Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume 2, Number 48 January 12 - 18, 2003 Quezon City, Philippines |
Top 20 Philippine Newsmakers of 2002 2002
was a watershed year in the Philippine scene. Just a few weeks after the first
anniversary of the urban-centered people’s uprising that was EDSA 2, our
country was swiftly caught in the maelstrom of the Bush-Cheney regime’s war of
terrorism when United States (U.S.) occupation troops landed here last
February and made our country the second front of its fake fight against the
9/11 terrorists after its invasion of Afghanistan failed to nab Osama bin Laden
until now. By
the Center for Anti-Imperialist Studies (CAIS) His
courageous stand against the invasion of U.S. troops on Philippine soil deeply
cracked the monolithic subservience of the Arroyo government to the designs of
the warmongering Bush-Cheney clique, exposed the subversion of the Philippine
constitution and sovereignty by the U.S., and lent extraordinary breadth to the
grassroots opposition to the U.S. armed occupation that was masquerading as an
aggrandized police operation against a puny army of bandits. In a year dotted by
claims of “personal sacrifice” by mainstream politicians, his was genuine,
patriotic and the first for 2002, by resigning as foreign affairs secretary. How
could a Filipino resistance leader, who was a vital actor in catalyzing the
massive people’s democratic uprising that threw off the Estrada regime, be
tagged as a terrorist following 9/11 by the Bush administration when he--along
with the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army, which
were likewise tagged as terrorist groups by the U.S.--had nothing to do with
the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, by any stretch of the imagination? (He
even roundly condemned the attacks and sympathized with the civilian victims,
even reminding everyone that terrorism be clearly defined as “willful and
malicious infliction and threat of death and other physical harm on innocent
civilians.”) Twenty-two members of the European Parliament, and multi-national
activists from Canada, Japan and Hong Kong--not to mention local people’s
organizations that formed the bulk of EDSA 2--thought it irrational too and
protested. Ka
Bel earned once more the moniker “people’s congressman” as he chose to see
through his opposition to the oppressive PPA to the point of sacrificing dark
nights at home with his family when Meralco ordered his simple abode’s
electricity cut off for his refusal to pay the PPA-padded electric bills.
That’s just one of many highlights this year for the former taxi driver
who’s part of the triad of Bayan Muna representatives in Congress working
overtime to thwart anti-people government schemes. In
the biggest underreported act of terrorism here in 2002, this CIA operative blew
it last May 16, in more ways than one. Meiring suffered severe injuries from a
major blast from explosives in his possession at the Evergreen Hotel in
Davao City. Local authorities promptly investigated the incident, but were
thwarted by a preemptive strike mounted by the local U.S. embassy/CIA station,
with agents from the U.S. National Security Council and the FBI. Meiring was
swiftly cordoned off by the U.S. government from scrutiny, and whisked to
medical facilities in California faster than the local media--which is lorded by
CIA contacts--can say “cover-up.” Two feisty Manila Times female
journalists--Dorian Zumel-Sicat and Jeannette Andrade--bucked the blackout,
though, and came up with a searing three-part special feature that showed
Meiring’s ties to the CIA and the Abu Sayyaf. A rudely-affronted Mayor Rodrigo
Duterte and City Prosecutor Raul Bendico also went ahead with their inquiry and
officially proclaimed Meiring a terrorist himself last September. More
than anyone among the coterie of Abu Sayyaf bandits, Sabaya’s personal
fortunes this year reflected the slippery and murky identity of the world-famous
gang which he used to lead. And still does. You see, Sabaya was supposed to have
been killed in a water-borne chance encounter with state forces. One problem,
though: his remains, even just parts of him devoured by sea creatures, have yet
to surface. But--surprise!--he was found in one piece, alive, by local residents
who in turn informed reliable whistleblower Fr. Cirilo Nacorda, who spilled the
beans publicly. Could Sabaya have merely been putting to good use his CIA
training in Afghanistan in the 1980s on special destabilization/faux guerrilla/psy-ops?
That training may well include misusing the Moro people’s grievances of
national oppression for banditry/terrorist/counterrevolutionary purposes. The
highest U.S. official to personally oversee U.S. armed occupation operations in
the Philippines last year, Powell personified the U.S. corporate-military
oligarchy at the helm of the fake 9/11 war to thousands of anti-war Filipino
activists who kept vigilant watch during his July visit. The
bloody murder of Rosebud’s ex-lover and key PAOCTF operative John Campos
brought to the headlines once again the full emergence of narcopolitics as a key
dominant tenet of the current Philippine political scene. Given Campos’
previous role as Filipino representative to a major international anti-narcotics
body, he was likely privy to the shrouded deals made by Philippine military and
political officials with international illegal drug syndicates, especially
during the Ramos and Estrada administrations. Compromised by Rosebud’s damning
revelations before the Senate, he could have likely then be deemed a liability
by these crime lords once this police academy honor graduate probably chose not
to be a patsy to their wrongdoings. His death will surely loom over national
politics until next year, when his former PAOCTF mentor Ping Lacson--a suspect
mastermind in the Campos rubout, by the way--takes up the banner of
narcopolitics as he guns for the presidency. Just
when the Arroyo regime thought they had the unwavering support of the people in
its all-out war against the CPP and NPA by disguising it as an antiterrorist
crusade, an online statement endorsed by many revered living figures in
Philippine arts and letters and the academe--writer F. Sionil Jose, Palanca-winning
authors Rene Villanueva, Pete Lacaba, Reuel Aguila and Fidel Rillo; former CCP
director Nick Tiongson, singer Jim Paredes, stage actors Bart Guingona and Rody
Vera; director Marilou Diaz-Abaya, former UP President Jose Abueva, publisher
Karina Bolasco, former senator Bobby Tañada, former human rights commissioner
Merce Contreras, and Ramon Magsaysay awardee Bien Lumbera, among 300
others--rebuffed the war drive and called for the resumption of serious peace
negotiations with the National Democratic Front. This was immediately followed
by another similar petition signed by Vice-President Guingona, Senator Loren
Legarda, House foreign affairs chairman Rep. Apolinario Lozada and four more
congressmen; religious leaders from the Muslim, Catholic, Aglipayan, and other
faiths; EDSA 2 leader Teddy Casiño of BAYAN, and a longer host of others. A
major loose coalition, Pilgrims for Peace, emerged from these efforts. The
touted widespread endorsement of the government’s antipeace schemes
crumbled and was shown as a sham. The
injured fate of this unlettered Filipino Muslim from Basilan gave the lie to
hard-drilled pronouncements by U.S. military officials that they strictly
adhered to the defensive and advisory role of U.S. troops in the field in
Mindanao. His wife, Hudaira, courageously gave testimony in front of war-hungry
Philippine officials, that Buyong-buyong was shot by Reggie Lane, a U.S. soldier
who was with patrolling local state forces. Lane, so sure of his innocence, was
immediately evacuated from the Philippines to evade further questioning. Just
how successful was the joint U.S.-RP military operations against the Abu Sayyaf?
Of the three remaining hostages held by the bandits last June, two of them were
killed in so-called rescue operations. Yap and Burnham’s deaths were
senseless, needless and could have been easily avoided, had high Philippine
military officials and the Abu Sayyaf merely employed the same coordination they
did at Lamitan in 2001, where all Abu Sayyaf bandits escaped annihilation
from a tight death encirclement by state forces. Leave
it to the CPP spokesman to pull off a media coup of sorts. Amid widespread news
reports that he was either hopelessly sick or even dead, Gregorio Rosal showed
up in a December clandestine press conference in the pink of health and geared
to do more battle as his revolutionary political party enters its 35th
year. Here’s
a different sort of media coup. For once, a KBP Golden Dove Award for Best
Public Affairs Program went to a truly deserving radio program. Produced by
Kodao Productions, “Ngayon Na, Bayan!” has been staple earfare for months
already to a growing number of AM radio sticklers tired of payola-greased spin.
Daring to tackle jugular issues as the invasion of U.S. troops here, PPA, the
longstanding workers’ demand for living wages, everyday pressing concerns of
the ordinary Filipino family, even the grassroots inquiry into 9/11, this IS the
best public affairs program on radio now, the one we deserve to support. Check
out anchors Sonia Capio and Ruth Cervantes fighting the good fight every 2-4
p.m. weekdays at DZRJ-AM, 810 KHz. The
biggest legal victory for the people in 2002 has to be the Supreme Court’s
Nov. 15 verdict that Meralco overcharged its customers since 1994 and must
refund them the 28 billion pesos. Kudos to the battery of oppositors who slew
the Goliath: Kilusang Mayo Uno with counsel Public Interest Law Center;
Federation of Free Workers; Federation of Concerned Organization of Balut; TUCP;
Belen Atendido; Genaro Lualhati; Jose Isip/Philippine Consumers Foundation;
Municipality of Sampaloc, Quezon; Cesar Escosa; San Pablo City; Atty. Ceferino
Padua/LAMP; Philippine Justice Foundation; Jeepney Owners and Operators in Metro
Manila; Federation of Philippine Industries/Multi-Sectoral Task Force on Energy;
and NASECORE (National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms).
Following through this legal victory with solid organizing of both depressed and
middle-class communities around this issue should lend true worth to this court
win as our people’s democratic gain. Beng’s
smiling face adorning picket signs at the Mindanao mass actions condemning her
murder by armed state forces didn’t manifest the gruesome ordeal of her last
minutes alive. But it didn’t hide the pervasive reality that tragically befell
on the former CEGP vice president for Mindanao and other grassroots martyr
activists nationwide last year: the fascist neocolonial military that fully
emerged under the Marcos dictatorship three decades ago remains deeply
unreformed in its antipeople ways. The international journalist group Reporters
Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) noticed as well. Beng personifies
the people’s martyrs in 2002 who showed the best in the Filipino and thereby
earned the murderous ire of the worst of our countrymen. Arguably
the most colorful cultural event of 2002 has to be Panata sa Kalayaan, an
evening of reading Amado V. Hernandez’s poetry held last Sept. 14 at the
Cultural Center of the Philippines. Among those who lent their powerful voices
and musicianship to the powerful verse of Ka Amado were mainstream actors Joel
Torre, Leo Martinez, Tommy Abuel, Nanding Josef, and Ronnie Lazaro; musicians
Jess Bartolome, Coritha, Pol Galang, Jess Santiago, Jon Corsiga, Patrick
Sanchez, Neal Robles and Dong Abay (formerly of Yano) with Pan; grassroots
performance ensembles Sinagbayan and Tambisan; and grassroots leaders Ka Bel
Beltran, Ka Daning Ramos of KMP, Ka Mameng Deunida of KADAMAY, Teddy Casiño
of BAYAN and lesbian activist Rhona Montebon. An encore performance last
November added thespian Angie Ferro, director Behn Cervantes and Pinoy rock icon
Joey “Pepe” Smith’s talents to the mix. The September event launched the
year-long commemoration of the birth centenary of 1950s labor leader,
journalist, political detainee and icon of patriotic culture Amado Hernandez,
who was born Sept. 13, 1903. And
now to the most colorful culinary event of 2002. Doreen’s death
surprised everyone, but the revelations made at commemorative events held at UP
and CCP surprised everyone even more. The widely acknowledged authority foodie
didn’t just touch on food; she was a political activist who continued helping
the National Democratic Front in her humble ways, like research assistance in
replicating Katipunan-era cuisine for an aboveground NDF activity in the ‘80s.
All the more did the cornucopia of connoisseur-class food offered at both events
taste much better. Which
brings us to the biggest loser of 2002. Claims of “personal sacrifice”
notwithstanding, GMA’s Rizal Day pronouncement not to seek reelection in 2004
was a forced-to-good move brought by her government’s retreat from the
people’s mandate to advance mass democratic gains after EDSA 2. It, in fact,
subverted this mandate by indulging in business-as-usual corruption, giving the
disgraced President Estrada kid-gloves treatment, whitewashing the
mega-anomalies of the administration of her patron former President Fidel Ramos,
and partnering with the biggest criminal clique in power in the world today--the
Bush-Cheney faction at the White House--in pulling off a fake war on
9/11-related terrorism to disguise this U.S. clique’s designs of total
military and economic domination of the world. As its newest moves still show,
Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration is likely to end up as another dismal
failure for preserving a corrupt, moribund and antidemocratic neocolonial order,
much like the rest of her predecessor administrations after the
anti-dictatorship people’s uprising at EDSA in 1986. Ahem,
pardon us for allowing ourselves some self-congratulations. It wasn’t easy
coming out with the first of a series of references exposing imperialism’s
current designs against the peoples of the world, Filipinos included. We’re
proud of the fact that our book, Unmasking the War on Terror: U.S.
Imperialist Hegemony and Crisis, is the first Asian book to come out arguing
for likely complicity of the Bush-Cheney clique--currently at the heart of the
U.S. military-industrial complex long in actual command of U.S. imperialism--in
the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. And we’ve argued not for the sake of arguing;
there is a whole lot of documented evidentiary material from various
independent news sources that give direct proof of this contention. Our book
dealt with some of these. And the overall amount of this direct evidentiary
material is far more than, say, available direct evidence that Marcos
masterminded the 1983 assassination of his adversary Ninoy Aquino. And, even
with that, we all know what fate eventually befell on the homegrown tyrant. Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
|