people power redux

yes, we are thoroughly appalled by the president’s (mis)handling of mamasapano and distressed by his continuing silence.  it’s as if he’s incognizant of the public outrage, or is he just disdainful of, and so refuses to dignify, the widespread sentiment that he owes the nation an explanation for his actions, and non-actions, and their consequences.

or maybe it’s all deliberate, keeping us in the dark, on fractious mode — the lack of credible information preventing intelligent and constructive discussion that might lead to consensus?

whatever, the fact remains that neither the Left (teddy casino atbp.) nor the Right (norberto gonzales, peping cojuangco, the mitsubishops, atbp.) nor any coalition of anti-aquino forces is capable of summoning the kind of people power it would take to compel the president to step down.  in 1986 anti-marcos forces were solidly behind cory as replacement, and that makes all the difference.

if the Left and the Right truly care about moving the nation forward from mamasapano with some really hard lessons learned, they would be echoing, adding their voices to, the people’s demand that the president come out, come clean, give us a candid account of his role, and america’s, in oplan exodus.

we don’t want the president to step down, we want the president to tell us what really happened and why he couldn’t stop it from turning out so badly.  we don’t want the president to step down, we want the president to empower us with the information we need to ask informed questions and make informed decisions come 2016.  we don’t want the president to step down, we want the president to tell all, now na, or, okay, on feb 25 at the latest.

in EDSA 1986 cory was compelled to reconcile differences with enrile, and vice versa, in order to achieve marcos’s ouster.  this EDSA anniversary seems like a good time for noynoy to reconcile differences with a nation that would forgive him naman.  then, just maybe, history will remember him kindly, warts and all.

25 ways to say you’re sorry

By Katrina S.S.

I AM not sold on the idea of asking the President to resign.

Because he won’t. And no amount of pressure will make him do it. This is the same man whose government mishandled the preparations for and the aftermath of the strongest storm to ever make landfall in the world. A storm that killed thousands of Filipinos, displaced countless others, ravaged whole towns and provinces. The President and his cabinet did not resign post-Haiyan/Yolanda. Why do we imagine that they’d even resign now?

Read on…

“actionable intelligence”

feb 11 i caught US president barack obama on CNN explaining his admin’s draft resolution to the US congress for authority to use force against ISIL.

OBAMA: If we had actionable intelligence about a gathering of ISIL leaders, and our partners didn’t have the capacity to get them, I would be prepared to order our Special Forces to take action, because I will not allow these terrorists to have a safe haven. [emphasis mine]

actionable intelligence!  it rang a bell.  i was sure i heard president aquino use the very same words to justify the mamasapano ops.  googled it and, yes, the very same words, when he addressed the nation for the first time 29 january re mamasapano.

“[N]ang nalaman ng ating kapulisan ang tutok na lokasyon nina Marwan at Usman, nagdesisyon silang kumilos upang ipatupad ang mga warrant sa mga ito. Actionable intelligence po ang nakalap ng ating mga awtoridad: Hindi lamang rehiyon, o probinsiya, o munisipyo ang natukoy nila, kundi ang mismong mga bahay na pinagtataguan ng dalawa. Kung hindi aaksiyunan ang kaalamang ito, maaaring makatakas sina Marwan at Usman, at kakailanganin na namang simulan ang mahabang proseso ng paghahanap sa kanila.

and just last wednesday feb 11, the very same day obama talked “actionable intelligence” vis a vis ISIL, palace spokesman edwin lacierda invoked the same to explain why presidential bff purisima remained in the loop despite his suspension from office by the ombudsman last december 2014:

“He (Purisima) had the actionable intelligence. That was the role that he had,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said in a press briefing.

“actionable intelligence” was first used by presidential candidate obama in august 2007  amid debate in Washington over al qaeda and taliban resurgence in  northwest pakistan that president pervez musharraf was unable to control.

“If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will,” Obama said. 

upon the killing of osama bin laden by US operatives in may 2o11, a senior administration official said in a press briefing:

I would also just add to that that President Obama, over a period of several years now, has repeatedly made it clear that if we had actionable intelligence about Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts, we would act. So President Obama has been very clear in delivering that message publicly over a period of years. And that’s what led President Obama to order this operation. When he determined that the intelligence was actionable and the intelligence case was sufficient, he gave us high confidence that bin Laden indeed was at the compound.

it would seem — given obama’s words to the effect that the US is prepared to take action should a “partner” prove incapable of acting on actionable intelligence — that president aquino really had no choice but to allow the mamasapano ops when he did, with purisima in the lead, since it was purisima with whom the americans were sharing the actionable info.  if the prez and purisima had waited too long, at naka-eskapo ang mga terorista, nagalit tiyak ang amerika, and who knows  how that would have affected our foreign and political and security affairs.

naka-eskapo nga si usman, pero patay naman daw si marwan, and the americans may be seeing the glass as half-full, but which brings us back to the finger.  i suppose that by now congress is privy to napenas’ story about why and how it was turned over to the americans almost immediately, it would seem, defying all protocol.  i suppose, too, that our senators and congresspeeps will not be sharing the transcript of those executive sessions with us ordinary citizens, which would mean that these allegedly honourable ones would be complicit in the cover-up.

a cover-up na nakaka-offend because it’s like they’re saying that we can’t handle the truth about america and our lopsided “special relations.”  as if we haven’t known all along.

they think we’re all idiots.  no actionable intelligence for us.

the finger, house of reps hearing

watching house of reps hearing on mamasapano on cable tv, and rep  neil tupas tries to do the senate better.  asks napenas about marwan’s finger.  napenas asks for executive session.

tupas:  i want you to answer that… i don’t think it involves national security… i insist! … kanino binigay? saan? kelan?

biazon: naional security not at stake…  this is administrative … may i remind resource person, a resource person who refuses tro answer  … could be subject to contempt!

tupas:  and i will move to cite the resource person for contempt if he refuses to answer!

napenas:  lives of personnel will be put in danger.

tupas and biazon back off.