“They that sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7), thus says the Holy Bible.
A whirlwind of unspeakable evil has indeed struck the country when members of Mangudadatu clan, including a number of women, their staff and several local media people were massacred last Monday. As of late yesterday afternoon, 47 bodies have been recovered thus far. Members of political rival Ampatuan clan have been pointed to as the perpetrators.
It broke the local cultural and religious taboo that spares women from direct violence. Perhaps half of the victims, 20 of them, were women. Electoral violence among rival political families especially in that part of the country is not entirely surprising but the extent and manner of the killing is one of a kind. This irrational outburst of violence numbs the mind, but some kind of logic or reason may be retrieved by tracing its roots.
Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan, Sr., the patriarch of the clan is a last-termer having served 9 years as governor. He has made known the family’s intention to have his son, Andal, Jr. to succeed him in this coming election. However, the Mangudadatu family, had other plans. Its head, Esmael also wanted to be governor. His wife, Jenalyn Tiamzon-Mangudadatu, led a party accompanied by several journalists to file her husband’s certificate of candidacy when they were abducted and summarily executed.
In the 2007 election, it was Gov. Andal Ampatuan who delivered a 12-0 result in favor of the administration’s senatorial slate. In 3 towns, the opposition candidates got zero votes. Andal Ampatuan’s political closeness with government actually dates further during the Marcos regime. As vice-mayor of Maganoy in Maguindanao, he cast his lot with the military in its war against the MNLF. The military then armed Ampatuan’s vigilantes; thus started his career as a big-time political warlord. In the Estrada government’s all-out war against the MILF Andal Ampamatuan was their point man, and was picked the administration’s bet for governor in the 2001 election. In that election, some precincts were inside military camps and his opponents’ watchers were not allowed to go inside in other precincts. He easily defeated Candao, a suspected MILF supporter.
At present Gov. Andal Ampatuan is said to be in command of least 500 armed civilians and two special auxiliary units of CAFGU detailed by the military. In 2006, DILG Sec. Ronaldo Puno issued a memorandum authorizing civilian volunteer organizations (CVOs) in Mindanao to bear arms. Both in the 2001 and the 2004 presidential elections, the Ampatuan clan proved to be enormously successful in delivering votes to administration candidates. The 12-0 turnout in 2007 is even more impressive.
There you are. A succession of administrations owe to the Ampatuan clan political and military debts. He has been true and able to do his end of the bargain. The Philippine government has sown the wind and now reaps the whirlwind. It's the Ampatuan clan’s special role in the government’s political and military objectives that gave wind to its ascension to absolute domination of Maguindanao politics. Now, the whole nation and perhaps the whole world are watching how the Arroyo government and the military would tame the whirlwind of its own creation.
In the forthcoming elections, candidates especially at the national level are again engaged in sowing the wind. These politicians appear to be so desperate in winning that they would compromise even their souls in order to get elected. They are making alliances in every kind with power brokers of all kinds. In so doing, they will be legitimizing the powers that have long dominated, oppressed and terrorized the people. Like the present government, they will be complicit and should be held liable to other explosions of violence against innocent victims.
It is in this light that the people, the voting populace, should view the political consolidation of the various political parties. What kind of people at the local levels are they having alliances with? People at the grassroots know what kind of people these dominant political families are. If it’s difficult to know the real characters of individual presidential candidates, we can judge them by the character of local political figures they bring into their political circles. That’s how we ought to judge them.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Up Against Immortals
18 November 2009
Late yesterday afternoon, the Nationalista Party formally unveiled its standard bearers in the 2010 election: Sen. Manny Villar and running-mate Sen. Loren Legarda. The affair was formal, that is, quite lacking in suspense and drama since early in the day it was already known that Sen. Villar had already picked Sen. Legarda. This was in direct contrast to what happened at Club Filipino when Sen. Mar Roxas startled his party and the nation by withdrawing from the presidential derby, endorsing Sen. Noynoy Aquino instead. It also paled in comparison to the shocker when Sen. Chiz Escudero announced to a stunned audience that he was bolting his party, the NPC, instead of declaring his formal entry to the presidential race as expected.
Watching Manny Villar and Loren Legarda seated close to each other would make an interesting case of study. They looked like reluctant, if not, embarrassed partners. Their body language shows a total absence of natural affection for each other, no sparks flying about. Their speeches and responses to questions from media were unoriginal, staid and poorly scripted as though they wanted it over and done with. And the emcee, Gilbert Remulla of Cavite, was obviously straining in his effort to appear excited. I think it was a total propaganda disaster. It had everything but right. I doubt very much if their rating in the opinion polls would dramatically improve after yesterday.
Well, Villar and Legarda can’t be blamed either. It’s not their fault that they are faced with an opponent that’s simply above what their mortal frames could put up. It’s not simply a Noynoy Aquino-Mar Roxas team that they are up against. Villar and Legarda are fighting a ghost, a myth, an immortal. This supernatural adversary is a creation of the Ninoy-Cory myth, media hype and the despair of the masses, a perfect mix for political demagoguery. Noynoy’s deceased parents are casting a spell on Filipinos from the realm of the mythical. In this myth, Ninoy is the martyr who saved the nation from a ruthless dictator. Cory is the saint who made Gloria Arroyo look like the devil. And Noynoy is the anointed son who embodies the virtues and powers of his mythical parents. Noynoy carries a mandate from heaven. That explains the awesome gap between Noynoy and the rest of the field in the opinion surveys. Congressman Joel Villanueva, son of presidentiable Bro. Eddie Villanueva says that the opinion polls were rigged. They were not rigged. The respondents were under a spell.
Mass media played its part pretty well or rather played into the hands of Noynoy’s myth spinners. Some of them may have been actually inspired by the phenomenon and found something special and exciting to report on. Then, there’s the masses of people who are being awakened from despair by what appear to be signs of a messiah. And the mystical nature of Catholic piety is conducive to this kind of awakening or more precisely mystification.
There you are! What chances do mere mortals have against such an adversary? Almost nil, unless they know the secret of slaying the gods. The opposing camps ought to read the Greek classics, especially the Tragedies, if they wish to have a fighting chance. The Greek classics about the gods of Mt. Olympus were actually a literature of demythologization. It was meant to expose the gods as nothing more than human passions gone wild and finally overcoming rational human nature. The gods are cruel, capricious, stupid at times, easily tempted and seduced and in the end bring destruction upon themselves. Human freedom means liberation from the spell of the gods, from false consciousness and fake hopes.
Political education for an enthralled Filipino people requires the demystification of Noynoy’s presidential run. Unveiled of this myth, Noynoy is but a human being like everyone of his political opponents. Like Manny Villar, Noynoy Aquino has a political past that weighs heavily upon him. If Villar has a C-5 mess that he sought to bury with a Senate resolution prematurely absolving him of any wrongdoing, Noynoy has a Hacienda Luisita where farmers are crying for justice for the slaughter of 7 farmers five years ago this month of November. Noynoy’s father, Ninoy, was actually the first administrator of the 6,000 plus hectare estate, which Cory’s father Jose Cojoanco, Sr. had purchased from its original Spanish owners.
Indeed, it’s not a level playing field that Noynoy’s rivals have to play on. They are up against a myth. This is not to make Villar or whoever a mortal hero fighting the gods. What is truly at state here is that the people participate in the electoral process with a clear mind and conscious of their true power.
Late yesterday afternoon, the Nationalista Party formally unveiled its standard bearers in the 2010 election: Sen. Manny Villar and running-mate Sen. Loren Legarda. The affair was formal, that is, quite lacking in suspense and drama since early in the day it was already known that Sen. Villar had already picked Sen. Legarda. This was in direct contrast to what happened at Club Filipino when Sen. Mar Roxas startled his party and the nation by withdrawing from the presidential derby, endorsing Sen. Noynoy Aquino instead. It also paled in comparison to the shocker when Sen. Chiz Escudero announced to a stunned audience that he was bolting his party, the NPC, instead of declaring his formal entry to the presidential race as expected.
Watching Manny Villar and Loren Legarda seated close to each other would make an interesting case of study. They looked like reluctant, if not, embarrassed partners. Their body language shows a total absence of natural affection for each other, no sparks flying about. Their speeches and responses to questions from media were unoriginal, staid and poorly scripted as though they wanted it over and done with. And the emcee, Gilbert Remulla of Cavite, was obviously straining in his effort to appear excited. I think it was a total propaganda disaster. It had everything but right. I doubt very much if their rating in the opinion polls would dramatically improve after yesterday.
Well, Villar and Legarda can’t be blamed either. It’s not their fault that they are faced with an opponent that’s simply above what their mortal frames could put up. It’s not simply a Noynoy Aquino-Mar Roxas team that they are up against. Villar and Legarda are fighting a ghost, a myth, an immortal. This supernatural adversary is a creation of the Ninoy-Cory myth, media hype and the despair of the masses, a perfect mix for political demagoguery. Noynoy’s deceased parents are casting a spell on Filipinos from the realm of the mythical. In this myth, Ninoy is the martyr who saved the nation from a ruthless dictator. Cory is the saint who made Gloria Arroyo look like the devil. And Noynoy is the anointed son who embodies the virtues and powers of his mythical parents. Noynoy carries a mandate from heaven. That explains the awesome gap between Noynoy and the rest of the field in the opinion surveys. Congressman Joel Villanueva, son of presidentiable Bro. Eddie Villanueva says that the opinion polls were rigged. They were not rigged. The respondents were under a spell.
Mass media played its part pretty well or rather played into the hands of Noynoy’s myth spinners. Some of them may have been actually inspired by the phenomenon and found something special and exciting to report on. Then, there’s the masses of people who are being awakened from despair by what appear to be signs of a messiah. And the mystical nature of Catholic piety is conducive to this kind of awakening or more precisely mystification.
There you are! What chances do mere mortals have against such an adversary? Almost nil, unless they know the secret of slaying the gods. The opposing camps ought to read the Greek classics, especially the Tragedies, if they wish to have a fighting chance. The Greek classics about the gods of Mt. Olympus were actually a literature of demythologization. It was meant to expose the gods as nothing more than human passions gone wild and finally overcoming rational human nature. The gods are cruel, capricious, stupid at times, easily tempted and seduced and in the end bring destruction upon themselves. Human freedom means liberation from the spell of the gods, from false consciousness and fake hopes.
Political education for an enthralled Filipino people requires the demystification of Noynoy’s presidential run. Unveiled of this myth, Noynoy is but a human being like everyone of his political opponents. Like Manny Villar, Noynoy Aquino has a political past that weighs heavily upon him. If Villar has a C-5 mess that he sought to bury with a Senate resolution prematurely absolving him of any wrongdoing, Noynoy has a Hacienda Luisita where farmers are crying for justice for the slaughter of 7 farmers five years ago this month of November. Noynoy’s father, Ninoy, was actually the first administrator of the 6,000 plus hectare estate, which Cory’s father Jose Cojoanco, Sr. had purchased from its original Spanish owners.
Indeed, it’s not a level playing field that Noynoy’s rivals have to play on. They are up against a myth. This is not to make Villar or whoever a mortal hero fighting the gods. What is truly at state here is that the people participate in the electoral process with a clear mind and conscious of their true power.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Oil Economics and National Sovereignty
11 November 2009
Middle of last year, 2008, world oil prices reached all-time highs at $126 + per barrel but by yearend, it crushed to $32.94 and even lower to $31.04 in February of this year. The reason given for this wild fluctuation of prices was the rapidly changing ratio of supply and demand. Prices hit the ceiling when demand, current and futures, exceeded actual supply, prompting U.S. President George W. Bush to demand that oil producing countries increase the supply of crude oil in the world market. The last quarter of last year, however, saw an unprecedented financial crisis hitting the United States and spreading like a contagion to the rest of rich capitalist countries. The resultant global economic slowdown leading to a recession lessened the demand for oil causing prices to tumble down to the 2004 level.
According to oil economists, the balance between supply and demand is hypersensitive to global events, hence the constant fluctuation in prices. The idea being presented is that the rise and fall of oil prices follows its own economic laws that are beyond human control. It has a life of its own, and all that we can do is to bow down to its imperious will, says the giant oil companies that have monopoly control over the supply of oil in the international market.
In the Philippines these last few days, oil inventories are fast disappearing in Metro Manila and across Luzon. And this has nothing to do with supply and demand. The world market has at present an abundant supply of oil. In the Philippines, Luzon in particular, there has not been a surge of demand for oil products. The truth is somewhere between the oil companies hiding or not releasing their current stocks, or they have stopped importing oil. This is without doubt a countermove to government’s Executive Order 839 putting a cap on pump prices in Metro Manila and Luzon. The executive order was an attempt of government to give partial relief to victims of the three typhoons that devastated the northern part of the country.
But unfortunately for the typhoons’ victims and the entire nation, oil companies don’t speak in moral language. They know only one language – the language of profit and superprofit regardless of circumstances, social or moral. They have absolute power to flood the streets of Manila with oil or make it dry. They would actually consider letting the economy collapse and cause millions of people to die of hunger unless they get their share of profit to the last centavo. They have absolutely no scruples. They have absolutely no fear of the government, its courts and its military. And to top it all, they feel offended and victimized by E.O. 839! For them it is a matter of justice and fairness, prompting them to turn off the oil faucet.
For most, if not all of us, this is beyond lunacy. But in the minds of the owners and managers of oil companies this is plain textbook reasoning. For them, governments are there to serve and protect their profits. That’s what Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes and every one of his predecessors, are there for. Just as for Catholics bearing children is a natural process that can’t be prevented without committing sin, for capitalists money capital bearing more money is a natural process that governments should never interfere. No calamity, no disaster, nothing on earth or from heaven should deprive capital of its due profit. Governments that do something that distracts or impedes capital from its natural behavior of procreating itself commit a capital sin, pardon the pun.
This development raises the question of nationalizing the oil industry. Oil is too sensitive, strategic and vital an industry to be left in the hands of private capitalists, not to mention foreign. It is the state’s primordial duty to protect the interests and well-being of the citizens. But allowing private oil companies to control the very lifeblood of the national economy is totally contrary to this mandate. The much maligned President Marcos was right when he put up Petron as a state oil company that could import, process, refine and distribute oil products (together with PNOC). With a state oil company, foreign oil companies are forced to toe the line, or else they would end up without customers. Alas, the government under President Fidel Ramos sold it to foreign investors and let foreign managers run it. Now, it’s part of the Big 3 that have the power to bring the Filipino nation and its people to their knees.
But this is a very rare opportunity for the Arroyo government to redeem itself in eyes of the Filipino people. For the crime of economic sabotage, the government can take over control and operation of the oil companies. It is within the powers of the state to do this – for the survival and development of the nation. This is nationalism in its most concrete real form. The Filipino people may even thank Gloria Arroyo, even beg her to extend her term and continue to serve as the nation’s leader, if she would take up the challenge.
Middle of last year, 2008, world oil prices reached all-time highs at $126 + per barrel but by yearend, it crushed to $32.94 and even lower to $31.04 in February of this year. The reason given for this wild fluctuation of prices was the rapidly changing ratio of supply and demand. Prices hit the ceiling when demand, current and futures, exceeded actual supply, prompting U.S. President George W. Bush to demand that oil producing countries increase the supply of crude oil in the world market. The last quarter of last year, however, saw an unprecedented financial crisis hitting the United States and spreading like a contagion to the rest of rich capitalist countries. The resultant global economic slowdown leading to a recession lessened the demand for oil causing prices to tumble down to the 2004 level.
According to oil economists, the balance between supply and demand is hypersensitive to global events, hence the constant fluctuation in prices. The idea being presented is that the rise and fall of oil prices follows its own economic laws that are beyond human control. It has a life of its own, and all that we can do is to bow down to its imperious will, says the giant oil companies that have monopoly control over the supply of oil in the international market.
In the Philippines these last few days, oil inventories are fast disappearing in Metro Manila and across Luzon. And this has nothing to do with supply and demand. The world market has at present an abundant supply of oil. In the Philippines, Luzon in particular, there has not been a surge of demand for oil products. The truth is somewhere between the oil companies hiding or not releasing their current stocks, or they have stopped importing oil. This is without doubt a countermove to government’s Executive Order 839 putting a cap on pump prices in Metro Manila and Luzon. The executive order was an attempt of government to give partial relief to victims of the three typhoons that devastated the northern part of the country.
But unfortunately for the typhoons’ victims and the entire nation, oil companies don’t speak in moral language. They know only one language – the language of profit and superprofit regardless of circumstances, social or moral. They have absolute power to flood the streets of Manila with oil or make it dry. They would actually consider letting the economy collapse and cause millions of people to die of hunger unless they get their share of profit to the last centavo. They have absolutely no scruples. They have absolutely no fear of the government, its courts and its military. And to top it all, they feel offended and victimized by E.O. 839! For them it is a matter of justice and fairness, prompting them to turn off the oil faucet.
For most, if not all of us, this is beyond lunacy. But in the minds of the owners and managers of oil companies this is plain textbook reasoning. For them, governments are there to serve and protect their profits. That’s what Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes and every one of his predecessors, are there for. Just as for Catholics bearing children is a natural process that can’t be prevented without committing sin, for capitalists money capital bearing more money is a natural process that governments should never interfere. No calamity, no disaster, nothing on earth or from heaven should deprive capital of its due profit. Governments that do something that distracts or impedes capital from its natural behavior of procreating itself commit a capital sin, pardon the pun.
This development raises the question of nationalizing the oil industry. Oil is too sensitive, strategic and vital an industry to be left in the hands of private capitalists, not to mention foreign. It is the state’s primordial duty to protect the interests and well-being of the citizens. But allowing private oil companies to control the very lifeblood of the national economy is totally contrary to this mandate. The much maligned President Marcos was right when he put up Petron as a state oil company that could import, process, refine and distribute oil products (together with PNOC). With a state oil company, foreign oil companies are forced to toe the line, or else they would end up without customers. Alas, the government under President Fidel Ramos sold it to foreign investors and let foreign managers run it. Now, it’s part of the Big 3 that have the power to bring the Filipino nation and its people to their knees.
But this is a very rare opportunity for the Arroyo government to redeem itself in eyes of the Filipino people. For the crime of economic sabotage, the government can take over control and operation of the oil companies. It is within the powers of the state to do this – for the survival and development of the nation. This is nationalism in its most concrete real form. The Filipino people may even thank Gloria Arroyo, even beg her to extend her term and continue to serve as the nation’s leader, if she would take up the challenge.
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