Go not gently into the night, rage against the dying of the light!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

On the rape of a Filipina in Japan

Pagkakaisa ng mga Kababaihan para sa Kalayaan (KAISAKA)

February 23, 2008


Enough of Military Sexual Violence
NO to US Bases of Insecurity

We rage over the reported rape of a Filipina in Okinawa by a sergeant of the US Army. We urge the victim and her family to file charges, push for the soldier’s arrest and fight for justice and retribution. We support the Japanese people’s demand for the withdrawal of US troops and the complete dismantling of the US military facilities.

The spate of rapes by US soldiers since last year in Japan is very alarming. It is becoming very clear that US military’s steps at curbing incidence of rape will never be enough to assure the Japanese public that their women and children will be safe. US Forces Japan spokesman Colonel Eric Schnaible claimed that ”the (US) Army does not tolerate sexual assault” but experience show that the US government has been shielding its erring soldiers from the hands of law of host countries.

This latest rape happened a few hours before the onset of a 24-hour curfew set by the US military for its personnel following the rape of a 14-year-old school girl. The soldiers seemed unmindful of the Article 32 hearing of a case of gang rape filed against four members of the US Marines based in Iwakuni near Hiroshima. This should have warned them against committing a crime that may lead them to a court martial.

Clearly, women in places where US bases are are not safe. In South Korea, this February, a Private First Class in Seoul raped a 19-year-old woman. Last year, in November, Korean authorities arrested six US soldiers that beat a female in a restaurant. In January 2007, Korean police held a US soldier for the rape of a 67- year-old woman in Seoul.

The rape in November 1, 2005 in the former military base in Subic, Zambales in the Philippines was also a crime along these that happened in Japan and in Korea. Although, officially the Military Bases Agreement with the United States ended in1991, the US military have reestablished their bases in several places Philippines, using the term “visiting forces” as their cover. Nicole’s rapists were in Subic for their rest and recreation (R and R).

We echo Mieko Hokama, a Japanese activist: “We have already had more than enough.”

The bases are sources of insecurity for the people of host countries. These bases make women and children more vulnerable to sexual harassment, rape, beatings and murder by alienated and drunken troops. As we in the Philippines demand that US troops get out, we in KAISA-KA (Unity of Women for Freedom-Philippines) and KPD (Movement for National Democracy-Philippines) support the Japanese people’s call for the dismantling of the US military bases and the complete withdrawal of US troops from Japanese territory. ###

Clearing of a Black Smoke


Youth for Nationalism and Democracy-Cebu

March 5, 2008


She voted for the entry of the Philippines into GATT-WTO as a senator. She unseated a president illegitimately by riding on the people’s disgust for her personal interest. She defied the people’s mandate by cheating her way in the 2004 elections. Now, she’s holding on for dear life over the spontaneous rage of the masses’ disgust and the greed of the trapos among their (elite’s) ranks. Who wouldn’t be enraged over her countless mischiefs?
  • Diosdado Macapagal Highway,fertilizer scam, aviation fuel scam, PhilHealth scam, etc.
  • State of National Emergency declaration (P.P.1017), E.O.464, No Permit, No Rally Policy
    Anti-Terror Law (Human Security Act of 2007)
    Extra-Judicial Killings, Glorietta & Batasan Bombings
  • JPEPA, RP-China Economic Partnership Agreement, ZTE–NBN deal

Come to think of it, she is no other than our beloved president, Gloria “MACAPAgaL”-Arroyo who has done all these anomalies, human rights violations and disrespect for law, all for her “strong republic.”

Now, time is ticking against the system. As the investigation in the Senate slowly clears the smoke of PGMA’s and the totality of our political system’s fraudulent ways, so is she getting vulnerable to her own judgment before the people whom she betrayed eversince. With the coming out to the open of key witnesses (JDV III, Neri, Lozada) in the controversial ZTE-NBN deal, so is she condemned by the truth, which she hid from us all.

Now, several organizations have made their position – marching on the street calling for GMA’s resignation and for the search for truth, the elites suggest for a snap election, the CBCP calls for “communal action,” and even those pigs in power bannering for a “moral revolution,” yet what do these actions recommend? The maintaining of this corrupt, inhuman, decadent & neo-colonial system that binds us all in grave poverty – not the total alleviation of our misery. They all have the same solution and yet they are reactionary in nature – despising corruption and a crooked leadership but considering WHO among the trapos could take GMA’s seat.

The real issue lying here isn’t WHO should replace GMA but WHAT should replace this rotten system. Should we expect choosing among the trapos – the likes of Noli de Castro, Ping Lacson, Mar Roxas or a Loren Legarda – when they uphold not our call for a better life but their & their masters (US Imperialist) interests? Should we be hailing the likes of Jun Lozada who simply testified to save his & his family’s neck & not really to cater the move to stop the oppression of the Filipino people? Shouldn’t we be thinking to cut the unending cycle of greed, poverty & opportunism, not only in the government, in the whole system as well? Shouldn’t we be looking forward to a future where those seating to serve the people prioritize education, health, job security, women empowerment & provision of other basic services over infrastructure, debt services and militarization?

Indeed, the headlines and the daily news can be very boring. Everyday, the same news rewinds over and over again without giving explanation why they continue to occur and the possible solutions. Yet the challenge to us all, especially the youth, is to critically analyze our situation and get ourselves involved in the issues. Know the problems of our nation, spread what you know on the issues and share among your friends, relatives & even families the real effect of our societal system. Keep in mind that true sovereignty of our country could only take root if the majority of the people are the ones asserting for it and not any single individual bringing with them their own narrow, personal and biased interest.

We invite you all to take part in writing the pages of history. If you so wish, the Youth for Nationalism & Democracy (YND-Cebu) can facilitate an interactive educational discussion where we can further deepen our understanding of what’s going on in our country. In joining in such venues for exchange of/in ideas, we lose nothing except our innocence & ignorance.

“EMANCIPATE OURSELVES FROM MENTAL SLAVERY, NONE BUT OURSELVES CAN FREE OUR MINDS…”

Monday, March 10, 2008

The ZTE-NBN Deal: The Expose of Political System's Bankruptcy


E-mail Add: kpd_cebu@hotmail.com
February 2008

The ZTE-NBN Deal and Lozada’s Misadventure and Misfortune
Expose the Bankruptcy of the Political System

The political crisis created by the ZTE-NBN scandal has again reached a new height with the attempted abduction of Rodolfo Lozada, Jr., one among key witnesses to the attempted plunder.

The botched $329.5 M RP-ZTE deal was mired in various controversies right from the start. First, it was embarked on against the recommendations of a group of economists from the UP School of Economics, who saw no need for such a project. Second, the deal was entered into without a bidding and without an executive agreement to back it up, yet would tie up the Filipino tax payers to further millions of dollars of indebtedness . Third, the signed agreement was “lost” in a hotel in China just hours after signing. Fourth, the GMA government took all measures to deny the public, including the Senate, complete knowledge of the deal.

Jose de Venecia III’s exposure of the multi-million dollar corruption behind the deal put the issue at center stage. De Venecia pointed an accusing finger to Benjamin Abalos, then Comelec chairperson, for having gained millions of dollars for brokering the deal and to the First “Gentleman” Mike Arroyo, for being the hand supporting Abalos, for obvious reasons.

Malacanang lost no time, and spared no effort, in ensuring that the truth about the deal will not be exposed to the public. It immediately gagged its men especially those in the know about the case. But not before Romulo Neri, NEDA chair at the time of the deal’s approval, had testified in Senate, that even he was offered by Abalos a bribe of “200” (which he and everybody else easily reads as P200M) to ensure that the deal is pushed through. Worse, he testified that he informed Mrs. Arroyo of Abalos’ bribe offer. Yet the deal was pushed through, with Mrs. Arroyo herself flying to China, even when Mike Arroyo was in the hospital, just to sign the deal. Meanwhile, Neri was taken out of NEDA, the agency charged with studying new projects, and transferred to CHED after the encounter with Mrs. Arroyo on the case.

Margarito Teves, Secretary of Finance, corroborated in Senate Joey de Venecia’s allegation of meeting with Abalos and Mike Arroyo. With the investigation going deeper and getting closer to Malacanang, Mrs. Arroyo canceled the controversial deal.

The ZTE-NBN issue became one of the issues in the impeachment case against GMA. And in the midst of the impeachment hearings, multi-million pesos in public funds again changed hands, this time in the form of pay-offs to congressmen and local government officials. The pay-off, exposed by Governor Ed Panlilio of Pampanga, set another round of investigations.

But the two investigations were soon overtaken by the Glorietta explosion, which left 8 people dead and more than a hundred wounded, and the Batasan bombing, which killed 4 including a congressman and wounded at least 11 people. Investigations were again conducted. Both explosions have not been resolved up to the present. But both have served to divert the people’s attention from the raging issues at the time.

The ZTE-NBN controversy and ensuing controversies have already claimed their casualties. Benjamin Abalos had to retire early. Jose de Venecia, Joey’s father, was unseated as Speaker of the House of Representative. Governor Panlilio is now the object of a recall movement. People have died and were wounded in the explosions. But more had to come.
The Senate’s Blue Ribbon Committee investigation, which resumed after its holiday recess, stirred anew the controversy. The administration’s minions in Congress, Miriam Defensor Santiago, Joker Arroyo and Juan Ponce Enrile among them, used all their skills to block further digging. Opposition senators, most of them aspirants for the presidency come 2010, could not be dissuade.

So Rodolfo Lozada, Jr., a former consultant in the NEDA who was asked by Neri to “moderate the greed” in the NBN project, became the reluctant central figure. The sought-after witness, he was torn between saving his neck from the expected ire of his former masters if he talked and the telling the truth he knew to the senators and the public. Understandably, he had not wanted to testify. And his bosses in government used their powers to ensure that he could not. They sent him on an “official business” to Hongkong to evade testifying and upon return, summarily abducted him in NAIA and driven him away from his waiting family and the media. Public pressure, especially through the media, forced the government forces to finally take him to the sanctuary of the Catholic Church.

A composite force was involved in the abduction – NAIA security, police forces, ex-officers of the AFP and a member of the Presidential Security Group. Legal covers, as requests for security, were made and signed by Lozada and his family under duress after the fact of abduction.

Mr. Lozada did not know much; he was not an insider. But he knew enough to warrant such government mobilization of forces – cabinet secretaries (even an ex, like Defensor), various security agencies – to ensure he would not tell what he knew. Such involved money (he was given P50,000 by Defensor) and force – amred men he did not know.
But Lozada told what he knew. Now, the full force of the state machinery is upon him. His career in government has been ended; a replacement to his post has been named. The cabinet secretaries and generals have filed cases against him in court. The NBI has rummaged through his papers in his office obviously to build up a case against him. Threats to his and his family’s life abound. He may be a “dead man walking”.

Yet in the end, this is not simply about Lozada’s persecution nor the ZTE-NBN deal nor the payola case nor the bombings. So many have been persecuted before, some in the worst forms of extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances. So many scams have been reported and exposed before, and especially during, GMA’s rule – the IMPSA scam, Diosdado Macapagal highway, the fertilizer scam, the aviation fuel scam, the Philhealth scam, the Comelec computerization scam. So much has been lost from the public cofferes – Marcos Swiss accounts, the Jose Velarde accounts, the Jose Pidal accounts, So many violations of rights have been done before – the CPR, the EO 464, the SNE declaration.

There is now a clamor for truth – truth behind the ZTE-NBN deal. The people deserve it. But the people need to look beyond this case and all the other cases. We need to know the truth not just about each case but why such cases – such plunder and persecution happen, not just now but at every period of our history. We need to look beyond the tree, each tree, to see the forest.

The underlying issue here is power – the power to collect taxes, to build up the public coffers and to use the public funds. The power to commit the Filipino people to indebtedness. This is about power – the power to legislate, to form the courts and use the law for one’s end.

This is about power - the power to form security/armed forces, fund them with people’s taxes and use them to harass one’s adversaries. The underlying issue here is the viability of the present political system as an instrument for the people’s interest.

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her family, in their greed, in their lust for power and wealth, have exposed the bankruptcy of the existing political system. They have shown how power can be grabbed from, and used against, the people for the interest of an elite few. They have shown how legal processes can be rendered futile and inutile for pursuing people’s interests and welfare. It is thus no wonder that they turn to, yet display such contempt for, the legal processes. For they have effectively used the legal political processes to systematically divest the people of all sovereignty and worse, of faith in their own capability to effect change within such system.

Understandably, the people are fed up with the present political system. Marcos, under this system, had his share of power abuse to benefit him and his minions. So did Aquino, Ramos and Estrada. But being fed up need not mean living with it. The people, the millions of Filipinos who bear the brunt of this system, who suffer the consequences of policies and programs formed and laws enacted, have the option to change it and make a new system serve their interest. After all, the people’s sovereignty is made real only by the people’s assertion of it.

Search for the truth, not only about the ZTE-NBN imbroglio but on why such cases happen!

Assert the people’s sovereignty against elite sovereignty!

Struggle for a government of the people, by the people, and for the people!

Enough of GMA and other elite!

Power to the people!