Category: media

free publicity?

lynda jumilla guesting the gatchalian brothers, anong point of giving them free publicity… replay pa nang replay.  emerging dynasty justifying their wealth and politics.  o baka naman hindi free, at binebentahan talaga tayo, tatakbo siguro ang isa sa senado sa 2016, with ANC‘s blessings?  nakaka-offend, when so much else is going on na dapat pinag-uusapan nang maayos para nagkakalinawan kung ano ba ang tama at ano ba ang mali.  hindi yung palakasan lang ng boses, o palakasan sa palasyo.

enrile, inquirer, surrender

watching the surrender of enrile on tv was kind of surreal, as in, really?  it’s happening?  now na?  wow!

for a while there, when jinggoy’s arrest was not quickly followed by enrile’s, i remarked on facebook that his lawyer estelito mendoza was probably trying out every legal gimmick, every trick in the book, to stop the sandiganbayan from ruling on probable cause.  i could imagine all the wheeling and dealing going on behind the scenes, favors being called even, all to no avail, it now would seem, except for a few days’ delay.  wow!

this is nothing like the arrests for “rebellion” in 1990 and 2001 that, in both cases, alleged enrile to be on power-grab mode; both times he was out in a matter of days.  this one is for plunder, some 172 million in alleged PDAF kickbacks 2007 to 2009, which he denies, of course, he will prove his innocence in court, and maybe he will, but meanwhile he is under arrest and detention.

in fairness, it was a relief that his surrender was without the showbiz dramatics that attended the last hurrahs of estrada jr. and revilla jr., two clowns who quite likely entertained the illusion that the millions who voted for them would gather in protest as erap’s masses did when he was arrested in 2001.  enrile, it would seem, had no such illusion, even if he was the original EDSA hero.  no presscon, no statement, hardly any photos or video of him, and no mugshots released.

nakakapagpaisip.  i’m sorry it’s happening now, when he’s old and ailing, but, again, wow, quite a big fish he is, and i have been backtracking: paano na nga nangyari ito?  let’s give credit where credit is due.  o nasabit lang ba kay napoles at sa inquirer scoop of benhur luy’s records?

but wait, speaking of the inquirer, suddenly i remember someone saying something about the broadsheet in connection with enrile’s case, and i google it, and, hey hey hey, straight from an official statement by gigi reyes, issued from the states in sept 2013.

The PDI evidently has an ax to grind against me. I say so because in a private dinner in Rockwell a few months back where I accompanied my former boss, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, PDI Editor-in-Chief Mrs. Letty Jimenez Magsanoc openly told us about her deep personal hurt over the Senator’s published “Memoirs” which recounted the beginnings of the PDI and what she called the “unfair” portrayal of Ms. Eugenia “Eggie” Apostol.

it was just a few months after the corona impeachment trial when enrile launched A Memoir (september 2012).  at totoo naman na grabe ang ginawang panlalait ni enrile kay eggie.  i thought she could have taken him to court for libel atbp. and oh what an alta siyudad media scandal that would have been, who might the rest of media have sided with kaya, ano?  magsanoc was smarter than that, of course.  maaaring the inquirer had inside info on the nbi’s or coa’s investigations of napoles, maaring they got wind of benhur luy’s records, and it would be interesting to know if benhur’s parents offered the inquirer the info out of the blue, or if it was the inquirer that initiated the contact by sending feelers.  how powerful can media get?

whatever, is that cackling i hear from the eggie side of makati?  enrile’s editor and publisher should have warned him about women scorned: hell hath no fury, and all that jazz.

usaping tsina

painit nang painit ang usapin.  patindi nang patindi ang mga banat ng tsina sa west philippine sea; itinataboy ang ating mga mangingisda (tinira ng watercannon noong enero) at nanghaharang ng supply boats to ph outposts like the sierra madre wreck sa ayungin shoal.

recently, mula nang i-file ng DFA ang ating 4,000-page memo sa arbitration tribunal, sa media naman tayo binabanatan, panay ang press release ng mga intsik, ipinipilit, idinidiin, iginigiit, na pag-aari ng tsina ang ayungin atbp., as if saying it over and over like a mantra would make it come true.  pinapalabas na tayo pa ang wala sa lugar, tayo pa ang naghahanap ng away, hindi sila.  *sarcastic lol*

nakakagalit at nakakabahala, and yet parang hirap na hirap tayo na i-articulate ang ating niloloob at aminin na nakakabuwisit na (sobra na, ano ba) ang pambubully ng tsina.  baka kasi magalit ang mga intsik at balikan tayo – bigyan tayo ng problema sa koryente, pauwiin ang pinoy OFWs, magtampo ang mga tsinoy nating bossing, o kapamilya o kabarkada?  na oo naman, nakaka-tense, but it’s not as if tayo lang ang mawawalan; ang china rin, mawawalan.  maraming hassle for both sides, at the level of nation and individual both, kung sakaling magkagulo.  i suppose it seems wiser to not say anything, huwag nang dumagdag sa balitaktakan, huwag nang gatungan pa, let’s just leave it to the prez, united we stand divided we fall and all that.

ang problema, not saying anything means consenting to the deal that the prez is working out with the americans behind the scenes, a deal that is said to provide for u.s. jurisdiction pa rin over criminally erring american soldiers (as in, let’s forget the nicole-smith rape case ever happened), a deal that is also said to provide for enhanced american-troop presence practically everywhere, including metro manila and metro cebu.  argh.  what’s going on.  O.A. naman, kahit pa magkaroon ng automatic retailiation clause, eh wala pa rin naman,

samantala, sagutin natin ang mga patutsada ng tsina.  sa kanilang kultura daw, bringing someone to court is an assault?  eh sa ating kultura, bullying is an assault, bullying is harassment.  so quits-quits na lang, as far as that goes.  and what about those alleged promises made by erap and gloria, what’s our official version of the story, what was going on at the time?  what exactly did they promise, in exchange for what?  may dokumento ba?

or is this statement of DFA sec del rosario now the official policy:

“Countries should be judged by their actions, not by their words.”

by our actions, like filing the memo with the arbitral tribunal, that met with the international community’s approval.  actions, like negotiating the parameters of an enhanced u.s. military presence, that meets with the ASEAN community’s approval (wise guys, better us than them).  and not by our words.  hmm, especially those spoken by previous presidents, unless written down and properly signed and witnessed and notarized?  but really?  forget palabra de honor?  um, kung sabagay, sa pulitika, matagal nang nangingibabaw ang  spin at propaganda.

does the same statement explain too why there is no reaction, as in dedma, deadma, patay malisya, to this recent gem from the US state department?

“As a treaty ally of the Republic of the Philippines, the United States urges China to refrain from further provocative behavior by allowing the Philippines to continue to maintain its presence at Second Thomas Shoal (Ayungin Shoal),” she said. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters.

the u.s. asks china to ALLOW us to maintain our presence in ayungin.  ALLOW.  as in, PAYAGAN.  as if it were settled already, and we were needing china’s permission to stay in ayungin, never mind that it’s ours, it’s always been ours, and well within our territorial boundaries.  it would seem that the u.s. concedes, or gives weight, to china’s claim over ayungin.  ALLOW the philippines.  as if to humor us, sige na, hayaan na natin, it’s just for show anyway?  and this is okay with us?  judge america not by its words but by its actions?

and now lee kuan yew, no less, has weighed in, and he thinks china is seriously wanting to change the rules of the seas.

A resurgent China isn’t going to allow its sea boundaries to once again be decided by external parties. Therefore, I don’t believe the Chinese will submit their claims, which are based primarily on China’s historical presence in these waters, to be decided by rules that were defined at a time when China was weak. And China has judged that the U.S. won’t risk its present good relations with China over a dispute between the Philippines and China.

historical presence, all the way back to ancient times.  and lee kuan yew seems to think it has merit, sort of.  something to look into.  let’s compare historical presences, or something like that.  meanwhile, via facebook i asked china expert chito sta. romana what he thought of lee kuan yew’s take.  this is what he said.

Lee is a veteran in reading & interpreting China’s thinking. Hopefully the arbitral tribunal can provide legal clarity on the validity (or lack of it) of China’s so-called “historical rights” in light of UNCLOS.

do you think china is close to, if not yet at, a point of no return… yung hindi na aatras kasi it would mean losing face… is face still a factor at all, or is it a different concept of face na, globalized na?

I don’t think China is at a point of no return if you mean all-out war. China faces the bigger task of developing from a middle-income to a high-income economy, a war will only upset their economic plan. But China will not yield on what it considers as its “core issue” of sovereignty & territorial integrity. Unfortunately that is how they look at the Spratly & Scarborough issues (rightly or wrongly). Face partly explains why China is opposed to int’l arbitration, it wants quiet diplomacy to arrive (at) a negotiated settlement. But there is still a struggle going on within China between its Confucian face & its globalized face, and everyone hopes China will take the path of a responsible regional & global power.

sana nga.

but these are testy times astrologically (cardinal grand cross, mid- to late april), signifying dynamic changes for both the collective and the individual.  there’ll be an excess of energy all around that would need to be constructively channeled, in our case perhaps by engaging the nation, especially the media, mainstream and online, in a national conversation.  pagusapan natin sa tagalog, sa bisaya, sa ilokano, atbp. itong ginagawa sa atin ng china sa west ph sea.  pagusapan natin sa tv, sa radyo, sa dyaryo, sa internet, over lunch or dinner, sa opisina kahit over the watercooler or coffee man lang, sa mga pabrika kahit pabulong lang, at  sa mga tagayan sa kanto at tunggaan sa beergarden, sabay cheers to our fishermen and soldiers in our fishing grounds and outposts in the west ph sea.

dapat makarating sa ordinaryong mamamayan na sa dramang nagaganap between china and the philippines, hindi tayo ang nambubully, hindi tayo ang nagmamalaki, hindi tayo ang nagkakalat.

pag-usapan natin.  alamin natin kung ano talaga ang nangyayari at bakit.  only when we understand the matter fully, or even just adequately, can we creatively contribute to the discourse.  only when we can discuss it openly and credibly can we hope to participate in policy- and decision-making.  and who knows, once we have a handle on the situation, we might come up with media campaigns reaching out to the chinese, people to people, convincing them that bullying and reef-shoal-island-grabbing is just soooo uncool and uncivilized.

EDSA myths 2014

“Ang nag-udyok sa atin sa Edsa, ang nag-uudyok sa tuwing may sakunang tumulong sa isa’t isa, hindi dahil gusto nating lumamang o may pakinabang tayo dito…Sa nakakaraming Pilipino po, and pinakamalakas na naguudyok sa ating kumilos ay pagmamahal,” Aquino said in his nationwide televised speech.

(What led us to Edsa, what prompts us to help each other during times of disaster, is not because we want to get ahead or because it will benefit us…For many Filipinos, they were prompted to act because of love.)

The President, ditching his original speech, recalled how Filipinos united and succeeded in staging a peaceful Edsa People Power.

He also explained why it is appropriate to celebrate the restoration of democracy in Cebu.

“Kung ang huling yugto o huling kabanata sa Edsa, pwede nating masabi ang unang yugto nagsimula sa Cebu,” he said.

i beg to disagree.  what moved the people to EDSA 28 years ago was not the spirit of bayanihan or love-thy-neighbor in a season of natural disaster.  what moved the people to EDSA was the spirit of non-violent change in a season of political awareness and political change.

it was just 8 days since the batasan pambansa declared marcos the winner (despite serious and widespread allegations of cheating) in the snap election, 7 days since cory declared herself the rightful winner, mounted a giant protest, and called for the boycott of crony goods and services that by the 6th day, friday 21 feb, was seeing the economy reeling and the cronies freaking out.  cory was in cebu to spread the word, marcos’s days were numbered, next stop davao.

when ramos and enrile defected, the people were already in the throes of non-violent revolution, changing consumption habits, changing banks, changing newspapers, to bring down the crony economy and force marcos to step down.  what moved the people to go to EDSA, wearing and waving cory’s colors, was the prospect of furthering the split in the marcos military, perhaps winning the rebel military over to cory’s camp, and together pushing for an end to dictatorship and corruption and censorship.

i get it naman, the notion of taking EDSA celebrations to the visayas and mindanao.  what i don’t get is why it meant no celebrations in metromanila.  puwede namang ipagdiwang dito kahit wala ang presidente.

and yes, i get it, too, the nation is restive enough, things are in such a mess, everywhere you look there’s something terribly wrong that’s taking forever to make right, wiser to veer away from people power and revolution talk.

pero napakalungkot for nation that the president himself, whose family was, is, the biggest beneficiary of EDSA, has only added to the misinformation floating around for the last 28 years.  and, of course, certain opinion columnists have been quick to pounce, na okay lang naman if only these columnists were pushing facts and not myths.

Amando Doronila : … It was only after the bulk of the military establishment had defected to join the rebel forces in Camp Crame that Cory returned to Manila to reestablish her presence while the Marcos regime was crumbling swiftly. At this stage, Cory declared support for the Enrile-Ramos mutiny.

cory returned to manila the very next day after the enrile-ramos defection.  she was back by the time the people stopped the tanks in ortigas on EDSA sunday. [EDSA UNO…page 130]  defections started pouring into the rebel camps only on EDSA monday. [210]  cory declared support for the enrile-ramos mutiny even while she was in cebu, at a presscon in magellan hotel late sunday morning before she left for manila.

Bobit Avila : … We later learned over Radyo Bandido that it was the time when the Comelec computer programmers walked out of the PICC and Butz Aquino echoed the call of Jaime Cardinal Sin to march to EDSA to protect then Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile and Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos who were holed out in Camp Crame.

the walkout of the computer programmers took place on the 9th of february [40], a whole week before cory launched her non-violent civil disobedience and crony boycott campaign.  also, it was jaime cardinal sin who echoed the call of butz aquino, not the other way around.  butz issued his first call from camp aguinaldo at around 10:20 saturday night, asking the people to join him “to try and prevent bloodshed.” [86]  the cardinal made his first call at 10:40, ten minutes into the marcos presscon where the dictator accused the rebels of an aborted coup plot; the cardinal only said that it was all right to help the rebels with food and support IF the people wished, and asked them to pray with him that not a drop of blood be shed. [88-89]  it was at midnight, when butz and the tens of thousands of coryistas who had responded to his call were already marching from isetann toward the camps, that the cardinal went on the air again and categorically asked the people to go to the camps and support the rebels: “let us help them with our presence.” [101]  also, saturday night enrile and RAM were holed up in camp aguinaldo, ramos in camp crame, until they joined forces in crame sunday afternoon.

Kit Tatad : … the military mutiny, which drew entire families to Edsa following Cardinal Jaime Sin’s call for citizen support, had nothing to do with the results of the Feb. 7, 1986 snap presidential election, which Cory lost to Marcos. She had no part in the Edsa “revolt” and had in fact gone to Cebu to stay with some religious sisters and avoid getting sucked into the event.

Tony Lopez :… Corazon Cojuangco Aquino didn’t win the snap election of February 1986. It was won by strongman Ferdinand Marcos by a margin of 800,000 votes. In the Comelec-sanctioned official count, the legal and official winner was Marcos, by a margin of 1.7 million votes.

ah so, 800,000 votes lang ang winning margin ni marcos over cory.  minus the 350,000 that enrile said was the extent of the cheating in cagayan [74] leaves 450,000.  surely cagayan was not the only place where massive cheating took place, apart from the countless reports of vote-buying, terrorism, snatching of ballot boxes, inaccuracies in counting and tabulation, and the thousands of disenfranchised metro manila voters. [39]  in an honest and clean election, cory would no doubt have won.

Tony Lopez: … Initially, Cory Aquino didn’t have any participation in the four-day People Power revolt of Feb. 22-25, 1986 or EDSA I. She hid in a Cebu convent the first night. Enrile wanted to take over as President. But the RAM wanted a more acceptable political figure, Cory.

Emil Jurado : … For the record, Mrs. Aquino was never seen on Edsa even as she later became its beneficiary. Fidel Ramos, Juan Ponce Enrile and Gregorio Honasan simply decided to hand over power to her.

Kit Tatad : … when GTV-4 asked Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile whether he and his military associates would take the power after Marcos, he hastily (and imprudently, some believe) said no, they would give it to Cory.

for the record, u.s.t. history professor evelyn a. songco, whom i met at an EDSA symposium last feb 21, said she saw cory in EDSA on the afternoon of day 3, monday, confirming news reports of business day and manila bulletin back in feb 1986.  but even if cory had not gone to EDSA, i daresay it didn’t matter to the coryistas.  cory had done her part, EDSA was all about the people doing theirs, i.e., wooing the rebel military to cory’s side.

and yes, enrile wanted to take over as president — that’s what the aborted coup plot was all about (and the post-EDSA coup attempts) – but no, he didn’t give up the ambition easily or “simply,” and neither did RAM, thinking that the people would accept enrile as replacement to marcos yet not daring to go public with the offer.  until day 3, monday, they were pushing for a civilian-military junta that enrile would head along with cory.  but cory would not hear of it, and by monday night the enrile-RAM faction was reduced to demanding that the inauguration be held in camp crame for security reasons.  it got so bad that cory was not even expecting them to attend the club filipino affair, and seats had to be added to the presidential table when they arrived.

Kit Tatad : … Did Marcos fall and Cory Aquino take over, solely because of “people power” or because of Washington? Is it conceivable for a Filipino president to fall without US participation or consent?

u.s. president ronald reagan’s troubleshooter philip habib was in manila feb 15 to noon of the 22nd, and he could tell that something was about to break but wasn’t sure what.  the ramos-enrile defection caught the americans napping, people power knocked them out.  it was already day 3, the people had stopped tanks the day before, sotelo had defected that morning, and defections were finally pouring into the rebel camp, when the americans intervened in earnest, and only in the matter of marcos’s escape.  intelligence reports from the CIA re movements in and out of malacanang palace may have helped the rebel camp during the four days, but if the americans had stayed out of it, EDSA would have happened anyway, and it could have ended more decisively.

Efren Danao : … I believe that February 22 has a stronger claim to be named EDSA Day despite Cory’s absence. It was on February 22, 1986 that JPE, FVR and a small group of reformist groups withdrew their support for Marcos and made Camp Aguinaldo their base. They were all ready to die in the face of superior forces of the dictatorship. They refused to cower in fright in a safe sanctuary. It was also the first day that Jaime Cardinal Sin called on all freedom-loving Filipinos to go to Camp Aguinaldo. Definitely, danger was greatest and greater strength of conviction was needed on the very first day, February 22.

i believe that february 23 has the strongest claim to EDSA Day despite cory’s absence.  it was on feb 23 EDSA sunday, that the people marched to EDSA in huge numbers and discovered their awesome power to effect non-violent change when united by a common goal.  if not for the people’s courage and that awesome demonstration in ortigas sunday afternoon, cory and enrile would not have been compelled to rise above their differences and bow to the people’s will, even if only for those crucial days when the dictator was still around.

Ninez Cacho Olivares : … Edsa was started, not in Cebu, but in Edsa, the day before Enrile resigned as Marcos’ defense minister. The records prove it. Malaya, the then opposition newspaper, carried the story of Enrile’s resignation on the day Enrile and his RAMboys closeted themselves in Camp Crame and began the revolt agaisnt Marcos and his dictatorship.

ano daw?  EDSA started when the news came out in malaya that enrile had resigned and he and RAM closeted themselves in camp crame???  that’s camp aguinaldo ha.  and, really, who cared, who knew, if enrile resigned friday.  the people were already in revolt, it was the 7th day of the crony boycott.  people only started caring about enrile during the evening presscon when he admitted that they cheated cory in cagayan and that the 1972 ambush was staged.

Charlie Manalo :… the people’s discontent was already at boiling point then, the Marcos dictatorship was ready to be toppled anytime, the ruling class had to maneuver everything to bring the situation to its advantage. It had to hijack the people’s movement to ensure they would still be in control of the situation. And that resulted in the failed coup by Enrile. … Hence, Enrile’s failed act is an action totally separate from the growing people’s movement. In fact, had the coup succeeded, it was not meant to benefit Cory. But as the Church and other organization started to extend support to Enrile’s beleaguered forces, a compromise has to be made and Enrile had to relinquish any plan to grab power and offer the presidency to someone who wasn’t even there.

how convoluted and obfuscatory naman.  in fact, the ruling class maneuvering to hijack the people’s movement was exactly what enrile and RAM were up to when they planned the coup, and failing that, when they defected and tried to win the support of the people.  if the RAM coup had pushed through and succeeded in deposing marcos, enrile would have been in a position to publicly challenge cory for the presidency.  but i imagine that cory would have been unfazed, gone on to davao from cebu, continued adding to the list of crony companies to boycott, and the people would have been happy to oblige.  in the end, enrile would have had to step aside anyway.

Conrado de Quiros : .. Maybe the relocation of Edsa to Fuente Osmeña reinterpreted Edsa, rewrote Edsa, revised Edsa—but what of it? Maybe it wasn’t just time that Edsa was relocated elsewhere, maybe it was time Edsa itself was retold. Because what we’ve had over the last 28 years was really pretty much a reinterpreted Edsa, a rewritten Edsa, a revised Edsa. Maybe it was time we reinterpreted the reinterpretation, rewrote what had already been rewritten, revised the revised version. To correct it, to rectify it, to stand it on its feet and not on its head.

what of it ?!?!?

if the politicos with the help of the media had not reinterpreted, rewrote, revised EDSA…  if they had not dignified false claims that it was the handiwork of the americans, of the rebel military, even of the virgin mary, effectively diminishing the role of the people …  if the people had had a better sense of what happpened behind the scenes and how it was their non-violent actions on EDSA that compelled, nay, forced, cory and enrile to join forces against the dictator…  then the people might have remained vigilant post-EDSA rather than de-activating, rather than trusting that cory and her cabinet would right all wrongs and we could live happily ever after…  then that could have been a truly revolutionary government and we would now be in a different space and time.