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Oust all… make heads roll DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 07/18/2011

Monday, July 18, 2011

Oust all… make heads roll

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
07/18/2011
Col. Generoso Mariano, deputy commander of the Naval Reserve Command, declared that the Aquino government “has no capability to save us from hunger and death.” In that Facebook video dated July 3 he argued, “We soldiers also feel the impact of (the) unrelenting rise in prices of commodities, medicines and food… If this government has no intention or is not doing anything to save the life of the majority, it is the right of every Filipino, including soldiers, to replace the government. I repeat, replace the government.” He then exhorted everyone to “once and for all build a nation based on truth for without it there can be no justice, and without justice… no peace and without peace… no development.” The video, by the way, was posted by a group called “Oust Noynoy Movement!”

While Colonel Mariano’s plaints are obvious, his timing leaves some questions: Why only now? Why not during Gloria Arroyo’s time which was as bad? And why replace only the government when the whole system is at fault?

Vice Adm. Alexander Pama said the colonel is currently under investigation and confined to headquarters. Pama must have some inkling of Mariano’s reasons as I am told he, too, was supposed to have joined Gen. Danilo Lim’s military protest in 2006.

Most of you may know that I have supported such military actions in the past — from the Bagong Katipunero’s (or the Magdalo’s) to Gen. Danny Lim’s — because I know of RP’s systemic socio-economic injustice brought about by oligarchic exploitation as well as neocolonial enslavement, which have exacerbated poverty and decay with no resolution at hand.

These ills that demand real solutions are not being addressed at all with the seriousness required, even a year after the present administration has stepped in. Only palliatives and PR stunts in the form of Conditional Cash Transfers or Public-Private Partnerships are the order of the day while Filipinos continue to be on “Debt Row,” with their basic necessities progressively priced beyond reach — and this, as government is mired in squabbles and ineptitude, apparently oblivious to the erosion of its moral claims by its own KKKs.

Our military friends had already expected Colonel Mariano’s move two weeks before it came out. I was also informed that Mariano, a reserve officer (not a PMAyer), had joined the 1989 RAM (Reform the Armed Forces Movement) coup attempt but has since been uninvolved. When his Marine colleagues such as General Miranda and Colonels De Leon and Segumalian protested in 2006, for instance, he was not among those who were hauled off to detention.

Some speculate that, with his retirement coming up a week after his video came out, among Mariano’s other motives was possibly a missed chance to make the rank of general. True or not, such timing certainly can’t compare with the incontrovertible sacrifices of the young Bagong Katipunero officers who staked their careers or Gen. Danny Lim who was in line for promotion when he took action.

Having considered all the information, I can say that Colonel Mariano’s act still helps the cause of change by calling attention to the crisis in Philippine society and its political-economic morass. One major shortcoming of Mariano’s declaration, though, is his limiting the blame to the present government — a half-truth that has opened him to be rightly or wrongly interpreted as part of the ploy of the (still) “worst enemy of the Filipino people today,” who has all the reason to create distractions and destabilizations to deflect from the growing crisis she faces. And this is what other factions of the military are now saying about him.

From my perspective — coming from one who’s rabidly against both the present government and Gloria Arroyo’s forces — Colonel Mariano could have been more credible if he had made his analysis comprehensive enough to cover the ills of the entire system, calling for the “ouster of all.”

The present ruling system and the people behind it — or the ruling class, which includes the financial, economic, military, political, and “civil society” elite — thrive on the betrayal of the sovereignty of the people. They subvert the nation’s sovereignty and economic aspirations by collaborating with foreign interests to perpetuate debt-dependence; the institutionalization of alternating corrupt regimes through coups disguised as “People Power” and rigged elections (Hocus-PCOS); the systematic dismantling of the State through liberalization and privatization; and the consequent elimination of “public welfare,” “public service,” and “national interest,” in favor of “profit” and “corporate welfare.” Such outcomes are what Mariano described in common-tao terms as the “hunger and death,” which ordinary soldiers also feel.

But shouldn’t he stop to think: Who are behind the present government he despises? Weren’t the oligarchs, new and old, “civil society” and its NGOs, the clergy, as well as the US and Britain, along with their respective chambers of commerce, behind Arroyo for as long as they were able to exact their pound of flesh from us? And aren’t they now behind the present dispensation and massively profiting from us as well?

The Colonel Marianos, the Bagong Katipuneros and Para sa Bayan soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and all the impoverished people of this nation should see through the ruling elite’s games, particularly the Noynoy vs Gloria moro-moro. In the spirit of Bonifacio’s Revolution, let’s all unite and oust them all — and make their heads roll!

(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Franchising: Hope for Economic Recovery”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu Laurel)


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110718com5.html

Signs of danger EDITORIAL 07/18/2011

Signs of danger

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
07/18/2011
The ominous rumblings in the military have started after an erstwhile unknown Marine Col. Generoso Mariano popped up in a social networking site calling for the overthrow of Noynoy.

The call was immediate and unforgiving, the reason which Mariano said was Noynoy’s inability to deliver on his campaign promises to change the lives of Filipinos.

His call was absolute: replacement of the government. It is the first time that a ranking member of the military spoke up against Noynoy.
He was, in all probability, airing the sentiments of many members of the Armed Force of the Philippines and its service sectors, and perhaps even those from the Philippine National Police..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110718com1.html

Noynoy’s nightmare FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 07/18/2011

Noynoy’s nightmare

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
07/18/2011
Ouster calls are making a comeback and so early in Noynoy’s term, starting with a marine colonel, Generoso Mariano, deputy commander of the Naval Reserve Command, who, in a videotape, called for a change of government, saying this is the right of the Filipino people, and even the soldiers to ensure a change of government.

The ouster call came just a week ahead of Noynoy’s State of the Nation Address, which puts a damper on Noynoy’s Sona that is expected to be yet another portrayal of the Philippines transformed into a wonderland under his presidency.

Not surprisingly, the marine colonel was quickly restricted to quarters pending investigation.

Predictably, both leaderships of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police tried to downplay the ouster call of Mariano, mouthing the usual stuff which hardly convinces anyone, such as the morale in the military and the police is still very high..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110718com2.html

Tribunal funding, arrests test Lebanon government focus 07/18/2011

Tribunal funding, arrests test Lebanon government

focus

07/18/2011
BEIRUT — After winning a confidence vote at home, Lebanon’s Hezbollah-dominated government is headed for another test over the country’s financial duties toward the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).

But experts say there is little the government will — or can — do in assisting the UN-backed STL, which has ordered the arrest of four Hezbollah operatives indicted in the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafiq Hariri.
“Everybody knows that there is little the Lebanese government can do to truly assist the tribunal,” said Beirut-based commentator Hilal Khashan.

“Prime Minister Najib Mikati can get away with not raising the is.... MORE
SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110718com3.html

AFP vows cooperation in exposing Garci generals By Mario J. Mallari 07/18/2011

AFP vows cooperation in exposing Garci generals

By Mario J. Mallari 07/18/2011

No more stonewalling, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) pledged yesterday while expressing full cooperation to the possible revisitation of the 2004 alleged massive electoral fraud when some top-ranking military officials were tagged as having been involved in the cheating in favor of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo.

“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear and we will always be ready to cooperate with any investigating agency because truth will set us free,” AFP spokesman Commodore Miguel Jose Rodriguez stressed.

The names of several AFP officers were mentioned in the infamous “Hello Garci” recordings of conversations of then Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

Among those mentioned were then AFP deputy chief of staff for operations (J3) Maj. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., also then deputy commander of the military’s Task Force Hope (honest, orderly, peaceful elections); then Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko, Army 1st Infantry Division (ID) chief Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon, and Marine Col. Francisco Gudani. Esperon rose to become Army chief then AFP chief of staff..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110718hed2.html

Senate to keep hands off in new poll fraud probe By Angie M. Rosales 07/18/2011

INVESTIGATION SHOULD BE EXECUTIVE’S JOB

Senate to keep hands off in new poll fraud probe

By Angie M. Rosales 07/18/2011

The ball is on the Executive’s court regarding plans to probe past poll frauds under the nine-year administration of former President Gloria Arroyo, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said, adding law enforcement agencies should take the cudgels and effect the filing of appropriate charges against those being pointed at as culprits.

“I think it will be problematic, that suggestion of having a legislative investigation on those cheating operations, if these were really done in the past. It will be better, I think, for the nation if we allow the law enforcement agencies of government to take this up themselves,” Enrile said.

The Department of Justice (DoJ), not Congress, should undertake the probe, he added..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110718hed1.html

Angara pushes integrated renewable energy system 07/18/2011

Angara pushes integrated renewable energy system

07/18/2011
In light of the recent succession of oil price hikes, Sen. Edgardo Angara called on Filipino scientists and engineers to help promote “green transport” by creating and improving technologies for vehicles that use renewable sources of energy.

He said that the Philippines and Taiwan have sealed a partnership for EV development through a National Green Transport System. Angara announced that the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (Teco) and the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (Meco) have agreed to cooperate for Electric Vehicle (EV) Development during the 17th Philippine-Taiwan Joint Economic Conference (JEC)..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110718nat5.html

Steel firm lawyers ask CA justices to withdraw from $41-million case By Benjamin B. Pulta 07/18/2011

Steel firm lawyers ask CA justices to withdraw from $41-million case

By Benjamin B. Pulta 07/18/2011

Lawyers of the Steel Corp. of the Philippines (SCP) are asking three sitting justices comprising the Court of Appeals (CA) Special Fifth Division to withdraw themselves from further taking part in the case involving the company and a $41 million claim against insurance firms.

In a motion, the SCP through counsels denounced the magistrates for the alleged “hasty and irregular” issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) in favor of five insurance companies which were earlier ordered by a trial court to pay its claim amounting to $41 million.

The SCP noted that the CA issued the TRO without “being heard in a summary hearing” as required by the same Rule 58, Section 4 (d)..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110718nat1.html

Belo loses case before CA over co-ownership of properties filed by ex-lover By Benjamin B. Pulta 07/18/2011

Belo loses case before CA over co-ownership of properties filed by ex-lover

By Benjamin B. Pulta 07/18/2011

Beauty surgeon to the stars Vicky Belo has lost a case before the Court of Appeals (CA) seeking to stop a Pasig court from proceeding with a case over the co-ownership of her properties filed by her former live-in partner.

In a nine-page decision by Associate Justice Mario Guariña III, the CA’s Special Eight Division held that Belo’s motion for bill of particulars that Belo filed before the lower court was unnecessary.

Belo’s motion for bill of particulars sought three details from respondent and former live-in partner Jose Santos — the exact period when they cohabited as “husband and wife,” a list of properties acquired by her in which he claims a one-half interest and an estimate of their values, and a list of properties which the respondent acquired during the period of the cohabitation..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110718met5.html

Lim bans funeral agents from hospitals By Pat C. Santos 07/18/2011

Lim bans funeral agents from hospitals

By Pat C. Santos 07/18/2011

Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim yesterday directed all directors of the city-run hospitals to ban agents of funeral parlors from all hospitals in the city.

Lim’s order came after receiving reports that some funeral agents manage to sneak into the hospitals and scout for possible clients.

“‘Yang mga ‘yan, ang gawain eh magtatanong-tanong kung sino na ang malapit mamatay. Naghihingalo pa nga `yung pasyente ang mga kaanak ay kinakausap na,” Lim told the directors during a meeting.

Worse, the mayor said there were instances, although not necessarily in the city-run hospitals, when such agents would take advantage of the family’s misery to make them sign up for their services..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110718met3.html

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