If we follow the rule of thumb that one million tourists create 100,000 tourism-related jobs, we can conclude that our failure in tourism cost us another 1.3 million foregone jobs.

So our combined failures in exports and tourism cost us 12.3 million foregone jobs, one and a half times the number of Filipinos forced to work overseas because they could not find jobs here. It is the difference between prosperity and poverty and explains why a Communist insurgency continues to fester here, long after Communism became anachronistic. (To be concluded) *****

Reactions to tonyabaya@gmail.com. Other articles in www.tapatt.com and in acabaya.blogspot.com.

Who really got burned by the Senate coup?

AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR
By William M. Esposo

A good indicator on who got burned by the Senate coup is the STAR INBOX of November 24 about what readers felt about the ouster of Senator Manuel Villar as Senate President. Over 90% of the text messages — folks who pay to be heard — favored Senator Manuel Villar and were critical of the conspirators. Rarely does the STAR INBOX get such an overwhelming consensus.

Only the ignorant and the naïve would believe that the Senate coup last week that replaced Manuel Villar with staunch administration defender Juan Ponce Enrile was due to questions on the integrity of the deposed Senate President, as what the Cassius among the conspirators has been peddling.

Those who are wise to the ways of our traditional politicians know that the 2010 presidential elections — the fact that Villar’s star keeps shining bright despite the stabs in the back and up front that he has been getting — was what motivated the conspirators to install Juan Ponce Enrile as Senate President.

Immediately after the May 2007 senatorial elections, Senators Panfilo Lacson, Mar Roxas, Loren Legarda and Jamby Madrigal plotted like the envious cabal that assassinated Julius Caesar to oust Manny Villar as Senate President. Lacson, Roxas and Legarda being presidential wannabes, they felt that the Senate Presidency gives Manny Villar undue advantage.

In a way, they’re right. Being Senate President placed Villar as third in the line of presidential succession and that is added stature. It makes it easier to imagine Villar as president when the public mind has been conditioned to regard him as third in the line of presidential succession.
Had the conspirators succeeded then in placing Senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel as Senate President, there would have been less public outcry. The top Senate post would have remained in the hands of the Opposition — in keeping with the voters’ mandate to have an Opposition Senate majority.

In the recent coup that succeeded, had the conspirators placed Sen. Mar Roxas, the only one among them with the stature to sit as Senate President, the outcome would also have been less controversial. But it is unlikely that these conspirators would allow another presidential wannabe to replace Villar because that would bring them back to square one.

When the conspirators placed Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile as Senate President, despite strong signals that Charter change is on the move and Enrile’s pro-Charter change stance — that was when many Filipinos saw the conspirators in the worst possible light.

To many Filipinos, this act showed how the conspirators are willing to sacrifice national interest in order to serve their ambition. Not only that, this act showed terribly bad judgment on the part of the conspirators for them to think that they can manipulate Enrile to play their game. It is bad judgment just as it is narrow-minded and utterly stupid.

Do they think that they can offer Enrile more than what Madame Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) gives to motivate him to push her political agenda? Do they really think that Enrile will value the Senate Presidency over what he and his wife had been getting from GMA?
Who among them will have the guts to face up to Enrile when he starts to throw his weight around and move things in accordance with the agenda of the administration? Just look at the committee distribution and how many chairmanships administration allies have gained.

The conspirators did not even figure out that even if Villar is no longer Senate President, he has already enjoyed the boost in stature from being third in the line of presidential succession. When the 2010 presidential campaign goes into full gear, Villar will still enjoy the stature that the Senate Presidency had already given him.

Envy, like blind rage, can really cloud a person’s judgment. The conspirators did not even think that the Senate Presidency restricted Villar’s political space for maneuvering. He could not take on issues that could further boost his presidential image for fear of upsetting the administration Senators who supported him. Now, thanks to the conspirators, Villar has all the political space to take on any position that enhances his 2010 prospects while still enjoying the image boost he got from being a former Senate President and House Speaker.

The narrow-minded conspirators overlooked all these. Because of the way they think, who in his right mind will feel confident electing any of these conspirators as president?

In the two recent SWS and Pulse Asia surveys on 2010 presidentiables, Manny Villar rose in ratings and practically tied Vice President Noli de Castro (who led by only 1%, a virtual tie when margin of error is factored).

The conspirators must have panicked when they saw that Villar even rose in ratings despite their ‘Road to Nowhere’ muck racking. The ‘Road to Nowhere’ demolition job on Villar happened in September — before the SWS and Pulse Asia October surveys.

In the SWS survey on Net Satisfaction Ratings of Top Public Officials (released to media on November 24) — Villar topped it with 43%, followed by Noli de Castro with 34%.

Parañaque Representative Ed Zialcita of Lakas told me at the Peninsula Hotel over a month ago that Villar already has over 100 congressmen committed to him in 2010. The Senate Presidency is the least factor that made them consider Villar a winner.

Villar has the popularity, a national party and the wherewithal to win the 2010 presidency. With so many factors going for him, does it surprise you that Filipino crabs — very green with envy — are trying desperately to demolish Manny Villar?
* * *
Chair Wrecker website: www.chairwrecker.com

Cha-cha: Train to Nowhere

PerryScope
by Perry Diaz

The recent coup that ousted Sen. Manny Villar from the presidency of the Senate and installed Juan Ponce Enrile — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s top political ally in the Senate — took a sudden turn of events when Gloria’s son, Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, made a preemptory move to get the Charter change (Cha-cha) moving again with a House Resolution to convene a Constituent Assembly. But to Gloria’s surprise, her followers in the Senate — including Enrile — balked at the idea of Cha-cha prior to 2010. She should know better that the Philippine Senate — just like Julius Caesar’s Roman Senate two millennia ago — doesn’t pander to dictators.

Emotions have been running high in the days following the Senate coup. Gloria’s son, Congressman Mikey Arroyo, was in flurry getting signatures from members of the House of Representatives to support constitutional amendment through a constituent assembly (Con-Ass) which is authored by Congressman Luis Villafuerte, KAMPI President and a close ally of Gloria. Within a few days, Mikey has gathered the signatures of 163 out of the 238 members of the Lower House. At first Mikey denied leading the signature drive but eventually he admitted it when several congressmen pointed their finger at him.

It is interesting to note that Mikey and his younger brother, Congressman Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo, were perceived as their mom’s “enforcers” in the Lower House. They’re known by their colleagues as the real “Speakers” of the House. And who would dare buck the First Sons? Their mom holds the key to the congressmen’s pork barrel funds. She’s the goose that lays the golden eggs. One of the rules in politics is the Golden Rule — he or she who has the gold rules.

To pass a constitutional amendment through Con-Ass, a three-fourth majority vote is required of both chambers of Congress. However, there are conflicting interpretations of what constitutes “three-fourth majority vote.” Is it three-fourths of the combined membership of the House of Representatives (238) and the Senate (24) or three-fourths of each chamber voting separately?

If the Senate succumbed to the “tyranny” of the House, then it’s a done deal: a Con-Ass will move forward, unhindered, to amend the constitution any which way the House leadership wants. However, if the majority of the senators would reject the notion of a combined three-fourth majority vote of both chambers, then the proponents of Con-Ass would have go to the Supreme Court for an interpretation of the constitution.

Given the current make-up of the Supreme Court — with at least nine of the 15 justices perceived to be pro-Gloria — the House Con-Ass resolution would prevail; thus, relegating the Senate to an inutile polyp-like adjunct of the House. However, should the High Court uphold the independence of the Senate making it a co-equal to the House, Gloria could wait until next year when at least seven Supreme Court justices are retiring. At that time, she will have a grand opportunity to stack the High Court with political hacks. And by that time, Gloria would wield near-absolute dictatorial powers — swift and bloodless.

But that scenario is predicated on what the Senate would do today. If the Senate would abdicate its role as ‘fiscalizer” of the Executive Branch, then all is lost — Gloria will reign beyond 2010 and could propagate her family dynasty for many generations to come. Remember, Gloria is already the second president in the Macapagal bloodline.

The question is: will the people accept another dictatorial rule, almost a quarter-century after the Marcos dictatorship was dismantled by the People Power Revolution of 1986? Ironically, the newly installed Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile — an ardent loyalist of Gloria — was the one who led the 1986 revolution. Now that Enrile is the Senate President, he is caught between his loyalty to Gloria and his sworn duty to protect the sanctity and independence of the Senate.

Enrile’s initial reaction — broadcasted over DwIZ — to the House Con-Ass resolution was: “I will tell you I will resist any effort on the part of anybody to make the Senate inutile as a junk of the House of Representatives. For me, whether it is term extension or no term extension, it is almost an impossible dream to bring about any constitutional change at this time.” He said that “almost all of the 23 sitting senators were against it.”

However, it is anticipated that Gloria’s henchmen are going to put a lot of pressure on Enrile. Would he be able to resist them? It’s interesting to note that in November 2006, Enrile filed Senate Resolution 580 calling for a Con-Ass in the Senate to counter a House Resolution that would leave the Senate completely out of a Con-Ass. Enrile said at that time that the Senate and the House should vote separately.

It remains to be seen if Enrile would sacrifice his principle for political convenience and… survival. But he is a survivor many times over and at this time — in the golden years of his life — he might just pull one more attempt to challenge a formidable and entrenched political machine. Can he unify and marshal the forces of the Senate to dig in and — in the words of Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. — “man Tirad Pass again”?

But it is the ominous words of rookie Senator Francis Pangilinan that have drawn the attention of many people: “If they think the people will eat any garbage they offer, they are wrong. This will spark an uprising against the Arroyo government.” And he warned, “they should never underestimate the awesome power of the disenchanted people, who have had enough of bankrupt leadership and governance.” Indeed, the biggest threat to Gloria is when her “Enchanted Kingdom” turns into a “Disenchanted Kingdom.”

It is sad that amidst the economic turbulence that is besieging the country today, Gloria’s unquenchable thirst for power and wealth continues to take its toll on the people. And if there is one lesson Gloria has to learn: history tends to repeat itself when certain conditions begin to happen. Déjà vu.

(PerryDiaz@gmail.com)

Rebel without a clue

Rage
By Patricia Evangelista
Philippine Daily Inquirer

THIS is the story of one Raymond Manalo, farmer, who disappeared on Feb. 14, 2006 with his older brother from their farm in San Ildefonso, Bulacan. Manalo was neither activist nor rebel when he disappeared. He escaped more than two years later. He says there are many, many more like him.

* * *

They put you in a cage four feet by one foot small, the height of an average man. There are hollow blocks to the side and iron grills in front. You sit with three other men, crouched in a line. There is no other way to fit.

Your brother is in the same cell. The door opens, more of them come in. More of them like you—beaten, bruised, helpless. They are put inside the next cell. This time there are two men and a married couple. The woman has burns all over her body. She was raped, they tell you. She was raped and beaten until she soiled herself. They say she has gone mad. They take her away.

This is where you shit, where you piss, where you wash if you still care. You do not feel the wind; you do not see the sun. Your food comes rarely, and what comes is rotten, leftover pig feed. Three men arrive, from Nueva Ecija. They are tortured. One of them has both arms broken. Bleeding.

Sometimes, when the soldiers are drinking, they take you out of your cage and play with you. The game varies, but it is usually the same. Two by fours, chains, an open gardening hose shoved down your nose. You crawl back to your cage, on your hands and knees. You wake up to screaming, to the sound of grown men begging, and you wonder which one it is this time. Sometimes, one of your cellmates will disappear. Sometimes, they don’t come back.

Then they take you away, and there is a doctor, pills, antibiotics, a bed. They tell you they are taking you home to see your parents. You meet the man they call The Butcher, and he tells you to tell your parents not to join the rallies, to stay away from human rights groups, that they would ruin your life and your brother’s. He tells you, this small man in shorts, that if you can only prove you’re on his side now, he would let you and your brother live. He gives you a box of vitamins, and tells you that they are expensive: P35 per pill.

They put a chain around your waist. The military surround your farm. Your mother opens the front door crying, and hugs you. You tell them what you were told to say. You hand them the money Palparan told you to give. Then you are told you must go.

Always, you keep thinking of escape. You make yourself useful, to make them trust you. You cook. You wash cars. You clean. You shop. No task is too menial. And one day, while you sweep the floor, you see a young woman, chained to the foot of a bed. Her name is Sherlyn Cadapan, she tells you, Sports Science, University of the Philippines Diliman, the same Sherlyn who disappeared from Hagonoy, Bulacan on June 26, 2006. She says she has been raped.

Later, you meet Karen Empeño, also from UP, and Manuel Merino, the farmer who rushed to save the two girls when they were abducted. Karen and Sherlyn are in charge of washing the soldiers’ clothes, you and Manuel and your brother Reynaldo wash the car and carry water and cook.

The five of you are taken from camp to camp. You see the soldiers stealing from villagers. You see them bringing in blindfolded captives. You see them digging graves. You see them burning bodies, pouring gasoline as the fire rose. You see them shoot old men sitting on carabaos and see them push bodies into ravines. And in April 2007, you hear a woman begging, and when you are ordered to fix dinner, you see Sherlyn, lying naked on a chair that had fallen on the floor, both wrists and one tied leg propped up.

You see them hit her with wooden planks, see her electrocuted, beaten, half-drowned. You see them amuse themselves with her body, poke sticks into her vagina, shove a water hose into her nose and mouth. And you see the soldiers wives’ watch. You hear the soldiers forcing Sherlyn to admit who it was with plans to “write a letter.” You hear her admit, after intense torture, that it was Karen’s idea. And you see Karen, dragged out of her cell, tied at the wrists and ankles, stripped of her clothing, then beaten, water-tortured, and burned with cigarettes and raped with pieces of wood. And it is you who are ordered to wash their clothes the next day, and who finds blood in their panties.

And you are there, on the night they take away Manuel Merino, when you hear an old man moaning, a gunshot and the red light of a sudden fire.

* * *

The day Raymond Manalo and his brother Reynaldo escaped was the day he promised himself they would pay, all of them who tortured Karen and Sherlyn, who killed so many, who tortured him and his brother until they begged and pleaded. They were pigs, he says, those men were pigs. If he escaped, they told him, and if they couldn’t find him, they would massacre his family. And if they do not answer to the courts here, they will answer to God.

They can still kill him, he says. But even if they do, it is too late. He’s told his story.

PACQUIAO DEFIES THE ODDS, BEATS THE GOLDEN BOY

By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 07 Dec 2008

Las Vegas, Nevada:- On a cold clear night at this glitzy Sin City, Filipino spitfire Manny Pacquiao, outlasted the famed Golden Boy, Oscar de la Hoya, and cemented his legacy as the best pound4pound boxer of the current generation.

Pacquiao scored an 8th round TKO when Nacho Beristain indicated to the referee, Tony Weeks, that De La Hoya is done fighting for the night.

Forget the alphabet titles and the sparkling belts that come with them. This one is for all the marbles and the glory (and the money) that can only come with fights of this magnitude.

A whole plethora of so called “experts” said it cannot be done. Many insisted it should not be done.

Others said it was simply insane to put up a smaller guy who has never fought over the 135 lb. limit against a bigger fellow who had done it in as far as the 160 lbs division.

Still others said that the Golden Boy will simply vaporize the smaller Pacquiao. In fact, even the experienced bookies at Vegas did not believe in Pacquiao’s chances for an upset setting him one time as an underdog at about 10 to 7.

Jose Sulaiman, the President (for life?) of the WBC even branded the bout as “a fight between a pachyderm and a hobbit horse”. (until the Pacquiao allegedly agreed to “pay” sanction fees that effectively shut the mouth of the old man from Mexico.)

Lance Pugmire, the respected Los Angeles Times sportswriter indicated that Pacquiao will lose because “de la Hoya is too big and that Pacquiao took the fight only for the money ($11 million)."

They were all wrong, very wrong!

The fight that was supposed to be a total joke turned out to be a good scuffle.
But what made it a cut above was not only because the little guy won, but how he won! In fact he irrefutably validated the words printed on a t-shirt of a supporter that said, “Si Se Puede, Pacquiao!”

Pacquiao may have been disadvantaged in terms of height, reach, body mass and overall natural weight. But what he lacked, he made up with pure “Filipino blood and guts”, a huge heart and most specially, a blinding speed that shamed the best there is in the sweet science. “They forgot to measure his mindset, heart and soul”, a blogger wrote.

Plus, he had the support of more than 80+ million souls in the Philippines and countless others abroad, praying and hoping that he comes out victorious.
And, that is not to mention the myriad of boxing fans from all over the world who appreciates the sweet science and the Mexican-born boxing fans that crowded the MGM Events Center in support of Pacquiao simply because they really did not care for de la Hoya. They said ODLH does not have the “Mexican style”, whatever that is, that Pacquiao carries to the ring. (But, I suspect it’s really because de la Hoya beat their idol, Julio Cesar Chavez).

During the whole 8 rounds, Pacquiao’s defense was solid and almost invincible. The game plan and technique developed by Freddie Roach and his team of assistants, Buboy Fernandez, Alex Ariza and Nonoy Neri were wholly effective and entirely supreme.

All the training overseen by the celebrated Mexican coach Nacho Beristain and the tons of experience and power Oscar de la Hoya had, did not matter at all. Even the expert advices from Angelo Dundee did not carry any weight. Indeed, Dundee’s presence as an “adviser” amounted to nothing more than a nice PR stunt tailored to what HBO needed to drive up the PPV.

Pacquiao’s victory patently shut up Bernard Hopkin’s big mouth who at the media room of the MGM last Wednesday and at the weigh-in yesterday, loudly predicted that his buddy de la Hoya will KO Pacquiao between the eight and ninth round.
Team Pacquiao had an answer for every iota of stuff the Team Golden Boy brought to the ring and more.

Roach, the wily trainer from the Wildcard Gym in Hollywood was right all along. Oscar de la Hoya was very good. But that was in the past. Tonight, he simply did not have enough to pull the proverbial “trigger” anymore. The “gas left on his tank” was barely enough to carry him and the results were glaringly displayed on top of the ring at the MGM Grand Events Center.

Simply put, he Golden Boy lost his luster as the fight progressed.

The relentless punching machine that was Pacquiao, did what many others have not done in the past. He turned de la Hoya’s pretty face into a mess that would take sometime to heal, and God forbid, for a plastic surgeon to fix.

This is one fight the Golden Boy will never forget for he fell downright short of the revenge he craved so much to attain.

To him it was “personal”. He wanted to punish Pacquiao and show the Filipino “National Fist” that it was a bad idea that he rejected him in favor of Top Rank.
On top of that, he lost a fight to a smaller fighter many thought would be a cakewalk.

But it was far from that.

It was more of an ambush from a little guy. A David slaying the big bad Goliath!
And the loss will undoubtedly put a dent on the glimmering credentials de la Hoya would take to the Boxing Hall of Fame.

More so because he simply quit!

Certainly it will place a damper to his week-old gleaming life-sized statue installed at the Staples Center in Los Angeles alongside Magic Johnson and Wayne Gretzky. As Freddie Roach insinuated, it will be more than what the pigeons will do with their droppings.

However, as we all look back at the whole event, de la Hoya may have lost on top of the ring. But the insane amount of money he made from all the sponsors, the PPV, the live gate and the merchandize sales made him a winner in many ways. He may be black and blue and hurting tonight, but come Monday, he will be walking hand in hand with his business partner, Richard Schaefer laughing all the way to the bank.

So are Pacquiao and his astute promoter, Bob Arum.

It’s no small wonder they called the darn thing the “Dream Match”.

Top photo: Filipino spitfire Manny Pacquiao celebrates after dismantling Oscar de la Hoya Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo by Dr Ed de la Vega / PhilBoxing.com.

Why GMA takes great risks with Cha cha

AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR
By William M. Esposo

Compared to the corruption scandals of the Madame Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) regime, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s sins would appear to be venial.
Thaksin was found guilty of corruption on account of a sweetheart deal. But Thaksin’s controversial transaction does not compare to the billions being made here on account of ghost projects, overpricing of projects (in order to include kickbacks) and outright shakedowns similar to Mafia extortion.

Thaksin did not elevate Thailand to a world class corrupt country just as we are now recognized as the top in our region and ranked fifth most corrupt in the world. Neither was Thaksin notorious for human rights violations and suppression of press freedom.

GMA may have panicked when word got out that Thaksin might come here after being expelled from the United Kingdom. Perhaps she feared that Thaksin’s presence will become a hot topic in both the local and international media. One wise guy can easily quip: “One bird of the same feather hosts another.”

If it gets enough international attention, who knows — it might become a hot topic on the US late-night comedy shows. Saturday Night Live might even find some vertically challenged actress to play Gloria in the same manner that Tina Fey made a franchise of playing Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Imagine David Letterman, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Jay Leno giving GMA this level of attention — something that only Imelda Marcos and her famous shoes got.

And it is not only media mileage GMA missed. She failed to see that granting Thaksin sanctuary here could jumpstart a new industry for the country — that of attracting huge amounts of hidden wealth by making the Philippines a crook’s safe haven ala Switzerland.

The media mileage that Thaksin’s entry will generate is the perfect timing for announcing this new industry for all the shadowy characters who own the big hidden wealth in the world. We are looking here at easily a trillion dollars pouring into the country.

The Philippine Stock Exchange could become one of the most vibrant in Asia — previously unthinkable. GMA’s Trade Secretary, Peter Favila, won’t have to work so hard with the influx of a lot of money (potential capital/investors) into the country.

Sayang (a pity), GMA panicked instead of grabbing the opportunity. I say this of course tongue-in-cheek but what I will now say is not.

One misses out on great opportunities when one is ruled by obsession or fear. In the case of GMA, I think that a lot of her actions are guided by either obsession or fear. Specifically, these are the obsession with power and the fear of a violent ouster.

I do believe that the May 1, 2001 assault on Malacañang Palace by a mob that was incited by now GMA allies Juan Ponce Enrile and Miriam Santiago left a deep scar in her psyche.

Of course, that is quite understandable. Who would ever forget the experience if such an assault was made on your domicile? I am sure GMA was imagining on May 1, 2001 the fall of Ferdinand Marcos and what would have happened to him if the mob that stormed Malacañang Palace in February 25, 1986 captured Marcos and his family.

Who can forget that video of an angry man violently banging a portrait of Marcos after the people took over the Palace? Many who saw that on television felt that if the angry man caught up with Marcos, he would be doing the same on his person.

Couple this fear with an obsession for power and you can imagine and appreciate better why GMA allies are pushing Charter change (Cha cha) again instead of focusing on using the remaining months of her term to close with something better than George W. Bush. Who will not suspect that this Congress signature drive, Jess Dureza’s ‘unholy’ prayer and Juan Ponce-Enrile’s Senate Presidency are all part of a grand Cha cha scheme?

Fear and obsession can easily make a person overlook the grave danger lurking in a given situation. Because of her fear of a violent ouster and her obsession with power which combine to determine her thinking and courses of action, GMA may have overlooked the very real possibility that an attempt to retain power via Cha cha could result in what she fears most.

Having also survived so many crises since May 1, 2001, GMA may have been lulled into complacency – forgetting that there is a real deep-seated dissatisfaction of the majority out there that can bust the dam.

GMA may have forgotten that she is very unpopular and that most Filipinos want to see her replaced in 2010. GMA may have forgotten that many Filipinos are hungry and nothing promotes a political upheaval better than hunger.

GMA may have forgotten that Catholic Bishops have shifted from mere criticism to calls for outright ouster. Recently, two major business groups — the MBC and the MAP — joined the Bishops’ call. She may have forgotten that the AFP is divided.

Most of all, GMA may have lost sight of the fact that there are two superpowers to reckon with — the US and China — whose geopolitical interests are tied up with the Philippines. Any of the two superpowers can easily support a political overthrow here if that suited their national interests.
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Chair Wrecker website: www.chairwrecker.com