I was sitting all by myself, enjoying a double espresso, when I saw Phil at a table across me. I waved him over.
“Phil! What are you doing here in the Philippines?”
“2010 man, I want to be part of it,” he replied.
“You’re going to vote?”
“Yup, and campaign, too.”
“For whom?”
“Noynoy.”
“He’s the one,” I said.
“Yes he is. But I ran into my friend Beavis and he told me I’m making a big mistake,” Phil said.
“So who does Beavis support, the convicted plunderer, the ethically challenged billionaire senator, or the Cabinet secretary who promises more of the same?”
“He didn’t say. All he said was he didn’t like Noynoy. Anyway, he gave me a book he said would change my mind about Noynoy.”
“What’s in that book?”
“It’s supposed to be a well-documented account of the excesses of Cory Aquino.”
“Beavis thinks he can bring down Noynoy by promoting a book that slimes Cory?”
“He doesn’t see it that way. He says he’s doing his patriotic duty.”
“Pissing on Cory’s grave is patriotic? Show me the book.”
The book was written by Cecil Arillo, camp follower and chronicler of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement, a cabal of soldiers that holds the all-time record for staging the most number of failed coups.
“Have you finished reading it?”
“No, I haven’t started, why?”
“Some passages are marked,”
“Beavis marked them for me.”
“Ah, okay. How about I read you the marked passages?”
“Sure,” he said.
And so I read.
“In many instances, President Aquino may have been worse than Marcos. She also ruled by decree [by virtue of a revolutionary government that was suddenly in place], abolished the 1973 Constitution, violated human rights and betrayed the Filipino people.”
I saw Phil’s eyes turn into saucers before coffee went shooting out of his nose and onto my shirt.
“May I continue?” I asked, pretending I didn’t mind the coffee stains on my new shirt.
“Please do,” he said.
“Aquino built a complex of overpasses in Metro Manila that only constricted some of the major arteries.”
Phil burst out laughing, “Stop fooling around, read from the book!”
“I am reading from the book! Here’s another gem.”
“When President Aquino addressed the US Congress in 1986, she missed a historic opportunity to ask the US government to write off the $26.3-billion indebtedness that the Marcos regime had bequeathed to her administration.”
“Marcos owed the US government $26.3 billion?”
“No. The US government didn’t lend $26.3 billion to the Marcos regime. ”
“Then why slam Cory for not asking the US Congress to forgive a $26.3 billion debt not owed it?”
“The next excerpt will answer your question,” I said.
“Other similarly distressed countries such as Poland and Egypt had asked for, and were granted, a write-off.”
Phil raised his voice, “But that’s entirely different! The US government was the creditor of Poland and Egypt, it was in a position to forgive their debts!”
“Hey, it’s my voice but it’s Arillo doing the talking!” I shouted back.
“Sorry buddy.”
“Here’s something that will amuse you.”
“…her regime left a paper trail that revealed its own scandals and corruption. Remember the ‘Rela-thieves’ and ‘Kamag-anaks Inc.’ exposed by Doy Laurel, then her own vice president?”
“Really?” Phil asked.
“The question is, kaya ba niyang panindigan ang sinabi niya? Can Arillo cite any congressional investigation, any complaint lodged with the Ombudsman, or any impeachment filed as a result of graft, corruption, extortion or plunder by Cory or any of her relatives?”
I added, “Sure, some of Cory’s relatives were trapo; but they were not plunderers. Were there scandals like Centennial Expo, BW Resources or ZTE-NBN during Cory’s time?”
“Well you know what they say, where there’s smoke there’s fire,” Phil teased.
“True, but in this case the smoke you see is blowing out of Arillo’s behind.”
I read another excerpt.
“…she threw out all the worthwhile infrastructure and economic programs of Marcos and branded them all as the handiwork of the devil. She mothballed the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant [BNPP], for example.”
“Be grateful,” said Phil.
“Why?”
“You can argue about the safety of nuclear power plants but there is no argument over radioactive waste disposal. Every country with a nuclear power plant is faced with that unsolvable problem. What are you going to do with BNPP’s spent radioactive fuel rods?”
“The rods can be sold to Ahmadinejad and Kim,” I joked.
“Or you can stick them up your rear end,” he retorted.
“Do you want to hear more excerpts?”
“No more crap for me today, thanks.”
Before we parted, I told Phil to remind his friend Beavis that it’s okay to be against Noynoy and to campaign against him, but it’s not okay to bring him down by sliming his dead mother.
“Tell Beavis anyone who does that is beneath contempt,” I said.
Posted by Manuel Buencamino
Source: Life in Gloria's Enchanted Kingdom
20 comments:
MB,
I take it you don't like Cecil Arillo's book. But even Cory admitted some regret over mothballing the BNPP after she was told that the SISTER PLANT of the one in Bataan, built about the same time and to the same specs, has been happily supplying the South Koreans with cheap, abundant and safe nuclear power for over 30 years and they offer to help us get something for our $2 billion investment other than the satisfaction of seeing it rust away to nothing. BTW, a very short distance away, in Japan, there are 80 nuclear power plants in operation and even closer, in China there will be 200 of them in 20 years. What do YOU or Butthead know that the Japs and Chinese dont?
For example, did you and Beavis know that ONLY nuclear power can in fact replace OIL to power the world's economy, because only nuclear plants have zero carbon emission!
The waste problem is not as intransigent as you think. Certainly France, UK, US, Japan, China and India all disagree with you and the odd characters you have put some words into the mouths of.
Gah! I think I better read Arillo's book considering how awfully wrong you got nuclear power man!
Really DJ?
Where are the spent fuel rods stored? France tried to reprocess them but then neighboring countries complained about radioactive emissions. The US wants to bury those rods in the Yucca Mountain but Nevadans are resisting.
There is something that NOBODY KNOWS DJB. And that's what to do with nuclear waste.
Like I said, you can argue about the safety of nuclear power plants but you can't argue about nuclear waste disposal because there is no way to dispose of nuclear waste safely.
As to Arillo well I can understand why you would enjoy a book written by an Enrile buttboy.
Don't be ridiculous MB. The problem of nuclear waste has been solved by burial in subduction zones on the sea floor in glass beads. the stuff will get recycled by the earth's crust deep into the mantle!
Maybe Cory didn't actually know the difference between an atom bomb and an atom pile. No shame in that. But really MB, the concensus is nuclear is the only way to go. Wind, Wave, Solar, the roll out of the infrastructure alone disqualifies them because of the carbon emissions involved. ONly nuclear is carbon free (if you want to stick to the global warming scenario that is.)
It has been solved?
When did they start doing this and who is doing it now? How many deep sea submersibles have been built to perform this task? Who has them? France has 58 power plants, Japan 80 etc. Those countries have the transporter already?
The Americans are not looking at Yucca Mountain anymore?
So tons of nuclear waste will be transported deep into the sea placed in the intersection of tectonic plates in glass beads that withstand the pressure of deep sea and the crushing of tectonic plates?
Cmon, DJ that theoretical solution is not even as good as loading nuclear waste into rockets and sending them to the moon.
Before the era of search engines you could get away with a claim like the problem has been solved by ......
By the way, your idea of burying nuclear waste in subduction zones on the sea floor is like sweeping the problem under a rug.
"A subduction zone is an area on Earth where two tectonic plates move towards one another and subduction occurs. Rates of subduction are typically measured in centimeters per year, with the average rate of convergence being approximately 2 to 8 centimeters per year (about the rate a fingernail grows)[1]."
Personally, I wouldn't slime Cory just to thwart Noynoy's presidential ambitions. He might have some level of integrity similar to what Cory had but he sure went against one very good thing his mom did before she died--make peace with the masa forces of Edsa 3 when she apologized to Erap for that Edsa 2 coup.
Also, I think it will be fairer if you'll add "by-a-kangaroo-court" to the "convicted plunderer" label that obviously pertains to Erap. That "guilty" decision was reported by Ellen Tordesillas & others to have been Arroyo's decision-- based on the squeal of Mike Velarde and Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal. Not to mention how all the Plunder court's justices have been rewarded with positions in the SC.
And may I add that despite the demonization, majority of Filipinos were found to believe that Erap's NOT GUILTY (62% v. 36%) by an SWS poll several weeks before the verdict. While those unsure weren't counted, the poll results speak a lot of what majority of Filipinos think about Erap's ouster and plunder charges brought about by the usurper.
Jesusa,
I agree with you that Erap's conviction was questionable. The thing that bothered me though was Erap accepting a pardon instead of filing an appeal. That, to me, legitimized the guilty verdict.
Having said that, and keeping in mind the bot guilty verdict of the Filipino people, I still believe Erap was a crook. Erap himself admitted the jueteng payola. His defense was he gave it to the Muslim Youth Foundation. Well as chief law enforcer of the nation that was a no-no.
It's true he was persecuted by gloria but that does not change the fact that he was crooked and he spent a lot of time with well-known crooks
I actually wasn't in favor of Erap accepting that pardon. He should have just let things be, revolution if revolution. I'm of the conviction that Edsa2 was a coup and out of principle it should be rectified by force or what.
But Erap never wanted bloodshed, I guess. He didn't disperse the mob of Edsa 2, unlike what the Illegitimate did in Edsa 3 (Sen. Angara, Arroyo's friend now, bewailed the deaths, asked for investigation & suspected instigation by infiltrators) & in most rallies under her time.
Having said that, now why would Erap file an appeal--get himself another Kangaroo court? Come on. It's obvious he planned to run again so he could vindicate himself before the courts of the people. Also, if he were guilty, he would have grabbed the exile offer by the fake President back in 2001.
Your guilt-by-association logic boomerangs to Cory and Noynoy.
In Edsa 2, Cory associated with Singson & all the corrupt local officials/solons (1 reason why I turned from being anti-Erap to anti-Edsa 2)--that makes her corrupt as well? Actually, she and all the mob people there were guilty of sedition.
Another, Cory not also associated to but was sister to Peping--jueteng lord of Tarlac, says a close friend who lived there, AND also the supposed real owner of the guns smuggled by poor Congressman De Guzman during Cory's time. It's even possible that she must have known about her brother's activities (OK "alleged") during her presidency. Using your logic, Cory then is a crook.
Re Noynoy, he associates with Sen. "Noted" Pangilinan & other solons who, in May 2004 DEPRIVED the Filipinos the right to know the real victor in 2004 on mere technicality (matagal daw recount). The Hello Garci tapes reveal Arroyo relied on her minions in the Senate to help in the cheating--how hard is it to pinpoint the "Noted" chairman of the joint Congressional committee. Again, using your logic, that also makes Noynoy a poll fraud (& crook bec. hey, they're also crooks).
Jesusa,
The difference with your guilt by association theory and mine is that Erap admitted the jueteng payola. And both Ang and Singson were both reputed jueteng personalities. Singson admitted it and Ang did not.
Yes Erap should have filed an appeal. If he believed the whole thing was a kangaroo procedure from the very start then he shouldn't have participated in the process. And he also accepted a not guilty verdict on some other charge didn't he?
If he was convinced it was a kangaroo court then he should have done what Ninoy did. He should have refused to participate in the trial.
The other things which I also heard were never investigated by anybody. Para bang they were not taken seriously. Cory and her relatives could have been prosecuted after she stepped down if there was really something to those allegations.
Cory apologized for edsa 2.
Good people know how to admit guilt. Cory also apologized for Edsa 2. There is no difference between our theories then.
Cory and every mob participant of Edsa 2 should therefore be investigated for sedition! Now, why is nobody doing that? The politics of it--wait what happens if the next government will be led by someone not part of that conspiracy.
As for Peping Cojuangco's guilt, there was an investigation into the smuggling and poor Congressman De Guzman became the fall guy. Incarcerated for it and died a dishonored man. You want to make it appear it's as simple as that? However, isn't it that the Aquino family also holds a similar fall guy theory--as to who the real killers of Sen. Ninoy was?
Erap abandoned that trial, it was in the news when his lawyers walked out or resign. By the way, that logic does not really say much of one's guilt. Ninoy, who's a hero esp. towards the end for me, FLED the country.
Ninoy had the choice to have a heart bypass here but decided to go to the US. Strategy's a personal choice. Ninoy returned, and to Erap that's "Ang Pagbabalik" via that pardon. He wants public opinion/vindication because he believes genuinely in “Vox Populi, Vox Dei”--as in everyone, lower classes included.
Come one, MB. No matter how hard you try, Erap is not perceived by the majority as crooked as you want it to appear. Just have to think fair and go beyond the propaganda of the democratically uncivil "civil society."
By the way, is jueteng payola worse than sedition or smuggling? Not a chance.
Jesusa,
Believe what you want about Erap then. As for me he is a crook.
By the way, I was not influenced by propaganda, I was told that Erap was a crook by one of his cabinet men in 1999. He said then that Erap is so careless he will get caugh.t I asked him why does he not do something about it and save his friend and he told me "I try and try but he doesn't listen.." And so when the chavit thing happened I thought, Erap.s friend was right..
MB, the assumption of my last post is that we know ALL politicians are corrupt to a certain extent.
During Edsa 3, Erap's supporters reasoned that all politicians engage in some form of corruption, pero doon na sila sa tumutulong at tumitingin ng tunay sa kanila.
Cory, by virtue (vice?) of tolerating her brother can also be called a crook. Even the late Raul Roco, Sen. Cayetano were crooks. Sen. Salonga, via his son Steve, also is. I know these because I know some people who work(ed) for/are around them somehow. Of course, it's obvious how crooked those around GMA are, including those in the civil service.
My point is how come they generally are spared the "crook" label in the media while Erap is biasedly called "convicted plunderer" without the contextualizing "by a kangaroo court" phrase? That's where propaganda figures in.
Erap was the victim of a conspiracy that thrived on demonizing him--a conspiracy joined in, if not masterminded by FVR who is perhaps the vilest crook of all as he didn't even spare the centennial commemoration of our heroes in his mega corruption.
By the way, by virtue of the 2007 Pulse Asia survey, Erap is considered the 2nd "Least Corrupt President in Philippine History" next to Cory Aquino (Arroyo & Ramos came in last). I'm sure the respondents were well aware that nobody's entirely clean in the RP political scene.
I think Erap is a changed man. But my interest in his candidacy is to somehow CORRECT the abomination represented by Edsa DOS. This was the greatest crime against the Constitution committed by its own Chief Justice. That must not stand in History, whose Vast Audience must see that Edsa Dos was the nadir of our civilization as a democracy. It was a coup d'etat.
MB: you make it sound like only Erap committed crimes. What about Davide? What about GMA? what about Angie Reyes?
They must still be punished! Only Erap can do that. He WAS the people's choice. The Senate ACQUITTED him as far as I can see.
That may not have been RIGHT, but it would've been FAIR!
Justice IS FAIRNESS, not GOODNESS!
Get it?
DJB,
The topic was Erap. You know my position re Davide, GMA, and Angie Reyes and all those around Gloria so you shouldn't be asking me that question at all.
It's preposterous to assert that ONLY Erap can go after those crooks. He WAS the choice of more people but he was NOT a majority president so in that sense it is a bit of an overstatement to say he WAS the people's choice.
The Senate did not acquit him because the process was never allowed to finish. You have pointed that out many times before.
I don't think Erap is a changed man. I think you are the one who changed. You're beginning to sound like Enrile these days.
MB, problem is the people trying to put noynoy in are the same ones that put gloria in: us! she got it because "civil society" believed the end of getting rid of erap was justified by the means of destroying the Constitution. What we didn't realize is that Democracy is real in the hearts of Filipinos pala.
How else can you possibly explain Erap's strength? Why isn't he in the kangkungan if not for the real support of real people?
As for the Edsa Dos the process wasn't completed precisely because of Edsa Dos. That makes it a coup d'etat.
Sure i may sound like jpe, but you are still a fool of gma, reyes and davide!
DJB,
When I say you sound like JPE, you know I speak the truth. You admit it.
But when you say I am a fool of GMA reyes and davide, you are lying.
you have known me for years and you and I have exchanged thousands of words, Now look for one instannce where I said I supported Gloria, the coup against Erap, or Davide's behavior? You owe me an apology.
Let me remind you that unlike you my respect for democracy and the democratic process is not contingent on what is exigent,
You support torture under certain circumstances, I am against it without any exception. You supported the anti terror law, I was against it.
You want to start another round of ad hominem attacks between us? Okay but don't misrepresent my position because that's not ad hominem anymore, that's just shamelessness.
MB, DJB's point is that only Erap can rectify the ABOMINATION caused by Edsa 2. That I agree with on 2 counts:
1. By being re-elected, Estrada can show to the world & more importantly, to the seditious, elite, and I say unpatriotic, conspirators of Oplan Excelsis (aka Edsa 2) and the gullible mob that the ballot is sacred & shouldn't be trampled upon via any coup. This, no matter if most of Erap's numbers were mere voices of the simple men and women (Estrada is indeed only a majority President but the SWS Plunder surveys & Pulse Asia 2007 Corruption surveys, among others, show that MOST Filipinos believe in him).
2. Only Erap WILL rectify the desecration of the 1998 elections and the 1987 Constitution. To do this, one will need to go against the seditious and BIG players of Edsa 2--FVR, the elite businessmen, the Supreme Court justices/ex-justices, Gloria's consistent supporter politicians and even the Catholic Church (even if Cardinal Sin is no more). Who else will DARE do that?
Noynoy? Impossible. He even tried to soften his mother's apology by claiming it was said in "jest". I speculate that, under pressure from his LP friends, he even tried to elicit from his mom a retraction. Chiz Escudero? The articulate young man of seemingly weak principles--most probably not. Villar? Definitely WONT, because he was part of that coup.
MB, I used to HATE Erap. Until Edsa 2 came. Sa lahat ng ayaw ko pinaglololoko tao, esp. big time (they're still claiming it was no conspiracy & coup!?!). Cory apologized for the fallacy of Edsa 2--that direction should be pursued to rectify a dangerous precedent of removing leaders undemocratically. Only Erap who has the support of the majority/masses will do that.
Jesusa,
Eh paano kung matalo si Erap fair and square? What is message there?
MB, good question.
(1). Thing is, we'll never know that if he is not allowed to run. I actually fear that the camps of the Illegitimate "President" and of the murky Yellows won't have that.
(2). Will we have "fair and square elections"? I really hope we do but the interest of the Arroyo camp to have the opposite even goes beyond Erap.
Right now, I see Part II of Erap's demonization but counter-propaganda should handle that. NOw, if Erap loses fair and square, that means the Filipino people don't want him anymore. That the people have already fallen for that demonization. Then all the anti-Eraps can truly be victorious--in a moral way for a change!
But will Erap lose? I hope we get the chance to find out fair and square.
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