Sunday, May 11, 2008

The Greedy Group Wants It All

Tongue in, anew has a massive post on the assault on Meralco launched and directed from Malacanang Palace using Winston Garcia (GSIS) and Presidential son Mikey Arroyo. The title says it all: Meralco vs. the Mafia. The analysis is superb and substantial, from someone who's evidently seen a lot of these things up close and from the inside. Read it all but prepare to be infuriated. 'Tang ina ninyo! indeed. His concluding paragraph:
With the generation, transmission, and now distribution (soon, maybe fuel, too!) under the exclusive control of the same greedy groups and Mafia families, this whole friggin cursed nation of syndicates and ninety million cowards should cease to exist.
I would only add that as this issue moves forward, there is surely going to be a role for the Arroyo-controlled Supreme Court, which will soon be the cause for even greater fury at how the Rule of Law has been replaced by the Rule of Organized Crime masquerading as Government. Artemio V. Panganiban (former Chief Justice turned Innuendo Pundit) is acting the Innocent One in his weekend piece. As if he had nothing to do with the High Court's descent into the nether depths of intellectual dishonesty and dereliction of duty at Edsa Dos--the seminal anomalous event which demolished Constitutional Separation of Powers and laid the foundation via Judicial-Military Coup d'etat for our present Judicial-Executive conjugal dictatorship that now rules with utter impunity in an uncheckable regime of supreme Graft and Corruption.

Update:

New York Times Op/Ed features a piece entitled: Invading Myanmar For Its Own Good

I think many of the arguments apply to invading the Philippines--and not just for its own good but for the Asian region, if not the world! It's leaders are adept at foisting tragedy on their own people...even without the natural disasters, though they know how to when that sort of thing happens too. Will somebody please save us. Honestly this is worse than Burma because we know better and we just don't deserve this Hell. Most Pinoys will surely help! How about it Uncle Sam?

I think the Philippines could easily become so ungovernable and descend into social chaos--say a combination of Somalia and Myanmar--that in its own interest the United States would be forced to take drastic action, much as she would not at all like to, or given her stretched-too-thin military, be unable to! The scenario under which this might happen is easily imaginable with the CPP leadership struggling with its aging kidneys and running out of time, and the Malaysians running out on the increasingly al Qaeda influenced Moro insurgents.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's a small movement there in favor of US, statehood, but that is never going to happen. The US and the PI have become estranged. Things were better when my father was young. He joined the US Navy and became an American citizen. Now, in Gulf War II one guy gets captured, so Arroyo pays off his kidnappers per their demands and removes the 50 or so troops she had contributed to the so-called "Coalition". Well and good! The Philippines deserves to control its own destiny. But don't be lazy. Look at what's happening in Burma right now with no one rising up against the evil and incompetent military junta there, even with more than 100 thousand people dead in a typhoon.

Deany Bocobo said...

Yeah, well there's an awful lot of tsk tsking around here about Burma, as if we weren't in some ways just like Burma: heedless and blind to our own folly. It's nuts, but we are like a self-governing mental asylum where you really can't tell the doctors from the patients.

Ben Vallejo said...

The Americans gave up on making the Philippines "in their own image" in 1916! It is not the US and the Philippines have become estranged. The Americans never contemplated including us in their union.

Please stop referring to the Philippines as PI. We in the Philippines do not refer to the United States as the British Colonies.

Of course the Philippines will never be a state of the Union. We have Manuel Quezon to thank for that.

BTW Will Puerto Rico be a state? If that happens then there is an iota for Philippine statehood!

Anonymous said...

Blackshama: Please stop referring to the Philippines as PI. We in the Philippines do not refer to the United States as the British Colonies.

Americans are less uptight. When we go to London we say, "I'm from the Colonies" as if they couldn't tell from the West Coast accent. Don't call them the PI? Okay, the Islands were named after King Philip of Spain, perhaps I should go back a little earlier and call it the Sultanate of Sulu. There is a principle in Islam that no lands which were once in submission to Allah and his Prophet can ever be permanently conceded once again to the infidels (ie, we Roman Catholics).

rc said...

An interesting topic has evolved now. I think the way the US acquired the Philippines defines the way our relationship developed from that point until today. The Philippines was an almost 'accidental' acquisition left over from the Spanish-American war...a couple of military types accomplished it without any real political or popular direction from the rest of the US whatsoever...in fact, the acquisition of the Philippines was one of the first in US history to spark some rather widespread anti-imperialist sentiment in the US (see Mark Twain and many others who adamantly opposed it).

The country did divide over it and that has left a taint that the Americans wanted to leave behind, ultimately. I think that led to many of the mixed feelings in the US in the intervening years about the entire relationship and some considerable guilt about the events during the Philippine/American war (along with racial issues, prevalent in 1916 America) that scotched any chance of statehood. The irony of it all is: I think the US/Philippine mutual interest and close ties peaked around 1946, when the independence was actually achieved. For better or worse, that relationship has been on gradual decline since, and within the last 10 years or so, on a much steeper decline.

These days, I cannot imagine a series of events, short of all-out regional or global war (especially since the national storm over Iraq) where the US would even contemplate intervening in the Philippines with anything much more that the existing foreign aid programs that are in place.

rc said...

BTW, I also think that any chance of the US adding any additional states is long past over. That takes an enormous national consensus and and overwhelming and highly effective lobby from the territory trying to achieve such a thing. Puerto Rico has not accomplished it and never will. US state expansion is not over for good. If only because the internal politics have become so bitter and divisive, that sufficient agreement to accept another state would be unachievable, even if the benefits were overwhelming for both the territory and the US.

rc said...

Sorry, type in that main point I was making. I meant to say:

"US state expansion is over for good." Drop the 'not' in my original post.

Patricio Mangubat said...

America does'nt need another state to add to their ever-growing one. Hey, they're now in a recession! Including the Philippines as a state is not a good idea for the Americans, since they can rule this country without the formalities of state-hood anyway.

However, invading the Philippines like this innate proposal for Burma, is an interesting proposition. Let me call my State Department contacts and tell them that it's high time. Anyway, it's okey, given the fact that no fool within the AFP would do a coup. They're faced with their own problems that they can't be the ones we're looking for solutions.

Yes, invade through unofficial channels then handover the government to a bunch of enlightened Pinoys. That would be something for Independence day.

rc said...

"Hey, they're now in a recession! Including the Philippines as a state is not a good idea for the Americans, since they can rule this country without the formalities of state-hood anyway."

Are we in a recession? Can't tell it from here. Oh, sorry we foisted GMA on you too...we needed a good laugh...hope you got the joke :-) We colonialist oppressors have a sense of humor too, you know!

Anonymous said...

Richard said...

"BTW, I also think that any chance of the US adding any additional states is long past over. That takes an enormous national consensus and and overwhelming and highly effective lobby from the territory trying to achieve such a thing. Puerto Rico has not accomplished it and never will."

In a referendum, Puerto Ricans rejected becoming another state of the US. It was the voice of Puerto Rico's majority.
Not that I'm for statehood. Just pointing out the facts.

Tongue's Wrath said...

Thanks, Dean. I actually had a good laugh listening to your blog reader twist its tongue over the cursing, Haha!

Seriously, when you said "there is surely going to be a role for the Arroyo-controlled Supreme Court, which will soon be the cause for even greater fury at how the Rule of Law has been replaced by the Rule of Organized Crime masquerading as Government." you're spot on. Ex-Justice Panganiban will be appointed by the Lopezes as director in Meralco. Meanwhile, another ex-justice, Hugo Gutierrez, will be fielded by Garcia to the same board. Your problem with Panganiban is his politics. MY problem with Gutierrez is corruption.

In the PLDT vs Eastern Telecoms case, Gutierrez penned the decision in favor of PLDT which according to a writing expert from a US Ivy-League university, was drafted by a PLDT Lawyer. You know, the vocabulary, the style, etc. and is probabaly the most shameful scandal to ever hit the Supreme Court. Unbelievably a gutter-level crook.

Deany Bocobo said...

thanks tongue, good info on that post. we need more of that because lots of people are confused about the basics.