Category: colonialism

smith walks free

anc breaking news around 5 p.m.: u.s. marine in subic rape case acquitted.

The Court of Appeals (CA) on Thursday acquitted US Marines Lance Corporal Daniel Smith of raping a Filipina in Subic back in 2005, and ordered released immediately.

The ruling was part of the 71-page decision penned by Justice Monina Zenarosa of the CA’s Special 11th Division.

wasn’t it just a couple of days ago when the supreme court was ordering the court of appeals to investigate in 90 days the leak of a draft decision acquitting smith, sabay order smith’s lawyer to explain in 10 days why nicole’s “recantation” was notarized at his lawfirm?

The Supreme Court has ordered the Court of Appeals to investigate the leak of a supposed draft decision reversing US Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith’s conviction for the rape of a Filipino woman in 2005.

In a resolution, the Supreme Court First Division also ordered Smith’s lawyer, Jose Justiniano, to explain why the victim “Nicole’s” supposed recantation was notarized at the Sycip Salazar Hernandez and Gatmaitan law office, to which Justiniano belongs.

so the court of appeals no longer recognizes the authority of the supreme court?    so the court of appeals is now (as ever?) heeding a higher power?   a higher power na masyadong nagmamadali.   i wonder what the chief justice has to say to that.

and i wonder what the trade-off is for gloria.   gloria forever?   ngek.

so long, gloria? 2

that unscheduled, and failed, trip to washington tells me how desperate gloria is for a one-on-one with the u.s. president.   i suspect she was all set to request that obama order the world bank to back off, cease and desist from, releasing any more information re corrupt practices related to infrastructure projects of her government, especially the report that points to hubby mike arroyo’s involvement.

in return kaya for what?  what was gloria prepared to offer that president obama might not have been able to resist?  maybe the acquittal of rapist corporal daniel smith?  maybe charter change and the lifting of economic restrictions?  maybe charter change and federalism and the signing of the moa-a.d.?  maybe charter change and the return of u.s.military bases?

suddenly i’m beginning to think that there’s more to the rumor that the u.s. wants gloria out and noli in, sooner than later, the better to foil an erap return, and that the world bank report is a big part of the effort to discredit the arroyos and agitate the people.  after all, it is the u.s. that is the power behind the world bank.  writes george monbiot in The Age of Consent – A Manifesto for a New World Order, 2003, page 16:

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which are supposed to assist impoverished nations to build and defend their economies, are run on the principle of one dollar, one vote. To pass a substantial resolution or to amend the way they operate requires an eighty-five per cent majority. The United States alone, which possesses more than fifteen per cent of the stock in both organizations, can block a resolution supported by every other member state. This means, in practice, that these two bodies will pursue only those policies in the developing world which are of benefit to the economy of the United States and the interest of financial speculators, even when these conflict directly with the needs of the poor.

besides, it’s not like the world bank to be so high-profile rather than behind-the-scenes in its dealings with government agencies.  maybe the u.s. has finally given up on the recalcitrant arroyos?  maybe they’ve already made a deal with vice president noli de castro?

but if so, the u.s. must be rethinking its options now that noli de castro has been tainted by the legacy scandal.   as it turns out, legacy owner and operator celso de los angeles financed pala noli’s 2004 vice-presidential campaign and noli returned the favor in no uncertain terms.  writes ducky paredes in malaya:

Can Vice President Noli de Castro’s friends in the Senate (where he was part of an influential group of senators before the 204 elections) keep his name out of the Legacy scandal? He has clear ties to Sto. Domingo, Albay Mayor Celso de los Angeles, the owner and operator of the bankrupt Legacy Group of Companies.

Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos lost hard-earned money in Legacy’s fraudulent investment firm and rural banks. Can they actually forgive Noli de Castro’s role in their worst-ever experience? These people lost their life savings to someone who campaigned for Noli and was rewarded with a high post in Noli’s housing programs.

Of course, the Vice President is now distancing himself from De los Angeles after the latter’s grilling by the Senate for the questionable operations of the Legacy group and his companies’ investigation by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But no matter how De Castro disowns Delos Angeles, the damage to his squeaky-clean image has been done.

Noli De Castro admits that Delos Angeles financed his 2004 vice presidential campaign, caused the printing of his campaign materials, and even bought a tabloid to help sell him to voters.

So, immediately after De Castro assumed the vice presidency, he promptly endorsed De los Angeles as head of the National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC).

By paying a political debt to De los Angeles, De Castro not only epitomized everything despicable about traditional politics. De Castro also helped De los Angeles lure more unsuspecting investors and depositors into putting their money in Legacy.

How does the Vice President connect to the Legacy mess by his acceptance of the 2004 election funding from Delos Angeles and his endorsement of the businessman to NHMFC?

Simple. When De Castro endorsed De los Angeles, he vouched for the latter’s integrity, leading people to conclude that De los Angeles and his Legacy Group must be clean for having been given a seal of approval by De Castro, no matter how indirectly.

In fact, although Noli had no qualms dropping De los Angeles like a hot potato, it may not have been because of complaints to Gloria Arroyo that Celso was the worst thing to happen to her housing program, we hear that the two friends had already reached a state of enmity over a pretty young thing. Of course, the TV talent chose the more powerful of the two (and refused to return the jewelry that the other gave her as gifts).

How ironic that they were both working in the Pag-ibig program. Ang pag-ibig nga naman!

With the discovery of the dubious operations of the Legacy Group, shouldn’t the Senate do what it should have done a long time ago – investigate De los Angeles’ stint as head of NHMFC to uncover possible anomalies? In fact, isn’t it about time that they take a hard look at their former colleague’s work at Pag-Ibig and the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council?

Are they afraid that they may find that the foundation of our Housing Program is infested with termites like Celso and other Noli friends?

and then, again, what if mababaw (sort of) ang kaligayahan ng mga kano?  what if their attitude is, anyone but gloria?  what if, as jeg suggests, the u.s. has the goods on noli, too, and whatever gloria offers, noli promises, too?

well, at least it will be interesting to watch, whatever happens, or doesn’t happen.

changing times

i am glad that barack obama hasn’t taken or returned gma’s phonecalls.   i am glad becauseit pops the illusion that we are special to america.  i am glad because it puts us in our place.  we are a poor relation, that’s all, and america takes our support for granted.

maybe the inquirer editorial is right:

It is not difficult to speculate why Obama has been avoiding Ms Arroyo. Aside from the fact that the Philippines does not figure importantly in the US’ geopolitical scheme of things, Ms Arroyo is not exactly a political figure that Obama, who ran on a platform of change and would like to project a good, clean image, would want to be seen with. The nation’s experience with Ms Arroyo the past eight years shows that she is the quintessence of the traditional politician.”

quite possibly obama has a different take on the spratleys, mindanao, and the visiting forces agreement — maybe he wants to bring the u.s. soldiershome (would that include corporaldaniel smith, convicted rapist of nicole?) and quite possibly the uncertainty is what’s really freaking out gma — ang hirap magplano,  lol– thus the stop in chicago?  one last attempt to get to the guy?

samantala metromanila is abuzz with talk of a paranoid palace hearing midnight mass, and ding g. gagelonia wonders if the regime is in trouble:

. . . there are wagging tongues asking why Mrs. Arroyo is out of the country just as Joc Joc Bolante is set to face the Senate and amid the persistent talk of a new plot to bring doiwn her government.

A clear indication of that danger is the appearance of a web site purportedly authored by rebellious soldiers with the site prominently featuring the call of 5 ranking Catholic bishops for “radical reformsagainst massive corruption,”

Pundits are juxtaposing this angle with last Friday’s surprise midnight mass in Malacanang where churchmen, politicians, and civic leaders supporting Mrs. Arroyo where in attendance.

Is the ground shifting from under the embattled leader or will she, like before, be able to stare down the threat which her security people are closely watching?”

interesting times. obama’s triumph was no freak event.  up in the heavens jupiter saturn and uranus are configuring a rare triangle, and pluto, associated with upheavals and transformation, is changing signs this month of november.  as above, so below.

feeling the fall of america

wow.  who would have thought that we would see the american economy collapse like a house of cards, bringing the whole world down with it.  diyata’t hindi pala invulnerable ang superpower na ito.   diyata’t nagkakamali rin, pumapalpak, bumabagsak.  at ngayo’y nangangapa, ikot ang puwet, trying to figure out how to reboot a financial-economic system that has crashed.

to get a handle on what happened and why, read
francis fukuyama’s the fall of america, inc.
john gray’s a shattering moment in america’s fall from power
walden bello’s a primer on the wall street meltdown
nobel laureate joseph stiglitz’s how to get out of the financial crisis

the question is: tayong mga bilib na bilib sa amerika — we who allow america to dictate our economic policies — what lessons should we be taking away from this?   it’s not enough to breathe a sigh of relief that our banks are relatively sound — that’s only because praning na sila after having been burned by the asian meltdown in 1997.

at the very least we should be seeing, and acting on the fact, that america’s kind of deregulated and globalized and greedy free-market capitalism is no longer the appropriate model for li’l 3rd world us, not if we truly aspire for economic recovery and stability and prosperity for the majority of filipinos.

otherwise, things are just going to get worse.  those foreign investments that government expects to come in from middle east now that america and europe are in financial doldrums are, as usual, not going to make that much difference to the poor, not in the long run, if the same discredited rules and systems continue to apply.

economic growth will continue to be a myth, except for the already-rich.  what will grow for sure lang besides would be the population, hunger, joblessness, and the diaspora, which is the saddest of all.  we’re a country of broken families, broken hearts, no thanks to economic policies that serve the interests of the few at the expense of the many.

what to do to turn things around?  said john bellamy foster, editor of the socialist-anti-imperialist monthly review, when asked by pagina/12 what kind of policies the u.s. government should implement to sort out the crisis, how to bail out the people and not just the banks:

I don’t think anyone knows how to “sort out” or stop this crisis. What we are seeing is a lot of improvising while the house is falling down around us. There is no possibility of avoiding a very severe world economic crisis at this point….

My own view is that the sole object at this point — though it is hard to imagine this in the United States at present due to the weakness of labour and of working-class organisations in general — should be to reorganise social and economic priorities to meet the needs of those at the bottom. It is a fact that the US economy over decades has drastically weakened the conditions of the wider population, which is at the root of the whole problem. So addressing those conditions is the real key.

But even if that were not the case, the goal of those who identify with the great majority of the population, with the working class, the propertyless, the poor, should be clear: to put the employment, food, nutrition, housing, health, education, environmental conditions of those at base of society first. This is simple humanity and justice.

Why flood the financial world (which means first and foremost the rich, the near-rich and corporations) with trillions of dollars ultimately at taxpayer expense, probably to no avail, when something might be done for the greater population?

Marx said, in one of his ironic moments, that the only part of the national wealth that was held in common amongst all the people was the national debt.

If the wealth is not shared, why should the public take on more debt, supporting the opulence at the top while the great majority of the people are seeing their basic conditions deteriorate?

Let the system take care of itself; let us devote our public resources to the people. More good would be accomplished that way. Of course what this means is a reactivation of class struggle from below; something we haven’t really seen in the United States in a long time.”

interesting.  now that america is down, we’re so like america.