Category: cory

EDSA fictions

funny and factual … history a la FB … clever … great tongue-in-cheek humor, great research … super-like … sana i-publish ng mga book company pampasaya sa boring na pagtuturo …

these are facebook comments on the link to gmanews.tv’s special feature  It was complicated: EDSA 1 as told through Facebook (The events and players are true, the status updates are based on fact, and the comments are totally imagined.)

funny the comments, yes, but the status updates are not entirely factual, which might be is quite inappropriate as it adds to the confusion about EDSA as an event, given a number of key players still refusing to tell their sides of the story and who wouldn’t mind keeping us confused and uncertain.

my sources are the periodicals and snap books of the time, interviews with cory and fvr (among others), and more EDSA books, foreign titles, published from 1987 to 1991.  the storyline is pretty set, and even lately confirmed by senate president enrile, if in trickles, as in the EDSA anniversary of 2000.

so it’s disconcerting to read supposedly factual status updates that are completely false and which foster misconceptions about what really happened, how they happened, and what key personalities were thinking and saying as events unfolded.

August 31, 1983 Ninoy’s funeral. Cory Aquino invited you.

there was no way cory could have invited the people.   marcos controlled all media.   like everyone else, cory was stunned amazed overwhelmed at the million or so who came uninvited.

December 3, 1985 Cory Aquino I am running for President of the RP. [Joaquin Roces, Salvador Laurel and 1,683,114 others like this]

imposible na salvador laurel liked it.   he was long set to run for president himself but was prevailed upon to slide down and run as cory’s vp instead.   at best he was resigned if not disappointed.

February 4, 1986 Miting de Avance

my chronology says feb 5.   my source, the newspapers of those days.   correct me if i’m wrong.

February 22, 1986 (Day 1) Fabian Ver my son Col. Irwin Ver informed me that members of RAM (Reform the Armed Forces Movement) are planning a coup. They plan to storm Malacañang at around 2am and declare Juan Ponce Enrilñe as head of a ruling junta. Sorry guys…HULI KAYO! Thanks for the tip Maj. Edgardo Doromal!

as if he had just heard of the coup plot?   according to alfred mccoy in “Coup!” (Veritas Extra, Oct 1986) the vers learned of the coup plot many days before feb 19 when the presidential security guards were put on red alert.   by saturday feb 22 ver had so fortified palace defenses, there was no way gringo and RAM would take themby surprise the next morning.  if anything, saturday was a sosyal day for ver.   he and imelda were principal sponsors at an afternoon wedding in villamor air base.   he couldn’t quite believe it when, after the wedding, his men told him of the enrile-ramos defection.

Feb 22 Juan Ponce Enrile FYI lang, we are not out to seize power. We will relinquish command to the rightfully elected President,

enrile was very careful not to say anything to that effect.   what he said was that he would “heed the will of the people” … but “No, I will not serve under Mrs. Aquino even if she is installed as a president.” it would seem that he had not given up hope of heading a ruling junta.   given a choice between him and cory, the people, he hoped? would choose him as the more qualified, the more experienced in government affairs.   cory was so unsure of his support, there were no seats for him and ramos when they unexpectedly arrived to attend her inauguration.

February 23 Cory Aquino just got back from Cebu and I’m going straight to my sister’s place in Greenhills. I am calling for more Filipinos to please support the rebel soldiers. I am also calling for President Ferdinand Marcos’ resignation before there is any bloodshed.

when cory just got back from cebu, according to joker arroyo, her plan was to call the people to luneta to prove to the rebel military that it was she, and not enrile and ramos, who had popular support.   but she was dissuaded by her advisers because the people would indeed follow her to luneta, and mawawalan ng depensa ang crame, na hawak na ng mga tao. [Himagsikan sa EDSA 2000, page 165 ]

February 25 US of A … Ferdinand Marcos It’s time to cut and cut cleanly. [7 hours after Marcos inauguration]

laxalt said this to marcos at 5 a.m. day 4, manila time, 7 hours before his inauguration.    sources: nick joaquin’s Quartet of the Tiger Moon 1986 (page 78) and stanley karnow’s  In Our Image 1989 (page 421).

February 25 Ferdinand Marcos is leaving for Clark, then Guam. Next stop: Hawaii.

when marcos left malacanang palace he thought he was going to paoay in ilocos norte.   it was only in clark that he learned about guam and hawaii.

oh, and i would have ended with bongbong and imelda screaming KIDNAP!

cha-cha crazy

there they go again, chattering about charter change, as if it were even do-able, what a waste of time.   read fr. joaquin bernas’s Finally a new Constitution in 2011?

In my view, one major obstacle to attempts to revise the 1987 Constitution is structural. It has a built-in unintended obstacle to change. And I do not know how this can be overcome this year.

Inmany respects the 1987 Constitution consists of significant borrowings from the 1935 Constitution. Unfortunately, however, the provision on the amendatory process is a carbon copy of the provision in the 1973 Constitution. Year after year since 1987 this has been the major obstacle to change. Why so?

The text says: “Any amendment to, or revision of, this Constitution may be proposed by: (1) The Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths of all its Members; or (2) a constitutional convention. . . . The Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of all its Members, call a constitutional convention, or by a majority vote of all its Members, submit to the electorate the question of calling such a convention.”

The provision is one formulated for a unicameral legislative body but it is now meant to work for a bicameral Congress. This was not a tactical product designed by an evil genius. It is merely the result of oversight. But the oversight has spawned major problems.

First, must Senate and Housecome together in joint session before they can do anything that can lead to charter change? The 1935 Constitution was very clear on this question: Congress could not begin to work on constitutional change unless they first came together in joint session. The 1987 Constitution is non-committal.

Second, since the text of the Constitution is not clear about requiring a joint session, can Congress work on constitutional change analogously to the way it works on ordinary legislation, that is where they are and as they are? I have always maintained that Congress can, but this is by no means a settled matter. There are those who believe that the importance of Charter change demands a joint session.

Third, should Congress decide to come together in joint session, must Senate and House vote separately or may they vote jointly? The 1935 Constitution was very clear on the need for separate voting; the present Constitution is silent about this. But I am sure that the Senate will not agree to a joint voting where their number can be buried in an avalanche of House votes, an avalanche of votes which can mean the abolition of the Senate! How will this issue be settled? Howsoever the matter might be settled by agreement of the majority of both houses, someone in the minority will run to the Supreme Court to challenge the decision.

What about a constitutional convention? But the business of calling a constitutional convention is fraught with the same problems. Should Congress choose to call a constitutional convention, must the two houses be in joint session? And if in joint session, should they vote separately?

Briefly, constitutional change in 2011 or later can happen only if the members of Congress can agree to work in harmony and if the Supreme Court will not throw a monkey wrench on how Congress decides to do it. Can the members of Congress rise above self-interest and work together harmoniously? Or are we waiting for an extra-constitutional change?

i like it, this obstacle not designed by some evil genius, rather an oversight of cory’s constitutional commission.   it means that charter change can happen only if and when our legislators get their act together, and that’s just so NOT in any one’s agenda.

extra-constitutional change?   another edsa, he means?   but a successful edsa, a successful revolutionary government, one that brings about deep-seated change, is soooo not in the stars, not until a true leader rises, one in the mold of rizal or bonifacio but wise to the ways of the world today and highly-biased for the filipino.

ninoy & the hacienda

sychronicity: ninoy aquino’s 27th death anniversary (the filipino is worth dying for) and the hearing of the high-profile hacienda luisita case (scheme sdo) in the supreme court.

there’s good background stuff on the internet, thanks to gmanews.tv, and there’s lynda jumilla’s report on anc, salamat naman, altho sana sa free tv and mainstream media rin, ‘no?

because it’s interesting, revealing, if not really surprising, how inextricably linked the stories of ninoy and cory are with the hacienda’s masalimuot history.

read howie severino et al’s holding on: a hacienda luisita timeline from the spanish to the noynoy eras

read leloy claudio’s ninoy networked with everyone including the reds

if ninoy had lived, would he have handled the hacienda problem differently?   it would seem so, though it would have meant a major rift split rupturewith the cojuangcos, unless he could have been really creative and come up with a compromise that both cory and the farmers could live with.

now that noynoy is president, and he seems more of a cojuangco than a ninoy aquino — read carlos conde’s aquino is being shrewd about hacienda luisita — looks like the pattern could persist, which bodes ill for the farmers and the nation but bodes good for other haciendas and big landowners who continue to defy the law, what a drag.

here’s a partial list of other families owning vast tracts of land via KMP via mon ramirez:

Hacienda Zobel in Calatagan, Batangas – 12,000 hectares
Hacienda Yulo in Nasugbu, Batangas – 8,650 hectares
Hacienda Roxas also in Nasugbu – 7,813 hectares
Hacienda Yulo in Canlubang, Calamba – 7,100 hectares
Hacienda Luisita – 6,453 hectares
Hacienda Puyat also in Nasugbu, Batangas – 2,400 hectares
Hacienda Agoncillo in Laurel, Batangas – 2,014 hectares

There are more in other provinces and regions.

To get an idea of the size of each hacienda, compare them with the land areas of these four cities:

QC – 16,000 hectares
Manila – 3,955 hectares
Makati – 2,738 hectares
Marikina – 2,150 hectares

election eve

despite the surveys calling it a sure win for noynoy, the other camps continue to be really upbeat,each one thinking that their candidate still has a good chance of pulling off a surprise win from behind.   which is as it should be.   after all, marami diyang puwede pang magbago ang isip.   marami ring undecided pa at magde-decide lang pag kaharap na mismo ang balota at mga bilog na hugis itlog.

pero kung mababaw ang kaligayahan ko and i were wavering between noynoy and gibo, the miting de avances would have decided me.   caught gibo’s final sugod speech on channel 4 (thanks to a carlosceldran tweet) and he was, wow, sorta outstanding, looked and projected great, toweringly tall, high energy, and whether that was an extemporaneous or a memorized speech, the delivery was awesomely passionate and must have swayed undecideds some.   noynoy’s came later, aired on anc, and in comparison, he was okay lang, i guess because he was reading his speech (well at least for those moments that i turned to look at the tv screen).   no contest.   had to remind myself why i’m not voting for gibo — the VFA — which tells of a limited vision for country, forever chained to mighty america.   looks like it’s jamby’s platform for me pa rin.

as for surveys, i look forward to a presidential campaign na walang surveys.   it would be a totally different exercise.   until then, national artist f. sionil jose‘s  words apply:

Nothing is going to change…. I am 85. I have seen three generations of Filipino leaders fail. They have never been able to transcend themselves, neither their class nor their ethnicity.

Did you read The Economist obituary on her? (referring to Aquino). It said her greatness ended when she became president. Many people were angry. But for those of us who had eyes wide open, her rule was a disaster. She promised land reform. She didn’t do it. She restored the oligarchy. I never forgave her for that.

manila times columnist elmer ordonez is only a little hopeful, and only because of the few partylists that truly represent marginalized sectors.

This election, if it goes through on Monday, whether automated and/or manual, has no special appeal for me. As I wrote earlier, the outcome will be the installation of another faction of the landed oligarchy or that of the relatively new business rich—in power. All within the ruling class.

Opinions about contenders are generally based on survey results and anecdotal information. In the absence of other “scientific” indicators, it is easy to succumb to what may be called survey fetishism, a reliance on statistical counts conducted particularly by two outfits (SWS and Pulse Asia) that seem to have the allegiance of media and the general public.

An alternative survey, conducted by IBON Foundation, using the same tools learned in schools of economics like UP’s, has been red-baited out of circulation by stakeholders in SWS and Pulse Asia. And critics of the latter are called “ignorant” or “incompetent” about the arcana of what the late Dean Jose Encarnacion would call a “quasi-science.” As are all social sciences.

There are charges of “trending’’ and “bandwagon effect” because of the surveys, as people talk freely about “leading” or “front-running” candidates. I myself paid scant attention to those who are in the “cellar”—all of whom seem imbued with idealism, or practice new or nonpatronage politics. Can they look forward to a level playing field through electoral reform?

The winners will of course be known after May 10 but the social change that discerning voters hope for will not come about. Those elected will perpetuate themselves in office through the vast resources and the ideological/coercive agencies under their control—with cronies and “kamag-anaks” waiting in the wings. What else could be new?

….Is there hope for us in this election? Yes, some. For one, the party-lists that represent truly marginalized sectors—like Bayan Muna, Akbayan, Gabriela, Anakpawis and Kabataan are leading in the surveys and are assured of seats. New party-lists like ACT Teachers (unlike one that represents school owners), Agham (science for the poor), and Ang Ladlad (representing gays) are likely to win at least one seat each. These party-lists deserve support from voters turned off by traditional or oligarchic politics. At least they can provide a strong voice in Congress dominated by the establishment.

Satur Ocampo and Lisa Maza of the Makabayan Party had already served ten years as pro-poor party-list representatives in Congress (Bayan Muna and Gabriela) and are running as NP guest candidates to continue their advocacies in the Senate. I am confident they will acquit themselves creditably in their undertaking.

The senatorial lists of all parties include names who will work for the interests of the underprivileged and the dispossessed. I would include (besides Ocampo and Maza), Pia Cayetano, Mario Bautista, Susan Ople, Gwendolyn Pimentel, Adel Tamano, Alex Lacson, Danilo Lim, Teofisto Guingona III, and Sonia Roco in my ballot. A few more are already in the top twelve of the surveys. eaordonez2000@yahoo.com

my list : satur, liza, danny lim, miriam, jpe, lozada, pia, neric, adel, serge, guingona, and either toots or ruffy.