11/14/2011
As of the last count, I read
that 577,000 hits had already registered for YouTube video,
“Aquino-Cojuangco: Facts they don’t want you to know.” That’s what some
would call having gone “viral.” Made by “PinoyMonkeyPride Production,”
the opening sequence introduces us to a riveting historical account
while offering a glimpse into the makers’ real intentions.
The
story begins with the Philippine Revolution and Gen. Antonio Luna taking
the gold of the revolutionary movement from the Ilocos treasury and the
Governor of Pampanga to Paniqui, Tarlac, specifically to the home of
Luna’s supposed girlfriend, Ysidra Cojuangco. Three days later, Luna was
assassinated by Aguinaldo officers and the “gold treasures of the First
Philippine Republic suddenly disappeared,” which “even the American
forces couldn’t find.”
By the year 1900, “Ysidra Cojuangco became
one of the richest women in the Philippines,” leading to the expansion
of Cojuangco lands across central Luzon, the establishment of the
Paniqui Sugar Mills, the Finance and Investments Corp. and the
Philippine Bank of Commerce, among other things.
By the 1930s, the
family owned 12,000 hectares and controlled the rice trade of the
entire province of Tarlac. It goes on to tell of the Cojuangcos’
invasion of politics, beginning with Melecio Cojuangco in Congress,
followed by a long, long line down to Gibo, with special highlights on
Corazon Aquino and son Noynoy. A voice fired off a list of all Cojuangco
politicos in machinegun mode while decrying the lack of progress in the
family’s home turf.
The narrative then moves on to the union of
the two Tarlac clans, with the wedding of Ninoy Aquino and Corazon
Cojuangco, whose matrimonial ninong was President Ramon Magsaysay.
With
the crony deal concluded in 1958 for the Cojuangcos’ purchase of
Compania Tabacalera’s Azucarera with government money, Magsaysay
provided two conditions: The inclusion of the adjoining Hacienda Luisita
and the distribution of hacienda lands to its farmers after 10 years.
We
all know where that story ends and the video names the hundreds killed
in the course of the Cojuangcos’ defense of the hacienda over the
decades, including the Luisita Massacre and the murder of
farmer-supporter Bishop Alberto Ramento, plus, the violation of the land
reform law by Cory herself when she was president.
The video goes
on to present Ninoy as the non-hero who died only for his ambition (as
distinguished from Jose Rizal), as well as of Cory restoring the
oligarchs; of Kris being the “Mary Magdalene of Media;” and of Noynoy as
the “blame game” rock star.
I have been telling almost the exact
same story in debunking the myths of the Yellow media, which the video
brands as “Pro-Poor, Pro-Poverty, Pro-Oligarchy” Yellow Propaganda.
While
I am happy that it is somehow shattering the hold that the Yellows
still have over the mind of many Filipinos, especially the youth, there
is one caveat that the public should take note of: It is part of a more
insidious campaign to subvert a more basic issue for our nation.
The
subliminal message does this so well by first latching on to the
popular antipathy against oligarch families like the Aquino-Cojuangcos
and then intersperses this with the argument that since the nationalist
economic provisions in our Constitution only protects the oligarchs, the
charter must be changed to open the country to foreigners.
(Ito ang video na tinutukoy ni Ka Mentong )
This
“Aquino-Cojuangco” video is part of a seemingly very well-funded Web
campaign that clamors for Charter change (Cha-cha) and the removal of
the protectionist provisions in our Constitution, as well as the shift
to a parliamentary form of government. It is part of a series of YouTube
videos that links up with GetRealPhilippines.com and AntiPinoy.com.
While
I have issues in these sites that I can enthusiastically agree with,
this one enigma — their push for the opening up of the Philippines to
untrammeled entry of foreign capital and control of its economy; and for
the removal of restrictions on foreign ownership of our national
patrimony and media through Cha-cha by any means (including constituent
assembly), which they say will end the rule and abuse of the local
oligarchy — casts a very dark shadow on all the rest.
Given that
we can already see the West having tumultuous revolts in the occupy
protests against their own oligarchs, from the Wall Street mafia, Warren
Buffet, et al., General Motors, to even Rupert Murdoch and the other
media mega-corporations, that call to get rid of the local oligarchs,
and in their place welcome their foreign counterparts, is simply inane.
How can anyone think that giving the Philippines to these voracious
profit gorgers will make things better for us?
The global
oligarchs won’t be kinder and gentler than the local oligarchs have been
to the Filipino public all these decades. The two will only reinforce
each other.
Therefore, the antithesis to the local oligarchy is
not the global oligarchy. The antithesis to both is national or popular
ownership!
If there is to be any change in the Constitution,
what’s needed is the further protection of the nation and the people’s
fundamental economic rights. This can only be done through the
nationalization and/or cooperativization of, among other things, basic
and strategic utilities and industries, basic function of issuing money
and credit management, the fundamental right to work, and the right to
be free from the abuse and exploitation of private monopolies. Only
through these can the state ensure the right of every citizen to
employment, affordable food, low-cost government services, medical care,
education and basic shelter.
PinoyMonkeyPride, AntiPinoy, and
GetRealPhilippines are really insulting the Filipino intelligence if,
like Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile and House Speaker Sonny
Belmonte, they think Filipinos of all classes don’t already know that
the country’s highest power costs in Asia is the very thing keeping
local and foreign investments away — instead of the restriction on
foreigners from owning properties and corporations in the Philippines,
who, it must be said, already own the local oligarchs here.
(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)
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL:
http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111114com5.html
