BOOK
REVIEW
Yesterday and Today:
Direct Continuities
A Matter of Conviction by Danilo P. Vizmanos
Published by IBON Books (2006)
246 pages
The latest book by
retired Navy Capt. Danilo Vizmanos – titled A Matter of Conviction
– is a chronicle of Philippine history for the last 47 years as lived by
him. It establishes the link between the past and the present, showing
continuities and discontinuities through the years.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN
REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
The latest book by
retired Navy Capt. Danilo Vizmanos – titled A Matter of Conviction
and launched May 6 at the University of the Philippines (UP) – is the
third in what the author describes as a trilogy of his writings. It may as
well be said to be most representative of how he has viewed national and
international issues over a span of several decades.
Vizmanos’ first book
Through the Eye of the Storm, published by Ken, Inc. in 2000, is
composed of random recollections of important historical events that he
either directly took part in or witnessed, and personalities that he
encountered. His second book Martial Law Diary and Other Papers –
published also by Ken, Inc. in 2003 – is a combination of a journal
covering the period Jan. 1, 1973 to
May 19, 1974
and a collection of short articles he wrote from 1986 to 2003 which
suggest continuities from the country’s martial law period.
A Matter of
Conviction is a collection of
essays and letters on particular issues at various points in the country’s
history. The book covers the period from the 1950s to the present.
In his own
introduction, Vizmanos describes A Matter of Conviction as “a
critique of a social order that has chained our country to its colonial
moorings despite more than half a century of ‘independence.’ It is also a
critique of successive regimes whose response to the people’s cry for
social justice and emancipation from economic bondage has been the
consistent application of state repression, militarization and
counterinsurgency operations. It also includes a critical analysis of
significant national issues, state decisions and policies whose effects
and implications on the people are far-reaching and extends to future
generations.”
The book begins with
a letter by the young Navy officer to his parents, dated Sept. 13, 1951,
titled “A Letter from Ragay
Gulf.” Vizmanos describes the horrors of
an anti-insurgency operation conducted by the military in Guinayangan,
Quezon at that time: “Trigger-happy soldiers have been firing an
appreciable amount of ammunition every day and every night within and
outside the town for no particular reason at all. The worst thing is their
drinking spree. What can be more dangerous than a trigger-happy soldier
armed with a rifle and drunk? There seems to be a deliberate effort by an
irresponsible and insensitive BCT commander to intimidate and terrorize
the civilian population for self-serving reasons.”
This particular
passage seems straight out of many a fact-finding report by human rights
organizations in recent weeks. It also shows the literary flair
characteristic of Vizmanos’ writings – be they personal recollections or
even papers for forums and conferences.
We would read more of
these in the next pieces, particularly those covering the mid-1980s and
the early 1990s, or the latter part of the Marcos regime and the entirety
of the Aquino regime. His scathing commentaries against the total war
policy implemented by former Defense Secretary Fidel V, Ramos under the
Aquino administration should – for those unfamiliar with the country’s
more recent history – shatter the myth surrounding former President
Corazon Aquino as one who supposedly restored democracy following the 1986
ouster of then President Ferdinand Marcos.
Vizmanos devotes many
of his 1990s and 2000-2005 essays to critiques of the RP-U.S. Military
Bases Agreement as well as treaties and arrangement based on it – a
specialization of his since his stint as a student of the National Defense
College of the Philippines (NDCP).
In his controversial
NDCP thesis titled The Emergence of China as a World Power and Its
Impact on Philippine Security and National Interest, he presents among
others the recommendations that the Philippines adopt a policy of
non-alignment in its foreign relations and that the government abrogate
the RP-U.S. Military Bases Agreement. These are advocacies that Vizmanos
articulated in the late 1990s during the campaign against the Visiting
Forces Agreement (VFA) and in the early 2000s in the wake of debates on
the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA).
His critiques of RP-U.S.
relations – particularly its military aspect – are especially timely
today, considering that the Philippine government is currently confronting
an issue of sovereignty in dealing with U.S. soldiers accused of raping a
Filipina in Olongapo City, where the Subic Naval Base used to be located.
Likewise they offer valuable insights into the implications of continuing
Philippine alignment with U.S.
foreign policy at a time when the world’s sole superpower is hell-bent on
waging an anti-“terror” war against regimes in conflict with its designs
of global economic hegemony.
In a 2001 piece
titled “Winning a Battle, Losing the War!” he turns the tables on the U.S.
establishment media spin masters and asks a number of pointed questions:
“Consider the mass slaughter of more than
300,000 civilians in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
August 1945. Was this mere ‘collateral damage’ or a terrorist attack and a
crime against humanity?
“Consider the methodical bombing, missile
strikes and application of chemical weapons that resulted in more than a
million civilian casualties during the Vietnam War. Was this mere
‘collateral damage’ or outright terrorism and crime against humanity?
“Consider the more than one million
Filipinos who dies fighting during the Filipino-American war due to food
blockade and destruction of food resources, forced reconcentration of
civilians in hamlets, massacres and various forms of torture and
atrocities committed by U.S. forces. Was this mere ‘collateral damage’ or
an unforgivable act of mass terrorism and crime against humanity?
Terrorism is a mild term to describe U.S. Army General Jacob Smith’s ‘burn
all, kill all’ orders to his troops to avenge the annihilation of a
company-strength U.S. army garrison by Filipino rebels in Balangiga, Samar
in 1901.”
These are acts for
which the U.S. government has yet to issue an official apology. And yet
the U.S. government is quick to brand such deeds as “terrorist” acts when
committed by its opponents.
Vizmanos also
dissects the roots of the armed conflict in the Philippines – economic
bondage and social injustice breeding mass poverty – in “Who Creates the
Nation’s Crisis?” He thus provides the larger context behind the armed
conflict, which has been used by regime after regime since the Quirino
days as an excuse for imposing repressive policies and ratifying onerous
RP-U.S. agreements.
These ills are also
presented in his essay titled “The Flor Contemplacion Tragedy” written in
1995, as the causes of massive, almost daily migration from the native
land in search of greener pastures.
A Matter of
Conviction is, indeed – as the
author himself says – “more than a collection of papers.”
It is a chronicle of
Philippine history for the last 47 years as lived by Vizmanos. As such, it
inevitably illustrates the direct continuities between 1959 and the
present, showing that the imperative of the past remains. Bulatlat
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