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Yellows rant as GDP crashes DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 12/12/2011

Monday, December 12, 2011

Yellows rant as GDP crashes

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/12/2011
A very recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) study had the Philippines dropping to its lowest level in gross domestic product (GDP) growth from 2005 to 2008 among countries in the Asia-Pacific. Currently ranked No. 22, the Philippines used to be 2nd only to Japan in the 1950s and 15th during the early Marcos years (1965-1968). Today, it has been left behind by Vietnam at 7th place, Indonesia at 10th, Thailand at 13th, and Malaysia at 16th, in a group where China, India, Mongolia, Uruguay and (yes) Argentina (of the debt default fame) are the notable leaders.

This IMF report comes on the heels of an anti-poverty summit on 25 years of increasing poverty in RP, which we have traced to the Yellows and their Edsa I and II counter-revolutions. For a quarter of a century, they have waged “hate campaigns,” first against Marcos, then Erap, and now against one of their own, Gloria Arroyo, all to distract the nation from the continuing GDP crashes they have ushered in since 1986.
The last quarter’s growth rate of 3.2 percent is certainly the nadir to which BSA III’s administration has brought this country. Yet, despite its huge toll, this dire economic reversal is not on the agenda of any mainstream debates — whether in the academe, media, the punditry at large, or the religious sector.

Worse, all the Yellows do is rant about BS Aquino’s purported war against Gloria (despite coddling her for a-year-and-a-half) or his new spat with the Supreme Court (SC) and its chief Justice. Here, the Yellows’ “best minds” are brought in to elevate the play-acting — such as that laughable Jesuit Bernas, who compared Noynoy the wimp to the revolutionary giant, Fidel Castro.

Notwithstanding many people’s insistence on more apt parallelisms between PeNoy and Joshua, Forrest Gump, or Bimby; or between Bernas and Damaso, Rasputin, Richelieu or Cardinal Brady of Ireland (the pedophile-priest coddler), let us elevate this discussion from that small-minded analogy to one honest-to-goodness comparison between Fidel Castro’s Cuba and the Yellows’ Philippines: Cuba in 2011 ranked 51st in the United Nation’s Human Development Index while our country only managed to land 112th.

In truth, that Jesuit would no longer be listened to had it not been for the oligarchy-controlled media’s non-stop portrayal of him as a “legal luminary” and “constitutionalist,” when all he has done is to show himself up as a fraud through several of his twisted legal opinions (such as in 2001, which considered a coup d’etat legal for as long as the plotter emerges the victor).

Meanwhile, the Yellow media’s AC/DC (attack-commentary; defend-commentary) on the Arroyo and Corona issues continue to hide the ongoing plunder.

For one, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm), with the prodding of the energy pirates as well as the approval of Finance Secretary and corporate gofer Cesar Purisima, is indebting Filipino taxpayers once more by another P75 billion (for 2011) and P85 billion (for 2012) for its working capital and operational funding — despite the fact that it has already privatized over 80 percent of the National Power Corp. (Napocor)’s power generating assets, aside from $4 billion worth of the nation’s transmission grid.

Despite the sale of all those assets, Psalm is still saddled with practically its original debt of $18 billion, thereby needing more taxpayers’ billions to keep operating.

Why then was there a need to privatize anything at all when not a shred of the debt or operating cost was going to be covered (where even the $4 billion for our transmission assets hasn’t been collected but with the new owners already raking it in with $200 million in annual profits).

Without an iota of doubt, the massive electricity plundering today was set into high gear in Edsa II, where “civil society,” typified by the likes of Conrado de Quiros, conspired with the now proven corrupt politicos and treasonous military (with the oligarchs’ help) to oust a popularly-elected president who rejected all onerous deals; opposed “sovereign guarantees;” brought down Metro Rail Transit fares (which Yellows like Mar Roxas have been trying to raise); and never allowed a single power and water rate increase in his two-and-a-half year term.

Instead, De Quiros and his ilk attempt to write Procrustean (after Poseidon’s son Procrustes, who cut off victims’ legs to force fit into a small iron bed) to redeem themselves and to spite their hated figure, President Joseph Estrada, even when they are shown up as clowns with their distorted versions of history.

As Erap claimed that Gloria’s arrest is his vindication, the anti-Erap De Quiros could only retort that “if Arroyo’s arrest is any vindication at all, it is a vindication not of Erap but of the groups that demanded that Erap be replaced.”

Now how can this still be claimed with all the evidence of a quantum leap in Filipinos’ economic misery, not to mention political turmoil, post-Edsa II? Perhaps, such a pathological need to lie only reflects a deep-seated fear of the evidence that would damn them.

On the other hand, the proclivity for Procrustean narratives applies to the pro-Gloria Yellows, too. One such fellow, Teddy Locsin Jr., praises the seven-percent GDP under Gloria in 2010 when this was mainly due to election spending. He then tries to deflect attention by digging up past allegations against Estrada, even when he knows that, among other things, the delivery of jueteng money wasn’t proved in court, nor was the stock manipulation charge that was denied by the pension funds’ chiefs.

In truth, Locsin even remarked that the evidence tended to exonerate Estrada — it’s just that this, according to him, was no longer the nation’s problem.

They may talk of the “Rule of Law” today. But what did they say when Estrada’s impeachment trial was scuttled and the myth of his “constructive resignation” was upheld by their court? Well, as it is often said of the Yellows: Ibang klase talaga!

(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.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/20111212com5.html

‘Dictator’ label on Fidel Castro insults Cuba

‘Dictator’ label on Fidel Castro insults Cuba

“The Cuban Revolution has dignified its people, ensuring all basic human rights, like the right to food security, free access to health and education services, as well as to the culture, sport and other fundamental rights.” – Cuban Ambassador Juan Carlos Arencibia Corrales
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – The Cuban ambassador to the Philippines has called on Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and Fr. Joaquin Bernas to deepen their understanding of Cuba and its revolution.

This came after Bernas likened President Benigno S. Aquino III to Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Bernas said Aquino, in his tirades against the Supreme Court, “sounded like the Cuba’s former president.”

In defense of Aquino, De Lima said, “I don’t think this president has the tendency or the psyche to be autocratic or dictatorial if that is what Bernas meant regarding Castro.”

In an interview with Bulatlat.com, Cuban ambassador to the Philippines Juan Carlos Arencibia Corrales said: “Fr. Bernas and De Lima have shown great ignorance of the Cuban history, as evident by their malicious statements against Fidel Castro.”

Arencibia said his office would be sending a note to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to express their disappointment over such unfortunate incident. “We are asking for official response from the Philippine government, given that Ms. De Lima is a senior government official,” Arencibia told Bulatlat.com..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/12/12/dictator-label-on-fidel-castro-insults-cuba/

Crushing Occupy: riot police and undercover agents (w/ Video)

Crushing Occupy: riot police and undercover agents


The US police continue to play cat and mouse with the Occupy movement, having torn down the last remaining Occupy Wall Street camp in San Francisco, arresting 55 people for illegal lodging.

The tents of the almost three-month-old movement have already been cleared several times but sprung up again when the main Occupy encampment in the city was demolished last Wednesday.

These last three months have seen a lot of police activity, with tactics changing several times against an entirely non-violent protest movement. Reports of mass arrests being made while peaceful protesters stand by chanting “Shame on you!” have become routine..... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/ows-camps-cleared-san-francisco-557/

Back to Indochina

Back to Indochina

12.12.2011
 
But First Listen to Moshe Dayan
By John Stanton
Moshe Dayan
Lost: "having gone astray or missed the way; bewildered as to place, direction; not used to good purpose, as opportunities, time, or labor; wasted..." 

According to Fabius Maximus (FM), "The history of counter-insurgency [COIN] warfare is the repeated re-discovery and use of tactics that failed before." FM quotes from David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest to make his point.

"My favorite example: President Kennedy attended a demonstration exercise of the Green Berets. These multi-lingual PhDs swung through the trees to stage ambushes, ate snakes, and for the big finale one strapped a rocket to his back and flew through the air. Everyone was ecstatic except the French Ambassador: 'Interesting. We tried all this in Indochina, and still lost.'".... MORE

SourcePravda.ru

URL: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/12-12-2011/119926-indochina-0/

Chinese Navy ready for war

Chinese Navy ready for war

09.12.2011
 
China's neighbors are concerned about media reports citing the Chinese leader Hu Jintao, who allegedly ordered the PLA Navy's command to "prepare for a war." According to him, in the coming years the Navy should "complete its modernization, gather all the forces to prepare for a war and strengthen national security." This was said at a meeting of the top military and political leadership of the country on December 6.

For China famous for its wise and prudent policy this is, mildly put, rather strange. However, as pointed out by foreign experts, the statement of the leader of China was reprinted by many Chinese newspapers. However, there is a possibility that journalists made a mistake in the translation. British analysts say that the statement of the Chinese leader can be translated from Chinese both as "armed struggle" or "military conflict", but the essence does not change much.

It is significant that in recent years militaristic ambitions of China increasingly surprised not only its neighbors with most of whom it has unresolved territorial disputes, but the United States as well..... MORE

SourcePravda.ru

URL: http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/09-12-2011/119902-chinese_navy-0/

U.S. Journalist denounces CIA activity in Syria

U.S. Journalist denounces CIA activity in Syria

01.12.2011
From Damascus, U.S. journalist denounces the CIA, Mossad and M16 operating together in Syria

Western countries are doing everything possible to disrupt civil peace in Syria, denounced the writer and American journalist, Webster Tarpley (Vermelho,. Voltaire) in Damascus, the Syrian capital to TV RT (Russia Today). According to him, Syrian civilians have to deal daily with death squads and blind terrorism, which is typical of covert actions of sabotage and destabilization used by the CIA.

Photo: The U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert S. Ford (left) is, according to reliable sources, the key official of the U.S. State Department which has been responsible for the recruitment of Arab terrorists to create "death squads," usually with activists from Al-Qaeda (the funded organization of the CIA) for these same units as in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Chechnya, to fight now against the Syrian army and police in Syria and to create a civil war in this country.... MORE

SourcePravda.ru

URL: http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/01-12-2011/119792-us_Journalist_denounces_spy_agency_activity_in_Syria-0/

Oplan Bayanihan blamed for continuing rights violations

 Oplan Bayanihan blamed for continuing rights violations

“No amount of political manipulation or attempt to project himself as a protagonist in the quest for justice against Arroyo could dispel the truth that he (President Aquino) continues the latter’s legacy of state terror through Oplan Bayanihan.” – Roneo Clamor, secretary general of Karapatan
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – On the 63rd commemoration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, members of human rights group Karapatan and other organizations vowed to continue fighting counterinsurgency program Oplan Bayanihan of the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III.


According to Karapatan, on the average, there is one extrajudicial killing per week.(Photo Anne Marxze D. Umil / Bulatlat.com)
On Dec. 10, thousands of protesters, including youth and students who concluded their fifth day of their Occupy Mendiola campout marched from Blumentritt in Manila to Chino Roces Bridge (formerly Mendiola bridge). Despite the heavy downpour, the protesters continued marching and set foot on Chino Roces Bridge.

“The Aquino administration said extrajudicial killings are not part of its policy and there are only few cases of killings. But in one year of Aquino’s presidency, there already 65 victims of extrajudicial killings, nine victims of enforced disappearance, 51 victims of torture, among others,” said Cristina Palabay, convenor of End Impunity Alliance.

Palabay noted that, on the average, there is one extrajudicial killing per week. According to Karapatan’s year-end report, more than 50 percent of the victims are from Bicol and Southern Tagalog. Six are women and 37 are activists or human rights defenders. More than 40 percent are peasants..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/12/11/oplan-bayanihan-blamed-for-continuing-rights-violations/

Noy gov’t urged to speed up repatriation of OFWs in Syria 12/12/2011

Noy gov’t urged to speed up repatriation of OFWs in Syria

12/12/2011
Amid world powers’ warning against Syria, a migrant workers’ rights group has urged the Aquino administration to fast-track the repatriation of stranded overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) temporarily seeking refuge at the embassy’s Filipino Workers Resource Center (FWRC) in Damascus.

“We reiterate our call to the Aquino government through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to fast-track the repatriation of the stranded and distressed OFWs at the FWRC in Damascus. We continue to receive requests from the kin of the stranded OFWs to follow their repatriation with the Philippine Embassy,” John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator, in a statement, said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20111212hed6.html

Hiroshima atom bomb survivor warns Philippines: Don’t go nuclear FEATURE By Michaela P. del Callar 12/12/2011

Hiroshima atom bomb survivor warns Philippines: Don’t go nuclear

FEATURE

By Michaela P. del Callar 12/12/2011
HIROSHIMA – Mito Kosei has the strongest arguments in the world against nuclear power.

A living anti-nuke symbol, the 65-year-old man walks around his southern Japanese city of Hiroshima everyday, telling as many people as he can of the horrors that nuclear technology wrought on his country twice, 66 years apart.

Mito tells his first story by drawing a pink, worn-out card issued by the Japanese government, which identifies him as one of more than 219,000 “hibakusha,” or “explosion-affected people,” who survived the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945 near the end of World War II.

Decades after the horrific destruction and human suffering caused by the Hiroshima bombing, the first-ever use of an atom bomb by man in war, relations between Japan and the United States have warmed and both have become modern-day military allies..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20111212hed4.html

Solon wants clear-cut Pagcor rules on casinos By Mario F. Fetalino Jr. 12/12/2011

Solon wants clear-cut Pagcor rules on casinos

By Mario F. Fetalino Jr. 12/12/2011

Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel, chairman of the Senate committee on games and amusement, vowed to review the laws regulating the operation of casinos in the country.

Part of the review, Pimentel said, is to determine the relationship of private casinos with gaming bodies such as the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor).

Pimentel’s announcement came a few months after complaints over bigger and privately-run casinos that caused huge losses to the government-owned Pagcor surfaced..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20111212nat1.html

Noynoy’s inaction on cybercrime slammed 12/12/2011

Noynoy’s inaction on cybercrime slammed

12/12/2011
The government of President Aquino took a jab from Sen. Edgardo Angara yesterday for “going easy” against online scams.

Acccoring to Angara, proof that the government is not addressing the problem is the increasing number of victims of cyber crimes.

“There have been numerous reports of cybercrime attacks ranging from identity theft to dubious online offers. A lot of Filipinos have already fallen victim to these activities,” Angara, author of anti-cyber mesure, said. “The government ought to be more active in protecting the interests of online consumers.”.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20111212nat4.html

Solon: Stop imported pork smuggling this Xmas season By Gerry Baldo 12/12/2011

Solon: Stop imported pork smuggling this Xmas season

By Gerry Baldo 12/12/2011

A party-list lawmaker yesterday called for a probe into the alleged widespread smuggling of imported pork meat in the country during the Christmas season.

According to Rep. Arnel Ty, of the sectoral party Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers’ Association (LPG-MA), the the problem would adversely affect the local hog industry and destroy the livelihood of thousands of Filipinos.

In House Resolution 1960, Ty pointed out that those who would suffer from the anomaly would be small backyard raisers which account for 70 percent of the country’s total annual hog production estimated at two million metric tons..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20111212met1.html

Investigators continue search for more victims of plane crash in Paraaque 12/12/2011

Investigators continue search for more victims of plane crash in Paranaque

12/12/2011
Investigators yesterday combed through the smouldering wreckage of a Manila slum, hunting for more victims of a light plane crash as well as clues over the accident that left at least 13 dead.

The cargo plane plunged into the shanty town last Saturday, exploding on impact and causing a fire that gutted a 2,000-square-meter section of the slum that stands on either side of an open sewer.

The pilot, co-pilot and a third person on board were killed, and the other fatalities were residents who died in the inferno that destroyed dozens of simple dwellings..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20111212met3.html

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