PH OMBUDSMAN IMPEACHMENT BOOSTS ANTI-CORRUPTION

PH OMBUDSMAN IMPEACHMENT BOOSTS ANTI-CORRUPTION

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

The Philippines has been doing badly in the global corruption indices. Bad governance—and the stinking corruption accompanying it—redounds to slow wealth redistribution, grinding poverty, and high unemployment. Ph needs to shore up its badly tainted image if to solve its centuries-old poverty problems.

Incidentally, a concerted effort to impeach the incumbent Ombudsman, Merceditas Gutierrez, has been ongoing. The House of Representatives’ Committee on Justice just ruled favorably for the impeachment, while the Supreme Court rejected Gutierrez’s motion to stop the House of Representatives from proceeding with the decision to unseat her. This move bodes well for anti-corruption campaigns, and I hope the world watches over this event.

Gutierrez was appointed by the previous president, Gloria Arroyo, to serve for a period that will end in 2012 yet. As anti-graft court’s czarina, she was expected to accelerate the wheels of justice on high-level controversies of graft involving state officials. Instead, Gutierrez slept on those cases, which involved officials close to Arroyo and could have involved the past president herself.

To add insult to the injury felt by the public about lackadaisical treatment of high-level cases, Gutierrez opted for a plea bargain on a corrupt retired general’s case after the latter already pleaded guilty to the wrongdoing. The former armed forces comptroller was found to have amassed over P300 millions worth of ill-gotten wealth from out of the budget appropriations for soldiers.

Both civil society and political parties acted to quickly address the pugnacious state of the justice system. The respond they conceived of was no other than the impeachment of the Ombudsman herself. Civil society groups’ recommendations to the House Committee on Justice were heard enough, and in fact they became the basis for legislators to cast votes on.

Prior to the House Committee’s vote on the matter, the incumbent President Noynoy Aquino called for his party mates (Liberal Party) to an emergency meeting in the presidential palace. The tall order given out by the president was for the irreversible decision to impeach the Ombudsman via the rules and decisions of the Congress.

To recall, the incumbent president campaigned hard on a platform of good governance. The campaign pitch reached a crescendo that was akin to an Inquisition. Though I find that seemingly hard-line note to his party’s campaign unacceptable, and doubted whether his party-mates are clean people anyway, I am in synch with the campaign insofar as it would result to the incarceration of “big fishes” of grafters.

The past president, brilliant as she may have been, left a legacy of further weakening of institutions via high-level graft. The time to break out of the vicious cycle legacy has come, if to reverse centuries-old poverty and decades-old insurgencies whose rationale were built from the anti-corruption discourse.

“Bureaucrat capitalism breeds graft & corruption” has been the much trumpeted Maoist discourse regarding corruption. I am all too glad to see the Maoist Left leaders—of their above-ground parties and civil society groups—bring their advocacies this time to the proper legal-juridical platforms. They were among those civil society groups that petitioned the House for impeachment, while some of their congressmen (party list representatives) voted in favor of the impeachment motion.

For a final note, I hope that the armed Left will take a second look at the anti-corruption efforts now going on, inclusive of those that involve their civil society leaders at the helm of campaigns. Maybe the impeachment of the Ombudsman, which is most likely to come, will be a big boost to the anti-insurgency campaigns too.

[Philippines, 10 March 2011]

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PEACE TALKS BETWIXT PH GOVERNMENT & REBELS RESUME

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

We have a glad tiding of news coming from the Philippines as the stalled peace talks between government and rebel groups will resume again very soon. A heartwarming news this one is, as Filipinos are now very sick and tired of local wars. It’s time that total peace be achieved very soon.

To recall recent history, Maoist and Muslim insurgencies broke out in the Philippines way back in the early ‘70s. Martial Law, declared in 1972, was instrumental in further swelling the numbers of insurgents, leading at one point to conflicts bordering civil war proportions.

The Maoist New People’s Army, military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines or CPP, a ragtag band at its inception, grew to a huge size across the major island groups along the way. Smaller factions split off from the CPP-NPA, it shrank in size in the past decade, yet it continues to be a threat to the central government.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front or MILF was a splinter group from the Moro National Liberation Front or MNLF. The latter, original Muslim insurgency group agreed to a negotiated peace settlement in the ‘90s yet, so only the MILF eventually pursued the old dream of an independent state for provinces where Muslims have a strong presence. While the MNLF held a secular ideology, the MILF was largely a sectarian, Islamic movement.

Talks between both rebel groups and government stalled during the incumbency of the Gloria Arroyo regime. It was unfortunate and tragic a consequence of failed talks, as battlefronts across the islands continuously experience ambuscades and confrontations between warring forces. Collateral damage had already downsized, but it continues to be a phenomenal consequence of the hot wars.

I just hope that the peace talks won’t be for show, like a zarzuela of sorts. Like most compatriot Filipinos, I have grown tired of the wars though I see legitimacy in the advocacies of the insurgents. I myself am of the opinion that social causes are at an all-time relevance, yet these social causes can be fought for through legal and electoral means.

Filipinas has already urbanized across the decades, and urbanization is proceeding at a rapid pace. 2% of folks are added to urban population every year, while 2% are deducted from rural population during the same period. At 68% urban population today, Filipinos can better be convinced about pursuing social causes and advocacies via the ‘urban way’ of mass movements, civil society, and electoral contests rather than the bloody armed way of the old rural Philippines.

The Maoist Left and other Left groups have already proven the relative success of the ‘electoral way’ to institute structural and economic changes. It may be time now to fold up all rebel groups from the most secularly-oriented groups to the most sectarian-fundamentalist groups. The rugs under our feet are changing and the pace of change is fast, so ideological blocs should be fast enough in retooling themselves and co-directing the compass of change via the ‘urban way’.

Meantime, Norway has committed itself as a 3^rd party to the talks with the Maoists, while Malaysia has done the same to the talks with the Muslim rebels. The Filipinos down the ground welcome the peace talks, and wouldn’t squirm at the venues of talks whether these be domestically located or overseas. What matters most is peace talks are resumed and warring parties are holding genuine dialogues.

So far, confidence-building measures were already done by the Aquino regime, with the release of political prisoners from the Left. Not only that, even the political prisoners from the military rebel group Magdalo were also released (the mutiny group is ragtag/no peace talks are necessary between it and government). Development projects in areas covered by Muslim rebels are being scaled up.

A nice beginning for the year 2011 indeed, as the crucible of dialogue pervades among warring camps. Let dialogue be the strategic expression, as conflict folds up and is consigned to historical archives.

[Philippines, 06 February 2011]

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Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs anytime!

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LUISITA ESTATE, HACIENDAS: ANACHRONISM IN POST-INDUSTRIALIZING PHILIPPINES

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Magandang araw! Good day!

It’s the 1^st of July, the first day of official reporting by the newly elected political leaders of the country led by President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III. Riding astride the air of optimism induced by the new leadership, let me say more notes then about my homeland.

Let me shift to landlordism as this phenomenon seems to have remained unscathed by the ‘scorched earth’ flames of modernization and post-industrial growth. Our newly elected president here, ‘Noynoy’ Aquino, is a scion of the oligarchic family of Cojuancos and is an heir to the 11,000-hectare Luisita Estate in Tarlac province.

I still recall that in the late 1990s, as a graduate student of development studies in De La Salle University-Manila, I underwent the course on constitutionalism and development. I tasked myself to review the constitutions of thirty-five (35) countries, with the aim of unearthing and extracting the theme of agrarian reform from them.

To my amazement, most of the countries I researched on, including Taiwan, Korea, and many developing states, clearly emblazoned in their national charter the theme of agrarian reform. The impeccable intention was to declare land reform as a determinative development policy. The landlords should be enticed to divest from their rural estates and channel their new investments to birthing strategic industries.

I did write a paper on the topic, which my professor, Dr. Wilfrido Villacorta (former undersecretary of ASEAN, delegate to the 1986 Constitutional Convention), appreciated very well. The research also enlightened me more about the urgency of decisively implementing agrarian reform in the Philippines that barely made it to the passing mark of successful land reform programs.

Almost a quarter of a century after the new charter was signed and ratified by our citizens, and after the consequent legislation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, many large feudal estates still abound. They seem to remain untouched by the law, as if they are autonomous mini-states in a nation that is rapidly urbanizing along mixed industrial and service economy growth trajectory.

Let’s take the case of the Luisita estate. In 2006 yet, the Agrarian Reform department decided that a total of 6,453 of Luisita should be apportioned to the farmworkers. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court blocked the implementation of the decision as it issued a Temporary Restraining Order or TRO that stopped the implementation. A TRO should be in effect only for a maximum of 30 days, yet years have elapsed and it is still in place.

Other large estates are similarly situated as Luisita. For instance, there are the Yulo estate in Laguna and the Pedro Roxas estate in Batangas. I still recall that way back in 1998, I was among consultants who helped agrarian reform beneficiaries of a 500-hectare piece of Roxas estate (out of total 30,000 hectares) in their capacity-building and productivity boosting. The same beneficiaries asked me if I knew anybody from the Agoncillo clan that owned a total of 30,000 hectares of estates…

There are more such huge estates to count. And truly, I am overwhelmed by their gargantuan sizes that are enough to build huge mega-cities such as Singapore or Manila. I could almost puke at the mere mention of their names, and puke much more when I learn about their vast sizes and the slave-driving management styles of their owners that have led to appalling living conditions for the farmworkers.

RP’s population was 66% urban and 34% rural as of end of 2009. Urban population is moving up by 2% every year, while rural population is moving down by the same figure. By 2016, the next presidential election year, urban population will already be at least 80% urban and rural population down to 20%. What are haciendas for in an urban Philippines, one may ask.

Furthermore, RP’s labor force is now past 50% service sector and 15% industrial sector, with barely 34% left to fend for our farms and fisheries. Agriculture now contributes to merely 15% of the GDP, while services comprises a whopping 60% or so (the rest is industries). Tourism, which forms past 10% of GDP today, will most likely surpass agriculture as a contributor to national income by 2016.

Now that brings us back to the question: what are feudal estates doing in an urban-to-suburban Philippines with a rapidly post-industrializing economy? Strange anachronism! All we need to do is follow the footsteps of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China to realize that such estates must be released from feudal yokes so as to carve out a win-win growth path between the small planters and their former overlords-turned-entrepreneurs.

When I registered my vote for the ratification of the charter in 1986, I already made up my mind to see that all such estates be transformed to high productivity enclaves beginning with their subjection to the reform program. All the landlords should quickly divest from such landholdings and move their investments in industries and services.

I stand pat on that decision, and will be on standby to help out those agrarian beneficiaries who seek professional help for improving their farm production and quality of life. And I welcome a Philippines that will someday move towards the space age, thanks for a willful departure from an anachronistic feudalism of past dark ages.

[Philippines, 01 July 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

BOOST PHILIPPINES’ BUDGET TO 2ND WORLD LEVEL

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

I wish so much to write notes about the planet and all the world’s regions, but I surely find it so irresistible to write reflections about my own country. I’m sure my friends and readers will understand this, me being a patriotic lover of my country and people despite our collective imperfections.

That said, let me focus this time around on the matter of budget. We have a new presidency, a new set of leaders from national to local levels, and I don’t want to miss out on delivering unsolicited advises to our new government concerning budgets.

By the end of this year 2010 our Gross Domestic Product or GDP will hit P8.25 Trillion more or less (it was P7.67 Trillion in 2009). That’s roughly U.S. $183 Billion (nominal value). Add the $18 Billion forecast Net Factor Income from Abroad or NFIA (read: overseas remittances), and the total figure yields $201 Billion.

$201 Billion national income is a 2^nd World or ‘middle income’ country level of wealth. Let us stick to the figure and level so we won’t get detracted by the Gordian knots of discourse. This being so, the Filipinos deserve to see their state funded at 2^nd World level and not any level otherwise.

Let us, for the sake of minimalist discourse, peg an annual budget at 30% of the GNP. The 30%-50% figure is known in scientific parlance as ‘critical mass’. To simplify our discourse, a ‘critical mass’ of budget will provide ample space for fiscal maneuverability, fund social services in fat sums, build more infrastructures, and pay up for state debts.

Any budget that is below ‘critical mass’ is direly undernourished, even as it could jeopardize our way to development ‘maturity’ and higher incomes for our households by 2016. Remember, we can no longer go back to the days of austerity that kept us mired in poor country status for a long time, so let’s better spend—with the expectation that spending will stimulate other sectors to grow.

The budget allocation for this year is a measly P1.5 Trillion. Measly in that it only grew by P100 Billion, or 7.14% from the P1.4 Trillion budget of 2009. A budget, to make sense and impact, must grow by at least 10% ever year.

30% of GNP means that our budget should not be lower than $60 Billion to qualify as ‘middle income’ country budget. Using the P45.50 to the dollar as our conversion rate, the expected budget should be Philippine P2.73 Trillions. That indexical calculation instantly renders RP’s 2010 budgetary appropriation short of P1 Trillion to make sense and impact at all.

Another unsolicited advise is that education, my favorite sector being an educator (teacher & social scientist), should get the largest share of the pie. And this should be at least 5% of the GNP. Let me stress that the benchmark should be GNP and not GDP since the latter unjustly leaves out the overseas workers & entrepreneurs in the equation.

The annual budget for education should therefore be at least U.S. $10 Billion, or Philippine P455 Billions. Contrast that figure to the P150 Billion allocated for education in the 2010 budgetary appropriation, and one can easily see why Philippine education is mired in cesspools.

The P455 Billions could be split up into the following: P250 Billions for primary education, and P205 for tertiary education. The total figures don’t include yet those budgets allocated by local governments for education, which when added to national appropriations could yield a figure much higher—at past 7% of GNP—appropriated for education alone.

Where to get the funds is another question for that matter. Let the question be tossed to the legislature, treasury/finance departments, and central bank to settle. It is important that I have delivered the message here very clearly: that a second world economy must affix budgets at figures befitting a 2^nd world budget.

[Philippines, 30 June 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

PHILIPPINES’ NEW PRESIDENT: AKBAR OR NERO?

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Magandang umaga! Good morning!

The whole Philippine nation is glued today on the event that will see the installation of the new president of the republic, the Hon. Benigno Aquino III or ‘Noynoy’. Whatever this day forebodes let us relegate to active file for the meantime, as my fellow Filipinos bask in the optimistic air created by the election of a new presidency via the first automated elections in the Philippines and the ASEAN.

The problems of the country are gargantuan, with governance problems of graft on top of the list. Tax revenues are falling short of targets, a ballooning budget deficit is threatening another round of fiscal crisis, poverty incidence is at least 1/3 of households, education is in crisis as it remains badly under-funded, grains self-sufficiency goals are a mess, and direct foreign investments or FDIs are negligible (1% of GNP).

Noynoy inherited from the outgoing presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo both boons and banes. The above-stated situations are the primary banes. The boons are the graduation of RP’s economy from poor to middle income, the consistent positive growth befitting an emerging market, the reversal of a fiscal crisis, and the doubling of the economy since 2001.

Furthermore, the economy today has a balance of payments surplus, healthy current account situation, an annual foreign remittance level that breached the $17 Billions mark, while both exports and imports have moved upwards after the 2009 slack. Our Gross International Reserves or GIR stands at past the $45 Billion, enough to buy us worth nine (9) months of imports, beaconing that the old ailment of lack of foreign currencies (US dollar most specially) is now way behind us.

Thus, with the momentum of growth and big projects sustained at pace, the ‘high growth’ stage of our economy can end soon as we graduate to development ‘maturity’ before 2016. That done, we can move on to an ‘overdeveloped’ economy, the last phase of development, before 2025. Expectedly, Luzon will lead in that effort, followed by Visayas and Mindanao respectively.

Roughly, RP’s Gross National Product or GNP will hit $200 Billion by end of this year 2010. The figure uses the nominal value of the peso to the dollar. If we use the more accepted Purchasing Power Parity or PPP method, with multiplier of 4 to get us to our GNP-PPP, the country’s GNP is forecast at roughly $800 Billion (using UNDP index calculations).

Such a GNP figure renders the Philippines wealthier than many European countries for that matter. Even the Dutch, who were once the wealthiest people in Europe, would bow in reverence to us Filipinos for our Herculean efforts expended to get to where we are. Wait till RP gets to ‘overdeveloped’ stage yet when the GNP will hit beyond the $2.5 Trillion mark (PPP), which is now a visible possibility, thus effectively transforming the country into a creditor nation lending funds to cash-starved Western and developing countries.

Banes notwithstanding, the Filipinos had so much gains accrued across many decades of post-war survival. From geophysical to political turbulence the Pinoys experienced in grueling fashion of constant bombardments, yet the nation withstood them all as it now stands tall and confident in the community of nations.

RP has been transformed into a global nation, while its capital region Manila has mutated to a gigantic mega-city that is a constitutive part new global nexus of 35 top megacities in the world. Dr. Jose Rizal, the first Filipino and first global citizen of the humble nation, now possesses the reasons to feel happy over what has become of that nation that he died for (executed by the Spanish regime in 1898).

Now that Noynoy has the presidency in his shoulders, and a liberal-oligarchic alliance has been installed to power, what’s in store for the country? We’ve had decades of liberal reforms before us, with policy impositions from the IMF-World Bank and global oligarchy, so will the Noynoy regime recycle the same austerity measures and policies that led to greater mass poverty and the Filipino diaspora?

Will Noynoy become an Akbar whose reign saw efficiency and good governance that led to the re-emergence of a country from the shambles of fragmentation and neglect to prosperity and fame? Or will he be a Nero of Manila who fiddles in the presidential palace as he watches his polity & economy burn upon his own behest?

Where goes RP’s our gains after Noynoy’s six (6) years of incumbency? At the end of his mandate in 2016, will the Filipinos still sing “should I stay or should I go”?

[Philippines, 30 June 2012]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

WILL PHILIPPINE INSURGENCIES END SOON?

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Magandang hapon! Good afternoon!

It is still poll day as of this writing, as the day’s polling time has been extended till 7 p.m. Poll-related incidence had accordingly dropped by 200% since 2004, an encouraging development amidst a backdrop of systemic violence.

What I’d reflect about this time is the insurgency question: whether the country’s decades-old insurgencies will cease after the installation of a new national leadership. The communist and Bangsamoro insurgents have been conducting peace talks with the Philippine state for a long time now, and there’s no question that insurgencies’ end is in the wish list of diverse stakeholders.

In a society where trust has been torn asunder by the prevalence of polarized mind frames for centuries now, it is understandable that insurgencies will persist for some time. Building mutual trust and confidence is therefore a sine qua non to the end of insurgencies.

Economistic apperceptions of insurgencies, such as to account them solely to high poverty incidence, would hardly hold water. Canada, for instance, is a prosperous country with good governance in place, yet a part of it (Quebec) almost bolted away from the Canadian state.

Addressing poverty, which is now at 33-35% incidence rate, is surely a must, added to food security. There is no denying that this has been on the agenda of peace talks, aside from the options for the livelihood of combatant insurgents when they go back to the mainstream in the case of a political settlement.

What we can see from the economistic discourse is that addressing poverty and social injustices would be good approaches to re-building trust and confidence.  During the first two (2) years of the new political dispensation, there has to be a trickling down of incomes to enable poverty reduction, which should convince the insurgents of the sincerity and competence of the leadership in handling the socio-economic malaise of our society.

Furthermore, there has to be relentless efforts made by civil society, church, state, and philanthropic groups to build a culture of tolerance and peace. Peace talks shouldn’t be left to government and insurgents alone, in other words, but should involve the broadest sector of society.

The building of mutual trust, confidence, and contextual building of peace and tolerance, will redound to constructing greater civility and cooperation. A ‘dialogue of civilizations’ is a broad manifestation of a culture of peace and tolerance permeating the private sphere, which is a cherished human condition by the peoples of the world.

Insurgents are incidentally growing old, and are getting weary of the war itself. They want peace, and this is a boon to the peace talks. In our day-to-day conduct of affairs as a people, we should continue to build trust in the private spaces of our lives. This, we hope, would encourage insurgents to forge new social arrangements with us on a people-to-people basis, a step that would bring us closer to a high-trust environment.

We must also continue to exert pressure on the Phiippine state and insurgents to continue to dialogue and put a time limit to the peace talks. Peace talks have already dragged on for decades, so maybe it would prove fruitful to put a time cap on the talks. We can use organizational instruments that we have, such as professional, crafts, and civil society groups.

Let us hope that we don’t have a hawkish regime forthcoming. A regime of hawks would be anachronistic to the overall trend today of higher expectations for peace and a sustained dialogue between state and insurgents.

We are all running against time today, even as we citizens of an war-torn country are tired and weary of the wars. New weapons of mass destruction, such as the Tesla Earthquake Machine or TEM, are moving out of assembly lines, and sooner or later they would be traded via organized crime groups to hot-headed insurgent and jihadist groups locally.

A wish indeed, let us hope that the two (2) insurgencies will be settled finally, with the former rebels integrated into the mainstream to participate in parliamentary politics and civil society engagements. This will give us breathing spaces we need to concur more social cooperation and economic amelioration in the short run.

With the large insurgencies gone, the police & military forces can then focus their efforts on clamping down jihadist movements that we perceive as illegitimate or criminal groups. In no way should government negotiate with groups that possess warped sense of community and are unwilling to recognize the full import of dialogue and tolerance.

[Philippines, 10 May 2010.]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

PADERANGA & CO.: NOYNOY’S LIST OF INTELLECTUAL PROSTITUTES

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Magandang hapon! Good afternoon!

In previous articles I tackled topics of (a) ‘crocodiles in Noynoy’s camp’ and (b) economists serving as consultants who crafted Noynoy’s agenda of governance (see: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com).

I articulated in the first article that I almost supported Noynoy, driven as I was by the passion of post-Cory burial’s grief. In the months of September-October 2009, I began to uncover information about the people who were behind Noynoy’s candidacy, particularly the paid experts doing his agenda.  

Added to the political factions and Kamag-anak Inc., the crocodiles surrounding Noynoy—who are in fact calling the shots in his candidacy and campaign—seem just too many to behold. By late October I simply lost my enthusiasm for supporting Noynoy and the Yellow Shirts, who to my mind were up to amassing largesse once they sit in power.  

Words reached my ears about paid experts who were tasked to write the agenda of Noynoy and Erap (Estrada). An old co-teachers’ advocate from the UP NCPAG intimated to me that he was also among those who were being invited, but declined to do so, and instead referred experts he knew to the Noynoy camp. A lady professor from UP SOLAIR flatly told me that she was tasked to write the social agenda for Erap, and jokingly told me that “maybe you will draft the agenda for Noynoy or whoever.”  

Quite recently, a group of economists openly endorsed Noynoy Aquino, an eventuality that has titillated the Noynoy supporter. Little do the same supporters know that the same experts were in fact involved in drafting Noynoy’s agenda, with a quid pro quo of taking the juicy positions and amassing largesse in the event that Aquino wins the presidency.  

I wasn’t surprised at all to find out that the endorser economists—who made it appear that they are doing the endorsement as independent intellectuals—are in fact an entourage of experts with a track record of intellectual prostitution (see my article “Paderanga, Economists: Noynoy’s Intellectual Prostitutes). 

The list is reproduced below, so people will know the WHO IS WHO in the line up of bureaucrats and advisers that must be zealously guarded in case Aquino wins the presidency. This is just a preliminary list, mind you. The factions of Prof. Mario Taguiwalo (UP School of Economics), former trade Sec. Purissima, and Albay Gov. Salceda (he’s bringing his own coterie of stooges) are not included in the list. 

One would wonder how poverty can be alleviated and hunger be eliminated in case that the crony economists will take over the bureaucracy. As I said earlier, the leading economists (contained in the list) were responsible for liberal economic reforms—imposed by the IMF-World Bank Group—that led to more poverty, hunger, degradation of health services, and inequalities. 

The likes of Alba and Paderanga served government before, and facts are so glaring about the ballooning of poverty with their kinds at the helm of state agencies. They fattened the purses of Big Capitalists & Landlords, their purses got fattened by the same capitalist-landlords, they sit in the board of the big business cronies, and what business have they eradicating poverty? 

Experts’ List 

Michael Alba

Fernando Aldaba

Filomeno Sta. Ana III

Cayetano Paderanga Ph.D.
Raul Fabella Ph.D.
Myrna Austria Ph.D.
Edita Tan Ph.D.
Vicente Paqueo Ph.D.
Teresa Jayme-Ho Ph.D.
Germelino Bautista Ph.D.
Ma. Socorro Gochoco-Bautista Ph.D.
Gilberto Llanto Ph.D.
Erlinda Medalla Ph.D.
Gwedolyn Tecson Ph.D.
Ernesto Pernia Ph.D.
Leonardo Lanzona Jr. Ph.D.
Fidelina Natividad Carlos Ph.D.
Carlos Bautista Ph.D.
Edsel Beja, Jr. Ph.D.
Emmanuel Esguerra Ph. D
Ruperto Majuca Ph.D.
Melanie Milo Ph.D.
Jose Ramon Albert Ph.D.
Rhoelano Briones Ph.D.
Rafaelita M. Aldaba Ph.D.
Rosalina Tan Ph.D.
Danilo Israel Ph.D.
Rouselle Lavado Ph.D.
Gerardo Largoza Ph.D.
Stella Quimbo Ph.D.
Ma. Joy Abrenica Ph.D.
Eduardo Gonzalez Ph.D.
Danilo Venida
Allan Borreo
Alexander Narciso
Meldin Al. G. Roy
Jessica Cantos-Reyes
Joseph Francia
Emilio Neri Jr.
Cristina Bautista
Philip Arnold Tuano
Romelia Neri
Reuel Hermoso
Joselito Sescon
Marilou Perez
Paulo Jose Mutuc
Sarah Grace See
Ramon Fernan III
Ernest Leung

[26 April 2010. See also: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com, UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com]

PADERANGA & CO.: NOYNOY’S LIST OF INTELLECTUAL PROSTITUTES

 

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

 

Magandang hapon! Good afternoon!

 

In previous articles I tackled topics of (a) ‘crocodiles in Noynoy’s camp’ and (b) economists serving as consultants who crafted Noynoy’s agenda of governance (see: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com).

 

I articulated in the first article that I almost supported Noynoy, driven as I was by the passion of post-Cory burial’s grief. In the months of September-October 2009, I began to uncover information about the people who were behind Noynoy’s candidacy, particularly the paid experts doing his agenda.

 

Added to the political factions and Kamag-anak Inc., the crocodiles surrounding Noynoy—who are in fact calling the shots in his candidacy and campaign—seem just too many to behold. By late October I simply lost my enthusiasm for supporting Noynoy and the Yellow Shirts, who to my mind were up to amassing largesse once they sit in power.

 

Words reached my ears about paid experts who were tasked to write the agenda of Noynoy and Erap (Estrada). An old co-teachers’ advocate from the UP NCPAG intimated to me that he was also among those who were being invited, but declined to do so, and instead referred experts he knew to the Noynoy camp. A lady professor from UP SOLAIR flatly told me that she was tasked to write the social agenda for Erap, and jokingly told me that “maybe you will draft the agenda for Noynoy or whoever.”

 

Quite recently, a group of economists openly endorsed Noynoy Aquino, an eventuality that has titillated the Noynoy supporter. Little do the same supporters know that the same experts were in fact involved in drafting Noynoy’s agenda, with a quid pro quo of taking the juicy positions and amassing largesse in the event that Aquino wins the presidency.

 

I wasn’t surprised at all to find out that the endorser economists—who made it appear that they are doing the endorsement as independent intellectuals—are in fact an entourage of experts with a track record of intellectual prostitution (see my article “Paderanga, Economists: Noynoy’s Intellectual Prostitutes).

 

The list is reproduced below, so people will know the WHO IS WHO in the line up of bureaucrats and advisers that must be zealously guarded in case Aquino wins the presidency. This is just a preliminary list, mind you. The factions of Prof. Mario Taguiwalo (UP School of Economics), former trade Sec. Purissima, and Albay Gov. Salceda (he’s bringing his own coterie of stooges) are not included in the list.

 

One would wonder how poverty can be alleviated and hunger be eliminated in case that the crony economists will take over the bureaucracy. As I said earlier, the leading economists (contained in the list) were responsible for liberal economic reforms—imposed by the IMF-World Bank Group—that led to more poverty, hunger, degradation of health services, and inequalities.

 

The likes of Alba and Paderanga served government before, and facts are so glaring about the ballooning of poverty with their kinds at the helm of state agencies. They fattened the purses of Big Capitalists & Landlords, their purses got fattened by the same capitalist-landlords, they sit in the board of the big business cronies, and what business have they eradicating poverty?

 

Experts’ List

 

Michael Alba

Fernando Aldaba

Filomeno Sta. Ana III

Cayetano Paderanga Ph.D.
Raul Fabella Ph.D.
Myrna Austria Ph.D.
Edita Tan Ph.D.
Vicente Paqueo Ph.D.
Teresa Jayme-Ho Ph.D.
Germelino Bautista Ph.D.
Ma. Socorro Gochoco-Bautista Ph.D.
Gilberto Llanto Ph.D.
Erlinda Medalla Ph.D.
Gwedolyn Tecson Ph.D.
Ernesto Pernia Ph.D.
Leonardo Lanzona Jr. Ph.D.
Fidelina Natividad Carlos Ph.D.
Carlos Bautista Ph.D.
Edsel Beja, Jr. Ph.D.
Emmanuel Esguerra Ph. D
Ruperto Majuca Ph.D.
Melanie Milo Ph.D.
Jose Ramon Albert Ph.D.
Rhoelano Briones Ph.D.
Rafaelita M. Aldaba Ph.D.
Rosalina Tan Ph.D.
Danilo Israel Ph.D.
Rouselle Lavado Ph.D.
Gerardo Largoza Ph.D.
Stella Quimbo Ph.D.
Ma. Joy Abrenica Ph.D.
Eduardo Gonzalez Ph.D.
Danilo Venida
Allan Borreo
Alexander Narciso
Meldin Al. G. Roy
Jessica Cantos-Reyes
Joseph Francia
Emilio Neri Jr.
Cristina Bautista
Philip Arnold Tuano
Romelia Neri
Reuel Hermoso
Joselito Sescon
Marilou Perez
Paulo Jose Mutuc
Sarah Grace See
Ramon Fernan III
Ernest Leung

 

[26 April 2010. See also: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com, UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com]

PEACE BONDS: CROCODILES & NOYNOY BONDING

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good evening Fellows! I’m gladdened by the petering in of thunderstorm rains in mega-Manila. The coming end to the hot dry spell spawned by El Niño is in sight, bringing with it a celebratory mood of sorts. Let me cap today’s mood with the peace bonds story.

The ‘peace bonds’ in the Philippines have got nothing to do with peace initiatives to end the decades-old insurgencies. They are financial instruments initiated by a coterie of NGO racketeering ‘intellectual prostitutes’ in the mid-90s, during the term of Fidel Ramos as president (‘92-‘98).  The top honcho of those racketeers is former social welfare secretary Dinky Soliman, now among Noynoy Aquino’s avid supporters.

That decade began with fragmentations of civil society’s major political blocs, from the center Right/Center Left social democrats to the far Left Marxist groups. The insurgent groups weren’t spared of the fragmentations themselves, from north to south of the archipelago we experienced political quakes that tore solid movements asunder.

Being among the far Left groups then, though a moderate among hardliners, I recall well that our coalitions were in the process of brainstorming creative approaches to financing our NGOs’ operations. Europe’s donor streams were drying up as the traditional sources re-channeled a humungous lot of their grant funds to Eastern European countries (for recovery after the collapse of Stalinist states).

The fragmentations caught some of us quite off-guard. Those finance-savvy colleagues of mine joined splinter groups in the progressive forces, with moderate Marxist groups going to the extent of coalitioning with moderate anti-Marxist social democrats or ‘socdems’.

Among those finance-savvy groups were development workers represented by the likes of Dinky Soliman, then among the leading cadres in the ‘socdem’ blocs. News reached my ears that the NGO financier racketeers hatched new instruments such as debt swaps and alternative bonds to finance their groups’ operations.

The peace bonds were hatched from the side of the bloc/coalition represented by Soliman then. Luck of all luck, her brother Isidro Camacho, a financial wiz kid from the banking sector, was appointed as Secretary of Finance by the incumbent chief exec Fidel Ramos.

Around the years 96-98, series of experimentations on the use of debt swaps began to take off. The peace bonds came at the tail end of the Ramos regime and overflowed through Pres. Erap Estrada’s era. To recall, there was the coalition gravitating around the A.R.E. (as the achronym went) mandated to handle the peace bonds.

The scheme called for government to consider funneling funds to civil society groups whose programs would parallel state efforts at economic reforms. The agrarian/food production sector was eyed as the entry point for peace bonds operations, with the funds guaranteed by government itself.

Peace bonds were supposedly initiated to benefit the broadest of marginal sectors and diverse groups that represented them. But as we know it in practice, it was largesse meant only for a certain coalition of political blocs and NGO cronies. It was as huge as a couple of billions at its inception, with nary a public monitoring of where it went thereafter.

Groups representing competing political blocs were a no! no! among the beneficiaries (read: no matter how sincere is your group, you’re disqualified). Experts (professionals, consultants) who were outside the ambit of the controlling group (Soliman & coy) were blocked from participating in the projects (read: no matter how good is the curriculum vitae you submitted, which they will accept, you’re an outsider).

The likes of Dinky Soliman not only benefited from the huge financial largesse, they also landed in the Gloria Arroyo government as top officials. Soliman herself got the plum post of social welfare secretary, an exposure that will endear her to more funding agencies including sources of Official Development Funds or ODA.

Soliman & coy were among the ‘cry wolf’ termites inside the Arroyo government. Dark opportunists all, they bolted the Arroyo government, joined the likes of Drilon & Purissima in drumbeating their ‘cry wolf’ moralizing pretensions. They bolted for no other reason than that, should Arroyo be overthrown, they can regain their former posts in the new administration. (They formed a curiously named Black & White Movement.)

The same financial racketeers were among those who drafted the ‘social reform’ aspect of the agenda of governance of the Liberal Party (the same being mouthed by the mediocre Noynoy Aquino). Needless to say, the same opportunists have released salvos of anti-corruption campaign mottos and calls on Noynoy Aquino’s opponents.

For people who knew where the likes of Soliman are coming from, they’re surely puking at hearing financial mercenaries and crocodiles bandying ‘anti-corruption’ or ‘good governance’ mottos. The mottos are mere clichés, and don’t speak of the true inner states of the crocodiles flaunting them.

Well, the least we can say is that “birds of a feather come together.” Crocodiles bond with fellow crocodiles, and they’ve flocked en masse inside the Noynoy Aquino & Liberal Party camp.

[Philippines, 03 May 2010.]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

NOYNOY’S REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, PRODUCTIVE LOTHARIO?

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Magandang hapon! Good afternoon!

Noynoy Aquino of the Liberal Party, the country’s emerging conservative-to-fascist pro-global elite political formation, had delivered his piece about reproductive health. I wonder how deep is the senator’s knowledge about the issue, given the fact that his academic prowess and empathy are mediocre. He never had graduate schooling, did he? And does he not suffer from low emotional intelligence, being ill-tempered as his former classmates describe him?

Whenever Noynoy talks about the issue, one wonders whether he is unconsciously speaking from where he is situated women-wise. His verbiage reveals how he perceives and treats women, in other words. He does project a reduction of reproductive health to being healthy enough to procreate with women, with the subtle message that, for bachelors and single women, be careful enough to avoid unwanted pregnancy no matter how much you consummate sex.

The public knows for a fact that the father of Noynoy—the late Ninoy Aquino—was a lothario. Given the fact that Noynoy hasn’t married yet, and he isn’t getting any younger, observers are behooved to think that this senator regards women as mere toys who should be circulated among men, more so the men he knows.

It just doesn’t sound nice to talk about the private life of politicians, but since the issue of reproductive health and women’s issues are among the raging public issues, we cannot avoid scrutinizing the way political candidates have manifested their relationships with the opposite set.

I just wish that women’s groups would do their job to administer a ‘gender relations audit’ on the top political candidates to check out whether each one of them makes to the grade of normal, gender empowering kind of persons. A person like Noynoy, who suffers from psychiatric maladies as per reports filtering out as internal information, is hardly any man who would fit into a normal gender-empowering partner.

Let’s take that narrative about Charlotte Datiles, a graduate of Miriam College (she was my former student in ’84 when I taught in Miriam). Datiles was having an amorous relationship with Noynoy when she tragically died during a coup attack by the RAM-YOU in the late 80s. Just what sort relationship was that one, women should ask? What was the circumstance that led to that tragic event? Wasn’t Charlotte one of those being circulated among men (bless her departed soul)?

Now, how about Korina Sanchez, whose nuptials with Mar Roxas finally ensued (thanks God!)? Didn’t Korina got involved in an erotic bond with Noynoy Aquino for some time? And after Noynoy, didn’t Korina get involved with another Aquino, a brother of Butz, for eight (8) years or so? After that affair (to remember? to forget?), Ms. Sanchez finally landed in the hands of the Don Quijote d’ Cubao estate, Mar Roxas?

If you’d complete the jigsaw that comprises Noynoy’s women, notably their circulation among men, one would think that they are akin to the indigenous women of Brazil that were studied by the late social anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. Prof. Levi-Strauss theorized that the “circulation of women” explained the complex kinship and marriage structures among his subjects.

Quite revealingly, Noynoy and the men that he represents seem to have more in common with ‘primitive’ men of Brazil than with the post-modern, urban men of the present. And yet here is Mr. Aquno exuding the image of a contemporary man, isn’t he?

For an unsolicited advice, the women’s groups led by Gabriela should better investigate the ‘gender relational performance’ of Noynoy. And investigate now, before it would be too late. That test should be done in addition to administering Noynoy the ‘Adorno scale’ to test his level of ‘authoritarian personality’ (scale of fascistic behavior).

If Noynoy is manifesting pro-choice and pro-population control standpoints, and he is not passing in psychiatric health and shows fascistic (authoritarian) tendencies, then his behaviors dovetail on the manner of his handling of women.

Noynoy is nobody’s Mr. Clean woman-wise, he is no Mr. Clean for that matter even as he is no spiritual seeker who had quite ascended in the Path. As I articulated in a previous article, his moralistic inquisitionism is a manifestation of fascistic tendencies, akin to the fascistic tendencies of the ancient Knights’ Templars and Teutonic Knights (Nazis’ exemplars for their hubris, sadism, arrogance).

I wonder what the pro-Noynoy women’s groups (are there any true feminists there?) will counter if the mass media will pick up the questions raised, do investigative journalism, and expose the true nature of Noynoy in his handling of women. For now, they are lucky that no howl has been raised yet about the matter by Noynoy’s political adversaries.

[Philippines, 25 April 2010…………………….. See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com, UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com, COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com, BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com]

LIBERAL INQUISITIONISM: FASCIST TENDENCIES REVEALED

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good evening!

It is night time as I write this piece. The prominent cloudless black night outside my window is akin to reality being concealed by subterfuge or ‘illusions’ (to use Freud’s term), so it may prove worthy for us to reflect on what is being concealed by the resort of the Liberal Party to moralistic jingoism in its latest poll campaigns.

It would be fitting to begin with the behavior of the presidential  candidate Noynoy Aquino, who, just a couple of nights back, made a public declaration about the Ampatuan family’s support for the Noynoy presidency and his Liberal Party or LP. The Ampatuan family is being indicted for mass slaughter of political adversaries and media persons in Maguindanao province, besides that it had shown how it could cheat in the polls as support for a presidential candidate in 2004 (Gloria Arroyo).

That the LP is openly supported by a family with sociopathic, hostile, and/or antisocial members is indubitably confounding to the unsophisticated folks. However, to more knowledgeable observers, notably behavior analysts, it isn’t surprising for a sociopathic gang to converge in interest with Noynoy Aquino who, as per classified internal information now filtering out, suffers from psychological disorder conditions.

Gangster-type antisocial, hostile, sociopathy is the base of recruitment for fascist and racist movements. Hitler knew that formula well, so his ideologues hastened to recruit unreformed malefactors who would constitute the Nazi party’s mass membership and SS cadres.

Lenin himself revealed that the dividing line between liberalism and fascism is thin. Unfolding events proved him right in Europe, when the first fascist movement, led by Mussolini, seized power in Italy. To recall, the Italian fascists were rabidly moralistic in their campaigns, and bullied their way to power.

I wish Lenin were still alive, so I could argue with him that there really is no dividing line between liberalism and fascism, that the dividing line is merely an illusion. The philosophers Felix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze demonstrated, in the case of schizophrenics, that the dividing line between rationality and irrational (e.g. manic-depressive) behavior is non-existent, by using  ‘schizoanalysis’ as their theoretical rampart.

If we were to follow Deleuze & Guattari well, we would say that, in the case of Noynoy Aquino and the criminal Ampatuans, the dividing line between the sane and the mad has been effectively erased. I would further advance that Noynoy is just but an infinitesimal representation of a much larger reality, the members of the Liberal Party, who are concealing their own authoritarian personality traits behind a mantle of moralism (i.e. good governance cliché) discourse.

To be fair to the LP officialdom, it would be more fitting an exercise to let the party top brass at least be tested for ‘authoritarian personality’ tendencies. In behavioral science we call this the Adorno Scale, developed by the late Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer and tested on very large samples in Europe and the Americas.

The Adorno Scale is available anytime for testing, it uses a very innovative approach to testing that combines quantitative and qualitative methods, and we have the experts (psychology, sociology, psychiatry) who can team up to administer the test on Drilon, Noynoy, Abad, Roxas, Gascon, and other party stalwarts. It would be much fairer if the stalwarts of other parties undergo the same test.

In my preliminary analysis, the Liberal Party will have the highest scores on Adorno Scale, indicating the ‘authoritarian personality’ type among its leaders and cadres. The result is as predictable as the sun would shine tomorrow. In layman’s parlance, ‘authoritarian personality’ means fascistic personality.

Fascism is on the rise again globally, and global fascism is not a remote phenomenon to ascend phoenix-like. Fascism often ascends at the tail end of an economic crisis—of a 60-year cycle called the Kondratieff Wave. In the early 19^th century, Bonapartism emerged so suddenly as a scourge of Europe, while White racism (Ku Klux Klan) emerged before and after the American Civil War.

Fascism and Nazism occurred at the tail end of a K2 wave (Kondratieff wave’s downward end phase). The Weimar Republic (Germany was then the greatest industrial power) collapsed, hyper-inflation ate up the folks’ pockets, and lo and behold! Mussolini and Hitler arrived on the political terrain.

Moralistic inquisitionism, which employs good governance cliché to witch-hunt political adversaries today, is for me an indubitable sign of an underlying fascism, both individually (among leaders) and collectively in the Yellow Forces’ camp. It just takes a matter of provoking mass panic, e.g. poll failure, added to a Bogey Man, e.g. General Bangit declaring a coup, to ignite a hysteria that would find catharsis via social upheaval or equivalent.

With sociopaths and manic-depressives at the head of a party such as the LP, and with Noynoy and Mar Roxas winning the presidential and vice presidential posts, the country would surely be in trouble.

Mar Roxas was involved just some couples of years back in supporting Christian militias to counterveil against the Muslim rebels (MILF). He did made public statements about the matter, and he was among those legislators role-playing barriers to the signing of a peace concord between the GRP and MILF.

Christian militia members are terribly antisocial types, with so many who are borderline personalities (below average intelligence), who would become criminals if not trained to do productive work properly. The Tadtad, for instance, has a track record of genocidal massacres against simple Muslim folks, and they’re intact organizationally.

In case that a local fascist movement is bound to arise in this country, don’t ever search for them now among Erap’s forces or Villar and Red forces. Search for them inside the Yellows, particularly inside the LP leadership. Administer to them the Adorno Scale and see for yourself what I’m discoursing about.

Hardly have they won, and many LP candidates are already beginning to behave like medieval Inquisitors who would take down grafters very soon. Their faces look grim when they discourse, like the grim Nazi propagandists Goebbels and ideologues, or better still the Knights Templars and Teutonic Knights whose arrogance and hubris were so colossal and who were emulated by the Nazi leaders themselves.

Inside the LP think-tank/directorate are university professors, in like vein that university mentors formed the Nazi Party and molded Hitler & partisans into mad Nero-types. They are so low profile, the public wouldn’t even notice their presence. I do personally know some of them, know their levels of narcissism, egoism, arrogance, and authoritarianism, and they secretively are powerful inside the party.

When imbalanced personalities would lead a political party and flaunt inquisitionism so openly, we may be experiencing the ‘sign of the times’. Democracy may again take the back seat, as a new cycle of authoritarianism becomes ascendant. Such an authoritarianism, now gelling inside the Liberal camp, could converge with other fascisms toward a consolidated global fascism and the rise of a global Bonaparte.

[Philippines, 23 April 2010. See also: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com; UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com.]

PADERANGA, ECONOMISTS: NOYNOY’S INTELLECTUAL PROSTITUTES

Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza

University of the Philippines

Good day from Manila! Magandang hapon!

I just intercepted a note that has been circulating via the email circuits, which echoes the endorsement by certain economists of moralistic leadership standards and the presidency of Noynoy Aquino. Let me share some notes about those economists, which I hope will induce some reflections on the readers and would-be voters.

You see, I felt the itch to burst with guffaws at the economist endorsers, but had to restrain myself as I was surfing inside a commercial cyber-shop. The immediate scorn and ridicule I felt for the economists who endorsed Noynoy was their nauseating projection of (a) independence of mind and (b) moral purity.

I could say this matter-of-factly, that those economist endorsers, led by Prof. Paderanga of the UP Diliman’s School of Economics (UPSE), is a coterie of intellectual prostitutes who are so at home with receiving  fat consultancy & analysts’ pay in exchange for enriching the purses of corporate carpetbaggers. Their independence is paid independence; their moral purity, delusional hogwash.

Those same economists have made no qualms in implementing the dictated policies of the IMF-World Bank that widened social inequalities and led to ballooned the poverty levels in the past, to note: (a) liberalization, (b) privatization, (c) deregulation, (d) tax reforms, (e) reduced budget for social services, (f) wage freeze (both private & public employees), (g) devaluation of the peso, and (g) increased prices of utilities.

Save for the NGO carpetbaggers (e.g. Men Sta. Ana & company who make money via fat funds flowing to their moderate Left NGOs), the Paderanga-led endorsers naturally sit in corporate boards as ‘independent directors’ (I feel like vomiting!). Well, since the energy & other sectors were deregulated, big biz players such as Mirant et al, came in and, believe it or not, appointed one to three of the so-called ‘independent directors’ –who now appear in the pro-Noynoy list of endorsers—to the corporate board of the former.

In the case of Sta. Ana & company (including social workers from the ‘soc-dems’ or non-Marxist social democrats), the carpetbag venues are those NGO coalitions where fat “juices” from debt swaps have been funneled in the past. There was the Peace Bonds racket, to recall, which initially amounted to a billion 1^st tranche, guaranteed by the Finance Department, hence making many involved experts blissfully happy from the 1990s to the present.

If you think Gov. Salceda is truly (a) independent-thinking and (b) morally pure, better review the facts. Salceda is implementing couples of Big Projects in his Albay backyard, thanks to his close affiliation with the incumbent president, worth P10 Billion more or less. He is a MASTER OF KABUSUGAN, as laymen would put it, and his greed has been moving up in exponential fashion. Besides, he was a most fatly paid marketing economist for the corporate world before he joined the GMA regime.

Inside the academe, the likes of Paderanga, Taguiwalo, and other professors, have hardly been known for doing research projects as a ‘labor of love’ thing. Being well connected to corporate and ODA paymasters, their researches and publications are deeply tainted with the vested interests of their financiers. [ODA= Official Development Assistance]

Having established their niches in their big-paying clientele—Big Business, Big Foundations, Big Banks, Big NGO networks, Global Development Agencies—it is but natural that those same morally puritanical economists put their foot forward in the Noynoy Team (they used their connections to leverage their getting into the team) and practically dictated the TOR (terms of reference). They were to join the Purissima faction of experts who were then with GMA, but who bolted away as early as 2005 yet.

Coming from different factions of experts, I could just surmise the great difficulty in getting them to draft the agenda of Noynoy Aquino who was catapulted to a presidential timber by sheer historical accidence. Surely enough, words reached my ears that the factions couldn’t see each other eye-to-eye, a truistic situation that bogged down the drafting of the agenda in late Sept to October of 2009.

The Paderanga faction was assigned the broad economic & development agenda, Taguiwalo faction the fiscal agenda, Purissima faction the budget agenda, Sta Ana & ‘progressive’ faction the social agenda, and so on. Pressed by time constraints to churn out an agenda, the highly paid Noynoy consultants did miraculously produce one that was the accompanying document submitted to the COMELEC attached to the certification registration of Noynoy Aquino.

Upon reviewing the Noynoy agenda of governance that was published in the major dailies, I was so aghast at the rather sub-standard quality of the content. It was a mere hodge-podge of motherhood statements, spiced up by cut & paste items lifted directly from the Philippine Constitution. Honestly, that draft agenda can be prepared by mere undergraduate students in the University of the Philippines, given a 1-day workshop time frame, while it took the economists two (2) months to accomplish it!

In contrast to those prostituted intellectuals and Masters of Kabusugan, we academics and think-tank consultants who support the likes of Villar (others support Gordon, Bro. Eddie,…) have openly endorsed our choice candidate on the basis of our advocacies. This expert is not being paid for my analytical writings, interviews, and forum talks supportive of the nationalists (Villar, NP…). And there are just too many of us nationalist and grassroots-working intellectuals who are contributing our share of the campaign through pro bono service.

To share an anecdote: A co-partner of mine in the consulting & academic world, Dr. Cesar Mercado (he heads an international think-tank, was former UN official, and is globally known), was offered by a graduate student of the UP SOLAIR a participation in the drafting of the Noynoy agenda. Dr. Mercado outrightly declined the offer, and he need not bother to call me up for the fat-paying consulting work in the Noynoy camp. He simply replied that he was busy.

That was how desperate the Noynoy Team was for a draft agenda, for Noynoy just didn’t possess the competence to draft one. In contrast, the other presidential candidates (Villar, Bro. Eddie, Nicki Perlas, Gordon…) already possessed analytical and practical frames that they developed throughout their careers, and so the role of consultants if ever was merely to critique, edit, incorporate methodology of implementation, and polish. The latter candidates don’t need to hire a huge coterie of experts like Noynoy and Erap did, but utilize merely 2-3 consults at the most.

Not being personally known to Villar, the likes of me and hundreds of experts (adaceme & think-tanks) have been expressing opinions based on our long-standing policy frameworks, advocacies, and ‘best practices’. We need not come together to release a public manifesto in the broadsheets, which will require at least P1.5 million for five half-paged pronouncements in five (5) dailies. We don’t have the funds to do so! So we campaign in the micro-niches, based on the personal resources within our means.

Lastly, hardly had Noynoy began campaigning, and those prostituted minds were already clawing on each other like competing crabs, as per reports reaching my attention. They will likewise claw on each other in grabbing juicy government sub-sectors and agency posts in case Noynoy wins, and will be stabbing each other to get the boss’ attention if ever they sit in power.

Let me toss the capsule query: are such intellectuals indeed independent-minded and morally pure? Are they worth leading the institutions of state for the sake of ‘walang korupsyon’ and/or good governance? Will a president Noynoy be on top of them, or will they be on top of puppet Noynoy?

[20 September 2010. Prof. Argonza is a political economist, sociologist, university professor, development consultant, self-development guru. See: UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com, IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogger.com, BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com%5D

LUISITA’S OWNERS MASSACRED UNIONISTS AFTER NEAR-RESOLVED DEADLOCK

Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza

University of the Philippines

This development consultant and social scientist, who shortly served the GMA regime as a director at the Office of External Affairs or OEA, wishes to inform the public of a plain truth regarding the massacre of unionists by the owners-managers of the Hacienda Luisita.

That massacre was hardly warranted, as a back-channel negotiation was going on before the gory day, with Luisita unionists agreeing to withdraw their mass action and return to work. No less than palace demigods called for the backdoor negotiations, which was already in progress before the bloody event took place on November 16, 2004.

I was among the core officers who assisted Sec. Edgardo Pamintuan  organize the newly established OEA in 2004 right after PGMA took her oath (we comprised of assistant secretaries, directors, consultants). The OEA was assigned membership in the political, communications, and intelligence clusters of cabinet, to recall some basic facts.

The OEA had hardly warmed up as a ‘freshman agency’, when a directive came from the Office of the Presidency or OP, for our agency to help resolve the Luisita deadlock. My boss, Sec. Pamintuan or EdPam, had proved his talent at back-channel negotiations, being one such negotiator between the GRP and National Democratic Front, and so the application of the same ‘best practice’ to the Luisita deadlock proved all too facile for the noblesse negotiator.

Most urgently, Sec. Pamintuan instructed his executive team to contact the leadership of the federation to which the local Luisita union belonged, the Kilusang Mayo Uno or KMU. The OEA’s main task was to serve as bridgehead and clearinghouse between the various constituency groups and the OP, a task that it immediately began doing upon its very inception circa 2^nd quarter of 2004. Inviting the KMU to a consultative talk was routine task for the OEA, KMU being a long established constituency group representing the labor sector.

We OEA officials felt so glad that the KMU arrived pronto right in our office at the Bahay Ugnayan – Malacañang Palace. Practically the top brass of the federation came. We gave them a warm reception, and our exchanges were very cordial.

After the issues were clarified and the messages exchanged, the federation committed to consult with the local union. The maximum expectation was for the union to withdraw its forces and end the protest, with the quid pro quo that the 300+ union officials and members who were retrenched will be allowed to RTW (return to work). [Note: Luisita’s wage was a pathetic P9.50 per day which the union vehemently protested.]

Amid the intensifying crisis, action was swift as the federation and (local) union did clarify and resolve issues during rush consultations. Finally, to our merriment, the news came to our office that the local union was already decided on withdrawing its forces/dismantling the barricade, and was ready to sit down with Luisita management to communicate their modified demands including RTW.

We were almost at the point of euphoria over the success of the back-channel talk, when the horrifying flash news reached our office that the Philippine National Police stepped in and resorted to brutal and brazen slaying of unarmed unionists and supporters. It was an utterly unnecessary move, in as much as the local union was already in the process of withdrawing its protesting forces and prepared to sit down with the owners & management of the hacienda.

As per reports brought to our office then, the Luisita management, with the complicity of top DOLE officials, called upon the Philippine National Police to disperse the protesting farm workers & supporters. It was clearly an arrogant display of brute force and one-sided communications, with no compunction shown at all during that dreadful moment of firing automatic rifles on unarmed unionists.

Not only human rights were violated on that black day, there was also a clear violation of good governance in a number of ways: (a) authoritarian management that is inappropriate to the current context; (b) distrust of the organized sector of farm workers and their disabling from participation in renovating human resource systems in the hacienda; and, (c) hubris and brazen display of excessive force in resolving a deadlock that was in a near-resolution situation.

We need not even bother to find out whether certain officers of the law are under the payola of the Luisita paymasters. Or, that certain labor inspectors and officials are likewise in the payroll of the same paymasters. Such a system of corruption has been in place for nigh decades, and has never been rooted out.

It is truly bothersome for a co-owner of the Luisita, Noynoy Aquino, to mouth good governance as a banner motto in his campaign for the presidency. The facts about Luisita affairs hardly substantiate Aquino’s claim of “hindi ako magnanakaw.” Cojuanco family’s Luisita is replete with narratives of corruption and blood spilt to sustain operations, rendering moot and delusional any claim by its owners to puritanical moralism.

Good governance is not just about “hindi magnanakaw.” It is a coherent concept that is operationalized as: (a) efficient management; (b) enabling civil society-state dialogue; (c) participative management, observing a partnering modality between labor & management and not a subordinated treatment of labor by managers-owners; (d) low to nil graft/transparency; and, (e) political will in pursuing visions, mission, objectives, and related ends.

Noynoy Aquino represents the cacique class and is a product of an oligarchic lineage and milieu. He reduced ‘good governance’ to a parochial propaganda cliché, a term that he may have little understanding about based on the practice of corporate governance in Luisita.

The last thing that ought to happen in this country is to keep on recycling oligarchic rule, an evil system that is perpetuated by non-thinking voters who are as gullible as those overseas workers sweet-talked by illegal recruiters. It is now time to put an end to this sordid evil, for prolonging it further will bring us down to a Dark Age which happens at the tail end of any oligarchic regime (e.g. classical Greece was destroyed by the Athenian oligarchs’ lust for wars against Persia).

I just hope that, in case Aquino will win the polls, and the greedy grafters and ‘kamag-anak incorporated’ around him will grab juicy state posts in wild abandon, plundering at will like there was no end to  colossal loots, I won’t end up echoing “I told you so.” Honestly, I would, and will sonorously burst with guffaws.

[Philippines, 19 April 2010. Prof. Argonza is an international consultant, academic, and Fellow of the prestigious Asia-wide Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration or EROPA. He is also a long-time grassroots worker, serving marginal sectors for over three decades. See also: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com.]

LIBERALISM: MORE POVERTY & CORRUPTION

Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza

University of the Philippines

 

Good afternoon, fellows!

The Liberal Party in the Philippines has been bandying lately the good governance agenda. Philosophically bankrupt, the dogmatists of the party could at best parrot the verbiage of university academics who, in reductionist fashion, associated the development problems of the country to bad governance.

Poverty had alarmingly risen from 25% in 2001 to 32% today, as per government statistics. This came at a time when the economy doubled, GDP-wise, and the country had been dubbed as an ‘emerging market’. Can poverty be factored solely to bad governance, as liberal quacks now claim?

Whether the so-called ‘think-tank’ of the Liberal Party or LP possesses the comprehensive grasp of the country’s problems is doubtful. A ‘think-tank’ that is theoretically bankrupt could at best be a coterie of mediocre dudes whose sense of originality in problem-solving engagements is nil.

There surely were episodes in our economic history when poverty expanded. We can concretely site the following periods: 1983-1996, when poverty incidence rose from 35% in ’83 (Marcos era) to 49% in ’89 (Cory Aquino era) to a 60% peak in ’95 (Ramos Era); and, after a period of radical drop, moved up again in 2001 through 2009, from 25% (‘01)to 28% (’04) to 32% (‘09).

The 32% poverty incidence may not even be accurate. As Prof. Cielito Habito (Ateneo University) sited in his newspaper column, the figure could be a high 35%. My own intuitive assessment is that the figure could be much higher at around 45%.

Those high-poverty episodes were actually periods when the country was under the IMF programs’ tutelage. They were times when liberal policy reforms were radically implemented in the country, to note: liberalization, privatization, deregulation, tax reforms, reduced budgets for social services, currency devaluation, wage freeze, and increased utility prices.

Not only did we witness the expansion of poverty during the same episodes, we also saw the rise of corruption. Weak regulatory frameworks at a time of rising total budgets redound to liberalizing graft as well, resulting to larger largesse for bureaucrats & legislators (returns from pork barrel allocations).

Let’s take the case of trade liberalization. As soon as tariff reforms were implemented in full during the Ramos Era, a whopping P300 Billion+ worth of import duties were wiped out, thus reducing revenues so drastically. With nil safety nets in implementation, the tariff reform saw millions of affected small planters, fishers, craftsmen, and farm workers experience large-scale income drops, thus instantly leading to larger poverty incidence.

As commitments to tariff reforms are now binding upon our state, based on signed treaties (ASEAN, WTO), regulatory frameworks for executing projects remain weak. This bad situation ensures the perpetuation of the take of bureaucrats on projects, from the past 10% ‘s.o.p.’ circa 1980s, to the gargantuan 40% today and higher rate tomorrow. E.g. a road project worth P1 Billion will be priced/budgeted at P1.4 Billion, with P400 Million allowance for the grafters (they call it ‘for the boys’).

Note that during the periods of extensive liberal reforms, Hacienda Luisita escaped agrarian reform’s surgical operations. Of course, the regulatory and executory frameworks of the agrarian reform law were so weak, so much that President Aquino’s family estate was accorded special treatment that it enjoys till these days.

Ipso facto, liberal reforms practically destroyed the already weak regulatory frame that we Filipinos have struggled so hard to build since the time of the 1^st presidency yet (Aguinaldo, 1898-1900). Curbing poverty and graft, which indeed go together, requires draconian tactics of state interventionism or dirigism, not liberalism.

It is all too easy a kindergarten stuff to forecast that under a liberal regime, poverty will swell to higher incidence (beyond 40%). As budgets and projects increase, so will graft move up, probably eating as much as 60% of total appropriations at certain junctures.

The ‘walang korupsyon’ (no corruption) flaunted by the liberal quacks is nothing but empty propaganda. Bereft of creative approaches to diminishing corruption, the ‘walang korupsyon’ line merely re-echoes an age-old line of traditional politicians or trapos desperate to gain electoral victories by duping a gullible electorate.

‘Walang korupsyon’ isn’t even liberal nor populist a line, but hyper-conservative. Conservatism serves the interests of Big Business, Big Landlords, Big Church (biggest landlord in the Philippines), and foreign capital.

We are therefore not surprised that the leaders and groups representing Big Business, Big Landlords, Big Church (Jesuits, Opus Dei, bishops), and foreign capital have openly supported Noynoy Aquino & the Liberal Party.

The LP of the Philippines now appears more as a copycat of the fascistic Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. Don’t ever be surprised that both parties are good friends within the Liberal International league.

A liberal regime will most likely be saddled with enormous graft and poverty problems that, within a couple of years of its incumbency, patriotic soldiers and populist groups would alternately shake it down to rubbles. A veteran of civil society campaigns myself, I would most likely be marching the streets again to oppose moralist pretenders who are in fact greedy crocodiles.  

Liberalism doesn’t represent the interest of the nation and people, and should be rejected in the coming polls and the next ones to come.

[Philippines, 13 April 2010. Prof. Erle Argonza is an economist, sociologist, and international consultant. He’s a member of the very prestigious Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration or EROPA. See: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com; https://unladtau.wordpress.com, http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com.]

VILLAR-BASHING: PHILISTINE JOURNALISM OF OLIGARCHIC MEDIA

VILLAR-BASHING: PHILISTINE JOURNALISM OF OLIGARCHIC MEDIA

Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
University of the Philippines

Good day!

It is Holy Thursday as I wrote this piece. I normally put a halt to all of my analytical engagements on this sanctified day, but this time I decided to take some minutes to scribble my thoughts about the current Manny Villar-bashing coming from various quarters, particularly from media personalities (opinion writers, broadcast journalists).

I will zero in on those journalists who are in the employ of big tv/broadcast networks and major news dailies. The cacophony of malicious heraldries from these intellectual prostitutes (if you can even regard them as ‘intellectual’ at all) had reached a crescendo that had magnified confusion in the voters’ mind.

Resorting to the typical emotionalist discourse and therefore short-circuiting the rational-analytic faculties of information consumers, the malicious attacks on the person of Sen. Villar, which do not the least contain substance worth our wise reflection, have altogether triggered a mass panic. The decline in the latest survey rating of Villar by 6% shows how little do people see the underlying motives behind the black propaganda peddled by the same cabal whose words they followed.

Let it be recognized, first of all, that these journalists, no matter how mentally adroit they appear to be, are in the payroll of oligarchic media. The mega-hoarding greedy oligarchs have their own respective pockets to fatten, and if the malicious, sensationalizing, irrational heraldries from the Villar-bashing journalists would yield enormous sums for the fat hoarders, then let there be more such destructive onslaughts from the journalistic cretins.

Too few are those journalists who would be considered informative, balanced, and exuding wisdom in their countenance, for such true thinkers reside outside the media circuits. Not even those so-called multi-awarded journalists would count among the truly erudite, awarded as they are only because they were able to whet the appetites of the judges who, likewise, are in the payroll of oligarchic institutions, while some other judges are private pals of writers and creative ‘artists’ who are happy enough to make cronies win.

If there is any attribution I can offer to the oligarchic media for now, it is this: that philistine journalism had taken the upper hand. This eventuality marks the fragmented state of the mind shapers (media), even as they are contributory to the fragmentation of the human psyche as a whole.

Mental cretins who are in the employ of the media moguls, no matter how erudite they may pretend to be, are among the harbingers of a Dark Age where the flames of reason have simply snapped off. These same philistines have elevated the Primal to a high level of discourse, thus further eroding the rational-analytical that has been subordinated tragically to the greedy ends of oligarchic hoarders.

There is nothing to gain from the articulations of those quack intelligentsia, but only great things to lose if one would yield to their contorted peregrinations. The more that a reader or audience would succumb to the seductions of the philistine pen & tongue, the more that his/her reason recedes into atrophied state, the more mis-comprehension of the political dimension of life.

Only the fecal-minded idiots would succumb to such dis-informative articulations that only serve to mask the greedy pursuits of the oligarchs who have been openly supporting the equally oligarchic candidate Noynoy Aquino. The nation shall grieve all the more as the masking of the true reality—that global oligarchs are mounting economic, political, covert offensives to destroy the Philippines—will be reinforced in no small measure by the philistine journalists and their oligarchic employers.

To my fellow Filipinos, beware of these philistine journalists and expose their falsehoods in diverse venues. Stand up and together we shall smote the dragons of oligarchism and poverty, end an eon of colonial history, and proclaim a truly free nation. Stand up for the nation, and a stronger nation means the installation of a nationalist leadership and patriotic political coalition.

We shall overcome!

[Philippines, 01 April 2010. See: https://unladtau.wordpress.com, http://erleargonza.blogspot.com ]

RP MAIN TARGET OF GLOBAL OLIGARCHY’S MACHINATIONS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day! Magandang araw!

The global oligarchy, alternately called New World Order (NWO) or ‘Committee of 300’ or Military-Industrial Complex, is again hatching a contingency move across the planet. Little do East Asians know that the same elites have moved closer to home to fulfill their latest catastrophic plan, as exemplified by my Filipino compatriots who are as somnambulistic as the herds of the planet.

As already alluded to in earlier articles, the global oligarchs are using the 2010 elections in the Philippines to mask their plan. Being both scientist and mystic, I have the privilege to use both empirical-analytic and mystical-paranormal methods to buttress my claims, and in this note I’d share some of my meditation visions about their plot.

Over the last three (3) years or so, I articulated about the coming collapse of the global economy, the attempt to unify Europe under a neo-Bonapartist state, the modus Vivendi of the EU & US to install a 4th Reich, and the launching of a 3rd World War. The oligarchs & military-technocratic-political subalterns have hatched the plan apparently fairly well, through their organizational platforms –Bilderberger Group, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, Royal Institute for International Affairs, and NATO.

The global economic collapse already took place, while its flames still rage strongly in the USA-Europe-Japan trilateral zone. However, the plans to install a Bonapartist Europe, a 4th Reich, and launch a 3rd World War (via Sunni vs Shiite conflict) have been stalled. To simplify the matter, saner and more enlightened leaders inside the states, markets, and civil societies of the trilateral zone have prevailed, and have effectively neutralized or at least delayed the elites’ evil plans.

Indubitably, the oligarchy is terribly alarmed at the audacity and effectiveness of the opposition mounted against them. Alarmed more so to find out that the opposition is uncoordinated, launched as they are from more circumscribed interests of nations and social sectors fighting for survival against the predatory onslaughts of the greedy elites.

It isn’t difficult to realize that a determined predatory force will fight tooth and nail to maintain its ascendancy worldwide, and will plan a contingency move anew. Where the next focused target lies is everyone’s guess. Would it be Latin America? East Asia!? Africa?

RP is home to the hyperspace portal serving as short-cut to galaxies, and this portal (per my visions) has been re-opened by Light Forces after being closed for a long time. Any predatory force fighting for its survival, in the light of the entry of a 3rd Force (galactic fleets of higher dimensional order and superior firepower) arriving en masse on Earth, would be forced to reckon with the Philippines first of all as a possible escape route (NASA program’s being revived for this classified purpose to bail out the elites to other planets and star systems).

Philippine nationalism is also rising, and this has to be check-mated once and for all in the oligarchs’ perception. This nationalism is intersecting with the rise of the ASEAN as a region-state, and it won’t be long before the Philippine nation and its neighbors will realize that their region was formerly the Majapahit Empire, that they were thus duped by the Western powers into believing for some time that they were separate nations and states (nations crafted by the same powers). They are one nation, and they will prevail.

Lastly, there are the huge hoards of gold the country possesses. No, the hoard doesn’t belong to the Marcos family, but comes from diverse sources. A large amount of the bullions were a heritage of the Majapahit Emperor and passed on to descendents, many of whom are Filipinos. Some other large hoards remain unearthed, but lie secured deep within the surface, created a long time back by friendly forces—underground civilizations (cities) and elemental life-forms (certain forces possess the alchemical powers to convert ordinary stones into gold). I’ve done meditation visions before on the gold hoards, and was almost overwhelmed at the sight of the precious metals filling up large bank vaults specially designed for them (these are the bullions traceable to the Majapahit princes).

The oligarchs’ financial empire—created through liberalization, deregulation, privatization, globalization, and bubbled through legitimized looting and swindling—is now eroding rapidly, and it won’t be long before massive risings across the globe may lead to the overthrow of the oligarchic puppet states, confiscation of properties (watch oligarchs’ assets sequestered in Russia), and decapitation of the perceived criminals and their subaltern war criminals. Before the total collapse of the NWO’s global empire happens, drastic moves have to be done. The predators badly need the gold to bankroll their assets and sustain ascendancy of power.

Amid all the synergized anarchy-–or synarchy—across the globe perpetuated by the same predatory oligarchic families, moves are now being made to get the Philippines at all cost. The Pentagon’s men are moving to possibly install puppet generals to power in a failed election scenario, while the Anglo-European financiers eye the installation of liberal candidate Noynoy Aquino and crocodile factions to power.

Meanwhile, very surreptitiously crystalline receptors were installed in Luzon notably the Laguna Lake area, under the guise of ecology projects. I was able to monitor this move through visions, even as I was almost duped by a Caucasian lady who contacted me through email to join their installation of ‘healing crystals’ in a lakeshore town in Laguna (the lady’s name and email messages are still with me). These receptors will be used to re-echo submarine earthquake vibrations detonated by possible combination of nuke and Tesla Earthquake Machine or TEM.

It is a likely eventuality that a quake can be calibrated to yank the Marikina fault a bit that can ruin Manila into flattened debris. Producing 1/3 of the nation’s wealth, a flattened Manila means total devastation to the nation that is struggling hard to end mass poverty and achieve development maturity by 2016 or so.

The devastation of the Philippines via submarine nuke and TEM could also distort or warp the electromagnetic field or EMF of the islands and keep the cross-galactic Light Forces at bay, at least for a while. This will give the elites a window of opportunity to escape thru another route, as the galactic reinforcements will take a bit longer to traverse space via longer routes.

The possibility of a Galactic Force or G-Force intervening for Earth humans or Terrans, whom they possibly bred several millennia back, is becoming more manifest by the day. World powers are being urged to reveal their classified research information about the matter, yet they refuse to do so, even if the Vatican itself (via its department of UFO studies headed by a cardinal) already did its subtle message for the UK, USA, and Russia to broadcast the revelations (Vatican already released its report about alien bones and skull in its collection). The elites are obviously scared of this G-Force and are planning to hide underground and/or escape by space.

Just exactly what will happen to this broad contingency plan is worth our watch. Let us begin monitoring, and sharing information about the matter. Meanwhile, my fellow Filipinos sleep, amid murmurs of catastrophe.

[Philippines, 23 March 2010]