Who,What,When,Where,Whence

Mining Industry

2009-09-13T03:06:00.002+08:00

British mining firm posts bond for Nueva Vizcaya gold project
By Marianne V. Go (The Philippine Star) Updated August 26, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - British mining firm Metals Exploration PLC’s local subsidiary FCF Minerals Corp. has posted a P175 million bond with the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) for the conversion of its exploration permit into a financial and technical assistance agreement (FTAA).

FCF is currently exploring for gold and molybdenum in its Runruno project in Nueva Vizcaya. It reportedly plans to spend at least $208 million for the development of the project.

FCFMC has filed for a conversion of its EP into an FTAA, which application has been favorably endorsed by Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Jose L. Atienza Jr. to Malacañang for approval in March this year.

FCFMC has secured an extension of its EP up to July 31 this year.

The EP extension will automatically terminate upon the approval of the conversion of the EP to a FTAA.

Atienza said the grant of an FTAA to FCFMC would advance the revitalization program of the country’s minerals industry. If approved, FCFMC’s FTAA would be the 4th granted under the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.

Atienza said “the approval of FCFMC’s FTAA will show once more the continuing confidence of investors in the Philippines and the government’s sustained efforts to rise above difficulties, thus showing the country remains a sound proposition for investments.”

An FTAA is an agreement between the government and a contractor for large-scale exploration, development and utilization of gold, copper, nickel, lead, zinc and other minerals, except for cement raw materials, marble, granite and sand and gravel and construction aggregates.

Securing an FTAA is open to Filipinos and foreign corporations with up to 100 percent foreign equity. An FTAA has a term of 25 years, renewable for the same period upon expiration.

Atienza said the entry of FCFMC would intensify the development of the gold and molybdenum deposits in the area which the mining firm had identified in its recent exploration activities in the area.

FCFMC said it plans to start operations by the second half of this year.

FCFMC is qualified to apply for an FTAA considering that the company’s current authorized capital of P210 million or $4.468 million is way above the government’s required minimum paid-up capital of P10 million.

Canadian mining firm applies for listing on PSE
By Zinnia B. Dela Peña (The Philippine Star) Updated August 12, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Canadian mining firm Siga Resources Ltd. will formally file this week its application for listing on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) as it aims to build a presence in the country.

In a press briefing yesterday, Siga financial consultant Anand Nagin said the company is going ahead with its plan to dual list on the PSE by way of introduction because it does not see the need to immediately raise cash. Siga, which has a mining claim in Fiji, is a publicly-traded company in the US.

Established in Nevada, Siga is a start-up, pre-exploration stage company engaged in the search for gold and related minerals.

Nagin noted that the PSE does not have enough companies with dual listing. “We’d like to create the buzz about our company. I think that the Philippines is a good fit for us as we seek a global presence,” he said.

“Despite the fact that discussions have been held with other exchanges, we have always felt that the PSE was a good marriage for us. Given today’s uncertain economic times, innovative thinking is required on all sides. Thus, the intent to dual list shows that Siga is committed to moving forward with its exploration activities in Fiji and will look for projects to participate, once dual listed, in the Philippines,” Nagin said.

Nagin said the company has held preliminary discussions with local companies for possible investment in some projects as it seeks a foothold in the Philippine mining industry. “I believe that the Philippine economy, at large, will benefit through job creation, from the projects we may participate in,” he said.

“We are prepared to move aggressively into the Philippines in all fronts. We’re branching out into the Philippine economy and looking for sites where we will get good returns,” Nagin said.

Nagin said the company’s mining project in Fiji has proven gold deposit and has been tested well and proven to be ripe for exploration.

He said the company is hopeful that the PSE will move expeditiously as possible to act on its application.

Australian mining firm eyes new project in Nueva Vizcaya
By Charlie C. Lagasca (The Philippine Star) Updated June 30, 2009 12:00 AM

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines — An Australian mining firm is planning to expand its exploration activities in another remote village in this mineral-rich province.

Royalco Philippines, Inc., an Australian-owned mining firm, through its local subsidiary Buena Suerte Mining is now conducting community consultations for the possibility of conducting exploration activities in Barangay Yabbi, Dupax del Norte town here covering at least 3,000 hectares.

The possibility of exploring gold and copper in Yabbi came about as the firm was still at a standstill in the Pao-Kakiduguen area in neighboring Kasibu town after a group of Church-backed anti-mining residents denied entry of their exploration equipment last year despite having an exploration permit from the government.

“We are offering people in the area of Yabbi and environs development projects, including maintenance and repair of roads, as part of our social measure projects and as a show of our sincerity to develop the area with the affected residents,” said Gemma Talapi of Royalco’s community development affairs office.

Some village officials in the area, including those to be affected in case the exploration project pushes through have also expressed support for the said exploration activities in Yabbi, saying this will help in the development of their community as the firm has been able to provide them with simple infrastructure projects.

“Various projects have been made by the firm in upland barangays in Dupax del Norte town,” said Belance village head Tino Sanchez, the municipal federation chairman of the Liga ng mga Barangay.

Joey Ayson, Royalco’s country manager, said more development projects will be provided to the residents of Yabbi, Binwangan, Macabenga, Belance, Oyao and Bitnong once their exploration permit is approved by the government’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau.

The said 3,000-hectare initial exploration area is part of Royalco’s 16,000-hectare exploration site covering parts of Muta, Kasibu and Nagtipunan town in Quirino province.

The Yabbi proposed site came as exploration activities by another mining firm, the British-owned FCF Minerals Inc. (also known as MTL Corp. or Metals Exploration) continued in Runruno, Quezon town with commercial operations foreseen to start next year.

Another firm, the Aussie-Kiwi giant OceanaGold, was on the verge of commercial operations when the global financial crisis had forced it to temporarily halt its multibillion-peso Didipio Gold-Copper project in Didipio, Kasibu.

At the time of the stoppage, the firm was also facing a legal battle with the provincial government here over unpaid local taxes.

Inflation seen dropping to 1.2% in June

By Des Ferriols

MANILA, Philippines – Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said inflation rate is expected to drop to as low as 1.2 percent in June, mainly due to the decline in electricity rates and the slowdown in food prices.

Tetangco told reporters that the national average inflation rate is projected to drop to 1.2 percent to 2.1 percent in June, reflecting expectations of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for continued milder price increases.

“It’s consistent with our forecast for full-year 2009 and 2010 inflation rates that would both be within their corresponding target ranges,” Tetangco said.

According to Tetangco, the continued decline in the inflation rate in June could have been due to lower electricity rates during the month and slower price increases in certain food items and in domestic pump prices.

“The BSP will continue to monitor price developments, both domestically and in international markets, to ensure that our policy stance remains appropriate and responsive,” he said.

Although the inflation rate would drop down to low single-digit levels, Tetangco has ruled out the possibility of deflation even with the economy likely to go into recession this year.

Tetangco said inflation is heading downwards but there are still no indications that prices of basic commodities would actually start declining.

The inflation rate is a measure of increases in the prices of basic commodities. The higher the rate, the faster prices are increasing. When price increases slow down, the rate drops and when the inflation rate turns negative, it means prices have actually started declining.

But Tetangco said it is unlikely that the inflation rate would turn negative, especially with the world prices of oil starting to go up again.

“At the moment, we see inflation still trending downward, and falling to within target for both 2009 and 2010,” Tetangco said earlier. “While we have reduced our forecasts on inflation, we still don’t see a situation of deflation.”

“As such, there is room for policy to continue to be accommodative,” Tetangco added. “Our primary mandate is price stability, so monetary policy will continue to be determined by our assessment of the risks to inflation.”

According to Tetangco, the BSP is monitoring domestic and global developments to ensure its monetary policy stance is appropriate. He said officials are particularly watchful of liquidity supply.

“We’re watchful the liquidity level doesn’t become excessive,” Tetangco said. “We are also monitoring international oil price developments to see if there is any rise in speculative activity on oil and other commodities due to the expected rise in global demand.”

The BSP has so far reduced its policy rates by 175 points and monetary officials they could and would probably continue to ease monetary policies as long as inflation was coming down.

However, officials have increasingly cautioned that there are concerns over the level of liquidity in the market although the growth in money supply has slowed down to around 13 percent.

“If we can accommodate growth in the process of reducing the policy rate, we shall be accommodative,” said BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo. “The other prong of monetary policy is of course the calibration of domestic liquidity to ensure its availability and to help in the proper functioning of the credit market.”

To the extent that the resulting liquidity would not be excessive and would be consistent with non-inflationary growth, Guinigundo said liquidity measures would be considered.

OceanaGold may reactivate Didipio gold project in Nueva Vizcaya
By Marianne V. Go (The Philippine Star) Updated April 06, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - The “dramatically changed environment for capital projects” is presenting “a way forward” for OceanaGold (Philippines) Inc. to reactivate its stalled Didipio gold project in Barangay Didipio, municipality of Kasibu in Nueva Vizcaya.

This was the optimistic assessment of Blair Way, country president and Didipio project manager, in a briefing of Mines and Geosciences (MGB) officials last Friday regarding the current status of the mine project.

Carefully avoiding any definitive declaration regarding the status of talks regarding the refinancing of the Didipio project, Way admitted though that “we are confident that we will identify a way forward due to the dramatically changed environment for capital projects compared to what we saw in 2008.”

Way assured that “we continue to look at various possibilities for the project, but it would be too premature to rule out any option as this point.”

He vowed that “a full disclosure will be made to the public upon completion of the study.”

All Way would reveal is that “the company continues to examine strategies to resume development of the Didipio project including the effect of reduced scale and capital required to open the mine and process plant.”

Didipio, Way stressed, “remains one of the highest grade gold-copper porphyries at development stage in the world.”

The total mineral reserve of Didipio has been estimated at 34.8 million tons.

The Didipio mine site, Way assured, is being maintained and is ready to operate as soon a the necessary financing is secured.

OceanaGold had hoped to complete and secure by January this year the $185 million financing it needs to finance its continued mining operations for its Didipio copper-gold project.

OceanaGold had previously secured investment bank Stanley Morgan as advisor.

Based on advisor Stanley Morgan’s recommendations, OceanaGold was advised that it could enter into a joint venture, completely sell out or resort to borrowing to finance the continued operation of the Didipio copper-gold project.

Heavy operations at the Didipio mine site had been suspended middle of 2008 due to the lack of funding.

Way also assured the MGB officials that all legal problems it previously had with the local government and community in Nueva Ecija have been resolved, paving the way for the reactivation of the project.

Way reported that the firm currently has 49 personnel to run the Didipio camp and accommodate an 85-man security force on the site, while it also maintains a 41-personnel staff in its Makati office to continuing handling finance, accounts and regulatory compliance works and exploration staff.

Work, Way said, continues in the mine site in terms of environmental works, and maintaining and constructing the main access road and other site areas.

Lepanto invites investors for its gold project
By Marianne V. Go (The Philippine Star) Updated April 22, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co.has opened the door for other interested group willing to come in and invest in its gold project after discussions with China’s Zijin Mining Group have not progressed as the former hoped it would.

During yesterday’s stockholders meeting at the Rigodon Ballroom of the Manila Peninsula, Lepanto president and chief executive officer Bryan Yap reported that up to now, the Chinese government has not given its support for Zijin’s proposed acquisition of a 20 percent interest in Lepanto’s Benguet gold-copper deposit for $70 million.

He said the Chinese government, appears to be adopting a wait-and-see stance due to the global economic downturn.

Zijin is one of the biggest gold producers in China and is listed on the stock exchange of Hong Kong Limited.

The uncompleted deal covers Far Southeast Gold Resources Inc. which is owned 60 percent by Lepanto.

Yap was quick to clarify that “nobody has walked away from the deal.” He said the memorandum of understanding (MOU) it signed with Zijin is open-ended and does not specify any deadline.

However, since the deal is still pending, Lepanto is talking to other interested parties he added.

“It’s all very preliminary,” Yap said as he refused to identify other parties that have shown interest in the project.

Meanwhile, Lepanto is projecting a P150-million net income this year on expectations of higher gold production, a foreign exchange rate of P48 to $1 and gold prices staying or even higher than $850 an ounce.

Yap said, Lepanto is targeting a production of 45,000 ounces of gold from its Teresa and Victoria mines in Benguet.

It does not intend, however, to resume it copper operations which it had suspended in November last year, Yap said, because of the low prevailing global copper prices.

Lepanto’s Victoria and Teresa mines cover 2,777 hectares with estimated ore reserves of 0.39 million ounces of gold and 16.97 million pounds of copper.

Copper prices dropped to $1.32 per pound in December 2008 from $3.98 per pound in June the same year.

Lepanto Mining hikes capital to P3 billion
(The Philippine Star) Updated April 09, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Manila Mining Corp., an affiliate of Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co., is raising its authorized capital to P3 billion from P1.8 billion to raise funds for further studies and possible mine development.

In a filing with securities regulators, Manila Mining said its geology team, having completed its exploration program, will concentrate on converting the ore resource into reserve to justify the reopening of the Placer mine in Surigao Del Norte.

Manila Mining said a total of 51 holes were drilled last year in addition to the 20 holes drilled the previous year for an aggregate depth of 15.9 kilometers.

The company was incorporated in 1949 to engage in the mining and exploration of metals. It started mining operations in 1981. Until 2000, it was producing gold bullion through a carbon-in-pulp plant. It also produced copper concentrates with its copper flotation plant from 1998 to 2001.

Manila Mining incurred a net loss of P132.04 million last year, a reversal of the P276.98 million profit reported the previous year as expenses nearly doubled to P146.8 million.

Other income amounted to P555.52 million, 64.4 percent higher than the year earlier figure of P337.9 million. This included the equivalent of $7 million that was paid by Anglo American to Manila Mining as its entry cost into the Kalayaan project. — Zinnia dela Peña

Lepanto to focus on gold projects
(The Philippine Star) Updated March 27, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. will focus its efforts this year on its gold projects in Mankayan, Benguet as it has put on hold its copper operations in view of the sharp decline in copper prices.

“There is no immediate plan to resume copper operations. In view of the very low copper prices, the company is studying ways of making copper operations more efficient,” Lepanto said in a filing with securities regulators.

Lepanto said operations this year will be focused on the Victoria and Teresa gold projects with estimated mining tonnage to reach 525,528 averaging 1,480 tons per day.

The company said it would spend P256 million to undertake development work at the Victoria Gold project. Another P138 million has been set aside for the purchase of mining equipment.

Lepanto said funding for these will come from internally-generated cash and existing credit lines.

The company incurred a net loss of P763.3 million with the mining operations accounting for P400 million. Consolidated revenues went up slightly to P1.84 billion.

Revenues from sale of metals reached P1.72 billion compared with P1.71 billion.

Mining operations showed a loss of P400 million compared with last year’s net loss of P183 million. The loss was largely due to lower gold production and the sharp decline in the price of copper.

Copper prices peaked at $3.98 in June 2008 only to go down to $1.32 per pound in December which resulted in the negative adjustments on the copper concentrate sales amounting to P108 million as of year-end.

Silver price hit a record-high of $20.92 per ounce in March but was down to $8.88 by October. The price of gold improved though averaging $871.96 per ounce compared with the 2007 average of $697.71 per ounce.

Gold produced totaled 37,716 ounces compared with 48,918 ounces while copper production amounted to 3.54 million lbs compared with 246,386 lbs. – Zinnia dela Peña

Lepanto Mining raises capital to P6.65 billion
By Marianne V. Go (The Philippine Star) Updated February 18, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. is raising its authorized capital stock from P3.35 billion to P6.65 billion.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Lepanto said the planned increase its authorized capital stock will be presented to stockholders for approval during their annual meeting scheduled for April 20 this year.

Lepanto is engaged in gold bullion production and copper flotation operations.

It produces gold from its Victoria and Teresa operations, both located in Benguet.

Lepanto sells its gold bullion production to Heraeus Ltd. (Hong Kong), which is a refinery based in Hong Kong.

Its copper concentrate is sold through Seagate Minerals & Metals Inc. and Trafigura Beheer B.V. Amsterdam metal traders based in Switzerland and New Jersey, United States respectively.

Under the contract with Heraeus Ltd., Lepanto ships gold bars on a weekly basis.

Lepanto’s principal subsidiaries include Shipside, Inc., which is engaged in the hauling business; Diamond Drilling Corp. of the Philippines, which provides diamond drilling services, and Lepanto Investment and Development Corp. (LIDC) which is in the insurance business.

Lepanto, through LIDC, owns 80 percent of Diamant Boart Philippines, Inc. a manufacturer of industrial diamond tools.

Philex Mining boosts capital by P3 billion via 25% stock dividend
By Zinnia B. Dela Peña (The Philippine Star) Updated February 12, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Philex Mining Corp., the country’s largest mining company, is raising its capitalization by P3 billion by way of a 25-percent stock dividend.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Philex said its board approved a plan to increase the firm’s authorized capital stock to P8 billion and declare a 25-percent stock dividend.

Based on the stock dividend, 32 percent of the increase in capital will be subscribed and fully paid. The number of shares to be issued pursuant to the stock dividend totals 970.4 million shares.

Philex said adjustments will be made to the number of shares reserved for the company’s stock option plan.

Last week, Philex announced it has taken full control of the Boyongan copper-gold property in Surigao del Norte after buying out its partner, the Anglo American group, for $55 million.

The acquisition was done via a share and asset purchase agreement covering the purchase by Philex of the shares of Anglo in joint venture companies Silangan Mindanao Mining Co. Inc. and Silangan Mindanao Exploration Co. Inc. and the acquisition of various assets, receivables and rights and obligations of Anglo and its local subsidiary in the project.

A pre-feasibility study conducted by Philex showed that the Boyongan copper-gold mine would have a positive net present value of $150 million and a payback of 3 1/2 years, using long-term metal prices of $2.75 per pound for copper and $700/ounce for gold.

Based on the pre-feasibility study, the mine life could extend up to 14 years at a constant millfeed rate of five million metric tons of ore a year.

The study showed that the Boyongan site had a proven mineral reserve of 65.8 million tons at 0.87 percent copper and 1.39 grams/ton gold. The company also said there was the possibility of accessing additional mineralized ground in the northwest portion of the orebody.

With the life of Philex’s mine in Padcal, Benguet set to expire in 2014, the Boyongan mine can ensure that Philex can continue mining operations for another 15 to 20 years.

Last month, Philex produced P745 million worth of metals equivalent to 752,261 dry metric tons (DMT) of copper and gold ore.

The ore yielded 6,122 DMT of copper concentrates with an average grade of 23.81 percent copper, 61.6 grams per DMT of gold and 60.03 grams per DMT of silver.

These have equivalent metal contents of 1.46 million kilograms copper, 377,400 grams gold and 367,562 grams silver.

In the nine months ending September last year, Philex reported a net profit of P3.29 billion, 18 percent lower than the previous year, due to the decline in copper sales, higher general and administrative expenses and mark-to-market losses.

Philex okays First Pacific buy-in
By Zinnia B. Dela Peña (The Philippine Star) Updated October 09, 2008 12:00 AM

Philex Mining Corp.’s board of directors, with the exception of Social Security System (SSS) Romulo Neri, confirmed and approved the sale of 20.16 percent of the company to Hong Kong-based conglomerate First Pacific Co. Ltd. for P6.165 billion.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Philex said Neri had objected to the planned divestment, saying the block of shares should be “offered first to the state-run pension firm so that the SSS can exercise its pre-emptive rights.”

“We exercise this pre-emptive right as a matter of good governance,” Neri said. “Our action aims to protect the interest of SSS members and other Philex shareholders.”

Neri said his actions were in accordance with the instructions from the Social Security Commission, which is SSS’s highest policy-making body and is mandated to ensure the protection of the value of the investments, which were taken from the contributions of its 27 million members.

“Our goal is not to stop the deal, but for SSS to be given the opportunity to exercise this pre-emptive right,” he said, adding that the exercise of this right is stipulated under Section 39 of the Corporation Code.

“We simply request that the procedures as mandated by law are followed,” he said.

Six out of seven Philex directors present during the special meeting yesterday, gave their thumbs up to the sale of 778.44 million treasury shares to First Pacific at P7.92 per share.

SSS reportedly holds an 18.4-percent interest in the country’s biggest mining firm.

In the same meeting, the six directors approved a resolution requesting the SSS to recall the nomination of Neri as director due to his violation of his fiduciary duties.

“The board believes that such action of Director Neri is adverse to the interests of the corporation and its shareholders,” Philex said.

Philex said the six directors, including the two independent directors, who voted for the transaction, firmly believe that the transaction will be highly beneficial to the company and its shareholders.

“The corporation will generate P560.5 million more and will have cash of more than P6 billion primarily to fund the development of its Boyongan project and the exploration of its various claims and projects,” Philex said.

Philex also stressed that its management consulted external and internal legal counsel as well as its corporate secretary, and they were all of the opinion that a pre-emptive right does not apply in this case.

In a letter to the SSS, Philex chairman and chief executive officer Walter Brown pointed out that no other shareholder has come forward with a similar position as First Pacific nor has there been any desire expressed to buy shares at P7.92 which is understandable since it is possible to buy at lower prices.

The offer price represents a 10-percent premium over the acquisition cost of Philex which shares have been accumulated as part of its completed share buyback program and which are currently held in treasury.

The total consideration for the purchase will be paid in two equal tranches — the first 10.08 percent on Oct. 13, 2008 and the second 10.08 percent on or before Nov. 30.

First Pacific acquires 20% of Philex Mining for P6.2 B
By Zinnia B. Dela Peña (The Philippine Star) Updated October 05, 2008 12:00 AM

Hong Kong-listed conglomerate First Pacific Co. Ltd. is rapidly expanding its business portfolio in the Philippines through acquisitions in line with its strategy to enhance shareholder value and secure new investment opportunities in sectors that offer long-term value appreciation.

Fresh from its purchase of a 67.1 percent stake in Manila North Tollways Corp. through its local unit Metro Pacific Investments Corp., First Pacific just acquired a 20.16 percent stake in Philex Mining Corp., making it the single largest shareholder of the country’s biggest mining company.

“At 20 percent, that makes us the single biggest shareholder,” said Denis Lucindo, MPIC assistant vice president for investor relations group.

He said the First Pacific group is bullish on the prospects of the mining sector as metal prices continue to appreciate, driven by strong demand for gold and other precious metals.

“Right now, there are a lot of opportunities in the mining sector. Mineral prices remain strong,” Lucindo said.

First Pacific, controlling shareholder of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., forged Friday an agreement with Philex to buy 778.444 million common shares of the mining firm at P7.92 each share for a total of P6.165 billion.

The price represents a 10 percent premium over the acquisition cost of Philex which shares have been accumulated as part of its completed share buyback program and which are currently held in treasury.

The total consideration for the purchase will be paid in two equal tranches - the first 10.08 percent on Oct. 13, 2008 and the second 10.08 percent on or before Nov. 30.

The agreement further provides for the appointment of two directors to the Philex board upon completion of the transaction. First Pacific managing director Manuel V. Pangilinan will be nominated to take one of the two board seats.

Philex chairman Walter Brown said the entry of a strategic investor will provide Philex with a strong partner to allow it to vigorously pursue the development of the Boyongan mine and various other claims and prospects.

“That will clearly strengthen Philex’s portfolio of mining assets and, thus, cement its place as the largest and most profitable mining company in the Philippines,” Philex said.

Last week, Philex took over control of the Boyongan site by buying the 50 percent stake of its partner Anglo American Exploration (Philippines) BV for $55 million. Philex Gold Philippines Inc., which is 81-percent owned by Philex, owns the remaining half of the project.

Philex and Anglo discovered the Bongoyan deposit in 2000.

Anglo provided all the funds for exploration and completed the pre-feasibility study on the site where it discovered other mineralized centers in December 2007.

In its recent report to shareholders, First Pacific said it is also looking at mining opportunities in China aside from the Philippines.

Lucindo said the purchase is part of the group’s stategy “to create long term value for its shareholders by actively and carefully considering opportunities in the vital sectors of the Philippine economy, which include mining and port operations. The company is engaged in real estate development through Landco, health care services through Makati Medical Center and Davao Doctors, and the water business through Maynilad Water Services Inc.

“We believe that opportunities continue to exist in Asia and given the recent adverse developments in the global and regional equities markets - where asset values have been marked down - it is likely that a new window of investment opportunities is opening up. It is of course not clear how long this investment window will stay open. We will continue to review and evaluate such opportunities in accordance with our investment criteria,” Pangilinan earlier said.

Philex Mining to sell 20% stake to foreign investors
By Zinnia B. Dela Peña (The Philippine Star) Updated September 13, 2008 12:00 AM

Philex Mining Corp. is selling the shares it acquired from an extended buyback program, representing 20 percent of its issued shares, to foreign strategic investors to raise funds for new mining projects and the acquisition of new equipment to beef up operations.

As part of a program to enhance shareholder value, Philex has repurchased a total of 209.6 million shares in the open market worth P1.57 billion or P7.50 each share, a premium over its closing price of P7 yesterday. The shares acquired represent 6.7 percent of Philex’s outstanding capital stock.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Philex said it is “engaged in intensive negotiations with several foreign strategic investors for the sale of these shares.”

Among these investors include the group of former Trade Minister Roberto V. Ongpin and London-based investment fund Ashmore Investment Management Ltd., who has been steadily expanding its investment portfolio from gaming and information technology to oil refining and distribution and mining as it continues to seek new platforms for growth.

“As a 20 percent block, these shares command a significant premium over our acquisition cost due to the fact that the acquiring investor can equity account the income of their investment on these shares in their financial statements,” Philex said.

Of the total shares repurchased, 46.19 million shares were acquired by Philex from Gokongwei flagship firm JG Summit Holdings Inc. and 30.02 million from its food and beverage subsidiary Universal Robina Corp. The shares bought from the Gokongwei Group account for 5.4 percent of Philex’s total issued shares.

Ashmore earlier acquired a 49-percent stake in Philex Petroleum Corp., the oil exploration arm of Philex. It likewise bought Saudi Aramco’s 40-percent stake in oil refiner and retailer Petron Corp.

Philex primarily produces copper concentrates containing copper, gold and silver, which are transported via sea freight and smelted either in Kyushu Island, Japan, in the Sanganoseki smelter of Pan Pacific Copper Co., Ltd. (PPC), a joint venture company between Nippon Mining Co. Ltd. and Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co.

It is also engaged in oil exploration projects in Palawan and in the South Sulu through its unit, Philex Petroleum Corp.

The company owns the Padcal mine in Benguet province, its only operating mine.

Philex Mining demands ouster of Neri from board
By Zinnia B. Dela Peña (The Philippine Star) Updated December 17, 2008 12:00 AM

Philex Mining Corp. reiterated its demand for the ouster of Social Security System (SSS) president Romulo Neri from its board of directors for allegedly violating his “fiduciary duties” to the detriment of the publicly-listed mining firm.

In a letter to SSS chairman Thelmo Cunanan dated Dec. 11, 2008, Philex chairman and chief executive officer Walter Brown insisted that Neri’s move, questioning the sale of 20 percent of the mining company to Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., has cost Philex at least P35.7 million.

Brown said while the deal between Philex and First Pacific went through, the top Philippine gold and copper producer claimed that it lost P31.08 million in interest cost alone and incurred over P4 million in expenses “due to Neri’s actions.”

“Clearly, the actions of Mr. Neri jeopardized a transaction that is beneficial to the corporation and its stockholders, in violation of his fiduciary duties,” Brown said.

Neri, who was caught in the ZTE-National Broadband controversy prior to his transfer to the SSS, had opposed First Pacific’s purchase of 778.44 million of Philex’s common shares, saying the shares should have been offered first to the SSS as a major stockholder owning 18 percent of the mining firm. Neri is a representative of the SSS to the Philex board.

“It is ironic that Mr. Neri’s insistence on exercising the “pre-emptive right” in order to protect SSS members is in fact prejudicial to the SSS and its members. At the time Mr. Neri made his demand, the shares were trading at P7. Today, Philex shares are trading at about P5. The SSS would thus have bought shares at a price way above market and clearly wasting SSS money amounting to more than P700 million,” Brown said on behalf of Philex’s board of directors.

On Nov. 28, First Pacific completed its acquisition of a fifth of Philex for P6.17 billion through a block sale on the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Proceeds from the sale will be used by Philex to fund exploration and development projects, including the acquisition of Anglo-American’s share in the Boyongan property in Surigao del Norte.

Neri earlier said his actions were in accordance with the instructions from the Social Security Commission, which is the pension fund’s highest policymaking body. He said his mandate was to ensure the protection of the value of the investments, which were taken from the contributions of SSS’s 27 million members.

Benpres prepares to sell its stake in Rockwell Land
By Zinnia B. Dela Peña (The Philippine Star) Updated July 28, 2008 12:00 AM

Benpres Holdings Corp., the investment arm of the Lopez family, is in talks with two or three private equity fund management companies for the sale of its stake in upscale property firm Rockwell Land Corp.

Benpres president and chief operating officer Angel S. Ong said the sale is in line with the group’s overall strategy to trim debt which stood at around $367 million as of end-December last year from a high of $560 million in 2002.

Aside from Rockwell, Benpres is planning to sell its 33-percent interest in Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) either through a secondary offering or private placement of shares. Macquarie Securities has been appointed as financial advisor for the divestment of its stake in MNTC which is expected to raise over $100 million in fresh equity.

The group’s objective is to reduce its debt by half over a period of two years.

Majority of the original debt was used to fund investments in Bayan Telecommunications Inc. and the failed operations of its then water unit Maynilad Water Services Inc.

Ong said Benpres remains optimistic it could win approval of its creditors for its revised debt restructuring plan which had been on the table since August 2007. The updated plan calls for the restructuring of debt payments over a period of 12 years.

Benpres earlier reported that its net profit for the first quarter of this year fell 91.8 percent to only P60 million, weighed down by the weak performances of its power and tollways holding firm First Philippine Holdings Corp. and ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.

13 aspirants join run for clean election

2009-09-12T03:24:00.005+08:00

13 aspirants join run for clean election
by Rey Joble

Manila Standard Today
August 31,2009 Monday

THIRTEEN candidates for President and vice president pledged to run for clean elections next year, but Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay could have won as President with plenty to spare if the elections had been decided by yesterday’s foot race.

Only Binay joined the event organized by GMA-7 in Taguig City, finishing the 5-kilometer segment—the other being the 10-kilometer run—in 47 minutes while his fellow hopefuls took their sweet time at the breakfast table.

The president of the United Opposition was drenched in sweat after joining the more than 5,000 runners who took part in the 5K and 10K events.

“Before, I could [finish 5 kilometers] in 18 minutes, but I lacked preparation,” Binay said.

Senator Francis Pangilinan put on his shorts and sneakers but didn’t run, saying he lacked sleep.

Senators Francis Escudero, Dick Gordon, Manny Villar and Mar Roxas, Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando, and Olongapo City Councilor JC delos Reyes appeared in casual attires.

“I hope everybody is in great shape for a clean and honest election,” Gordon said.

Escudero, a crowd favorite like former President Joseph Estrada, came in a little late.

“My age is not an impediment to my running in the election,” said Escudero, who turns 40 in October and is the youngest presidential aspirant.

“I’m not emulating [US] President Barack Obama. We need to find our own identity, and the youth will be behind me in search of that identity.”

Estrada wore a blue jacket and jogging pants with a red stripe. He jogged his way to the stage, showing he was in top form for another crack at the presidency.

Estrada was driven from power in 2001 and convicted of plunder in 2007, but was pardoned by his successor Gloria Arroyo within weeks.

The Arroyo administration says the Constitution and the conditions of his pardon bar Estrada from running for President again, but Estrada claims otherwise.

He sees no problems with the many presidential aspirants.

“The more, the merrier, [but] I hope we avoid what happened in the 2004 elections [that was marred by cheating],” he said.

Evangelist Eddie Villanueva of the Jesus is Lord Movement, who ran for president in 2004, had his jogging pants on—as had Nikki Perlas, an environmentalist and adviser of President Arroyo—but they did not join the fun run.

Senators Jamby Madrigal, who wore gray jogging pants, and Loren Legarda, who was in jeans and rubber shoes, came in a few minutes later.

The aspirants bonded during a ceremonial walk, took an oath, and signed affidavits pledging clean elections in 2010.

Commission on Elections Chairman Jose Melo led the oathtaking, while National Movement for Free Elections chairman Henrietta de Villa, and Philippine Bar Association chairman Federico Agcaoili witnessed the affidavit signing.

“This is good for the country,” a Comelec official said.

The aspirants who didn’t make it were Vice President Noli de Castro, Senator Noynoy Aquino, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio, and Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca.

De Castro was on a business trip to China, Aquino was still undecided, Puno and Teodoro were both sick, Panlilio was pre-occupied with the vote recount in Pampanga, and Padaca was on a business trip to Belgium.

8 presidential candidates
Mr.Expose --The Daily Tribune
09/10/2009

Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino announced yesterday at Club Filipino that he is running for President. Speaking in Tagalog he said:

"Tinatanggap ko ang hiling ng sambayanan. Tinatanggap ko ang bilin, at habilin, tagubilin ng aking mga magulang. Tinatanggap ko ang responsibilidad na ituloy ang laban para sa bayan. Tinatanggap ko ang hamon na mamuno sa laban na ito. Tatakbo ako sa pagkapangulo sa darating na halalan."

All the four sisters, Ballsy, Pinky, Viel and Kris were present at the dais giving full support to Noynoy�s decision. Ballsy spoke on behalf of the family. Kris left early to go to Balanga, Bataan to attend a mass for Cory.

He confirmed that he had offered the VP slot to Mar Roxas. He named four senatorial candidates, namely: Sen. Frank Drilon, Rep. Riza Hontiveros Baraquel, Rep. Ruffy Biazon and former Rep. Nereus Acosta of Bukidnon.

Sen. Kiko Pangilinan was present but significantly one of the few who did not wear a yellow shirt and he was not applauding at all. Will he still run for vice president if Mar Roxas accepts Noynoy�s offer?

In response to a reporter�s question, Noynoy again reiterated that since he was accepting a people�s draft, he expects them to campaign and raise the necessary funds for him.

When asked about his plan for Mindanao, Noynoy hedged and said "it is talk, talk, talk because otherwise, there will be war, war, war."

With Noynoy�s announcement accepting to be the LP standard bearer and with Manny Villar definitely running as NP candidate, it is now definite that there will be no opposition unity behind only one presidential candidate. There will be at least four opposition candidates.

It is now clear that Joseph "Erap" Estrada will be throwing his hat into the ring. It is also clear that Sen. Butz Aquino who was present and who earlier was announced as a senatorial candidate in Manny Villar�s lineup will now be with Noynoy.

In the administration ranks, the Lakas-Kampi-CMD has split with FVR, Speaker Joe de Venecia and 50 original Lakas leaders meeting and announcing they will field a separate standard bearer.

Sen. Mar Roxas in an ANC interview with Ron Cruz did not categorically say that he was accepting the VP slot. He did not even set a time frame on when he will decide. He sounded like he preferred to just be a campaigner for Noynoy and the Liberal Party candidates.

Since he is the first one to categorically declare his presidential candidacy, give the 1st round to Noynoy in this 15 round-bout. Now the hard work begins. Looks like there will be eight candidates running for president � two from the administration ranks, four from the opposition and two independents.

Oil hits record of $111 on dollar slump --abs-cbnnews

2008-03-15T15:49:00.000+08:00

Oil hits record of $111 on dollar slump
Business (as of 3/14/2008 1:15 AM)

Reuters

LONDON - Oil rose to a fresh record high on Thursday, hitting new peaks for the seventh trading day, as a weak dollar overshadowed an increase in US crude inventories.

US crude for April delivery struck a new high of $111.00 a barrel. It was trading at $110.93, up $1.01 by 11:02 a.m. EDT

London Brent crude for April, which expires on Friday, also hit a new peak at $107.88. It was trading at $107.77.

"We're looking at the US dollar, we're looking at speculation, we're looking at geopolitics.

Those three things tying together are defying fundamentals," said Peter McGuire, managing director of Commodity Warrants Australia.

The dollar dropped to a 12-year low against the yen and a record low versus the euro on Thursday on uncertainty about the long-term impact of the Federal Reserve's efforts to ease strained credit and money markets.

"Commodities are likely to have been the key beneficiary of the aggressive Fed rate-cutting cycle," Citigoup said in its research note.

Investors have rushed into commodities to hedge against inflation and the softening dollar. That has contributed to oil's rally, despite concerns over a recession in top oil consumer the United States and rising fuel inventories.

Oil prices rebounded after a drop on Wednesday caused by US government data that showed crude stocks rose more than expected last week and gasoline stocks were at a 15-year high

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=112104

Merrill Lynch sees P42:$1 in March --PDI

2008-02-23T11:18:00.000+08:00

Merrill Lynch sees P42:$1 in March

By Doris Dumlao

Philippine Daily Inquirer

First Posted 02:57:00 02/23/2008

Merrill Lynch sees P42:$1 in March

Teves wants BIR, BoC turned into GOCCs
US farmers rush to grains, avoid sugar, cotton
Gov’t sees record-high rice output in ’08
What is the best way to start an investment?
Wall St falls as financial shares weigh
Oil rises near $99 on Iraq, US weather
Gov’t rice plea a wake-up call for a hungry world
Asia mostly up, Singapore dollar at 11-year high
BIR pushes removal of excise tax exemption

MANILA, Philippines -- American investment banking giant Merrill Lynch expects the peso to pull back to 42.25 to the dollar in March but firm up at about 40 to the greenback by yearend.

In a forecast on global currencies dated Feb. 20, Merrill Lynch said it did not expect the peso, Asia’s best performer last year when it rose nearly 19 percent against the greenback, to rise past 40 to the dollar over the next two years.

For 2009, Merrill Lynch sees the peso firming up at 40 to the dollar in the first quarter and dipping to 41 in the second and third quarters before ending that year at 42 to the greenback.

Merrill Lynch said Asia’s emerging markets remained supported by strong economic fundamentals.

However, it noted that “markets and central banks appear wary of the decoupling theory,” which means that the dynamic region may still be vulnerable to some shocks arising from a slowdown in the US and other industrialized countries.

The peso is trading at eight-year highs but local currency dealers say political volatility has limited its upside potential.

Merrill Lynch forecast that the peso, after falling to 42.25 to the dollar, would rebound to 41.50 by June and 40.50 by September before ending the year at 40 to the greenback.

Its report also noted that local debt markets (LDM) in emerging economies had gained in popularity over the years. “More foreign investor flows have sought LDM exposure, either hedged or unhedged,” it said.

Merrill Lynch has expanded its coverage of emerging markets, adding eight more to the existing 11 countries, including recently launched government bond indices for the Philippines, Brazil and Indonesia.

Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, Merrill Lynch said external and specific local developments would affect currency prospects.

It said Malaysia’s confirmation that there would be an election in March would be good for the ringgit, which it expects to rise from 3.20 to the dollar in March to 3.00 by yearend and 3.10 in 2009. It said the incumbent administration in Malaysia was expected to win comfortably and cut subsidies, noting that the prime minister was focused on making sure fiscal funds were freed up to get the planned projects up and running.

Merrill Lynch said the view on the Indonesian rupiah was positive but it might turn slightly cautious if former banker Agus were chosen as central bank chief. “The market sees him as a more able administrator than for his understanding of macro and monetary policy,” it said.

The investment bank forecast the rupiah to rally from the 9,100 levels to 8,800 to the dollar by yearend but returning to 9,000 by end-2009.

Merrill Lynch said the Thai baht might consolidate since the move to revoke the capital controls has been delayed to March or April. It forecast the baht to end 2008 at 32.25 to the dollar and falling to 33.50 at end-2009.

“The government’s growth preferences are evident, given that they are asking the Bank of Thailand to use monetary policy to stimulate the economy,” it said. “The BoT is expected to ease rates, though not at this policy meeting (Feb. 27), as growth remains strong and inflation high.” Edited by INQUIRER.net

Copyright 2008 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://business.inquirer.net/money/breakingnews/view/20080223-120672/Merrill-Lynch-sees-P421-in-March

Press Freedom

2007-12-18T16:04:00.000+08:00

December 08,2010 Malaya , Saturday

Perils of the press (1)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By JOSEPH ISRAEL M. LABAN

www.pcij.org

DILI, EAST TIMOR — What has been described as East Timor’s leading independent daily operates out of four small rooms and has a budget that threatens to disappear altogether every day.

The Timor Post also has staff members who have been in constant fear for their lives since last year, when two of them were attacked and left for dead right outside their rundown office. Then again, other journalists in this young nation have had similar experiences. Last August, another major newspaper had its office windows smashed while one of its employees was struck repeatedly with rocks and sticks and his motorcycle trashed after he acknowledged that he worked for the paper.

Ideally, this should not be happening in the world’s youngest democracy, which at one point had also been called by then United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan as "a child of the international community." But as the media in other Southeast Asian nations have found out, keeping the press free is a constant battle that is fought daily – even in a supposed democracy.

Just last week, for instance, about 50 journalists covering a coup attempt were handcuffed with plastic luggage fasteners and hauled off for questioning by Philippine authorities. As of June 2007, the Philippines has also seen some 90 media practitioners killed in the line of duty since democracy was restored in 1986, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP). Fifty-three of the killings, adds the NUJP, took place under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, 58 cases of violence against journalists were recorded between August 2006 to August 2007 by the Alliance of Independent Journalists. According to the body, "government apparatus" has become the new enemy of press freedom, since it is believed to have perpetrated 10 of the recorded assaults.

Indonesia had occupied East Timor in 1975 and ruled it mainly through its armed forces. In August 1999, however, the Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia. That change was recognized by the international community in May 2002.

For sure the media here had expected press freedom to come with democracy. Instead, local journalists seem to have been under siege since East Timor – now also known as Timor Leste – broke free from Indonesia, with the most serious setbacks to press freedom taking place during last year’s tumult that nearly split the country in half.

Nobel Prize laureate and current Timor Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta maintains, "Timor Leste still has the freest media in Southeast Asia." Indeed, East Timor has ratified the major international human rights conventions that guarantee freedoms of speech and the press, and has even incorporated these rights into East Timorese jurisprudence.

Yet Virgilio da Silva Guterres, chairperson of the Timor Lorosa’e Journalists Association (AJTL), says that although there is no comprehensive survey yet of attacks on members of East Timor’s media, unverified reports of journalists being harassed or assaulted trickle in all the time.

He cites the case of an attack on a journalist covering the campaign in the first round of presidential elections earlier this year, and notes, "He had to stay in the hospital for three days due the injuries he sustained."

AJTL estimates that there are about 200 media practitioners in Timor Leste today. There are three major dailies and two weeklies, along with two magazines, one of which caters mostly to the youth. About 80 percent of these publications are at least partially dependent on funding from international development agencies.

"The public is still not well-educated in the role of the media in the society, which is why support in the community remains weak," says Guterres. He adds that there is a need for "extensive civic education" for the public so that people would realize "that their basic human rights include the right to information and that it is the duty of the media to inform."

Guterres and the rest of the country’s media hope, though, that there would be no repeat of the events of 2006 that even led to the shutdown of the local papers for almost a month. In May last year, the home of Timor Post editor in chief Jose Ximenes was also burned to the ground, as were those of two Post reporters, Domingos Freitas and Mouzinho Lopes de Araujo. The incidents were among those that prompted the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) to officially express its concern over how Timorese journalists were becoming internally displaced persons because their houses were being torched.

Freitas had the added misfortune of being one of the two Post employees who were beaten savagely right in front of the paper’s office a few weeks later. He had been on his way home to a refugee resettlement camp where he had taken his family after they lost their home.

De Araujo says the burning of their houses and the attacks on Post employees had something to do with articles they published that were critical to the government of then Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri. The former premier’s party is also being blamed for more recent attacks on journalists.

Last May, a few days after he was sworn in as East Timor’s new president, Ramos-Horta was asked by this writer about the kind of guarantees and protection he would be extending to local journalists. He replied, "Timor Leste will honor all conventions and international treaties it has signed." He then went on to propose "government subsidies to privately owned newspapers," although he said that this would "not be attached to preconditions that could affect the independence of the media."

Ramos-Horta is widely respected in East Timor and in the international community. But his assurances about protecting the country’s media are apparently cold comfort to journalists here.

Freitas, for instance, has chosen not to file a court case against his attackers, believing that East Timor’s still frail judicial system will only let him down and expose him to more risks. "I do not think the Tribunal could resolve my problem," he says. "I think it will only aggravate the situation. Filing a case would only encourage even more retaliation."

Freitas may be thinking of his colleague who was attacked alongside him and later filed a case in court. Up to now, though, the case has not moved, even as Freitas’s co-worker receives anonymous threats against him and his family.

Freitas himself has opted to seek the help of a community elder to mediate between him and his attackers whom he says he can identify one by one. "I am not so sure about justice," he says. "I only want an apology."

December 10,2010 Malaya , Monday

Perils of the press (2)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By JOSEPH ISRAEL M. LABAN

www.pcij.org

A new anti-defamation law has become yet another worry for Timorese journalists, warns Virgilio da Silva Guterres, chairperson of the Timor Lorosa’e Journalists Association (AJTL).

Deliberate misapplication of the law is a concern. "The legal framework is one of our biggest problems at the moment," says Guterres. "The stipulations of the law make it vulnerable to abuse by corrupt politicians." He also says that some reporters are already beginning to hesitate about writing critical stories.

"When the law is finally implemented," predicts Guterres, "members of the media may become too afraid to disclose the truth."

Observers have noted that the law imposes unlimited fines for those convicted of criminal defamation. Penalties for defamation through the media are also greater, as are the penalties (three years in prison) if those defamed are performing "public, religious, or political duties." The truth of the statements would not necessarily serve as a defense, leading legal analysts to comment that the penal code would grant greater protection to public officials compared to everyone else.

Media groups had tried to block the law’s passage. In February 2006, the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) also sent a letter to then President Xanana Gusmao to ask him to veto the criminal defamation provisions contained in the country’s new Penal Code. Argued the group: "One of the foundations of a democratic society is the ability of its people to speak truth to power. If Timor Leste’s government tries to suppress such speech, we fear for the future of your democracy and for the future stability of your nation."

The provisions were included in the Penal Code drafted by the Ministry of Justice despite the clear recommendation to East Timor’s Commission on Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation (CAVR) not to criminalize defamation.

At least, though, members of the Timor Post staff do not seem to be among those who have been intimidated by the new law. De Araujo, the paper’s coordinating reporter, does worry sometimes about the quality of their reports, but he says this is due more to other factors.

"Most difficulties are material," he says. "Like the equipment in our office, like computers. There are many journalists in the Timor Post but few computers so we have to wait for each other in writing articles. We have to wait a long time, sometimes five hours, just to be able to write our articles."

The paper currently employs 15 reporters who have to share four computers. Each reporter is required to file three articles for the newspaper. This causes a bottleneck in the writing process, and leads to significant delays in preparing the paper and sending it to the press.

The Post began operations in 2001, and relied heavily on funds from international donors for more than two years. These days, it is constantly trying to stay afloat through what it earns from selling copies of the paper (at 50 U.S. cents each, with a daily circulation of about 1,200) and advertising space. Chief editor Ximenes admits that their monthly revenues barely cover their overhead expenses.

Trouble with tongues

Language has also become a problem. From 2001 to 2005 the Timor Post published articles written in four languages: Tetum, Bahasa Indonesia, Portuguese, and English. Today most Post stories are in Tetum, one of East Timor’s two official languages. The other is Portuguese (East Timor used to be a Portuguese colony), but it is Bahasa Indonesia that is used for the foreign news section.

De Araujo says the decision to use Tetum as the primary language and Bahasa Indonesia as the secondary language in the newspaper was based on "marketing considerations" that could directly affect the long-term viability of the newspaper. "When you look at the market," he says, "Portuguese and English do not have many readers…because in this country most of the people only understand Tetum."

But the language problem has other more direct manifestations that could seriously impede the basic practice of newsgathering for the Post. Tetum, for instance, does not have enough technical and scientific terms to describe very specific details that have to be conveyed by the media from time to time. De Araujo also says that he himself trips over his tongue and becomes perplexed when interviewing older Timorese bureaucrats who were educated in Portugal.

"As a journalist I have a difficult time understanding Portuguese words," he says. "So sometimes after an interview I have to ask a senior reporter who understands Portuguese what it means."

Portuguese is no longer spoken widely in East Timor. At the Post, there is only one person who can understand Portuguese and that’s chief editor Ximenes, who at 45 is at least two decades older than many of the paper’s reporters.

Lack of skilled journalists is yet another of the paper’s difficulties. None of its reporters – more than half of whom are teenagers – graduated from a journalism course. Only a few have previous media work experience. The only journalism training that most of the current staff received is the annual basic journalism course the Post itself conducts. The paper holds a three-month training session for journalists each year. From the 30 to 35 trainees, the Post chooses a handful to invite to join the daily.

Although they need more manpower, Ximenes says they cannot afford to hire more people. This is despite what de Araujo considers as "very low salary" being given to the paper’s reporters. New reporters at the Post receive from $90 to $100 a month. De Araujo receives the highest salary among the reporters at $160 per month. But in a country where a liter of bottled water costs $1, this is hardly enough to support himself and his family.

"Money is a very real problem for Timorese journalists," says de Araujo, pointing out that the low media salaries lead to other problems. While some journalists augment their income by working as stringers for foreign news agencies, he says, some resort to shady "quick fixes."

"There is already some corruption in the local media," says de Araujo, although he asserts that he "cannot blame" his colleagues when "the survival of their families is on the line."

For all its problems, however, it is business as usual at the Timor Post. As the evening approaches, the sound of motorbikes stopping in front of the newspaper’s office signals the arrival of reporters coming in from their respective beats.

"I never had second thoughts about working for the Timor Post," say Freitas, when asked whether he considered resigning from his job after the attack. "I know we are fair and we shouldn’t be afraid of possible reprisals."

He does say that he initially considered asking for a temporary reassignment to the Post’s district office in Baucau. But today he feels safe enough to head home on his own, back to the refugee tent he continues to shares with his family.

"No matter what happens we must go on," says de Araujo. "We must keep the people posted."

***

Joseph Israel M. Laban is a senior producer at GMA-7. He wrote this piece as a participant in the 2007 Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) Fellowship Program.

* * * * *

Maria Ressa’s position paper on media at the Pen
by Maria A. Ressa
Head, ABS-CBN News & Current Affairs Division

On November 29, 2007, more than 30 journalists were arrested, handcuffed and transported to Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan. 12 of the journalists were from ABS-CBN, detained as “witnesses and suspects,” according to the police. Others were told they would be released as soon as their identities were verified.

Head of Newsgathering, Charie Villa, went immediately to the Peninsula Hotel to identify our people; yet, she was told they would still have to be arrested and brought to Bicutan. We believe this move sets a dangerous precedence and erodes our nation’s democracy.

There are two points I’d like to make about the role of media in conflict situations like the Peninsula siege. First, our democracy rests on the principle that the people have a right to know. Section 7, Article III of the 1987 Philippine Constitution recognizes “the right of the people to information on matters of public concern.”

Law enforcement and government officials must be accountable to the public, and our history has shown there is no better means to do that during crisis situations than live television coverage. In a 2004 national survey by ABS-CBN, over 90% of adult Filipinos say that during any major event, they look for news, with 87% turning to TV to make sure they’re informed. After the 2007 elections, that increased, hitting 92% in the National Capital Region, according to Pulse Asia.

The clamor for information increases during times of uncertainty, highlighted during nearly a dozen coup attempts and withdrawals of support in the last two decades: in 1986 and 2001, military moves turned into successful people power revolts; while failed attempts were televised during Edsa Tres, the Oakwood Mutiny and the Peninsula siege. Since these three failed, it obviously doesn’t follow that television coverage automatically means success. During all these, 1986 excluded, ABS-CBN reported in a similar and consistent fashion, spurred on by the public’s right to know. In performing our duty, we accepted the risks, including overturned and burned vehicles and the mauling of reporters (not by the police but by a sector of the public we serve).

While the State has the right to protect itself, the public has the right to know – and as we have seen, the Filipino has always made a choice. Focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted by ABS-CBN between December 3-5 reflect that. They expressed an overwhelming sentiment that they want to be kept informed, saying live television coverage should continue. We believe this is critical because an uninformed public makes any democracy unstable; it is in this light that media should be considered partners in promoting democracy rather than the other way around.

It is important that the public has the information it needs to make an informed decision because that is the foundation of our democracy. Yet, by arresting our journalists, authorities effectively shut down ANC’s live coverage of the post-siege situation at the Peninsula Hotel. They tried to confiscate videotapes and equipment from reporters, photographers and cameramen. The police violated their own definition of the “crime scene” by approaching our transmission facilities outside the Peninsula to try to confiscate our videotapes and stop our coverage. This is effectively censorship – at a time when the conflict had all but been resolved. To date, they still have at least one videotape and two radios owned by ABS-CBN.

The second point which has clear ramifications for the future is the role journalists play in conflict situations like Edsa, Oakwood and the Peninsula. On December 5, DILG Sec. Ronaldo Puno called the Peninsula a “crime scene” and said that journalists violated two laws at the Peninsula siege. He cited Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code which has to do with “resistance and disobedience of persons in authority” and PD 1821 for “obstruction of justice.”

These statements have far-reaching consequences because now every journalist reporting on a conflict situation has to worry that he/she may be arrested and charged. Beyond that, if the journalist can be charged so can news organizations. This is no longer a threat but a reality and creates a “chilling effect” for working journalists, who can now be charged like common criminals.

Yet, we believe that the law covering the presence of journalists in conflict situations is very clear and supercedes any legislation cited by the DILG Secretary. Section 4, Article III of the 1987 Philippine Constitution states that “no law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press.”

“Was there an arrest? Yes,” said Sec. Puno, “Were they charged? No. Why was there an apology? Because all of us feel bad about the way the incident materialized. We are unhappy that our friends in media had to suffer inconvenience.”

In one move, the government trivialized and dismissed a violation of the Constitution as an “inconvenience.”

While we understand the position of the Philippine National Police, by its own admission, it is using “SOPs” created in 2006. PNP Memorandum Circular No. 2006-09-01 tells the police what to do with perpetrators, hostages and witnesses. It has no provisions for journalists, who are part of the landscape in conflict situations. This may be the first time these rules were used. It is also the first time that the PNP has been the lead agency in a political conflict situation – which is how many journalists would characterize the event, not just a “crime scene” complete with overtones of bank robberies and murder. Every other coup attempt or passive withdrawals of support in the past twenty one years were handled by the Department of National Defense. Perhaps this is part of the reason why the rules were changed in the Peninsula siege.

We journalists are by no means perfect. Some of us can be arrogant at times and that is how we have been portrayed by the police in this instance. But the reason we need to hold the line is simply because if we give in, we would have contributed to weakening our democracy by depriving the public of the information it wants and needs.

Having reported from numerous combat zones in Southeast Asia and around the world, I am very aware of the risks we face as journalists. In Indonesia, I barely survived a cross-fire between government troops and protestors. In Aceh, my team and I were detained but that’s to be expected given the authoritarian regime then. In East Timor, Pakistan, India, China - despite the dangers and restrictions, you calculate the risks and always make sure the odds are high that you will survive to tell the story. What I have learned from experience is that every situation is different, and what you do depends on the system of government you’re operating under, i.e. you would not make the same decision under a democracy that you would under a dictatorship.

Every journalists’ and news organizations’ assessment of risk varies. That is why I find it slightly ludicrous for the PNP to quote the Ethics Manuals of the CBC, BBC and ABS-CBN to bolster its point that all journalists should have left when requested – that there is a one-size-fits-all response. All these codes do in these instances is give guidance - the philosophy of the organization - but in the end, the judgement call and the decision to stay or to go – as well as the risks that entails – falls with the journalist. We balance the fear for personal safety with the duty to report the truth.

The police claim we were being used because they said some Magdalo soldiers changed clothes and put on press passes. Everyone tries to use us, including the police and military intelligence agents who were pretending to be journalists. During the crisis, we did not report that because we did not want to compromise their work, but their presence increased the danger for us. Those agents could have easily told their superiors who were the real journalists and who were only masquerading.
We categorically state that at no instance did any journalist “obstruct justice” at the Peninsula. Mere presence and reporting the news is not obstruction of justice. Recordings made by the police of our live coverage are now being used by authorities as evidence against those it charged in court. The police even acknowledged that there was a failure of communication within their organization. They mobilized only after they were “informed” of the event through TV and radio coverage. It is clear the police benefited from us doing our job. We cannot be both obstructing and helping justice simultaneously.

Our fear is that the arrests of journalists may herald a new, more dangerous time ahead. In recent years, many developments have eroded press freedom in our country. In 2003, there were more journalists killed in the Philippines than in Iraq, and today – despite pressure from the international community - the extrajudicial killings of journalists and leftist leaders continue with virtual impunity. Intimidation tactics, indirect pressure and libel suits have been used to attempt to control journalists. In 2006, Proclamation 1017 severely curtailed press freedom after authorities threatened to shut down news organizations and stationed tanks outside tv networks.

Last year, Freedom House, an international group which conducts an annual survey of political rights and civil liberties, downgraded its rating of the Philippines from FREE to PARTLY FREE.

Given this context, the arrests of journalists is extremely alarming, especially since it has now been elevated as policy by Sec. Puno, who warns journalists that the police would do it again. To add insult to injury, after authorities apologized for the arrests, they began to publicly question the motives of our journalists. Officials maligned us by implying we were working with Trillanes’ group despite the absolute lack of evidence for these statements. Now they say they will look at the franchises of television networks. All this only points out that the attempts to intimidate and harass journalists continue.

While it is inconvenient for law enforcement officials to have to contend with media in conflict zones, it is a necessity guaranteed by the Constitution and a check and balance of a vibrant democracy.

On November 29, the journalists who chose to stay and report on the Peninsula siege displayed tremendous courage and risked their safety for the public they serve. A colleague from the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of the Philippines captured the spirit of our thoughts: “if someone else can deliver the Truth better, we would give way. If we chose to leave at the request of the PNP, then we would have to swallow the PNP version of the Truth because we chose to give up the access we already had.”

That would be a disservice to the public we all serve.

* * * * * * * * * *

Malaya News
December 10,2010
Monday

Typhoon, poverty fail to stop Bicol lass from winning quiz bee

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BY MANILYN UGALDE

LEGAZPI CITY — Her family was one of those affected by super typhoon Reming last year but this did not prevent 15-year-old Cherry Gil L. Araojo, a high school senior, from topping the national quiz bee contest last Dec. 1 in Manila.

Araojo’s father is a tricycle driver. Her mother is a laundrywoman.

Legazpi city Mayor Noel Rosal said the winner is a product of his pet project, the four-year-old Legazpi City High School.

"What struck me was the situation of the Araojo family which lives a simple life in a small house squatting on private land in Sitio Renelizan, Barangay Bonot," the mayor said.

Rosal said Araojo boasts of impressive scholastic records.

He said she has been adjudged best student in science and technology subject since her first year. She graduated from the Ibalong Public Elementary School.

Araojo said she took the regional quiz bee contest on Nov. 28 without expecting to come out on top.

When she did, she and her coach rushed to Manila the next day to take the national quiz bee test.

"I was just very relaxed and even concerned more about my family situation because of threats of bad weather," she said.

Araojo said she intends to take up chemical engineering or accounting.

Rosal said the city government will give cash incentives to Araojo aside from what she will get from the national government.

Araojo will represent the Philippines in the International Quiz Bee Tournament in China.

Two Koreas to restart regular rail service after half-century --AFP

2007-11-16T20:22:00.000+08:00

North Korean Premier Kim Yong Il, left, shakes hands with his South Korean counterpart Han Duck-soo, right, during their meeting at a hotel in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Nov. 16, 2007. North and South Korea agreed Friday to launch cross-border rail service next month for the first time in more than half a century, with cargo trains running along a short railway just across the heavily armed frontier.

(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, Pool)

photo courtesy of Yahoo News Photo(Associated Press)

Two Koreas to restart regular rail service after half-century

AFP

by Lim Chang-Won Fri Nov 16, 12:59 AM ET

SEOUL (AFP) - North and South Korea have agreed to start regular rail freight services across their heavily fortified border next month for the first time in more than half a century, it was announced Friday.

The services will begin on December 11, a joint statement said on the final day of a rare meeting of prime ministers from the two sides.

In other reconciliation moves, the two nations agreed to start creating a joint fishing zone in the Yellow Sea in the first half of next year. The aim is to prevent further clashes around the disputed sea border, the scene of bloody naval battles in 1999 and 2002.

Cross-border trains made test runs in May in what was hailed as a milestone for unification between two countries still technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended only in an armistice.

But the North's military had been reluctant to give security guarantees for a regular operation on the 20-kilometre (12 mile) section of track, which would service the Seoul-funded industrial estate at Kaesong just north of the border.

President Roh Moo-Hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il agreed at their historic summit in Pyongyang early last month to resume regular rail services.

This week's prime ministerial meeting, the first for 15 years, was tasked with implementing the sweeping summit declaration on promoting peace and co-prosperity.

"This accord will provide a major opportunity for South and North Korea to speed up exchanges and cooperation, and to advance peace and prosperity on the Korean peninsula," an upbeat Lee Jae-Joung, Seoul's unification minister, told reporters.

The issue of military security guarantees would be handled when defence ministers from the two sides meet late this month, he said.

Regular cross-border freight services would signal a marked opening-up by the hardline communist North, which is eager for help to revive its crumbling economy.

The border remains one of the most heavily mined areas on earth, and extensive demining had to be undertaken before the railway test runs.

In another sign of opening up, the North has agreed to let South Korean businessmen use the Internet and cellphones when visiting Kaesong, Lee said.

Prime ministerial meetings will be held every six month in future.

Last month's summit agreed on a variety of joint reconciliation projects costing billions of dollars, including the establishment of the joint fishing area as part of a "peace zone" in the Yellow Sea.

A special economic zone around the North's southwestern port and naval base of Haeju would be part of the peace zone. The two leaders also agreed to expand Kaesong, jointly develop shipyards in the North, upgrade the North's decrepit roads and railways and expand tourist and cultural exchanges.

On the joint fishing area, a committee grouping both sides will meet this year to discuss the project, said Friday's joint statement. The two sides will conduct a joint feasibility study on developing Haeju by year-end.

North and South agreed to begin repairing the highway between Pyongyang and Kaesong next year, along with work on a railway connecting Kaesong to Sinuiju on the Chinese border.

South Korea's government sees joint developments such as Kaesong as a way to narrow the huge wealth gap in preparation for possible eventual reunification.

Some 20,000 North Koreans earning about 60 dollars a month produce clothes, utensils, watches and other goods for South Korean firms.

A Hyundai Research Institute study has estimated the cost to South Korea of all the summit projects at 11 billion dollars. The Seoul government, which has less than four months still in office, says private businesses will pick up cost of the investment tab.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071116/wl_afp/skoreankoreatalks_071116055031

Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.

ASEAN single market faces obstacles:analysts --AFP

2007-11-16T20:03:00.000+08:00

ASEAN single market faces obstacles: analysts

Agence France Presse

SINGAPORE - Southeast Asia's plans for a unified market by 2015 hinge on painful reforms that could be derailed by red tape, vested interests and foot-dragging, observers say.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders holding their annual summit in Singapore from Sunday are expected to approve a blueprint for an ASEAN economic community embracing more than half a billion people.

"Political will is the key. If countries don't have the political will to push through with these reforms, this will remain just a dream," said a Southeast Asian trade official, talking on condition of anonymity.

"Can governments, for example, resist pressure from domestic interests against allowing foreign airlines to fly domestic routes?"

Analysts have lauded ASEAN for moving forward by five years its timetable for economic integration, from 2020 to 2015.

But they said the 40-year-old organization faces a formidable task in establishing a unified market and production base that would help it compete against Asian giants China and India.

Some of the reforms could come up against entrenched domestic business interests and face resistance from officials in departments such as customs, a major source of corruption in some countries, they said.

Complicating the situation are disparities between the group's more developed members Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, and lower-income states Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

As a first step to integration, ASEAN has marked 12 priority sectors for the elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers by 2010.

These are agricultural, rubber and wood-based products along with air travel, Internet linkages, automotives, electronics, fisheries, healthcare, logistics, textiles and apparel, and tourism.

ASEAN also plans to liberalize the services sector, open formerly-closed sectors to foreign investors, harmonize and streamline customs procedures, and ease the movement of professionals.

ASEAN transport ministers agreed in November that national airlines can fly between capital cities by the end of 2008 under an open-skies pact that could be expanded later to include secondary cities.

Mike Barclay, regional vice president of the industry trade body, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said however that ASEAN still had a "long way to go" in freeing up aviation.

"We don't see any relaxation of foreign ownership controls... we don't see the opportunity for airlines to operate domestic sectors in another ASEAN country," Barclay told an aviation conference in Singapore last month.

Philippine Trade Secretary Peter Favila said in August there could be "unintended pockets of bureaucratic red tape" that could slow the blueprint's implementation, but voiced confidence this could be overcome.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Institute identified in a recent report the huge scale of some of the reforms ASEAN states must undertake.

"A shift to knowledge-based economy is crucial for Malaysia and Thailand and institutional and governance reforms and restoration of good investment climate should be priorities for Indonesia and the Philippines," it said.

Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam need to build infrastructure like transportation and telecommunication facilities. They also need legal, judicial and governance systems and a skilled work force, the ADB's research arm said.

"These countries are still not ready for the ASEAN economic community," said analyst Hiro Katsumata of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

ASEAN's six wealthier states could form the core of an economic community by 2015, with the poorer members joining later, Katsumata suggested.

The ADB Institute paper highlighted the wide disparity within ASEAN in terms of market openness and urged financial and technical help for ASEAN's poorer members.

For example, ASEAN's average tariff import rate is 9.53 percent, ranging from zero tariffs in Singapore to 17.92 percent in Vietnam.

It takes an average 32 days to import an item in ASEAN, varying from three days in Singapore to 45 days in Cambodia and 78 days in Laos.

An average 64 days are required to start a business in ASEAN, ranging from six days in Singapore to 163 days in Laos and 97 days in Indonesia.

"The greatest challenge is to narrow the development gaps within ASEAN," the paper said.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=99366

© ABS-CBNNews All Rights Reserved

ASEAN single market faces obstacles: analysts
AFP

by Martin Abbugao Fri Nov 16, 1:33 AM ET

SINGAPORE (AFP) - Southeast Asia's plans for a unified market by 2015 hinge on painful reforms that could be derailed by red tape, vested interests and foot-dragging, observers say.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders holding their annual summit in Singapore from Sunday are expected to approve a blueprint for an ASEAN economic community embracing more than half a billion people.

"Political will is the key. If countries don't have the political will to push through with these reforms, this will remain just a dream," said a Southeast Asian trade official, talking on condition of anonymity.

"Can governments, for example, resist pressure from domestic interests against allowing foreign airlines to fly domestic routes?"

Analysts have lauded ASEAN for moving forward by five years its timetable for economic integration, from 2020 to 2015.

But they said the 40-year-old organisation faces a formidable task in establishing a unified market and production base that would help it compete against Asian giants China and India.

Some of the reforms could come up against entrenched domestic business interests and face resistance from officials in departments such as customs, a major source of corruption in some countries, they said.

Complicating the situation are disparities between the group's more developed members Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, and lower-income states Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

As a first step to integration, ASEAN has marked 12 priority sectors for the elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers by 2010.

These are agricultural, rubber and wood-based products along with air travel, Internet linkages, automotives, electronics, fisheries, healthcare, logistics, textiles and apparel, and tourism.

ASEAN also plans to liberalise the services sector, open formerly-closed sectors to foreign investors, harmonise and streamline customs procedures, and ease the movement of professionals.

ASEAN transport ministers agreed in November that national airlines can fly between capital cities by the end of 2008 under an open-skies pact that could be expanded later to include secondary cities.

Mike Barclay, regional vice president of the industry trade body, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said however that ASEAN still had a "long way to go" in freeing up aviation.

"We don't see any relaxation of foreign ownership controls... we don't see the opportunity for airlines to operate domestic sectors in another ASEAN country," Barclay told an aviation conference in Singapore last month.

Philippine Trade Secretary Peter Favila said in August there could be "unintended pockets of bureaucratic red tape" that could slow the blueprint's implementation, but voiced confidence this could be overcome.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Institute identified in a recent report the huge scale of some of the reforms ASEAN states must undertake.

"A shift to knowledge-based economy is crucial for Malaysia and Thailand and institutional and governance reforms and restoration of good investment climate should be priorities for Indonesia and the Philippines," it said.

Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam need to build infrastructure like transportation and telecommunication facilities. They also need legal, judicial and governance systems and a skilled work force, the ADB's research arm said.

"These countries are still not ready for the ASEAN economic community," said analyst Hiro Katsumata of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

ASEAN's six wealthier states could form the core of an economic community by 2015, with the poorer members joining later, Katsumata suggested.

The ADB Institute paper highlighted the wide disparity within ASEAN in terms of market openness and urged financial and technical help for ASEAN's poorer members.

For example, ASEAN's average tariff import rate is 9.53 percent, ranging from zero tariffs in Singapore to 17.92 percent in Vietnam.

It takes an average 32 days to import an item in ASEAN, varying from three days in Singapore to 45 days in Cambodia and 78 days in Laos.

An average 64 days are required to start a business in ASEAN, ranging from six days in Singapore to 163 days in Laos and 97 days in Indonesia.

"The greatest challenge is to narrow the development gaps within ASEAN," the paper said.

Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071116/ts_afp/aseansummittrade_071116054216

October 09,2007 - Dailies Front Page

2007-10-10T17:34:00.000+08:00

Bloodbath August 17,2007

2007-08-20T16:58:00.000+08:00

Business | Manila Times

Friday, August 17, 2007

July foreign investments in local shares up
Stocks fall sharply due to US credit woes

THE Philippine stock market fell sharply on Thursday, amid a region wide tumble after Wall Street skidded for the fifth straight session on persistent credit market worries, dealers said.

They blamed the US plunge that saw the Dow Jones industrials close Wednesday below the 13,000 mark for the first time since April, despite the Federal Reserve’s move to inject more cash into the banking system.

The Philippine composite index lost 188.03 points or six percent to 2,942.31. This was the biggest single-day drop since February 28 when it sank by 263.84 points, or 7.9 percent to 3,067.45, following a plunge in the Shanghai stock market.

Back then, fears of an economic slowdown in the US hit the Chinese bourse and spread across other Asian markets. The US is China’s biggest export market, allowing the Asian economic giant to enjoy record trade surpluses.

At present, renewed fears of a slowdown in the world’s largest economy brought about by tightening credit markets have roiled markets across the globe.

The Philippines’ all-share index on Thursday fell 105.99 points to 1,901.86. There were 143 decliners and only six advancers, with 13 stocks unchanged.

Volume amounted to 5.5 billion shares worth P4.9 billion.

“People are selling their stocks as if they don’t have value at all. Where it’s going to stop, nobody knows,” DA Market Securities Nestor Aguila said.

“Uncertainty lingers although I think we’re now at ground zero and a number of stocks, including some blue chips, are ripe for bargain-hunting,” he added.

“It’s a global situation,” said Allan Araullo, research head of Regina Capital Development Corp., remarking that not even positive corporate figures in the Philippines could overcome this.

“It really depends on the US market. They have to calm down first.”

Araullo said it was a case of “emotion taking over the global market,” remarking that despite the concerns over the subprime mortgages, “the data shows the US economy is still strong.”

Index leader Philippine Long Distance Telephone fell P195 to P2,270.

Metropolitan Bank and Trust—the nation’s biggest lender by assets—shed P3.50 to P49.50. Bank of the Philippine Islands plunged P4.50 to P54.50 and Banco de Oro slid P1 to P54.

Conglomerates were also hit, with Ayala Corp down P15 at P417.50 while SM Investments fell P12.50 to P320.

San Miguel saw its A shares fall by four pesos to P62 while its B shares slid by P3.50 to P65.

The peso also continued to slide on similar concerns over the US’ credit woes.

At the Philippine Dealing System, the local currency weakened by 20 centavos closing at 46.430 against the dollar from 46.230 last Wednesday.

“The stock market [was] hammered, investors are selling their ROP bonds,” Marcelo Ayes, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. senior vice-president said, referring to Philippine government debt papers.

He said local banks have small exposure in collateral debt obligations (CDO) and mildly affected by the US housing woes but lenders’ net income will be affected more by the drop in the bond market.

Investors are selling their ROP bonds and investing their money in comparable US treasury papers.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the domestic capital market is less dependent on foreign denominated financing and there’s sufficient liquidity in the system.

BSP Gov. Amando M. Tetangco Jr. earlier said the impact of the US subprime housing crisis is largely indirect in the form of risk aversion, which is seen in the rise in bond prices and the peso’s fall, similar to what is happening in other emerging markets.

However, the recent weakness of the peso is seen as temporary, as the local currency will be supported by a strong balance of payments (BOP) surplus, the BSP said.

Latest data from the BSP showed that net inflows of foreign portfolio investments reached nearly $1.1 billion last month due mainly to several large initial and follow-on sale of shares in local companies. These stock offerings include those of Aboitiz Power Corp., GMA Holdings, Inc. and Vista Land and Lifescapes, Inc.

State-run Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) likewise offered an additional 20 percent of its shareholdings in PNOC-Energy Development Corp.

For the first seven months of the year, newly-registered foreign portfolio investments and capital outflows totaled $9.8 billion and $6.2 billion, respectively, for a net inflow of over $3.6 billion. This net inflow was four times the $894.9 million in the same period last year.
--AFP and Maricel E. Burgonio

Copyright (c) 2001 The Manila Times

Bloodbath in market as US crisis worsens

08/17/2007

The bloodletting intensified at the financial markets yesterday as the stock index fell through the 3,000 mark while the peso dipped to 46.43 from 46.23 the previous day despite suspected Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) intervention.

The peso touched an intra-day low of 46.70 at the floor of the Philippine Dealing System.

Investors moved out of riskier assets amid jitters about the sub-prime lending crisis in the United States, dealers said.

Share prices closed 6.0 percent lower, amid a regionwide tumble after Wall Street skidded for the fifth straight session on persistent credit market worries, dealers said. The composite index lost 188.03 points to 2,942.31.

The index at the Philippine Stock Exchange was down 107.59 points or 3.4 percent at 3,022.75 points less than an hour after trading opened, having closed 4.1 percent down on Wednesday.

Traders said the BSP was seen selling dollars in the market at 46.50 to stem the peso’s decline.

“The dollar-peso (rate) will continue to be influenced by external factors with sub-prime mortgage concerns the driving factor for the greenback’s renewed vigor versus emerging market currencies,” a trader at a local commercial bank said.

“Further routs in the equity market will see more peso weakness ahead.”

Ron Rodrigo of Unicapital Securities said the sharp retreat on Wall Street despite more funds injected into the banking system by the US Federal Reserve reflected deeper investor anxiety. Locally, he said investors are no longer focusing on the economy and corporate earnings.

“The fact that US equities dropped despite the Fed’s move created a dilemma for local investors. It is obvious that investors are looking for clearer signals that the sub-prime and credit crisis can really be contained and prevented from spilling into other economic sectors,” Rodrigo said.

Dealers blamed the US plunge that saw the Dow Jones industrials close Wednesday below the 13,000 mark for the first time since April, despite the Federal Reserve’s move to inject more cash to the banking system.

The all-share index fell 105.99 points to 1,901.86. There were 143 decliners and only six advancers, with 13 stocks unchanged. Volume amounted to 5.5 billion shares worth P4.9 billion.

“People are selling their stocks as if they don’t have value at all. Where it’s going to stop, nobody knows,” DA Market Securities Nestor Aguila said.

“Uncertainty lingers although I think we’re now at ground zero and a number of stocks, including some blue chips, are ripe for bargain-hunting,” he added.

“It’s a global situation,” said Allan Araullo, research head of Regina Capital Development Corp., remarking that not even positive corporate figures in the Philippines could overcome this.

“It really depends on the US market. They have to calm down first.”

Araullo said it was a case of “emotion taking over the global market,” remarking that despite the concerns over the sub-prime mortgages, “the data show the US economy is still strong.”

Index leader Philippine Long Distance Telephone fell P195 to 2,270. Metropolitan Bank and Trust — the nation’s biggest lender by assets — shed P3.50 to P49.50. Bank of the Philippine Islands plunged P4.50 to P54.50 and Banco de Oro slid one to P54. Conglomerates were also hit, with Ayala Corp. down 15 at P417.50 while SM Investments fell P12.50 to P320. San Miguel saw its A shares fall by four to P62 while its B shares slid by P3.50 to P65.

Elsewhere, Asian stock markets endured one of their most brutal selloffs in recent years with dramatic falls of more than five percent on some bourses as the fallout from US mortgage woes escalated.

Markets buckled under a wave of selling as the growing fallout from turmoil in US credit markets prompted investors to flee to safe havens such as bonds.

From Tokyo to Sydney, Hong Kong to Mumbai, weary stock dealers’ screens were awash with red again as fears over problems in US sub-prime mortgages to high-risk borrowers continued to buffet stock markets around the world.

Australian home loan group RAMS sparked fresh jitters after it failed to roll over five billion US dollars in debt due to worries over the US credit crunch, which also wreaked havoc on currencies, sending the yen soaring.

In a nerve-wracking day for investors. Seoul reeled from its biggest ever one-day plunge in terms of points, ending down 6.93 percent, but in some markets stocks managed to recover ground in late trade. Tokyo’s Nikkei-225 index fell below the key 16,000-point level for the first time since November before clawing back to end down 1.99 percent.

Hong Kong tumbled 3.3 percent as Singapore dived 3.7 percent. India was down 4.48 percent while Manila closed 6.0 percent lower.

The Daily Tribune © 2006

August 17,2007 Friday - Malaya

REMINISCENT OF 7/11 ROUT: TRADERS
Asian stocks crash; RP leads losers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By ALBERT CASTRO

Asian stocks crashed deeper yesterday in a rout reminiscent of the September 11, 2001 bloodbath after already jittery investors were further unnerved by the drop in Wall Street.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 6.1 percent, the second highest loss after Jakarta. Singapore dived 5 percent.

Traders were alternately using "bloodbath, crash, meltdown" as panicked investors bolted.

In the Philippines, the sell-down wiped out P150 billion market capital. The two-day rout erased a total of P260 billion.

"It’s horrible. People can’t believe this is happening. A triple-digit fall for two days in a row smacks of a mini crash," said Najeeb Jarhom, research head at Fraser Securities in Singapore.

Investors were falling over themselves in the rush to be ahead of "any more mines that will explode in the world financial market.

Yesterday’s fallout was set off by worries that Countrywide Financial, the largest US mortgage lender, could face bankruptcy if liquidity worsens after a Merrill Lynch analyst flagged that possibility.

"The subprime issue will probably take months to play out so trading is going to be very nervous for a while," said Eric Betts, equities strategist at Nomura Australia.

"Anyone who has a financial interest, like a bank or a fund, may have some unexploded mines waiting to go off, so people are bailing out ahead of time."

Other Southeast Asian markets skidded to multi-month lows as well. Jakarta stocks fell 6.3 percent to a four-month low, Malaysian shares dropped 3.69 percent to a near five-month low.

Philippine stocks plunged 6.01 percent — their biggest one-day drop since Feb. 28 — to a seven-month low, Thai shares lost 3.91 percent, their biggest one-day drop in nearly eight months, and Vietnam’s key index fell 1.65 percent.

Financial and blue chip stocks with large foreign holdings — which have led losses in regional markets in the past three weeks — bore the brunt of Thursday’s sell-off.

In Manila, the Bank of the Philippine Islands, the country’s second-largest lender, dropped 7.6 percent. Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., the largest telecom, dropped 7.9 percent.

Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) closed at 2,942.31, the level set last December.

The market has been down 19.6 percent since the start of its strong sell-off on July 26.

Analysts said investors are panicking.

Market turnover reached 5.55 billion shares to P4.9 billion.

PhilEquity Fund, Inc. research head Jerome Gonzales said the market is now in a panic stage given the prolonged effect of the US market decline

"We are on a panic stage now. There could be a bounce, but since the concern is brought by the US problem, we don’t know how long the correction will last " said Gonzales.

The PSE said that the top five stocks affected by the sell down were Metrobank, Ayala Corp., Ayala Land, Inc., Bank of the Philipine Island, and Atlas Consolidated Mining Corp.

Metrobank share prices declined 12.9 percent since the July sell-off; Ayala Corp. was down 21.6 percent; ALI was down 16.4 percent; BPI lost 18 percent; and Atlas shed 26.9 percent.

Gonzales however kept a positive outlook on the market’s long term prospects, stressing that the prolonged correction had brought many stocks to a very cheap level.

"At these prices, there are already stocks that have gained value. As a fund, we are looking at a year time frame and there are stocks that are now attractive," he said.

Unicapital Securities, Inc. research head Ron Rodrigo meanwhile shares the optimism of Gonzales recalling the market’s similar experience in 1994.

"Going back to history, it already happened during 1994. The market for the first time reached 3,333.15 at the start of the year and then three months after corrected to 2,503.07 a 24.9 percent drop. It is just a similar scenario, but different factors," said Rodrigo.

Rodrigo noted after that the market was able to recover and post higher before it start its ascend in 1997.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone CO. (PLDT) shed P195 to P2,465.

SM Prime Holdings, Inc. lost P0.50 to P9.50.

Megaworld Corp. shed P0.25 to P2.85.

Ayala Corp. was down P15 to P417.50.

Units ALI was down P0.50 to P13.75, and BPI shed P4.50 to P54.50.

SM Investments Corp. shed P12.50 to P320. (with reports from Reuters)

Metrobank was down P3.50 to P49.50.

Atlas shed P1.25 to P11.50.

Aboitiz Power Corp. lost P0.45 to P3.90.

Benpress Holdings Corp. was down P0.50 to 4.35.

San Miguel Corp. A dhares were down PP4 to P62, B shares were down P3.50 to P65.

COPYRIGHT 2004 © People's Independent Media Inc.

WB, Canada, Japan threaten aid cut to Mindanao --The Philippine Star

2007-07-27T18:48:00.000+08:00

Canada, Japan threaten to pull aid workers from Mindanao

Friday, July 27, 2007 04:20 PM

MANILA (AFP) - Japan and Canada have threatened to pull out of vital aid projects in the southern Philippines if Manila carries out punitive operations against Muslim separatists there, officials said Friday.

President Gloria Arroyo's government has deployed more troops on Basilan island to hunt down Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members blamed for the killing of 14 marines there earlier this month.

Ten of the slain soldiers were beheaded on July 10 as they searched for a kidnapped Italian Roman Catholic priest, since freed unharmed on the neighbouring southern island of Mindanao.

"We would be disappointed if security concerns arising from a spillover of military operations in Basilan to other areas in Mindanao constrained us to temporarily curtail our aid operations," Canadian ambassador Peter Sutherland said in a letter to Manila's peace negotiating panel.

The 12,000-strong MILF has been observing a three-year truce while negotiating a peace agreement with Manila.

This has allowed wealthy nations including Japan and Canada and multilateral agencies like the World Bank to implement development projects in the south, where some of the poorest Filipino families live.

Arroyo's government confirmed receiving letters from the World Bank and the ambassadors of Japan and Canada over the escalating tensions in Basilan.

"As one of the countries that have full involvement in the Mindanao peace process, we are gravely concerned that offensive military operations could derail the ongoing peace talks and lead to a bigger armed conflict," Japanese ambassador Ryuichiro Yamazaki wrote.

"In case the situation worsens, Japan will have to consider temporarily pulling out its aid-related Japanese personnel from Mindanao for security reasons until there is certainty that such offensive military operations in Basilan will not spill over to other areas," the envoy warned.

World Bank Mindanao coordinator Mary Judd called for restraint, warning that "an escalation would threaten the chances of achieving a peaceful resolution to this crisis, or much worse, totally derail the ongoing peace process."

She wrote that due to the peace process, "several donor-supported programs and projects are now under implementation in Mindanao for roads and bridges, agricultural development and education, among others."

The MILF said its forces attacked the Marines because they had strayed into its territory, but has denied its forces beheaded the soldiers.

The rebels rejected a military demand to turn over those behind the attack.

http://www.philstar.com/index.php?News%20Flash&p=54&type=2&sec=91&aid=2007072737

WB, Canada, Japan threaten aid cut to Mindanao

By Pia Lee-Brago

Friday, July 27, 2007

Japan, Canada and the World Bank (WB) have expressed alarm over a possible outbreak of fighting between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that could scuttle peace talks.

Canada and Japan warned they may pull out their aid workers in Mindanao if the situation worsens.

The donor countries and the World Bank, in separate letters, urged the government and the MILF to exercise restraint to save the Malaysian-brokered talks and peacefully resolve a conflict over the recent killing of 14 Marines.

“We are gravely concerned that offensive military operations could derail the ongoing peace talks,” Japanese Ambassador Ryuichiro Yamazaki said.

“In case the situation worsens, Japan will have to consider temporarily pulling out its aid-related personnel from Mindanao for security reasons,” Yamazaki said in his letter.

Canadian Ambassador Peter Sutherland said his government would be “dismayed if an outbreak of hostilities were to delay or impede the ongoing peace talks.”

“We would be disappointed if security concerns... constrained us to temporarily curtail our aid operations,” Sutherland said in his letter.

“At this time, we encourage the GRP to continue to act in a restrained manner and to emphasize the importance of maintaining the peace process,” Sutherland said.

He said the Canadian government will be forced to move its aid workers out “of harm’s way” once fighting erupts.

Canada and Japan, along with the WB, are among the countries and institutions that have been providing aid and assistance to conflict areas in Mindanao.

World Bank Office of Manila’s Mindanao Coordinator May Judd said the WB supports calls for restraint to allow the peace process to go through.

“Such an escalation would threaten the chances of achieving a peaceful resolution of this crisis, much worse totally derail the ongoing peace process,” Judd said in her letter.

Judd said the WB has trust in President Arroyo’s resolve and vision for the social and economic recovery of Mindanao.

She said the WB believes Mrs. Arroyo will exert utmost efforts to preserve the gains made in Mindanao and explore all possible means to avoid an escalation of violence and allow the peace talks to continue.

Malacañang assured the international donor community of its commitment to forge a peace accord with the MILF amid the looming standoff with the rebel forces.

Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process Jesus Dureza and Presidential Management Staff chief Cerge Remonde said the government is more protective of the ongoing peace process with the MILF.

“We welcome those (statements) but they don’t have to tell us that because we are more concerned than they are. I am sure that we have to uphold the primacy of the peace process. The primacy of the peace process as the President’s policy remains,” Dureza said.

Remonde, for his part, said he also gave assurance to Ambassador Yamazaki that the “peace process will be protected at all costs.”

Remonde told Yamazaki of the government’s resolve to “account for those who committed the inhuman attack on the (14) Marines.”

The two officials though admitted they are not aware of letters sent to Malacañang by the international donor community expressing concern over the possible escalation of conflict between government troops and the MILF.

While the government welcomes the concern of the international community, Dureza said “their seeming apprehension is misplaced.”

“Let it not appear as if they are more concerned than we are in preserving the gains of the peace process,” he said.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said the government has made assurances to donor countries that it would exert more effort to save the peace process.

Stand down

The MILF has ordered all its combatants to observe maximum restraint and maintain “defensive posture” in the face of a looming standoff with government forces already massing up in Basilan.

“The MILF remains in a defensive position. The MILF force will not move (or) fire their guns unless fired upon,” rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu said.

MILF chieftain Al Haj Murad ordered all fighters to stand down following Malaysia’s appeal for sobriety during a closed door meeting with the leaders of the rebel group yesterday.

Datuk Othman bin Abdu’razak, chief Malaysian facilitator of the government-MILF peace talks, met with Murad in Barangay Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat, Shariff Kabunsuan late Wednesday.

Abdu’razak appealed for a stand down between government and MILF forces and for them to take initiatives to resume peace negotiations brokered by the Malaysian government.

The MILF responded positively to the appeal made by Abdu’razak and declared its readiness to resume peace talks with the government and discuss still unresolved topics of the negotiations.

Key MILF sources revealed that Murad told Abdu’razak of their willingness to cooperate with a “third party probe” over the issue of the killing of 14 Marines in Tipo-Tipo, Basilan last July 10.

Ten of the slain Marines were decapitated following the attack, which the MILF admitted to but denied beheading and mutilating the soldiers.

The MILF claimed self defense on their part since the soldiers supposedly entered into their territory without permit and in violation of the ceasefire agreement.

Murad stressed the need for a full investigation of the beheading of the Marines to determine who should be held responsible.

Chief government negotiator Rodolfo Garcia said the two sides have agreed to carry out a joint fact-finding mission to look into the ambush of the 14 Marines.

“We want to get the facts. We want reason to prevail here,” Garcia said.

The soldiers were part of a contingent searching for kidnapped Italian missionary Giancarlo Bossi on the information that the priest was being held by his captors somewhere in Tipo-Tipo.

Bossi was later released by his kidnappers in Lanao del Norte last July 19, 40 days after he was snatched near his parish in Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay.

The government and the MILF have been trying to forge a peace accord in Kuala Lumpur but talks have stalled on the issue of ancestral domain.

Murad told Abdu’razak that the MILF favors the resumption of the stalled peace talks but only if both sides discuss the extent of the proposed territory of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE).

Murad also relayed to Abdu’razak the need for the two panels to renew the mandate of the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG).

The AHJAG, composed of representatives from the MILF, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP), helps the joint ceasefire committee in implementing the ceasefire agreement.

Murad said the MILF is also concerned with the impending termination in September of the tenure of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT), which helps oversee the enforcement of the ceasefire.

The joint ceasefire committee, on the other hand, issued a statement urging the government and the MILF to “refrain from issuing public pronouncements that will further complicate the situation in Basilan, aggravate the heightened tensions felt in other parts of Mindanao, or compromise the integrity of the ongoing fact-finding mission.”

In the same statement, the joint ceasefire committee said a joint fact-finding team is expected to arrive in Basilan within the week to probe the ambush.

Let us help

On the other hand, local officials in Basilan urged Malacañang and the AFP to allow them to intervene in the investigation of the Tipo-Tipo ambush.

During a dialogue with Dureza, the local officials urged the military and the MILF to stand down their forces to allow the investigation of the incident to proceed.

Some 3,000 residents have already evacuated their homes in at least six villages in Albarka town in anticipation of the showdown between government troops and the MILF, according to town Mayor Karam Jakilan.

Lantawan Mayor Tahira Ismael, chairman of Basilan’s league of mayors, said they have voluntarily taken the active role of finding out who were behind the beheading of the Marines.

Tahira told Dureza that MILF forces are also massing up in the towns of Ajul and Sumisip.

“We have to take this matter in our level if only to avert possible hostility that will surely escalate to the other towns and Basilan as a whole,” Tahira said.

“For almost five years we have not experienced war. We are apprehensive if hostility breaks loose we will just waste what we have sacrificed to achieve peace and development,” she added.

Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) chief Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo said they are confident some mayors have information that will lead the military and police to arrest the suspects.

Cedo also clarified the military is not on the offensive but are under orders to implement a police operation to arrest the suspects behind the ambuscade.

http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Headlines&p=49&type=2&sec=24&aid=20070726189

Front Page Picture, July 11,2007

2007-07-11T11:07:00.000+08:00

Front Page Picture for The Philippine Star and Philippine Daily Inquirer, July 11,2007 Wednesday

The Philippine Star
MEET THE TOLENTINOS: President Arroyo is welcomed by (from left) Navy Rear Admiral Amable Tolentino, Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Horacio Tolentino and Army Chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino upon her arrival at the Lumbia airport in Cagayan de Oro City yesterday.

Philippine Daily Inquirer
TOLENTINOS ON THE TARMAC.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo arrives Tuesday in Cagayan de Oro City for the peace and order summit. Coincidentally, 3 top brass surnamed Tolentino meet her. From left, Vice Adm. Amable Tolentino, Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Horacio Tolentino, Army chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino. The three are not related.

picture courtesy of philstar and inquirer website

Visayas Military on Trillanes --3rd Week June 2007

2007-06-22T09:41:00.000+08:00

Military execs in E. Visayas welcome Trillanes proclamation

By Joey A. Gabieta, David Israel Sinay
Visayas Bureau
Last updated 10:11pm (Mla time) 06/16/2007

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte -- Military officials in Eastern Visayas welcome the proclamation of Antonio Trillanes IV as among the country's newly elected senators, although with reservations.

In Iloilo City, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. said that both the civil and the military courts should decide on whether or not allow Trillanes to hold office.

Gonzalez was reacting to queries on what will be the scenario should the opposition candidate assume office on July 1. "It depends," said Gonzalez who was in Iloilo City Friday.

"If he will be allowed to hold office, he should be released. If he will not be allowed, then he should be detained," said the justice secretary after administering the oath-taking of the public officials elected in Iloilo City.

He said the civil and the military courts should address the matter "because they have Trillanes under their jurisdiction."

Trillanes is facing rebellion charges in the military court while coup d'etat charges in the civil court, Gonzalez said.

"I do not know if it is possible for him to be allowed to hold office [at his cell] by the military regulation," Gonzalez said, noting that under the Articles of War, there is no bail for people charged in the military courts.

Gonzalez explained that Trillanes could not also avail himself of the immunity enjoyed by senators "because it only serves for cases with a crime punishable by imprisonment of not more than six years."

"The crime he committed is punishable by 30 years … he cannot be protected," he added.

Back in Leyte, Army officials said they hope that his election would pave the way for the reconciliation between him and the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

"While we respect the will of the people in electing him into office, we just hope that he will work for the interest and benefit of our people," said General Allan Ragpala, commanding officer of the 802nd Infantry Brigade, based in Ormoc City.

"He won and we have to give him the respect due his office," Ragpala added.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Friday proclaimed Trillanes the number 11th elected senator of the country in the May 14 elections. However, elections results in Eastern Visayas revealed that Trillanes only managed to rank number 15 in the region, with total votes of 396,972.

The former navy lieutenant garnered 11,138,067 votes, excluding the votes cast from Maguindanao.

The 35-year-old senator was the acknowledged leader of the Magdalo Group which staged a mutiny on July 27, 2003 against the Arroyo administration. The mutiny of about 300 young officers was later dubbed as "Oakwood Mutiny," referring to the tony hotel in Makati City which the group took over at that time. He is now detained in Fort Bonifacio on mutiny charges.

Lieutenant Colonel Mario Lacurom, commanding officer of the 43rd Infantry Battalion, based in Sogod, Southern Leyte, also said that while he personally welcomed the election of the Trillanes, he also hopes that the new senator-elect would focus his attention on "reconciliation" with civilian and military officials.

"It is a fact that we have a strained relationship with him. But we just hope that in the future, that reconciliation will happen between him and that of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and our government," Lacurom told the Inquirer.

The military official admitted that he has his own reservations with the election of Trillanes as a senator. "But he was elected by the people, so we have to respect that," Lacurom added.

"He was part and still is of the Armed Forces. I hope whatever differences or misconceptions he has with the leadership will be reconciled or settled," he said.

For his part, Captain Mario Jose Chico of the public affairs division of the 8th Infantry Division, which is based in Catbalogan, Samar and is under the command of Major General Armando Cunanan, said that he hopes that Trillanes would set aside his own personal interests.

"We just hope that he will use his office not for personal interests but that he will work for the good of the entire country," Chico said.

Chico had admitted that personally he has a strong reservation on Trillanes becoming a senator of the country.

"But we have to respect the decision of the people," he told the Inquirer.

All three Army officials stressed that during the absentee voting conducted in the region, there was no order for soldiers not to vote for Trillanes. "We gave them (soldiers) their freedom to choose whom they want to vote," Ragpala said.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view_article.php?article_id=71684

Copyright 2007 Visayas Bureau. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

From Malaya June 19,2007 - Tuesday

Army division hails Trillanes victory
AFP: There’s no precedent on letting senator-elect out

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BY GILBERT BAYORAN

BACOLOD CITY — The Army’s 3rd Infantry Division with troops stationed in Negros, Panay, Cebu and Bohol on Monday congratulated mutiny leader and Antonio Trillanes IV on his election as senator.

"The 3rd Infantry (Spearhead) Division, Philippine Army under the command of Maj. Gen. Jovenal D. Narcise pass on good wishes to Senator-elect Antonio Trillanes IV (for his) proclamation. We … are hopeful that the AFP bills unrealized in the 13th Congress will be studied for his and other senators’ consideration," Lt. Col. David Tan, spokesman of the 3rd ID, said in a statement titled "3ID, cheerful for Trillanes victory."

Tan said the statement reflected Narcise’s sentiment.

Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, chief of the AFP public information office, said: "This is only an indication that the soldiers would be respecting the mandate given to Senator Trillanes, the mandate given to him to become a senator."

"And on the other side, it is the call of the soldiers that hopefully the bills beneficial to the Armed Forces that have been sidelined would be pursued by Senator Trillanes… this greeting is on the spirit that Senator Trillanes would be a champion of the cause of the AFP," Bacarro added.

Asked if it was not awkward for the 3rd ID to welcome the victory of a rebel officer, Bacarro said: "The greetings given by the 3rd Infantry Division is in the context of showing that the soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division are respecting the mandate given to Senator Trillanes. Like the (entire) AFP, we are respecting the mandate given by more or less 12 million who voted for him. We’re respecting that mandate."

Trillanes, a Navy lieutenant when he led the Oakwood mutiny in July 2003, is facing charges before a military and a civilian court.

While he was deemed separated from service when he filed his candidacy last February, the military retained jurisdiction over Trillanes because his offense % violation of Article of War 96 or conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman % was committed while he was in the active service.

AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon has said Trillanes’ election will not affect the charges against him.

Tan welcomed Trillanes’ statement that he will investigate forced disappearances of activists and the existence of "death squads" in the Armed Forces, which are said to be behind the killings of militants.

"We are open to it just like the Melo Commission," Tan said referring to the panel created by President Arroyo last year to look into the extrajudicial killings.

"We just hope that it will be done impartially and objectively and not merely as concession to militant groups which reportedly campaigned for him (Trillanes). We hope his advocacy will include the soldiers and policemen who were murdered by the NPAs (New People’s Army rebels)," Tan said.

Discussions are on-going on how Trillanes could perform his job as senator, particularly on whether he could be allowed to leave detention to attend Senate sessions.

Trillanes is detained at the Marines headquarters in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.

Bacarro said Esperon might be held liable under the military law if he allows Trillanes to go out of his detention cell.

"This is the first time this happened wherein an elective official is expected to perform his mandate but he is subject to some restriction because there is still military jurisdiction over his person," Bacarro said.

He said the custodians of Trillanes cannot violate provisions cited in the Articles of War on the custody of detainees. Otherwise, they themselves could be subjected to general court martial proceedings.

"If this will be done by our chief of staff, he might be also liable for some violations of the Articles of War," he said.

However, Bacarro said there was still nothing definite on whether Trillanes would be allowed by the military to leave his cell.

Trillanes was thrice allowed to leave his cell when he filed his certificate of candidacy at the office of the Commission on Elections in Intramuros, when he voted on May 14, and for his proclamation last Friday.

Asked earlier why Trillanes was allowed to leave detention, Bacarro said the military leadership yielded to the clearance issued by the Makati City court where Trillanes is facing a coup d’état case.

On why the military is not yielding to the civilian court this time around, he said it is the call of the military.

A military lawyer on Sunday the AFP could prevent Trillanes from attending Senate sessions, citing the case of former Rep. Romeo Jalosjos.

Jalosjos was not able to attend congressional sessions because he was not allowed to post bail for his then pending rape case. A Makati court has denied Trillanes’ petition for bail more than two years ago.

Military lawyer Lt. Col. Jose Feliciano Loi also said there is no such thing as bail under military laws. . With Victor Reyes

...meanwhile

Palawan region with two provinces eyed

By Redempto Anda
Inquirer
Last updated 06:45pm (Mla time) 06/19/2007

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Philippines -- Palawan is launching an ambitious bid to break away from the Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan) Region and, by congressional action, become the first separate administrative region in the country designed along the lines of environmental protection.

Vice Governor David Ponce de Leon, acting Palawan governor, announced the plan Tuesday morning during a forum convened by the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) as part of the 15th anniversary celebration of the Strategic Environmental Plan Law for Palawan.

The plan calls for the passage of a law that will create two new provinces out of the existing province, a scheme that local officials claim will speed up the development of the entire Palawan.

In an interview, Ponce de Leon told the Philippine Daily Inquirer they have started to draft a bill that will be sponsored in the House by Representatives Antonio Alvarez and Abraham Mitra representing Palawan’s two congressional districts.

The bill, he said, would essentially create two new provinces and convert the capital city Puerto Princesa into an independent city and form a regional entity to be called the Palawan Environmental Administrative Region (PEAR).

“We are fast-tracking this proposal and we will complete the process from our end as soon as we finish consultations with local government units and municipalities,” Ponce de Leon said.

Most Palawan mayors are expected to rally behind the bill and will initiate the clamor on the lower level, according to Agutaya Mayor Zosimo Zabalo.

“This is a welcome development. We all have supported the earlier proposal to create a new region. We will conduct the necessary moves in our municipalities,” Zabalo said.

He added that he would sponsor a resolution at the Palawan Municipal Mayors’ League to support the initiative.

Board Member Gil Acosta, one of the original proponents of a resolution calling for the creation of two new provinces, said he would refile his resolution at the provincial board “once I get the proper political signal from the villages and municipalities.”

Expected to be a contentious issue in the formulation of the bill is the natural wealth sharing scheme or how monies from existing and future royalties coming out of oil and gas development projects around Palawan will be divided among local government units.

“Our idea right now is to provide that the money will be received by the region and will be divided equitably among the provinces and the City of Puerto Princesa,” Ponce de Leon said.

He explained, however, that this would require careful formulation of the provisions so as to not conflict with the existing provisions for natural wealth sharing by local governments as described in the Local Government Code.

Currently, the issue of how shares from royalties derived by Palawan from the Malampaya gas project should be distributed throughout the province has caused quarrels among local officials, despite the money being in escrow with the bank pending the resolution by the Supreme Court on the question of Palawan’s right to claim royalty shares in the first place.

Palawan’s projected royalty shares are expected to rise in the coming years following recent discoveries of oil and natural gas from various exploration activities in oil and gas concession blocs around Palawan.

Copyright 2007 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Ancestry of Robredo - Villafuerte of Camarines

2007-05-24T12:53:00.000+08:00

Political foes share Chinese ancestry

By Juan Escandor Jr.

Inquirer

Last updated 09:14am (Mla time) 05/24/2007

MANILA, Philippines – For decades, Camarines Sur has been ruled by descendants of a single Chinese ancestry. The reign started in 1979 when Rep. Luis Robredo Villafuerte Sr., who is of Chinese ancestry, joined the Cabinet of the late strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos as trade minister.

After the assassination of former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. in 1983, Villafuerte joined the opposition and later became a voice in the “revolutionary government” under Corazon Aquino.

After the Edsa I uprising in 1986, Villafuerte worked for the appointment of Jesse Robredo as chief of the Asian Development Bank-funded Bicol River Basin Development Project (BRBDP) and groomed him to occupy Naga’s mayoral post.

Villafuerte, the son of Soledad Robredo who was a daughter of a Chinese migrant father named Lim Payco (baptized Serafin Robredo), had succeeded in propping up his nephew Jesse in 1988 and his son, Gov. Luis Raymund “LRay” Villafuerte Jr. in 2004.

Now a congressman, Villafuerte serves in the 10-town second district of Camarines Sur, that includes Naga where Robredo is the undefeated mayor. LRay is the governor.

In 1988, Robredo, 29, ran for mayor and made history as the youngest to hold the reins of the city government.

He defeated Ramon S. Roco, the younger brother of the late Sen. Raul S. Roco, by a small margin of votes.

It was during Robredo’s first year in office that Villafuerte was appointed acting governor of the province.

In 1991, Robredo and Villafuerte parted ways and became bitter political rivals.

Proxy political battle

Engaging Robredo, now 48, in a proxy political battle, Villafuerte would field his own mayoral candidate to challenge Robredo in five elections, including fielding his elder sister Luisa in 1998.

But the uncle always failed to crush the nephew, and the latter became the longest reigning mayor of Naga. Robredo’s handpicked councilors have also swept the elections since 1991.

Last month, Robredo foresaw the unfavorable ruling of a Commission on Elections’ division that would disqualify him.

The mayor said somebody from Comelec in Manila phoned him that a powerful figure was following up a petition for his disqualification that questioned his Filipino citizenship. The petition was filed by Jojo Villafuerte, his cousin and son of Villafuerte’s elder brother Mariano Jr.

The move was largely attributed to Villafuerte, but he publicly denied such attribution.

Robredo was tormented by disqualification cases filed at the Comelec in the election years of 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2007.

A recipient of the 2000 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, Robredo was on the brink of being unseated after the Comelec’s First Division acted on the citizenship issue, which was dismissed earlier by the Comelec en banc and the Supreme Court.

On the basis of the decision of Commissioners Romeo Brawner and Nicodemo Ferrer, the division served him a “quo warranto” on May 3 that disqualified him from the race because he was deemed a Chinese citizen.

A third member of the division, Commissioner Resurreccion Borra, dissented, however.

A motion for reconsideration has been filed that stalled the move to disqualify Robredo from the electoral race and government service.

Common ancestry

Robredo and Villafuerte, however, shared a common ancestry, only that it was divided by two marriages.

The great grand patriarch Lim Payco, with his young son Lim Teng (Robredo’s grandfather) from his first wife, whom they left in China, arrived in Manila toward the end of the 19th century. As a boy, Lim Teng was tutored by Spanish friars.

Lim Payco was baptized as Serafin and his son Lim Teng as Juan, and they were given the surname Robredo.

While nothing could be remembered about Lim Teng’s mother, his father took a second wife named Josefa de la Trinidad, a widow.

Josefa bore four children, Soledad (Villafuerte’s mother), Jose, Juan II, and Serafina who became Juan’s (Lim Teng) half-brothers and half-sisters.

They were all surnamed Robredo with their Chinese name sometimes attached to their Filipino name. All were educated under the American school system.

Juan Lim Robredo acquired proficiency in three more languages—Filipino, Spanish and English—which qualified him to take on white-collar jobs.

At 21, Juan married Luisa Chan, a Philippine-born Chinese, and from their union were born six children—Serafin, Adelina, Juanito, Josefina, Jose (Robredo’s father), and Juanita.

Both Serafin and Adelina died young due to illness, while Juanito, along with their mother Luisa, died during an attack by the Japanese soldiers while in hiding in Sipocot, Camarines Sur.

It was at this time that young Jose (Robredo’s father) was wounded by a bullet in the stomach but survived through the help of friends and foot doctors who came to his aid.

Before the war, Luisa operated a grocery store while Juan worked as a court interpreter. Endowed with industry common among Chinese migrants, Juan moonlighted as a commercial photographer by putting up his own studio.

Later, he and half-sister Soledad (Villafuerte’s mother) applied and were accepted as teachers at an Anglo-Chinese School in Naga, where Soledad met her future husband, co-teacher Mariano Villafuerte, at the same Chinese school.

Today, only two of Juan Lim Robredo’s six children are alive—Jose Robredo Sr. (Jesse’s father), blind and suffering from a degenerative ailment in the eyes, and Juanita Robredo Hao Chin, disabled by Alzheimer’s disease.

The Villafuertes

Mariano Villafuerte (the congressman’s father), a fine orator and speaker, was to become a congressman and later governor of Camarines Sur when the Japanese forces invaded the Philippines.

War-time Governor Villafuerte and his wife Soledad, with their eldest son Jose, died in the hands of vengeful guerrillas as the Americans were advancing to free the Philippines from the fleeing Japanese soldiers.

Governor Villafuerte’s body was desecrated and decapitated and his head placed in a jar and then displayed in the plaza, according to old folks in Naga.

The couple left behind six young children—Pura, Fe, Mariano Jr., Carmen, Luis (the congressman) and Lina. Luis was to become a political leader while his brothers and sisters became successful professionals.

After the war, Jose married Marcelina Manalastas from Navotas, which was then part of Rizal. They built a house in Tabuco, a village across the river town of Naga.

They had five children—Jocelyn, Jose Jr., Jesse (the mayor), Jeanne, and Josephine.

(The ancestry part of this article was sourced from Jose Robredo Sr., 83, father of Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo, whom the author interviewed at their ancestral house in Barangay Tabuco, Naga.)

Copyright 2007 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

May 14 News

2007-05-14T13:48:00.000+08:00

News courtesy of The Daily Tribube

SF dedicates May 11 to local tycoon --The Daily Tribune

05/14/2007

The City and County of San Francisco, California has proclaimed every May 11 as Dr. Lucio Tan Day in the Bay Area.

A first for a non-resident civilian, the tribute cites Tan, 72, for his numerous contributions in fostering social, cultural and economic ties between the Philippines and the United States, particularly the cities of Manila and San Francisco.

“Through this procla-mation, May 11 of each year, in perpetuity, shall be known as Dr. Lucio Tan Day in San Francisco,” Newsom said as he handed to Tan a copy of the city’s official procla-mation.

Aside from the special day named in his honor, the Chinese-Filipino businessman also received similar citations from the US House of Representatives through the office of California Congressman Tom Lantos; certificates of recognition from Senator Leland Yee of the California Senate and Assemblywoman Fiona Ma of the California State Assembly; and other tokens of appreciation from Boeing, the City College of San Francisco and other federal agencies.

A premier gateway in the US West Coast, San Francisco is the hub of Tan’s North American business opera-tions. Aside from flag carrier Philippine Airlines which mounts daily flights to San Francisco, Tan has numerous businesses such as banks, trading companies and various real estate investments in the Bay Area.

In brief remarks, Tan said he first set foot in San Francisco 45 years ago in 1962. Then a young aspiring entrepreneur, it was the first time that Tan had gone to America to buy second-hand machines for his then budding chemical trading and manufacturing venture.

“As I laid eyes on this wonderful city, I knew in my heart that this is a place I will regularly visit for many years to come,” Tan told his audience at the fully-packed ballroom of the Hilton Double Tree Hotel.

With great confidence in the Bay Area and its people, the taipan added that his companies continue to invest in San Francisco. “Our companies are good corporate citizens. Every-where we go, our goals are to help people, create jobs and give back to society,” he stressed

* * * * * * *

Vote wisely --J.E.L. Bacon

05/14/2007

Today is Election Day, the day when every citizen regardless of status in life exercises the same right of suffrage as equals. Exercise this right then with prudence by voting wisely the candidates that deserve the people’s mandate to lead this nation.

Go out and cast your vote because it is in your hand that the life of this nation greatly depends. The outcome of this election will surely determine the future of this nation.

If you vote for the anointed candidates of Mrs. Arroyo, be aware that you are giving your stamp of approval on all the things this administration is doing. And if you cast your vote on the opposition, you are registering your disapproval at the way Mrs. Arroyo and her cabal had brought this nation to since its power grab in 2001 until its illegitimate election in 2004.

But casting your vote and casting it wisely are not your only duty today. It is every citizen’s bounden duty to ensure that his vote is counted in the precinct level and that the election return in every precinct be canvassed in the municipal, city or provincial levels and until the election returns for the senatorial seats are canvassed by the Comelec en banc as emphasized by reelectionist Sen. Panfilo Lacson during the Genuine Opposition’s miting de avance at the Folk Arts theatre last Friday.

After the 2004 experience, the people need to be extra vigilant if only to thwart the Arroyo administration from making a repeat of the massive cheating it did in 2004, a matter that the Arroyo lackeys like Presidential Management Staff director general Cerge Remonde had been trying to downplay or sweep under the rug.

The nation already knows that there is no way the Arroyo anointed senatorial candidates can win over their foes from the Genuine Opposition except if they engage in systematic cheating described by them as command vote and political machinery. As we have tried to point out in past columns, no right thinking Filipino will ever give his stamp of approval over Mrs. Arroyo’s success in making us the most corrupt country in whole of Asia.

There is no way our hungry countrymen will give a high five to Mrs. Arroyo’s handpicked candidates for having ensured that they go hungry on a regular manner amid all the corruption committed in all levels of governance amounting to billions of pesos such as the multi-million peso lamp post scandal in Cebu.

Not included here, in fact, was the reported dinner one local chief executive in Cebu had with the head of state and his spouse of one of the participating nations in the January Asean Summit there that reportedly cost P1.8 million. No matter how one tries to justify this staggering cost, this is beyond justification. This is simply incredulous such as the P280,000 cost per lamp post that adorned the streets of Lapulapu, Mandaue and Cebu where the Asean delegations passed by.

This massive corruption in Cebu during the Asean Summit where no voice from any politician was heard denouncing them for being unconscionable was the reason why politically semi-retired former sixth district congressman and former Cebu governor Vicente “Tingting” dela Serna decided to be in active politics again by aiming to regain back his former congressional seat.

Tingting was so scandalized by the conspiracy of silence by every politician in Cebu over this incredibly anomalous spending that was tainted with so much corruption in the staging of the Asean Summit in Cebu that he wants to make noise about this and other corrupt ways of the administration in the halls of Congress.

Tingting, my sources in Cebu say, may yet stage the greatest political upsets in Cebu’s sixth district just like the political upsets he was able to accomplish in 1987 when he first ran for public office and when he beat all odds by figuratively locking the horn of the politically powerful Osmenas by beating one of their own in the gubernatorial race in 1992.

Knowing Tingting, I don’t think the millions of pesos his two opponents have could ever change the political equation that his candidacy had reshaped in his favor. Tingting’s populist image will surely catapult him back to political prominence in Cebu in the same manner that reelectionist Sen. Lacson’s untainted image as a senator will likewise ensure his overwhelming victory today. Mark my word on this.

* * * * * * *

Vote well and wisely --NCO

05/14/2007

It is much too impractical for any Filipino — voter or non-voter, to buy the idea that these elections will bring about a radical change in the way government is being run. Elections in this country, marked as they are with massive fraud, especially proved in 2004 and no doubt, its sequel in 2007, will still see the same officials in Malacañang.

What should mean something to the voters would have to be the result of the Senate race, for them to help bring about a more independent Senate that can block any and all moves by even an administration-dominated House of Representatives.

This was shown by the Senate in the case of the railroading by the House of the one-House Constituent Assembly (Con-ass) to force through Charter change, proving that it is always better to have two chambers, for one to counter the abuse of the other.

But there are other tasks the Filipino people expect a newly constituted Senate to perform with more zeal, such as its investigative function, as well as its task of protecting the Filipino people against oppressive and repressive laws along with unconstitutional legislative measures that ensure the dilution of the rights of the Filipino, and at the same time, enact laws to curb the abuses of the executive department.

And it is by having an independent Senate that is not beholden to Gloria Arroyo that this can be done.

Elect a majority of Gloria candidates, and none of these hopes of the Filipino people to have an independent Senate will ever be realized, since this will mean a continuous cover-up by Gloria’s senators of her crimes against the Filipino people.

Elect more opposition senatorial candidates and one can be certain that there will be a sharper focus in the Senate for investigations that could bring about changes in government, and more important, a strengthening of at least one more democratic institution that could, if done right and well, even force the other government agencies to toe the legal line.

There must be a good, logical reason for the Filipino people to be infected with an anti-administration bug, which shows very clearly in all the surveys. Most of the administration senators too closely identified with Gloria have been scratched out of the 12 survey slots, while a few who have made it are at the bottom rung of the slate.

If, for instance, the trend to vote for the opposition-identified senatorial bets is fueled by the electorate’s hope for a Senate that would go on investigating the anomalies of this government, including putting a closure to the 2004 cheating employed by Gloria, this could be the reason for Joker Arroyo’s poor ratings in surveys, since he had, in 2001, fashioned himself as a graft-buster but later proved himself to be a protector of the presidential couple, despite calls from the public to probe those charges of massive corruption — including the Jose Pidal accounts. This also explains the very high ratings of Ping Lacson, since he has proved himself to be a consistent credible critic of the Arroyo government, and can be depended upon to fight against the corrupt Arroyo regime.

There are, to be sure, more chances to have an independent Senate with the entry of more opposition candidates, but at the same time, in any strong democracy, it is always better to have dissenting voices, even in an opposition-dominated Senate. And truth to tell, there are some administration candidates that I personally would want to see back in the Senate, because even if they are allied with the administration, they can be counted on to rise to the occasion and because these are the senators who have good legislative track record but are, by dint of circumstance, up against the political times and climes of the times.

There is, for instance, reelectionist Sen. Edgardo Angara who has proved his worth in the Senate, having introduced many innovative bills that have been passed into law, such as the senior citizen’s law, which has made life a little better for the aging citizenry. He has, as the University of the Philippines president, also introduced the socialized tuition and made it easier for the poorer but intellectually deserving students to get into the UP while imposing a quota system on the number of students who can afford more expensive schools tuition in entering UP. And whatever else is said of Angara, it cannot be denied that he stood by then sitting President Joseph Estrada during the tumultuous Edsa II coup d’etat.

And whatever else is said against Tessie Aquino-Oreta, she does have a fine legislative record, having done much for the education sector. Unfortunately, she has been demonized too much for her innocent jig at the impeachment trial, for which I personally believe she should not have offered any apology.

And there is Tito Sotto who can also be counted on to fight for what is right.

I believe the biggest bulk of the Genuine Opposition candidates deserves the people’s vote to bring about these changes. But there are only 11 and any one of the three mentioned deserves to be back in the Senate.

* * * * * * *

Forget elections, complete Bonifacio’s unfinished revolution --Ding Lichauco

05/14/2007

The singular service rendered by the election campaign has been to make it abundantly clear that the nation can’t possibly expect the political establishment to address the age-old problems that have dehumanized the overwhelming number of Filipinos and made of this “only Christian nation in Asia” a humanitarian disaster.

With starvation officially recorded in 30 provinces, with 8 out of 10 Filipino families officially acknowledged to be living in hunger conditions, with the once Stone-Age economies of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam outperforming a Philippines that only 40 years ago stood out as the preeminent economy in Southeast Asia, with a government now ranked as the most corrupt in the region, with thousands dying of curable afflictions every year for sheer inability to pay for prescription drugs, with sizable chunks of the national territory handed over to elements out to dismember the republic — with all these, not a single one of the political parties in electoral contention has bothered to craft and think out a cohesive program of government that would even as much as hint at an organized and comprehensible approach to the national crisis.

As Sen. Miriam Santiago observed, this campaign has all been about buying one’s way to political office and nothing else.

How does one explain such state of affairs?

The answer, at bottom, is that since the time American imperialism snatched the nation’s independence from Bonifacio’s revolution, this country has remained the virtual colony of international powers. Independence in 1946 actually didn’t hand over and transfer national sovereignty to the Filipinos. That sovereignty has essentially remained with the US and the international agencies which the US government controls and directs, the most prominent of which are the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO.

And the American purpose? That purpose was enunciated in an official document of the US State Department, known as The Dodds Report and approved by the Truman administration in 1946.

The objective of The Dodds Report? To prevent the Philippines from industrializing and to preserve it essentially as a raw material economy.

Evidence of what Recto described as “America’s anti-industrialization policy for the Philippines” has been amply documented. It was documented by the late Dr. Salvador Araneta who revealed and exposed the existence of The Dodds Report in a book he wrote while in self-exile in Canada. It was documented by Claro M. Recto in a historic speech he delivered at the Columbian Association in the late 1950s. It was exposed by the strongman Marcos in the late 1970s when he accused his own technocrats and the IMF-WB Group of undermining his industrialization program. It was exposed by former DTI Secretary Jose Concepcion in 1989. It was so alleged and confirmed by deposed President Joseph Estrada immediately upon his election in an interview with Asiaweek.

And how did the US government manage to suppress the industrialization of the economy? Primarily by ensuring that this country remained under the leadership of a political class which Washington could control. That too was US official policy and embodied in a State Department document known as PPS/23.

The result of America’s anti-industrialization policy as implemented by State Department policy known as PPS/23?

The result is, of course, massive unemployment, mass poverty and the rising hunger. And with massive unemployment, mass poverty and rising hunger, everything follows: corruption, lawlessness, criminality, insurgency, drugs, pervasive unrest and just about every social problem you can think of.

That, however, doesn’t take us to the bottom. At bottom is a class of national leaders living in dreadful fear of Washington and the CIA, manifestly determined never to say anything or do anything that could possibly throw them out of favor with the US government.

That is what explains the scrupulous care with which the candidates of both the administration and the opposition avoid any discussion of the substantive issues, particularly poverty and hunger. A discussion of the issues will lead to exposing the connection between US imperialism and the problem of poverty — the mother of problems from which all other problems come.

Conclusion? Forget the elections and proceed to organize the people toward the completion of Bonifacio’s revolution. Only that revolution can set us free to discuss the issues that matter. Only when we are finally independent and sovereign as a nation shall we be free to elect leaders who would talk the path of a Quezon, a Recto and a Diokno or even a Hugo Chavez or a Nasser as Bonifacio and Mabini had envisioned.

Both the administration and the opposition must be seen as part of that “collaborator class” created by PPS/23 of the US State Department.

That is what’s at the bottom of our problem. And that’s what explains the meaninglessness of the elections.

* * * * * * *

Cha-cha, terror law; then revolt? --HTL

05/14/2007

Thanks to FVR and Gloria’s general, DND chief Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., his Red-baiting tirade against Trillanes IV gave the final push for the crusading Oakwood young officer to rise further in the winning circle. Then Saturday evening this text started circulating – “ ‘Oplan Alan’ (Alan is the name of Trillanes’ deceased son) of d GMA administratn uncovered. It is a plot to assassinate candidate Trillanes when he gets out of detention to vote on Monday and blame it on the NPA. Let’s pass this msg to let plotters knw that we are watchng them.”

At preparations for the GO-Uno Miting de Avance Friday afternoon, a loyal reader passed this TU- concocted text black propaganda: “Sonia Roco in rally at Cebu, San Carlos, said that she hates the tsinoys.” I immediately called on the Roco organizers at the Miting de Avance site to inform them and they quickly conveyed the message to the Roco headquarters that replied saying Roco was never at San Carlos. They issued a press release to denounce the black propaganda. The TU and Evardone’s dirty tricks staff are really working overtime.

I informed Trillanes’ people of Oplan Alan and the reply they conveyed from Trillanes was that if TU made that mistake and went ahead with Oplan Alan then the Filipino people would have already won: the final nail in the coffin of the Gloria regime and her corrupt military-police generals would be hammered in. In connection with the eagerly awaited “mistake” the Gloria regime can make is this text, “…has inside info on d massive cheating that s about 2 happen starting 2nite. Exposing this s your only chance 2 win! Ok” But I say, don’t worry as enough eyes are waiting to pounce on them.

I expect the evidence of Gloria’s cheating to pour in, but even in the face of incontrovertible evidence they say: “Sue us.” They control the electoral tribunal, the courts and will have control of the Congress with the 40 Abalos-coddled Gloria-controlled party-list representatives added to the TU, Lakas and other Gloria-allied party representatives. Any attempt at impeachment will be bought out and instead, the elimination of the Senate and the shift to the parliament will proceed to allow Gloria to extend her term and her immunity from all the crimes she has committed.

The opposition will petition Comelec and the Supreme Court, but to no avail. Gloria will again plunder the national coffers to bribe congressmen and stop any impeachment, buy the Cha-cha or Con-ass, divide the Senate by playing one ambition against another, launch a managed plebiscite to eliminate the Senate and voila — the Senate is gone, Gloria runs as president-prime minister. Meantime she will command the Sandiganbayan to convict detained President Estrada and use the anti-terror law to cow the massive protests that would surely follow.

With the anti-terror law, all hell will break loose despite the amendments from Sen. Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel to water down the draconian law which Bush and the Carlyle bosses of FVR and Gloria want installed for their coming global war against the rising multi-polar powers. Bush and company will get their access to the citizens of this country they want to snatch up while Gloria uses her own unbounded interpretation of the word “terrorist” to apply to anyone demanding the implementation of the Rule of Law and thus, her ouster.

Dear reader, you may have noticed too: Bush’s partner Pervez Musharraf sacked Pakistan’s Supreme Court Chief Justice for demanding a stop to citizens’ disappearances; in Thailand, the Carlyle-controlled generals usurped the government. But neither in Thailand nor in Pakistan is the population taking it sitting down and democratic forces are rising to topple the tyranny; and the same will happen here. The driving motive behind all this is global endless war, civil and global, to distract from the international realization of the evil of the global oligarchy.

Even the USA will be sacrificed by the global oligarchs in their movement toward their global corporatocracy – signaled by Halliburton’s HQ transfer from Houston to Dubai that enraged patriotic Americans. They will drain nation-states of their wealth and plunge them into civil chaos or war, led into red-herring issues such as global warming and Luddistic environmentalism, distracting from such tasks as restoring the primacy of states to regulate and dedicate oil, power, water and other basic industries and economic development enterprises.

The Western corporatocracy will allow Gloria’s extension (foreign election observers will say elections were largely fair) while she allows their looting here with local comprador corporations. The Associated Press said about these elections and Gloria: “…the odds appear in favor of Arroyo — who also survived two coup plots and numerous other crises during six years in power — despite weak approval ratings. Opinion polls suggest that no major shifts are likely, in part because the economy in one of Asia’s poorest countries has been rallying. The stock market is up 12 percent this year, while the peso is at its strongest level against the US dollar since October 2000.”

We know that’s all crap but the AP wants us to think otherwise. Gloria’s got her signal. That should also be our signal too, for action like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, or otherwise, Trillanes can lead us in this.

* * * * *

‘B’ is for the Comelec

05/14/2007

In Pilipino, it’s put as naisahan ka or nagulangan ka.

In English, it’s given more bite and put as “the sneaky bastards got you.”

The victim of the shysters in the Comelec happened to be Genuine Opposition senatorial candidate Alan Peter Cayetano, whom the poll body the other day declared as just one of the two Cayetanos running for a Senate seat in today’s mid-term polls.

The other Cayetano, according to a Comelec memorandum issued last Saturday, is Joselito Pepito “Peter” Cayetano, and any ballot reading “Cayetano” will not be counted in his or Alan Peter’s favor, it being a “stray” vote.

The Comelec Friday last week already disqualified Joselito from the senatorial race, to Alan Peter’s relief as reported, but give it to Abalos and company to make that sigh of the opposition senatorial bet short-lived.

In a resolution the other day, the poll body justified its obvious bias for Joselito and his handlers in Malacañang by citing provisions of Section 5(e) of Republic Act 6646 stating that rulings of the Comelec will be declared final and executory five days after the parties (in this case, Joselito and Alan Peter) have received a copy of the resolution.

It went into overdrive by also citing Section of Rule 18 of the Comelec Rules of Procedures in declaring that Joselito is very much still a candidate for senator and may be voted for in the May 14 mid-term elections.

Malacañang lawyers, rubbing salt in Alan Peter’s wounds, immediately mustered the gall to suggest that he take up his case before the Supreme Court and claimed that they and their client Gloria are not out to ruin Alan Peter’s candidacy.

Really, then they should have picked someone not having “Peter” for a nickname.

But then, these non-Peters did not say the Arroyos are hoarding millions of dollars in a bank in Germany, did they, because only Alan Peter did?

The Comelec mafia led by Abalos must be wickedly guffawing at the neat job they did on Alan Peter, who must be hurting at the thought that he should have read the fine print on the resolution, the lawyer that he also is like the poll body chief.

The five days’ leeway given to Alan Peter under the memorandum lapses on May 16, starting off from the May 11 resolution, which means that all the “Cayetano” votes have been thrown into the trash can.

Joselito, of course, could not care less whether he lands at the 100th spot in the senatorial contest, his job well done for the Arroyos certain to make him richer, or possibly poorer, which will force him to make do with his circumstances in some slum area in Davao.

For Alan Peter, the spoiled ballots will spell the difference between winning and losing, the price he has to pay for crossing Gloria and her family.

And the Arroyos and their ilk are talking about “clean” elections?

They have been dirtying it up but their timetable is so planned that they had ensured that the stink will be deodorized just in time for the May 14 vote.

Gloria and company need not do the tidying up themselves because there are always the Abaloses in these parts who will suck up to the Arroyos at the expense of the Alan Peters here.

In today’s elections, where Alan Peter is expected to win, at least according to the surveys, the handlers of Joselito will strut like peacocks, having thoroughly confused the electorate on the case of the two Cayetanos.

The road to hell, in Gloria’s book, is paved with “good” intentions.

She had better take it, for she really has no idea that Alan Peter can still laugh all the way to the ballot box.

Diarrhea, anyone?

*****************

Ethiopia to quit Somalia after AU troops arrive: PM --AFP

Sun May 13, 5:38 PM ET

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said in Kuwait on Sunday that Ethiopian troops will complete their withdrawal from neighbouring Somalia after the arrival of African Union peacekeeping forces.

"Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu will withdraw when the African Union peacekeepers arrive to support Ugandan forces which are already there," Meles was quoted by the state-run Kuwait News Agency KUNA as saying.

Meles announced in March that two-thirds of the Ethiopian deployment, which helped Somali troops drive out Islamists from south and central Somalia five months ago, had been withdrawn.

That decision to withdraw troops was taken by Ethiopia alone, Meles said Sunday, denying reported US pressure.

A small force of some 1,500 African Union troops from Uganda is currently deployed at strategic points around Mogadishu, but the AU has not yet gathered the 8,000 troops planned for its peacekeeping force.

Hundreds of people have been killed in heavy clashes in the Somali capital between insurgents and government forces backed by Ethiopian troops.

Three top Somali leaders, including top Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Hussein Aidid, last month issued a stern warning to Ethiopia to withdraw its troops immediately or face an all-out war.

Meles, who paid a two-day visit to Kuwait, told KUNA before leaving the emirate that the struggle in Somalia is between the transitional government and forces of the Islamist movement, which consists of two groups.

The first includes most of the tribal fighters who do not belong to the Al-Qaeda network, while the other is a small group of Al-Qaeda members, Meles said.

* * * * * * * * * *

Breakaway Somaliland prospers in shadow of war --AFP

by Michel Cariou
Sun May 13, 12:08 PM ET

HARGEISA, Somalia (AFP) - With or without international recognition, Ahmed Hassan believes that his homeland, the breakaway would-be nation of Somaliland, is a remarkable success story

Somaliland, which sits on the northwestern part of Somalia, unilaterally broke away from the rest of the Horn of Africa nation in 1991, four months after the overthrow of former Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

This former British protectorate -- whose colonial rulers left in 1960 when it joined with Italian Somaliland to form the then new state of Somalia -- has since mapped out a path of relative security and prosperity, unlike greater Somalia where 16 years of unrest caused chaos and anarchy.

"It is Somaliland, not Somalia. We are two separate countries," said Hassan. "Here there is no violence. We can walk in the streets."

The money changer took pains to underline the sharp contrast between his peaceful separatist republic and war-torn Somalia, highlighting the fierce nationalism brewing in the region which is home to around 3.5 million people.

It is not completely immune from fighting, however. There was a clash last month with troops from neighbouring Puntland, a region that is self-governed but does not aspire to independence -- the latest in more than a decade of clashes over the path of their shared border.

But daily life is relatively calm.

On the bustling streets of Somaliland's capital Hargeisa, vendors sell everything from gold chains and spaghetti to contraband Rolex watches and foreign currencies, under the watchful eye of local police.

The lack of gunmen, roadblocks and bombed-out buildings strikes a sharp contrast with Mogadishu, the war-torn capital of Somalia.

The desert city of Hargeisa rose from the ruins after the fighting in 1991. But since then -- when clan elders oversaw the creation of the tools of statehood, including a constitution and parliament -- Somaliland has failed to secure recognition as an independent nation.

The breakaway republic has nonetheless held democratic elections, a feat many older African nations are unable to boast half a century after colonialists first started leaving the continent.

The domination of the region by one clan, the Issak, has helped it avoid the inter-clan violence that has wrecked the rest of Somalia, whose overall population is 10 million.

For some international observers, outside recognition of Somaliland would irk Somalia's transitional government and expand a conflict that has already defied more than 14 UN-backed peace initiatives.

But the region's isolation only stokes the flames of nationalism.

"We want to protect our reputation (as a safe place)," said Abdulkader Hashi Elmi, the head of a local hotel chain. "We have no intention of reintegrating with Somalia, even if peace returns."

Somaliland President Dahir Riyale Kahin, elected in a multi-party vote in 2003, regularly repeats that the region will not rejoin Somalia and considers the war there to be a foreign event, even though many Mogadishu refugees have sought refuge in his region.

The failure to secure international recognition has denied Somaliland much-needed financial support, but free markets and remittances from the diaspora in the West help keep its economy afloat.

One country willing to invest in Somaliland is Ethiopia. It provides help the region is happy to accept despite Addis Ababa's involvement in the war in Somalia, where Ethiopian troops backing the country's weak government are battling Islamist insurgents and clan fighters.

In turn, landlocked Ethiopia relies on the Somaliland port of Berbera, giving Hargeisa considerable leverage.

Alongside five private Somaliland airlines, Ethiopia's national carrier Ethiopian Airlines runs six weekly flights between Hargeisa and countries in the region, mainly ferrying merchants and aid workers.

"We have little tourism here," said Elmi, lamenting that Somalia's conflict had affected business and discouraged all but the most daring of travellers from visiting.

But one day the sector would improve, he predicted. "We need to be self-sufficient."

* * * * * * * * * *

One million Turks hold fresh pro-secular rally --AFP

Sun May 13, 3:12 PM ET

IZMIR, Turkey (AFP) - More than one million pro-secular Turks rallied in the Aegean city of Izmir Sunday, keeping up strong pressure on the Islamist-rooted government after political turmoil forced early elections in July.

Undeterred by a bomb blast on the eve of the protest, demonstrators packed a seafront square in Izmir, Turkey's third largest city, brandishing Turkish flags and portraits of the country's secularist founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Hundreds showed their support from the sea, sailing along the coast in boats adorned with the red-and-white national flag. Others shouted from rooftops and balconies over roads clogged with buses carrying people from out of town.

Security was stepped up after a bomb ripped through an open-air market in the city on Saturday morning, killing a vendor and injuring 14 other people.

Some 3,000 policemen were deployed across Izmir as coast guard boats patrolled the waters. Air traffic over the demonstration venue was banned.

There has been no claim of responsibility for Saturday's blast. Separatist Kurds, far-left militants as well as Islamist extremists have carried out bomb attacks in Turkey in the past.

Police officials said they did not make a formal count of the demonstrators, but estimated the attendance at more than one million people. Officials had reported a similar turnout at a rally in Istanbul last month.

"Turkey is secular, it will remain secular," protestors shouted, adopting the most popular chant from mass demonstrations held also in the capital Ankara and Manisa in the west.

"We will not surrender the country to reactionary forces," one man shouted.

Banners read, "Unite against bigotry," "We follow Ataturk's path."

The rallies began last month over the prospect of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the moderate offshoot of a now-banned Islamist movement, propelling one of its own to the presidency.

The presidential election grew into a crisis, the worst the government has faced since coming to power in 2002, as parliament, blocked by an opposition boycott, failed twice to hold a legal vote to elect a president.

The turmoil, exacerbated by a stiff warning from the military that it stood ready to defend the secular order, forced Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to bring legislative elections forward to July 22 from November.

The sole presidential candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, withdrew his candidacy on Wednesday.

Opinion polls, however, suggest the AKP is still Turkey's most popular party.

It has disowned its Islamist roots, pledged commitment to secularism and carried out reforms that secured the opening of membership talks with the

European Union and stabilised the economy.

But opponents say the party still harbours Islamist ambitions, pointing at AKP policies such as opposition to a ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities and public offices, encouragement of religious schools and a failed attempt to restrict alcohol sales.

Despite the huge turnout, the rally in Izmir ended in disappointment for many as centre-left leaders attending the protest defied expectations that they would confirm an intention to join forces against the AKP ahead of the July 22 elections.

Among them were Deniz Baykal, chairman of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), and Zeki Sezer, leader of the smaller Democratic Left Party, whose negotiations for an election alliance have reportedly hit snags.

"Unite, unite!" the crowd chanted, but Baykal and Sezer did not even come close to each other.

Turkey's mainstream parties are notoriously fractured. All but the CHP failed to overcome the 10-percent national threshold in the 2002 elections, allowing the AKP to hold nearly two-thirds of the seats in parliament despite winning only 34 percent of the vote.

* * * * * * * * * *

Pope decries rich-poor gap in Latin America --Reuters

By Philip Pullella and Terry Wade
Sun May 13, 4:09 PM ET

APARECIDA, Brazil (Reuters) - Pope Benedict decried the growing gap between rich and poor in Latin America on Sunday but said priests must stay out of politics even as they fight for social justice.

The Pope also told bishops from across Latin America and the Caribbean to do more to confront challenges threatening the Roman Catholic Church in the region, including the defection of millions of followers to Protestant churches.

He was speaking on the last day of a visit to Brazil, where he has tried to revive the Church's waning influence in a continent where priests stood alongside the first Spanish and Portuguese explorers five centuries ago.

Earlier, about 150,000 faithful gathered outside the huge Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida in this holy shrine city to hear the Pope deliver a traditional mass.

The turnout, however, was far less than the 500,000 people expected by Church officials -- an indication of the difficult times it faces in the world's largest Catholic nation.

The Pope's speech to bishops who meet in conference here for the next two weeks was eagerly awaited as a signpost for the Church in Latin America, home to nearly half of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics.

"The peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean have the right to a full life, proper to the children of God, under conditions that are human, free from the threat of hunger and from every form of violence," the Pope said.

He said the gap between rich and poor was getting worse, causing a loss of dignity through drugs, alcohol "and deceptive illusions of happiness."

The Pope's commitment to the poor was likely to be welcomed by priests working in Latin America's notorious slums.

Many have seen him as a conservative figure more concerned with enforcing a hard-line doctrine and remember him for leading a

Vatican crackdown on the Liberation Theology movement of left-wing priests in the 1980s.

He warned again on Sunday that pastoral work and politics do not mix. "Capitalism and Marxism promised to point out the path for the creation of just structures ... and this ideological promise has been proved false."

'SILENT LONGING'

The Pope also offered a view of the Church's history in Latin America that may prove to be controversial.

He said indigenous peoples had welcomed the arrival of European priests as they had been "silently longing" for the Christian faith. Embracing it had purified them, he said.

Many Indian rights groups believe the conquest brought them enslavement and genocide.

Throughout his visit to Brazil, the Pope has demanded that people return to strict family values and shun promiscuity. He has stressed a stern opposition to abortion and birth control.

The message has had a mixed reception in a country known for its enthusiastic attitude toward sex and where the daily struggle to survive is the main worry for many families. But in the crowd stretched out before the basilica for the morning mass, there was approval.

"This is a blessing. He spoke to young people and he reinforced family values. That is so important," said Nathalia Dos Reis, a cleaner who attended Sunday's mass.

The bishops' conference will grapple with problems ranging from a shortage of priests to the growing appeal of Protestant groups.

They will also map out priorities for missionary work and social action in a region blighted by poverty, corruption, drug trafficking and violence.

While Latin America's Church has become more conservative since the 1980s, some still defend Liberation Theology and say priests must do more to help the poor.

"The right to liberation is in the Bible," Bishop Erwin Krautler from Brazil's Amazon state of Para told Reuters. "We often forget that the poor and landless have a right to a dignified life."

* * *

Pope assails Marxism and capitalism --Associated Press

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer
42 minutes ago

APARECIDA, Brazil - Pope Benedict XVI blamed both Marxism and unbridled capitalism for Latin America's problems on Sunday, urging bishops to mold a new generation of Roman Catholic leaders in politics to reverse the church's declining influence in the region.

Before boarding a plane for Rome at the end of a five-day trip to the most populous Catholic nation in the world, Benedict also warned that legalized contraception and abortion in Latin America threaten "the future of the peoples" and said the historic Catholic identity of the region is under assault.

Like his predecessor

Pope John Paul II, Benedict criticized capitalism's negative effects as well as the Marxist influences that have motivated some grass-roots Catholic activists.

"The Marxist system, where it found its way into government, not only left a sad heritage of economic and ecological destruction, but also a painful destruction of the human spirit," he said in his opening address at a two-week bishops' conference in Brazil's holiest shrine city aimed at re-energizing the church's influence in Latin America.

Touching on a sensitive historical episode, Benedict said Latin American Indians had been "silently longing" to become Christians when Spanish and Portuguese conquerors took over their native lands centuries ago.

"In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture," he said.

Many Indians, however, say the conquest of Latin America by Catholic Spaniards and Portuguese lead to misery, enslavement and death.

The pope also warned of unfettered modern-day capitalism and globalization, blamed by many in Latin America for a deep divide between the rich and poor. The pope said it could give "rise to a worrying degradation of personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and deceptive illusions of happiness."

Benedict, speaking in Spanish and Portuguese to the bishops, also said Latin America needs more dedicated Catholics in leadership positions in politics, the media and at universities. He also said the church's leaders must halt a trend that has seen millions of Catholics turn into born-again Protestants or simply stop going to church.

While Brazil is home to more than 120 million of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics, the census shows that people calling themselves Catholics fell to 74 percent in 2000 from 89 percent in 1980. Those calling themselves evangelical Protestants rose to 15 percent from 7 percent.

"It is true that one can detect a certain weakening of Christian life in society overall," Benedict said, blaming secularism, hedonism and proselytizers for other sects.

In Aparecida and at events earlier this week in Sao Paulo that attracted more than 1 million people, Benedict roundly denounced immorality in a bid to counter the rising tide of Latin Americans flouting the church's prohibition on premarital sex and divorce.

Now, he said, the bishops must convince Catholics from all walks of life "to bring the light of the Gospel into public life, into culture, economics and politics."

Benedict did not name any countries in his criticism of capitalism and Marxism, but Latin America has become deeply divided in recent years amid a sharp political tilt to the left — with the election of leftist leaders in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua and the overwhelming re-election in Venezuela of President Hugo Chavez, an avowed socialist.

Other countries, such as Brazil, have center-left leaders who have come under heavy criticism for embracing free market economic policies that have widened the rift between rich and poor.

Benedict called the institution of the family "one of the most important treasures of Latin American countries," but said it is threatened by legislation and government policies opposed to marriage, contraception and abortion.

Mexico City lawmakers recently legalized abortion and gay civil unions, and the Brazilian government routinely hands out millions of free condoms to prevent

AIDS.

Before addressing the bishops, Benedict said Mass before 150,000 faithful in front of the mammoth basilica of Aparecida, home to the nation's patron saint, a black Virgin Mary. As hundreds of choir members sang hymns and people waved flags from all over South America, the pope called the region the "continent of hope" and said the bishops must be "courageous and effective missionaries" to ensure the strength of the church.

But the turnout fell far short of the 400,000 to 500,000 worshippers local organizers hoped would show up for Benedict's last big public event of the papal tour, his longest since becoming pope two years ago.

The 80-year-old pope also said the church needs to work harder to get its message across on the Internet, radio and television — methods used effectively by Protestant congregations attracting legions of followers, particularly in the vast slums ringing Brazil's largest cities.

Waiting to catch a glimpse of the pope at Aparecida's basilica, 68-year-old Maria Costa said Brazilians needed to hear his message and she hoped his trip would revitalize the church.

"Catholics weren't feeling very good with the Church, and that's why so many were leaving," she said. "I think that could change now. Let's hope so."

___

Associated Press Writer Tales Azzoni and Alan Clendenning contributed to this report from Aparecida and Sao Paulo.

* * * * * * * * * *

Ahmadinejad blames U.S. for Mideast ills --Associated Press

By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Iran's president led a raucous anti-American rally on Sunday in this tightly controlled U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, a day after a low-key visit by Vice President Dick Cheney aimed at countering Tehran's influence in the region.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a cheering crowd that America was to blame for creating instability and robbing the region of its wealth.

"We are telling you to leave the region. This is for your benefit and the benefit of your nation," Ahmadinejad shouted to the crowd of thousands at a soccer stadium. "The nations of the region can no longer take you forcing yourself on them. The nations of the region know better how to create peace and security."

Ahmadinejad's visit was the first by an Iranian head of state to this Sunni-led Arab country since its independence in 1971 and his rally was remarkable in a country where political parties are banned and power is held solely by tribal families.

Cheney's quiet visit Saturday to the Emirates, which hosts three American military bases, was part of a tour of the region to try to curb Iran's growing influence. On Friday, from an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, Cheney warned Iran that the U.S. and its allies will keep it from restricting sea traffic as well as from developing nuclear weapons.

The Iranian president has ratcheted up his nation's assertiveness in the Persian Gulf, capitalizing on the Bush administration's unpopularity to challenge Washington's alliances with Arab countries in the Persian Gulf.

Sunni royal families in the Emirates and elsewhere in the region also fear Iran's growing influence, especially the Shiite country's nuclear program, and worry about being sandwiched in a U.S.-Iran war.

Ahmadinejad wants the Emirates, Oman and the other Persian Gulf Arab countries to drop their military alliances with Washington and join Iran in a regional effort to maintain stability in the energy-rich region. Washington maintains 40,000 troops on land bases in Persian Gulf countries outside Iraq and has 20,000 sailors and Marines in the region.

"Every time your name is mentioned, hatred builds up," Ahmadinejad said of the United States. "Go fix yourself. This is Iran's advice to you. Leave the region."

One woman in the crowd shouted "I love you!" and Ahmadinejad paused to respond with a polite "thank you."

"God bless you for loving Iran so dearly," he told the crowd. "I love you."

The crowd, many of them expatriate Iranians, cheered Ahmadinejad and waved Iranian flags. One group carried a black banner bearing a yellow symbol seen on nuclear fallout shelters. Chants of "Down with the USA!" and "Nuclear energy is our right!" frequently interrupted the speech.

Washington and Tehran said Sunday that the two countries would hold talks in Baghdad about Iraq's security situation. But Iran remains locked in a standoff with the U.S. and its allies over White House allegations that Tehran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies the claims, saying its program is for generating electricity.

The Iranian president received a red-carpet welcome at Abu Dhabi International Airport, where he was greeted by Emirates President Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Dubai leader Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also the country's prime minister.

During his two-day visit, Ahmadinejad is to meet with government leaders in Abu Dhabi as well as Dubai, one of the world's fastest-growing cities and home to most of the 500,000-strong Iranian expatriate community.

* * * * * * * * * *

Portrait of communist leader damaged --Associated Press

Sun May 13, 10:27 AM ET

BEIJING - A man threw a burning object at a portrait of Mao Zedong that hangs over Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, slightly damaging it and prompting police to close the nearby imperial palace, a news report said Sunday

The man, identified as Gu Hai'ou, from the northwestern city of Urumqi, tried to burn the portrait of communist China's first leader on Saturday afternoon, the Xinhua News Agency said. Early Sunday, authorities replaced the portrait, which had a small scorch mark in the lower left corner.

"Armed police are guarding the area and visitors are forbidden to enter the Forbidden City," Xinhua said.

Gu, who is 35 and unemployed, was detained and was being questioned by police, Xinhua said. The report said he was treated last year in a mental hospital.

An officer who answered the phone at the Beijing police headquarters Sunday confirmed the report but refused to say whether Gu would face criminal charges or give other details. The man refused to give his name. Phone calls to the police station that oversees Tiananmen Square were not answered.

Portraits of Mao have hung on the Tiananmen Gate above the square since the 1950s.

In 1989, three men were detained for throwing red and black paint on the portrait during pro-democracy protests. They served more than 10 years in prison.

courtesy of Yahoo! News

In Russia, red art turning to green --LA Times.com

2007-05-13T08:55:00.000+08:00

In Russia, red art turning to green

The nation's new capitalists are paying top ruble for paintings of Socialist Realism -- glorified renderings of happy, toiling Soviet peasants.

By David Holley, Times Staff Writer

April 23, 2007

Malyy Gorodok, Russia — THE painting exudes the sweet softness of idyllic village life: A mother, towel wrapped around her head, braids her daughter's hair while a young woman draws a red comb through her own tresses. A girl in a dark dress carries a samovar for tea, a little girl drinks from a white cup, and a cat makes its presence known.

Yuri Kugach, 90, still remembers the inspiration for one of his most famous paintings. He was visiting the home of a fisherman when he saw the women of the house making themselves up after a visit to the banya, or Russian-style steam bath.

"I said to myself, 'This is a painting,' " he recalled four decades later.

Today, his works and those of other Soviet painters who produced technically skilled art in the happy-worker style often dubbed Socialist Realism are riding a wave of new popularity. In a development that bygone communist leaders might not have found amusing, wealthy Moscow capitalists are sharply bidding up prices — as high as $200,000 — as they scramble to acquire pieces.

Kugach's life as one of the most well-known Soviet artists was cemented more than half a century ago when he moved into the home of a peasant family in this tiny lakeside village surrounded by birch and pine forests 250 miles northwest of Moscow.

He has been based here ever since, doing landscapes, some overtly political works such as paintings glorifying Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, but above all chronicling the life of peasants in a style that emphasized the satisfying aspects of their existence, such as the scene of women and girls after enjoying the banya.

Yuri Tyukhtin, 39, a banker who also runs a gallery specializing in Soviet art, said such paintings were now trendy because "people feel nostalgia for the USSR."

"They forget everything that was bad, and people are homesick for the good things."

Tyukhtin said he liked Socialist Realism "because it's monumental, because it depicts happiness."

"The characters are healthy and enlightened. The art was propaganda of happiness, and the people who were doing it were doing it sincerely."

Today's buyers are members of Russia's emerging upper middle class, who often want paintings to decorate their urban apartments and countryside dachas, or collectors among the country's new super-rich who see art as an investment and a hobby.

Alexei Ananyev, a wealthy collector who is chairman of Promsvyazbank, said he had noticed the growing popularity of Soviet art in the prices he must pay. But the paintings are still a good investment, he said.

"People are investing in real estate," Ananyev said. "And when they have enough funds to invest, some of them start investing into fine arts. But this increase is motivated by people's desire to obtain something which they can understand and love. With this kind of art they feel at home, as it describes their lives and the reality they live or lived in."

When Kugach and his wife moved to this village a few years after World War II, he started painting the rituals of daily life — mothers near cradles, children playing, youths dating, weddings, funerals.

"It was not just village life for me," he said. "It was the life of the Russian people."

Kugach recalls with pride how an art reviewer had described his paintings as "poetical description" of village life.

"The main thing is poetry," he said. "This is the essence of all my work. A real artist doesn't paint what he sees. He paints what he wants to see. Those who want to see dirt, see dirt. At all times, some people want to see bad things and some want to see good things.

"In the art of our period, it's quite natural that artists depicted labor not as a curse, but regarded labor as a necessity — a human necessity, natural and full of life."

In Socialist Realism, that spirit infuses art depicting all sorts of scenes, including steelworkers at their jobs, soldiers and sailors on duty or at play and ordinary folk going about their daily lives.

KUGACH'S 68-year-old son, Mikhail, who also is a famous artist, recently sold Ananyev a painting he had held for 45 years depicting a young ticket collector late at night in a nearly empty trolley bus, deeply engaged in reading a book. She is illuminated with a bit more light than the rest of the bus, projecting a touch of holiness.

It was a scene he saw often, because "at that moment, education was given a lot of attention, and everybody was trying to read and get educated at any time," Mikhail Kugach said.

Ananyev said he liked the painting because the artist "managed to convey all her feelings — her fatigue, but her desire to read even in the dark, cold trolley bus."

Though Soviet artists knew they could get in trouble for openly dissident works, the pressure to be political in their paintings was often exerted in subtle ways. Artists needed many years of formal schooling, then lived as a privileged class entitled to better apartments, large studios and access to holiday guest houses.

Soviet officials preferred that when artists painted happy peasants, the art also showed them working, Mikhail Kugach said.

Leonid Shishkin, 60, director of an art gallery bearing his name, is among the pioneers in turning Soviet-era art into a commercial business. He began selling art to Western dealers in 1988, launched a gallery for private sales a few years later and opened his gallery to the public in 1995.

"Paintings were hidden in artists' family apartments, behind sofas, under beds," he said. "And this art that nobody ever saw became the merchandise we began to look for and find and sell."

There were five galleries in Moscow dealing in Soviet art 10 years ago, 10 galleries five years ago, and there are 50 galleries today, Shishkin said.

Alexander Dobrovinsky, a Moscow lawyer and collector of Soviet art, uses humor to deal with the connection between Socialist Realism and the darker side of communism.

Rugs showing portraits of Soviet founder Vladimir I. Lenin and Stalin protege Vyacheslav M. Molotov, made to be hung on a wall, lie on the floors of his law firm headquarters, which is lavishly decorated with Soviet art.

"I have the pleasure to walk on it, to clean my shoes on it," Dobrovinsky said of the rug with the image of Molotov.

The Lenin rug is strategically placed to encourage people entering his office to step on it.

"It is the biggest pleasure to see people who walk on the carpet," he said. "The older people try to avoid his face. And the young fellows clean their shoes, just on his face.

"I can accept it that some people take it much more seriously than I do," Dobrovinsky added. "I live only to have pleasure in my life, nothing more…. The things I collected should bring some sunshine in my life and the life of the people who are here."

Dobrovinsky said he would sometimes ask himself whether it was justifiable to have fun with art that was so closely tied to a repressive system that caused great suffering.

"I find several excuses," he explained. "First of all, I think that absolutely terrible things happened in Western Europe in the Middle Ages — grotesque tragedies like when the Inquisition burned people at stakes. Nevertheless, we accepted Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, etc., disregarding what happened in Western Europe. This is history. To reflect it to Stalin's era — to me, it's the same."

Others are less critical of Soviet times than Dobrovinsky.

ALEXANDER Nekrassov, 45, owner of Arbat Prestige, a chain of large cosmetic stores, said he buys paintings that depict "the real life of the Soviet people, in love and happiness, in work, in families."

The upbeat flavor of much Soviet art only adds to its appeal for such collectors.

"I have a country house, and it will harmonize with nature around the house and the house itself, and it's characteristic of the time of my parents' lives. They will be very pleased," said Dmitry Ivanov, 35, a real estate manager who recently bought several paintings showing oil-industry workers.

"I would like the memory of those times to continue to live," Ivanov said. "My father and grandfather worked in the oil industry, and my brother and my sister. Even my great-grandfather."

Andrei Bobkov, 41, a businessman in the oil industry, bought three paintings at the same auction.

"People keep returning in their thoughts and remembrances to those times, to the best moments they left back there without trying to recall the dark and unpleasant things," he said. "You can call it nostalgia or whatever, but the price for that period art is steadily and dynamically going higher and higher. I am buying that art to invest."

In a change from the early 1990s, when foreigners were buying much of the art, it is now Russians who are most willing to spend money, although Chinese dealers also have started coming to Moscow to buy works from that period, Shishkin said.

"Foreigners can't pay the money that Russians can pay," Shishkin said. Foreigners at auctions spend $100 to $2,000, whereas Russians often buy paintings in the $50,000-to-$70,000 range and beyond, he said.

The competitive fervor at auctions sometimes gets out of control, with bidders running the price well past what items are worth, Shishkin said.

"It's the Russian character," he explained. "We're talking about the Russian new rich. They don't want to give in. I had a case where the price skyrocketed from $1,000 to $50,000."

Among the paintings Shishkin has for sale at his gallery is a roughly 8-foot-square work of Stalin being greeted by children. The price is $150,000.

"Things like this that I sold before, one I sold to an important oil company that put it in their VIP hall," Shishkin said. "I think in general a lot of company owners feel themselves to be like Stalin — a big boss. Stalin is a strict big boss, and some people associate themselves not in this political cruel style, but they feel themselves like a big boss."

At the Arbat Prestige cosmetic stores, where owner Nekrassov has hundreds of the paintings on display, the art gets a mixed reception.

At one store, a large portrait of Stalin gazes over the checkout counter, as if warning against shoplifting.

"My reaction toward Stalin was horrible," said Anna Stirnelskaya, 60, a pensioner. "I came in with a friend of mine whose parents were repressed, and she immediately wanted to leave the shop."

But, Stirnelskaya added, "it's mostly young people who come here, and those young people don't pay any attention at all. For them it's like the history of the Egyptian pyramids. They've grown up in a different country."

At another Arbat Prestige store, Yelena Pleshakova, 20, a student, was checking out pink-packaged perfume on the shelves of Gucci products, with a Stalin portrait hanging high on a nearby wall.

Asked her reaction, she replied, "I don't really pay much attention to Stalin when I see Gucci."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

david.holley@latimes.com

Tony Blair's departure and Irish Nationalism

2007-05-13T08:46:00.000+08:00

Blair's departure: The view from Northern Ireland

By David McKittrick

Published: 11 May 2007

Tony Blair is so popular and respected in nationalist Ireland that the future will probably see statues erected in his honour: he can certainly expect a stream of honours in the years ahead.

And although Unionists in Northern Ireland have more reservations about his performance, his efforts in the peace process have guaranteed him favourable mentions in future history books.

It is unsurprising that the Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, has already paid the most glowing tributes to him, given their close partnership, but admiration for him is evident throughout the political spectrum within nationalism.

Iraq is widely regarded as a blot on his record, but the general sense from an Irish nationalist perspective is that his peace-process efforts overshadow this.

This week's formation of a power-sharing government in Belfast is seen in Ireland as his crowning achievement, but even before that historic breakthrough his stock was extraordinarily high.

This was in the first instance due to his informality, and lack of any trace of condescension towards the Irish, as well as the substance of his policies: Anglo-Irish relations had very often been difficult when the Tories were in power. His personal popularity was spelt out by the Irish Independent columnist Martina Devlin, who wrote earlier this year: "He was the first British prime minister not to treat us as poor relations or hapless incompetents. He has been good for Ireland." The Belfast Irish News has already delivered its verdict with the headline: "Place in Irish history assured", its political correspondent William Graham commending the time and energy Mr Blair spent on the peace process.

His first visit to Belfast as prime minister came only two weeks after taking office when he offered new exploratory talks with Sinn Fein while seeking to reassure Unionists that the union with Britain was safe.

It was the first of 37 visits across the Irish Sea. In the years that followed he had a succession of Northern Ireland secretaries but never relinquished his grasp of the often infuriatingly intricate details involved in balancing republican and Unionist demands.

Unionist reservations stem largely from the fact that many Northern Ireland Protestants had misgivings about the peace process itself. A common Unionist complaint is that he gave too many concessions to republicans, failing to exert pressure which might have achieved earlier IRA arms decommissioning.

Another frequent criticism is that the Good Friday Agreement, which he managed to put together in 1998, should have linked the release of prisoners to the arms issue. Another grumble is that he misled them into thinking that Sinn Fein would not get into government while the IRA continued to hold arms.

Historians are bound to spend decades grappling with the advisability of the peace process.

Overall, many figures played important parts in the peace process, and various sections of Irish opinion will highlight the contributions of figures such as John Hume, Gerry Adams, David Trimble, Bertie Ahern and others.

It is nonetheless certain that a place is reserved for Tony Blair in the Irish nationalist pantheon.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/ulster/article2530765.ece

© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited

SC Chief on War on Terror --inquirer ; CJ Puno Speaks to Today’s Youth on Terrorism

2007-04-23T16:09:00.000+08:00

SC chief says war on terror mindless

RP rights violations linked to US strategy

By Leila Salaverria

Inquirer

Last updated 05:41am (Mla time) 04/23/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno has denounced as “mindless” the war on terrorism, saying the US strategy to root out terrorists anywhere has led to violations of human rights in the Philippines.

In an impassioned plea for respect of human rights, the country’s top jurist also warned that a state hobbled by credibility problems and corruption would not be able to protect civil liberties.

“The war on terrorism has inevitable spillover effects on human rights all over the world, especially in countries suspected (of) being used as havens of terrorists,” Puno said. He added this had led to the taking of legal shortcuts.

“These shortcuts have scarred the landscape of [human] rights in the Philippines,” he said.

The United States has hailed the Philippines as a major ally in its war on terror in Asia and has been training Filipino troops in the campaign against foreign-backed extremists operating in southern Philippines.

“The threats to our national security and human rights will be aggravated if we have a state weakened internally by a government hobbled by corruption, struggling with credibility, battling the endless insurgence of the left and the right, and by a state weakened externally by pressure exerted by creditor countries, by countries where our trade comes from, by countries that supply our military and police armaments,” Puno said.

“A weak state cannot fully protect the rights of its citizens within its borders just as a state without economic independence cannot protect the rights of its citizens who are abroad from the exploitation of more powerful countries.”

Puno spoke at the commencement exercises of the University of the East last week, and a copy of his speech was e-mailed to reporters by the Supreme Court information office.

Eliminating the evil

Puno said that terrorism was terrible enough “but the mindless, knee-jerk reaction to extirpate the evil is more discomforting.”

He added that the “quickie solution is to unfurl the flag, sing the national anthem, and issue the high-pitched call to arms for the military and the police to use their weapons under the theme ‘victory at all costs.’”

He said laws limiting individual rights in the name of state security had been passed.

“To put constitutional cosmetics to the military-police muscular efforts, lawmakers usually enact laws using security of the state to justify the diminution of human rights by allowing arrests without warrants, surveillance of suspects, interception and recording of communications, seizure or freezing of bank deposits, assets and records of suspects,” he added.

“They also redefine terrorism as a crime against humanity and the redefinition is broadly drawn to constrict and shrink further the zone of individual rights.”

RP’s anti-terror law

Puno made no specific mention of the Philippines’ own anti-terror law, the Human Security Act of 2007, which allows warrantless arrests, surveillance and seizure of bank assets, among others.

His statements were the latest to emanate from a judiciary which several times in the past had expressed concern over the violation of civil liberties in the country.

In previous decisions, the Supreme Court had struck down presidential or state directives involving security matters. These included President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s imposition of emergency rule last year and the so-called calibrated preemptive response policy allowing police to break up street demonstrations.

It also voided the recent arrest by the police of leftist leader Rep. Satur Ocampo.

Puno also said the acts of terrorists also violated human rights but they should not be the sole focus of the people’s attention, pointing out that terrorism tended to draw attention because of the “cinematic impact” of violence.

Lesson from history

“If there is any lesson that we can derive from the history of human rights, it is none other than that these rights cannot be obliterated by bombs but neither can they be preserved by bullets alone,” Puno said.

Puno said that in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, the United States -- “the worst victim of terrorism” -- pursued a strategy of “bruising aggressiveness” that sent legal observers wondering.

He said the effects of US actions had spilled over to the Philippines.

He pointed out that the US did not even wait for the United Nations to act and instead launched attacks against terrorists wherever they could be found.

“In less polite parlance, the search and destroy strategy gave little respect to the sovereignty of states and violated their traditional borders,” he said.

He added that this strategy trampled on the basic liberties of suspected terrorists, “for laws are silent when the guns of war do the talking.”

Legal shortcuts

“One visible result of the scramble to end terrorism is to take legal shortcuts and legal shortcuts always shrink the scope of human rights,” he said.

Puno cited the escalation of extrajudicial killings in the country which got the attention of international groups, and reports of how the New People’s Army rebels themselves “lawlessly retaliated” for such killings.

Puno also said poverty was a form of terrorism.

“In poor countries, it is poverty that truly terrorizes people for they are terrorized by the thought that they will die because of empty stomachs and not that they will lose their lives due to some invisible suicide bombers,” he said.

He also said this lack of resources led to the violation of poor people’s human rights because they did not dare participate in a slow-moving justice system that would only cost them money.

It does not matter exactly how many poor people there are in the Philippines, he said, citing news reports quoting the World Bank as saying 15 million people in the country survive on less than $1 a day against a government claim that only 10.5 million Filipinos live on such an amount.

He said the fact was that the country continued to be beset by poverty.

Everybody’s concern

“To the unsophisticated in the esoterics of economics, this is a distinction without difference for the cruel fact is that poverty stalks this land of plenty and hunger is still the best food seasoning of its people,” he said.

Puno also said the campaign against terror had led to a massive displacement of young people from their areas.

He warned: “It will not take a prophet to predict that countries that cannot give decent life to their young people will serve as incubators of extremism that may end up in terrorism.”

Puno said protecting human rights was everybody’s burden and that the apathy of fence-sitters was the worst enemy of human rights since it allowed violations to continue.

“The apathy of those who can make a difference is the reason why violations of human rights continue to prosper. The worst enemy of human rights is not its non-believers but the fence-sitters who will not lift a finger despite their violations,” he said.

Right to live with dignity

He also said the fight against terrorism and the battle to preserve human rights would affect the youth’s right to live with dignity. It could lead to their massive displacement in areas where the fight against terrorism trampled on human rights.

The rich and powerful should also not ignore the protection of the rights of the poor and powerless just because they remained unaffected, he said.

Incursions

“Sooner or later, they will find that they who default in protecting the rights of the many will end up without rights like the many,” he said.

“With the incursions and threats of incursion to our human rights at this crucial moment in our history, the clarion call to each one of us is to consecrate our lives to the great cause of upholding our human rights,” Puno said.

Copyright 2007 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

* * * * * * *

Chief Justice Puno Speaks to Today’s Youth on Terrorism

Posted: April 18, 2007
By Jay B. Rempillo

Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno challenged today’s youth to share the burden of safeguarding the country’s national security and the obligation of protecting human rights.

Speaking at today’s commencement exercises of the University of the East, where he was conferred a Doctor of Laws degree, honoris causa, at the University Theatre, UE Campus in C.M. Recto Avenue, Manila, Chief Justice Puno told the UE graduates that a country’s security interest “is a collective interest where everybody has a significant stake.”

“The business of safeguarding our national security and the obligation of protecting human rights is a burden shared by all of us. It is not only the military that should tackle our problem of security for it is our security that is at stake, not their security,” he said. He added that “the apathy of those who can make a difference is the reason why violations of human rights continue to prosper. The worst enemy of human rights is not its nonbelievers but the fence sitters who will not lift a finger despite their violations.”

Chief Justice Puno stressed that the fight against terrorism and the battle to preserve human rights have high impact on the right of young people to live with dignity. He cautioned that there is massive displacement of young people as they migrate to areas where the fight against terrorism tramples on human rights, saying that “these young people are compelled to migrate to seek greener pastures in hostile environments and worse, where they find their human rights subjected to new abuses with near impunity.”

According to him, the problem of displacement will get worse in the coming years because of the galloping growth of the youth population. He noted that “the United Nations predicts that some 138 countries will have growing ‘youth bulge’; its calamitous consequence is that youth unemployment will skyrocket to record levels with the highest rate in the Middle East and North Africa.” Furthermore, the UN findings showed that at least 60 million people aged 15-20 will not be able to find work and about 130 million “cannot lift their families out of poverty.”

In fighting terrorism, Chief Justice Puno said that people should not overlook the non-military aspects of our national security and their impact on human rights. He said that in a poor country, terrorism is synonymous to poverty. “It is poverty that truly terrorizes people for they are terrorized by the thought that they will die because of empty stomachs and not that they will lose their lives due to some invisible suicide bombers. In poor countries, it is also poverty that renders the poor vulnerable to violation of their rights, for the poor will not vindicate their rights in a justice system that moves in slow motion and whose wheels have to be greased with money,” he said. He added that “our national security and our human rights are more threatened by the fear that we face an environmental collapse if we do not take immediate steps to save our seas and our forests from the despoliation to satisfy the economic greed of the few.”

The Chief Justice further stressed that threats to our national security and human rights will be aggravated if we have a state weakened internally by a government hobbled by corruption, struggling with credibility, battling the endless insurgence, and weakened externally by pressure exerted by creditor countries that control our trade and supply our military and police armaments. “A weak state cannot fully protect the rights of its citizens within its borders, just as a state without economic independence cannot protect the rights of its citizens who are abroad from the exploitation of more powerful countries,” he said.

The chief magistrate also warned of the escalation of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, which has already reached the attention of international advocates of human rights. Presently, the High Court has already designated about a hundred Regional Trial Courts nationwide to hear, try, and decide cases of extrajudicial killings in order to address this pressing problem.

From SC Court News Flash April 2007

Iraq returns to its Persian heritage --LA Times; Sunni struggle claims 4th Fallujah chief --Yahoo! News

2007-04-22T13:11:00.000+08:00

Iraq returns to its Persian heritage

Its newly ascendant Shiites no longer have to suppress their Persian roots, which tie them closely to Iran.

By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer
April 16, 2007

NAJAF, IRAQ — Persian script laces and flows across the walls of Najaf's seminaries.

Shiite Muslim religious scholars in the ancient city's turquoise-tiled edifices bury their noses in Koranic texts illustrated with Persian calligraphy, in scenes that evoke Mesopotamia's rich history.

For centuries, Najaf has been a key shrine city and center of worship for much of Iraq's people. But for centuries, Iraq's Ottoman and Arab rulers rarely considered Najaf part of their own history. It was always considered a troublesome outpost of the enemy: Iran.

They were right, for the most part. Historically and culturally, Najaf has long been under Persia's sway.

But so has much of Iraq.

The reading of the Koran in this country differs from the rest of the Muslim world: The rhythm and cadence of Sunnis are unique to Iraq and the Shiites' are unique to Iran. Persian dishes such as fesenjan, a pomegranate stew, are a standard part of Mesopotamian fare. Even this nation's capital carries a Persian name, Baghdad.

The sectarian nature of the war between Shiite and Sunni Arabs in Iraq reflects a centuries-old battle between Persia and the Arab world.

It is a point often misunderstood by U.S. policymakers and ground commanders, who perceive the reemergence of Persian influence among Iraq's newly powerful Shiite Muslim majority as proof of meddling by the regime in Tehran.

Rising Persian influence is a sign of Iraq's ascendance, not Iran's.

"Iraq has been part of the Persian sphere of influence for more than 400 years," said Karar Dastour, an Iraqi Shiite intellectual who lives in southern Tehran and travels to Iraq. "But governments have always tried to crush anything that had the scent of Shiism or Iran. They were never accepted."

Violent Sunni Arab rejection of Iraq's Persian roots plays out daily on the streets of the capital. In February, three bombs went off in the Shorja market in central Baghdad, killing more than 70 people. It was the fifth time the place, whose name means "salty well" in Persian, was struck in less than a year. Shiite Muslims were the intended targets, but so too was a landmark established long ago by Iranian merchants.

When saboteurs blew up the Golden Mosque in Samarra last year, an attack widely viewed as the accelerant of the current civil war, they destroyed the handiwork of Iranian artisans.

In their Internet postings, Sunni Arab insurgents, many of them officers during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, describe their attacks on Shiites as settling accounts with "Safavids," a reference to the 16th century dynasty that embraced Shiite Islam as the official religion of Persia. Shiite Safavids and Sunni Ottomans fought for decades in a conflict that infused sectarianism into what had been a centuries-old ethnic and political conflict between Arabs and Persians.

"There has always been conflict between the Arabs and Iranians, and they always tried to involve Iraq," Sheik Humam Hamoodi, an Iraqi Shiite politician and cleric who lived in Tehran during Saddam Hussein's rule, said in an interview last year. "Both have wanted to use Iraq as the trench for their battles."

Ignoring the protests of many Shiites, the British forces who forged modern-day Iraq after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire placed a Sunni Arab tribal leader at the country's helm. They dismissed the quarrelsome Shiite clerics as Iranian-backed interlopers in their plans to create an Iraq dominated by Sunni Arabs.

Minority rule

Iraq's 20th century leaders tried to graft a Sunni-dominated Arab identity onto a country that was majority Shiite. Even during the relatively benign years before Hussein's rise in the late 1960s, Shiites visiting Sunni Arab towns such as Tikrit and Fallouja feared for their lives. Pilgrims visiting Samarra, which housed the famous Shiite shrine destroyed by Sunni insurgents last year, rushed to make it back to Baghdad by sundown.

The battle over Iraq's identity accelerated under Hussein, who brutally suppressed what he saw as the non-Arab elements of his country's character. Hussein equated Persians to "flies," invaded Iran and subsequently killed tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds and Shiites, dubbing them Iranian collaborators.

Hussein banned ceremonies of Ashura, the annual festival-like holiday commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, revered by Shiites as a saint. He ordered the desecration of Shiite shrines and the silencing and execution of the sect's clerics, many of them of Persian descent or married into Persian families. Offices and banks were ordered to stay open on Nowruz, the Persian New Year that falls on the first day of spring and is celebrated by Iraqi Kurds as well as Iranians, Tajiks and Afghans.

"There was a sectarian dimension and there was an ethnic dimension to his hatred," said Musayeb Naimi, editor of Al-Wifaq, a Tehran-based Arabic-language newspaper. Hussein's downfall after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 ended the enforced separation between Iran and Iraq, much to the frustration and rage of Iraq's long-dominant Sunni Arabs. Industrially incapacitated, Iraq must import electricity, foodstuffs, appliances and automobiles from Iran and other neighboring countries such as Turkey and Syria.

Persian cultural influences, long suppressed, have reemerged in the last four years. After Hussein's ouster, Iranian and Iraqi Shiites embraced during mass commemorations of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, rites once banned under Baath Party rule.

Those rites have now become symbols of Shiite power. Sunni insurgents repeatedly attacked the pilgrims headed to Karbala last month, killing more than 200.

Persian has become common on the streets of Najaf and Karbala, as well as in Baghdad's Convention Center, where the Iraqi parliament convenes. Colorful posters of imams Ali and Hussein, of the kind found in pious Iranian enclaves, appear more frequently in Iraqi markets and homes.

Young Iraqi women have begun wearing the same Grace Kelly-style head scarves and short overcoats favored by Iranians.

Motorcycles, popular among youths in Iran but banned during Hussein's rule, traverse Baghdad streets, as do the heroin and opium that have become a habit for young Iranians.

Unease among Sunnis

To many Sunni Arabs, all those have been disturbing signs of a Persian ascendancy.

Brought up on a diet of Arab nationalist propaganda, Sunni Iraqis see their country's drift into the Persian sphere of influence as foreign. At first Sunni insurgents attacked mostly U.S. troops, whom they saw as an occupation force. But as the Shiite-dominated government took hold in early 2005, the attacks took a sharply sectarian turn. Seconds before his execution, Hussein cursed both the Americans who overthrew him and the "Persians" who shouted populist Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's name as he stood on the gallows.

A bitter Jan. 2 television debate about Hussein's legacy on the satellite channel Al Jazeera underscored the ethnic underpinnings of Sunni Arab rage against Iraq's new Shiite order.

The debate pitted Mishaan Jaburi, a Sunni Arab politician, against Sadeq Moussawi, a Shiite journalist and supporter of the current government.

During the debate, which was posted on the Internet and rapidly became famous here, Jaburi waved sheets of white paper at Moussawi, screaming, "These are your documents! You are an Iranian citizen …. You are Persian."

"Your father killed Kurds," Moussawi snapped back.

"You are Iranian," Jaburi reiterated. "These documents show that [you] applied for Iraqi citizenship in May 2004."

Moussawi didn't bother denying the accusation. "We will settle accounts with all of you," he said instead.

Yet many of Iraq's Persian-influenced citizens are neither loyal to nor fond of the government in Tehran. Many Shiites fought on Iraq's side in the war against Iran. And most Iraqis who sought shelter in Iran during Hussein's rule experienced hardship and bigotry. But culturally and politically, they cleave toward Iran instead of Washington's preferred proxy powers — Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Iraqi Shiites have some leaders, including the cleric Sadr, who are Arab nationalists. In the last year, however, many of them have strayed from the Arab world, angered that Arab countries have shunned Iraq's newly crystallizing Shiite identity.

Persians and Shiism have become so intertwined that opposition to Tehran's policies across the region has taken on a Sunni character. Ethnic Baluchi separatists in southeastern Iran fight under the banner of a Sunni Muslim group linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist network. And in a growing number of cases, Iran's Shiite Arab separatists have converted to Sunni Islam.

Even as Sunnis fight Shiites, accusing them of being Iranians, Shiites have begun to whisper about the identity of Iraq's Sunnis.

"The Sunnis of Iraq aren't really Arabs," one Iraqi Shiite diplomat said recently. "They're Turks."

daragahi@latimes.com

*

Daragahi, The Times' former Baghdad Bureau chief, first traveled to Iraq in September 2002. Times staff writer Raheem Salman in Baghdad and special correspondents Saad Fakhrildeen in Najaf and Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran contributed to this report.

Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times

* * * * * * *

Sunni struggle claims 4th Fallujah chief --Yahoo!® News

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD - The Fallujah city council chairman, a critic of al-Qaida who took the job after his three predecessors were assassinated, was killed on Saturday, the latest blow in a violent internal Sunni struggle for control of an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.

In the capital, U.S. and Iraqi officials defended plans to build a barrier around a Sunni enclave to protect its inhabitants from surrounding Shiite areas, while residents expressed concern it would isolate the community.

Sami Abdul-Amir al-Jumaili was gunned down by attackers in a passing car as he was walking outside his home in central Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, according to police.

His assassination came a month after he agreed to take the dangerous job — the only person willing to do so — with promises to improve services and work with the Americans to ease traffic-clogging checkpoints in the city with a population of an estimated 150,000 to 200,000.

The 65-year-old Sunni sheik was the fourth city council chairman to be killed in some 14 months as insurgents target fellow Sunnis willing to cooperate with the U.S. and its Iraqi partners. Abdul-Amir's predecessor, Abbas Ali Hussein, who was shot to death on Feb. 2.

Both men were strong critics of al-Qaida in

Iraq, which is battling a growing number of Sunni tribes that have turned against it in the vast Anbar province — a center for anti-U.S. guerrillas since the uprising in Fallujah in 2004 that galvanized the insurgency.

U.S. officials say tribal leaders and even some other insurgents are increasingly repelled by the group's brutality and religious extremism. The tribes also are competing with al-Qaida for influence and control over diminishing territory in the face of U.S. assaults.

The U.S. military confirmed the killing, and provincial officials condemned it.

"He was one of the many good people of the province who worked to help the city of Fallujah rebuild and regain life," the provincial government said in a statement. "This murder was a crime against all of the citizens of Iraq. We again strongly condemn this cowardly back-stabbing act."

Fellow councilmen and neighbors said Abdul-Amir had run for the office before and ignored pleas from friends not to take the job.

Gunmen also broke into the home of Najim Abdullah Suod, the city council chief who preceded Hussein, killing the lawyer and his 23-year-old son on Sept. 24, 2006, while Sheik Kamal Nazal, a cleric, was gunned down as he walked to work on Feb. 7, 2006.

The attack occurred despite U.S. optimism about efforts to tame Anbar, a vast desert area that borders

Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, as alliances have been struck with influential Sunni sheiks once arrayed against American-led forces.

At least 38 people were killed or found dead elsewhere in Iraq, including another top city official, the mayor of Mussayyib who died in a roadside bombing in the city about 40 miles south of Baghdad.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed and six were wounded Saturday in separate attacks in Baghdad and southwest of the capital, the military said.

A roadside bomb killed one U.S. soldier and wounded two while they were on a foot patrol southwest of Baghdad. Another died and three were wounded when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb, followed by small-arms fire in southwestern Baghdad, the military said. A combat security patrol also was attacked by small-arms fire, killing a soldier and wounding another in an eastern section of the capital.

A separate roadside bombing, in Diwaniyah about 80 miles south of the capital, killed a Polish soldier late Friday.

The U.S. military has said that the wall in Baghdad was meant to secure the minority Sunni community of Azamiyah, which "has been trapped in a spiral of sectarian violence and retaliation."

The area, located on the eastern side of the Tigris River, would be completely gated, with entrances and exits manned by Iraqi soldiers, according to the military.

A handout obtained by The Associated Press from a local official in Azamiyah who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns but said he was given the handout by the U.S. military said the wall will be 12 feet high, about 2 feet thick and topped with coils of barbed wire. The military earlier said it would run three miles.

Some residents and local officials in the neighborhood complained that they had not been consulted in advance about the barrier.

"This will make the whole district a prison. This is collective punishment on the residents of Azamiyah," said Ahmed al-Dulaimi, a 41-year-old engineer who lives in the area. "They are going to punish all of us because of a few terrorists here and there."

The military insisted its aim was only to protect the area and this was one of many measures being undertaken as part of a U.S.-Iraqi security plan to pacify the capital, which began on Feb. 14.

"The intent is not to divide the city along sectarian lines," said Brig. Gen. John F. Campbell, the deputy commander of American forces in Baghdad.

"The intent is to provide a more secured neighborhood for people who live in selected neighborhoods. Some of the people who I've talked to have had favorable comments about it, and they want us to build some of them faster."

Campbell also said several more gated communities are being erected in the Iraqi capital. He did not provide specific examples but noted that some Baghdad markets also have been encircled by concrete barriers to a degree of success.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, meanwhile, prepared to begin an Arab tour on Sunday that will take him to Egypt, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Oman, his adviser Yassin Majid said.

The State of the Philippine Left --European Solidarity San Frontiers

2007-04-20T15:39:00.000+08:00

The State of the Philippine Left

REYES Ric
26 May 2005

When asked to participate in this gathering, the Democratic Left Conference, I heartily agreed and requested that I be allowed to speak on the situation of the Philippine Left. The reason is that among the subjects to be discussed, it is the one that I feel I can contribute more and that allows me to share, not only my impressions of the common and diverse pictures of the community we call the Philippine Left, but ideas and suggestions regarding the pressing problems confronting it.

I am very happy to be here today and to see faces that have been familiar to me for decades, as well as new and younger leaders with whom I have worked with, and who have taken on leadership responsibilities during a very difficult period of the Philippine Left from the nineties to the present. Understandably, with the divisions and dynamics of the recent past remaining fresh to everyone, we came here with very modest aims and expectations. In fact, many of us came here prepared to take in doses of frustration, in case certain things don’t turn out well. But I have a feeling that everybody, or almost everybody, including me, yearns deeply, a sentiment that remains very strong among our constituents, for a more unifying process and results beyond our most recent effort, Alternatiba, or reinvigorating Alternatiba, whichever will strengthen the left more.

That is the reason why I would like to focus more on two issues, given time limitations. First, is to help gather all those resources to inspire hope in the unifying process, and second, how to set up all those processes that will bring us together again.

As we gather today, a deepening crisis of governance of the Philippine state confronts our society. The words “crisis of governance” were used in the late 80s by the CPP to describe a governmental crisis that opens up to the possibility of an extra-constitutional solution. When used in the Philippine context where state power is exclusively in the hands of ruling class factions or forces, except in the few marginal areas of open revolt, a crisis in governance will not in itself lead to a crisis of class rule, or something like a revolutionary situation, or a crisis that will lead to seizure of power by the popular classes and forces, a dual power situation, or a power sharing arrangement between elite factions and the popular forces.

EDSA II is a good example of a crisis of governance, which stops at the door of a crisis of class rule. The failed EDSA III shares the same limitations. EDSA I was deeper. The crisis that brought it about was both a crisis of governance and a crisis of class rule. The Marcos dictatorship was wracked not only by an intense inter-elite strife but more so by a nationwide revolutionary struggle led by the CPP, a seething Moro armed struggle in Muslim Mindanao, a CPP led though authentically indigenous armed movement in the Cordilleras, and an urban upsurge of the popular forces. On the agenda for hegemony at that time were not only the replacement of Marcos and his dictatorial rule, but a radical change of class-based power in favor of the popular classes.

What then is this crisis of governance that I’m referring to? We have to understand its causes.

First, a messy and fraud-ridden 2004 elections which created lasting credibility gaps for the Malacanang occupant, such as a majority proclamation by Congress instead of the usual unanimous proclamation and an electoral protest that will remain unresolved forever due to the death of the protestant. Second, an unprecedented fiscal crisis. Third, the devastating impact on the majority of people, and small and medium businesses, of liberalization measures on oil, power, water and prime commodities. Four, the exposes of gargantuan corruption at the highest levels of government, AFP corruption and conversion scandals, the Marcos wealth diversion, the coco levy scams, and now the grand jueteng protection money scandal which knocks at the door of the presidency. And fifth, the violence directed, with impunity, at journalists, lawyers and activists.

The over-all effect is ungovernability, a fearful sense of drift while the conditions of society and polity deteriorate, to which a section of the military and other right-wing forces offer a junta solution. What is new is that sections of business and the middle class no longer express alarm over this kind of fascist alternative. In fact a growing sentiment across classes for strongman types of leaders can be discerned from the respectable showing of Ping Lacson during the last presidential elections.

Many of the solutions prescribed by local elite leaders and US officials and government agencies consist of first, changes in the constitutional form of government. It is not because they want to strengthen mass participation in government; but because they fear a repetition of EDSA processes which may one day endanger the establishment itself. To them, the parliamentary solution is a way to solve the executive or presidential crisis, through the parliamentary vote of confidence or calling for early elections. It will rationalize governance by removing gridlocks or stalemates between the executive and legislative branches.

The second proposed solution is fiscal stabilization. However, fiscal stabilization, like other suggested solutions, will also produce more contradictions. Austerity measures, including major cuts in social service spending and government retrenchment are bound to fuel more unrest, just like VAT and other tax increases. The government does not have the political will to end automatic appropriation for debt service that takes up 40% of the national budget every year.

The half-hearted anti-corruption campaign cannot ease the crisis of governance but if followed to its logical conclusion, the axe may fall on Malacanang itself. A constitutional convention, although most desired, might become a fifth estate, recalling the 1971 experience, and a channel for agitation and accumulation of unrest. A move to call Congress as a constituent assembly will not be popular, because the masses have a low opinion of Congress. Adding fuel to the fire is the not-so secret agenda of people who want to change the Constitution, which is to water down the patrimony and social justice provisions of the existing Constitution, despite the mounting attacks on the people’s livelihood and dignity by neoliberal capitalist globalization.

I am not saying that these solutions will not work, but I believe the crisis might be prolonged and we should better prepare for it. The business of the Left, I believe, is to develop, within this crisis, those elements that might produce an intensification of the crisis of class rule. So if there are possibilities that open up, let us explore these in order to develop these into a bigger share of power, bigger space until the point of seizing state power.

There are two barriers or two problems that need to be solved, and these have come out before in our discourses. The first and new problem, which we have felt for some time now, is a kind of attitude we have observed among our people - a lack of interest in participating in movements for social change. Some call it cynicism; some call it an apolitical attitude; others believe the masses have not yet found the alternative that would inspire them to action. That is why it is very hard to produce a critical mass.

Second, a divided and in fact, in certain sections, a warring Left. It has been a heavy blow to the people’s morale and inspiration that the very people calling for social change are divided, fighting among themselves and in some instances, killing each other. This is an enormous problem and I believe we should put our heads together during our discourses in the days to come, and discover how to revive the hopes of the oppressed masses and the people, and how to get our act together, despite our differences.

I am more optimistic about the possibility that we will, once again, be together. In our past discussions and discourses, our commonalities and differences are becoming clearer. The important thing is how we can put this into practice. We are all engaged in theorizing and praxis, although I believe we are still wanting in both, and especially in relating and integrating theory and practice. For example, in what we call revisioning or reimagining of the socialist program for the past 13 years, a common position against the ravages of global capitalism is becoming clearer — the reaffirmation of the socialist principle of public ownership and public control. However, only a few groups have categorically and clearly stated that they stand for public control and public ownership, especially in key sectors of our economy.

It is natural that for a time we were engrossed in studying the failed attempts at building socialism, or independent governments that emphasized public control, and even our own experiences with government controlled and owned corporations. We used a lot of energy in clarifying nuances such as the role of private initiative and the role of private control in the macro-economy. I don’t believe we should regret this effort. I believe it was time well spent for we have deepened our understanding of capitalism, especially the state of capitalism in the Philippines.

To those who are still busy looking for a good role for private initiative, private component or private control, I can only suggest that they focus on the state of our markets. We must recognize that our country is on the margins of capitalism, and therefore its markets are highly distorted and imperfect, and the only solution to put more sense and public welfare into our economy is to reassert and reaffirm the need for public control and public ownership.

Another thing that we desperately need in the reconstruction of our socialist vision is the question of public accountability. What are the processes that will institute accountability — that will enable the public to participate in the administration of public enterprises and institutions? That is what we are striving to study, through theory and praxis in Akbayan and in political groups and people’s organizations that are part of Akbayan.

Our modest proposal is for participatory democracy and participatory socialism. We reaffirm the importance of public ownership and public control, and the importance as well of instituting a public accountability process in governing these institutions. I believe our unity is not far off; this is obvious from the discourses and practice of Freedom from Debt Coalition. I would like to thank the different blocs, groups and NGOS that patiently worked to strengthen this coalition because I believe it has a vital role and contribution, not only in the deepening of the socialist discourse and working for the interest of the worker and peasant masses, but also in the effort to develop a new Left culture.

Second, about the land question. There are some differences in the positions of various groups on land reform. We need a comradely type of discourse. The community to which I belong believes that we should use what we have won through law, principle, and constitutional mandate on agrarian reform. What is important is the creation of the potential to revive the fighting spirit of peasants and other rural folk, and from there discover what is better, ownership of small farms or more cooperative and collective agricultural production.

I think the discussion of the core issue should not end up in straitjacketing theory and practice. Instead we should grasp the dynamics opened up by victories in the anti-dictatorship and anti-feudal struggles during Marcos rule and Aquino’s total war. We should use the law to revive and organize the peasants’ militant spirit, so they can attain their land and organize themselves for their own welfare. It is very important to be able to share best experiences or best practices.

I can only offer some good examples from areas in many provinces where Unorka, Padayon, Parrds, and Peace operate. We do not believe that pushing a land to the tiller program, while forming independent peasant organizations in the countryside, can hinder their initiative to pursue more radical social changes and strengthen their political power. I respect and want to learn from other experiences, for example, experiences in Negros, where after getting land, the people went straight to collective management of an enterprise.

It is time to bury the traditional bias of socialist thinking against small farms; it has never been proved that these small farms have led to the revival of capitalism, whether it is in Russia, China or Vietnam. All researches have proved that land distribution does not contradict cooperation and mutual help in other aspects of production such as the collective purchase of inputs, tractors and other farm implements, and collective marketing of farm products. In fact, there are many good experiences from Russia, China and Vietnam that have been set aside in the course of debate.

The focus has been on studying new methods and initiatives that sometimes end up in World Bank market-led land reform programs. We have to review how farms and factories were managed, the valuable experiences of the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam and Cuba, among others. I was privileged to meet comrades from other countries, and I was heartened and encouraged by the experiences they shared, past experiments that are better, more humane and more liberating, but were since buried by the sweeping condemnation of socialism.

About strategy, a strategy is made up of many elements but I will focus on one, the character of the Philippine state. The various efforts to further develop open and legal struggles are commendable. But in the more than one decade that we have participated in legal struggles, especially in the countryside and in urban areas that are hardly ever reached by media and institutions, we have come to some realizations.

Compared to many Latin American countries, the Philippine national state is very weak. Political power rests more on regional or provincial political elites and they exercise their power through their influence on local government; they exercise their power through their own state instruments like maintaining armed goons, influences on Churches, media and other institutions, and at the same time they also retain powerful clout in Malacanang and in Congress.

In the Philippines, a large part of state political power can be found in the localities. Although we consider as important the efforts of our comrades in the NGO community to explore various participatory processes, we cannot deny that the large part of state power is in the hands of regional and provincial elites. That limits the potential of national legal and open mass struggles to create radical changes in the country. In this light, it is very important to review the past.

The CPP-NPA-NDF was able to reach a level where it was able to establish alternative political power in different strategic areas in the countryside. In the desire to amass this strength and use it to seize power from the ruling elite faction, we were able to form tactical alliances with regional and local power elites. We were not able to review the implications of these actions. In a majority of these areas, we were not able to weaken this political power. So, when Marcos was kicked out and replaced by the Aquino faction, the reactionary character of the national state was easily reproduced. In this light, it is important to examine the experience of the Marxist-Leninist Party of the Philippines in its continuing efforts at base building. We should also examine the base building experience of our comrades in the RPM-ABB. And it would be good to study the experience in building the new types of zones of political power in the countryside by comrades in Padayon.

We should have an active dialogue because in developing a national strategy we should combine a national track, and at the same time, a provincial or regional power strategy. We must develop zones of people’s empowerment in the countryside that are similar in many respects, but are different from the traditional guerilla zones. We should deepen our study of the practice of the CPP (Reaffirm), despite its fundamental violation of the mass line, and its irresponsible and opportunist collaboration with landlords and the ruling elite. I have heard of areas where they have had good experiences on how to dismantle the political power of landlords. That is one of the bulwarks of the reproduction of state power and until we smash it, it will continue to play this role, despite “red” or radical EDSAs. Third, in relation to the dialectic of reform and revolution, which is often heard in my community, I believe we are wanting in this respect, because our practice has been more reform than revolution. It is clear to me that we should agree that the process of reform, however good, should always be set within the revolutionary framework.

There are still two past issues that weaken and eat at our unity - issues of our accountability. We have to make a direct, clear, critical and modest analysis of the anti-DPA campaign. I assure you that I will continue to help in this campaign, and even redouble my efforts. I suggest that comrades who were former members of the CPP should sit down and talk about this bravely and honestly. Let us exchange information. Let us reveal what we know. We should be able to differentiate between rumors and the truth. We have to level off on these things. Our people should be able to see that those who are fighting for social changes are capable of criticizing and correcting themselves. Our failure to do this will not help the re-strengthening of the revolutionary movement. But I have great faith and hope that we can do this. There were a lot of gibes aimed at Alternatiba in the past. But it was a real effort and it was able to develop a process and method.

I think, in the coming months, that we should seriously face the building of a socialist front. We should engage in active discourse and an analysis of ethics and rules. We can start by refraining from entering areas where other left forces already are, and by helping to solve any related problems. We should stop organizing the organized and start organizing the millions who are as yet unorganized. We should continue our dialogues. I have to admit that I have also failed to talk with some comrades these past years. The relations of some left groups with factions of the ruling elite are sometimes the source of jokes and intrigues. There is basis for honest and sincere criticism and critique, for we all know that these things were caused by the negative effects of the split and the actions of the CPP.

Some actions taken by comrades were simply ways to survive, ways of adjusting to the change in conditions. The period since the 1990s has been very difficult. Our belief in socialism and revolution was seriously shaken; comrades had no money; former party leaders were aging; still others had to face family and other problems. This was made worse by members of civil society factions who said the Left is this and that. We are only human. We suffered so much in this past decade and more. But we are here, still standing upright, despite problems or weaknesses we had and still have. In the end, the only thing we can do is to be kind to and patient with each other.

REYES Ric

China in Africa: Lessons for the Philippines --Walden Bello(inquirer.net)

2007-04-19T16:44:00.000+08:00

China in Africa: Lessons for the Philippines

By Walden Bello
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 02:19am (Mla time) 04/19/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- For many of our technocrats and economists, the salvation of the Philippine economy lies not only in ever increasing money remittances from our overseas workers but ever-tighter ties with China’s red-hot economy.

Perhaps a look at China’s presence in Africa might serve to temper their optimisms.

At the Seventh World Social Forum (WSF), held in Nairobi, Kenya, in late January, the most controversial topic was not HIV-AIDS, the US occupation of Iraq, or neoliberalism. It was China’s relations with Africa.

At a packed panel discussion organized by a semi-official Chinese NGO, the discussion was candid and angry. “First, Europe and America took over our big businesses. Now China is driving our small and medium-scale entrepreneurs to bankruptcy,” Humphrey Pole-Pole of the Tanzanian Social Forum told the Chinese speakers. “You don’t even contribute to employment, because you bring in your own labor.”

Stung by such remarks from the floor, Cui Jianjun, secretary general of the China NGO Network for International Exchanges, lost his diplomatic cool and launched into an emotional defense of Chinese foreign investment, saying, “We Chinese had to make the same hard decision on whether to accept foreign investment many, many years ago. You have to make the right decision or you will lose, lose, lose. You have to decide right, or you will remain poor, poor, poor.”

The vigorous exchange should have been anticipated, since many Africans view China as having the potential of bringing either great promise or great harm. If African civil society representatives were hard on China, this was because they desperately wanted China to reverse course before it was too late, so that it would avoid the path trod by Europe and the United States.

Beijing’s high profile in Africa

The debate at the WSF took place amid a marked elevation of Africa’s profile in China’s foreign policy. In early February, President Hu Jintao made his third trip to Africa in three years, following the success of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which took place Nov. 4-5, 2006. Attended by 48 African delegations, most of them led by heads of state, the event was the largest international summit held in Beijing.

At the start of the summit, Beijing unveiled a glittering trade and aid plan designed to cement its “strategic partnership” with Africa. The key items in the package committed China to doubling its 2006 assistance in three years, providing $3 billion worth of preferential loans and $2 billion worth of export credits, and canceling all interest-free government loans that matured at the end of 2005 and were owed by the heavily indebted and poorest African countries. In addition, the two sides agreed to raise the volume of trade from $40 billion in 2005 to $100 billion by 2010 and set up of a China-Africa Development Fund that would be capitalized to the tune of $5 billion to support Chinese companies investing in Africa.

If not yet the biggest external player in Africa, China is certainly the most dynamic. It now accounts for 60 percent of oil exports from Sudan and 35 percent of those from Angola. Chinese firms mine copper in Zambia and Congo-Brazzaville, cobalt in the Congo, gold in South Africa, and uranium in Zimbabwe. Its ecological footprint is large, says Michelle Chan-Fishel of Friends of the Earth International, consuming as it does 46 percent of Gabon’s forest exports, 60 percent of timber exported from Equatorial Guinea, and 11 percent of timber exports from Cameroon.

Contrasting images of China

China is popular with African governments. “There is something refreshing to China’s approach,” said a Nigerian diplomat who asked not to be identified. “They don’t attach all those conditionalities that accompany Western loans.” Adds Justin Fong, executive director of the Chinese NGO, Moving Mountains: “Whether accurate or not, the image Africans have of the Chinese is that they get things done. They don’t waste their time in meetings. They just go ahead and build roads.”

An African development specialist working with a western aid organization claimed that Chinese projects are low cost affairs compared to western projects. “Labor costs are low, they integrate African labor, so some transfer of skills takes place, and the Chinese workers live in the village, and this means living like the villagers, down to competing with them for dog meat.”

While they might dispute this characterization of China’s impact, most NGOs are nuanced in their assessments. They acknowledge that China has a different trajectory in Africa than Europe and the United States. Whereas the West began by exploiting Africa, China initiated its relations with Africa with “people-to-people” medical and technical assistance missions in the 1960s and 1970s, the most famous of which was the building of the now fabled Tanzania-Zambia (Tanzam) Railway. But with China’s rise as a modernizing economic superpower after the definitive decision in 1984 to use capitalism as the engine of growth, the old solidarity rationale has been replaced by a dangerously single-minded pursuit of economic interests -- in this case, mainly oil and mineral resources to feed a red-hot economy.

If African governments were accountable to their people, say NGO critics, Chinese aid could play a very positive role, especially if compared with World Bank and International Monetary Fund loans that come with conditions to bring down tariffs, loosen government regulation, and privatize state enterprises. But with non-accountable, non-transparent governments, such as those in the Sudan and Zimbabwe, say the critics, Chinese loan and aid programs contribute instead to consolidating the rule of non-democratic elites.

Crossing the line in Sudan

Where China has definitely crossed the line is in Sudan. Using its veto power at the UN Security Council, China has prevented the international community from creating and deploying a multinational force to protect people in Darfur who are being killed or raped by militias backed by the Sudanese government. Even one African diplomat sympathetic to China asserts, “China’s strong backing for the Sudanese government has discouraged African governments that are trying to push it to accept an African Union solution to the problem.”

China has very substantial interests in Sudan. These are set out in detail in an important collection of studies launched at the WSF titled, "African Perspectives on China in Africa," edited by Firoze Manji and Stephen Marks. China obtained oil exploration and production rights in 1995 when the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) bought a 40-percent stake in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co., which is pumping over 300,000 barrels per day. Sinopec, another Chinese firm, is building a 1,500-kilometer pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where China’s Petroleum Engineering Construction Co. is constructing a tanker terminal . Author John Rocha estimates Chinese investment in oil exploration to reach $8 billion.

Chinese interests go beyond oil. Its investment in textile mills is estimated at $100 million. It has emerged as one of Sudan’s top arms suppliers. In one particular barter arrangement, China supplied $400 million worth of weapons in return for cotton. It is active in infrastructure, with its firms building bridges near the Merowe Dam and two other sites on the River Nile. It is involved in key hydropower projects, the most controversial being the Merowe Dam, which is expected to ultimately cost $1.8 billion.

The construction of the Merowe Dam has involved forced resettlement of the Hambdan people living at or near the site and repression and an armed attack on the Amri people who have been organizing to prevent the Sudanese government’s plan to transfer them to the desert. Local police and private agencies now provide 24-hour security to Chinese engineering detachments, but civil society observers say the aim of these groups is less protection of the Chinese than repression of growing opposition.

As Ali Askari, director of the London-based Piankhi Research Group, puts it, “The sad truth is, both the Chinese and their elite partners in the Sudan government want to conceal some terrible facts about their partnership. They are joining hands to uproot poor people, expropriate their land, and appropriate their natural resources.”

Chinese and Sudanese officials tend to dismiss such criticism as the machinations of western powers. Such powers are alarmed at China’s becoming the top international player in a country long treated as being in the West’s sphere of influence. But, according to Beijing and Khartoum, theWest’s dismal record of colonial plunder deprives its statements of any moral authority.

Defending its close relations with the Sudanese government, a Chinese foreign ministry official, Zhai Jun, noted the contrast in African governments’ reception of China and the West: “Some people believe that by ‘taking’ resources and energy from Africa, China is looting Africa...If this was so, then African countries would express their dissatisfaction...they would approach China, as they did...countries that exploited the continent in the past.”

However, Chinese officials are wrong to think that African NGOs are merely parroting the rhetoric of self-interested western governments. In fact, civil society groups also consider such western criticism hypocritical. Commenting on the remark of a World Bank official to the effect that “Chinese handouts without reforms” would not be beneficial to Africa, John Karumbidza, a contributor to the "China in Africa" volume, acidly remarks, “It is the case ... that this same bank and Western approach over the past half century has failed to deliver development, and left Africa in more debt than when they began.”

Other problematic partnerships

These criticisms are unlikely to go away, not only in Sudan but also in many other countries where Chinese involvement with controversial regimes runs deep. With relations with the West and even South Africa deteriorating over his political record, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has increasingly turned to China, which one of his key ministers has characterized as an “all-weather friend.” Chinese investment in mining, energy, telecommunications, agriculture, and other sectors was estimated at $600 million at the end of 2004, with another $600 million pledged in June 2005. The price, however, has been high, according to critics, who claim that Mugabe’s government has handed de facto control of key strategic industries to the Chinese. A contract with China to farm 386 square miles of land while millions of Zimbabweans remain landless has come under fire, with rural sociologist John Karumbidza blasting it as “nothing more than land renting and typical agro-business relations that turn the land holders and their workers into labor tenants and subject them to exploitation.”

The Nigerian government is another problematic Chinese partner, according to civil society activists. China has extensive interests in Nigeria, particularly in oil exploration and production. The China National Offshore Corporation (CNOOC), notes researcher John Rocha, has acquired a 45-percent working interest in an offshore enterprise, OML 130, for $2.3 billion; the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has invested in the Port Harcourt refinery; and a joint venture between the Chinese Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and the L.N. Mittal Group, plans to invest $6 billion in railways, oil refining, and power in exchange for rights to drill oil.

These interests have led to an increasingly tight alliance with the faction of the ruling People’s Democratic Party dominated by President Olusegun Obasanjo. This relationship has a controversial security dimension. As Ndubisi Obiorah, another contributor to the "China in Africa" volume, who is director of the Center for Law and Social Action in Lagos, notes: “The Nigerian government is increasingly turning to China for weapons to deal with the worsening insurgency in the oil-rich Niger Delta. The Nigerian Air Force purchased 14 Chinese-made versions of the upgraded MiG 21 jet fighter; the navy has ordered patrol boats to secure the swamps and creeks of the Niger Delta.” Not surprisingly, the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Nigerian Delta (MEND) has warned Chinese companies to keep out of the region or risk attack.

With their integrated political, military, economic, and diplomatic components, China’s “strategic partnerships” with governments such as those of Nigeria, Sudan, and Zimbabwe increasingly have the feel of the old US and Soviet relationships with client states during the Cold War.

Will civil society make the difference?

Nevertheless, many civil society activists do not discount the possibility that things may yet be turned around. Though critical of current Chinese policies, Humphrey Pole-Pole of Tanzania appealed at the Nairobi meeting for a “win-win-win” strategy -- that is, “a win for China, a win for African governments, and a win for African people. This is not impossible.”

The key to such a change may be the growth of Chinese civil society organizations, some of which are increasingly independent of and indeed critical of government policies within China.

But closer ties between Chinese and African NGOs are not enough, says Justin Fong. Mechanisms to ensure Chinese government accountability are needed. One point of vulnerability he identifies is the practice of Chinese government entities, such as the China Export-Import Bank, of going for co-financing for their Africa projects to international banks such as HSBC and Citigroup. When it comes to controversial projects, pressure might be indirectly placed on the Chinese by lobbying these institutions, which are more sensitive about their image than Beijing. Such tactics, which sometimes worked with western governments and firms, may not, however, succeed with China.

But whatever their differences, civil society activists, African and Chinese, agree on one thing. It will be a hard, uphill struggle to change the Chinese juggernaut’s direction in Africa.

Walden Bello is professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines and executive director of the Bangkok-based research and advocacy institute Focus on the Global South.

Copyright 2007 INQUIRER.net. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Bush's Shadow Army by Jeremy Scahill (The Nation)

2007-04-11T16:32:00.001+08:00

Bush's Shadow Army by Jeremy Scahill (The Nation)

Bush's Shadow Army

Jeremy Scahill

Jeremy Scahill reports on the Bush Administration's growing dependence on private security forces such as Blackwater USA and efforts in Congress to rein them in. This article is adapted from his new book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army (Nation Books).

On September 10, 2001, before most Americans had heard of Al Qaeda or imagined the possibility of a "war on terror," Donald Rumsfeld stepped to the podium at the Pentagon to deliver one of his first major addresses as Defense Secretary under President George W. Bush. Standing before the former corporate executives he had tapped as his top deputies overseeing the high-stakes business of military contracting--many of them from firms like Enron, General Dynamics and Aerospace Corporation--Rumsfeld issued a declaration of war.

"The topic today is an adversary that poses a threat, a serious threat, to the security of the United States of America," Rumsfeld thundered. "It disrupts the defense of the United States and places the lives of men and women in uniform at risk." He told his new staff, "You may think I'm describing one of the last decrepit dictators of the world.... [But] the adversary's closer to home," he said. "It's the Pentagon bureaucracy." Rumsfeld called for a wholesale shift in the running of the Pentagon, supplanting the old DoD bureaucracy with a new model, one based on the private sector. Announcing this major overhaul, Rumsfeld told his audience, "I have no desire to attack the Pentagon; I want to liberate it. We need to save it from itself."

The next morning, the Pentagon would be attacked, literally, as a Boeing 757--American Airlines Flight 77--smashed into its western wall. Rumsfeld would famously assist rescue workers in pulling bodies from the rubble. But it didn't take long for Rumsfeld to seize the almost unthinkable opportunity presented by 9/11 to put his personal war--laid out just a day before--on the fast track. The new Pentagon policy would emphasize covert actions, sophisticated weapons systems and greater reliance on private contractors. It became known as the Rumsfeld Doctrine. "We must promote a more entrepreneurial approach: one that encourages people to be proactive, not reactive, and to behave less like bureaucrats and more like venture capitalists," Rumsfeld wrote in the summer of 2002 in an article for Foreign Affairs titled "Transforming the Military."

Although Rumsfeld was later thrown overboard by the Administration in an attempt to placate critics of the Iraq War, his military revolution was here to stay. Bidding farewell to Rumsfeld in November 2006, Bush credited him with overseeing the "most sweeping transformation of America's global force posture since the end of World War II." Indeed, Rumsfeld's trademark "small footprint" approach ushered in one of the most significant developments in modern warfare--the widespread use of private contractors in every aspect of war, including in combat.

The often overlooked subplot of the wars of the post-9/11 period is their unprecedented scale of outsourcing and privatization. From the moment the US troop buildup began in advance of the invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon made private contractors an integral part of the operations. Even as the government gave the public appearance of attempting diplomacy, Halliburton was prepping for a massive operation. When US tanks rolled into Baghdad in March 2003, they brought with them the largest army of private contractors ever deployed in modern war. By the end of Rumsfeld's tenure in late 2006, there were an estimated 100,000 private contractors on the ground in Iraq--an almost one-to-one ratio with active-duty American soldiers.

To the great satisfaction of the war industry, before Rumsfeld resigned he took the extraordinary step of classifying private contractors as an official part of the US war machine. In the Pentagon's 2006 Quadrennial Review, Rumsfeld outlined what he called a "road map for change" at the DoD, which he said had begun to be implemented in 2001. It defined the "Department's Total Force" as "its active and reserve military components, its civil servants, and its contractors--constitut[ing] its warfighting capability and capacity. Members of the Total Force serve in thousands of locations around the world, performing a vast array of duties to accomplish critical missions." This formal designation represented a major triumph for war contractors--conferring on them a legitimacy they had never before enjoyed.

Contractors have provided the Bush Administration with political cover, allowing the government to deploy private forces in a war zone free of public scrutiny, with the deaths, injuries and crimes of those forces shrouded in secrecy. The Administration and the GOP-controlled Congress in turn have shielded the contractors from accountability, oversight and legal constraints. Despite the presence of more than 100,000 private contractors on the ground in Iraq, only one has been indicted for crimes or violations. "We have over 200,000 troops in Iraq and half of them aren't being counted, and the danger is that there's zero accountability," says Democrat Dennis Kucinich, one of the leading Congressional critics of war contracting.

While the past years of Republican monopoly on government have marked a golden era for the industry, those days appear to be ending. Just a month into the new Congressional term, leading Democrats were announcing investigations of runaway war contractors. Representative John Murtha, chair of the Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Defense, after returning from a trip to Iraq in late January, said, "We're going to have extensive hearings to find out exactly what's going on with contractors. They don't have a clear mission and they're falling all over each other." Two days later, during confirmation hearings for Gen. George Casey as Army chief of staff, Senator Jim Webb declared, "This is a rent-an-army out there." Webb asked Casey, "Wouldn't it be better for this country if those tasks, particularly the quasi-military gunfighting tasks, were being performed by active-duty military soldiers in terms of cost and accountability?" Casey defended the contracting system but said armed contractors "are the ones that we have to watch very carefully." Senator Joe Biden, chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, has also indicated he will hold hearings on contractors. Parallel to the ongoing investigations, there are several bills gaining steam in Congress aimed at contractor oversight.

Occupying the hot seat through these deliberations is the shadowy mercenary company Blackwater USA. Unbeknownst to many Americans and largely off the Congressional radar, Blackwater has secured a position of remarkable power and protection within the US war apparatus. This company's success represents the realization of the life's work of the conservative officials who formed the core of the Bush Administration's war team, for whom radical privatization has long been a cherished ideological mission. Blackwater has repeatedly cited Rumsfeld's statement that contractors are part of the "Total Force" as evidence that it is a legitimate part of the nation's "warfighting capability and capacity." Invoking Rumsfeld's designation, the company has in effect declared its forces above the law--entitled to the immunity from civilian lawsuits enjoyed by the military, but also not bound by the military's court martial system. While the initial inquiries into Blackwater have focused on the complex labyrinth of secretive subcontracts under which it operates in Iraq, a thorough investigation into the company reveals a frightening picture of a politically connected private army that has become the Bush Administration's Praetorian Guard.

Blackwater Rising

Blackwater was founded in 1996 by conservative Christian multimillionaire and ex-Navy SEAL Erik Prince--the scion of a wealthy Michigan family whose generous political donations helped fuel the rise of the religious right and the Republican revolution of 1994. At its founding, the company largely consisted of Prince's private fortune and a vast 5,000-acre plot of land located near the Great Dismal Swamp in Moyock, North Carolina. Its vision was "to fulfill the anticipated demand for government outsourcing of firearms and related security training." In the following years, Prince, his family and his political allies poured money into Republican campaign coffers, supporting the party's takeover of Congress and the ascension of George W. Bush to the presidency.

While Blackwater won government contracts during the Clinton era, which was friendly to privatization, it was not until the "war on terror" that the company's glory moment arrived. Almost overnight, following September 11, the company would become a central player in a global war. "I've been operating in the training business now for four years and was starting to get a little cynical on how seriously people took security," Prince told Fox News host Bill O'Reilly shortly after 9/11. "The phone is ringing off the hook now."

Among those calls was one from the CIA, which contracted Blackwater to work in Afghanistan in the early stages of US operations there. In the ensuing years the company has become one of the greatest beneficiaries of the "war on terror," winning nearly $1 billion in noncovert government contracts, many of them no-bid arrangements. In just a decade Prince has expanded the Moyock headquarters to 7,000 acres, making it the world's largest private military base. Blackwater currently has 2,300 personnel deployed in nine countries, with 20,000 other contractors at the ready. It has a fleet of more than twenty aircraft, including helicopter gunships and a private intelligence division, and it is manufacturing surveillance blimps and target systems.

In 2005 after Hurricane Katrina its forces deployed in New Orleans, where it billed the federal government $950 per man, per day--at one point raking in more than $240,000 a day. At its peak the company had about 600 contractors deployed from Texas to Mississippi. Since Katrina, it has aggressively pursued domestic contracting, opening a new domestic operations division. Blackwater is marketing its products and services to the Department of Homeland Security, and its representatives have met with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The company has applied for operating licenses in all US coastal states. Blackwater is also expanding its physical presence inside US borders, opening facilities in Illinois and California.

Its largest obtainable government contract is with the State Department, for providing security to US diplomats and facilities in Iraq. That contract began in 2003 with the company's $21 million no-bid deal to protect Iraq proconsul Paul Bremer. Blackwater has guarded the two subsequent US ambassadors, John Negroponte and Zalmay Khalilzad, as well as other diplomats and occupation offices. Its forces have protected more than ninety Congressional delegations in Iraq, including that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. According to the latest government contract records, since June 2004 Blackwater has been awarded $750 million in State Department contracts alone. It is currently engaged in an intensive lobbying campaign to be sent into Darfur as a privatized peacekeeping force. Last October President Bush lifted some sanctions on Christian southern Sudan, paving the way for a potential Blackwater training mission there. In January the Washington, DC, representative for southern Sudan's regional government said he expected Blackwater to begin training the south's security forces soon.

Since 9/11 Blackwater has hired some well-connected officials close to the Bush Administration as senior executives. Among them are J. Cofer Black, former head of counterterrorism at the CIA and the man who led the hunt for Osama bin Laden after 9/11, and Joseph Schmitz, former Pentagon Inspector General, who was responsible for policing contractors like Blackwater during much of the "war on terror"--something he stood accused of not doing effectively. By the end of Schmitz's tenure, powerful Republican Senator Charles Grassley launched a Congressional probe into whether Schmitz had "quashed or redirected two ongoing criminal investigations" of senior Bush Administration officials. Under bipartisan fire, Schmitz resigned and signed up with Blackwater.

Despite its central role, Blackwater had largely operated in the shadows until March 31, 2004, when four of its private soldiers in Iraq were ambushed and killed in Falluja. A mob then burned the bodies and dragged them through the streets, stringing up two from a bridge over the Euphrates. In many ways it was the moment the Iraq War turned. US forces laid siege to Falluja days later, killing hundreds of people and displacing thousands, inflaming the fierce Iraqi resistance that haunts occupation forces to this day. For most Americans, it was the first they had heard of private soldiers. "People began to figure out this is quite a phenomenon," says Representative David Price, a North Carolina Democrat, who said he began monitoring the use of private contractors after Falluja. "I'm probably like most Congress members in kind of coming to this awareness and developing an interest in it" after the incident.

What is not so well-known is that in Washington after Falluja, Blackwater executives kicked into high gear, capitalizing on the company's newfound recognition. The day after the ambush, it hired the Alexander Strategy Group, a K Street lobbying firm run by former senior staffers of then-majority leader Tom DeLay before the firm's meltdown in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal. A week to the day after the ambush, Erik Prince was sitting down with at least four senior members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, including its chair, John Warner. Senator Rick Santorum arranged the meeting, which included Warner and two other key Republican senators--Appropriations Committee chair Ted Stevens of Alaska and George Allen of Virginia. This meeting followed an earlier series of face-to-faces Prince had had with powerful House Republicans who oversaw military contracts. Among them: DeLay; Porter Goss, chair of the House Intelligence Committee (and future CIA director); Duncan Hunter, chair of the House Armed Services Committee; and Representative Bill Young, chair of the House Appropriations Committee. What was discussed at these meetings remains a secret. But Blackwater was clearly positioning itself to make the most of its new fame. Indeed, two months later, Blackwater was handed one of the government's most valuable international security contracts, worth more than $300 million.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070402/scahill/3

The firm was also eager to stake out a role in crafting the rules that would govern mercenaries under US contract. "Because of the public events of March 31, [Blackwater's] visibility and need to communicate a consistent message has elevated here in Washington," said Blackwater's new lobbyist Chris Bertelli. "There are now several federal regulations that apply to their activities, but they are generally broad in nature. One thing that's lacking is an industry standard. That's something we definitely want to be engaged in." By May Blackwater was leading a lobbying effort by the private military industry to try to block Congressional or Pentagon efforts to place their forces under the military court martial system.

But while Blackwater enjoyed its new status as a hero in the "war on terror" within the Administration and the GOP-controlled Congress, the families of the four men killed at Falluja say they were being stonewalled by Blackwater as they attempted to understand the circumstances of how their loved ones were killed. After what they allege was months of effort to get straight answers from the company, the families filed a ground-breaking wrongful death lawsuit against Blackwater in January 2005, accusing the company of not providing the men with what they say were contractually guaranteed safeguards. Among the allegations: The company sent them on the Falluja mission that day short two men, with less powerful weapons than they should have had and in Pajero jeeps instead of armored vehicles. This case could have far-reaching reverberations and is being monitored closely by the war-contractor industry--former Halliburton subsidiary KBR has even filed an amicus brief supporting Blackwater. If the lawsuit is successful, it could pave the way for a tobacco litigation-type scenario, where war contractors find themselves besieged by legal claims of workers killed or injured in war zones.

As the case has made its way through the court system, Blackwater has enlisted powerhouse Republican lawyers to defend it, among them Fred Fielding, who was recently named by Bush as White House counsel, replacing Harriet Miers; and Kenneth Starr, former Whitewater prosecutor investigating President Clinton, and the company's current counsel of record. Blackwater has not formally debated the specific allegations in the suit, but what has emerged in its court filings is a series of legal arguments intended to bolster Blackwater's contention that it is essentially above the law. Blackwater claims that if US courts allow the company to be sued for wrongful death, that could threaten the nation's war-fighting capacity: "Nothing could be more destructive of the all-volunteer, Total Force concept underlying U.S. military manpower doctrine than to expose the private components to the tort liability systems of fifty states, transported overseas to foreign battlefields," the company argued in legal papers. In February Blackwater suffered a major defeat when the Supreme Court declined its appeal to hear the Falluja case, paving the way for the state trial--where there would be no cap on damages a jury could award--to proceed.

Congress is beginning to take an interest in this potentially groundbreaking case. On February 7 Representative Henry Waxman chaired hearings of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. While the hearings were billed as looking at US reliance on military contractors, they largely focused on Blackwater and the Falluja incident. For the first time, Blackwater was forced to share a venue with the families of the men killed at Falluja. "Private contractors like Blackwater work outside the scope of the military's chain of command and can literally do whatever they please without any liability or accountability from the US government," Katy Helvenston, whose son Scott was one of the Blackwater contractors killed, told the committee. "Therefore, Blackwater can continue accepting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money from the government without having to answer a single question about its security operators."

Citing the pending litigation, Blackwater's general counsel, Andrew Howell, declined to respond to many of the charges levied against his company by the families and asked several times for the committee to go into closed session. "The men who went on the mission on March 31, each had their weapons and they had sufficient ammunition," Howell told the committee, adding that the men were in "appropriate" vehicles. That was sharply disputed by the men's families, who allege that in order to save $1.5 million Blackwater did not provide the four with armored vehicles. "Once the men signed on with Blackwater and were flown to the Middle East, Blackwater treated them as fungible commodities," Helvenston told lawmakers in her emotional testimony, delivered on behalf of all four families.

The issue that put this case on Waxman's radar was the labyrinth of subcontracts underpinning the Falluja mission. Since November 2004 Waxman has been trying to pin down who the Blackwater men were ultimately working for the day of the ambush. "For over eighteen months, the Defense Department wouldn't even respond to my inquiry," says Waxman. "When it finally replied last July, it didn't even supply the breakdown I requested. In fact, it denied that private security contractors did any work at all under the [Pentagon's contracting program]. We now know that isn't true." Waxman's struggle to follow the money on this one contract involving powerful war contractors like KBR provides a graphic illustration of the secretive nature of the whole war contracting industry.

What is not in dispute regarding the Falluja incident is that Blackwater was working with a Kuwaiti business called Regency under a contract with the world's largest food services company, Eurest Support Services. ESS is a subcontractor for KBR and another giant war contractor, Fluor, in Iraq under the Pentagon's LOGCAP contracting program. One contract covering Blackwater's Falluja mission indicated the mission was ultimately a subcontract with KBR. Last summer KBR denied this. Then ESS wrote Waxman to say the mission was conducted under Fluor's contract with ESS. Fluor denied that, and the Pentagon told Waxman it didn't know which company the mission was ultimately linked to. Waxman alleged that Blackwater and the other subcontractors were "adding significant markups" to their subcontracts for the same security services that Waxman believes were then charged to US taxpayers. "It's remarkable that the world of contractors and subcontractors is so murky that we can't even get to the bottom of this, let alone calculate how many millions of dollars taxpayers lose in each step of the subcontracting process," says Waxman.

While it appeared for much of the February 7 hearing that the contract's provenance would remain obscure, that changed when, at the end of the hearing, the Pentagon revealed that the original contractor was, in fact, KBR. In violation of military policy against LOGCAP contractors' using private forces for security instead of US troops, KBR had entered into a subcontract with ESS that was protected by Blackwater; those costs were allegedly passed on to US taxpayers to the tune of $19.6 million. Blackwater said it billed ESS $2.3 million for its services, meaning a markup of more than $17 million was ultimately passed on to the government. Three weeks after the hearing, KBR told shareholders it may be forced to repay up to $400 million to the government as a result of an ongoing Army investigation.

It took more than two years for Waxman to get an answer to a simple question: Whom were US taxpayers paying for services? But, as the Falluja lawsuit shows, it is not just money at issue. It is human life.

A Killing on Christmas Eve

While much of the publicity Blackwater has received stems from Falluja, another, more recent incident is attracting new scrutiny. On Christmas Eve inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, an American Blackwater contractor allegedly shot and killed an Iraqi bodyguard protecting a senior Iraqi official. For weeks after the shooting, unconfirmed reports circulated around the Internet that alcohol may have been involved and that the Iraqi was shot ten times in the chest. The story then went that the contractor was spirited out of Iraq before he could be prosecuted. Media inquiries got nowhere--the US Embassy refused to confirm that it was a Blackwater contractor, and the company refused to comment.

Then the incident came up at the February 7 Congressional hearing. As the session was drawing to a close, Representative Kucinich raced back into the room with what he said was a final question. He entered a news report on the incident into the record and asked Blackwater counsel Howell if Blackwater had flown the contractor out of Iraq after the alleged shooting. "That gentleman, on the day the incident occurred, he was off duty," Howell said, in what was the first official confirmation of the incident from Blackwater. "Blackwater did bring him back to the United States."

"Is he going to be extradited back to Iraq for murder, and if not, why not?" Kucinich asked.

"Sir, I am not law enforcement. All I can say is that there's currently an investigation," Howell replied. "We are fully cooperating and supporting that investigation."

Kucinich then said, "I just want to point out that there's a question that could actually make [Blackwater's] corporate officers accessories here in helping to create a flight from justice for someone who's committed a murder."

The War on the Hill

Several bills are now making their way through Congress aimed at oversight and transparency of the private forces that have emerged as major players in the wars of the post-9/11 period. In mid-February Senators Byron Dorgan, Patrick Leahy and John Kerry introduced legislation aimed at cracking down on no-bid contracts and cronyism, providing for penalties of up to twenty years in prison and fines of up to $1 million for what they called "war profiteering." It is part of what Democrats describe as a multi-pronged approach. "I think there's a critical mass of us now who are working on it," says Congressman Price, who represents Blackwater's home state. In January Price introduced legislation that would expand the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000 (MEJA) to include all contractors in a war zone, not just those working for or alongside the armed forces. Most of Blackwater's work in Iraq, for instance, is contracted by the State Department. Price indicated that the alleged Christmas Eve shooting could be a test case of sorts under his legislation. "I will be following this and I'll be calling for a full investigation," he said.

But there's at least one reason to be wary of this approach: Price's office consulted with the private military lobby as it crafted the legislation, which has the industry's strong endorsement. Perhaps that's because MEJA has been for the most part unenforced. "Even in situations when US civilian law could potentially have been applied to contractor crimes, it wasn't," observed P.W. Singer, a leading scholar on contractors. American prosecutors are already strapped for resources in their home districts--how could they be expected to conduct complex investigations in Iraq? Who will protect the investigators and prosecutors? How will they interview Iraqi victims? How could they effectively oversee 100,000 individuals spread across a dangerous war zone? "It's a good question," concedes Price. "I'm not saying that it would be a simple matter." He argues his legislation is an attempt to "put the whole contracting enterprise on a new accountable footing."

This past fall, taking a different tack--much to the dismay of the industry--Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, an Air Force reserve lawyer and former reserve judge, quietly inserted language into the 2007 Defense Authorization, which Bush signed into law, that places contractors under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), commonly known as the court martial system. Graham implemented the change with no public debate and with almost no awareness among the broader Congress, but war contractors immediately questioned its constitutionality. Indeed, this could be a rare moment when mercenaries and civil libertarians are on the same side. Many contractors are not armed combatants; they work in food, laundry and other support services. While the argument could be made that armed contractors like those working for Blackwater should be placed under the UCMJ, Graham's change could result in a dishwasher from Nepal working for KBR being prosecuted like a US soldier. On top of all this, the military has enough trouble policing its own massive force and could scarcely be expected to monitor an additional 100,000 private personnel. Besides, many contractors in Iraq are there under the auspices of the State Department and other civilian agencies, not the military.

In an attempt to clarify these matters, Senator Barack Obama introduced comprehensive new legislation in February. It requires clear rules of engagement for armed contractors, expands MEJA and provides for the DoD to "arrest and detain" contractors suspected of crimes and then turn them over to civilian authorities for prosecution. It also requires the Justice Department to submit a comprehensive report on current investigations of contractor abuses, the number of complaints received about contractors and criminal cases opened. In a statement to The Nation, Obama said contractors are "operating with unclear lines of authority, out-of-control costs and virtually no oversight by Congress. This black hole of accountability increases the danger to our troops and American civilians serving as contractors." He said his legislation would "re-establish control over these companies," while "bringing contractors under the rule of law."

Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky, a member of the House intelligence committee, has been a leading critic of the war contracting system. Her Iraq and Afghanistan Contractor Sunshine Act, introduced in February, which bolsters Obama's, boils down to what Schakowsky sees as a long overdue fact-finding mission through the secretive contracting bureaucracy. Among other provisions, it requires the government to determine and make public the number of contractors and subcontractors (at any tier) that are employed in Iraq and Afghanistan; any host country's, international or US laws that have been broken by contractors; disciplinary actions taken against contractors; and the total number of dead and wounded contractors. Schakowsky says she has tried repeatedly over the past several years to get this information and has been stonewalled or ignored. "We're talking about billions and billions of dollars--some have estimated forty cents of every dollar [spent on the occupation] goes to these contractors, and we couldn't get any information on casualties, on deaths," says Schakowsky. "It has been virtually impossible to shine the light on this aspect of the war and so when we discuss the war, its scope, its costs, its risks, they have not been part of this whatsoever. This whole shadow force that's been operating in Iraq, we know almost nothing about. I think it keeps at arm's length from the American people what this war is all about."

While not by any means a comprehensive total of the number of contractor casualties, 770 contractor deaths and 7,761 injured in Iraq as of December 31, 2006, were confirmed by the Labor Department. But that only counts those contractors whose families applied for benefits under the government's Defense Base Act insurance. Independent analysts say the number is likely much higher. Blackwater alone has lost at least twenty-seven men in Iraq. And then there's the financial cost: Almost $4 billion in taxpayer funds have been paid for private security forces in Iraq, according to Waxman. Yet even with all these additional forces, the military is struggling to meet the demands of a White House bent on military adventurism.

A week after Donald Rumsfeld's rule at the Pentagon ended, US forces had been stretched so thin by the "war on terror" that former Secretary of State Colin Powell declared "the active Army is about broken." Rather than rethinking its foreign policies, the Administration forged ahead with plans for a troop "surge" in Iraq, and Bush floated a plan to supplement the military with a Civilian Reserve Corps in his January State of the Union address. "Such a corps would function much like our military Reserve. It would ease the burden on the armed forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them," Bush said. The President, it seemed, was just giving a fancy new title to something the Administration has already done with its "revolution" in military affairs and unprecedented reliance on contractors. Yet while Bush's proposed surge has sparked a fierce debate in Congress and among the public, the Administration's increasing reliance on private military contractors has gone largely undebated and underreported.

"The increasing use of contractors, private forces or as some would say 'mercenaries' makes wars easier to begin and to fight--it just takes money and not the citizenry," says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has sued contractors for alleged abuses in Iraq. "To the extent a population is called upon to go to war, there is resistance, a necessary resistance to prevent wars of self-aggrandizement, foolish wars and in the case of the United States, hegemonic imperialist wars. Private forces are almost a necessity for a United States bent on retaining its declining empire."

With talk of a Civilian Reserve Corps and Blackwater promoting the idea of a privatized "contractor brigade" to work with the military, war critics in Congress are homing in on what they see as a sustained, undeclared escalation through the use of private forces. "'Surge' implies a bump that has a beginning and an end," says Schakowsky. "Having a third or a quarter of [the forces] present on the ground not even part of the debate is a very dangerous thing in our democracy, because war is the most critical thing that we do."

Indeed, contractor deaths are not counted in the total US death count, and their crimes and violations go undocumented and unpunished, further masking the true costs of the war. "When you're bringing in contractors whom the law doesn't apply to, the Geneva Conventions, common notions of morality, everything's thrown out the window," says Kucinich. "And what it means is that these private contractors are really an arm of the Administration and its policies."

Kucinich says he plans to investigate the potential involvement of private forces in so-called "black bag," "false flag" or covert operations in Iraq. "What's the difference between covert activities and so-called overt activities which you have no information about? There's no difference," he says. Kucinich also says the problems with contractors are not simply limited to oversight and transparency. "It's the privatization of war," he says. The Administration is "linking private war contractor profits with warmaking. So we're giving incentives for the contractors to lobby the Administration and the Congress to create more opportunities for profits, and those opportunities are more war. And that's why the role of private contractors should be sharply limited by Congress."

about
Jeremy Scahill

Jeremy Scahill, is the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, published by Nation Books.

He is an award-winning investigative journalist and correspondent for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!, is a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute.

ARTICLES BY Jeremy Scahill

http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/jeremy_scahill

Copyright © 2007 The Nation

Bambi Harper

2007-03-05T20:00:00.000+08:00

From Bambi Harper - Malaya Column February 26,2007

Other opinions

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sir John Bowring in his book, "A Visit to the Philippine Islands" (1858) claimed Filipinos demonstrated great indifference to danger. Francisco Cañamaque thought they imitated the Spaniard in everything that was bad, such as the love of gambling or in cutting an elegant figure.

But courtesy, urbanity and good education they neither imitated nor appreciated. Of their former traditions they preserved the love of flashy and riotous weddings, worldly type of burials, and tyrannical acts of all types; to his vices he added those of the Europeans. (Four hundred-plus years of repeatedly being told your shortcomings certainly damaged the Pinoy’s self-esteem; good thing some of us didn’t believe them).

They were convinced that their ancestors could be found in the forests and that they could punish or reward them and as a result offered them sacrifices. All the books and explanations were useless compared to the teachings of an ancient one they considered wise.

The priests believed at the time that these beliefs were disappearing and that their father confessors held great influence over them; yet the devil was credited with influencing the Filipino to hide his sins and crimes from the priest and the authorities and instead discuss them with one another. The biggest offense among them was to be a "blabber mouth" which they described as "mabibig."

Often priests would have contradictory opinions regarding the various customs of their parishioners. One claimed they confessed only three sins: leaving going to church, (2) eating meat during Lent and (3) having blasphemed or cursed profusely. Yet another priest claimed that no one could beat the natives of Manila in the fervor of their devotions, their contrition at Confession and in the fulfillment of their penance. They were lovers of religious dramas especially about the passion and death of Christ and had translated it into the chanting of the Pasion.

In Lilio (Liliw?) according to a priest in 1840 there were 1,300 tribute payers; 600 never went to confession despite the fact that this was a town not far from Manila. In Vigan there were 30,000 inhabitants but according to Sinibaldo de Mas only 500 to 800 individuals assisted at church rites except on the feast of the patron saint of the town.

It has been said that the Filipino was good with his hands and swift on his feet. His fingers were long and his toes nimble and skillful that served well climbing the riggings of the galleons and for other active functions. He was almost amphibious, spending a good part of the day in the water and impartial to the sun as to the heavy rain. Events make little impression him and luckily he had a short memory (I understand this is the secret to a happy life, according to Sophia Loren).

The natives of Pampanga, Cagayan, Batangas, Iloilo and Cebu were known for their bravery, generosity, labor and a general tendency for the arts. The talent and practice of music and sculpture was universal but the fame for painting became well known only in the 90’s with Luna and Hidalgo.

The Filipino farmer was moderate, quiet, timid, a lover of his home, good with his children, obsequious with his visitors, sedentary in his traditions, badly paid, active during the planting and harvesting months, and a loafer after the harvest. He did not go to town except to hear Mass which the parish priest obliged him to do or to visit the cockpit where he gambled searching for relief from his poverty.

He fished for dalag or trout in the banks or in the swamps if there were any; stole chickens from his neighbor which he didn’t consider a grave sin. He was impervious to danger yet timid in fights, serene about death. Despite the scapulars and reliquaries he displayed like amulets under his roomy shirt of jusi or rayadillo, his religion may have been only skin-deep. He was untiring in his work, dull in his fatigue, persistent in business, verbally abusive when angry. His town was his happiness and he loved his home; he had little ambition because Nature offered him rice, water, fruits, fish and root vegetables. (Which was fine when there were just a couple of million people spread out over 7000 islands).

As a worker the Filipino was humble, accommodating, obedient, affectionate, hard- working, quiet and good. On the negative side his defects included a tendency to murmur under his breath when displeased, ungrateful, informal in his commitments and variable in his values.

Among the working class were the journeyman or the daily worker and these included painters, artists, craftsman, laborers or operators. Then there the servants of two classes: the "batanes" or young domestic helpers. These were the responsibility of the Guardia Civil Veterana from Manila to San Pedro Makati. Among the older "batans" were servers, operators, foremen, laborers, servants and agents who were active, hard working, humble, and resigned. It was true that some servants liked to sleep in the ledge before the railings of the windows (presumably because it was cooler but which some Spaniards found odd), others it seems stole what they needed without their conscience being bothered, and loved without any preparation for the future. These so-called "batanes" were curious and unimaginable busybodies but they were loyal and affectionate as well.

(Olvidos de Filipinas, Francisco Entrala,1881)

* * * * *

From Bambi Harper - Malaya Column March 06,2007

‘Obviously he must have been staying in a hotel or with friends in the Walled City since he says he crossed Calle Real in Intramuros.’

Other opinions (2)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On March 13, 1873 an adventurous young man called Francisco Entrala arrived in Manila on the day of the horse races in Sta. Mesa. (The race track was in what is now Hippodromo street.) He certainly chose a round-about way to get to Sta. Mesa but his might have been because he wanted to give us a tour of some Manila suburbs. Obviously he must have been staying in a hotel or with friends in the Walled City since he says he crossed Calle Real in Intramuros, crossed through the massive portals of the Puerta Parian, one of the nine that flanked the severe but now useless walls of Manila, crossed the Puente de España that spanned the Pasig River and proceeded to Binondo.

He passed the Hotel Oriental with tables full of Spaniards close by Calle Rosario, a narrow street where you could see a world of Chinese as though enclosed in a giant bubble, beside the tower of Binondo Church. He traversed the Escolta, flirting with the ladies who threw him a glance probably out of curiosity from their carriages.

Reaching the less commercial and gayer street of San Sebastian, flanked by pretty structures with azoteas decorated with porcelain pots of flowering plants and little shaded gardens full of shrubs of gardenias and shadows, he reached the calzada of Sampaloc where the dust formed a cloud at the wake of the carriages, calesas and horses richly harnessed. The world of delight was brought to Sta. Mesa like a large nimbus of gold and silk by Spanish mestizas who had skin like porcelain and Indias with coppery skins, their hair tied in a knot, displaying long skirts of many colors reminding him of the gypsies of his homeland.

He arrived in Santa Mesa avid to observe like a newly arrived child in the country. There was a great gathering of Spaniards and foreigners dressed in white suits, while the ladies wore their famous piña skirts and airy blouses.

It seemed as though everyone stared at him as a new person. General Alaminos, Gov. General and the Civil Governor Carrascon, occupied the grandstand decorated in rich clothes of red velvet; the trophies that were to be presented to the victors shone in the tropical sun. Swift as the wind, the horses pranced onto the track; Imparcial, Mosquito, Albay, and other horses ridden by distinguished military and enthusiastic foreign youngsters with the objective of fighting for that trophy. The native ponies were so alive, so gallant, and so strong that if they had been five or six inches taller they would have been mistaken for Arab or Andalusian.

The person to his right without his being able to identify as mestizo or native was making notes on a racing sheet that he got from his pocket and asked him:

"I’m for Mosquito, Señor. And you?"

His words: "I looked at him with envy since I was perspiring in a closed jacket and trousers of silk and satin that I had worn thinking to make an impression. He wore a loose rich shirt of piña that I later learned was worth P100 with diamond buttons in the chest and in the wrists, beautiful watch chain of gold that sparkled under the sun’s rays, a pair of linen pants and patent leather shoes.

"Bueno," I answered, "you’re for Mosquito and I will be for whoever you wish.

"How do you bet? he asked.

"Whatever you wish.

"We’ll bet P20 if you wish.

"Forty also if you want."

We lost. He wanted to reimburse me but I refused. It turned out he was the former gobernadorcillo of Pandacan. The other people present were the Tuasons, the Ayalas, the Casals, Roxas, Ortiz de Zarate, Vizmanos, the Captain General, and the commander of the Navy plus a host of others he didn’t know.

Entrala speaks of dinner dances that people called Katapusan meaning final or end. It’s a word frequently used that the researcher runs into frequently in accounts of fiestas or any celebration and was in effect a dinner dance. It wasn’t all of that different from present day fetes where guests show off their jewelry and showy gowns, dancing till they drop following the music of sometimes more than one orchestra. In between dance numbers guests would chew betel nut if they wished or smoked tobacco, ate sweets and partook of wine or beer. The buffet table displayed turkey, ham, lamb, roast pig, chicken, asado of cow or veal. The songs they sang were in Spanish or local "habaneras" written by Arche and Masaguer or other masters of the genre such as Peres, Luna or Castaneda who also wrote La Mestiza.

Entrala mentions the sculptors of his day as Arevalo, Salgado, Murriel, Tampinco, Romualdo T. de Jesus. Painters included Hidalgo referred to as Resurreccion although there is no mention of Luna yet; Felix Martinez painted a portrait of the Marquez de Estella (wouldn’t you love to know where that ended up?), Guerrero and the then young Zaragozas and Villanueva. Resurreccion presented a painting called "Siesta" to Alfonso XII.

(Francisco Entrala, Olvidos de Filipinas, 1881)

The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes by Fedor Jagor et al - CHAPTER VIII

2007-02-20T15:40:00.000+08:00

The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes by Fedor Jagor et al - CHAPTER VIII

[Importance of Chinese.] An important portion of the population remains to be discussed, viz. the Chinese, who are destined to play a remarkable part, inasmuch as the development of the land-cultivation demanded by the increasing trade and commercial intercourse can be affected only by Chinese industry and perseverance. Manila has always been a favorite place for Chinese immigrants; and neither the hostility of the people, nor oppressing and prohibitory decrees for a long time by the Government, not even the repeated massacres, have been able to prevent their coming. The position of the Islands, south-east of two of the most important of the Chinese provinces, must necessarily have brought about a trade between the two countries very early, as ships can make the voyage in either direction with a moderate wind, as well in the south-west as the north-east monsoon.

[Early Chinese Associations.] In a few old writers may even be found the assertion that the Philippine Islands were at one time subject to the dominion of China; and Father Gaubil (Lettres Edifiantes) mentions that Jaung-lo (of the Ming dynasty) maintained a fleet consisting of 30,000 men, which at different times proceeded to Manila. The presence of their ships as early as the arrival of Magellan in the extreme east of the archipelago, as well as the China plates and earthenware vessels discovered in the excavations, plainly show that the trade with China had extended far earlier to the most distant islands of the archipelago. It formed the chief support of the young Spanish colony, and, after the rise of the Encomiendas, was nearly the only source of its prosperity. It was feared that the junks would offer their cargoes to the Dutch if any obstacle was put in the way of their coming to Manila. The colony certainly could not maintain its position without the “Sangleys,” [246] who came annually in great numbers in the junks from China, and spread all over the country and in the towns as [Industrial and commercial activity.] shopkeepers, artisans, gardeners, and fishermen; besides which, they were the only skillful and industrious workers, as the Filipinos under the priestly domination had forgotten altogether many trades in which they had engaged in former times. I take these facts from Morga.

[Unsuccessful attempts at restriction.] In spite of all this, the Spaniards have, from the very commencement, endeavored rigorously to limit the number of the Chinese; who were then, as they are now, envied and hated by the natives for their industry, frugality, and cunning, by which means they soon became rich. They were an abomination, moreover, in the eyes of the priests as being irreclaimable heathens, whose example prevented the natives from making progress in the direction of Christianity; and the government feared them on account of the strong bond of union existing between them, and as being subjects of so powerful a nation, whose close proximity threatened the small body of Spaniards with destruction. [247] Fortunately for the latter, the Ming dynasty, which at that time was hastening to its downfall, did not think of conquest; but wickedly disposed powers which sprang into existence upon their downfall brought the colony into extreme danger.

[Limahong and the Mandarins’ visit.] In the attack of the noted pirate, Limahong, in 1574, they escaped destruction only by a miracle; and soon new dangers threatened them afresh. In 1603 a few mandarins came to Manila, under the pretence of ascertaining whether the ground about Cavite was really of gold. They were supposed to be spies, and it was concluded, from their peculiar mission, that an attack upon the colony was intended by the Chinese.

[Early massacre of Chinese.] The archbishop and the priests incited the distrust which was felt against the numerous Chinese who were settled in Manila. Mutual hate and suspicion arose; both parties feared one another and prepared for hostilities. The Chinese commenced the attack; but the united forces of the Spaniards, being supported by the Japanese and the Filipinos, twenty-three thousand, according to other reports twenty-five thousand, of the Chinese were either killed or driven into the desert. When the news of this massacre reached China, a letter from the Royal Commissioners was sent to the Governor of Manila. That noteworthy document shows in so striking a manner how hollow the great government was at that time that I have given a literal translation of it at the end of this chapter.

[Chinese laborers limited.] After the extermination of the Chinese, food and all Chinese other necessaries of life were difficult to obtain on account of the utter unreliability of the natives for work; but by 1605 the number of Chinese [248] had again so increased that a decree was issued limiting them to six thousand, “these to be employed in the cultivation of the country;” while at the same time their rapid increase was taken advantage of by the captain-general for his own interest, as he exacted eight dollars from each Chinaman for permission to remain. In 1539 the Chinese population had risen to thirty thousand, according to other information, to forty thousand, when they revolted and were reduced to seven thousand. “The natives, who generally were so listless and indifferent, showed the utmost eagerness in assisting in the [Another massacre.] massacre of the Chinese, but more from hatred of this industrious people than from any feeling of friendship towards the Spaniards.” [249]

[The pirate Kog-seng.] The void occasioned by this massacre was soon filled up again by Chinese immigrants; and in 1662 the colony was once more menaced with a new and great danger, by the Chinese pirate Kog-seng, who had under his command between eighty and one hundred thousand men, and who already had dispossessed the Dutch of the Island of Formosa. He demanded the absolute submission of the Philippines; his sudden death, however, saved the colony, and occasioned a fresh outbreak of fury against the Chinese settlers in Manila, a great number of whom were butchered in their own “quarter" (ghetto). [250] Some dispersed and hid themselves; a few in their terror plunged into the water or hanged themselves; and a great number fled in small boats to Formosa. [251]

[Another expulsion.] In 1709 the jealousy against the Chinese once more had reached such a height that they were accused of rebellion, and particularly of monopolizing the trades, and, with the exception of the most serviceable of the artisans and such of them as were employed by the Government, they were once again expelled. Spanish writers praise the salutariness of these measures; alleging that "under the pretence of agriculture the Chinese carry on trade; they are cunning and careful, making money and sending it to China, so that they defraud the Philippines annually of an enormous amount.” Sonnerat, however, complains that art, trade, and commerce had not recovered from these severe blows; though, he adds, fortunately the Chinese, in spite of prohibitory decrees, are returning through the corrupt connivance of the governor and officials.

[Thrifty traders.] To the present day they are blamed as being monopolists, particularly by the creoles; and certainly, by means of their steady industry and natural commercial aptitude, they have appropriated nearly all the retail trade to themselves. The sale of European imported goods is entirely in their hands; and the wholesale purchase of the produce of the country for export is divided between the natives, creoles, and the Chinese, the latter taking about one-half. Before this time only the natives and creoles were permitted to own ships for the purpose of forwarding the produce to Manila.

In 1757 the jealousy of the Spaniards broke out again in the form of a new order from Madrid, directing the expulsion of the Chinese; and in 1759 the decrees of banishment, which were repeatedly evaded, were carried into effect: but, as the private interests of the officials did not happen to coincide with those of the creole traders, the consequence was that “the Chinese soon streamed back again in incredible numbers,” and made common cause with the English upon their invasion in 1762. [252]

[Anda’s and 1819 massacres.] Thereupon, Sr. Anda commanded “that all the Chinese in the Philippine Islands should be hanged,” which order was very generally carried out. [253] The last great Chinese massacre took place in 1819, when the aliens were suspected of having brought about the cholera by poisoning the wells. The greater part of the Europeans in Manila also fell victims to the fury of the populace, but the Spaniards generally were spared. The prejudice of the Spaniards, especially of the creoles, had always been directed against the Chinese tradesmen, who interfered unpleasantly with the fleecing of the natives; and against this class in particular were the laws of limitation aimed. They would willingly have let them develop the country by farming but the hostility of the natives generally prevented this.

[Expulsion of merchants from Manila.] A decree, issued in 1804, commanded all Chinese shopkeepers to leave Manila within eight days, only those who were married being allowed to keep shops; and their residence in the provinces was permitted only upon the condition that they confined themselves entirely to agriculture. Magistrates who allowed these to travel in their districts were fined $200; the deputy-governor $25; and the wretched Chinese were punished with from two to three years’ confinement in irons.

In 1839 the penalties against the Chinese were somewhat mitigated, but those against the magistrates were still maintained on account of their venality. In 1843 Chinese ships were placed upon terms of equality with those of other foreign countries (Leg. Ult., II., 476). In 1850 Captain-General Urbiztondo endeavored to introduce Chinese colonial farming, and with this object promised a reduction of the taxes to all agricultural immigrants. Many Chinese availed themselves of this opportunity in order to escape the heavy poll-tax; but in general they soon betook themselves to trading once more.

[Oppressive taxation.] Of late years the Chinese have not suffered from the terrible massacres which used formerly to overtake them; neither have they suffered banishment; the officials being content to suppress their activity by means of heavy and oppressive taxes. For instance, at the end of 1867 the Chinese shopkeepers were annually taxed $50 for permission to send their goods to the weekly market; this was in addition to a tax of from $12 to $100 on their occupations; and at the same time they were commanded thenceforth to keep their books in Spanish (English Consular Report, 1859).

[Excellent element in population.] The Chinese remain true to their customs and mode of living in the Philippines, as they do everywhere else. When they outwardly embrace Christianity, it is done merely to facilitate marriage, or from some motive conducive to their worldly advantage; and occasionally they renounce it, together with their wives in Manila, when about to return home to China. Very many of them, however, beget families, are excellent householders, and their children in time form the most enterprising, industrious, and wealthy portion of the resident population.

[Formidable competitors.] Invigorated by the severe struggle for existence which they have experienced in their over-populated country, the Chinese appear to preserve their capacity for labor perfectly unimpaired by any climate. No nation can equal them in contentedness, industry, perseverance, cunning, skill, and adroitness in trades and mercantile matters. When once they gain a footing, they generally appropriate the best part of the trade to themselves. In all parts of external India they have dislodged from every field of employment not only their native but, progressively, even their European competitors. Not less qualified and successful are they in the pursuance of agriculture than in trade. The emigration from the too thickly peopled empire of China has scarcely begun. As yet it is but a small stream, but it will by-and-by pour over all the tropical countries of the East in one mighty torrent, completely destroying all such minor obstacles as jealous interference and impotent precaution might interpose.

[Sphere of futureinflunce.] Over every section of remote India, in the South Sea, in the Indian Archipelago, in the states of South America, the Chinese seem destined, in time, either to supplant every other element, or to found a mixed race upon which to stamp their individuality. In the Western States of the Union their number is rapidly on the increase; and the factories in California are worked entirely by them, achieving results that cannot be accomplished by European labor.

[Mongolian vs. Caucasion in America.] One of the most interesting of the many questions of large comprehensiveness which connect themselves with the penetration of the Mongolian race into America, which up till now it had been the fashion to regard as the inheritance of the Caucasians, is the relative capacity of labor possessed by both these two great races, who in the Western States of America have for the first time measured their mutual strength in friendly rivalry. Both are there represented in their most energetic individuality; [254] and every nerve will be strained in carrying on the struggle, inasmuch as no other country pays for labor at so high a rate.

[Efficiency and reliability of Chinese labor.] The conditions, however, are not quite equal, as the law places certain obstacles in the way of the Chinese. The courts do not protect them sufficiently from insult, which at times is aggravated into malicious manslaughter through the ill-usage of the mob, who hate them bitterly as being reserved, uncompanionable workers. Nevertheless, the Chinese immigrants take their stand firmly. The western division of the Pacific Railway has been chiefly built by the Chinese, who, according to the testimony of the engineers, surpass workmen of all other nationalities in diligence, sobriety, and good conduct. What they lack in physical power they make up for in perseverance and working intelligently together. The unique and nearly incredible performance that took place on April 28, 1859, when ten miles of railway track were laid in eleven working hours along a division of land which had in no way been prepared beforehand, was accomplished by Chinese workmen; and indeed only by them could it have been practicable. [255]

[Chinese cleverness and industry.] Of course, the superiority of the European in respect Chinese of the highest intellectual faculties is not for a moment to be doubted; but, in all branches of commercial life in which cleverness and perservering industry are necessary to success, the Chinese certainly appear entitled to the award. To us it appears that the influx of Chinese must certainly sooner or later kindle a struggle between capital and labor, in order to set a limit upon demands perceptibly growing beyond moderation.

[Chinese problem in America.] The increasing Chinese immigration already intrudes upon the attention of American statesmen questions of the utmost social and political importance. What influence will this entirely new and strange element exercise over the conformation of American relations? Will the Chinese found a State in the States, or go into the Union on terms of political equality with the other citizens, and form a new race by alliance with the Caucasian element? These problems, which can only be touched upon here in a transitory form, have been dealt with in a masterly manner by Pumpelly, in his work Across America and Asia, published in London in 1870.
Letter of the Commissary-General of Chinchew to Don Pedro De Acuña, Governor of the Philippines

To the powerful Captain-General of Luzon:

“Having been given to understand that the Chinese who proceeded to the kingdom of Luzon in order to buy and sell had been murdered by the Spaniards, I have investigated the motives for these massacres, and begged the Emperor to exercise justice upon those who had engaged in these abominable offences, with a view to security in the future.

“In former years, before my arrival here as royal commissioner, a Chinese merchant named Tioneg, together with three mandarins, went with the permission of the Emperor of China from Luzon to Cavite, for the purpose of prospecting for gold and silver; which appears to have been an excuse, for he found neither gold nor silver; I thereupon prayed the Emperor to punish this imposter Tioneg, thereby making patent the strict justice which is exercised in China.

“It was during the administration of the ex-Viceroy and Eunuchs that Tioneg and his companion, named Yanglion, uttered the untruth already stated; and subsequently I begged the Emperor to transmit all the papers bearing upon the matter, together with the minutes of Tioneg’s accusation; when I myself examined the before-mentioned papers, and knew that everything that the accused Tioneg had said was utterly untrue.

“I wrote to the Emperor and stated that, on account of the untruth which Tioneg had been guilty of, the Castilians entertained the suspicion that he wished to make war upon them, and that they, under this idea, had murdered more than thirty thousand Chinese in Luzon. The Emperor, complying with my request, punished the accused Yanglion, though he omitted to put him to death; neither was Tioneg beheaded or confined in a cage. The Chinese people who had settled in Luzon were in no way to blame. I and others discussed this with the Emperor in order to ascertain what his pleasure was in this matter, as well as in another, namely, the arrival of two English ships on the coast of Chinchew (Fukien or Amoy district)–a very dangerous circumstance for China; and to obtain His Imperial Majesty’s decision as to both these most serious matters.

“We also wrote to the Emperor that he should direct the punishment of both these Chinese; and, in acknowledging our communication, he replied to us, in respect to the English ships which had arrived in China, that in case they had come for the purpose of plundering, they should be immediately commanded to depart thence for Luzon; and, with regard to the Luzon difficulty, that the Castilians should be advised to give no credence to rogues and liars from China; and both the Chinese who had discovered the harbor to the English should be executed forthwith; and that in all other matters upon which we had written to him, our will should be his. Upon receipt of this message by us–the Viceroy, the Eunuch, and myself–we hereby send this our message to the Governor of Luzon, that his Excellency may know the greatness of the Emperor of China and of his Empire, for he is so powerful that he commands all upon which the sun and moon shine, and also that the Governor of Luzon may learn with what great wisdom this mighty empire is governed, and which power no one for many years has attempted to insult, although the Japanese have sought to disturb the tranquillity of Korea, which belongs to the Government of China. They did not succeed, but on the contrary were driven out, and Korea has remained in perfect security and peace, which those in Luzon well know by report.

“Years ago, after we learnt that so many Chinese perished in Luzon on account of Tioneg’s lies, many of us mandarins met together, and resolved to leave it to the consideration of the Emperor to take vengeance for so great a massacre; and we said as follows:–The country of Luzon is a wretched one, and of very little importance. It was at one time only the abode of devils and serpents; and only because (within the last few years) so large a number of Chinese went thither for the purpose of trading with the Castilians has it improved to such an extent; in which improvement the accused Sangleyes materially assisted by hard labor, the walls being raised by them, houses built, and gardens laid out, and other matters accomplished of the greatest use to the Castilians; and now the question is, why has no consideration been paid for these services, and these good offices acknowledged with thanks, without cruelly murdering so many people? And although we wrote to the King twice or thrice concerning the circumstances, he answered us that he was indignant about the before-mentioned occurrences, and said for three reasons it is not advisable to execute vengeance, nor to war against Luzon. The first is that for a long time till now the Castilians have been friends of the Chinese; the second, that no one can predict whether the Castilians or the Chinese would be victorious; and the third and last reason is, because those whom the Castilians have killed were wicked people, ungrateful to China, their native country, their elders, and their parents, as they have not returned to China now for very many years. These people, said the Emperor, he valued but little for the foregoing reasons; and he commanded the Viceroy, the Eunuch, and myself, to send this letter through those messengers, so that all in Luzon may know that the Emperor of China has a generous heart, great forbearance, and much mercy, in not declaring war against Luzon; and his justice is indeed manifest, as he has already punished the liar Tioneg. Now, as the Spaniards are wise and intelligent, how does it happen that they are not sorry for having massacred so many people, feeling no repentance thereat, and also are not kinder to those of the Chinese who are still left? Then when the Castilians show a feeling of good-will, and the Chinese and Sangleyes who left after the dispute return, and the indebted money is repaid, and the property which was taken from the Sangleyes restored, then friendship will again exist between this empire and that, and every year trading-ships shall come and go; but if not, then the Emperor will allow no trading, but on the contrary will at once command a thousand ships of war to be built, manned with soldiers and relations of the slain, and will, with the assistance of other peoples and kingdoms who pay tribute to China, wage relentless war, without quarter to any one; and upon its conclusion will present the kingdom of Luzon to those who do homage to China.

“This letter is written by the Visitor-General on the 12th of the second month.”
A contemporary letter of the Ruler of Japan forms a somewhat notable contrast:–

Letter of Daifusama, Ruler of Japan

“To the Governor Don Pedro de Acuña, in the year 1605:

“I have received two letters from your Excellency, as also all the donations and presents described in the inventory. Amongst them was the wine made from grapes, which I enjoyed very much. In former years your Excellency requested that six ships might come here, and recently four, which request I have always complied with.

“But my great displeasure has been excited by the fact that of the four ships upon whose behalf your Excellency interposed, one from Antonio made the journey without my permission. This was a circumstance of great audacity, and a mark of disrespect to me. Does your Excellency wish to send that ship to Japan without my permission?

“Independently of this, your Excellency and others have many times discussed with me concerning the antecedents and interests of Japan, and many other matters, your requests respecting which I cannot comply with. This territory is called Xincoco, which means ’consecrated to Idols,’ which have been honored with the highest reverence from the days of our ancestor until now, and whose actions I alone can neither undo nor destroy. Wherefore, it is in no way fitting that your laws should be promulgated and spread over Japan; and if, in consequence of these misunderstandings, your Excellency’s friendship with the empire of Japan should cease, and with me likewise, it must be so, for I must do that which I think is right, and nothing which is contrary to my own pleasure.

“Finally, I have heard it frequently said, as a reproach, that many Japanese–wicked, corrupt men–go to your kingdom, remaining there many years, and then return to Japan. This complaint excites my anger, and therefore I must request your Excellency henceforth not to allow such persons to return in the ships which trade here. Concerning the remaining matters, I trust your Excellency will hereafter employ your judgment and circumspection in such a manner as to avoid incurring my displeasure for the future.”

The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes
http://www.authorama.com/former-philippines-1.html

Part II
http://www.authorama.com/former-philippines-b-1.html

Authorama

Public Domain Books

Early Chinese in Philippine Is. ; Philippine Independence --manila times

2007-02-20T15:27:00.000+08:00

Monday, June 12, 2006

5TH DR. JOSE P. RIZAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE

Early Chinese explorations

(Reprinted from Tsinoy: The Story of the Chinese in Philippine Life, published by Kaisa Para sa Kaunlaran, Inc.)

CENTURIES before the Europeans started their search for an alternate route to the Spice Islands or the Moluccas, Chinese merchants already had harmonious trade and tribute relations with the islands at the far end of Southeast Asia.

The Chinese were a literary people who took special interest in noting down foreign lands and curious customs. Dynastic annals, travel accounts, customs records and ancient maps depicting Luzon, Mindanao, Visayas, Sulu, Pangasinan, Ilocos, Maguindanao, Cebu and Panay, among others, show the depth and breadth of relations between the Chinese and the natives of these islands.

Chao Ju Kua, a Chinese superintendent of trade and an earned customs inspector, wrote vivid descriptions of places such as Ma-I, San-su, Pisho-ye, Papuyan, Pulilu, which are identified to be islands in the Philippines.

His accounts were complied and published into a book, Zhu Fan Zhi, in 1225.

Other early Chinese accounts that mentioned various islands in the Philippines are Wang Dayan’s Dao-I Chi Lue (Barbarians of the Isles) and Tong Xi Yang Kao (East-West Ocean Examination).

Chinese navigational maps from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties include the “Map of Observing the World,” “Complete Map of All Nations” and “Maps of the Islands in the Pacific Ocean.” Many of these early maps contained illustrations of major islands like Lu-song, Min-ta-lao, Ma-yi, San-Su and Sulu in the Philippines (before it was so named by the Spaniards).

For example, the “Complete Map of the Four Seas”—which was included in the 1781 Atlas of Maps for Observing Foreign Countries—described Ok-tong Island as a big island and a busy port between Cebu and Panay. Further research of ancient Philippine maps reveal the Ok-tong is actually Ogtong, one of the five major ports in the Philippines, which later became the capital of Panay.

Travel was not limited to the Chinese coming to the Philippines. Dynastic annals and other historical records tell of two-way trade exchanges. The earliest mention of Ma-I is in the Song Shi (History of Song) in 971 AD. The earliest travel of Filipinos to China is also recorded in Song Shi in 982 AD when people of Ba-i (now Laguna) went to Canton (now Guangzhou) to trade. Chinese goods like gold, silver, lead, tin, silk, and porcelain were exchanged for native goods like aromatics, rhinoceros horn, coral, pearls, tortoise shells, sea turtle leather and hardwood. Trading was done through ships that traveled across established and profitable sea routes.

A tributary bond eventually developed between the sultans and rajahs of the various kingdoms in the Philippines and the Chinese emperor through centuries of trade and support. Stories of these friendships are told and retold in Chinese records as the Chinese continued their sojourns to the Islands.

At least 10 rajahs and sultans sent tribute missions to China from the 11th to 15th century. The first mission was from King Qiling of Butuan in 1003, followed by other missions in 1004, 1007 and 1011. The Ming annals also mentioned several tribute embassies, such as Luzon tributes in 1417, 1420, 1421, 1423 and 1424.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Editor’s Note: The Fifth Dr. Jose P. Rizal Awards for Excellence will be presented on June 19, 2006, 7 p.m. at the Kaisa-Angelo King Heritage Center on Anda corner Cabildo Streets, Intramuros, Manila.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

5TH DR. JOSE P. RIZAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE

Early Chinese accounts of the Philippines

(Reprinted from Tsinoy: The Story of the Chinese in Philippine Life, published by Kaisa para sa Kaunlaran, Inc.)

Part 2 of 2

These maps, dynastic annals, travel accounts and other early records, as well as the wealth of artifacts unearthed all over the country, stand as mute evidence of the extensive and intensive trading and tributary relations between the Chinese and early Filipinos.

The traders also became cultural brokers who introduced a wealth of knowledge and technology to the local people. A peaceful and harmonious relationship strengthened as the two peoples grew to become friends and even family. Their stories and sagas continue to be written to this day.

Trade relations

Chinese jars, vases, ceramics and coins of the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907) have been excavated in various parts if the country, especially in coastal settlements. Panay, Pangasinan, Rizal, Sulu, Butuan, Cagayan, Laguna, Batangas and Santa Ana, Manila, are among the sites that have yielded significant finds.

The trade wares were brought to the Philippines either directly by Chinese traders or indirectly by Arab and Indian traders who dominated Southeast Asia’s maritime trade before the 10th century.

The traders followed the trade winds, heading south before the northeast monsoon and returning home with the southwest monsoon. The Chinese had an advantage over the Arabs and the Indians because of their early discovery of the south-pointing needle—the earliest version of the mariner’s compass—their possession of navigational maps, their extensive knowledge of their trading partners, and their sturdier and bigger junks designed to survive turbulent typhoons in the open seas.

Trade with the Chinese was carried out wholesale. Merchandise loaded in junks were controlled by the flow of trade from the Pasig River, receiving goods from foreign traders and passing them on to people in the provinces through the tributaries of the Pasig and other river systems. The Chinese farmed out their goods to native traders on credit. In turn, the natives brought the goods inland and came back after weeks—even months—with native products for exchange.

Cultural relations

Some Chinese traders settled and intermarried with natives. They built better houses and taught their families technology like bringing water down from the mountains and better ways of living. The Chinese realized that it was economically advantageous to promote the well-being of their communities whose welfare had a district effect on the prosperity or decline of their own commercial activities.

Their efforts at developing their communities, including the extension of credit, allowed the Chinese to prosper in the Philippines. The early Chinese influence during this period is largely economic; apparently they did not interfere with native political institutions. In language, almost all words in Malayan languages that can be traced to Chinese sources are either economic or commercial in origin.

None of the trading ships came on a warlike mission, and those that eventually settled in the Philippine Islands were accepted as part of native communities. The natives adopted desirable Chinese customs and traditions; the settlers, desirable native customs and traditions.

(Editor’s note: The Fifth Dr. Jose P. Rizal Awards for Excellence will be presented on June 19, 7 p.m. at the Kaisa-Angelo King Heritage Center on Anda and Cabildo streets, Intramuros, Manila.)

* * * * * * *

Monday, June 12, 2006

Some facts about Philippine Independence

ON June 12, 1898, Filipinos got what they had hoped for a long time—Philippine independence. The declaration of independence asserting the rights of Filipinos to manage their own affairs was read; the flag that embodied their aspirations was unfurled, and the music that carried their hopes was played. But who were behind these elements that made the declaration of Philippine Independence meaningful?

AMBROSIO RIANZARES BAUTISTA authored the Act of Declaration of Philippine independence. He was born on December 7, 1830, in Biñan, Laguna. He was a lawyer known as “Don Bosyong” to peasants and laborers who availed themselves of his free legal services, including their defense in court cases against greedy Spaniards and rich Filipino casiques.

Involved in the propaganda movement, Bautista solicited funds to support the campaign for reforms in Spain, including the publication of La Solidaridad. When revolution broke out in 1896, he was arrested but was soon freed after proving his innocence. Bautista went into hiding before he could be served another warrant of arrest.

Bautista was appointed auditor general de guerra of General Emilio Aguinaldo when the latter returned from exile in Hong Kong. On June 12, 1898, Bautista read the Act of Declaration of Philippine Independence, which he himself prepared. Ninety-eight persons, including one American officer, Col. L.M. Johnson, affixed their signatures on the document. Bautista also waved the Philippine flag before the jubilant crowd.

JULIAN FELIPE gained fame for his masterpiece, the Marcha Nacional Filipina (National Anthem), which when played to this day reminds the present generation of that historic day in 1898 when Filipinos called themselves independent.

Felipe was born on January 28,1861, in Cavite. The youngest of 12 children of a poor couple, he was known for his musical talents. He was a music teacher in Cavite when the revolution broke out. He left his old piano and joined the patriotic cause. He was arrested but his involvement in the revolution was not proven so he was spared from the firing squad that killed 13 of his fellow prisoners on September 12, 1896. He was released from prison in Fort Santiago on June 2, 1897.

On June 5, 1898, General Aguinaldo commissioned him to compose a piece for the upcoming declaration of independence. After six days, Felipe enthralled the revolutionary generals with his composition, the Marcha Nacional Filipina, which was played during the proclamation of Philippine independence on June 12, 1898.

MARCELLA AGONCILLO, or “Roselang Bubog” as her townfolk in Batangas fondly called her because of her beauty, enshrined herself in history as the “Maker of the Filipino Flag.” Doña Marcela Marino Agoncillo was born on June 24, 1860, in Taal, Batangas. Born to a rich couple. Marcela finished her education in the Santa Catalina College, a school in Intramuros run by Dominican nuns. She married Don Felipe Agoncillo, a goodhearted Filipino lawyer who earned the ire of the Spanish authorities for defending his oppressed countrymen.

A brave woman, Marcela stood by the patriotic cause of her husband who went into self-exile in Hong Kong in 1895. The Agoncillo family resided on Morrison Hill Road in Wanchai District, Hong Kong, where Aguinaldo and his generals set up the Junta Patriotica upon their arrival in the country in 1897. The Agoncillo couple found common causes with the revolutionary leaders. It was in Hong Kong, where Marcella Agoncillo was asked to sew the Philippine flag. Assisted by her young daughter, Lorenzana, and Delfina Herbosa Natividad, she finished the flag in five days. The flag reached the Philippines on time for the proclamation of Philippine independence on June 12, 1898, before a big crowd in Kawit, Cavite.

The Act of Declaration could have been written by any lawyer, the music composed by any musician, and the flag sewn by any dressmaker, but the significance of Philippine independence proclaimed 108 years ago today could not have been less.

What is remarkable every time the declaration of independence is read, the music played, and the flag unfurled in the air is the fact that all these were made by Filipinos whose hearts longed for the best of this nation.

Claro M. Recto --Manila Times

2007-02-20T15:18:00.000+08:00

Friday, February 10, 2006

Remembering Claro M. Recto

By Rene Q. Bas

IT was Claro M. Recto’s birthday the other day, February 8. He was born in 1890. He would have been 115 years old. He was seven years and 11 months old when that other beloved Filipino was executed at the Luneta.

Recto and Rizal were both intellectual giants. Some say Recto was a better poet than Rizal. Both were great patriots. And both died faithful to the Catholic faith. Few know that for many years before his death, Claro M. Recto had been a daily Mass-goer and communicant.

Although his dying words were: “How terrible it is to die in a foreign country” those who were close to him also witnessed his joy and heard his words about being in Romes, his spiritual home, where he died on October 2, 1960, of a heart attack.

He is remembered mainly for his nationalism, for the impact of his patriotic thoughts—written in English—on modern Philippine political thought. But he was, in fact, the greatest Filipino man of letters in the Spanish language.

Claro Mayo Recto was born in Tiaong, Tayabas, (now called Quezon) province. Because he grew up in Lipa City, he is correctly claimed as a son of both Quezon and Batangas. His parents were Claro Recto and Micaela Mayo, Batangueños of the educated and upper economic class.

He obtained his basic education in Lipa City’s Instituto de Rizal, from where he pursued higher education at the Ateneo de Manila. Like Rizal, he won the highest literary prizes and received ratings of sobresaliente (outstanding) in his academics, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with highest honors as Rizal did.

He went to the University of Santo Tomas to study law and graduated, valedictorian, in 1913. While still in the senior year of law, he took the bar exam—and failed. Chastised and humbled for his arrogance, he took the bar exams again, passed and became a professional lawyer in 1914.

Recto won his first moments of fame as a poet and writer. As a youth, again just like Rizal, he wrote many poems and essays. He was still a UST law student when he became a staff member of the publication El Ideal. Later, the bigger paper, La Vanguardia, took him in. There, young Claro M. Recto wrote a daily column, “Primares Cuartillas” (First Sheets) under the penname Aristeo Hilario. The elegantly written satirical pieces were the talk of the town.

He was 21 when he anthologized some of his poems in Bajo los Cocoteros (Under the Coconut Trees). Some of his poems are, until now, in the classic poetry anthologies of the Hispanic world.

La Ruta de Damasco, The Damascus Route (1918) and Solo entre las Sombras, Alone Among the Shadows (1917)—two of his plays—received high praise not just among Filipino literati but also by critics in Spain and Latin America. Both were staged in Manila to full audiences. In the mid 50s, Dean Alejandro Roces together with other cultural movers and shakers of the country had the play produced. It was great success among audiences who had almost forgotten that only 30 years before, the Filipino intelligentsia spoke both Spanish and English.

In 1929 Monroismo Asiatico was published. This book confirmed his stature an essayist and a political savant. The book has the polemical pieces he wrote in a debate he and Dean Maximo Kalaw of the University of the Philippines conducted on the pages of the Manila newspapers. Kalaw advocated the application of the Monroe Doctrine in Asia. (The original Monroe Doctrine, enunciated in 1823, was US President James Monroe’s (and John Quincy Adams’s) foreign policy keeping the Americas off-limits to European or any power because the American continents were now in the US sphere of influence. In his articles against “Asiatic Monroeism” Recto foresaw the danger Japan posed to the Philippines and the other countries of Asia. True enough, the Japanese Empire colonized the Asian countries from 1942 to 1945.

Recto’s literary greatness is recognized throughout the Hispanic world. The Enciclopedia Universal says of him that more than being a lawyer and a politician, “Recto … is a Spanish writer” and that “among those of his race (he is pure Tagalog on both sides) there is not and there has been no one who has surpassed him in the mastery of the language of his country’s former sovereign.”

The lawyer Don Claro

In the years before English became the common tongue of the Philippine elite, Recto was known as the abogado milagroso, the miraculous lawyer. This was a tribute to his many victories in the courts of the land.

He wrote a two-volume book on civil procedure, which in those days decades before the Second World War, were standard fare for law students.

He won many great cases in the Supreme Court, causing bad decisions of lower courts to be reversed. He took on, even when he was a very young man, cases against much older, wealthier and famous lawyers of any race. (In those days, Filipinos, Spaniards and Americans practiced law in the Philippines.)

He became a respected member, not just of the Philippine lawyers’ association, but also of American Bar Association, Spain’s Academia Real de Legislacion y Jurisprudencia (Royal Academy of Legislation and Jurisprudence), the Political Science Academy of New York, among others.

His excellence as a lawyer derived from his excellence as a writer, his infallible logic and clarity of mind and his industry. Young lawyers today, especially many of those we see on TV talk shows, would do well emulating Claro M. Recto, especially on the craft of using language correctly and in thinking logically.

(Concluded in tomorrow’s issue)

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Claro M. Recto, a true constitutionalist

By Rene Q. Bas

Second of three parts

The great nationalist and statesman said he himself did not know how he ended up being a politician. “It was one of those steps which are taken without previous deliberation and reflection,” he admitted.

The Philippine Assembly created by the Americans in 1907 had an all-Filpino membership but real legislative and executive powers were still largely in American hands. The Jones Law passed by the US Congress created a truly Filipino bicameral legislature, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Recto joined the Senate as a law clerk but spent more time reading the tomes at the Supreme Court library than clerking in the Senate that he got fired.

In 1919, Recto was 29 when he ran for and won the House seat of the third district in Batangas as a Democrata Party candidate.

He was re-elected in 1922 and again in 1925.

He retreated from politics after his third term as a Batangas congressman and resumed his law practice.

He could not reject his old Democrata Party colleagues’ call for his presence in the Democrata Party slate for the 1931 senatorial election of 1931. This time he ran for senator against the Nacionalista Party stalwart and reelectionist Sen. Jose P. Laurel, a fellow Batangueño. Recto won. He served as a senator until 1934.

Throughout his tenure as a congressman and a senator—1918 to 1928, 1931-1934—Recto was acclaimed as an outstanding debater, a skillful parliamentarian, a wise thinker and a statesmanly legislator. He belonged to the opposition party. Many times he single-handedly won the day for the Democratas against the Nacionalistas with their large majority. He had become known as the “Great Dissenter” in those days, a name he had also been given by admiring journalists who witnessed his struggles for anti-colonial and patriotic policies in the post-World War II Senate against the majority parties.

When the Democrata Party disappeared from the political scene, he joined his old opponents in the Nacionalista Party. They embraced him as a brother.

The efforts of the movers for Philippine independence had borne fruit with the passage of the Hare-Hawes-Cutting bill under the new name of the Tydings-McDuffie Act. In this law the United States voluntarily relinquished its formal control of its Philippine colony. The Philippine Legislature unanimously accepted the Tydings-McDuffie on May 1, 1934. Henceforth, governing the Philippines was in the hands of the Filipinos. But first they would have to write their own constitution for the Philippine Commonwealth, a phase in our history that would precede full independence from the United States.

On July 10, 1934, Recto was elected member of the Constitutional convention. He was one of the 202 delegates elected at large to represent every city and province of the archipelago. His fellow delegates elected him, by acclamation, president.

He led his fellow delegates from July 1934 to February 1935 in drafting what was to become the country’s first real fundamental law.

Until today, many experts and patriotic scholars agree, the 1935 Constitution is still the best charter for our country. It author was mainly Claro M. Recto.

Recto and Senate President Manuel Quezon brought the Commonwealth Constitution to the United States. The Philippines was free but only a bit more free than a state of the American Union. The US president still had to agree to what the Filipino constitutional convention wanted. Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Philippine Constitution. And the great and lasting deed was done.

Right after signing the Constitution of the Philippine Commonwealth, Recto received a reward: Roosevelt appointed him justice of the Philippine Supreme Court.

Accepting the position was actually a sacrifice. He was earning very much more as a successful practicing lawyer than the P15,000 annual salary of a justice of the High Court. Justice Recto served as Supreme Court justice for only 14 months. He proved to be as tireless, fair and wise in the Supreme Court as he had always been in his other positions.

On his retirement, his fellow justices gave him this tribute:

“You came on this court famed as a man of letters, as a jurist, and as a parliamentarian. Your vast, profound learning and your keen, penetrating power of analysis, which permeate the decisions which you have penned, are a byword to many. You are leaving with a lasting impression of the jurist who has tirelessly and scrupulously sifted the truth from a maze of judicial records, with an eye always to administering justice to the litigants and to lightening the burden of your colleagues.”

It was a rare tribute that no other justice of the High Court, not even any of the chief justices, had ever been given by their peers.

After his stint with the Supreme Court, Recto resumed the practice of law. He also became a law professor and continued writing political and literary works.

The call of politics came to him again. He was elected to the Senate in November 1941. He got the most number of votes among all the 24 senators elected with him.

Then on December 8, Pearl Harbor and the Philippines were bombed by the air force of the Japanese empire.

During the Japanese occupation, first under the Philippine Executive Commission headed by Jorge Vargas and then under the Second Philippine Republic with Jose P. Laurel as president, Recto served as Commissioner of Education, Health, and Social Welfare and then as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

During the Liberation of Manila in 1945, the Americans arrested Recto with Laurel, Camilo Osias, Quintin Paredes, Antonio de las Alas, Vargas, and other prominent Filipinos who had been officials of the government during the Japanese occupation. They were charged with collaboration and tried by the People’s Court.

All the accused were freed when President Manuel A. Roxas issued his Amnesty Proclamation.

(To be concluded tomorrow)

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Recto’s writings are as relevant today as when he was alive

By Rene Q. Bas

Last of three parts

Despite his detractors’ efforts to stick the collaborator and communist labels on him, Claro M. Recto was elected to the Senate in 1949. As a lawyer, an intellectual and a man sensitive to the dignity of other men, Recto defended friends and ordinary people who were being badly treated by anti-communist authorities for holding nationalist and communist views.

Six years later, in the 1955 elections, Recto was reelected. The “great dissenter” won with a respectably large number of votes despite President Ramon Magsaysay’s—and the Magsaysay boys’—efforts to make Recto lose.

And Recto was the Magsaysay presidency’s most nettlesome critic on the issue of nationalism, the preservation of Philippine interests and national dignity in the face of America’s power as the leader of the “Free World” against the Soviet Union with its satellites and the People’s Republic of China.

Recto, the true patriot, could see the dangers Magsaysay’s US-subservient policies posed to Philippine social and economic development. His alternative view was simply for the Filipinos and their leaders to make sure that Philippine national interests were not sacrificed on the altar of the country’s loyalty to the American vision of how the world should be run.

In many ways, Recto’s outlook coincided with those of the neutralists and non-aligned leaders—India’s Nehru and Indonesia’s Sukarno – which earned him the “communist” or at least “pro-communist” label.

But the truth is that Recto’s views about preserving our own patrimony, upholding our dignity —and making sure that our national interests are served first and America’s only served second —were shared and applied to their countries’ relations with the United States by its closest anti-Soviet and anti-Communist European allies, including Britain and France.

Recto’s writings and speeches in the 1950s until his death in Rome in 1960 are where the essentials of Philippine nationalism can be found up to this day.

He never became president. But many of his nationalist ideas are now conventional wisdom in our country. Still, his prescriptions—just like those of Jose Rizal, whose patriotism and thoughts Recto immensely admired—have not been put fully to practical use in our politics, foreign policy and socio-economic development.

The Recto Valedictory (and the Recto Day Program 1985) is a 1985 book published by the Claro M. Recto Memorial Foundation.

The book contains, in both the original Spanish and in Nick Joaquin’s English translation, the ten speeches that Don Claro would have delivered in Spain to various audiences of “Brother Spaniards” had he not died in Rome on October 2, 1960.

The ten speeches written in most elegant language summarize the wisdom of Claro M. Recto and teach Filipinos of today to appreciate our country, to look at history and the world with the mature eyes of modern citizens who have not lost their sense of wonder at a world governed—despite everything—by God’s goodness.

Recto – and these 10 never-delivered speeches – are as relevant today as when he was alive.

For example, those who can’t understand the fuss patriotic Filipinos are raising now about the Visiting Forces Agreement will learn much from “The Military Treaties on Bases between Spain and the United States and between the Philippines and the United States.”

Recto’s thoughts about governance are as grippingly valid today as they were when he first wrote and uttered them in the years before the Second World War and in the 1950s.

To Recto the root of our country’s problems is the corruption of those whose job is to serve the public and the criminal rapacity of the privileged and powerful elite.

About poverty in the Philippines, in 1958 Recto wrote: “We are confronted with problems—economic, moral and political—among the gravest, perhaps, in all our history, which have been the result of wrong policies and malpractices of the government, ranging from incompetence and opportunism to downright dishonesty and perverted morals…”

He saw that corrupt government officials, “…the betrayers of public trust, the influence peddlers and the beneficiaries of all these racketeering or horrendous proportions”—steal from the Filipino people the public services that they need and have the right to enjoy.

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2006/feb/10/yehey/opinion/20060210opi5.html

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2006/feb/11/yehey/opinion/20060211opi7.html

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2006/feb/12/yehey/opinion/20060212opi7.html

Malaya February 06 , 08 & 10, 2007

2007-02-12T17:47:00.000+08:00

Lito Banayo:

‘In the end, it is the people who choose … whether so-called dynasties are good or bad for them.’

Is there no one else?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a recent television appearance, former Senate President Ernesto Maceda claimed that some 95 of the 216 elected congressmen in the country belong to political dynasties. That’s one-half of the composition of the lower House, he said, so why, he reasons, should friend Kit Tatad fret too much about the possibility of having six members of the Senate coming from so-called dynasties?

In local constituencies where the arithmetic of political control is fairly easy, and the variables are more easy to manipulate, dynasties thrive in the feudal setting of Philippine politics. But in the Senate, it is otra cosa. How do you manipulate the votes of an entire country comprised of 7,101 islands? In the end, it is the people who choose, who discern, whether so-called dynasties are good or bad for them.

For the readers’ appreciation, let me list the so-called dynasties, from Batanes to Tawi-Tawi:

The Abads of Batanes, but haven’t they been a good presence in Batanes politics?

The Marcoses of Ilocos Norte, and their rivals, the Fariñases of Laoag. Chavit Singson, his brothers, nephews and nieces in Ilocos Sur. Eric Singson likewise along with wife Grace. The Ortegas of La Union. The Aspiras family has laid to rest his political clout, but there are the Dumpits now trying to take over. The Valeras of Abra, who have been in the news lately. It was the late Don Quintin Paredes who used to control Abra, but his descendants failed to propagate the dynasty, so it went to the Barberos, and now Governor Vicsid and his brood. You have Dominguez in Mountain Province, after the fall of the Lamens. After Ben Palispis retired, Benguet has passed from hand to hand, with no one in long control, neither Molintas nor Cosalan nor Dangwa.

Of course there is the large Dy family in Isabela. They inherited the mantle from their father Faustino, and you have two governors, two congressmen succeeding in the next generation. In Santiago City, Pempe Miranda and his son, the Mikey and Kampi acolyte, Anthony. Hehe Alvarez is no longer on the scene. The Albanos, from Rodolfo to Rodito, to Cesar the mayor. Juan Ponce Enrile rules northeastern Cagayan, with his son Jackie now set to transfer power to his wife. The Mambas prevail over the southern half. My friend Governor Ed Lara provides the balance of competing powers. In Quirino, it’s Cua and Cua seemingly forever. The Perez dynasty in Nueva Vizcaya has been shattered by the untimely demise of Leonard Byron, the former Comelec chief’s son and political heir.

There are the perpetual Josons of Nueva Ecija, already three generations of successive political control. Now Oyie Umali, Mark Jimenez’ faithful acolyte, wants to be "hulog ng langit" to Novo Ecijanos. Apeng Yap wants to pass control of the kapitolyo to son Victor, but of course the real power is Boss Danding. Maski si Cong Peping, tiklop na, in the province made famous by the Aquinos of Tarlac. In Pangasinan, there are several fiefdoms – the Estrellas and Perezes in the east, Agbayani in the northwest, and of course Joe de V by his solitary self in the center. Tulagan wants to pass the mantle of three terms to his very young son, while Benjie Lim wants to wrest power from Manong Joe, mismo! And Mark Cojuangco has slowly but surely carved his own in northern Pangasinan. In Pampanga, it’s who else but La Gloria herself, with son Mikey in the second district. Sorry for them, Mikey’s wife seems to eschew politics, and Mikaela is far too young. Lito Lapid passed the dynasty to son Mark, but is now in danger of losing it to the Pinedas of Lubao, with La Gloria’s implied blessings, but of course. In the Bataan peninsula, the new dynasty of Tet Garcia, governor and son Albert, congressman, wants to wipe out the Romans and ally Tong Payumo. Will he succeed?

In Bulacan, Obet Pagdanganan, still heartbroken over death of his son and namesake in a recent car accident, now seeks return to his kapitolyo, presided over in the last nine years by high-performing Josie de la Cruz, who wants her brother to inherit it. The Silverios, once of legendary wealth as part of the Marcos cabal of cronies, controls half of the east, with the Roqueros and Sarmientos fighting over the other half centered in populous San Jose City. Will Mayor Felix, Ka Blas’ son, get supremacy over the Sy-Alvarados of Malolos and Hagonoy in the west? My own Tiya Cancion ruled Malolos during all the martial law years after Tiyo Pelis Reyes died. Oh, before I forget, there’s Aurora nestled between the Sierra Madre and Mare Pacifica. There it’s Angara in the Senate, Angara as governor, Angara as congressman, and another Angara is mayor of the capital town of Baler, hometown of the legendary Manuel Quezon. And in Zambales, the Magsaysay-Diaz clan will pass on the mantle to their next generation, and will try to wrest control of Olongapo City from the Gordons.

In Rizal, Ito Ynares seems to be in firm and full control. By May of 2007, he would want to marginalize the third-generation Rodriguezes of Montalban, with his ally Jack Duavit, Manong Bibit’s son. Highly respected NPC president Ka Frisco San Juan is trying his best to have some sort of rapprochement. And super-powerful Ronnie Puno has yet to decide whether to succeed himself or give his vacated seat to a younger brother in Antipolo City. Of course, brother Dong is out to wrest Muntinlupa, with the help of the Bunyes and the Fresnedis, from Pong Biazon’s son Ruffy. There is only one dynasty in power in Quezon City now, and that’s Mat Defensor, who inherited his congressional seat from son Miguelito, who wants to be senator ‘Tol. Chuck Mathay, I heard wants to come back through the second district. Maybe the lovely Ara Mina should shed some excess poundage and battle Senora Dona Anna Susano off her vintage Rolls Royce.

Manila’s Mayor Lito wants to pass the baton to his son Ali, whose youthful energy will be pitted against almost octogenarian but still spritely Fred Lim, and almost septuagenarian Danny Lacuna, with Rudy Bacani and Joey Hizon snapping at their heels. Maybe MJ too? Where will the Lopezes of Tondo locate themselves? The Bagatsings are split, with my friend Don and his father Dondon for Atienza, while politically-estranged brother Amado is for Lacuna. Dondon seeks to reclaim his old Sampaloc seat from Bacani whose term is soon to expire, while Amado wants a comeback in my home fifth district.

"Is there no one else?", to paraphrase Achilles in the movie "Troy". The nation’s capital, the center of politics, also in the grip of dynasties left and right? "Wala na bang iba?", ask weary Manilenos.

In Makati of course, Senator Lapid wants to bring his delicious maja blanca and his fried kamaru to the kapitolyo that fellow-Kapampangan Mesio Yabut used to rule as Marcos’ strong vassal, before Jojo Binay, oppositionist through and through, captured the nation’s small but richest city. Binay, a Batangueno by origin, is expected to win hands down, with Kong Lito battling Baby Pineda for turf supremacy in his native Pampanga. Whatever happens to Senador Lito after May 2007, let’s hope he stops being vassal to La Gloria.

Wala pang kalahati iyan ng buong bansa, and already we are choking from a gaggle of dynasts. Wait till we get to Bicol, the Visayas and Mindanao. Doon panahon pa ni Quezon hanggang ngayon, sila at sila pa rin.

The question, as far as local constituencies are concerned, is whether these political families have been good or bad for them. Some have had a modernizing influence on the progress of their constituencies, such as in tiny San Juan where the Estradas have ruled since pater familia Joseph became mayor after trouncing the Ibunas, the Sto. Domingos and the Pascuals a generation ago.

Some have presided over declining socio-economic fortunes, maintaining power through guns, goons, gold, and Garci, the latest sure-fire formula for electoral "victory". They rule like feudal lords and keep their constituents in perpetual bondage to poverty, so that each election, these are regaled with royal crumbs from their table of ill-gotten plenty, and keep voting and voting for them, their sons and daughters, their siblings.

In terra Filipinensis, familiae bonum. Laudamus. Glorificamus. Et perderemus nostrus.

Is there no one else? My friend Harry Roque stands up and will be counted, for Congress to represent the lone district of Pasay. Thank God there are some valiant others. There should be many more.

* * * * * * *

‘With the internal revenue allotments, local dynasts have found financial muscle, and have made a business out of politics.’

Are there any more?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

South of Manila, we have the Remullas of Cavite, a second-generation set of leaders coming after long-time governor, Johnny Remulla, once the political protégé of the politically-decimated Puyats of Pampanga. Johnvic, the vice-governor, will not seek election to higher office after his third term expires. Kuya Boying will seek a second term as congressman of the uplands, while Gilbert will go for his third term in the hilly and lowland district that now has half of Cavite’s voters.

Don Claro never thought any of his sons would amount to anything in politics, but look at the third generation. A Recto in the Senate, another is vice-governor, a granddaughter-in-law, the famous Ate Vi, is serving out her last few months as mayor of Lipa, and is being pushed for governor.

The third-generation Laurels have gone into the arts, business, and other pursuits, instead of following the footsteps of the wartime president.

In Quezon, a congressman extremely close to GMA, and close to every other president since Marcos, is out to establish a new dynasty. Danny Suarez wants his son Jay-jay to be the next governor, after my friend Willy Enverga relinquishes his seat of three terms.

In Marinduque, it’s Tita Carmencita Reyes as governor, and son Edmundito as congressman. They’re switching positions in May 2007, unless someone else is brave enough to fight the dynasty. In Mindoro Occidental, heaven knows what the Villarosas will try this time, now that Joe is in Muntinlupa. Girlie is always beside GMA and FG, and you can guess what ace they want to pull up their sleeve.

In Camarines Sur, you have Villafuerte, pere et fil, quarreling over power and whatever else. In Rinconada it is still Alfelor, now safely in the Kampi embrace of Louie. In Partido, it’s still the Fuentebellas. Naga City has its irreplaceable Jesse Robredo, one of the best local executives in the entire country. In Albay, who will be the third generation Imperial, now that Carling is ageing and infirm? Wala na ba talagang iba? Of course the Lagmans of the third district are still at it, father and daughter, and a son in Quezon City to boot.

In Masbate, ABS-CBN executive Maloli Espinosa Manalastas has just resigned her well-paying job to run as congresswoman, because there is no one else in the dynasty to perpetuate its hold. Her Tito Miling is past 80, but will still go for governor once again, after three terms as congressman, and a previous three terms as governor. Tony Kho has successfully challenged what was once an Espinosa stranglehold of this beautiful but dirt-poor province.

In Capiz, the Roxases have near full control. Tita Judy, thence Dinggoy, and now Mar have successfully put to pasture the Villareals of the second district, the Dinglasans and the Belos.

In Iloilo, Niel Tupaz will gun for his third term, while his son will go for congressman in the fifth district, if they can get over Rolex Suplico’s brother. Oca Garin has consolidated his control of the first district, with son Jun-jun as mayor, wife Nimfa as another mayor, and daughter-in-law Janet, originally a Loreto from Baybay in Leyte, as congresswoman. Of course, there’s Raul the injustice secretary and his son Raulito in the queen city.

In Negros, almost all are vassals of the Danding Cojuangco political empire. You want to be anything higher than a small-town mayor, you’d have to make "mano" to the boss in Pontevedra. Of course, the other "boss", Don Jose Miguel Tuason Arroyo, is spreading his wings, trying to reprise the dynasty set up by his grandfather Jose and his grand-uncle Mariano Arroyo, the governor whom Quezon caught with his hands in the jueteng racket. There’s Iggy aka Jose Pidal in Kabankalan and other poorer parts, and now sister Marilou to battle Frejenel Biron in Iloilo. (Where do these kasimanwas get their names – Frejenel of Iloilo, Fredenil Castro in Capiz, never mind Rolex?)

Cebu is almost completely dynastic. A gaggle of Osmeñas flit in and out of every elective office you could imagine. As they say, the only Osmeña who’s not into politics is Fuente Osmena. There’s Tony Cuenco, likely the last of the Cuencos. There are the Duranos of Danao. There’s Junie and Clavel and Jun-jun, the Martinezes of Bogo who are related to the Espinosas of Masbate to their north. There are the Kintanars of Argao in southern Cebu. And the Gullas brothers in Talisay. In bustling Mandaue, Ouano pere was succeeded by Ouano fil, and now, the third generation is taking over. Is there no one else?

Only former Senator Boy Herrera is trying to foist a dynasty in Bohol, with brother Julius as vice-governor and a son as mayor of Calape. President Garcia’s only daughter Linda died without going into politics. Gov. Natalio Castillo’s son Chito would rather be king-maker than king, and the Borjas stopped at congresswoman Venice. The Teveses reign supreme in southern Negros. Outstanding governor George Arnaiz will exchange places with former governor, now outgoing central congressman Dodo Macias, whose father once held political sway over the province. Paras madame will fight Paras frere for control of the highlands. Sila na lang pirmi ug kanunay. Wala na’y lain?

In Northern Samar, it’s Raul Daza’s son Paul who will seek his father’s mantle, this time against former ally, Harlin Abayon, the Mormon congressman on his last term.

In Western Samar, Cata Figueroa the congressman is fielding his wife, Mayor Neliphta against a daughter of incumbent Mila Tan.

And in the East, Marcelino Libanan will field gracious wife Alda to succeed him, and indulge in his real vocation – playing the classic guitar of Albeniz and Paco Rodrigo.

Where the brothers Evardone will go I have yet to fathom.

In Leyte, it’s the return of the comeback for the Romualdezes, battling the Loreto-Petilla clan in both north and south.

Biliran is choking with a barrelful of Espinas – governor, congressman, and mayors to boot. Why not title the whole island to their name?

In Surigao, the Barberses want to consolidate their hold on this beautiful province, now that Dinagat has become the private terrain of the Ecleo’s. Ace has declined an offer to run for senator in order to fortify their dynasty, but former governor Francisco Matugas and the Serings will give them battle.

The Plazas and the Amantes have divided Agusan del Norte into uncontested fiefdoms, while Agusan del Sur remains Plaza territory. The Falcons remain in control of the southern half of Surigao del Sur, and Prospero Pichay is on his last term as congressman of the northern half.

Poverty-stricken Davao Oriental remains in the grip of the Tres Marias – Almario, Palma-Gil, and Malanyaon, who has replaced former gobernadora Rosalind Lopez in the all-female triumvirate. The trio have an uneasy love-hate relationship with the Rabats of Mati. Prospero Amatong will field his son against the son of graduating governor Joe Caballero for control of Compostela Valley, with its rich Diwalwal gold fields. The Floirendos will try to maintain hegemony over Davao del Norte, even if political patriarch Rodolfo del Rosario is on retirement mode. Davao City will remain uncontested Duterte, because my friend Digong, hard-hitting Rudy to many, is simply irreplaceable in the minds of many Dabawenos.

South Cotabato has the fortune of having politically-sensitive settlers for a voting population, who keep electing progressive-thinking leaders like Daisy Fuentes and the Antoninos in General Santos. Manny Pacquiao wants to try politics, egged on by GMA who hates the opposition Antoninos. Well, he can try.

Neighboring Saranggani will remain under the sway of the Dominguez-Alcantara clan of Davao.

In Sultan Kudarat, the Ilonggo Montillas are raring for a return bout with the Muslim Mangudadatos, father and son.

In the ARMM, dynasties have been the rule since pre-Spanish times, so what else is new? Which explains why most every elected leader has to be an ally of whoever is the Malacañang occupant. Who has the gold and the guns that it can buy rules.

In Bukidnon, it’s Zubiri, with the Acostas in the Del Monte district. New kid on the block, TG Guingona is expected to win re-election handily, if he is not drafted to run as senator.

In Camiguin, the iron grip of Lolong Romualdo and his son continues, and they are likely to switch posts in May. Dongkoy Emano is on his last term as mayor of the Golden City, and guess what, Bobong Calingin, now of the NPC and former governor of Misamis Oriental, wants to run for Cagayan mayor. If Ambing Magtajas, another former mayor, allows it.

In Misamis Occidental, some entente cordiale has to be worked out among the Parojinogs, Claretes and the Ramiros.

In Lanao del Norte, it’s still Bobby Dimaporo and his Imelda.

In Zamboanga del Sur, an uneasy political peace has been forged between former governor and now Rep. Jun Real and the Cerilles couple.

Zamboanga del Norte has become almost completely Jalosjos territory. Even if Romy is in Muntinglupa, the province and particularly his district centered in Dapitan, is well-run and progressive, which is why voters are loyal.

And in the City of Flowers down south, Mayor Celso Lobregat continues in the afterglow of Tita Caling’s lovable reign as congresswoman and mayor for two decades.

Are dynasties good or bad? Some are progressive and development-oriented, while others, or most, are in it only to perpetuate their vested interests. But one thing stands out – with the internal revenue allotments, local dynasts have found financial muscle, and have made a business out of politics. The good ones use the IRA to pump-prime their local economies and give solid social services, for which they are rewarded with re-election, and the election of their kin. The bad ones use the financial independence merely to buy votes and reward political serfs, and keep the population poor and dependent.

Are there any more brave souls who will buck the wave of local dynasties, specially the obviously unproductive ones? Look at Metro Manila where voters are supposedly more "intelligent", and weep.

Are there any more? When will true democracy win, and feudalism end in these islands of seemingly endless misery?

* * * * * * *

‘It is all about realizing that all of us should be but instruments of the greater good.’

Anguish

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was not a precipitate reaction to Kit Tatad’s overblown angst against family dynasties. It was a deliberate decision made after weeks of meditation in Tanay and an anguished meeting last Monday night between President Estrada and his son Mayor JV.

As early as January 5, in a meeting where some journalists shared a kamayan lunch with him, Estrada intimated to this writer his personal anguish over the political odyssey of his son Joseph Victor. For one, he was the only senatorial candidate nominated by the leadership of the Partido ng Masang Pilipino, just as Koko Pimentel was the PDP-Laban’s bet in the coalition ticket. His interest in a Senate seat was buoyed up by poll surveys placing him at No. 11 in the derby, if elections were held in November 2006. Despite the brouhaha created by Kit Tatad’s fulminations against looming dynasties in the upper chamber, JV even upped his ratings to No. 9 in the last week of January, precisely at the height of the issue’s newsworthiness.

I asked the former president to "hold his horses" and look at the forthcoming surveys, although I felt deeply impressed by the selflessness he was proferring. On January 17, he met Ms. Sonia Roco, perhaps the first time he had a serious talk with Raul Roco’s widow. The following Saturday, in a one-on-one talk, he confessed that he was on the verge of asking his son JV to withdraw in favor of Ms. Roco. I advised him to wait for further political developments, since it looked like the Wednesday group, which was discussing a political coalition with UNO leaders through Senate President Manny Villar, might not come in intact after all. Talk was rife at the time that a so-called "Unity" ticket was being machinated by the NPC’s Jun Dy and the political tacticians who reside in the bowels of the stinking palace beside the stinking river.

"We could give way to Ms. Roco without having to jettison JV," I reasoned out. I also told him that a decision at that point in time would create an impact against Koko Pimentel and Alan Peter Cayetano, leading to an implosion of the cobbled party alliances.

"I want to enlarge the coalition, to include specially the civil society forces, of which Sonia has become a symbol," he argued. I said I fully agreed, as I personally wanted Ms. Roco in our slate, but I pleaded that he take more time to make a final decision, knowing how it would hurt Mayor JV, who could be the advocate of local governments in the Senate, having proven himself how he, without national government support, and a congressman also from the opposition, Ronaldo Zamora, could even better the services available to his constituents.

"Fasten seat belts muna, Sir," I said, while Tatad was bellowing in the airlanes. But last Monday, February 5, again in Tanay, one-on-one, he told me that he had called for JV and his mom, Tita Guia, who would be there that evening. In our conversation, I had gathered that Erap wanted to lay the predicate, should he finally admonish his son to quit from what would be a certain electoral victory. That evening, on his way to Tanay, I even gave encouragement over the phone to the young mayor, confident that UNO could yet include Ms. Sonia Roco without having to expend JV’s chances.

But early Thursday afternoon, with a voice cracking with anguished pain, the President told me he had asked JV to finally sacrifice for the sake of greater unity among forces opposing GMA. "I don’t want these elections framed as a proxy war between Gloria and Erap," he said. "It has to be the People of the Philippines versus Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her regime of lying, stealing and cheating." The more there are former political adversaries joining us and siding with the people against GMA, the better, Estrada explained.

Words fail me in describing the class act of Joseph Ejercito Estrada and his son Joseph Victor. He will be in detention for six years by the latter half of this campaign, but he continues to be loved by the descamisados and the masa. Now I fully understand. It is all about sensitivity. It is all about realizing that all of us should be but instruments of the greater good.

***

"Forked tongue" is the best description for the GMA government’s tactical communications policy. A month ago, Mike Defensor was mouthing political reconciliation, and appealing even for Estrada’s release on recognizance. Now, GMA’s national security adviser by what lean credentials I have yet to fathom, tells us that they have ordered him "incomunicado" except to closest kin and his lawyers. "We have intelligence reports of an assassination attempt against the former president," says el otro Gonzales.

The former president resides in Camp Capinpin in Tanay, where battalions of Army officers and soldiers keep him imprisoned, on top of a platoon or two of police officers. And they cannot "secure" him from his "friends"? See how political insincerity rules the thinking of this insensitive government?

***

You have to admire Rep. Gilbert Teodoro of the NPC for his intellectual honesty. He has been inveigled by both his party-mates and the administration’s top honchos to run for senator under their "Unity" ticket. He has refused, unable to reconcile the idea of running for a seat in a chamber which barely two months ago, he along with the same administration leaders, wanted to abolish via a rump constituent assembly.

He stands squarely behind a parliamentary system, and has the courage of his political convictions. His inferiors in the administration machinery find no inconsistency with what they proposed and what they are now doing. Trapos they are with hardly any redeeming value.

***

Congress adjourned the other day after frenzied "overtime" to pass several pieces of legislation at the last minute, as usual. Bills that have been languishing in interminable committee hearings and technical working group deliberations, "kuno," were rushed for approval on the floor. The result? Haphazardly written and haphazardly amended legislation that always gets challenged before the Supreme Court.

Both our senators and congressmen wait until the last minute to approve pending legislation, especially when election time is just around the corner. Franchises and special interest laws are approved always at the last minute. Do not wonder why.

History to judge RP revolution, says US war hero’s assassin --inquirer.net

2007-02-08T15:09:00.000+08:00

History to judge RP revolution, says US war hero’s assassin

Agence France-Presse

Last updated 06:04pm (Mla time) 02/07/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Juanito Itaas drums his short, stubby forefingers across his biceps as if itching to squeeze the trigger one more time.

For nearly two decades Itaas, 42, has been held in the maximum security compound of the National Penitentiary on the outskirts of Manila where he is serving life for the assassination of Colonel James "Nick" Rowe, a Vietnam War hero and one of America's most highly decorated soldiers.

A counter insurgency specialist, Rowe was the highest ranking US officer killed in the Philippines since the communist insurgency began nearly 40 years ago.

His assassination on a crowded Manila street on April 21, 1989 rocked the government of then-president Corazon Aquino and the US authorities in Manila.

Sitting in the backseat of his unprotected chauffeur-driven limousine Rowe was oblivious to the threat. As his car slowed in traffic another pulled up alongside and his murderers opened fire with an M-16 assault rifle and a .45 caliber hand gun, killing Rowe instantly.

Itaas, a former teenage guerrilla who rose through the ranks to become an important commander in the Communist Party of the Philippine's New People's Army (NPA), and Donato Continente were tried and convicted of Rowe's murder.

Continente walked free in 2005 after serving 16 years in jail but Itaas remains behind bars, where he frets that the revolution he fought so hard for is passing him by.

Rowe, a graduate of West Point military academy, joined the US army's elite Green Beret Special Forces and went to Vietnam in the early 1960s.

Captured by the Vietcong and tortured repeatedly, he was held in a bamboo cage for five years before escaping.

In 1985 he was put in charge of the Special Warfare Training Battalion in Fort Bragg before being posted to Manila where he was chief of the army division of the Joint US Military Advisory Group providing counter insurgency training for the Philippine military.

He worked closely with the CIA and was involved in a program to penetrate the NPA and the Communist Party of the Philippines which were both undergoing massive ideological upheavals that resulted in bloody purges.

Not long before he was murdered Rowe warned Washington the communists were planning a series of attacks on high profile figures and that he was on the list.

Despite the threats Rowe insisted on taking care of himself and shunned the idea of having armed escorts. As one of his friends put it after his death: "Rowe was a soldier's soldier."

While conceding the NPA was behind the murder, Itaas claims that he was not personally involved.

"I have always said I had no personal involvement in that action undertaken by the movement," Itaas told Agence France-Presse during an interview at the prison.

Arrested shortly after the murder Itaas signed a confession that was later used to convict him of the murder, along with the testimony of a bystander who told the court she saw him firing an automatic rifle into Rowe's car.

He later disowned the confession, alleging it was extracted by police through torture, but his appeal was turned down in 2001.

Standing no more than five feet (1.52 meters) tall, with bulging biceps, Itaas embodies the Maoists' ideal -- a guerrilla leader of farming stock who dropped out of high school at 14 to join the NPA in the Davao region.

By the time he was 20 he was a grizzled urban guerrilla veteran of Davao's "Nicaragdao," a bloody NPA experiment to speed up the revolution, along similar lines used by the Sandinistas of Nicaragua, by bringing the war to the teeming slums of major cities such as Agdao in Davao, on the far southern island of Mindanao.

When he was arrested in Davao shortly after the Rowe murder, Itaas was 24 years old.

Even while in jail he could not escape the bitter split that had taken place within the Communist Party.

The dispute over strategy and tactics within the Party boiled over into the wholesale slaughter of hundreds, perhaps thousands of NPA guerrillas in an internal purge while the rebellion's Netherlands-based founder, Jose Maria Sison, pushed the movement back toward its Maoist roots.

"The movement has changed much," said Itaas, who was confused and angered when the rebel split spilled over into the country's prisons.

Here in the Philippines' main jail facility, those who sided with Sison demanded and won transfer to a new compound, while those who challenged his policies were shunned and ostracized.

Itaas, who said he refused to take sides, was nevertheless bundled into the second category.

Itaas and 23 other so-called political prisoners bunk together in a "brigade" or a row of cots measuring 14 meters (yards) by 12 meters.

Ten others who sided with Sison stay in a separate area.

So what does he think of the revolution now?

"History will be the judge," he said simply. "The issues that fire up revolution such as poverty and inequality remain."

Itaas fears he will no longer be there to influence the outcome of the armed struggle even if he walked free now.

Conjugal visits by his wife allowed them to have three children, now aged between two and 11 years old.

"For me, my three children come first. After that I do not know," he said.

Itaas said a "change of government" remains his most optimistic chance of winning release. But even then, he says, the US may still exert pressure on its loyal ally against releasing him on parole.

Copyright 2007 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Tha Daily Tribune : History will judge Philippine revolution—Rowe’s assassin

02/08/2007

MANILA — Juanito Itaas drums his short, stubby forefingers across his biceps as if itching to squeeze the trigger one more time.

For nearly two decades, Itaas, 42, has been held in the maximum security compound of the National Penitentiary on the outskirts of Manila where he is serving life for the assassination of Col. James “Nick” Rowe, a Vietnam War hero and one of America’s most highly decorated soldiers.

A counter insurgency specialist, Rowe was the highest-ranking US officer killed in the Philippines since the communist insurgency began nearly 40 years ago.

His assassination on a crowded Manila street on April 21, 1989 rocked the government of then-President Corazon Aquino and the US authorities in Manila.

Sitting in the backseat of his unprotected chauffeur-driven limousine Rowe was oblivious to the threat. As his car slowed in traffic another pulled up alongside and his murderers opened fire with an M-16 assault rifle and a .45 cal. hand gun, killing Rowe instantly.

Itaas, a former teenage guerrilla who rose through the ranks to become an important commander in the Communist Party of the Philippine’s-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), and Donato Continente were tried and convicted of Rowe’s murder.

Continente walked free in 2005 after serving 16 years in jail but Itaas remains behind bars, where he frets that the revolution he fought so hard for is passing him by.

Rowe, a graduate of West Point military academy, joined the US Army’s elite Green Beret special forces and went to Vietnam in the early 1960s.

Captured by the Vietcong and tortured repeatedly, he was held in a bamboo cage for five years before escaping.

In 1985, he was put in charge of the Special Warfare Training Battalion in Fort Bragg before being posted to Manila where he was chief of the Army division of the Joint US Military Advisory Group providing counter insurgency training for the Philippine military.

He worked closely with the CIA and was involved in a programme to penetrate the CPP-NPA which were both undergoing massive ideological upheavals that resulted in bloody purges.

Not long before he was murdered, Rowe warned Washington the communists were planning a series of attacks on high-profile figures and that he was on the list.

Despite the threats, Rowe insisted on taking care of himself and shunned the idea of having armed escorts. As one of his friends put it after his death: “Rowe was a soldier’s soldier.”

While conceding the NPA was behind the murder, Itaas claims that he was not personally involved.

“I have always said I had no personal involvement in that action undertaken by the movement,” Itaas told AFP during an interview at the prison.

Arrested shortly after the murder, Itaas signed a confession that was later used to convict him of the murder, along with the testimony of a bystander who told the court she saw him firing an automatic rifle into Rowe’s car.

He later disowned the confession, alleging it was extracted by police through torture, but his appeal was turned down in 2001.

Standing no more than five feet (1.52 meters) tall, with bulging biceps, Itaas embodies the Maoists’ ideal — a guerrilla leader of farming stock who dropped out of high school at 14 to join the NPA in the Davao Region.

By the time he was 20, he was a grizzled urban guerrilla veteran of Davao’s “Nicaragdao,” a bloody NPA experiment to speed up the revolution, along similar lines used by the Sandinistas of Nicaragua, by bringing the war to the teeming slums of major cities such as Agdao in Davao, on the far southern island of Mindanao.

When he was arrested in Davao shortly after the Rowe murder, Itaas was 24 years old.

Even while in jail he could not escape the bitter split that had taken place within the Communist Party.

The dispute over strategy and tactics within the party boiled over into the wholesale slaughter of hundreds, perhaps, thousands of NPA guerrillas in an internal purge while the rebellion’s Netherlands-based founder, Jose Maria Sison, pushed the movement back toward its Maoist roots.

“The movement has changed much,” said Itaas, who was confused and angered when the rebel split spilled over into the country’s prisons.

Here in the Philippines’ main jail facility, those who sided with Sison demanded and won transfer to a new compound, while those who challenged his policies were shunned and ostracized.

Itaas, who said he refused to take sides, was nevertheless bundled into the second category.

Itaas and 23 other so-called political prisoners bunk together in a “brigade” or a row of cots measuring 14 meters (yards) by 12 meters. Ten others who sided with Sison stay in a separate area.

So what does he think of the revolution now?

“History will be the judge,” he said simply. “The issues that fire up revolution such as poverty and inequality remain.”

Itaas fears he will no longer be there to influence the outcome of the armed struggle even if he walked free now.

Conjugal visits by his wife allowed them to have three children, now aged between two and 11 years old.

“For me, my three children come first. After that I do not know,” he said.

Itaas said a “change of government” remains his most optimistic chance of winning release. But even then, he says, the US may still exert pressure on its loyal ally against releasing him on parole. AFP

Muslim scholars react sharply to last Janjalani interview --Inquirer Mindanao

2007-01-30T17:02:00.000+08:00

INQUIRER MINDANAO

Muslim scholars react sharply to last Janjalani interview

By Nash Maulana

Inquirer

Last updated 05:48am (Mla time) 01/28/2007

THE country’s leading Muslim scholars have reacted sharply to the transcript of an old interview with slain bandit leader Khaddafy Janjalani, saying it is unlikely for any Muslim to attribute kidnappings to the Prophet Muhammad.

At the forefront of reactions from various sources is Prof. Taha Basman, an old friend of Janjalani’s interviewer, and an acknowledged Filipino Muslim linguist.

The transcript of Janjalani’s interview says he attributed kidnappings to the Prophet Muhammad who, he said, ordered the caravan of Abu Sufian (a governor of the old Hijaz, Arabia) kidnapped.

Basman said the view could be “a product of deduction” from one’s own understanding that “if killing was allowed, then why not kidnapping?”

Mindanao State University Prof. Moner Bajunaid likened Janjalani’s views with “the enemy from within—the danger of little knowledge in the words of the late Dr. (Cesar Adib) Majul.”

Majul was the first dean of the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Islamic Studies.

Context

Basman clarified that the context of the story was that Sufian and his caravan ambushed the Prophet Muhammad and his companions in the middle of the desert at about year 622, when Sufian said: “I will give Muhammad a lesson he will never forget.”

Basman said that during the sword engagement between the two groups, Abu Sufian (after whose name another bandit group today is named), was killed.

A revelation (The Spoils of War, a chapter of the Koran) came to the Prophet Muhammad, which says: “The spoils of war are at God’s and the prophet’s disposal.” And it was then that the prophet ordered his companions to place the properties and the prisoners of war (POWs) under the custody of the Muslim government based in Medina in Saudi Arabia, Basman said of the story on Abu Sufian.

Basman said the custody of POWs and spoils of war was guided by Prophet Muhammad’s declaration that says: “A Muslim is he from whose tongue and hands, other Muslims are safe; and a Mu’min, [a true believer] is he in whose hands all of humankind has sanctuary for life and property.”

Special edicts

Bajunaid, who speaks Arabic as his mother tongue, said under the Medina administration of the prophet, special edicts for Abu Sufian’s people and the like were promulgated, an option that “can also be taken from the Western concept of ‘parens patria’ or the government as the parent of the nation or guardian of the people.

“If that (Janjalani’s) is the Muslim view today, then Christian thinkers had [a] better appreciation of the [prophet’s] option, because the death of Abu Sufian rendered his people orphans. There was no better alternative than taking care of the orphans, the people ruined by wars, and looking after their welfare. Most certainly, that is worlds apart from kidnapping for ransom,” Bajunaid said.

He was quoting the British playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), who said in “The Genuine Islam” (Vol. I, No. 81936): “I have studied the man (Muhammad)—and in my opinion [he is] far from being anti-Christ. He must be called the savior of humanity.”

The Muslim authorities also quoted the following from French historian De Lacy O’Leary’s book “Islam at the Crossroads:” “History makes it clear that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon conquered races is one of the most fanatically absurd myths that historians have ever repeated.”

Muslim norms

“Look at this as the Muslim norms and anything otherwise becomes [views] unlikely of a Muslim, especially those who assume authority in Islam,” said Ustadz Abdulwahab Tunngal, the mufti of Basilan, Janjalani’s paternal home province.

“The language of the Qur’an (Koran) is so difficult even [for] the Arabs themselves to learn by heart. You can’t learn it only from some kind of special sessions,” Bajunaid said.

He said he learned that the slain terror leader had some special clandestine classes on the Koran in an Islamic school in Central Mindanao when he assumed the Abu Sayyaf leadership in 2000.

Basman also credited “fairer” views held by Christian thinkers on the prophet, including those of Thomas Carlyle (“Heroes and Hero-Worship” lecture series) and Michael Hart (“The 100 Most Influential Persons in History”).

Basman said he had “full confidence” that his friend Prof. Octavio Dinampo, who conducted the interview, knew “the real (Abu Sufian) story, as well.”

Copyright 2007 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

We're very proud, bomber's family declares --The Jerusalem Post

2007-01-30T16:59:00.000+08:00

We're very proud, bomber's family declares

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

The mother of Muhammad Faisal Saksak, the 21-year-old suicide bomber who carried out Monday's attack in Eilat, said she was aware of her son's plan to blow himself up and that she had wished him "good luck."

Dozens of Palestinians, chanting slogans against Israel and the US, converged on the family's home to "congratulate" them on the success of the attack.

Although Muhammad's uncles claimed he crossed the border into Israel from Jordan, PA security sources told The Jerusalem Post that he came from Egypt. They added that Muhammad's dispatchers were deliberately involving Jordan to avoid alienating the Egyptians and to create tensions between the Jordanians and Israel.

A spokesman for Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip claimed that preparations for the attack lasted seven months and that Muhammad had received training in Aqaba.

The suicide attack is seen by many Palestinians as an attempt to divert attention from the Hamas-Fatah war that has claimed the lives of 34 people over the past four days.

Fatah and Hamas leaders have repeatedly urged their followers to halt the fighting and to use their guns only against Israel.

Ruwaidah, 43, said she last saw her son on Friday morning, when he walked out of his home in the Slateen neighborhood near Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

"As he walked out of the house, he asked me to wish him good luck," she said. "I wished him good luck and I knew of his decision to become a martyr. Although I was aware of his intention, I did not know exactly when he was planning to carry out a martyrdom attack."

According to the mother, another one of her sons, Naim, phoned Muhammad on his cellular phone over the weekend to inquire about his whereabouts.

"When Muhammad answered, he told Naim: 'Pray for me all of you and don't try to call me again. I'm now in Jabalya refugee camp.' After that we tried to call him many times, but his phone was out of service."

The mother of nine said she was proud of her son for carrying out the suicide attack.

"I pray to Allah that Muhammad will be accepted as a shaheed [martyr]," she said shortly after hearing about the Eilat bombing. "I hope that his martyrdom will deliver a message to the Fatah and Hamas fighters to stop the fighting and direct their weapons against the one and only enemy - Israel."

Ruwaidah said she was prepared to "sacrifice" all her sons "for the sake of the Aksa Mosque and Palestine."

She added: "I hope that our politicians will stop fighting so that the blood of the martyrs will not be shed in vain."

The suicide bomber's older brother, Naim, 26, said he, too, was proud of his brother, whom he described as a member of Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades.

"I knew that he was going out to launch a martyrdom attack and I wished for him to become a martyr," he said. "The family is very proud of what Muhammad did. He always wanted to be a martyr and was among those who went out to fight against the Israeli soldiers each time they invaded the Gaza Strip."

Muhammad's wife, Nadia, said she shared the family's sense of "pride" for what her husband did.

"When I heard that he was martyred, I felt very proud of him," she said. "Why shouldn't I feel so when I know that he died for the sake of Palestine and Al-Aksa? It's much better than dying in the internal fighting between Fatah and Hamas."

Although the Saksak family insisted that Muhammad belonged to the Islamic Jihad, a spokesman for the armed wing of Fatah, Aksa Martyrs Brigades, claimed that his group was responsible for the attack.

Continued
1 | 2 | Next »

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467841193&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

(Continued from page 1 of 2)

The spokesman, Abu Odai, said the attack was a "natural response to Israeli violations of the hudna [temporary cease-fire], including settlement construction and excavation work under the Aksa Mosque."

Abu Odai threatened that his group would continue to launch suicide attacks against Israel.

"All options are open for striking against Israel," he told reporters in Gaza City.

Asked if his group had decided to use Jordan and Egypt as launching pads for attacking Israel, the Fatah spokesman refused to reveal how the terrorist infiltrated Israel.

He added that the attack was aimed at "reminding our brothers in Fatah and Hamas that they must direct their weapons against Israel and not at each other."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=2&cid=1167467841193&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

© 1995 - 2007 The Jerusalem Post. All rights reserved.

2007-01-30T16:40:00.000+08:00

John Hay finds new investor, says mayor

By Vincent Cabreza

Inquirer

Last updated 02:49am (Mla time) 01/30/2007

BAGUIO CITY—Camp John Hay has found a new investor, which could help save the cash-strapped tourism project being developed by real estate giant Fil Estate, acting Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. said.

Bautista said the Fil Estate-owned Camp John Hay Development Corp. (CJHDevco) owed the government over P1 billion but it managed to win a P2-billion investment package from an unidentified new partner.

CJHDevco officials declined to comment, although sources said a deal was indeed being worked out to increase the project’s capitalization.

Bautista said the information was relayed to him following a meeting he had with Narciso Abaya, president of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA).

He said the information should help the city government delay the forfeiture of the Baguio Convention Center.

The city government bought the facility for P250 million from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) in 2002, by mortgaging the city’s share from the John Hay rent.

The BCDA advanced P50 million to cement the purchase of the convention center, which then First Lady Imelda Marcos ordered built to host the 1978 world chess match between grandmasters Anatoli Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi.

But the BCDA told Bautista it was unable to release the first installments of the remaining P200-million balance because CJHDevco had not paid its rent.

The mayor is meeting separately with Winston Garcia, GSIS president, to solve the crisis over the facility’s repossession.

Fil Estate Chair Robert John Sobrepeña, who is also CJHDevco chair, suspended rent payments when the Supreme Court affirmed in 2005 a ruling that nullified John Hay’s tax exemptions.

CJHDevco had negotiated a new scheme to cover arrears going back to 1999 when the high court issued the decision.

“[Abaya] told me the BCDA could not advance anymore money because it could not dip into the revenues of the Subic Bay Freeport or the Clark Special Economic Zone to pay for the debts of the John Hay Special Economic Zone,” Bautista said.

He said the BCDA was waiting for Congress to schedule a bicameral conference committee meeting to merge the two bills that would restore John Hay’s benefits.

Copyright 2007 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.