Croc tears or revolution?

(Herman Tiu Laurel/ DieHard III/ Tribune column for 11-13-2007Monday)

P 850-B for international and domestic bankers, P 1-B for the Filipino poor; that’s the balance after Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo tried to commiserate with the suicide of the 12-year-old Marianette Amper, hanged herself and left a note lamenting her family’s poverty. In the current senate, only Senator Trillanes has taken the initiative to stop the automatic debt appropriation Senate Bill 1425 he filed; and in my own discussions with President Estrada, the still and only legitimate president of this country, who commits to the institution of debt moratorium as soon as the opportunity arises.

While the Marianetter Ampers of this land go hopeless the Lopezes’ First Gen corporation’s profit surges 50% to $100 million during the first nine months due to what the company attributes to “the strong profit rise to the successful operation of its newly acquired 112-megawatt (MW) Pantabangan-Masiway Hydroelectric Power Plant (HEP)“. What has really happened is that the cheapest energy source that Napocor used to pass directly to consumers now passes through as manipulated IPP rates of the Lopezes. This is the bitter fruit of liberalization and privatization. The people’s reponse to this should be re-nationalization.

The CBCP also lamented Marianette Amper’s suicide; but what, in over four hundred years of the Catholic Church in the Philippines, has it done to really liberate the poor? It is the most ironic commentary on the universal Catholic Church that it is its nemeses, such as the Communist party of Cuba and the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela that uplifts the masses of the poor. In a talk with the Cuban Ambassador to the Philippines, Ambassador Jorge Rey Jimenez, we were told that in Cuba anyone, rich or poor, can get a heart bypass at no cost and whenever necessary. Here, the poor of Tondo sell kidneys just to have enough food to get through hungry, jobless times.

While the Marianette Ampers’ number grow, Gloria’s crisis also grow and “snap election” wafts through the air. Political leaders of all stripes struggle over who should replace Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as the U.S. stooge to continue the gargantuan debt payments to global and local Shylocks, and privatize the nation’s crown jewels. We do not hear the opposition coalition propose real solutions to the nation’s dire woes – only their ambitions to replace Gloria. While ambitious leaders with Gloria clash and claw at each other to get the lion’s share of the plunder and power. Only President Estrada is going to the people, other opposition “leaders” only brush elbows with the elite’s Black and White.

The Black and White rally of one hundred is given attention only because they are Makati Business Club’s gofers. Remember that Black and White bolted Gloria when hesitated on the onerous RVAT. Black and White jumped to FVR’s call to oppose Estrada’s exoneration. Certain so-called opposition leaders would rather hobnob with those oligarchs’ gofers than reach out to the people; let me warn them – that’s to their ambition and honor’s peril. The genuine Snap08 movement including resignation of Glo and Noli, inspired by Senator Trillanes’ initiative, does not include the pro-Noli Black and White. Best is “resign all” for total change!

Last week, we chided the “mam-bobolas”radio program for one of its anchor’s shallow obeisance to the FBI’s cover up in Glo II bombing where more Marianett Ampers were sacrificed. I was in Linggoy Alcuaz’s car when I heard its other anchor raging against doubts over the FBI Glo II “gas leak” report, saying: “How can anyone doubt the world’s greatest investigative agency. It’s not one of thoe native agencies…” I couldn’t stand the groveling, sycophantic rapture for the FBI and condescension and insult for the Filipino that I had to turn of Linggoy Alcuaz’s radio. So I researched on a few from the FBI’s litany of fiascos:

J. Edgar Hoover’s persecution of minorities, progressive intellectuals and Martin Luther King; unsolved or cover up of the JFK assassination; Robert Hanssen, the high-ranking FBI man betraying his country to Russia, undetected for two decades; the WACO massacre; the wrongful espionage charge against Wen Ho Lee who suffered solitary confinement, psycho torture, calumnies before exoneration; the 9/11 Commission report issued in July 2004, blamed FBI for failing to pursue intelligence which might have foiled the deadliest terror attack ever conducted on American soil. FBI cover ups or diversionary tactics, such as in like the Anthrax attacks investigation.

That Anthrax investigation was described by columnist Dan K. Thomasson as "the most incredible display of bizarre ineptness since former FBI director Louis Freeh took personal charge of the investigation to nail Richard Jewell for the bombing in Atlanta's Olympic Park." Jewell was in fact a hero there who saved lives. The anthrax attacks were precursors for the self-inflicted 9/11 WTC “terror attacks” which was really controlled demolition. FBI history is full of politically biased actions and incompetence. It is gross injustice to the Marianette Ampers sacrificed at Glo II to allow a cover up of that state sponsored terror act.

Gloria, trapos of all stripes, the Catholic Church, media celebrities and others may cry a few tears for the Marianette Ampers and Glo II victims of this land; then they forget. They’re just crocodile tears. The only genuine tears for our suffering Marianette Ampers are the cries for political-economic-socio revolution. Onwards to the Last Revolution! (Tune to 1098AM, M-W-F, 6-7pm) ###