WHO ARE THE REAL EDSA HEROES?

In a few days from now, the nation will once again mark the anniversary of the first EDSA Revolution. I foresee this as a perfect time where opportunists behind Noynoy Aquino and his pack of has-been Corystas will surely take advantage and rally again the people to "remember the spirit of EDSA" and "remember Cory, vote for Noynoy." The only spirit I can think of right now is one that has fooled the population over the years. In addition, many of the loyal Corystas have now turned into Sorry-stas. Many who used to address her as Auntie Cory had already shifted to Anti-Cory, and are now openly campaigning against an Aquino II presidency.

Of course, the EDSA anniversary will be marked in different ways as always. The rabid yellow crowd of former President Corazon Aquino who have now mutated and evolved into the Noynoyistas will recall events which they said drove away a dictator and restored democracy in the country. The Marcos loyalists will say it was a historical fluke which led to a regime worse than the one ousted by the EDSA marchers.

Well, two of the principal players who sparked that revolution scoff at the heady claims made by die-hard Corystas over the upheaval. They are of course Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senator Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan, head of the daring RAM which provided the military the most effective component of that movement.

The RAMboys and Enrile could well remind the nation too that Corazon Aquino was not even at EDSA and is therefore not entitled to exaltation rendered her by those who subsequently joined the Enrile-Honasan breakaway group, which was later joined by then General Fidel Valdez Ramos.

In past EDSA celebrations, Enrile would often say that there was really nothing to celebrate about because EDSA only brought another administration which can be remembered for its incompetence and corruption as well. Yes, the Aquino administration was corrupt too. So, let him who is without sin cast the first stone. I'm so glad that Sin is no longer around.

Rabid Aquino supporters retort that Enrile is sour-graping because he failed to succeed Marcos after the EDSA upheaval. And I remember that in gatherings where EDSA is discussed, Enrile invariably becomes the butt of jokes. He is often referred to as a basketball player dribbling the ball with only two minutes left in the game, and his team is leading by some 50 points, when he suddenly passes the ball to Mrs. Aquino who promptly runs home with it.

In those gatherings, debates range as to who are the real heroes of EDSA. Many say it is JPE, FVR and the RAM. Others say it is the yellow crowd of Mrs. Aquino who rushed to EDSA to protect Enrile and Co. Some say it is Cardinal Sin who called out the faithful to save JPE and his group from the Marcos military, while others say it is most of the Marcos generals who refused to fire on the people.

Not quite. Not any of these people, say FM die-hards. They say the real hero is actually Ferdinand Marcos himself who stoutly refused to give the order to fire on the hundreds of thousands at EDSA because he did not want "to spill any Filipino blood" at that time of crisis. As seen on TV footages being re-run every EDSA anniversary, Marcos stopped then AFP Chief of Staff Fabian Ver from insisting that he give the orders to the military to start firing on the people.

Ver's officers had said a few cannon bursts and a few hundred deaths would quickly disperse that crowd. But Marcos stood his ground against the carnage of the people.

(Image from http://www.humpakz.com/)

In this photo as I recall, being part of this group once, (L-R): Manny Oineza, Joe Bajesta, (unidentified), JPE, (unidentified but familiar looking and can't remember his name), Greg Honasan.

NUCLEAR DAYS AND NEW CLEAR DAYS

Summer season for me is usually a trip to historical monuments like Mt. Samat in Bataan, or my hometown of Gerona in Tarlac - or just a short walk to an inflatable pool in my backyard.

A few years ago, while spending a weekend in the town of Pilar, Bataan, I met a man who used to work for the mothballed plant in that province. He said that if it was indeed operated to generate electricity, the now white elephant could have somehow solved the power crisis then.

Well, that was then. The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) is one more sorry legacy of the Aquino regime, which relentlessly pursued the case against Westinghouse which, it claimed, bribed the late President Marcos into giving it the contract.

The Aquino people, retained by the Ramos administration pressed for the pursuit of the case. That government should have considered the compromise settlement offered by Westinghouse. The Ramos regime did not listen either to proposals to use the nuclear plant to alleviate the power shortage then.

In short, the Ramos administration adopted the Aquino administration's policy of revenge against the Marcoses in the Westinghouse case. The faces of all these people were red after a US court had ruled against the Philippines which spent millions of dollars to press the case. Only the US lawyers hired by the RP government were happy since they had raked in quite a hefty sum in legal fees.

Two former associates of Herminio Disini, who brokered the nuclear plant deal for Westinghouse denied that Disini acted as "front man" for Marcos, or that Disini gave Marcos part of the legal commissions which the government then described as bribe money.

However, the most absurd comment then from the government people on the defeat in the Westinghouse bribery case is the claim that some American jurors may have been bribed by Westinghouse. Preposterous.

The government then simply had a weak case. It could not prove that President Marcos had been bribed by Westinghouse. That's that. There was no need to put up a smokescreen to hide the failure on their part. Imagine, some officials then were even thinking of filing treason charges against Filipinos who testified that Marcos never received any bribes.

And by the way, who was that mystery party who convinced the Philippine government to hire certain American lawyers who were paid over a billion pesos in legal fees? The mystery party presumably received a vast fortune in referral fees.

In summing up, the government got burned in that case. Only the American lawyers, the mystery party who made the referral and an assortment of government lawyers who enjoyed going to the US to litigate the case were happy as a clam.

Blame the Aquino regime for this mess. It never wanted the amicable out-of-court settlement proposed by Westinghouse. Instead, it chose to press the case out of a vengeful hatred against the Marcoses.

(Image from http://memocircular.wordpress.com/)

"HELLO CIGAR"

The return of the didjay. Former President Fidel Valdez Ramos recently called on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to step down from the presidency, in reaction to her final decision to run for a congressional seat in 2010. I think his call is five years late. As it is, people don't really put too much weight any more on his pronouncements.

So let's just talk about his favorite "mouthpiece" - cigars.

Pictures of former President Ramos chomping on cigars which used to appear on a regular basis in newspapers probably did some promoting of cigars and tobacco among Pinoys. Cigar clubs did sprout in major cities and include as members well-known ladies in society and in the entertainment industry.

I am told that the best cigars in the world come from Cuba. One, known as Cohiba, costs something like $850 per box of 25 in New York City. Cohiba is smuggled into the United States from Cuba by Cuban-American businessmen who find it hard to meet with the demand among the well-heeled in the U.S.

The tobacco industry is still the biggest dollar-earner in Cuba, and every visiting dignitary to Havana had been gifted by no less than President Fidel Castro with boxes of the prized stogies.

Back to FVR. Well, he's quite known around the world as a cigar-chomper since he has been photographed in key foreign cities with a cigar in his mouth. Of course, the most famous cigar smoker in history was Britain's wartime leader, Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Hollywood gangster legend Edward G. Robinson was a chomper as well.

Local Filipino cigar manufacturers should come out with one in honor of the former president and call them "Fidel," or "Hello Cigar," to perpetuate the memory of a former Comelec official and an illegitimate president.

So it can be known as the man behind the famous "Hello Cigar" calls on the woman behind "Hello Garci" to step down.

I'll smoke to that.

(Image from http://nowpublic.net/)

LET HIM DREAM

Bayani Fernando is stealthily encroaching on the whole archipelago with his silly new term - Metro Philippines. Whatever that means, soon, his MMDA engineers will be constructing slippery, elderly-unfriendly pink and blue steel foot-bridges right from the door of his MMDA office to the door of the presidential palace. After all, he now boasts that no less than former president Fidel Ramos has hinted that an engineer could be the next president of the Philippines. Fernando was quick to claim that FVR was alluding to him (Fernando) because he is an engineer. Now we see what goes on in BF's so-called mind these days. Endorsements, silly slogans and the presidency. And what better way to spin this lust of his than to take advantage of his position as MMDA chairman, to put his face on posters bigger than the message. We should all be enraged at the behavior of this engineer who promotes 'kaayusan' and 'disiplina,' and yet he himself doesn't have those two in his character. He says that "engineering technology" is the answer to boost livelihood for many Filipinos in the south, Mindanao in particular. He says that the country's inadequate housing program and the dismal economy is in dire need of his technology to solve the many problems there. Well, more than the poor economy, it's the economist, stupid! - his lady-boss who to this day unlawfully occupies the very office he salivates for. Naglalaway na siya maging presidente! To be more 'street-legal,' atat na atat na siya maging presidente ng 'Pinas! Fernando says that being an engineer, his solution to the Mindanao conflict is really simple: through "technology warfare," he will solve it, and with this Mindanaoans will protect their infrastructures instead of doing other things. I think he's on drugs or on something. Talk about dreaming. He further stressed that based on the statement of FVR about him, he has a big chance of becoming the next Philippine president. Remember when the same FVR endorsed former Speaker Jose de Venecia to be the ruling party Lakas' official presidential bet against former President Joseph Estrada? Well, JDV lost a poor second after Erap won the presidency by a huge margin. The Ramos endoresement is really nothing for BF to jump about and announce to his whole Metro Philippines. It's more of an empty recommendation from a not-so-clean-himself ex-president. It would bring more damage to BF than good, not to mention his 1% acceptable rating among Pinoys. Well, on that note, the reason probably why Fernando wants to bring infrastructure to Mindanao is the fact that there's really nothing else that he knows except that - a disguised "engineering technology" which would really just boost his steel business when they start building steel bridges, pink fences, concrete barriers and all those ghastly MMDA contraptions which to me are the silliest pink ideas for any urban area. His plan to reach the south and possibly the whole archipelago is a selfish motive aimed at enlarging his territorial clout needed to feed his insatiable ambition, kasi, sirang-sira na siya dito sa Metro-Manila. But that's really not the answer. The wiser answer to the problems are food production, job creation, peace and order, and respect to other faiths such as Islam. And speaking of respect, Fernando needs to have that within his people. People like those sixteen MMDA employees assigned to the Sidewalk Clearing Operations Group (SCOG) who were arrested recently for stealing PhP 5 million worth of LRTA vertical clearance posts which they eventually sold for scrap. These are the same people who see and salute his pictures more than absorbing his 'fine-printed' messages on a daily basis, simply because of the sheer size of the former, and instead of the more important message which isn't really the MMDA's priority. The same people who have been found guilty of running away with the goods of sidewalk vendors - vegetables, fruits, chickens, fish, DVDs, slippers, socks, umbrellas, ballpens, combs, briefs, and even dentures of vendors, etc. You name it, they stole it and took them to their homes! Geesh. They should all be wrapped with BF's posters, re-painted with black and yellow stripes and then use them as humps along EDSA to slow down all those killer buses with their 'shabu-head' drivers sporting BAYANI stickers. So, what really is Metro Philippines? Sounds oxymoronic to me. I've heard of Metro Cebu and Metro Davao and of course Metro Manila, but Metro Philippines? What is that? Perhaps to Bayani Fernando, since he thinks that the MMDA programs and projects he has instituted have been the best thing that ever happened to our urban cities, he probably wants now to take the whole country by his Metro-Gago, Tao-Ginago/ Urbanidad pero que barbaridad slogans. And since he has openly announced his intention to run for president in 2010, he now realizes that Metro Manila is just not big enough in terms of the electoral populace to usher him to Malacanang. And so, the solution is to simply transform the whole country's perception from the public mind with just two words: Metro Philippines. Of course, this is all just strategy and spin, and it stinks. Building steel bridges to connect the whole archipelago is a positive move - for his steel business. Then, transforming the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) into the Metro Philippines Development Authority (MPDA) under the Office of the President (OP) is also positive - for the the successor (if any), since all the secret and unbidded-out deals will still continue. Imagine, if the whole country is transformed into Metro Philippines, then that would mean 7,100 plus more small Metro Manilas in terms of voting strength, budget and political clout, enought to kick one upstairs straight to Malacanang Palace. But with his 1% rating conducted by the SWS just recently, Bayani Fernando still has a good chance to be just a 'nuisance candidate,' joining the ranks of Ely Pamatong, Eddie Gil and Co.

(Image from http://daylife.com/)