Pork twist: Illegal parking

ON DISTANT SHORE
By Val G. Abelgas

It used to be just pork barrel. But because the Supreme Court has declared the pork barrel, formally called the Priority Development Assistance Fund, unconstitutional, favored lawmakers are now resorting to what Senator Ping Lacson and Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. call “parking” of huge amount of funds inserted into the proposed national budget to get around the prohibition.

Parked funds are included in the proposed National Expenditure Program before it is submitted to Congress, as opposed to insertions or amendments made by senators and congressmen to the national budget.
gloria
Lacson, who obviously opened a can of worms when he exposed the existence of pork barrel funds in the proposed general appropriations act, revealed that big amounts of pork are parked in a legislative district of a well-connected congressman.

“Then he/she offers to share portions of that parked pork to other congressmen with very little or no pork allocations with the understanding that the choice of contractor remains with the former,” Lacson said.

By doing so, the favored congressman strengthens his hold over the region while earning huge commissions from the favored contractor. That bodes well for his reelection campaign and the winning chances of politicians favored by the administration in the region.

Imagine that scenario repeated in various regions of the country and you’ll know how tilted in favor of administration candidates the coming midterm elections would be. That’s exactly how then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ensured victory for her and her allies in the 2004 and 2007 elections.

During Arroyo’s time, though, budget officials and lawmakers earmarked funds for supposed agricultural productivity. Thus, they earmarked P728-million fund for the purchase of fertilizers and P2 billion prior to the 2004 elections for the purchase of pigs purportedly for distribution to farmers to increase agricultural productivity. The release raised an uproar, however, when it was discovered that even congressmen in Metro Manila, where it was hard to find a farm or a pigpen, got their share of the agricultural funds.

Just before the 2007 elections, the Arroyo administration was again able to squeeze into the national budget a P3.1-billion fund supposedly to build irrigation canals throughout the country to, again, improve agricultural productivity. It would be interesting to see how many kilometers of irrigation canals were built with the billions of pesos released that year.

I would hasten to say there were probably very few built because until now, our good friend Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol continues to complain of lack of irrigation for farmlands.

And then probably in preparation for the 2010 elections, Arroyo gave away P2.6 billion to favored senators and congressmen supposedly to build farm-to-market roads in their respective districts. Again, how many kilometers of farm-to-market roads were built? I surmise not even worth half of the amount released.

No wonder Philippine agriculture has remained stagnant for decades. Administrations after administrations allot billions of pesos to improve food production, but most of the money goes to ghost projects and pockets of politicians.

With the ambitious “Build, Build, Build” program the supposed centerpiece agenda of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, it is not difficult to deduce that pork barrel funds would be hidden in infrastructure projects of various government agencies, notably the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Andaya, who is the most likely to know the ins and outs of pork barrel having been a longtime congressman of Camarines Sur and a budget secretary during the term of Arroyo, recently confirmed this.

Following up on Lacson’s earlier expose, Andaya said a mayor told him that a former Cabinet official who is seeking an elective seat in the coming May elections “parked” at least P300 million in infrastructure projects in the proposed 2019 national budget. He said the unnamed mayor disclosed that the Cabinet member parked the allocation in flood-mitigation projects for the region.

Andaya said the supposed “parking scheme” may eventually explain the huge spike allocated to flood mitigation projects from 2017 to 2018, adding that the budget for flood mitigation projects increased to up to P133 billion compared to the P79 billion worth of funds in 2017.

“Out of the proposed P544.5-billion budget of the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) for 2019, P114.4 billion is for flood control projects. Almost 24 percent,” Andaya said, adding that the DPWH may even be unaware of these insertions. Public Works Secretary Mark Villar was indeed reportedly unaware of the fund.

Similarly, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon earlier discovered around P16.18 billion in lump-sum appropriation supposedly for assisting local government units that he said was “parked” in the proposed budget of the Department of the Interior and Local Government. The DILG, during budget deliberations at the Senate last week, however, disowned the fund, claiming no knowledge of how the outlay will be implemented.
So, how many more of these parked pork will be discovered by the Senate? Also, how will the Senate know the truth about reports that a small construction company, CT Leoncio Trading and Construction, whose owner is reportedly connected to Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno has cornered 30 infrastructure projects worth billions of pesos, after Malacanang prohibited him from attending the House investigation on the alleged pork insertions?
The Congress probe on the pork barrel insertions, if not averted, could split the Duterte administration’s supermajority in both houses, especially in the House where the faction of Arroyo and Andaya, on one hand, and that of former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and former Majority Leader Rudy Farinas, are locking horns on the distribution of the pork barrel funds.

It has become a “circus” and a “royal rumble” indeed, as described by detained Sen. Leila de Lima, over two actions that are both illegal and one and the same – pork barrel and pork parking.

(valabelgas@aol.com)

Yearning for Philippine Christmas

ON DISTANT SHORE
By Val G. Abelgas

For Filipinos who have been outside of the Philippines for years, Christmas is both a time for rejoicing and a time for remembering. Even as the Filipino in America begins to feel the holiday mood immediately after Thanksgiving when people start shopping for gifts and Christmas decors, he feels at the same time a longing for home. For nothing beats Christmas in the Philippines!

After living on a distant shore all these years, I can truly say that nothing beats the way Filipinos celebrate Christmas. The genuine joy that the season brings to millions of Filipinos in the Philippines is the same reason why the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos living outside the Philippines yearn for home at this time of the year.

For even just during those few days that Christmas is celebrated in the Philippines, many Filipinos feel they can share the blessings that the world brings. Because of the mandatory 13th month pay and the bonuses paid by nearly all companies, big and small alike, many people are able to afford what they can only dream about the rest of the year.

For the children of the poor, the Christmas season is only one of two instances when their parents can afford to buy them new sets of clothes and new pairs of shoes, the other being the school opening. Christmas is also the only time for many of these children to own a brand new toy, often as a gift from their parents or from their ninong or ninang.

The Christmas season is also their chance to earn some money to buy candies or toys. In the days of yore, as early as December, young boys and girls prepared their instruments for their traditional carolling, making drums out of empty cans covered by plastic, tambourine out of bottle caps, and even just a pair of sticks to provide percussion. At dusk, they formed into groups of three or four, and made their rounds starting on the night of Dec. 16 until Christmas eve. At the end of each night, the carolers counted their earnings and divided them equally among themselves.

Although I had been in the Philippines close to the Christmas season a few times since I left 27 years ago, I haven’t really had the chance to experience being serenaded by young boys and girls with Christmas carols so I’m not sure if these carollers still make the rounds of the neighborhood at night.

While the kids looked forward to the advent of dusk during those nine days to earn some money, the teenagers awaited with anticipation the coming of dawn during that same period. For these teenagers, it was a chance to be with their crushes, girlfriends or boyfriends as they walked to the church in the biting cold. As early as three in the morning, from Dec. 16 to Dec. 24, they woke up and wore their best sweaters or jackets, had fun with their barkadas on the way to church, only to sleep while the mass was going on.

After the mass, they bounced back to life to join their friends again, feasted on bibingkas and puto bungbong on their way home, and hanged around a bit before being called home by their parents.

Towards midnight on Christmas Eve, parents and their children donned their Christmas clothes and trekked back to church for the Midnight Mass. The church becomes a venue for both solemn celebration of Christmas and a chance to mingle with friends again.

From the church, families retreated to their homes for the traditional noche buena, a minor preview of the grand celebration at lunchtime the next day. The noche buena often consisted of pan amerikano (bread loaf) or pan de sal, keso (queso de bola for those who can afford), hot dog, coffee or hot chocolate, etc. Noche buenas are usually only for the family.

But the grand Christmas celebration, usually at midday of Christmas Day, was for the entire clan. It was an occasion for children and grandchildren to gather together in the house of the patriarch or matriarch of the clan. Family members exchanged gifts, caught up on each other’s lives, and partook of the sumptuous meal. Children played games, the male family members drank beer or liquor, everybody participated in a singing session (using karaoke or otherwise), and the female members engaged in endless banter.

Towards the afternoon, children, accompanied by their parents, visited their ninong and ninang to get their Christmas presents. Others visited friends, watched movies, and drank with friends. The merrymaking went on till late at night. But the fun did not end there, because in six days, everybody geared up for a noisy New Year’s Eve revelry.

At least once a year, during the Christmas season, Filipinos are able to let off steam from the pressures of trying to survive, the poor are able to enjoy a bit of material happiness, families renew their bonds, and everyone has fun.

Christmas brings pure and genuine happiness to many Filipinos. It is this kind of joy that a Filipino living in a foreign land misses sorely about Christmas. It is this kind of Christmas celebration that Filipinos living on distant shores can only reminisce about.

(valabelgas@aol.com)

Reviving ROTC and Organizing Sparrows are Duterte Paranoid Ideas

As the Bamboos Sway
By Rudy D. Liporada

The option to revive the ROTC is a desperate move by President Rodrigo ‘Digong’ Duterte to beef up his battalions of fascist troops to counter the New People’s Army (NPA). However, his more or most desperate current move is to “create” his “own Sparrow.” Both ideas of his are actually signs of his paranoia that he will not be able to quash the NPA at the least or be ousted from the presidency at the worst.

In spite of a 2017 report stating that the Philippine Armed Forces (AFP) has 172,500 active personnel with a reserve of 325,000 (totaling 498,250), Digong’s plan of quashing the NPA by the end of 2018 is not happening and the goal had been extended to the middle of 2019. Beefing up Digong’s forces to achieve his operations on finishing the NPAs, he now wants to revive the ROTC, not only to train kids early (militarily saving money on training) but also to dissuade them from “joining the NPA.” He justifies the revival by saying that we need more personnel imbued with patriotism to defend the motherland when the need arises.

What? Patriotism against China? But he has already sold the Islands to China.

And what a hypocrite when he boasts at how he dodged the ROTC by presenting a medical report that he had tuberculosis. He was able to get this report by bribing one among those in the medical clinic waiting for his x-ray and results to use Digong’s name instead.

However, what Filipinos now should be concerned about is his idea of organizing Sparrow Units (derived from SPARU or Special Partisan Units) to counter Sparrow Units of the New Peoples Army (NPA). This is in spite of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana saying that said units of the NPA that used to target members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the urban areas are long time gone since the 1980s. Nonetheless, Lorenzana says that although Digong’s Sparrow units could be wrong and deserve deep study as it could be implemented erroneously like for vengeance or just upon whims, they could still set them up with proper guidelines.

Duterte Sparrow hit squads concept is to assassinate deemed communist rebels or sympathizers thinking of joining the rebellion against the government. The dangerous word is ‘thinking’.

The death squads are supposed to know what you are thinking. “They will do nothing but look for idlers who are prospective New People’s Army (NPA) members and take them out,” the President said. “If they resist violently. If you believe your life is in danger, shoot. If you believe in good faith that you might be one-upped in pulling out your gun, then shoot… If you are behind that animal, then shoot him in the back.” the President added.

So, if they think that you are merely thinking to join the NPA and you are just loitering around, you could be a target of Digong’s Sparrow death squads. This means it can be anybody. This is a super escalation preluded by Operation Tokhang and Operation Istambay. The extra judicial killings of thousands of these said operations will definitely be dwarf compared to the number of killings anticipated from these Sparrow units.

After all, the killings of advocates for workers and peasants and the poor, priests, government officials against Digong, indigenous people, and others, are already happening. What is just new is that the killers will be called Duterte’s Sparrows or simply Duterte’s Death Squads like his Davao’s DDS on a national scale.

These ROTC and Sparrow moves, however, are just admittances of Duterte that Operation Kapayapaan, like the other past operations against the NPA, has failed to quell the insurgents. The situations prevailing in the Islands – high prices of goods and services, killings of peasants, dismantling of urban poor’s shanties, etc.; the selling of the archipelago to China driving the Filipinos further into foreign debt are pushing more Filipinos of the lower strata to consider joining the revolutionary movement.

Thus, Duterte’s paranoia.

Like the butangero that he is, he flexes his muscle like he is strong when he is actually setting up his Sparrows from a position of weakness. If he is winning against the insurgents, there would be no need for the ROTC revival nor the Sparrows. His fentanyl-marijuana twisted mind cannot even digest the fact that the NPA is entering its 50th year of struggle by March 2019. Past administrations were not able to quash the movement. How could he? And what could Sparrows do in the urban areas when the main battlefields are in the country sides? The most they would actually do is to push more advocates to really realize that there is no sense in doing legal battles in the streets of the urban areas and that the only way to change the system is through armed struggle.

So, true, we must be wary because Digong has become more dangerous. But then again, a cornered dog barks its loudest.

Will Trump survive?

Kaleidoscope
By Perry Diaz

Anti-Trump rally.

Have you noticed that the day after the midterm elections President Donald Trump has acted strangely?   As little boys would say, “He’s weird.” First of all, Trump did not concede. On the contrary, he declared that he won! Makes one wonder why he made that claim? Then I realized that he did indeed win the Senate with a net gain of one seat! But when asked about the Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives, he responded that it was a “tie” because the Republicans are still in control of the Senate. Okay, okay… it’s a tie then. He quieted down, which seems to work like a pacifier. But of course he knew he lost BIG TIME! The Democrats had taken control of the House of Representatives including the once-formidable “Reagan Country” in Orange County, California where all six Republican incumbents lost. It was a massacre! All in all, the Republican Party lost seven of the 14 Republican congressional districts in California.

Then Trump played his trump card – he fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions and appointed Sessions’ chief of staff Matthew Whitaker as acting Attorney General, whose intimidating persona could scare a pack of hyenas. With the appointment of Whitaker, speculation is rife that he’s Trump’s hatchet man who would fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller to end the investigation on the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia. Everybody is now waiting for Muller’s head to be chopped off. But Trump was hesitant to give the order to his executioner.

As Whitaker anxiously awaits Trump’s order, the FBI, like a squad of Sherlock Holmes, started scouring Whitaker’s dirty laundry. Within a few days, the FBI special agents – zingo! — found some incriminating information on Whitaker.

The news, as reported by CNN, said: “Matthew Whitaker, the acting US attorney general, was on the advisory board of a Florida company that was shut down by the Federal Trade Commission and served with a $26 million judgment earlier this year for what court documents called ‘a scam that has bilked thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars.’”

One-two-three punch

Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker.

Ordinarily, a scandal like this would either lead to the resignation or firing of Whitaker. But Whitaker stood pat, seemingly confident that Trump wouldn’t let him go. He also knows that Trump needs him more than anybody else, which is to get rid of Mueller. And he also knows that no other person would take the executioner’s job, not at a time when the ship of state is caught in a maelstrom of controversy.

Clinging to his job by a thread of uncertainty, the Democrats demanded that Whitaker recuse himself from the Mueller investigation, claiming hostile statements toward the investigation and allegations of multiple conflicts of interest. But he’s digging in for the long haul.

Then, when the issue of Whitaker’s scandalous involvement with the patent marketing scam subsided, he received notification from Mueller’s office of Michael Cohen’s – Trump’s longtime lawyer — signed guilty plea of lying to spare himself of prison time.

While the notification has no direct effect on Whitaker, the whole gamut of setbacks took its toll on Trump. Indeed, the one-two-three punch hit the mark squarely in the jaw that politically incapacitated Trump. And nobody is happier than House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi who is poised to take the Speakership on January 3, 2019. To Pelosi, it was a personal victory. For eight long years, she was the punching bag of every Republican running for office. But she endured without hitting back at her detractors.

Angry mob

Trump with his supporters, Bikers for Trump.

Trump must be feeling like the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi when he was running for his life. In the end, the angry mob pulled Gaddafi out of a storm drain pleading for his life, which reminds me when Trump had incessantly called the Democrats “angry mob” during the midterms. It must have been a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But Trump never gives up. It’s in his DNA. He always got up each time he fell flat on his face. He filed for bankruptcy six times and six times he got back up ready for the next fight. If he had to lie to extract himself from a tight situation, he’d do it in the blink of an eye, which begs the question: Can he redeem himself from a world of unforgiving habitants? Can he free himself from the demons that have possessed him?   And does he have the will power to fight it out with the rejuvenated Democratic Party in 2020?

Three-headed Hydra

Three-headed Hydra.

But that’s two years away. In the coming year, Trump would be facing a three-headed Hydra. If he cuts off one head, two more would grow back. They depict the three ways that could remove him from the presidency, to wit: by resignation, by impeachment or by the 25th Amendment.

Resignation is an easy way out. But there is a caveat. If he resigns, there would be tons of criminal and civil cases waiting for him. If he wouldn’t resign, then the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives could – nay, would — impeach him, which they can easily do because they have the numbers. The problem would be in the Republican-controlled Senate, which could be pressured or manipulated to exonerate him. The last is by invoking the 25th Amendment. If the Republicans in Congress remain loyal to Trump, then removing him by the 25th Amendment would fail. However, if the Republicans lose their faith in Trump and are convinced that he’d bring down the GOP in the 2020 elections, there is no doubt that they would throw him out of office and put Vice President Mike Pence to lead them to battle in 2020.

However, if Trump survives all three attempts to remove him and would still be the GOP’s nominee for president in the 2020 elections, he might want to remind himself of the recently concluded midterm elections. At every rally that he attended, he told the audience that a vote for a Republican candidate would be a vote for him. In other words, he was telling the voters that the midterm elections were a referendum on his presidency and that a “red wave” is coming. But as it turned out, the electorate overwhelmingly voted for the Democratic candidates.

Indeed, it was Trump himself who created the “blue wave” that reversed the “red wave” that Trump predicted.   He turned off the voters because of his negative campaign rhetoric against immigrants. The Democrats gained 40 congressional seats giving them a formidable majority in the House of Representatives, the largest in five decades.

This must have troubled Trump who had been hoping that he’d retain control of the House. It’s the worst nightmare in his political life. With justice hanging like the sword of Damocles over his head, it makes one wonder: Will Trump survive?

(PerryDiaz@gmail.com)

Author’s note: I started using this column, “Kaleidoscope,” in 2011 to weigh in on the political issues in the U.S. It mainly touched on the various colors of U.S. politics. After two years, I decided to integrate it to my regular column, “PerryScope.” But recently, with the number of issues confronting the American people, I decided to revive “Kaleidoscope” to provide an opinion on issues that affect Americans.

The new ‘Indios’ and the new ‘Filipinos’

PerryScope
By Perry Diaz

“Indios” during the Spanish Era.

During the 300-year Spanish colonial era, the natives were called “indios” and the Philippine-born Spaniards and mestizos (mixed heritage) were called “Filipinos.”

In 1898, after a brief period of Philippine independence, Spain ceded the Philippine Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States at the Treaty of Paris for $20 million. The old masters left and the new masters arrived. Consequently, the fallacy that had been going on for more than 300 years was corrected: the natives who had been derogatorily called “indios” became the new “Filipinos.”

Spanish-Filipino mestizas: “Filipinos” during the Spanish Era.

The first thing the Americans did was to integrate the new Filipinos into the government patterned after the American civil service. Another was to educate the Filipinos in the language of the colonial masters, which is the exact opposite of the Spaniards who discouraged – nay, banned – the indios from learning Mother Spain’s language.   Only the Filipinos(non-natives) and the favored elite were allowed to speak Spanish.

It didn’t take long for the Philippines to progress after gaining its independence on July 4, 1946. In the 1960s, the Philippines was second only to Japan in terms of economic power. When the corrupt Marcos dictatorship took power, the country came to be known as “The Sick Man of Asia.”

Fast-forward to the Duterte era. President Rodrigo Duterte announced that he couldn’t stop corruption in his administration no matter how hard he tried to stop it. He also complained that the trafficking of illegal drugs continue to mercilessly destroy the lives of millions of Filipinos.   He was so frustrated that he was thinking of stepping down.

But then came another threat to Philippine sovereignty – the Chinese colonization of the Philippines. Indeed, the threat is three-pronged: influx of Chinese nationals, trafficking of illegal drugs, and debt trap diplomacy.

Influx of Chinese nationals

POGO casino in Manila.

China’s “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) expansion into the Philippines has drawn various industries that created new economic opportunities. One of them is offshore gaming known as Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO), which was established after Duterte took over the government in 2016. There are now more than 50 POGO licensees, many of whom are Chinese groups.

The influx of Chinese gaming companies has created another industry – real estate. Due to the demand for POGO facilities, offices and houses of the Chinese nationals, property values have skyrocketed. The growth is phenomenal. POGO companies employ mostly Chinese nationals that deprive Filipinos of much-needed jobs. Their flimsy reason is they speak Mandarin, which is what the Chinese gamblers from China speak.

Indeed, the influx of Chinese nationals to the Philippines has taken a quantum leap. As a group that’s known for not assimilating with the general population, the Chinese would build in no time hundreds of ethnocentric communities – mega-Chinatowns — that would control the economic activities in major population centers.

Trafficking of illegal drugs

Illegal drug laboratory.

The illegal drug operation involves various players, to wit: Foreign drug manufacturers, smugglers, corrupt government officials, shabu laboratories, drug lords, corrupt Customs officials, corrupt PDEA officials, corrupt police officers, drug pushers, and drug users. It’s a hierarchy where all the players play a part in the distribution network that has turned the Philippines into a country of drug-induced zombies. It’s destroying the country!

The drug problem started at the top of the food chain – the drug manufacturers that are based in China. The Philippines has become the major distribution hub because of the corruption in every level of the government structure. Corrupt government and local officials protect the smugglers, shabu laboratories, and drug lords, who in turn bribe the corrupt Customs, PDEA, and police officers.

Debt trap diplomacy

Beijing has been given a 99-year lease on Hambantota port as part of a debt-reduction deal, amid talk of creditor imperialism following China’s buy-up of strategic ports in Piraeus, Darwin, and Djibouti.

Studies show that the Philippines is very vulnerable to “debt trap” because of China’s high interest rates. Compared to Japan’s interest rates that range between 0.25% and 0.75%, Chinese loans come with an interest rate of 2% to 3%, which is   12 times higher than those from Japan. Yet, the Philippines and other poor and underdeveloped countries would take Chinese loans only because they’re part of the OBOR “packaged deal.” It’s a trend called “debt trap diplomacy,” a new form of neo-colonialism.

In his attempt to improve and modernize the country’s economy, President Duterte is seeking more loans for the country’s infrastructure buildup in the next four years totaling a whooping P8 trillions ($150 billion). Since infrastructure projects don’t generate revenue directly, the country could fall victim to China’s “debt trap diplomacy.” Indeed, falling into a debt trap could lead to Filipinos’ subservience to China – second-class citizens in their own country, just like it was during the Spanish colonial period.

China’s ambitious trillion-dollar OBOR project has attracted 70 countries in Asia, Oceania, Africa, and Europe with railway lines and shipping lanes.

China’s ambitious trillion-dollar OBOR project has attracted 70 countries in Asia, Oceania, Africa, and Europe with railway lines and shipping lanes. However, to fund OBOR, China offers high-interest loans to poor and developing countries, which makes one wonder: What happens when these countries are unable to pay their loans?   Well, it’s just like having a house or a car that you can’t afford to pay the loans; the lender would either foreclose your home or repossess your car. In the case of OBOR projects, Chinese loans use natural resources and assets as collaterals that she could take possession of if a country defaults on her payments.

To date, eight countries are vulnerable to debt traps: Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, the Maldives, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan, and Tajikistan. One country, Sri Langka, had fallen into a debt trap already; she had defaulted on her more than $1 trillion debt to China. Recently, she handed over the Port of Hambantota and other projects to several Chinese state-owned companies. Another one is Djibouti, which ceded control of a key port to a Chinese-linked company. Djibouti is strategically located at the strategic Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb at the mouth of the Red Sea, an important sea-lane that connects to the Suez Canal.

It’s important to note that China has a preference for taking over shipping ports that are along the OBOR sea routes that would bring goods – particularly oil and gas — from as far as Africa and the Persian Gulf through the strategic Strait of Malacca all the way to China. With China controlling shipping ports along the OBOR sea routes, which are often referred to as China’s “string of pearls,” China’s domination of the sea-lanes is assured.

Neo-colonial masters

Chinese President Xi Jinping: The neo-colonial master?

In regard to the Philippines, with China’s high interest rates, the current government’s debt of approximately $123 billion could rise to over $1 trillion in 10 years. Given the humongous loans that the country gets from China, what’s the likelihood of China taking possession of Philippine assets if she defaults on her loans? There are lucrative assets that China could take over such as the oil-rich Recto Bank, Benham Rise, Malampaya gas field, Clark and Subic Bay Freeport Zones, Port of Manila, Port of Cebu, mining companies, and others.

Indeed, with the influx of Chinese nationals, trafficking of illegal drug from China, and the likelihood of defaulting on her Chinese loans is pretty high. With her geostrategic location in the South China Sea, where $5-trillion worth of goods pass through each year, it makes the Philippines a high-value target for China’s imperialistic expansion.

If China establishes herself as the neo-colonial master of the Philippines, the Filipinos would then become the new “indios” and the Chinese colonizers would be the new “Filipinos.” Does that sound like it would be the Spanish colonial era except that the Chinese would take the place of the Spanish colonial masters? Is this history repeating itself? The question is: Is it inevitable or could it be prevented?

(PerryDiaz@gmail.com)

Duterte Death Squad

PerryScope
By Perry Diaz

Col. Napoleon Valeriano and the Nenita Unit’s “Skull and Bones” insignia.

President Rodrigo Duterte has a plan that would counter communist assassins. It’s going to be violence vs. violence. It’s going to be an armed civilian group called the “Duterte Death Squad.” And it’s going to kill killers! Instantly, his plan sparked controversy and drew a cautious reaction from his own Defense Secretary, Gen. Delfin Lorenzana who admitted that the plan could lead to cases of abuse.

Duterte was referring to the Sparrow units of the New People’s Army (NPA) that specialize in assassinations. “Now what I don’t have is my own Sparrow,” Duterte said. “So I will create my own Sparrow. Duterte Death Squad against the Sparrow… I will match their talent also for assassinating people. They will have firearms for sure. That’s my plan,” he added. “They will do nothing but look for idlers who are prospective New People’s Army members and take them out,” he said. Kill them!

It must have shocked a lot of people including his allies. The idea was immediately shot down by Duterte’s own political ally, Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, president of the President’s ruling party, PDP-Laban. “That cannot be done. I’m sure the President will not create such a squad,” Pimentel said.

Even Jose Ma. Sison, the founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has misgivings about the idea. “I think that Duterte is citing them [Sparrow units] as a pretext for organizing more death squads of the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] and PNP [Philippine National Police] for the mass murder of mere suspects who are not even the target of any court warrant of arrest,” Sison said. He added, “Sparrow units, active during the martial law years, have not been operational since the 1980s.”

Nenita Unit

Col. Napoleon Valeriano and then-Secretary of Defense Ramon Magsaysay.

The use of death squads has its beginning in 1946 after World War II ended. One of the largest anti-Japanese guerilla groups was the communist Hukbo Ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon or Hukbalahap (Huks for short). With no more wars or enemies to fight, the Huks took to the hills under the leadership of Huk Supremo Luis Taruc to wage war against the fledgling government.

Under the command of then-Secretary of Defense Ramon Magsaysay, the dreaded Nenita Unit was created under Col. Napoleon Valeriano, whose main mission was to eliminate the Huks. Unconventional tactics were developed with the advisory role of U.S. Major Edward Landsdale, who was then working for the CIA. Working together with Valeriano and Magsaysay, they broke the back of the Huks in two years. With the Huks gone, the Nenita Unit was disbanded in 1950. The anti-Huk campaign propelled Magsaysay to national fame. In 1953 he ran for president against his former boss, President Elpidio Quirino, and won with the support of 68.9% of the voters.

Alex Boncayao Brigade

Communist Party of the Philippines Founding Chairman Jose Ma. Sison in exile in The Netherlands.

But that was not the end of the communist movement in the Philippines. In 1968, Jose Ma. Sison founded the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The following year, Sison and Bernabe Buscayno (commonly known as ”Commander Dante”) organized the NPA, the guerilla arm of the CPP. In 1984, after serving time in prison, Sison fled to exile in The Netherlands. He’s been there since. But he continues to act as CPP Chairman, directing the NPA from abroad.

The Sparrow units have their beginning when NPA’s Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB) was created in 1984 during the martial law era. It was the urban assassination unit of the NPA. In the 1990, ABB broke away from the NPA over ideological differences.

After the ouster of Marcos in 1986, the ABB became more active in assassinating government officials. The ABB was credited with the assassinations of about 200 police officers between 1984 and 1993. The ABB acquired a reputation for viciousness and its hit men were called “Sparrow Squads” for their swiftness and skill in fleeing from the crime scenes. Typically, they operate in tandems using a motorcycle with the second man as the shooter. Due to the traffic jams that inundate the streets of Manila, a motorcycle could zig zag its way around the city; thus, avoiding capture.

In the early 1990’s the ABB was disbanded. In its place, a Sparrow-like unit was created. Known as the Special Partisan Unit (Sparu) under the NPA, it is different from the notorious “Sparrow Squad” of the defunct ABB.

According to PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde, over the last three years, there have been 136 hits on soldiers, police officers, rebel returnees, local government officials, and tribal leaders attributed to the present-day Sparu or Sparrow Unit. He said that they are usually based in rural areas, unlike the former Sparrow Squad who were based in urban areas. [Source: INQUIRER.net, Dec. 3, 2018]

Davao Death Squad

Davao Death Squad.

Duterte’s plan has similarity to the Alta Masa and Davao Death Squad, two vigilante groups that were active in fighting lawless elements in Davao City when Duterte served as mayor for two decades ago.

In the 1980s, Davao was known as the “Murder Capital of the Philippines.” Alta Masa was credited for fighting the NPA while the Davao Death Squad was responsible for fighting illegal drugs and criminality. Duterte took credit for cleaning up the city of crime. More than 1,000 were killed as a result of his anti-crime crusade.

CAFGU

CAFGU insignia superimposed on CAFGU militia in formation.

In the late 1960s to the 1970s, Tarlac politicians formed a paramilitary group called “Monkees” to fight the NPA, who were called “Beatles” because of their long hair. So, it became a fight between the Monkees vs. the Beatles. Instead of guitars, they used guns. But due to negative publicity, the Monkees were disbanded.

In 1987, the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU) militia was created. CAFGU is an irregular auxiliary force of the AFP. CAFGU units are tasked to prevent the re-infiltration of communist insurgents into the villages that have already been cleared of their influence by combat operations conducted by regular units of the AFP. The CAFGU units are armed with weapons and receive monthly stipends. They seem to be effective in keeping the villages safe.

Last February 2018, Duterte reportedly cautioned rebel returnees against going back to their hometowns. Instead he suggested they should join the CAFGU. “I suggest that you stay with the Armed Forces and be a CAFGU. You should be given that first so that you can go back to your hometown. You can’t go back to the mountains anymore unless you kill them all,” Duterte told 238 rebel returnees at a merienda he hosted in Malacanang. He also promised to provide them and their children free education and training, especially since “there is a scarcity of skilled workers even in Manila” for the government’s massive infrastructure program.

And this begs the question: Why doesn’t Duterte expand the CAFGU to integrate the “Duterte Death Squad” mission that he had in mind? By doing so, he’ll avail of the nationwide network and operational structure of CAFGU, which are already in existence since 1987. CAFGU works. Why reinvent the wheel when all Duterte has to do is make it stronger?

Simply put, there is no reason to create the “Duterte Death Squad.” President Duterte has enough firepower to fight the communists. Unless, he was only joking when he said he would create the “Duterte Death Squad.” Like they say in the streets of Manila, “Dyok only.”

(PerryDiaz@gmail.com)