Is the Ateneo de Manila University engaging in patronage politics by siding with the Aquinos?

March 4, 2016

by Ilda

 

Teachers should be teaching children how to think, not what to think. There is enough evidence to suggest that some teachers in the Philippines are not teaching children how to use their critical analysis faculties and are not nurturing them to become more independent thinkers. Recent statements made by the members of the Ateneo de Manila University faculty are proof of this.

The Ateneo community has yet to condemn atrocities and thievery perpetrated by the Aquino regime.

A news report says that “more than 400 faculty members and formators of the Ateneo de Manila University have signed a statement refusing the historical revisionism of the Martial Law years.  The act is in response to Sen. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s statement that history should be left to historians and those who study the country’s history.” Here are excerpts from their statement:

“We vow as teachers and formators to continue to tell the stories of the brutality and corruption of the Marcos family, regime, and closest allies,” the statement reads. “For as long as we remember and share these stories, we believe that future generations of Filipinos will learn the lessons of the years of struggle leading to the overthrow of the dictatorship during those historic days of the People Power Revolution in 1986.”

Before we dissect the above statements, first of all, I think the faculty members are overreacting. I searched the Net and did not find a statement from Senator Bongbong Marcos denying that the atrocities during the Martial Law years happened. Second, the so-called atrocities that transpired during his father’s term, the late former President Ferdinand Marcos, should not be blamed on the Marcos children. They were not in control of the Philippine military and the police then. To blame it on the Marcos children is tantamount to saying that children of criminals should be blamed for the atrocities their father or mother committed. As columnist Emil Jurado of the Manila Standard mentioned, Filipinos did not blame the late senator Ninoy Aquino for his father’s treacherous activities during the Japanese occupation in World War II:

Santa Banana, I cannot believe that BS Aquino does not remember that his grandfather, Benigno Aquino Sr., father of Ninoy, was the head of the Makapili Movement during the almost four-year Japanese occupation of the Philippines.
The Makapilis pointed to and turned over alleged collaborators for the Japanese Kempeitais to arrest, imprison, torture, and then killed. My family was afraid that we, too, would be pinpointed.
Did we, as a people, take against the late Ninoy Aquino that fact that his late father headed the Makapili movement? We did not. In fact, we honor Ninoy as a political martyr when he was assassinated in 1983. And the Aquinos—the late Cory and her son, BS Aquino —became the beneficiaries of Edsa 1.
I still recall when my family saw two well-known Abra personalities beheaded by the Japanese. Members of the dreaded Makapili Movement identified them as collaborators.

Some people are saying the blood of a traitor runs through current President Benigno Simeon Aquino III’s veins.  And this is evident in the way he negotiated with a Muslim terrorist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, without Congress’s approval. He almost got away with giving parts of Mindanao to a terror group allegedly as a front for a Malaysian takeover of the territory.

Now let us begin to dissect the statement from the Ateneo faculty members. In their statement, they mentioned “brutality and corruption of the Marcos family, regime and closest allies.”  Which family members are they talking about? Do they have proof that the children, Imee, Bongbong and Irene had something to do with the extra-judicial killings and thievery that happened during their father’s term? If they do, why can’t they bring them to court? Some of us are also curious to know if they should be held accountable once and for all.

Illustrious Ateneo alumnus: Should Filipinos blame President BS Aquino for his grandfather’s treason in World War II?

Otherwise, the Ateneo faculty members come across as a desperate group of people who do not know who to run to anymore. Their action says a lot about the lack of justice in the Philippines – lack of justice for both the victims and the accused.

How can supposedly educated people like them go on and on accusing the Marcoses of atrocities when the latter haven’t been tried in court? I know what some of you are going to say. You’ll say that just because the court hasn’t found them guilty doesn’t mean they are not. But what has become of Philippine society when Filipinos are reduced to judging others based on hearsay? At least BS Aquino’s grandfather was actually tried and found guilty of treason. It is something that media owned and operated by Aquino allies do not want to highlight.

And which closest Marcos allies are the Ateneo faculty members talking about? As far as I know, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile and former President Fidel Ramos were Marcos allies during the Martial Law years but both also became Aquino allies after Marcos, Sr was ousted. As Manila Times columnist Rigoberto Tiglao wrote, “Enrile served officially as Martial Law administrator and Defense Secretary in charge of all the armed forces’ services during that time. Fidel V. Ramos, who later became President of the Philippines, was director of both the Philippine Constabulary (PC) and Philippine Integrated Police (PIP) during the Martial Law days”.

Suffice to say, the members of the Ateneo faculty are not using their critical analysis skills in dealing with the Marcoses. They are, instead, allowing their irrational bias towards the Aquinos to rule their thinking. A lot of people are baffled as to why they are not speaking out against the atrocities committed during the two Aquino regimes – Cory and BS Aquino’s term. It’s not like the extra-judicial killings had stopped after Martial Law. Military and police abuses still happened during Cory’s term and are still happening today during her son’s term.

Ateneo students seem to apply a more open mind to the Marcos family than their teachers.

Again, media allied with the Aquinos do not highlight the atrocities enough for some reason we can only guess. Just recently, members of the indigenous group known as the Lumads in Mindanao have been crying out for help against abuses allegedly committed against them by groups said to be trained and armed by the military. The Lumads are being systematically forced out of their native lands allegedly to give way to a mining company.

Make no mistake; there are a lot of Filipinos who are still struggling today. Unfortunately, we hardly hear from groups such as the faculty members of the Ateneo de Manila University speaking out against atrocities and methodical thievery by current public servants including BS Aquino’s own Cabinet members. They choose to advocate something they can’t do anything about. Some say they can’t speak ill of BS Aquino because he is an alumnus. That says a lot about the kind of people running the University – they are into patronage politics. In other words, they don’t seem to be fighting for the interests of Filipinos but only for the interests of their own kind. I would advice the students enrolled in that school to avoid taking what members of the faculty say seriously outside of their course curriculum. It’s not good for their own mental faculties.

Foreigner: Pinoy Inability to Improve is due to Escapism

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Borrowed from Outside — No Comments ↓

*This was taken from a status update of a foreigner. Names withheld and disguised to protect their privacy.

---

So, tonight after some grocery shopping, my personal assistant named Pilar asked me if I could stop by Cebuana for her so she could send money home for her brother’s wedding. This is to buy some Lechon as her contribution to the wedding.

After parking my car and paying the “Man with the whistle” (some random guy who has staked out a public parking area with a whistle, who demands you pay him 20 pesos to park or he will damage your car), running the gauntlet of baklas, hookers and lady boys on the corner, and then crossing the street whilst being accosted by beggars and street kids (mostly abandoned orphans working for syndicates), and having pushy street vendors try to sell me Chinese Viagra and cigarettes, along with their sisters, I started to think that there is something, very, very wrong with Philippine Culture.

If people have no money to get married, why are they getting married? If people have no money to support themselves, why have children they can’t afford to feed? If there are no jobs for so many people, why put up road blocks to foreign investment? Why block investment if it means better lives and opportunities for the citizens of this country? I cannot understand Filipino Nationalism when all it does is protect the ultra wealthy and promote this sort of tragic human theater of the absurd…. to take things to the extreme, today is “Ash Wednesday” and when you see hookers with the mark of the cross, written in ash on their foreheads, whilst selling their bodies on the streets…it says something about how far off the rails this place has gone. Most of these girls are single mothers, with a host of parasitic relatives feeding off their illicit toils.

The Government and its many bureaucratic arms are simply a huge tribe of inefficient trolls, finding ways to charge the poor downtrodden Filipino needless clearance “fees” for services they don’t need. When a religious procession for a black block of wood, wearing a dress, can drag hundreds of thousands of “devotees” into the streets in a frenzy of religious rapture, but a march organized to protest the theft of tens of Billions of Pesos by Congressmen and Senators can barely raise the interests of more than a few thousand, there is something very, very wrong with the priorities of the average Filipino. Has the Oligarchy, the Church and the Political Elite managed to make the Filipino so accepting of their lot in life that they simply cannot reason anymore, are they so used to the abnormal being normal that they have become completely apathetic and indifferent to the pathetic situation they find themselves in?

Like Martin Luther King Jr., I have a dream….but…since I’m not a Filipino…it doesn’t really matter what I dream of, or hope, for the Philippines. What matters is what the Filipino dreams about his/her own country, and what action he or she takes to fix the situation. The Civil Rights Movement in the US was a watershed event for that nation, as was the EDSA 1 “People Power” Revolution here. The oppressed rose up to say “enough is enough”, unfortunately, I don’t see that happening here again.

What I see is indifference, tolerance and acceptance by the oppressed, who, it would appear, are far more interested in watching telenovelas and Vice Ganda on “Showtime”, than marching in the streets to demand accountability. It seems the Philippines and the poor Filipino, is destined to spend eternity lurching from one crisis to the next, being led by one useless administration after another. What a tragedy… a horrible tragedy… and most of them are such nice people too…

---

Editor’s note:

This “indifference, tolerance, acceptance by the oppressed” (words of the foreigner) and by those who are in a position to change things is a result of the Filipino tendency towards Escapism. Like the kid in the photo (Source: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images AsiaPac) who is sniffing glue with nail polish in a plastic bag in order to forget his troubles, Filipinos are generally predisposed to “sweep problems under the rug” and pretend they do not exist. Underneath the positive stereotype that “Filipinos are a happy people” is the ugly and painful Truth that Filipinos are an Escapist People who pretend that their problems do not exist by distracting themselves with different things (sometimes combining two or more of them): religious fanaticism, entertainment, alcohol, or vices.

Even the Wealthy Elites who are supposed to be in a position to actually do something about the problem just prefer to retreat into their posh enclaves, pretending that the poverty, misery, and suffering around them is just a figment of their imagination. In some cases, there are sinister ones among these elites, the Kakistocratic selfish oligarchs, who want to keep the situation the way it is because they are at least happy to be at the top, fearing that reforms would cause them to lose whatever advantages they currently enjoy. This again reveals a dearth of analytical abilities among even the most educated and supposed advantaged Filipinos because they fail to see that the much needed reforms that would create inclusive growth are actually to their advantage in the bigger scheme of things.

The small mindedness of these oligarchs is such that they see only the short term “small picture” advantages they think they have as the 1987 Constitution and the laws of the Philippines continue to favor and protect them through all sorts of protectionist clauses designed to keep the Philippine Economy their own private turf and keep out honest and competent foreign direct investors who could have provided more jobs for ordinary people.

The oligarchs only see the small picture. They fail to see that the poverty around them is caused by the massive unemployment that these protectionist clauses spawned. They fail to see that this massive poverty actually poses a threat against the lavish lifestyles most of them enjoy. After all, despite the walls around their posh neighborhoods, do they really think that the poor squatters cannot breach those walls? Do they not realize that their maids, security guards, cooks, gardeners, and other workers come from the ranks of the poor? Do they not see that if the dire situation continues, they might actually lose it all?

Filipinos may seem to be a tolerant and indifferent people, but there are limits to this tolerance. Escapism can’t always keep their anger at bay. Like the Malays and Indonesians, Filipinos may be slow to anger, but when things get so bad, something can snap and the release of anger can and will lead people to “run amok” (aka “amuck”), a result of the Pinoy, Malay, and Indonesian tendency to want to “keep cool” and thus suppress whatever negativity they may feel. That they may not express such anger so easily and keep smiling on the outside doesn’t at all mean that the anger is not there or that the anger has dissipated. Not at all. The tendency towards anger has just been suppressed and placed in the deep recesses of their psyche, waiting and waiting and waiting until a certain limit is breached. There wouldn’t be a transition. It would simply be a sudden release of massive anger. And that’s when all hell breaks lose when one runs amok.

The walls that currently protect Forbes Park, Dasmariñas Village, and Bel Air, will never be high or strong enough to keep poor people who are running amok out. As mentioned, people from among the poor live and work among them inside their cute little enclaves as maids, drivers, gardners, etc. Where will their sympathies lie if their own relatives are among those who suffer the lousiness of massive unemployment that are ultimately caused by the inability of foreign direct investors to come in, create jobs, and ease the massive poverty that has forced more than 10 million Filipinos to find jobs abroad?

See, it’s not just the poor who are escapist… The Filipino Oligarchs are unrepentant escapists as well. They often pretend to themselves that they do not see the poverty and suffering around them. They desperately try to pretend that they live in the First World. They pretend that the 60/40 and other anti-FDI restrictions that they and those who came before them put up are serving them well. They forget to see that these restrictions simply widen the gulf between them and the extremely impoverished Filipinos whom they pretend are not people.

They also pretend not to see that FDI-induced inclusive growth, one which creates enough decent-paying jobs to allow the poor to rise up to become members of a new middle class and new rich in great numbers, is actually to their advantage. Filipino Oligarchs currently do enjoy a monopoly and an advantage. When the restrictions are removed and the foreign direct investors come in, don’t they realize that their companies are already well-positioned to be the suppliers that the MNCs and foreign direct investors will buy goods and services from when they start coming in and setting up?

Don’t these oligarchs see that when the foreign direct investors and MNCs start coming in en masse to build factories, it is the oligarch-owned construction companies who will be among the first to be contracted?

Don’t these oligarchs see that when the foreign direct investors and MNCs start coming in en masse and creating lots and lots of jobs for ordinary Filipinos, these Filipinos will now have incomes that will allow them to spend more on the products and services that oligarchs’ companies sell?

Don’t these oligarchs see that when the foreign direct investors and MNCs start coming in en masse and creating lots and lots of jobs for millions of poor Filipinos, these poor Filipinos will eventually cease to be poor, become new members of the middle class and nouveau riche and whatever resentment towards wealth and the oligarchs they once had will cease to exist?

Don’t these oligarchs see that when restrictions against FDI are removed and foreign direct investors and MNCs start coming in en masse and creating lots and lots of jobs for millions of poor Filipinos, crime will go down, security will improve, and the oligarchs will now be more able to enjoy living their lives the way rich and sophisticated people are supposed to live — able to freely dress up, ride fancy cars around town, and take leisurely strolls out in the open — without fearing for their lives or loss of property? (In places like Singapore, this is the case: the richest people can live the way rich people are supposed to live: driving fancy cars, taking leisurely strolls in public places without fear)

Escapism, narrow-mindedness, and short-term thinking aren’t limited only to the poor in the Philippines. At least in the Philippines, poor Filipinos have an excuse: they are way too focused on the short term to think of anything else.

For the Wealthy Filipino Oligarchs, what is their excuse for escapism, narrow-mindedness, and the kind of short-term thinking that is evidenced by many among them like Jose Ma. Montelibano, Winnie Monsod, Noynoy Aquino and others to keep fighting against Constitutional Reform and economic liberalization?

The Oligarchs have no excuse. Small-minded Selfishness can be overcome by simply taking a step back, looking at the bigger picture, and learning about what the fastest-growing economies of the world have done and are currently doing in order to promote inclusive job-creating economic growth that helps everyone: both the poor and the rich oligarchs alike.

Ang Hagupit ng Bagyong Yolanda

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Charles Judiel Baynas — No Comments ↓

Noong ika – pito ng buwan ng Nobyembre ng taong 2013, ang Republika ng Pilipinas ay nakaranas ng hagupit ng isang malakas na bagyo na may pangalang local na “Yolanda” at pangalang internasyonal na “Haiyan”. Humagupit ito sa iilang kapuluan ng Kabisayaan na nag-iwan ng Kalunos-lunos na trahedya tulad ng pagkasira ng mga impraestruktura, at buhay ng mga kababayan nating Bisaya. Ang lawak ng bagyong ito ay sinakop ang buong Pilipinas. May lakas ito ng halos ika-anim na uri ng Hurricane ayon sa mga Amerikano at ito na ang pinakamalakas na bagyo na naitala sa buong kasaysayan ng mundo.

Dahil sa hagupit ng Bagyong Yolanda, nakaranas tayo ng Pambansang kalamidad. Marami ang nagdusa. Nakita ito ng buong mundo kaya ang mga iba’t ibang bansa at organisasyong pandaigdigan ay sumugod para tumulong. Nakatanggap tayo ng napakaraming tulong mula sa kanila sa anumang paraan. Pero, ang iilan sa kanila ay pilit inilalayo nila mula sa pamahalaan ang tulong na para sa mga nasalanta. Bakit? Kasi sa irresponsabilidad ng pambansang pamahalaan na rumesponde sa mga nasalanta nang agaran tulad ng pag-responde nang agaran ng ibang dayuhang pamahalaan sa panahon ng kalamidad. Pilit na isinisisi nito ng pambansang pamahalaan sa mahihirap, mahihina at nasalantang lokal na pamahalaan ng mga lugar na binagyo samantalang sira na ang buong sakop ng mga ito. May kakulangan din ang mga ito sa mga equipment na makakatulong sa pagkuha ng mga nakakalat na labi ng mga namatay sa bagyo at sa mga nakaharang nan a kalat sa mga kalsada na magagamit sana sa paghatid ng mga tulong sa mga nasalanta.

Ang hindi naiintindihan ng pamahalaang pambansa ay walang malakas na awtonomiya ang mga lokal na pamahalaan kaya mahihirap at mahihina lamang ang mga ito. Nasalanta rin ang lokal na pamahalaan at sila pa ang humihihingi ng tulong mula sa pambansang pamahalaan. Hindi rin makacommunicate ang mga kawani ng lokal na pamahalaan sa pambansang pamahalaan tungkol sa mga tulong na kailangan nila dahil nawalan din ng linya ng komunikasyon sa mga nasalantang lugar ng iilang araw. Dapat kasi, rumesponde na agad ang pambansang pamahalaan kahit nung hindi pa binabagyo ang mga lugar na binagyo at nagpadala na ng kakailanganing tulong para hindi na sana masyado naghirap ang mga lokal na pamahalaan at ang mga taong sakop nito. Tsaka, kung meron lang ding sapat na awtonomiya ang mga lokal na pamahalaan sa pamamagitan ng Region-based decentralization edi sana, nakapaghanda na rin ng maayos ang mga ito sa una pa lamang. Mabilis din dapat na rumesponde ang pamahalaang pambansa at naipadala na dapat ang ikalawang sapat na supplies at generator sa mga lokal na pamahalaan lalung-lalo na sa mga ospital. Matuto rin sana tayo sa mga naunang kalamidad doon sa bansang Hapon at Amerika sa kung paano sila rumesponde pagkatapos ang kalamidad, buti pa doon organisado ang pagresponde. Hindi din dapat puro sisihan na lamang sa mga lokal na pamahalaan ang mabagal na pagresponde ng mga ito dahil sa nasalanta rin ito ng bagyo at dahil responsibilidad na rin ng pambansang pamahalaan ang pamamahagi ng tulong sa mga taong nasalanta ng bagyo.

Nakita rin natin na may kawalan din ng seguridad ang pagpapadala ng tulong sa mga binagyong lugar kaya muntikan na rin itong sugurin ng mga rebeldeng komunista at iilan pang armadong grupo na papabalita sa telebisyon. Nagkaroon pa ng kaguluhan sa mga iilang lugar tulad ng Tacloban na parang walang namumuno doon. Dahil na rin ito sa nasalanta ang lokal na pamahalaan na bahagyang nagdulot ng pansamantalang pagkaparalisado nito. Dapat ding kasi, nagpadala na rin ng maraming sundalo at karagdagang pulis sa mga lugar na binagyo para mapanatili ang kaayusan doon nang agaran kahit nung unang araw pa lamang pagkatapos masalanta ng bagyo ang mga lugar na iyon.

Karapat-dapat na ituring nating Pambansang Kalamidad ito dahil sa laki ng epekto na iniwan ng bagyong ito. Hanggang ngayon, hindi pa rin nakakabangon ang mga nasalanta at karamihan sa kanila ay nag-evacuate na sa ibang lugar dahil sa kalunos-lunos na iniwan ng bagyong Yolanda doon. Mas mapapabilis din ang pagbangon ng mga lugar na nasalanta kung walang mga pang-ekonomiyang paghihigpit sa pagmamay-ari ng negosyo na nakasaad sa saligang batas dahil ang mga Lokal na namumuhunan ay hindi sapat dahil sa napakalaking pagkaluray at pagkawala ng impraestraktura na nagreresulta mula sa mamamatay-bagyong ito. Patuloy pa rin ang pagdating ng mga tulong mula sa iba’t ibang bansa at sa ngalan ng aking mga kababayan, ako’y lubos na nagpapasalamat sa mga tulong na iyon.

* * * *

Kung nais niyo pong malaman kung anu-ano nga ba ang ginawa dapat ng Pangulo ng Pilipinas matapos tumama ang bagyo, basahin na lang po ito.

* * * *

Si Charles Judiel Baynas ay isang mag-aaral ng ika-apat na taon sa  paaralang sekundarya taong 2013-2014 sa Greenland Academy, Cainta, Rizal na sa murang edad ay may interes at kaalaman sa mga bagay na may kinalaman sa araling ekonomika, agham pampulitika, kasaysayang pandaigdigan at kasaysayang Pilipino. Siya ay isang aktibong kasapi ng Kilusang CoRRECT™ at naitalaga bilang isa sa mga taga-organisa ng Youth wing ng nasabing kilusan.

Bilang anak ng isang OFW, namulat siya sa kahirapan na nararanasan sa Bansang Pilipinas dahil sa kakulangan ng trabaho sa loob ng bansa na siyang dahilan ng kaniyang pansamatalang pagkawalay sa kanyang ina na nagtratrabaho sa ibang bansa bilang O.R. Nurse. May hangad siya na magbago ang paraan ng pamamalakad sa Pilipinas para sa ikauunlad ng bansa. Siya ay isang Federalistang Pilipino.

The TRUTH about Martial Law: Young Filipinos no longer believe that it was all bad!

March 3, 2016

by benign0

 

The war for minds surrounding the 2016 elections now seems to be centred on how the last 30 years of “freedom” that was “won” in 1986 stacks up against the 20-year Martial Law regime of former President Ferdinand Marcos. You can see it in how much “lest we forget” messages that aim to “educate” the Filipino youth about the “evils” of Martial Law now flood both new and traditional media timelines and headlines.

Recently, the Ateneo de Manila faculty issued a statatement that was signed by “more than 400 faculty members and formators” condemning the “historical revisionism” surrounding the Martial Law years allegedly being perpetrated by vice presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos…

“We vow as teachers and formators to continue to tell the stories of the brutality and corruption of the Marcos family, regime, and closest allies,” the statement reads. “For as long as we remember and share these stories, we believe that future generations of Filipinos will learn the lessons of the years of struggle leading to the overthrow of the dictatorship during those historic days of the People Power Revolution in 1986.”

Ateneans strike a pose with former First Lady Imelda Marcos.

Unfortunately for anti-Marcos “activists” like the Ateneo faculty, in this instance, the Philippines’ youth have long turned a jaded eye towards the tired old notion that all the Philippines’ failings can be traced back to the Marcos regime. Indeed, quite amusingly, the Ateneo found itself in the middle of a media circus after its students were caught on camera taking selfies with former First Lady Imelda Marcos.

 

Much of the Philippines’ vast voter base is made up of young people — many of whom were not even born during the height of anti-Marcos rhetoric in the years immediately following the 1986 ‘people power revolution’ that ousted the late President Marcos. Instead, they came of age in a period marked by widespread failure under the watch of a direct heir of the “heroes” of that revolution — current Philippine President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III — to make good on the promise of a better Philippines following the fall of the “Evil One”.

Where we are now, as such, comes as no surprise. One cannot blame Filipinos today for scrutinising the whole Marcos-Bad-Yellow-Good narrative through a more critical lens. One specific aspect of this old narrative has to do with who these so-called “Martial Law victims” really are. Anti-Marcos activists would have us believe that Marcos chaired a murderous and even genocidal regime that was bent on torturing and gunning down heretics Taliban-style. In short, anti-Marcos “activists” assert that most of Marcos’s so-called “victims” were all hapless innocents randomly picked up from the streets after having uttered the slightest plea to differ on even the most minor aspect of the Marcosian dogma we are told existed at the time.

In a Facebook post, De La Salle University professor Antonio Contreras begs to the contrary and opts to check himself out of the prevailing groupthink that has come to regard the Martial Law years as “a monolithic narrative of terror and suffering”…

To blame the complex system of pain and suffering to one man, and one tainted surname, would be too simplistic. Doing so is simply falling into the game of political opportunists who would like to turn a significant period of our history as simply a duel between two oligarchic dynasties.

More specifically, Contreras asserts that, for the most part, the victims of these alleged atrocities are not as innocent as they are made out to be but were combatants of their chosen ideologies (many of which espoused a violent destruction of the state). They were, Contreras writes, “casualties” of their “ideological choices”.

Manila Times columnist Bobi Tiglao too wrote that it is time that the alleged victims of Martial Law atrocities themselves be honest about what really happened. Tiglao himself was imprisoned under the Marcos regime but wrote…

There were indisputably human rights violations during Martial Law, even the most despicable ones. Many of my close friends were killed by the military or the constabulary in their mid-twenties. However, I would blame Communist chief Jose Ma. Sison for many of those deaths because he deployed those men who were barely out of their teens to foment unrest and revolt in the countryside, telling them that the masses had been roused to revolution because of Martial Law. They were very poorly armed, and were killed not even by the military but by police and militias who thought they were bandits.

Still alive: Then Philippine Constabulary chief Gen. Fidel Ramos led the dreaded ‘anti-subversion’ unit of the Martial Law regime.

Even more interesting, the chief executors of Martial Law atrocities — then Philippine Constabulary chief Gen.Fidel Ramos and then Minister of Defense Juan Ponce Enrile — remain alive and are even revered as elder statesmen today. Tiglao points out that they were more directly associated with his horrible experiences under Martial Law than Bongbong Marcos ever could be…

The arrest orders against me and my late wife, Raquel, were issued by Ramos, who was, would you believe, PC Chief from 1970 to 1986. It was the PC’s top anti-subversive unit, the 5th Constabulary Security Unit (which also captured Communist chief Jose Sison and most of the Party’s leaders) that arrested us, with one of their tall burly soldiers beating me up.

We were incarcerated for nearly two years, early 1973 to Christmas 1974, in Camp Aguinaldo and Fort Bonifacio special prisons that were under the supervision of Martial Law administrator Enrile, so I should blame him for the scars of the boils I got on my body because of the malnutrition and unhygienic conditions in those prisons.

Still alive: Then Minister of Defense, Juan Ponce Enrile was the architect of Martial Law.

Why then is Senator Bongbong Marcos the singular object of vilification and hate being issued by so-called “activists” calling for “justice” while the chief henchmen who not only were adults at the time but were leaders of the Martial Law machine walk free?

 

Perhaps Filipinos should start listening to people who were actually there rather than to has-been celebrities like Jim Paredes and Leah Navarro who lorded it over Manila’s burgis society in the 1970s and were as oblivious to the “atrocities” they now harp about as old farts today as the next conyo kid was back then.

Tiglao, on the other hand, actually was there and has spoken. When will others speak out and confirm to us that the Yellow Mob of President BS Aquino and his ilk have been outright lying to Filipinos all this time? Mr Ramos and Mr Enrile, what say you?

Filipinos, for their part, need to learn how to think and not just parrot old idiotic slogans. If they want a true democracy, they must earn the right to exercise their freedom by applying themselves to democratic practice in a mature and intelligent manner. In the process of aspiring to that ideal, they should start getting rid of old discredited ideas and move on.

Lifes Offerings 

December 9, 2015

The Aquino Family And Their History of Lies And Deception

Posted By: Jacques Phillip

So much has been said about the Aquino family. That like the Marcos bunch. No one has a clue of the truth any more. But here’s the ironic part of what happens when the history books are written by the so-called victors. And in the case of these two families. This it what the people have either been taught, or shielded. All the people have been taught that the Aquino name represents good. And the Marcos name is bad. And here is where it gets interesting.

The Marcos era is pretty much remembered for Martial Law. The alleged human rights atrocities. And supposedly stealing from the nations coffers. Now, while Martial Law was between 1972-81. Yet no one ever seems to talk about what occurred between 1965-72. In short. The Philippines saw massive infrastructure projects that weren’t matched by his combined predecessors. Nor improved upon, since the EDSA1 disaster of 1986.

On the Aquino side of things. The history books paint them as some kind of saintly goody goody crew, that could do no wrong. On the contrary, a little homework paints a completely different picture. One of deceit, collaboration, and Communist ideals.

The following focuses upon the two generations prior to the seriously faulty activities of current President, BS Aquino III.

Benigno Aquino Sr. Collaborated With The Axis Powers

It’s strange you know. When President Aquino went to Japan, he actually went as far as to compare the People’s Republic of China to Nazi Germany. However, if you take a look at his family’s records, nothing screams “Nazi” more than some of the actions of his predecessors.

Laurel (left) being taken into U.S. custody at Osaka Airport in 1945, along with Benigno Aquino, Sr. (center) and José Laurel III.

The truth is, Benigno Aquino Sr. openly collaborated with the Japanese during World War II. He was among those chosen by the Imperial Army of Japan to be one of the puppet leaders of the Philippines along with President Jose P. Laurel at the time. We can assume that while the infamously barbaric soldiers of Japan went about pillaging villages, slaughtering farmers and raping women, Benigno Aquino Sr. simply sat back and enjoyed the view.

Surprisingly enough though, after the war ended, Benigno Aquino Sr. was pardoned by President Ramon Magsaysay and was spared from arrest and execution as was often the case with those who chose to collaborate with the Axis Powers. To put this in perspective, in France, both Philippe Petain and Pierre Laval, two of France’s leaders in World War II were arrested for treason with Laval getting executed for his troubles with Petain only being spared because of his advanced age. Another example would of course be Wang Jingwei, the head of state in China at the time, who became the most hated man in all of China for screwing over his people to the brutal reign of Imperial Japan and, after the war, his name became synonymous to “traitor” among many Chinese.

Benigno Aquino II Was A Troublemaker At Harvard

True enough, Benigno Aquino II, President Aquino’s father did stay at Harvard.

What the media doesn’t tell us however is that he just stayed there as a kind of refugee. He never wrote a book there, he never studied there and he sure as heck wasn’t respected there. He is, for all intents and purposes, no different from the Syrian refugees fleeing their own country and seeking asylum elsewhere. It just so happens that Americans thought that he was kinda smart and decided to let him stay in one of their more prestigious institutions.

However, with little to no gratitude, he had to go and insult the kindness the Americans offered him. Instead of behaving, he went on to recruit people to the Communist cause. In short, instead of being thankful to the Americans for giving him sanctuary, he spat at their generosity.

No wonder the 1987 Constitution refuses to accept foreign teachers. Because if we did, we’d all find out just what kind of ungrateful charlatans the Aquinos really are.

The Mendiola Massacre

So, people think that Cory Aquino is a saint and that Ferdinand Marcos was a tyrant…

Well, sorry to burst your little bubble but Cory Aquino was indeed involved in the Mendiola Massacre. Of course, while she probably wasn’t there personally, she was nonetheless in command of the men who did the killing. At least up to a dozen farmers were killed and about thirty-nine others were seriously wounded when the personal gunmen of the Aquino administration opened fire on protesters who only wanted to be given what was due to them.

Truth be told, the real reason Cory Aquino probably opposed the Marcos regime wasn’t because of her husband’s untimely death (which is sometimes rumored to have been orchestrated by her of family all along) but because Ferdinand Marcos wanted to distribute the lands of Hacienda Luisita to the farmers who had worked on it for so long.

In the end, when one looks back on the way things went, even if Ferdinand Marcos wasn’t a benevolent leader, Cory Aquino was really no different or probably much worse. If there’s anything she really did right, it was simply her clever manipulation of the media in covering up her mistakes and atrocities. So while Ferdinand Marcos was no angel, this does not at all imply that Cory Aquino was some sort of saint. At the end of the day, Cory Aquino was just another power-hungry politician who was all too willing to kill to get what she wanted.

Maybe it’s time for you people to rethink where you have come from. And where these people and their obviously corrupt politics have taken you?

[*] Thanks go to Grimwald from GRP for giving me something to work with.

http://thestagnantfilipino.com/2015/12/the-aquino-family-and-their-history-of-lies-and-deception/

Waking up from The Matrix that is the Aquino idolatry

March 1, 2016

by rsurtida

If there’s one thing I can credit the Aquinos without malice, and with an air of awe and wide-eyed wonder, it would be their successful brainwashing of the majority of the Philippine population into looking at their clan like the second coming of Christ himself. The kind of adoration from people that, even if they’re caught dead with their hands on the proverbial cookie jar, always get deflected like a well oiled teflon pan and absolved immediately—often by the very people they’re trying to hoodwink. It is, thanks to the well-oiled propaganda machine they have at their disposal and more than thirty years of conditioning on their side, a phenomenon worthy of a National Geographic or Discovery Channel feature.

In the Philippines the typical argument you will find in a political discussion is: If you’re anti-X, therefore you’re pro-Y. Or the other way around. Almost never about being both anti-X & Y. It’s always a perpetual schoolyard brawl where sides should always be taken. Always good vs evil. Always in black and white with no possibility for gray. Scenarios like a well-written thriller that involves two-faced manipulative characters and duplicitous motives and morally ambiguous choices almost always never figure in a discussion with the average Filipino. It’s always in absolutes, and with a heavy baggage of emotion to go with it. Unfortunately, politics has tons of gray, and even more black, than white.

So when you’re critical of the Aquino administration and its vestigial extensions like Mar Roxas and the rest of his political appointees, people would be quick to conclude that a) you’re espousing the “EVIL” regimes of the Marcoses or the Arroyos b) you’re a paid hack and part of a demolition team of another candidate from an opposing party and c) you’re stupid for not seeing the glory of the Aquino clan. Of course those accusations are valid. Just because they came from fanatics (and a few sycophants), does not mean it’s not probable. There really are some dubious characters out there attacking the Aquinos for their own self-serving or ignorant interests.

But what most people miss is that some people attack the Aquinos simply because attacking them is the right thing to do. That maybe, removing the yellow blinds off the eyes of one yellow zombie at a time is a worthy enough cause to undertake. Black propaganda against the Aquinos? Yes, well, as that iconic celluloid British spy said: It’s all a matter of perspective. We can all agree that the quality of politicians we have are utter crap. But in the spirit of fairness, let us all take the blinds off and see them for what they really are: Crap. No exceptions because of that BS yellow color, please.

I was one of the yellows up until a few years ago. I was a child, entering first grade when EDSA 1 happened. Outside the little world of play, sleeping, eating, play, and more play, it was a huge and bewildering sight and story. Here was someone who died (even death was a totally overwhelming concept for me at that age), for freedom and the crusade against tyranny, they said. That Marcos, the president, was a good-for nothing thief and despot who terrorized and stole from the people he has sworn to serve. Add to that narrative the many images in popular print and broadcast media demonizing Marcos and short of canonizing Aquino, and you get the picture of what it does to an impressionable mind.

Marcos bad, Aquino good. Simple. No need for any type of hackneyed legalese to see that glaring dichotomy between the two. That’s the same tactic they employed with former president Gloria Arroyo. The attack dogs of the yellows, especially PDI’s Condrad De Quiros, were relentless in demonizing the former president that even clueless citizens who only had an iota of knowledge about the entire proceedings also latched into it. Who could really blame them? Non-yellow controlled media organizations aren’t as popular, and do not enjoy the type of circulation and influence like their rivals. So as far as getting relevant information is concerned, the average schmuck—already saddled with a shortage in critical thinking brought about by malnutrition and difficult access to quality education—would just have to unknowingly swallow the jaundiced version of things.

For some reason it’s always the Aquino name that comes along to save the day and rid us of these so-called vermins at the right moment. De Quiros’s ‘Noynoy is Aragorn’ was a stroke of genius (now a punchline more than anything) that would have made the likes of Joseph Goebbels proud. Especially since it came at the heels of that ‘Hello Garci’ scandal that got everyone frothing in the mouth—nevermind if no formal charges were given—and that the only trial that actually took place was that of publicity. Where any normal person would sit back and question the dubious legality of the way GMA was detained, people cheered on because, once again, media overrode everything. And in a place like the Philippines where showbiz and emotion takes precedence over everything else proved to be potent enough for people to support BS Aquino’s persecution of his predecessor.

But what’s laughable about these entire charade is that the Aquinos themselves might only be pawns themselves. As Mr. Bobi Tiglao recently wrote:

“First is that EDSA I was such a good template for Cory’s master, the US, to disseminate worldwide to rouse people under communist dictatorships to revolution. The EDSA template would have been swiftly forgotten if there were no EDSA I commemorations yearly, complete with videos of heroic ordinary people, nuns and priests stopping tanks.
The US’ first target was China’s democracy movement, which however, failed. Where do you think that young Chinese got the idea to stand ramrod in front of a tank in that iconic Tiananmen Square uprising of 1989?
Remember also that the 1980s was the height of Reagan’s crusade against the Evil Empire, the Soviet Union. The US had actually first focused on Poland, and it has been indisputably proven that the Central Intelligence Agency funneled, starting in 1980, a total of $1 billion to Lech Walesa’s “Solidarity” trade union that was the vanguard of the Polish revolution. Televised scenes and press photos of EDSA I proved much, much cheaper to rouse the Poles.
Indeed, even the US officials and the Yellow Cult have boasted that EDSA I , the “Yellow Revolution” – inspired the peaceful revolutions, especially the “color revolutions” (e.g., Czechoslovakia’s 1989 Velvet Revolution), that overthrew communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
The inspiration wasn’t just on the level of inspiring morale. Formulating and executing the political tactics for Cory and the People Power movement was the political consultancy group Sawyer Miller, (See James Harding, Alpha Dogs: The Americans Who Turned Political Spin into a Global Business.) After EDSA, the firm’s prestige shot up, their ‘technology,’ even if pejoratively described as the art of the political spin, was studied, their political-consultancy business model adopted by a host of new Washington-based firms.
I suspect that Sawyer Miller was even directly contracted by the CIA, as that Hardin book read: “When the firm’s principal David Sawyer died in 1999, (US) Sen. Daniel Moynihan stood up on the floor of the US Senate to mourn him, saying, among other things, that Sawyer ‘helped to open up the governments of Eastern Europe and Latin America by introducing mass communication into their electoral processes.”
The US also realized in EDSA I how the media could be so powerful in fomenting revolutions, especially that new media – the 24-hour Cable News Network.”

So there. I would even venture to suggest that maybe he-who-should-not-be-named brother-in-law was not the actual mastermind in the assassination but some Jason Bourne Treadstone type of character who called the shots. But that’s just me and my outlandish imagination. Bottom line is that the closer one looks at things, the less lofty and noble they appear to be.

“The Filipino is worth dying for.”

Sure. Who gets to benefit from that death is an entirely different picture altogether.

[Photo courtesy Christian Science Monitor.]

rsurtida

Worker in a private sector hive.

#NoynoyAquino Fails To Deliver on Anti-Corruption Platform

Posted by BongV on Feb 22, 2016 

After nearly 6 years of a de facto regime, where does the Philippines (and Pinoys) stack up in relation to Noynoy Aquino’s anti-corruption platform?

To answer the question, let us review the promises made by Noynoy during the election. I will tell you right now, that all the candidates anti-corruption platform will be the same as Noynoy as they will be soliciting the solutions from the very same government crooks who are out to protect their wallets.
Having said that, let’s look at Noynoy’s anti-corruption platform so you will understand what’s gonna happen after you bamboozle yourself into electing another criminal who will whack your behind.

Aquino Anti-Corruption Platform		The Reality
1	From a President who tolerates corruption… to a President who is the nation’s first and most determined fighter of corruption.	Corruption has worsened – PDAF hello
2	From a government that merely conjures economic growth statistics that our people know to be unreal… to a government that prioritizes jobs that empower the people and provide them with opportunities to rise above poverty.	This regime does not conjure – it DENIES!
3	From relegating education to just one of many concerns… to making education the central strategy for investing in our people, reducing poverty and building national competitiveness.	Educating people with USELESS content that does not get them hired – they only end up as beneficiaries of government subsidies
4	From treating health as just another area for political patronage… to recognizing the advancement and protection of public health, which includes responsible parenthood, as key measures of good governance.	The only thing advanced is the wallet of cronies and government officials – physicians are undercompensated, patients are underserved.
5	From justice that money and connections can buy… to a truly impartial system of institutions that deliver equal justice to rich or poor.	What we have is a system that shields Aquino cronies and allies – and prosecutes harasses Aquino’s enemies.
	Source: http://www.noynoy.ph/v3/platform.php, Accessed 05/21/2010	The website is GONE – just like Aquino’s promises.
	Action Plan
1	Noynoy Aquino will appoint public officials based on their integrity, qualifications and performance record and will hold them accountable to the highest ethical standards of public office.	Seriously, all of Aquino’s appointees are crooks who are tied to crony owned firms.
2	As required by law, all Department Secretaries, Heads of Agencies, and senior officials from Director to Undersecretaries will be required to have their Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) available and accessible to the public.	The SALN law is a joke. It does not negate the theft of your income by these crooks!
3	An Aquino Administration will ensure transparency and citizen’s participation in crafting and implementing laws, rules and regulations and in monitoring the programs, projects and transactions of government.	Are you serious? Transparency in creating a law that steals your income and redistributes it to Aquino cronies? Free lobotomy anyone?
4	Uphold the people’s right to information on matters of public concern and support the enactment of the Freedom of Information Bill in Congress	What happened to the FOI bill? Nothing. TOLD YOU SO!
5	To enable citizens to help stop corruption, information about the government’s budget shall be organized, packaged and distributed to the media regularly and posted in the internet so the public may know, understand and monitor how their money is spent	So did information about how the PDAF was spent reduce corruption??? NO IT DID NOT!
6	Strengthen people’s participation with simple and clear procedures for citizens to monitor all government projects and report their feedback through accessible means.	So did information about how the PDAF was spent reduce corruption??? NO IT DID NOT!
7	Strengthening the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Ombudsman will be a top priority in the campaign against corruption. We will fully implement the recently passed Prosecution Service Act in order to strengthen the national prosecution service, attract qualified lawyers, and institutionalize a more effective witness protection program while improving training and equipment.	So how did the DOJ treat the SC ruling on the PDAF?
8	Ensure the independence of the Office of the Ombudsman by appointing a competent and credible Ombudsman who will be true to the mandate of the office and will pursue unresolved cases of corruption and human rights abuses committed by public officers.	So what did the Ombudsman do about the PDAF?
9	An Aquino Administration will put into place a “zero-based” budgeting system to enhance transparency and improve efficiency.	So what has the “zero-based” budgeting system done about the PDAF?
10	Budget allocations for the different agencies of government will be shaped by their performance and their compliance with the reports of the Commission on Audit (COA)	So has this eliminated the pilfering of the PDAF?
11	Noynoy Aquino respects the professional bureaucracy and will establish ways to motivate and energize the professional bureaucracy	By doing what? Releasing more PDAF?
12	Qualification standards, especially on eligibility, will be strictly followed, and at least half of the positions of Undersecretaries and Assistant Secretaries will be filled by honest and competent career civil servants to ensure continuity and sustainability of effective policies and programs	Competency based on what? Connections to Aquino, that’s what!!!
13	Government offices will be streamlined and rationalized so that agencies have clear cut and distinct mandates in order to spur greater efficiency and accountability	Greater efficiency in stealing and wasting your income is good????
14	Performances of government agencies and civil servants will be evaluated rationally and systematically through an effective and measurable performance management system to be approved by the Civil Service Commission (CSC)	Greater performance in stealing and wasting your income is good????
15	The Civil Service Commission (CSC) Performance Management System-Office Performance Evaluation System (PMS-OPES) will be linked with the DBM Organizational Performance Indicator Framework (OPIF) to ensure accountability of government agencies and officials	Accountability on how your stolen income was wasted and redistributed to cronies? Anyone got gray matter in this country?
16	Review the mandates and performance of government agencies and Government Owned or Controlled Corporations (GOCCs).	These GOCCs are fronts for pilfering people’s incomes – and are corrupt to the max!

In other words, Noynoy’s anti-corruption platform – or better yet, the anti-corruption platform prepared by his government handlers is BANKRUPT and USELESS – and Noynoy’s promises are nothing but VAPORWARE that only the gullible and naive fall for.
At what point will Pinoys realize that they have just been “electing” one criminal enterprise to another?
At what point will Pinoys realize that freedom from politicians and their criminal pilfering ways is the ONLY WAY out of this moral and economic black hole that clothes itself with useless ultra-nationalism?
I have no freaking idea, but here’s what I know – I will be busy putting up TOLD YOU SOs one after another.
Or better yet, I will just look at Pinoys with a smile – and just say, “that’s what you wanted, so suck it up”.