A tale of two Presidents

By Alejandro Del Rosario 

We are getting a study in contrast between former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and incumbent President Benigno Simeon Aquino III.

While BSA III continues to display, by his own admission, a streak of vindictiveness,  former President Arroyo exudes equanimity and quiet grace while languishing in hospital detention. She is suffering from cervical spine ailment, a rare and life-threatening bone disorder.  There are no known medical experts in this country who can treat the former President.

Mrs. Arroyo is detained at the Veterans Medical Hospital on charges of plunder filed by the Office of the Ombudsman, allegedly for misusing Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office funds.

She is yet to be found guilty after three years of hospital arrest. But with the glacial pace of her trial at the Sandiganbayan, she might as well have been sentenced to death as she is steadily wasting away.   She is down to 80 pounds and continues to lose weight as she is having difficulty swallowing food.

Mrs. Arroyo, who showed a more Christian disposition, allowed then-detained former President Joseph Estrada to seek medical attention for a much-needed knee surgery. This, while Erap was detained and already convicted of plunder.

Former President Ferdinand Marcos in 1980 released from detention PNoy’s father, the late Senator Ninoy Aquino, to undergo a heart bypass heart surgery in the US.

But when it comes to his friends, like PNP Chief Alan Purisma who has been accused of corruption and unexplained wealth before the Office of the Ombudsman, President Noynoy Aquino is quick to defend his mother’s former close-in security.

“I know Alan Purisma as someone who’s not given to greed or extravagance and he’s doing his job well,” said Aquino to the disbelief of the public which is seeing a surge in criminality. Most of the high-profile crimes such as kidnapping, carnapping, and assassinations are committed by policeman under Purisima’s watch.

Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya and 15 others have been charged with graft in connection with the allegedly anomalous maintenance contract of the Metro Rail Transit. Abaya, former MRT manager Al Vitangcol and members of the Bids and Awards Committeee are under indictment for awarding without public bidding the service contract  to a company owned by Vitangcol’s relative.

Without any track record of train maintenance, PH Trams CBT & T is blamed for the frequent breakdown of MRT trains to the detriment of the riding public.

Three other Cabinet members —Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala--have also been accused of graft but Aquino has shielded them from prosecution.

Abad, the architect of the Disbursement Acceleration Program declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, continues to enjoy Aquino’s confidence. Under his Machiavellian management of government funds, he has been able to hide from congressional scrutiny lump sums in the 2015  national budget. 

Dinky Soliman has been asked to account for more than P62 billion she has doled out under the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer program for the poor. She is also being asked to explain why she kept in a DSWD bank account foreign donations intended for Typhoon Yolanda victims.

Alcala, on the other hand, has been linked to rice smuggling but charges have yet to be filed. The agriculture secretary is a key member of the ruling Liberal Party.

I have already written about this in previous column as others have, but it might be best to remind the President in case he has attention deficit disorder that his “bosses,” the people, are waiting for him to clean up his Cabinet.

Specter of ISIS

Even as the military establishment tries to downplay the specter of ISIS here, there are signs the terrorist threat is already operating in Mindanao. A photo taken in 2012 of the ISIS black banner unfurled by heavily armed new recruits in Basilan would prove the ISIS scourge is more than just “raw information” as claimed by an AFP spokesman..

ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a group formed by radical Islamist rebels from the two Middle Eastern countries presently in the throes of a civil war.

The Department of Foreign Affairs also sent a confidential memo to the AFP informing it of the death of two Filipino ISIS recruits in Syria.

Could this be another failure of intelligence as when the Moro National Liberation Front of Nur Misuari suddenly laid siege to Zamboanga City? Zamboanguenos are still feeling the effects of the MNLF siege with many of those displaced by the fighting still living in evacuation centers.

Will ISIS affect congressional passage of the proposed Bangsamoro?  There are fears in Mindanao’s Christian communities an autonomous Bangsamoro could be a precursor to an independent, separate state supported by the well-funded ISIS.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2014/09/27/a-tale-of-two-presidents/

MILF must categorically condemn ISIS now

by RIGOBERTO D. TIGLAO

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) must immediately condemn in the strongest terms the horrific atrocities of the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

If it doesn’t, Congress is morally required to immediately stop considering the bill for the Bangsamoro Basic Law that would create a sub-state under the MILF’s complete control.

How can we, as a nation, negotiate terms with an armed, militant Islamic organization that doesn’t see anything wrong with the ISIS, and doesn’t publicly condemn their crimes against humanity?

Is the MILF thinking that it cannot afford to antagonize the ISIS – which has huge resources, financially and militarily – in case it may have to ask the international Islamic armed group for help if the Philippine Republic doesn’t give in to its demand for a Bangsamoro (Malay for “Moro nation-state”) statehood?

The civilized world has been one in condemning the ISIS atrocities – beheadings of civilians including children and women, mass executions of captives, rape and mutilation of women. ISIS in its perverted thinking has been even boasting of these horrific deeds, disseminating videos and photos of their acts of depravations on the internet.

Jihadists in Mindanao, jihadists in Iraq

Even Muslim countries in the Middle East – among them Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates – have joined the US-led coalition in waging war against the ISIS. The UAE has even humiliated the misogynist ISIS by telling the world that it was a female pilot who led the first air strike mission against the jihadists’ positions.

Unthinking media reports claimed that the MILF vowed “to block the spread of the Islamic State ‘virus’” in the country. That is total hogwash. The MILF’s only reference to the ISIS was in the editorial on its website luwaran.com dated August 23-31, which tried to debunk reports – including a claim by former President Fidel V. Ramos – that the guerillas of the Abu Sayyaf and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement have gone to Syria and Iraq to join the ISIS.

MILF never condemned ISIS
What was the MILF comment on this? The following, which is hardly critical of the ISIS:

• The number of Abu Sayaff and BIFM “is too tiny to be felt and make a difference. The ISIS is overflowing with volunteers from all over the world, including those from the United States, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Australia.”

• The MILF likens the ISIS to the medieval Christian crusades: “The ISIS, we suppose, is not short of people who are like those Europeans who joined the Crusades in the 13th century to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims, who were described as ‘infidels’ by Christendom.”

The portrayal by some media reports of the MILF condemning the ISIS is merely what you could call a generic condemnation, and even this was buried in a de facto apologia for ISIS, and we quote that luwaran.com editorial:

“The MILF condemns barbarism and savagery whether done by other groups including the ISIS or even by its own members. Nor are we justifying the advent of the ISIS. That is not for the MILF to dip our fingers into.

But it is a fact that the Arab countries suffered humiliatingly from the evil machinations of Western Countries. Iraq was invaded to get rid of a dictator, Saddam Hussein, and to seize his nuclear weapons, which were not there. Nobody cried for the ouster and death of Saddam. But the real reasons for the invasion were concealed, i.e., to seize control of the Iraqi oil and as a protection for Israel, which is the spoiled brat of the Western world.

What did the Iraqis get in return? Nothing but bloodshed, destruction, anarchism. Who are at fault? The one that created the troubles now or those who planted the seeds of enmity and violence? The answer is, both, but who is the main culprit?”

Sadly, our negotiators with the MILF are acting as the rebel group’s spokesmen, assuming that it is against the ISIS. Chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said: “It is very unlikely that there are actually people from Mindanao (joining the ISIS). There is a bigger risk that some overseas Filipino workers in Syria or Iraq got entangled with the ISIS, dahil nandun na sila (because they were already there). But coming from Mindanao pupunta sa Syria or Iraq para sumali (to go to Syria or Iraq to join? We don’t have any clear evidence to show that.”

Coronel is so ignorant: There is a de facto expressway from Muslim Mindanao to the Middle East, because of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, which is required of followers of Islam.

Coronel is blind to the history of the MILF. Compared to other Islamic groups, even its main rival the Moro National Liberation Front, the MILF has had the closest links to the global jihadist movement since its formation in 1976 when it broke off from the MNLF. It wasn’t the MNLF or the Abu Sayaff who sent their guerillas to Afghanistan to join the Taliban mujahideens to fight the Soviet Union in the 1980s. It was the MILF, whose officer corps today is made up of veterans who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan.

MILF’s international links
In contrast to MNLF head Misuari, whose international network had been limited to Gadafi’s Libya, those of the MILF’s former head Hashim Salamat and now chairman Ibrahim Murad, as well as the vice chairman Ghazali Jaafara, have been broader, from Malaysian government authorities to Asean-wide jihadist groups to Salamat’s classmates in his Islamic studies in Egypt.

The Aquino government, his negotiators and Congress are burying their heads in the sand, and endangering our national security if they aren’t taking seriously the implications of recent developments that indicate ISIS has been gathering adherents in our part of the world:

The “Islamic State ‘brand’ gains ground among Asian militants,” the respected British news service Reuters reported last week. “In Asia, thousands have sworn oaths of loyalty to the Islamic State as local militant groups capitalize on a brand that has been fueled by violent online videos and calls to jihad through social media, security analysts say. Security officials say this has disturbing implications for the region, especially when battle-hardened fighters return home from the Middle East.”

The Chinese TV network CCTV.com reported: “A video is doing the rounds which shows members of the Abu Sayyaf pledging allegiance to the ISIS. Another armed group in the Southern Philippines, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, has offered its support to ISIS. A few other clips of Filipino Muslims vowing loyalty to ISIS – including one supposedly shot inside a high security prison – have been making the rounds on the Internet. There are reports that about a hundred young Filipino Muslims have joined the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, two of whom were allegedly killed in battle.”

With all the categorical support for the ISIS announced by militant Muslims here, and with reports that they have even sent their volunteers to Syria to fight, why isn’t the MILF condemning the ISIS?

Are we going to give this armed organization, which most probably secretly supports the ISIS, even only in theory, 10 percent of Philippine territory for them to rule?

tiglao.manilatimes@gmail.com
FB: Rigoberto Tiglao

http://www.manilatimes.net/milf-must-categorically-condemn-isis-now/130271/

The Kurds and the Isis

Public Lives

By Randy David

Philippine Daily Inquirer

As graduate students in England in the late 1960s, my wife and I struck a close friendship with a classmate from Iraq and his Lebanese girlfriend. He was a Muslim Kurd, and she was a Maronite Catholic. Although he carried an Iraqi passport and was sent to England on a scholarship by the Iraqi government, he insisted on being called a Kurd. He did not seem as emphatic about his religious identity as he was with his ethnicity. Later, I realized that apart from Muslims, there were Kurdish Christians, Kurdish Jews, Zoroastrians, and Yazidis.

It was my first encounter with this ancient people, numbering close to 40 million today, the biggest concentrations of whom are found along the borders of Iraq, Iran, and Turkey. Nowadays, every time I read about the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis), I can’t help thinking of my friend and classmate, Mohammed Fatah. Did he go back to Iraq, or did he remain in England? His people, known as the world’s largest ethnic group without a country, have been waging a guerrilla struggle for an independent Kurdistan. Wherever they live in the Middle East, they have been the object of suspicion and discrimination, and the target of the most brutal suppression and dispersal by governments.

Today, the semiautonomous territories that the Kurds occupy have also become the fiercest battlegrounds in the war against the Isis. Compared to the less committed armies of the Syrian and Iraqi governments, the Kurds have demonstrated an astounding capacity to resist the Islamist militants on the ground. Indeed, they have become the staunchest enemies of the Isis dream of an Islamic caliphate.

This is perhaps not surprising. While, the majority of the Kurds are Muslims, they are also known as the Middle East’s most religiously diverse people, who wear their religious identities lightly. They fight as one people, heroically defending a 650-mile front that cuts through the Kurdish homeland along northeastern Iraq.

Recently, Isis jihadists were caught off-guard by the introduction of a new element in the war—an all-female Kurdish fighting force. On the belief that a Muslim killed by a woman will not go to heaven, the Isis fighters have scrupulously avoided engaging the ferocious Kurdish female “Pershmerga” in combat. Through their brave women warriors, the Kurds have been able to retake villages that had been overrun by the Isis forces.

Where the Iraqi army has withdrawn from Iraqi territory in the face of the Isis assault, the Kurds have filled the space, fighting the jihadists and claiming territory for Kurdistan. These were the same forces that rejoiced in the overthrow by American forces of Saddam Hussein’s regime. For decades they had waged a struggle against the brutal Saddam government, and welcomed America’s entry into Iraq. But, against their expectations, America ignored their call for independence when the war was over. One of the biggest reasons, of course, was oil, a large portion of which was on Kurdish territory. America preferred to establish a puppet government for a unitary Iraq, a political authority that never managed to stabilize the country, than to allow the people to rule themselves.

If there is any political center that has proven its will and ability to resist the Islamic State, it is to be found neither in the besieged regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria nor in the brittle government of Iraqi President Fouad Massoum, but in Kurdistan under the leadership of Masoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdish regional government. The Kurds today know better than to wait for America and Europe to recognize them. In July this year, Barzani told his people: “The time has come to decide our fate, and we should not wait for other people to decide it for us.”

All these are fascinating developments in a region of the world where the march to modernity, accelerated by the Arab Spring, has been derailed. Along with the collapse of the postcolonial authoritarian secular state in the course of globalization, we are also witnessing the race to fill the need for meaningful identity by recourse to local segmentary affiliations. In the Middle East, that race is basically between an identity based on territory, as exemplified by the Kurds, and a trans-territorial identity based on religion, as personified by the multinational Isis fighters.

For this reason, it perhaps makes little sense to say that 3,000 Europeans and several hundred Americans have joined the Isis war for an Islamic caliphate. These individuals are European and American only in their travel documents, and, maybe, in their accents. But, as ultramodern as they may be in their arms and in the propaganda methods they use, their principal identification is clearly with Islamic jihadism, not with any particular country in which they may have been born or raised or educated.

Not so the Kurds who have shown how much they continue to be bound by the notion of a Kurdish homeland, despite the fact that they have not been able to establish a separate nation-state. In the course of their struggle, largely self-determined, they have been able to build the foundation for a stable government that, no doubt, has a greater chance at democracy than all the artificial regimes that America has put up in the wake of the wars it fought in the name of democracy.

* * *

public.lives@gmail.com

Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/78841/the-kurds-and-the-isis#ixzz3Ec9ahGqH

Why the IS jihadists must be stopped

http://www.manilatimes.net/jihadists-must-stopped/130274/

The wider participation of Western powers in the air war against the Islamic State (IS) is a very welcome development. It shows how the US and its allies view the jihadists as a very serious terror threat to the whole world.

There is every reason in the world to fear the further rise of IS globally, because it has demonstrated to the world its heartlessness after it beheaded two US journalists, a British aid worker, and a French tourist. It has also posted videos and pictures in the world wide web of its beheadings, mass executions and other atrocities to taunt the peoples of the world and scare us all with their ruthlessness.

Well, the IS jihadists thought the world would take their barbarity sitting down. They were very wrong.

As of Sunday, three more nations – United Kingdom, Belgium and Denmark – have decided to join the air strikes against the jihadists in Iraq. The US and its Arab allies, and France have conducted numerous air strikes against the IS, with the US and its Arab allies also striking jihadist targets in Syria.

The Pentagon said air strikes — which continued for a fifth day in Syria — had disrupted lucrative oil-pumping operations that have helped fund the IS terrorists but that a final victory, perhaps still years away, would need soldiers on the ground.

The White House has welcomed the new European countries recruited to the Iraq operation. They are expected to add a total of 19 fighter jets in the air campaign over the country.

That would free up more US air power to strike jihadist targets in Syria, where American jets are already flying together with warplanes from four allied Arab countries.

The US also approved a training package worth hundreds of millions of dollars for the training and arming of Syrian rebels, who are also up against the oppressive regime of Bashar Al-Assad. The objective of improving the fighting capabilities of the Syrian rebels is also to avoid sending troops from the West to take on the remnants of the IS group, at least over the short term.

Although the air campaign against IS in Syria and Iraq is expected to weaken the jihadists, there is no guarantee that the terrorist group will be completely wiped out. Terrorist organizations operate almost like insurgent groups, or they scatter when they are under intense attack and their remnants eventually regroup to continue the combat. Also, air power cannot do it alone, as proven in the Vietnam War.

This means that eventually, the US and its allies might have to send in ground troops at least in Iraq to make sure the remnants of the IS that survive the air strikes are stamped out.

If there is anything the world does not need today, it is the rise of another terrorist organization that can strike at will or with impunity. Just remember 9/11 perpetrated by Al-Qaeda.

In the local front, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police and the Aquino administration itself should not discount the influence of the IS jihadists, because Asia has become a viable recruiting ground. Reports from Agence France-Presse last week said the US believes the group has 1,000 Asian volunteers in its ranks.

In fact, there are disturbing reports from Mindanao that the IS is getting sympathizers there. Let’s hope the military and the police remain vigilant on the spread of IS in the Philippines, while the US and its allies continue to battle the jihadists until the group becomes impotent.

Outpacing labor in creating wealth

By Rod Kapunan

Part II

The shift from direct investment to produce and manufacture goods to portfolio investment relying wholly on interest rate reached its peak during the Reagan administration.  Here, the period that coincided with the empowerment of the oligarchy spearheaded by Mrs. Aquino, was positively responded to by exempting and reducing tax on foreign investment to attract and give incentive to foreign capital, while at the same time dismantling many of the Marcos-built tariff barriers and subsidies which were designed to encourage production by increasing the income of those who actually toil.  

These incentives given to foreign capital accelerated the gap between profit earned from interest rate on loans, stock trading and speculation, which were mostly confined to non-productive economic endeavor.  The withdrawal of subsidy dis-incentivized investment in manufacturing and agricultural production, while directly affecting those engaged in the production of goods and services, which is supposed to be the most important vehicle in wealth creation.  As a result, the gap of economic inequality became extremely wide. It created a handful class of billionaires whose political power completely synthesized with their economic power, with the teeming majority subsisting on what they meagerly earn with no hope of economically advancing whatsoever.

In the Philippines, it began with the privatization of the government-owned public utilities, with those foreign creditors providing loans to the local oligarchy that signed the notorious currency exchange rate adjustment (CERA). Little did consumers know much about it, and about why they had to pay an additional charge for their water, electricity, toll fee, etc. when normally they should not be charged for those services to justify the high exaction from their earnings called taxes, not to say of it as a public service.  The added cost may be insignificant, but taken collectively could reach staggering proportions.  As a condition, CERA assured foreign investors and international creditors like the World Bank and the IMF that for whatever happens, they could not be shortchanged as a result of the fluctuating value of the local currency against the US dollar.

For instance, if the loan was obtained when the exchange rate was at P41 to a dollar, and suddenly it depreciated to P44, the government allowed the oligarch-franchise holders to collect the difference from their customers the difference of P3 or 18.92 percent.  That includes the interest rate that correspondingly increases.  Under that finance mechanism, there is no way foreign creditors could lose even by a centavo.

Another, was the condition to allow owners of public utility firms such as electricity, water, toll fees, etc.  to pass on their payment of franchise tax to their customers.  Like the CERA, the payment of franchise tax has become repulsive because it is a privilege tax imposed on the owner of the public utility than of a revenue tax.  Franchise tax is precisely imposed to protect the holder from undue competition because the nature of the business would require huge capitalization, and the government has to assure the owner of his investment by granting him either the monopoly or by regulating the industry to prevent ruinous competition.

Franchise is considered a deviation from the laissez faire system but is made necessary to meet the ends of social justice.  Instead of observing that principle as observed under P.D. 551, franchise holders were allowed to pass that on to their customers following the same practice they did to CERA and VAT.  In that, one could see that the oligarchy was allowed not only to own the public utility, given the protection by the State, but to pass on their liability to their customers, thereby creating a class of mega rich in the wretched land of deeply religious people. 

One must not forget that when the government butted in for the trading of electricity, the motive it stated in the “whereas clauses” of the Epira Law was to improve the industry and reduce the cost of electricity by encouraging investors, and the easy route was to trade electricity.  After more than 10 years of trading nicely called Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), there remains no record that the profit generated in the trading of electricity was ever plowed back to improve the industry and concomitantly reduced its cost residual to free market competition.

Maybe the industry has managed to widen its area coverage, but that was carried out by the franchise holders from their own direct investments just as that would be good for them.  Rather, the profit generated from the trading of electricity which partakes of a portfolio investment, wholly went to the pockets of bettors styling as investors, to the owner-oligarchy, with some ending up as fat commissions to traders accredited by the Philippine Electric Marketing Corp. or PEMC.  

Much that the price of electricity per kilowatt hour has gotten out of control, and the public now making their angry clamor for its reduction, forcing the Energy Regulatory  Commission (ERC) to reassert is authority by fixing and reducing the price per kilowatt hour, even if for momentarily.  The assertion of authority by the ERC exposed the downright stupidity of our lawmakers because the trading of electricity impliedly abrogated the power of the ERC to fix the price of electricity. 

As in all public utilities that were deregulated, they were from thereon subjected to the rigors of free market competition, and therefore beyond the control of regulatory laws, although the capitalist vices of monopoly, cartel, price rigging, etc., still played its invisible hand to keep the price at lucrative level to entice investors to keep the casino economy going.   That also happened after the government privatized our water service, our first and only oil company, our expressways, etc.     

As said, the detachment of the US dollar from the gold standard resulted in the oversupply of money because people tend to concentrate more on speculative trading.   That decision was taken advantage, which reason why wealth created through speculate trading disproportionately ballooned in contrast to the normal growth of wealth through production and manufacturing.  Yes, money grew by their figure, but that drastically reduced the purchasing power of the wage earners much that value-wise, their wage remained stagnant, notwithstanding the continuing inflation and loss of jobs. 

Reagan’s chief economic adviser Milton Friedman introduced the monetarist policy - that by controlling the supply of money, the rest of the economy will take care of itself.   He also advocated that the government should keep money supply fairly steady, and expanding it slightly each year to allow the natural growth of the economy.  In that, one could see that money has become pivotal that modern-day capitalists no longer relied on the classic means of creating wealth through the production and manufacturing of goods.   So, from a serious trade deficit, the US economy morphed to become the greatest debtor on this planet.   

rpkapunan@gmail.com

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2014/09/27/outpacing-labor-in-creating-wealth

Chinese experts reject Phl triple action plan

By Christina Mendez (The Philippine Star)

HAIKOU CITY, Hainan – Chinese experts on issues surrounding the disputes on the South China Sea yesterday rejected the Philippines’ proposed triple action plan (TAP) that aims to reduce the escalating tensions among claimant countries over the contested waters.

Experts from China’s think-tank National Institute for South China Sea Studies (NISCSS) told the Philippine media delegation at their main office here that the TAP cannot be implemented since the Philippines already filed an arbitration case before the International Tribunal on the Laws of the Seas (ITLOS).

Wu Shicun, president and senior research fellow of the NISCSS, said the TAP did not take off because the Philippines went on to file the arbitration case, which is supposed to be the final approach in settling the dispute over the overlapping territorial boundaries of claimant countries.

“Why did China had no response to the initiatives? (It is) because the Philippines itself has not followed its initiatives. For example, according to the triple action plan, the South China dispute (should be resolved in stages),” Wu pointed out.

“The Philippines now jumped out or skipped to the final stage to solve the South China Sea by international jurisprudence or arbitration,” he added.

Wu also expressed belief that the TAP was crafted by the Philippines after China built artificial islands in the West Philippine Sea.

Headlines ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

“After 2009, everything has changed. China is not the only country that constructed civilian facilities,” he said, defending Beijing’s move to construct airstrips and outposts in many of the disputed areas.

Wu also declared that the Chinese government would not abide by any decision of the tribunal on the arbitration case.

“China will not follow the judgment when the tribunal makes the final award to this,” Wu said.

Whether or not the tribunal’s judgment favors China, Wu does not think that the dispute between the two countries will be resolved.

Last August, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced details of the TAP in a bid to put up determined actions to reduce tensions and work to resolve the disputes in the South China Sea.

As an immediate approach, the DFA said that the TAP calls for a moratorium on specific activities that escalate tension in the South China Sea. This approach brings the need for a more concrete definition of paragraph five of the ASEAN-China Declaration of Conduct on the South China Sea (DOC).

For the intermediate approach, the TAP highlights the need and call for the full and effective implementation of the DOC and the expeditious conclusion of the Code of Conduct.

As a final approach, the TAP underscores the need for settlement mechanism to bring the disputes to a final and enduring resolution anchored on international law.

But Chinese scholars expressed belief that the TAP had similarities with the pitch of the United States government on the South China Sea disputes.

Scholar Kang Lin raised concern that the US government had a hand in the crafting of the TAP.

“My question for you is why is the Philippines proposal so similar with the US proposal?” Kang asked.

DFA: Phl won’t slow down on arbitration

Wu also told visiting Filipino journalists that an option for the Philippines is to withdraw the arbitration case “as a good gesture” to improve the strained relations between Manila and Beijing.

The Philippines rejected China’s “unacceptable” option. The DFA said the Philippines would not slow down on the international arbitration effort seeking a legal and lasting solution to the territorial dispute with China, as Manila is committed to see the proceedings through to its conclusion.

“The Philippines’ commitment to promote the primacy of the rule of law in the South China Sea is unwavering. We are fully committed to pursue the arbitration case to its logical conclusion,” DFA spokesman Charles Jose said.

He also maintained that arbitration is an open, friendly and an internationally accepted mechanism to peacefully settle disputes.

“Arbitration would lead to a clarification of maritime entitlements accorded to each party by international law. Such clarification would be a solid basis for a final and enduring solution to the maritime disputes in the South China Sea. Furthermore, the decision of the arbitral tribunal will become the established order in terms of maritime entitlements,” Jose said. With Pia Lee-Brago

How Aquino is repeating the excesses of Marcos

by RICARDO SALUDO

When we regained our freedom, there was a popular song that said that we will never allow the aberration that was Martial Law to happen again. And starting in 2001, however, my predecessor, instead of learning the lessons of Martial Law, seemingly adopted Mr. Marcos’ handbook on how to abuse the democratic process.

— President Benigno Aquino 3rd speaking at Harvard University, Sept. 21

Maybe it’s too much to ask of a politician. Still, our Filipino and Christian culture hold certain tenets sacrosanct, even in the often ruthless and unprincipled world of politics.

Don’t hit a man when he’s down, is one unwritten, but strongly felt rule. Nothing like beating up on an ailing enemy to get Filipinos siding with the latter. Another principle is to make sure one is clean before calling the kettle black. Or else people quickly retort: Look who’s talking. Of course, there’s the most basic tenet of all: Speak the truth.

You’d think a leader whose father was publicly vilified while under detention; whose mother largely avoided excoriating the excesses of her husband’s oppressor; and who recently quoted the Gospel of St. John about the truth setting one free, would be the last to castigate a grandmother jailed and sick for purportedly abusing democracy when three fingers of his accusing hand are rightly pointed back at himself.

Yet President Benigno Aquino 3rd did just that in his address at one of the world’s great institutions revered for discovering and propagating truth and knowledge, Harvard University: he hit a woman while she’s down, accusing her of abuses, when, in truth, it is he who has failed to learn from our authoritarian past and committed the same sins against democracy done by dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Just recall what Marcos did, then truthfully consider what Aquino has done.

Marcos sought to rule beyond the limit of two presidential terms by declaring martial law, purportedly to institute sweeping national reforms, then promulgating a new Constitution crafted by delegates bribed by the Palace, and dubiously ratified not by popular vote, but by an assembly of handpicked barangay leaders—all this transpiring under the M-14s of martial law troops.

Today, we have a president who has openly talked of changing the charter promulgated by his mother, so he could rule beyond his single term, and with less oversight from the Judiciary. The very provisions he wants to scrap are the ones instituted to prevent a return to abusive, undemocratic one-man rule. Talk about not learning the lessons of martial law!

To amend the charter Aquino can mobilize a Congress seduced by pork barrel and hostaged by incriminating pork papers, and a computerized election canvassing system which has proven effective in delivering voting ratios favoring the government. The Precinct Count Optical Scan system beats hands down the Marcos-era schemes which robbed the opposition of votes in Batasan polls, and declared the strongman winner against Corazon Aquino in the 1986 snap elections, igniting people power.

Usurping power and coddling cronies

Under martial law, Marcos not only wielded law-making powers, but also set up a rubber-stamp Batasan to pass the statutes he wanted. Today, Aquino’s pork-barreled clout over Congress is beyond doubt. Even with that, he and his budget secretary decided to usurp the legislature’s power of the purse by recasting the General Appropriations Acts of three consecutive years.

The dictatorship that Filipinos brought down and replaced with a democracy under Aquino’s mother, was also notorious for channeling state funds to allies and cronies, and tolerating the corruption of close Marcos associates.

The current Aquino administration has more than doubled pork barrel spending to more than P80 billion till the Supreme Court halted it last year, and diverted even more billions to Congress allies under the unconstitutional Disbursement Acceleration Program. And Malacañang has leapt to the defense of close Aquino associates—the infamous Kaklase, Kakampi, Kabarilan clique—embroiled in anomalies.

Media control was another hallmark of Marcos rule: crony-owned newspapers and broadcast networks sang the regime’s praises and ignored its anomalies and abuses.

Today, the same tack of headlining administration gains and downplaying failings marks the so-called yellow journalism of the mainstream media. The pro-Aquino papers and broadcasters have also lent themselves to media campaigns against political rivals.

Detaining and demonizing opponents

Speaking of Palace adversaries, both Marcos and Aquino jailed and demonized opponents. Aquino’s father Ninoy was among countless leaders arrested under martial law. Though a civilian, the dissident senator was tried, convicted and sentence to death by a military court.

Aquino’s predecessor Gloria Arroyo was barred from seeking medical treatment abroad, even when the Department of Justice’s travel ban on her and her husband was lifted by the Supreme Court. Then, no-bail charges were rushed by a joint DOJ-Commission on Elections probe, which offered immunity from prosecution to an accused Maguindanao Massacre perpetrator for his affidavit accusing Arroyo of electoral sabotage.

When the court finally saw through that dubious witness and granted Mrs. Arroyo bail due to weak evidence after nine months of detention, the Ombudsman concocted another no-bail charge of plunder despite her own preliminary investigation finding no ground for it.

To Marcos’s credit, he allowed his detained adversary Ninoy to go to Harvard for heart surgery, even if the opposition leader was already condemned to death by the military court. Under President Aquino, however, Arroyo is prevented from seeking corrective surgery abroad needed to address a potentially life-threatening misaligned implant in her neck spine. It has caused her to choke on food twice, including a recent scary episode around the time Aquino was attacking her at Harvard.

The hardest lesson to learn

Perhaps the most important cautionary tale from the Marcos regime, at least for leaders with autocratic tendencies, is his unshakeable belief till the very end that he was invincible. During a press conference just days before his fall, the dictator ordered a curfew only to have it disregarded by all of Metro Manila, much like a recent presidential remark, purportedly a joke, asking administration supporters to wear yellow ribbons.

One of Marcos’ last TV speeches was cut off the air when the government channel fell to rebel soldiers, then resumed broadcast with dissident hosts. Yet he managed a final oath-taking and address from the Palace balcony before American aircraft spirited him and his family and closest cronies away to Subic and Honolulu.

This is the hardest lesson for autocrats to learn: how the end, when it comes, would be swift and unexpected. Despite what has happened to so many others before him, every tyrant thinks he will be different. Until God shows him that only His kingdom has no end.