Jueteng forever

Doing some research ion preparation for an interview on The Correspondents, I came across a transcript of a press conference held by my grandfather on July 10, 1936, eight months into his first term. The issue is apparently a jueteng scandal in Laguna province. What’s interesting is the approach to the issue: a distinction between being morally convinced of someone’s guilt, and proving that guilt legally, and the political considerations involved. I only have one volume of the confidential transcript (the portion below, for example, was “off the record”), so I do not know if the governor involved was suspended or not. Personally, I think the method outlined below for handling a case of jueteng-related accusations could be usefully followed even today.

Here’s the relevant portion from the July 10, 1936 press conference transcript:

THE PRESS: Are you informed of the jueteng situation in Laguna?

THE PRESIDENT: We are taking a hand in that. The Secretary of the Interior has a man there who is investigating that situation. I am prepared to give you some information about it, but this is not for publication. I am morally convinced that the wife of Governor Cailles has been running that Jueteng and I am also convinced that the poor governor did not want her to do it. But while Cailles is one of the greatest heroes during the revolutionary period, brave as he is, he is afraid of his wife. The only question we are trying to determine is whether it is true that Mrs. Cailles has stopped her Jueteng since I sent word to the Governor that unless that wife of his stopped that Jueteng, I was going to remove him from office. I am a very good friend of Cailles. I admire him. He is one of the best governors the Philippines ever had. That is proven by the fact that Cailles is the only man in the Philippine Islands that has been re-elected four or five times as governor. He had a strong opposition, but when he ran for governor, he was elected and elected by the common people because the rich and the political leaders in Laguna have always been against Cailles. My party has always had a very strong influence in Laguna. They never succeeded in electing a man for representative who did not have the support of my party. We always elected our man. Whenever Cailles was a candidate, he came out with the support of the poor people. And thinking so highly of him, I sent word to him that I was going after his Jueteng. I gave him about one month. After a month elapsed I sent one of his most intimate friends to tell him that unless he could stop his wife, I would remove him without much investigation. The report that I have received is that his wife has really stopped, and the fellow who told me that is convinced and that he is willing to spend money to get a lawyer for Cailles. Weinzheimer is a pretty honest gentleman. He believes in autocracy and he likes Cailles because he seems to be autocratic, but at the same time he does not like this Jueteng. I sent him to tell Cailles, to stop his wife and he did. He said: “Mr. President, I am convinced that the wife of Cailles has stopped, and therefore I am going to defend him. Do not mix up in this case. I am going to find that out.” I sent for the Constabulary officer in Laguna -he is one of the best officers that we have. He told me he is convinced that the wife of Cailles has stopped. Of course, my political associates in Laguna who were against Cailles, told me that the Constabulary officer is a false witness because his wife is the friend of the wife of the governor. But I do not believe that because I am really inclined to believe that the Governor’s wife stopped at the time I sent word. But still I am having the investigation conducted, and I should like to have the chance to suspend Cailles because if I suspend Cailles, this is going to put the fear of God into the heart of every provincial governor of the Philippines. The minute I suspend Cailles every provincial governor of the Philippine Islands will see that the laws of this country are enforced. But I cannot suspend him until I have more prima facie evidence that his wife is running Jueteng.

Weinzheimer told me that he is afraid of the wife of Cailles. She is really the most aggressive wife. It is pitiful to see that a brave soldier, who is never afraid of anybody, is afraid of his wife, (Laughter) and I am having that properly investigated. We shall never be able to stop Jueteng until the people are convinced that the wife of Cailles has stopped.

This is an extract from another press conference, July 24, 1936, regarding a controversial appointee:

THE PRESS. [with reference to charges against the appointee, who had previously been suspended for incompetence by an American governor-general] The Supreme Court any connection with that?

THE PRESIDENT. I do not remember that. There was something.

I want to say this and I want to say it publicly. I would not accept a dictum of the Supreme Court as sufficient reason for removing a man from office. The man has not been heard and he was not a party, in the sense that he was not accused of what the Supreme Court said he was guilty of. In the first place, the Supreme Court has no business passing judgment upon administrative officials. That is going too far, unless they are considering a case where the public official is made responsible for some acts of dishonesty or something like that where the court has decided whether then man is guilty or not.

Particularly my friend, Justice Malcolm; that was his specialty, to set up in the court as the last tribunal on public morality, etc.

I want to say that if there is any charge against Cruz, I should like to have that in my hands. Here is another statement I desire to make. When a charge is presented against a public official, it is not necessary that the evidence presented should be sufficient for conviction if the case was a criminal case. In a criminal proceeding the duty of the judge, in case of doubt as to the guilt of the accused, is to absolve him. In administrative cases, in case of doubt, the man should be separated from the service and the reason is that you do not need anybody in the government service in whom you have lost your confidence, and there is nobody who has acquired a title to the position he holds in the government service. The public has the right to have absolute confidence in the man in the government service. There minute there is reasonable ground for doubt as to the honesty of the man in the government service, he should be out of the service because one must have absolute confidence in the man in the government service, absolute confidence in his integrity, and if there is doubt as to his honesty, to ask for his resignation. I do not wish to remove him but to ask for his resignation.

“Anakin: Wish mo lang!”

Movie parodies are part of the great fun one can have on the ‘net. Years ago, when most of the blogs I read were on LiveJournal, a blog purporting to have the secret diaries of characters from the Lord of the Rings caused a sensation. The original LJ is gone, but mercifully, someone saved them at The Very Secret Diaries. Among the funniest are The Very Secret Diary of Legolas, Son of Weenus and The Secret Diary of Legolas, not to mention The Very Secret Diary of Samwise Gamgee and The Very Secret Diary of Frodo Baggins.My favorite is The Very Secret Diary of Gimli, Son of Gloin.

Ever since, there’s been an epidemic of secret diaries, although one, Extracts From ‘The Secret Diary of Darth Ad’ri-An Maul Aged 23 3/4′ conscientiously pays tribute to Sue Townsend, who wrote Extracts From ‘TheSecret Diary of The Adrian Mole Diaries : The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 : The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, a series of quite amusing books in the 1980’s (she also wrote The Queen and I, which has, sadly been overtaken by events: in the book, Britain becomes a Republic, and the Queen of England and her family have to move to an ordinary worker’s home, with really funny results).

The logical development of character parodies, of course, is the faux blog, such as The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster Journal of Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith and Servant to His Supreme Excellency the Emperor Palpatine. There’s Master Yoda’s Blog: Use the Force on you do not make me.

I haven’t encountered many parodies written by Filipinos, but in Bakla. Bakla. Baket Ka Ginawa? there’s his take on the latest (and last) Star Wars installment. A sample:

Palpatine: Haggard ka! I-pegasus mo siya. Shinutol niya ang project-arms mo. Kelangan magrevenge ka. Shit ka! Remember, ang pelikulang itey ay revenge of the shit. Kaya go! Shutayinara mo ang maondang yan kasi akez lang dafat ang pinakamaonda ditey na whitesiva angheraton. Shutayin mey!(insert nakakalokang tunog ng lightsabers na parang nagfu-fumegate)Vooooooooooooom . . . . . .

Tee hee.

“In fairness…” Any celebrity can be faux-blogged. With cruel, but hilarious, results, just look at Stephen Hawking’s Blog: because his high-tech computer broke BBQLOL.

The Long View: Senior moment

The Long View

Senior moment

by Manuel L. Quezon III

May 30, 2005

OF the Class of 1944, of Georgetown Prep, in Washington, D.C, my father’s graduating high school class, only a few are left. Perhaps one of the most prominent of them is John Dingell, who has been a member of the U.S. Congress since 1955, when he ran for his father’s congressional seat after his father passed away. Rep. Dingell has been the longest-serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives for some time now. I first met him in the company of my father in 1985, when he had us over for lunch and we toured the U.S. Congress. I recall that I thought I was being frightfully witty when I asked for Russian dressing on my salad in the House dining room (this was at the height of the Cold War); the most enjoyable part was riding the little electric subway that American legislators use to go from their offices to Congress.

While in Washington, I decided to pay Rep. Dingell a visit to see how he was and to find out his views on political developments in America. He is, of course, much older now, and rather frail looking. He turns 80 in July, and can look back at a productive career in the House. He is proud of being a co-sponsor of the Civil Rights Act, and of the 1990 Clean Air Act, and for fighting for the passage of legislation such as the Endangered Species Act. In the past, Dingell led successful efforts to stop the Bush Administration from allowing higher arsenic levels in drinking water and from cutting funds to investigate and prosecute environmental crimes. He has been responsible for laws such as Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Mammography Quality Standards Act. A leader in the effort to toughen corporate accountability both before and after the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals, Dingell has also taken the lead in exposing American government waste and abuses of tax dollars, including the investigation of no-bid defense contracts in Iraq.

He holds office in a lower floor of the Rayburn House Office Building, a squat, Roman-style office complex full of lobbyists scurrying from one grand congressman’s office to another. What struck me, though, was how small his staff was: a total of about four people in Washington, D.C. with another contingent attending to constituents in Michigan. Photos of Rep. Dingell with Speaker Sam Rayburn, Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan and Bush (W, that is), adorn the walls, along with a photo of Dingell with the Cookie Monster. In 1985 I saw an autographed photo of Franklin D. Roosevelt but it seems to have been put away for safekeeping since then.

We sit down in his private office. I mentioned to him that the last time my father saw him on television was when he swore in Newt Gingrich as Speaker of the House. Dingell smiled: “Not the most pleasant of tasks.” He is deeply unhappy with the political atmosphere in Washington since Gingrich’s time. “They have no respect for tradition. No regard at all for debate, civilized or otherwise. They think they have it all figured out and will stop at nothing to get what they want.” Does this mean they act as if they think they’ll be in power for ever? “That’s exactly right,” Dingell nods. “They have no conception that today’s majority can be tommorow’s minority: the basis of the self-restraint that should be one of democracy’s defining characteristics.”

Asked about the then-burning issue of the day (since defused, after a herculean bipartisan effort), the threat to resort to the “nuclear option,” which would have ended the time-honored tactic of filibustering to prevent judicial nominations offensive to the minority, Dingell frowns. “The new Republicans are different from the old ones. They’re simply uninterested in getting along with anyone who disagrees with them. They fit the facts to their existing views –look at Iraq.” Soberly (and, it turns out, correctly) he added, though, that “I do think they will work it out, there are sober men and women in the Senate.” Indeed, his opinion of the Senate has been raised a notch or two over the years. “It’s taken me a long time to change my views about the Senate. Now, though, I realize the importance of another chamber that can apply the brakes and say, ‘whoa, hold on now, let’s look at this further,’” he explains. Not that he thinks the Senate is very much worse than the House. His younger colleagues in the House are all ideology with little or no regard for the discipline of legislative life. “They don’t study. Recently they passed a law referring to another law –except the law they referred to hasn’t even been passed,” he sadly observes.

What accounts for the success of the new Republicans? With a bemused smile, he quips, “You see, they lie better than us. A lot better.” The Republicans are better organized, and their take-no-prisoners attitude towards politics has left Democrats somewhat shellshocked.

His big fight these days is to save Social Security: “My father was one of the sponsors of social security. If you look at the photo of President Roosevelt signing Social Security into law, you can see a skinny Polack with a moustache and a broken nose, that was my father.” He finds the Bush administration’s proposals offensive, but maintains that he and his fellow Democrats, as well as moderate Republican allies, will save the day. “We’ll win, but it will be a very close fight,” he says.

His parting words are a pledge. As a World War II veteran, he feels strongly about the issue of veteran’s benefits denied Filipinos: “They were gallant allies and helped win the war. They fought for their country’s freedom in partnership with the United States. They deserve every bit as much as American veterans received.” He is pessimistic, though, about the prospects of our veterans. “This administration has been cutting the budget for veterans,” he says. He shakes his head; extends his hand, and wearily gets up to attend an important vote on the floor.

Papaya fun

I get very, very cranky during my birthday. It helps when friends go out of their way to greet me. Turning 35, in particular, is something of a milestone -so much that should have been done, so much still to do, so very much that may never get done.

Then you run across ephemera like this, and you can’t help but smile. Thank you to all who took the time to greet me.

Did the poor priest ever hear of papaine?

Senior moment

Senior moment – INQ7.net: is my PDI column for today.

An interesting email from Mary D. Dulatre, who has self-published Oral Histories of the Ilocanos: Life Experiences from World War II to Present by Mary D. Dulatre (Book) in Books > Social Sciences > Ethnic & Gender Studies > Asian Studies: My name is Mary Dulatre and I was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in the Philippines from September 2002 to September 2003. During the duration of my grant, I completed a project entitled “Oral Histories of the Ilocanos: Life Experiences from World War II to Present.” I collected almost 70 life stories of Filipinos in the Ilocos region of the Philippines ranging from the ages of 60 to 90. I tape-recorded these interviews, transcribed and translated them. These interviews are presented in Tagalog, Ilocano, and English. I addressed topics such World War II, the Marcos presidency, childhood, raising children, marriage, education, roles of men and women, livelihood, and language. I recently published this project and I am now fulfilling my mission of disseminating these stories to those who want to better understand the Filipino people. These are inspiring stories of survival, sacrifice and perseverance. You will find that their histories are connected to all ethnicities and not only those of Filipino or Ilocano descent.

I am asking you to invest in this worthy project by purchasing a copy of my book at http://www.lulu.com/content/127302#. It is my intention to donate my profits to WWII veterans and their families in the Philippines. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding my project. Thank you for your support.

Today is my 35th birthday. Clicking on the Paypal link or the Amazon wishlist link will be greatly appreciated.

Executive Order No. 310

Writing Executive Order No. 310 was a profoundly satisfying experience, because it addressed several problems. The first was caused by sloppy legal writing: the presidential coat of arms, and the presidential seal (they are not one and the same thing) were created by an executive order issued by President Manuel Roxas. On the presidential flag (yet another thing, as distinct from the coat of arms and seal), it would have looked something like this:

Image looted from the book on flags by Alfred Znamerowski

People who have seen the Roxas presidential flag, ask about the significance of the four stars. Answer: none. The design was based on the Commonwealth presidential flag, which was in turn derived from the American governor-general’s flag, in turn derived from the flag of the President of the United States (and most Federal officials).

Harry Truman modified the American presidential coat of arms, seal, and flag and the result was the elimination of the stars in the corner of the flag, and the use, instead, of a ring of stars. President Elpidio Quirino followed suit (Roxas and Quirino weren’t just slavishly aping the Americans: the presidential flags of many nations, particularly in the Americas, Central and South, did, and do, likewise).

The copying of the American ring of stars, however, was defined in Quirino’s amendments to Roxas’s Executive Order as constituting golden stars. Due to carelessness, however, flag makers and designers simply copied the American style, resulting in the following:

Taken from the internet, I forgot where, sorry.

This was used by Presidents Magsaysay, Garcia, Macapagal, Marcos, Aquino, and Ramos, even though if anyone had bothered to read the Executive Order, they would have noticed that its provisions specified that the ring of stars should be gold or golden-yellow, and not white or silver. Matters were complicated by President Estrada (sensibly) amending the Roxas order, to specify that the ring of stars (frozen at 52 since the Quirino era) should reflect the number of provinces in the Philippines at any given time.

An additional problem was the Vice-President’s coat of arms, seal, and flag, and this was the cause of a running battle I had with the National Historical Institute. The American vice-president’s flag is white, while the president’s is blue; a similar distinction was carried over in Roxas’s order. Roxas’s order also modified the presidential coat of arms, so that it would be distinct from president’s when used by the vice-president. There is a logic to this. An important consideration in any official symbol, is that it should be readily identifiable, and not be a cause for confusion.

The language of the Roxas order is confusing, but it seems the vice presidential coat of arms followed the pattern of the presidential coat of arms, except that the sun and sealion were blue for the vice-president. When Quirino amended Roxas’s order, things were made even more confusing by stating that the vice presidential coat of arms would be identical to the president’s, except for the ring of stars. The field of the vice-presidential flag, however, would remain white.

After Edsa, when the vice-presidency was restored, a literal reading of the order resulted in a totally senseless practice: the vice-presidential coat of arms and seal were portrayed on a presidential blue background, while the vice presidential flag portrayed the coat of arms on a white field. I kept insisting to the NHI that it had to be one or the other, and that only the latter was correct, both due to common sense and tradition. They were hard-headed. An intense lobbying effort had to ensue to a) convince the executive department this confusion was unhealthy; b) convince the office of the vice president to go along; c) get the new order signed.

Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Jr., in one of his last official undertakings, was supportive. The President was supportive as were many cabinet officials, who were worried about the way the presidential coat of arms and seal were being used by all sorts of officials; Presidential Protocol, when informed of how badly the presidential seal was being portrayed, after I showed them a proper illustration of it, were supportive. Reference was made to similar regulations governing the seal and coat of arms of the President of the United States. The result, I think, is a much more understandable set of regulations.

Executive Order 310 finally establishes the coats of arms, seals, and flags of the President and Vice-President of the Philippines according to past issuances, tradition, and basic principles of heraldry in a Philippine setting. The result is that the presidential and vice-presidential seals are easily distinguishable from each other:

The presidential seal includes the presidential coat of arms, encircled by two golden rings, containing the legend “Sagisang ng Pangulo ng Pilipinas” and three gold stars. Note how the circle of stars in gold is much more aesthetically pleasing, and more Filipino-looking, than the white stars sloppily used over the years. This is the official illustration incorporated in EO 310, and it was made by Eric Agoncillo Ambata.

The Vice-Presidential seal includes the vice-presidential coat of arms (on the traditional, and distinct, white field), encircled by a solid blue ring with the legend, “Sagisag ng Pangalawang Pangulo ng Pilipinas.” This is also the official illustration as incorporated in EO 310, and was rendered by Eric Agoncillo Ambata.

The order punishes unauthorized use by officials other than the president and vice-president. It also provides for another thing I obsessed about while in government, which was the lack of graphic design standards for official symbols. Other governments have all their symbols, signage, stationery, etc. carefully laid out, with precise specifications, in handbooks and manuals for government use. Our government lacks one, which accounts for the sloppy and inferior quality of our government’s signs, forms, and stationery. Unfortunately, due to budgetary constraints, no manual has been produced yet. The private sector seems unwilling to pitch in and do one gratis for the government.

Leesburg, VA

A place I got to visit for the first time was the Pat Hurley mansion in Leesburg, Virginia, where my grandparents and their family stayed for a few months upon arriving in the United States to establish the government-in-exile in 1942. Here is part of a photo showing the family, August 19, 1942:

A little earlier, June 23, 1942:

Sixty-three years later, I got to visit the place with my cousin Aurora: our photo on the same steps as the photos from 1942 (with my cousin Aurora):

This is the actual home as it is today:

The house was built by a signer of the American declaration of independence; finally ended up owned by the McClane’s, of whom one member, was an owner of the Hope diamond; then purchased by Pat Hurley, a member of the Hoover cabinet; thereafter, bought by IBM but left boarded up for thirty years before finally being bought by a developer and restored as part of a golf club.

Here’s a snippet from my dad’s memoirs, from the time they arrived in the U.S.A. after first escaping to Australia and then going to the U.S.A. by ship in 1942:

After some days in San Francisco, to give us a rest from the voyage I suppose, President Roosevelt special railroad carriage (called the Ferdinand Magellan) was sent for us and attached to a transcontinental train. No one, or almost no one, took a plane then, unless for a special reason. It was a four or four and a half day train ride to Washington. The US government official sent to escort us had an Irish name, I believe, but I have forgotten it. We were to find him in Rome in l950 when the start of the Korean War caught us there and we wanted visas to the States because we were afraid a general war would break out in the East.

The start of a journey has always excited me. We had to drive to Oakland to catch the eastward train there. When we arrived at Union Station in Washington, DC, we were met by a group of Filipinos including Lola Charing Schutze, now Jimenez. At the exit to the Station there was FDR standing beside his car and we were photographed in memorable poses. I was so moved my lips were trembling. We were driven to the White House where we had lunch and dinner. At tea we were entertained by President Roosevelt who was a great raconteur. Mrs. Roosevelt kept walking in and out and when I met her in a corridor, she smiled “The mail, always the mail.” She seemed terribly tall, as did every one else, which is no wonder since I was only 5’2”. We spent that night at the White House, where I was put in an enormous (to me) bedroom alone. I had the impression it was the Lincoln Bedroom but I may very well be wrong. The following morning we were taken to the eighth floor suite of the Shell Oil Company at the Shoreham Hotel, where we stayed for a time. Then we moved to the Pat Hurley estate in Leesburg, Virginia, about forty minutes from Washington, where we stayed for the summer, until our permanent quarters at the Shoreham, were ready . Before deciding to stay at the Shoreham, we took a look at a Waldorf Towers suite way up – the Waldorf is about 34 stories high. Since my father was terribly acrophobic, the project was dropped and thereafter whenever we went to New York we stayed at an 8th floor suite at the Waldorf. In l937 we had stayed at the Ambassador Hotel on Park Avenue like the Waldorf. Strangely, it took several trips to New York in the eighties before I noticed that our old Ambassador Hotel was gone. I never noticed what replaced it.

During our summer stay at the Pat Hurley mansion, a gleaming colonial mansion with enormous grounds. I took my last horseback ride. I also developed the habit of reading very late. I turned l6, with a large party with our traveling companions. We would go into Washington occasionally, when we would always smell a skunk during the drive. It is a distinctive stench. Finally our suite was ready at the Shoreham and we moved in.

Still fighting?

Japanese media are abuzz over the possibility of Japanese Imperial Army stragglers being identified in Mindanao, although, Just rumors, diplomat says of stragglers’ tale”>The Manila Times Internet Edition | TOP STORIES > Just rumors, diplomat says of stragglers’ tale.

A side note to the Japanese media frenzy is that a Japanese loses $20,000 at airport security check – INQ7.net.

The Manila Times features a good summary of recent straggler stories in Japanese holdouts”>The Manila Times Internet Edition | TOP STORIES > Japanese holdouts.
I’ve read one straggler’s story, which you can find in Amazon.com: Books: No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War (Bluejacket Books).

asiapundit

I’ve signed on as a co-author at asiapundit. Still getting the hang of it, but first entry is on La Vida Lawyer recounting a Filipino bureaucrat’s philosophy:
“What is the most important rule in life?”, Mr. Bureaucrat, a career officer in a government agency, blurted as he swang his club and sent the golf ball 200 yards away. I managed only to shrug my shoulders, not knowing that Mr. Bureacrat was about to give me his life lessons with a swing.”Never stick your neck out for anyone,” he declared as we walk towards the golf ball in the green.

Jet lagging…

…So, until I recover, a blast from the past…

Central Park, late June, 2002. Right after a Summer shower.

Next Page »