Something interesting happened yesterday. Early in the afternoon, the Palace alerted media, saying it should cover the President’s speech in Mindanao, because she would announce the revocation of Executive Order 464. ANC dutifully started covering the speech.
Then it was interrupted by a live press conference at the Palace (see Jove Francisco’s account).
Speaking to reporters were Secretaries See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Say No Evil, otherwise known as Favila, Ermita, and Mendoza. Favila told a touching tale of a befuddled President who left her (potentially dying) husband so that she could honor a request from Fidel V. Ramos to address the Asian equivalent of the Davos gabfest; she got a call, though, from her husband’s doctors and so, rushed home (the Chinese officials couldn’t speak English, Favila said, most undiplomatically, and so he had to converse with them through sign language). Ermita then did his usual folksy uncle schtick about his (not the President’s, mind you) setting up a committee to review E.O. 464. And Mendoza launched into his usual monologue about how utterly above-board the NBN-ZTE deal was. At a certain point, Palace admits Arroyo said ‘anomalya’ in radio interview: but only after the three cabinet members had their bluff called by reporters.
End result? Even if the President had announced she was revoking E.O. 464, it would have been drowned out by the live Palace press conference; but anyway, she didn’t, and the best anyone’s been able to gather is… She changed her mind.
Why?
Who knows. But let me hazard a guess. I think a power play took place, between the time the media was alerted to expect a presidential announcement, and the unscheduled Palace press conference.
I say this, because by some accounts, it’s happened before. The President’s plans to impose martial law were foiled by a rebellion of sorts on the part of her Secretary of National Defense, Avelino Cruz, Jr., with the tacit approval of the generals, in November, 2005 (See Philippine Commentary for details). In February, 2006, the President, never short of clever lawyers, had decided that if she declared a State of Emergency, she could wield martial law powers without defying the United States. This is why, as many people subsequently noticed, the President’s declaration of a State of Emergency was virtually a word-for-word copy of Marcos’s Proclamation of Martial Law in 1972.
And here enters the cabinet rebellion. Soon after the President made her announcement, some of her cabinet then appeared on TV to state that the proclamation authorized the President to wield considerable extraordinary powers; this was followed by Cruz and others appearing on TV to say that no, the President’s proclamation did not confer on her additional powers; at that instant the attempt to wield extraordinary powers was nipped in the bud.
I’m convinced something similar happened yesterday, but unlike Avelino Cruz, Jr. heading off martial law and then an effort for the President to assert extraordinary powers, this time around, Favila, Ermita, and Mendoza engineered the scuttling of the revocation of E.O. 464.
This is part and parcel of their efforts to counteract the President’s efforts to wriggle her way out of the NBN-ZTE mess by claiming that she knew, all along, that the deal was defective (somehow) and that it took her a long time to scrap the deal because she didn’t want to offend China. Had the President pursued that excuse, it would have left members of her cabinet exposed as liars and accomplices to the wrongdoing the President disowned.
So the President’s story was disowned, regardless of the reversal beggaring disbelief. So the President’s effort to pander to the bishops was scuttled, regardless if by doing so, it weakens the ability of the President’s bishop-allies to help her in the future: these cabinet members aren’t about to take a dive any more than they already have, for a President obviously prepared to feed them to the wolves.
Just a hunch. Meanwhile, enjoy this: Palace story on P.5M given to Lozada now on 3rd version.
My column for today is Today the Spratlys, tomorrow Palawan. I have been following the unfolding diplomatic tack taken by this administration for some time now. For a backgrounder, see my Inquirer Current entry titled “The China Card.” It traces my articles on the subject and other relevant readings about the ongoing positioning among the Great Powers in our region as well as ASEAN, collectively, and its member countries.
At a time of American indifference with regards to Southeast Asia, and uncertainty over American attitudes towards the present government, courting China has become a major diplomatic priority of the Palace: on a commercial basis, this is no different from any other country eager to partake of China’s booming economy. But in terms of security and natural resources, American ambivalence about ASEAN has fostered a sense of regional solidarity among member nations, in the hope that acting as a bloc, it can extract better concessions from China as well as resist Chinese pressure better.
Because of her unique political problems, the President has had no qualms about projecting China as a potential -and at times, actual- replacement for the United States as an ally and source of assistance. But the diplomatic gambit has had domestic repercussions, too: NBN-ZTE.
Lately, however, besides domestic problems, the President’s relying on the China Card has upset ASEAN, too. This was revealed in a Far Eastern Economic Review article, Manila’s Bungle in The South China Sea. In our own media, Ricky Carandang tackled the issue in The Correspondents, in a segment you can watch on YouTube. And the papers have picked it up, for example, Malaya’s Treason in dirty Chinese loans? Under Beijing gun, Gloria commits RP to Spratly deal.
In light of the above, something John Mangun wrote on April 25, 2005 in The Philippines and China: A Bad Match now makes perfect sense:
Malacañang refuses to accept and deal with the fact that China invaded, occupied, and stole Philippine territory in the South China Sea. The Spratleys may be worthless outcroppings or the gateway to boundless treasure. It does not matter. Those atolls and islands are Filipino property as much as the ground on which the President walks each day. China’s conduct and treatment of the Philippines shows their inconsistency and lack of honesty in their conduct of foreign relations.
To view China and Japan similarly in our economic relations is a disaster for the nation. Madame President, listen well: China is a business COMPETITOR; Japan is a buying CUSTOMER. Fifteen years ago, ninety percent of all Christmas ornaments and decorations sold in the United States were imported from the Philippines. Now that ninety percent comes from China. The same trend occurred with Philippine garments and shoes.
According to the FEER report, there are two agreements of significance. The first is “Agreement for Seismic Undertaking for Certain Areas in the South China Sea By and Between China National Offshore Oil Corporation and Philippine National Oil Company” signed on Sept. 1, 2004, and later superseded by a “Tripartite Agreement for Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking in the Agreement Area in the South China Sea,” signed on March 14, 2005. The agreements were kept hush-hush by the three governments, understandably so in the case of Socialist Vietnam and The People’s Republic of China, but not so in the case of the ostensibly democratic Philippines.
As the FEER report says,
…the details having leaked into research circles, the reasons for wanting to keep it under wraps are apparent: “Some would say it was a sell-out on the part of the Philippines,” says Mark Valencia, an independent expert on the South China Sea. The designated zone, a vast swathe of ocean off Palawan in the southern Philippines, thrusts into the Spratlys and abuts Malampaya, a Philippine producing gas field. About one-sixth of the entire area, closest to the Philippine coastline, is outside the claims by China and Vietnam. Says Mr. Valencia: “Presumably for higher political purposes, the Philippines agreed to these joint surveys that include parts of its legal continental shelf that China and Vietnam don’t even claim.”
Worse, by agreeing to joint surveying, Manila implicitly considers the Chinese and Vietnamese claims to have a legitimate basis, he says. In the case of Beijing, this has serious implications, since the broken, U-shaped line on Chinese maps, claiming almost the entire South China Sea on “historic” grounds, is nonsensical in international law. (Theoretically, Beijing might stake an alternative claim based on an exclusive economic zone and continental shelf from nearby islets that it claims, but they would be restricted by similar claims by rivals.) Manila’s support for the Chinese “historic claim,” however indirect, weakens the positions of fellow Asean members Malaysia and Brunei, whose claimed areas are partly within the Chinese U-shaped line. It is a stunning about-face by Manila, which kicked up an international fuss in 1995 when the Chinese moved onto the submerged Mischief Reef on the same underlying “historic claim” to the area.
The “higher political purpose” euphemistically mentioned suggests purely partisan interests: that of the administration, which has, up to now, never disclosed these agreements. The Palace can always counter that “nobody asked,” and I’m sure this will be a Palace defense in the coming days. It may even claim that the agreement is a state secret, and covered by Executive Privilege.
This must be challenged. Not wanting to tip our government’s hand in negotiating international agreements may be understandable, but once signed, agreements should be subject to official disclosure. Reading old volumes of the Official Gazette, a regular portion was the publication, by direction of the President of the Philippines, of international agreements signed by the Republic. An agreement with economic consequences, and which involves defying an existing ASEAN consensus, certainly requires full disclosure. While MeiZhongTai pointed out in 2005 that an agreement had been signed and that exploration for oil had commenced (briefly noted by Ben Muse also), but never trumpeted, for obvious reasons, by our government although it liked trumpeting virtually every other China-related deal at the time.
The reason of course is that the deal would have negative political repercussions at home, and the government was not about to broadcast to its own people that the Philippines went against an ASEAN consensus.
I can think of many ways the administration will get stuck in another mess of its own making on this one.
Why?
Read Ricky Carandang’s entry, Treason:
Aside from angering our neighbors and potentially undermining regional stability, Arroyo’s action may also be illegal. Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez–who was then acting justice secretary — told former Senator Frank Drilon, who was then allied with the administration, that she believed that the deal violated the constitution, because while it was a deal between the state owned oil firms (PNOC of the Philippines and CNOOC of China) of the two countries, it implicitly gave China access to our oil reserves. Officers of the Foreign Affairs Department were also upset because the deal effectively strengthened China and Vietnam’s claim to the Spratlys.
What would compel Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to sign a deal that potentially undermines regional stability, possibly grants China parity rights to oil reserves in the Spratlys that we claim to be ours, and likely violates our constitution?
How about $2 billion a year? After the Spratly deal was signed, the Chinese government committed $2 billion in official development assistance a year to the Philippines until 2010, when Arroyo is supposed to step down from office. My sources tell me that the Spratly deal was an explicit precondition to the loans.
A sizable amount to be sure, but for the Arroyo administration the China loans are particularly appealing. Not so much because the interest rates are so low and the repayment terms so lenient, but because Chinese loans do not have the cumbersome requirements that loans from the US, Japan, the EU, and big multilateral lenders have. Requirements for documentation, bidding, transparency and other details that make it very difficult for corrupt public officials to commit graft. In fact, in November of last year, those cumbersome requirements made it impossible for some government officials and private individuals with sticky fingers to avail themselves of the World Bank’s generosity.
It had gotten to the point where a corrupt government could no longer make a dishonest buck. That is until China’s generous offer came along.
My column, of course begins and ends with a jab at the bishops. An account of how the bishops voted: Mindanao bishops ‘saved’ Arroyo. Noteworthy tidbit, concerning another portion of my column, on E.O. 464, is this:
In seeking the abolition of EO 464, Cagayan de Oro Bishop Antonio Ledesma said the bishops also wanted the Palace to waive executive privilege “in the spirit of truth and accountability.”
Although it was not expressly stated, Ledesma said a waiver on executive privilege “is the essence of the recommendation.”
Iniguez, one of Arroyo’s more vocal critics in the CBCP, echoed Ledesma’s position. Thus, the CBCP reached a consensus on asking President Arroyo to revoke EO 464 in order not to stifle congressional investigations on anomalies in government.
But Oliveros said the CBCP stopped short of categorically asking the President to give up executive privilege since this is a right vested to the Office of the President.
“We are not trying to protect the President but the Office she represents,” he said.
***
Update 10:47 PM:
Newsbreak emailed me to point out they’d published a report in 2006, unfortunately, it’s only available online at the Geological Society of the Philippines Yahoo Group.
What is available at Newsbreak’s site is the full text of the Agreement Between the PNOC and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation.
I’ve been apprised that June 2009 is some sort of deadline for the passage of a law on identifying our territorial baseline, and so agreements like this take on a greater significance. If anyone has information on why this deadline exists, and on what basis, I’d appreciate it
***
On China, additional relevant readings are Parag Khanna’s provocative Waving Goodbye to Hegemony:
Without firing a shot, China is doing on its southern and western peripheries what Europe is achieving to its east and south. Aided by a 35 million-strong ethnic Chinese diaspora well placed around East Asia’s rising economies, a Greater Chinese Co-Prosperity Sphere has emerged. Like Europeans, Asians are insulating themselves from America’s economic uncertainties. Under Japanese sponsorship, they plan to launch their own regional monetary fund, while China has slashed tariffs and increased loans to its Southeast Asian neighbors. Trade within the India-Japan-Australia triangle – of which China sits at the center – has surpassed trade across the Pacific.
At the same time, a set of Asian security and diplomatic institutions is being built from the inside out, resulting in America’s grip on the Pacific Rim being loosened one finger at a time. From Thailand to Indonesia to Korea, no country – friend of America’s or not – wants political tension to upset economic growth. To the Western eye, it is a bizarre phenomenon: small Asian nation-states should be balancing against the rising China, but increasingly they rally toward it out of Asian cultural pride and an understanding of the historical-cultural reality of Chinese dominance. And in the former Soviet Central Asian countries – the so-called Stans – China is the new heavyweight player, its manifest destiny pushing its Han pioneers westward while pulling defunct microstates like Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as well as oil-rich Kazakhstan, into its orbit. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization gathers these Central Asian strongmen together with China and Russia and may eventually become the “NATO of the East.”
(I don’t know if the “rallying to China out of Asian cultural pride” is exactly accurate; at least for ASEAN, since the 1990s there have been efforts at strengthening the regional bloc at the very least, to try to prevent individual member countries being intimidated by China; but American indifference has left the region no alternative but to cozy up to China):
This applies most profoundly in China’s own backyard, Southeast Asia. Some of the most dynamic countries in the region Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are playing the superpower suitor game with admirable savvy. Chinese migrants have long pulled the strings in the region’s economies even while governments sealed defense agreements with the U.S. Today, Malaysia and Thailand still perform joint military exercises with America but also buy weapons from, and have defense treaties with, China, including the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation by which Asian nations have pledged nonaggression against one another. (Indonesia, a crucial American ally during the cold war, has also been forming defense ties with China.) As one senior Malaysian diplomat put it to me, without a hint of jest, “Creating a community is easy among the yellow and the brown but not the white.” Tellingly, it is Vietnam, because of its violent histories with the U.S. and China, which is most eager to accept American defense contracts (and a new Intel microchip plant) to maintain its strategic balance. Vietnam, like most of the second world, doesn’t want to fall into any one superpower’s sphere of influence.
Also, see the entry of Steve Clemmons on Khanna’s article in his blog, The Washington Note: for an American’s view on the Khanna article.
And see Us and Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism by Jerry Z. Muller in Foreign Affairs.
Also, while reproduced in one of my responses below, let me add, here, the relevant provision of our Constitution:
Article XII
National Economy and Patrimony
Section 1. The goals of the national economy are a more equitable distribution of opportunities, income, and wealth; a sustained increase in the amount of goods and services produced by the nation for the benefit of the people; and an expanding productivity as the key to raising the quality of life for all, especially the underprivileged.
Section 2. All lands of the public domain, waters, minerals, coal, petroleum, and other mineral oils, all forces of potential energy, fisheries, forests or timber, wildlife, flora and fauna, and other natural resources are owned by the State. With the exception of agricultural lands, all other natural resources shall not be alienated. The exploration, development, and utilization of natural resources shall be under the full control and supervision of the State. The State may directly undertake such activities, or it may enter into co-production, joint venture, or production-sharing agreements with Filipino citizens, or corporations or associations at least sixty per centum of whose capital is owned by such citizens. Such agreements may be for a period not exceeding twenty-five years, renewable for not more than twenty-five years, and under such terms and conditions as may be provided by law. In cases of water rights for irrigation, water supply fisheries, or industrial uses other than the development of water power, beneficial use may be the measure and limit of the grant.
The State shall protect the nation’s marine wealth in its archipelagic waters, territorial sea, and exclusive economic zone, and reserve its use and enjoyment exclusively to Filipino citizens.
The Congress may, by law, allow small-scale utilization of natural resources by Filipino citizens, as well as cooperative fish farming, with priority to subsistence fishermen and fish- workers in rivers, lakes, bays, and lagoons.
The President may enter into agreements with foreign-owned corporations involving either technical or financial assistance for large-scale exploration, development, and utilization of minerals, petroleum, and other mineral oils according to the general terms and conditions provided by law, based on real contributions to the economic growth and general welfare of the country. In such agreements, the State shall promote the development and use of local scientific and technical resources.
And on a final note, more charges, filed against a President who knew her father when he was President: Salonga files plunder case against GMA.
In the blogosphere, an entry related to my previous one, on the Mandate of Heaven: Taoist lessons from Akomismo II. And sad but very, very true reading in Brown SEO.
1: QxB P-KN7!
2: K-K2 N-R6!
3: Q-N4 P-N8 (Q)
4: QxQ NxQ = draw
cvj,
“Bencard is weaseling out but not without first making an appeal to his own authority.”
well said.
bencard,
“buencamino, it’s my business to understand the concepts of “sole ownership†and “sovereigntyâ€Â. what about you?”
I am a diplomat. It is my business to understand matters involving national territory and sovereignty because that is my business.
So I am telling you that recognizing another country’s claim to territory we say we is ours weakens our claim and strengthens theirs!
So once again I ask you: which part of SOLE OWNERSHIP AND SOVEREIGNTY did you not understand?
Foot in the Door
Once the salesman puts his foot in the door, the homeowner has already conceded territory and would likely allow an annoying salesman in.
In pre-WW2 Europe, Germany puts a foot in the door of Czechoslovakia … then came Britain’s policy of appeasement… then Poland, France etc.
Present day China puts the foot in the Spratlys door, then…
Other Factors: Philippine administration laid the groundwork for an initial 1 million hectares of Philippine agricultural land for lease to a Chinese firm under vague terms with a promise of another million to follow. Right now, unconfirmed reports say that thousands of hectares have already been transferred for lease. Whose guarding them?
Backtrack: Pre-WW2 Philippines, Japanese were leased large tracts of land which later became military intelligence outpost and Japanese Imperial army sanctuary.
Present Day: ZTE-NBN Broadband deal … Possibility: Program backdoor created to override passwords and monitor movements in government and Philippine military deployments.
Current China Strategic Advantage: Philippine greedy group that can be manipulated and would concede a lot just for money. Surplus massive dollars can be used to properly position for possible future inroads. They sell their birthright for a mess of pottage.
Lesson: Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them.
http://warden.donutbai.com/suspended.page/?p=1701
I always see this upon logging on your site Sir Manolo.
it takes 5-8 refresh clicks before ever getting to your site.
Mita :
what foreign power wants us? for all the weatlth we have, underground and under the seas, we’re so messed up, no one would want the responsibility of RULING over us.
Geographically speaking We are in the middle of all the south east asia. I mean we are the gateways to our friendly neighbors. We are also a buffer to and from the pacific. We are the most strategically located country there is in terms of our asian neighbors. And I am getting redundant.
divvy up the islands, baka tanggihan pa at may mga tao. they’re only interested in the uninhabited islands?!
We had been ruled by the spaniards for 333 years, the americans for decades, the japanese for 4 years or so. We are one of the most invaded country in the world. I doubt if no one wants our resources and location.
excuse me today. for some strange reason, i woke up finding only humor in the country’s situation…it’s so absurd with the drama and all the intrigues, it’s turning to a comedy.
Excuse me today for not laughing about the so called comedy. This is my country you are laughing at. I have stakes in the matter on how my government should behave. And selling any piece of shit land my country have to foreign power is a treason in my book.
Our ancestors were killed in action while battling the spaniards, participated and got killed in Filipino – American War, shed blood with the white big brother in bataan death march. Its our duty to protect and improve what ever we inherited from them.
As President Quezon once said ” I’d rather have the Philippines run by monkeys than have it run like heaven by the americans” or something to that effect.
kabayan, China currently has one trillion dollars to invest worldwide. Many countries including the US and Western Europe are enticing them to invest in their own economies. So your argument is hollow. Investment by the US and Japan in the Philippines runs billions of dollar s more than chinnese investments, so Im not sure where are you are coming from. We are now part of a globalized economy. We should welcome foreign investments as long it is done fairly and equitably.
magdiwang,
Study your strategy, the US are inviting China and so does Europe but no one conceded territory or allowed a million hectares of their land to be open for lease. There is no argument here, just a clear and present danger.
We should follow China’s example on what they did to develop, which was to tackle inequality first and implement a program of domestic investment. The opening up of their market only happened later. Their economy did not take-off because of globalization. On the contrary, the foreign investments started coming in only when it was clear to the foreign investors that China’s economy had potential. Timing and sequencing is important.
hmmm… last time I checked pride was one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
while I am opposed to a foreign power subjugating this land as with every Filipino who comments on this blog (last time I looked those yo-yos who want us turned into an American state don’t comment here, I think), it would be more useful for people to check in their bravado and their testosterone at the door. It’s your country, fine, but its ours too, and no amount of chest-thumping and quoting mlq3’s grandfather is going to change that.
Manolo has yet again revealed another sin in the encyclopedic litany of misdeeds that has marked every year that “evil bitch” is sitting in the Presidential palace. yet another hole to be plugged by the her dutiful minions.
the question is, what’s to be done about it then?
Kamote,
Conceding territory and leasing out 1 million hectares or 10% of our total agricultural land is no laughing matter.
one word: SABAH
Kamote,
I wonder when other people will realize that there other things at stake here more than money.
Folks, it’s obvious Ate Glo has not read or taken to heart the Constitution of the Philippines. She is so hung bent on her economist credentials as if that alone makes her infallible. I remember at a forum when she was senator and I was a student, she suddenly made a remark (with her trademark scolding style) that the university was losing because Econ 11 was no longer taught as General Education subject, meaning a subject that should be taken up by every student no matter what their major of study was.
It stuck to mind that this person was one of those who thinks she is a haciendera of the old days and drove the impression on me as someone who doesn’t know her place and actually thinks that she personally owns the land where her two feet stand on, much like her actions in the ZTE deal and it’s interesting connection to deals that concern our sovereignty rights over the Spratlys.
Lol, how that perception was proven true when during her rise to the Presidency, even national holidays (Independence Day, National Heroes Day, etc.) were all sacrificed under the altar of holiday economics. She is prepared at every turn to bastardize and abuse the values that he hold dear as a nation. She has a one-track mind and her grasp of national patrimony and democracy is highly suspect.
If she had but half a brain it would have settled on her that the average Pinoy doesn’t go gallivanting in Boracay or Subic during a stretch of a 3 or four day weekend. The average Pinoy stays at home with his or her family and considers the time as a respite from spending precious money that go to fares, lunches, etc when going to work. So shucks, she’s even a very, very stupid economist in my book.
tapos biro biro natin noon na bobo si Erap…:D
e itong si GMA na pasang awa sa UP Phd niya at bestrpen kuno ni Uncle Bill sa Georgetown eh unaware sa mga agreements natin with the ASEAN.
..yan, yan ang sinasabing matalinon economista…pwe…
China has enough mouths to feed and enough problems of its own to lay siege on any country. I don’t think Manolo literally meant they’ll make any imperial encroachments. China doesn’t need to.
The issue with the Spratlys is an excellent opportunity for our country to take advantage of a rising China. Its investments and ODA can potentially contribute immensely to our infrastructure development.
But China also maintains a policy not to intervene in other countries’ domestic politics. Unlike Europeans who get on their moral high-horse and put economic sanctions on those whom they deem “evil” (i.e. North Korea, Cuba etc.), the Chinese just want to continue weaving their webs of influence and opportunities.
It is probably not a coincidence that “opportunity” and “challenge” are the same word in Mandarin. Looking at history, both Japan and South Korea developed under the ambit (protection?) of imperial United States during the Cold War. That was a chance we Filipinos were too…how do I say this diplomatically…stupid to take advantage of.
So now we get a second chance. It really is not the time to play nationalist and chauvinist.
But of course, everything boils down to our leadership. And obviously, we don’t have any.
More here.
“he hold dear” — > we hold dear
Bencard, come on respond to MB and show us how good a lawyer you are!
i don’t know what the fuss is all about. we’re going to be swallowed by the Greater Asian Sphere of Economic Union (GASEU) sooner anyway. that’s the way of social evolution. EU is leading the way, and the US is stumbling towards NAFTA. the world has always been going in the direction of hegemony. it’s just the way evolution works! and it’s in the bible too!
maybe hegemony is all for the better. the world should unite to concentrate all resources in space colonization. that’s the only way humankind will survive.
again, social evolution. from solitary cavemen to band of hunters to warrior villages then pioneer towns. came next were cities and then confederates, and nations. nation blocs soon followed, and then the U.N.
spurring social evolution is mankind’s hard-wired need for exploration. that’s how we spread across the globe and that’s how we’ll spread across the universe.
today the spratlys tomorrow palawan?
sovereignty is dead.
How about this variation:
1. Queen takes black Bishops.
2. Pawns rebel.
3. White Bishops join Pawns.
4. Queen sacrifices Pawns.
5. Knights takes Tower.
6. Pawns lose.
No one should confuse inviting investments with conceding territory.
Bencard, come on respond to MB and show us how good a lawyer you are!
Si Manoy pa. Sasagot yan. Kaya lang ibang timezone sya, ricelander, e.
One wonders why young JDV wants the Senate to finish off the NBN-ZTE investigations now…Could it have something to do with the dots now being connected to Spartleys, North Rail and JDV the elder?
The Chinese idea is that if they have historical rights to a territory then that piece of real estate belongs to them.
So why not we just cede Greenhills, Sta Mesa Heights including Banawe street and of course Binondo? Residents of these districts should rejoice. China won’t impose its system on them. Most like they would be made into SARs!
They won’t worry about elections either and all sorts of scandals like Hello Garci and Abalos’ alleged complicity. Everyone kowtows to Beijing. What Beijing says goes (unless the President of Taiwan Province makes noise!)
Devils, youre always full of sunshine and joy. 😀
strains of John Lennon singing “Imagine” playing softly in the background….
@blackshama
you can twist that and say mongolia has historical rights to most of northern china
😀
@devilsavc8
the eu is a free-trade area that also allows for borderless travel within the eurozone (yehey nga pala to that) but at the same time, the national borders still stand ie. rock of gibraltar (still a sore point b/w espana and britain) and also last year switzerland mistakenly ‘invaded’ leichtenstein…
so far, no one has ceded sovereignty to anyone…
Geo-political threat real. Patient, these guys are. Pride regained after 1000 years. Not only economic, but Middle Kingdom syndrome.
@blackshama
PS…ay ang bobo ko…ang buong Tsekwa pala ay nasakop ng Mongol Empire, so hindi lang northern china, pati na rin yung bilihan natin nga fake goods sa south ay historically mongolia rin….
When GMA is gone, we can just tell the Chinese that she was an illigitimate President so whatever was signed re Spratleys exploration is null and void!
Illegitimate
This is 1986:
1. King and Queen holds Tower for 170 moons.
2. Knights rebel.
3. Bishop calls Pawns.
4. Knights, Bishops, Pawns fight King
5. King does not sacrifice Pawns; leaves Tower
6. New Queen from nobility
When any Queen or King sacrifices the Pawns, just throw away the chessboard, they won’t recognize the chess rules anymore. Beware of sacrificing Pawns.
And this is 2001:
1. King Pawn tried for gold from Chinese gambling.
2. Some Pawns rebel.
3. Bishop calls larger group of Pawns.
4. More Pawns rebel.
5. Knights annoint new Queen.
DevilsAdvc8: So what if hegemony is the way of social evolution? Does that make it right? Do you agree with it? Maybe a “world nation” is the solution to humanity’s problems, but I’ll be part of no nation where one group of humans (whether a religious, racial, geographical, or other group) has any more power than other groups.
In any case, it’s a moot point, since you’re WRONG that hegemony is the natural direction of social evolution. Countries joining economic unions doesn’t mean they’re giving up their national sovereignty or merging with the other members. Just look at any world map – there are more nations now than at any point in history. In recent times, nations are separating, not merging (see East Timor, Kosovo, and maybe Kurdistan, in the future). So there goes your argument.
As for this issue: The ZTE deal was bad enough when it was only local. Now that apparently our government’s even sold us out to foreigners, I’m really pissed. How low can our administration go?
Anyone here considered the possibility that the influential Chinese-Filipino minority is involved in this? I’ll probably be called a bigot for even asking that. So I say now: before you heap your self-righteous criticism on me, know that I myself am a Chinese-Filipino. But I know where my true allegiance lies.
Ric :
The Chinese-Filipino taipans and their field of influence was in the diagram of Neri which he gave to Lito Banayo. The relation of Spratly issue and these Oligarchs has yet to be established. To compound the problem of investigation, stocks and other paper trail can easily be hidden through China government itself (as with the ZTE bribe). This has also happened among Hongkong big business in collusion with the Chinese government. The truth hopefully could be dug out but considering the wealth reserves of these taipans, investigations will be difficult at best.
earlier, MLQ3’s website was suspended. would anyone know what happened.
Bishop checks king
Queen takes bishop
Knight threatens queen
Queen sacrifices rook
Knight takes rook
Knight takes knight
Pawn advances
Queen blocks pawn
Three pawns sacrificed
Rook captures queen
King resigns ( actual game between two of the greatest chessmasters of all time)
I don’t think we should confuse racial and/or ethnic affiliations with national allegiances. So for the above, i would stress on the “influential” rather than “Chinese-Filipino” aspect. All things being equal, an oligarch is more likely to sell out our country than a non-oligarch. That has been the pattern in Philippine history.
“The well-adjusted make poor prophets. On the other hand, those who are at war with the present have an eye for the seeds of change and the potentialities for small beginnings.”Eric Hoffer
I am currently reading The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer. It was written more than fifty years ago. But it is still very relevant. Eric writes from real-world experience, not from the confines of ivory-towers.
Hoffer revels in pointing out seemingly paradoxical situations and attitudes, such as “Discontent is likely to be highest when misery is bearable; when conditions have so improved that an ideal state seems almost within reach. A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.”
His incisive comments cut to the nerve of his subject, treating in one stroke mass movements of every variety: “It is futile to judge the viability of a new movement by the truth of its doctrine and the feasibility of its promises. What has to be judged is its corporate organization for quick and total absorption of the frustrated.”
I needed to read Hoffer to understand the current Philippine situation.
We are witnessing the blooming of a leaderless but vibrant mass movement in Search of Truth and Accountability. This movement is growing by the day and has a momentum of its own. All sectors of society appear to be involved.
The movement is not only confined to Greater Manila as claimed by government propagandists. Even the Global Pinoys abroad are in this movement!
What a dramatic reversal of people’s attitudes in such a short span of time—from almost complete apathy last year to total involvement of the citizenry now.
The following is a short sample of the many aphorisms that can be found in Hoffer’s book. Because he believed in the virtue of brevity in the art of writing, nearly every sentence he wrote can stand alone as an individual idea, complete in itself. I selected the ones that have relevance to the current Philippine situation:
On An Evil Government: “The only index by which to judge a government or a way of life is by the quality of the people it acts upon. No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion- it is an evil government.”
On Evil: “Whoever originated the cliche that money is the root of all evil knew hardly anything about the nature of evil and very little about human beings.”
On Absolute Power:”Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep.”
On Freedom:”Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing, which would impose on man the passivity and predictability of matter. By this test, absolute power is the manifestation most inimical to human uniqueness. Absolute power wants to turn people into malleable clay.”
On the Unpleasant Truth:”To most of us nothing is so invisible as an unpleasant truth. Though it is held before our eyes, pushed under our noses, rammed down our throats- we know it not.”
Why People Unite:
“The aspiration toward freedom is the most essentially human of all human manifestations.”
“It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is true of men as of dogs.”
“What are we when we are alone? Some, when they are alone, cease to exist.”
“It is not actual suffering but a taste of better things which excites people to revolt.”
“To be fully alive is to feel that everything is possible.”
On Leaderless Movements: “The ability to get along without an exceptional leader is the mark of social vigor.”
alas:
it could just be that this website has used up its bandwidth quota. no worries. yet.
alas ka dora (at 6:05pm), the efforts to hack manolo and ellen are already underway.
okey, thanks for info, tonio.
Que sera:
as manong Ben has repeatedly mentioned, contracts entered into that violate the rights of one of the parties are void to begin with. or something like that.
cvj:
have any proof that a DOS (denial of service) attack is being perpetrated on Manolo’s blog?
Just an observation on Pinoy Chinese in general. In fairness, most of them are very patriotic and Lozada’s case is an example. I have known quite a few who would rather stick it out in the Philippines and build their lives here and make a success of themselves, rather than pack their bags to migrate at the first hint of trouble or political turmoil.
@ CVJ
I do agree with you about tackling inequality first…it’s the method you’ve been proposing that worries me….
@ Blackshama
Not all Chinese Filipinos are unpatriotic with respect to the Philippines, in the same way that not all Filipinos are patriotic (eg the traitors during the Jap occupation.) Raising bogeyman does not help.
SIno ba ang may kasalanan kung bakit may invasion ng mga Mainlanders sa Pilipinas…ang mga CHinese Filipinos? HIndi. It’s the people manning the ports of entry whose at fault for letting these people overstay. (am not talking about the legit mainlanders.)
CVJ
Paranoid niyo naman. Around 11-2 pm mayroon talagang pagbagalng service. I was trying to use BPI Express Online and lagi ring busy….
Hi Equalizer,
That’s an excellent book “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer”
Should get one myself.
what time is the interfaith rally in makati. my family members are joining me, except for my hubby who is a gov’t employee.
Erap is joining the rally. i will bring a placard that will boooo!!! him out