PerryScope

COMMENTARY FROM PERRY DIAZ

Press Secretary Jesus Dureza’s prayer for President Gloria Arroyo to lead the nation “perhaps beyond 2010″ is not humor or wishful thinking, that’s the “conventional wisdom” in Malacañang nowadays. For obvious reasons, Dureza and others in the employ of Gloria wouldn’t want to leave their perky — and influential positions — in the Arroyo government.

The coup that ousted Senate President Manny Villar and replaced by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile would further strengthen Gloria’s power and grip on the three branches of the government. In effect, that would remove any mechanism for “checks and balances” which is the very reason for having three independent branches of government. What’s going to happen next is de facto dictatorship. And who is there to oppose Gloria?

Perry

November 18, 2008
Dureza prays for Arroyo in Malacañang beyond 2010
by Jocelyn Montemayor
Malaya

“We pray for the President, that she may have forbearance, good health, and tolerance to lead this nation until 2010, and who knows, perhaps even beyond,” Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said yesterday as he recited his prayer at the start of the Cabinet meeting.

“Oh my God!” and a glare were what Dureza got from a shocked President Arroyo, who covered her face.

At the end of the prayer, a smiling Arroyo asked media men who were allowed to cover that portion of the meeting to leave the room as she said “that prayer is off the record.”

Dureza later also asked media if they could refrain from releasing the videos of the prayer portion.

An “off the record” request from media is normally made before any event, and honored. The request is never honored after coverage.

Dureza clarified they initially asked that the prayer be “off the record” for fear it would be misinterpreted or taken in a different light.

He also said he was not reprimanded by the President for his “personal prayer” and it was not even mentioned when he talked to the President after the Cabinet meeting when he inquired about her phone conversation with United States President-elect Barack Obama.

Dureza said while his prayer gave a nice angle to media reports and fuelled speculations on moves to amend the Constitution to extend Arroyo’s term beyond 2010, “I said that in that context (of personal and private capacity), so you don’t have to milk it and give it another spin.”

In a media briefing after the Cabinet meeting, Dureza said he was not praying for an extension of Arroyo’s term. He said he simply wished that Arroyo would be able to continue on a “personal and private capacity on serving beyond 2010.”

Dureza said his prayer was meant to be “light” and with a “sense of humor” which he said was accepted and even laughed off by the President and the Cabinet men.

He said those who took his prayer the wrong way had no sense of humor.

Dureza at the start of the meeting prayed for the Cabinet to be blessed and to be able to attend to their own “personal affairs” and the “affairs of the State” and for Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap who recently celebrated his birthday to be “blessed.”

He also prayed for newly elected Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile whom he described as the oldest to assume the post. Enrile is 84 years old.

This is the sequel to the “Cyber Death of Perry Diaz.” I also included two articles, “BROKEN NEWS: Romy Marquez diagnosed with HIV / AIDS” and “NO MORE BROKEN NEWS,” at the end. Enjoy reading.

Perry

BREAKING NEWS: The Resurrection of Perry Diaz

Romy Marquez’s recent “Breaking News” announcing the “cyber death”
of Perry Diaz manifests his penchant for yellow journalism — the lowliest
form of the practice of journalism. Yellow journalism is defined as “a
pejorative reference to journalism that features scandal-mongering,
sensationalism, jingoism or other unethical or unprofessional practices by news media
organizations or individual journalists.” Indeed, what Marquez has
been writing about in recent months is a “voodoo” mixture of half-truths,
lies, innuendoes and — to used his favorite term — fairy tales.

It’s rather amusing that Marquez and a few of his cohorts were
already celebrating my “cyber death.” He said, “His departure must be
celebrated for the relief that it would bring.” Relief from what? Makes me wonder
if I have been causing Marquez’s burning problem with his hemorrhoids. Yes,
indeed, I could really be a pain in the butt.

One of his friends used the melodramatic term “death in the
afternoon.” If that was the case, my resurrection was faster than the blink of an
eye. I must say that I have broken a 2,000-year old record which was three
days. I did it in three nanoseconds.

Marquez really got personal when he said, “Perry Diaz had a face
that went with the name, and a head topped by a perfectly-cultivated nest of
shiny black hair. His smile is etched forever in his picture, and I
wondered which one was real… the face, the hair, the picture?” Unquote. I find it
quite flattering considering that it came from a man. I looked at his
picture and I wish I could pay him the same compliment. Like we used to say in
Tagalog: “Kasalanan ko bang ipanganak akong pogi.”

So let’s begin with what the resurrected Perry Diaz have to say about
Marquez’s bizarre tale. Let’s skip his trashy “ad hominem” ranting –
which comprised about 95% of his article — and get straight to the point.
He said that I called his colleague’s mother a “prostitute.” Marquez should
ask his colleague what I really said, if I said it at all. But what is
really odd is that here’s a man who has been dragging his own mother into the
brawl for the past several months. I really pity his mother for being used by
her own son in his vendetta against me. Who in his right mind would do that?
He even posted in the Internet a threat that if I ever go back to the
Philippines, there will be some people waiting for me in Manila, Cebu or Laoag
(international airports) who’ll teach me a lesson — I’ll either eat
my words “with a little hot lead (from a gun?) or legal sized paper
(lawsuit).” I know that by his own admission, this person’s family is involved in
manufacturing weapons for the Philippine government. Rest assured
that if I visit the Philippines and something happens to me, we know who did
it. I’ll see to it that before I leave for the Philippines, my lawyer will be
informed of a death threat on my life. And if something does happen
to me, rest assured that the FBI will be notified immediately. I take
threats to my life seriously.

In regard to “orgasm,” about three weeks ago there was
this “Amysusil” — whom I have never met or communicated with before — who started
harassing me with hate letters everyday for more than 10 days in the Internet.
In exasperation, I finally sent her an email and told her, “I can’t
believe you are still at it. Does this kind of email exchanges give you orgasm?
You are one lonely woman.” Then one of the few people she cc’d with her hate
letters sent it to Bobby Reyes and, of course, Bobby Reyes eblasted to the
whole universe. The question is: why would a woman that is a total
stranger to me would start sending me hate letters? One of my friends said, “Perry,
maybe this ‘Amy Susil’ was just trying to flirt with you.” Sounds like a
plausible explanation. “Amy Susil” finally stopped sending me her hate
letters. If she wants to flirt with someone she’d better go somewhere else. I am a
happily married man of 37 years. A few days later, I got a scoop from a
friend in Michigan who said that a Pinoy from Philadelphia emailed him saying
that a Fil-Am political figure in Springfield, Virginia admitted to him
that she was “Amy Susil.”

Marquez calls my articles “Perry tales.” I can’t believe he said
that. How can he forget that he published my weekly column PerryScope in the
editorial page of his newspaper for more than two years. He did it without my
expressed permission. And he did not pay me either! A lot of people
in San Diego asked me to tell Marquez not to publish my column because it
was giving credibility to his newspaper which the Fil-Am community of
San Diego called “trash.” He finally stopped publishing my column when my
article titled “Medialantes in Our Midst” was published by another Fil-Am
newspaper in San Diego. By the way, I coined the word “medialante” to describe
a person who uses the media to “lynch” other people like myself.

Well, that’s what Marquez has been doing to me — trying to lynch me
in the press. But what he doesn’t realize is that his credibility as a
journalist is zero. He can’t get along with other members of the Fourth Estate
in San Diego so he uses the Internet to spread his gospel of hate. Even his
publisher in Chicago refused to print his hateful article. Yes, his
“Breaking News” articles are solely intended to “break” people.
Finally, the people have caught up with his brand of yellow journalism.

I never saw any journalist that spew venom in his writing more than
Marquez. He claims that he is searching for the truth. However, the truth of
the matter is: he fabricates and twists information to quench his thirst
for absurdity and sensationalism: the mark of a has-been journalist.
Marquez relies on hearsay. As a matter fact, I pointed to him in one of his
“breaking news” that he was reporting a hearsay from another
hearsay. That’s double hearsay. No journalist worth his salt would ever do that. That
belongs to the “tsismis” crowd (rumor-mongers).

Marquez’s biggest journalistic booboo — a taboo in journalism –
was when he published last July a hit piece titled “Scam Victimizing Filipino
Veterans Exposed.” His hit piece claimed that Congressman Bob Filner
has made accusatory and derogatory statements against Eric Lachica, the
Executive Director of the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans
(ACFV).

Marquez’s hit piece began with the statement: “Congressman Bob Filner
(D-51st District) assailed the practice of a Filipino American
lobbyist of collecting fees from Filipino veterans for a service his office
gives for free, saying it was ‘a scam’ that bilks them of government monetary
assistance.” Marquez claimed that Filner made this statement at a
meeting held in Filner’s district office in San Diego last July 5 which
Marquez attended. Although Marquez was present at the meeting, all the
statements attributed to Filner were denied by Filner when he met with Lachica
and several ACFV members including several media representatives at his
office in Washington, DC last July 17.

Marquez said in his report, “In the many years that Filner has
advocated for Filipino veterans, this is the first time that he took a direct
swipe at one of the most visible lobbyists for the cause. ‘It’s a scam,’ he said
of Lachica’s work.”

It is interesting to note what Filner told Jennie Ilustre, a
syndicated columnist, in a face-to-face meeting with Filner last July 17.
Ilustre said and I quote, “In related news before the mark-up hearing,
Congressman Filner denied he said Eric Lachica, executive director of the lobby group
American Coalition for Filipino Veterans base here, was engaged in ‘a scam’. A
California-based newspaper alleged this week that Filner said
Lachica was charging the veterans money for service he (Filner) gives out for
free. The ACFV charges $10 membership fee. On Tuesday before the hearing,
Filner told reporters, ‘I did not say all those things.’ Although he
acknowledged that ‘I have disagreed with Mr. Lachica on strategy and the amounts
regarding the equity pension bill,’ he stressed, ‘I do not know where the words
came from — they weren’t mine.’” Unquote.

In his “Cyber Death of Perry Diaz” hit piece, Marquez said that I
falsely and unfairly branded him a “criminal.” I never branded him
a “criminal.” What I asked him was to confirm if he is charged with a criminal
offense by U.S. Immigration? From what I gathered, Marquez has a pending
criminal case which if found guilty is cause for revocation of his permanent visa
and imprisonment and/or deportation. His next hearing is on September
17, 2007, at the sala of Judge William at 401 West A Street, Suite 100, San
Diego 92101. He is out on bond.

What’s happening to Marquez could not happen to a nicer man. As an
old adage says, “What goes around comes around.” Well, what Marquez has been
doing to other people all his life has finally come around to haunt him.
Simply put, Marquez is bad karma.

==================

BROKEN NEWS: Romy Marquez diagnosed with HIV / AIDS

Ha ha ha ha….. Romy Boy, you made my day! I like your heading –
very typical of yellow journalism. Get, their attention,
sensationalize! Yes, keep on spreading my name PERRY DIAZ in cyber space and tell them I’m
arrested by CNN — Coconut News Ngayon. You must be handling a lot
of coconut at Savon Grocery store where you’ve been working as
a “gofer,” that is, “go for this, go for that.”

Folks, I just received a note from my private investigator in San
Diego that Romy Marquez has been diagnosed of HIV / AIDS by his doctor. My PI
further reported that Romy was so shocked that he confronted his doctor.
That’s Romy alright.

Here is what my PI reported:

Romy said, “Doc, what is this HIV / AIDS that I’m diagnosed with? I
haven’t been to the red light district for at least a year now. So, how can
I get HIV / AIDS? You’ve got to be kidding, doc!”

The doctor looked at Romy and said, “What the heck are you talking
about? I know you haven’t been to the red light district because you were
ordered by the Superior Court to be castrated for stalking your three wives and
girlfriend. I castrated you myself. You’re now a eunuch, Romy.”

Romy said, “But how can I get HIV / AIDS then?”

The docotor said, “Well, there are so many other ways you could get
HIV / AIDS. But your type of HIV / AIDS is not a sexually transmitted
disease. It’s called Hair Is Vanishing and Acute Intelligence Deficiency
Syndrome. It’s worse than the the other kind because, 1) well, you’re going
bald, and 2) you’re a moron. Wala ka nang pagasa sa buhay.”

Folks, it may sound funny but, seriously, Romy has been acting weird
lately. After I exposed him for his misconduct — i.e., three
bigamous marriages and stalking his former girlfriend, he resorted to “ad
hominem” attacks. Just read all his rantings and name-calling and I am sure
that you’d see the real Romy Marquez — a real loser, nay, a double loser.

Perry

P.S. For those who are interested to know more about the criminal
charges filed against Romy Marquez, call Immigration Court Info line 800-898-
7180 and punch Romy Marquez’s alien number A76713557. If you are a news
reporter, you can call the Immigration Freedom of Information line at
703-305-1108 and ask for information about the case. You can also
write a request for information about Romeo Pilapil Marquez and fax it to
703-605-0491. Marquez’s hearing is set for September 17, 2007 at
1:00 PM before Judge John C. William at 401 West a Street, Suite 800, San
Diego.

==================

To Perry Diaz, NaFFAA Forum members and AKDA forum members,

If it’s any consolation to you and to the members of this NaFFAA
forum and AKDA forum, I would now like to take the first step to stop these
email exchanges.

I always adhere to truth, honesty and fair play whenever and
wherever I go and in whatever I write, and in however I deal with people. In
return I also expect them to do the same, if not, to be at least gentlemanly and
honest and candid.

Perry, your latest posting (Romy Marquez diagnosed with HIV/AIDS,
which you qualified later as Hair Is Vanishing and Acute Intelligence
Deficiency Syndrome) is an outright lie. I know you want to picture me as an
evil person but to post something that’s incredibly false appalls me no end.

I still have a full hair, in fact, my pony tail goes down to my
shoulders, and my intelligence is not deficient, as this email and my stories
would attest.

When I posted my “Broken News” about you this morning, I made sure
I labeled it properly, as an imaginary story, because I still believe you’re
entitled to an ounce of respect as a person even if your ways are unethical
and detestable.

That same posting of yours also tells me that you would go to great
lengths to mis-inform people with your false information and extreme
dishonesty.

I can’t go on engaging you when my terms are vastly different from
yours, when your ungentlemanly conduct runs counter with accepted norms.

Journalists worldwide have certain rules of engagement to observe
and follow because they are in pursuit of the truth in all its ugly forms.

I adhere to those rules strictly, believe it or not. I know there’s
a big responsibility that goes with writing (or reporting) and it is
because of that responsibility that I would like to stop this back and forth now.

I don’t want to lose my self-respect by continuing to deal with
you. It’s also unprofessional for me at least to be responding to you when
our backgrounds and knowledge do not match. I still want very much to
be a journalist, not a rumor-monger.

We journalists write to inform, to educate, to edify, to illumine;
not to cloud the issues, not to deceive, not to lie. People’s life and
reputation are at stake. And so are nations’ . . . if you see the bigger picture.

Though it’s not been worthwhile for me to joust with you, I still
believe it’s a learning process to be able to go through with what we’ve
been.

I shall stop from hereon. I hope that you would also cease.

And if in case you continue to read my stories that I’m sure would
bring you some light and you find issues relevant for discussion, then please
write without animosity. I am willing to hear your opinion.

With this email, I shall now end the email exchanges. Thanks and
best regards,

Romy Marquez

Wow! Sorrowful and joyful mysteries in two Senate hearings
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR
By William M. Esposo

Lest you get the wrong impression — no, they did not pray the Rosary in the Senate.
What they did was to conduct two very important hearings last Thursday (on the Fertilizer Fund Mess) and Saturday (on the PNP Moscow Fund). And in those two Senate hearings some sorrowful and joyful mysteries unfolded.
Former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante was a sorrowful mystery. Others would say pathetic. Hardly any Senator believed Jocjoc Bolante. Even Arroyo regime ally Senator Miriam D. Santiago couldn’t stomach what Jocjoc Bolante was saying and let out a shudder and sigh to express her disbelief and exasperation.
Sen. Mar Roxas, who has worked in the Arroyo cabinet as Trade Secretary, attested to the fact that there is no way the P728 million Fertilizer Fund could have been operated and spent sans the approval of Madame Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA), a known micro-manager. But Jocjoc Bolante mysteriously stuck to his line that GMA was not in any way involved in the operation.
Jocjoc Bolante was a successful businessman and top corporate executive. He was a vital cog of the success story of the Prudential Group in the Philippine insurance game before he mysteriously opted to abandon the corporate suite with all its perks for the thankless and low-paying job of an Undersecretary of Agriculture.
Despite his corporate achievements, Jocjoc Bolante was mysteriously wanting as a manager of the Fertilizer Fund who suddenly lost sight of proper control procedures. He was the central operator of the Fertilizer Fund and yet if we are to believe his testimony in the Senate — everybody in the bureaucracy had committed far greater management mistakes than him.
In the PNP Moscow Fund hearing, former PNP Comptroller Eliseo de la Paz delivered a nearly tearful opening statement that intimated his great concern for the legacy of a good name that he wanted to pass on to his posterity. And yet, when the hearing unfolded, he mysteriously owned up to all the accountability and very possible conviction and jail sentence that his admission of wrongdoing could get him.
In what we are used to seeing as the tendency of our public officials to point to the next person in order to avoid blame, Eliseo de la Paz was mysteriously gallant and bold to assume all the blame for the PNP Moscow Fund Mess. We could only wish that he instead opted for the higher and bolder act of taking the moral high ground by telling the whole truth.
We can only join the Senators who expressed sympathy for Eliseo de la Paz. It is such sorrow to see a brave man become the perceived bad public servant who broke the law when all around us plunderers go Scot-free while posturing as honorable men.
Lo and behold - the Senate rose to one of its finest hours during the hearings last Thursday and Saturday. The Senate, especially during the Saturday hearing, was mysteriously free of grandstanding, childish antics and inquisition in search of media platforms.
The Thursday hearing would not have been marred by a cheap shot if Senator Panfilo Lacson did not try to have Senator Alan Cayetano inhibit himself over a document that turned out to be bogus. It was typically Lacson to suggest sentence before hearing and trial.
Wow! Senator Miriam D. Santiago was mysteriously undemonstrative of the theatrical displays we’ve come to anticipate when she investigates. Don’t you agree that this is just about the most gracious — and most effective — Sen. Santiago has been in a Senate investigation? There is a world of wisdom to be learned there.
Wow! Somewhat mysteriously, the Senate managed to discard the tendency of some Senators to behave like minions of Tomas de Torquemada (called “The hammer of heretics”) of the Spanish Inquisition. This Torquemada character of some Senators is what provides ammunition to those who are trying to erode public confidence in the Senate as an institution.
Wow! The Senate even praised some public servants during the PNP Moscow Fund Mess hearing. Supt. Samuel Rodriguez was praised for having officially raised (in writing) the questionable orders of Eliseo de la Paz to source a P10 million travel fund from intelligence funds. The same was extended to his boss, C/Supt. Orlando Pestano, for having acted on that letter of Supt. Rodriguez.
Wow! The PNP Moscow Fund hearing was just about the only hearing that we saw in a long, long time where we could see the necessary legislation and revised regulations emerging from the investigation and discussions.
We can see the formulation of stricter regulations on the issuance of travel funds to public officials. We can see a new law regarding the handling of the liquidation of intelligence funds which a Marcos decree kept as a tight secret between the agency involved and the COA Chairman. We can see stricter controls on the arbitrary shifting of public funds from that experience of using intelligence funds for travel expenses.
From such meaningful hearings, we can expect an atmosphere of cooperation from the executive after it sees the genuine merits of Senate investigations and how these probes can result in better legislation and governance.
Even a paranoid GMA regime will find it hard not attending Senate investigations if such decorum will become the standard and with the public acknowledging the improved legislation and other positive measures that result from such probes.
Wow! That will be such a joyful day for Philippine democracy!
* * *
Chair Wrecker email and website: macesposo@yahoo.com and www.chairwrecker.com

The Republican Party: Rule by Fiat (Part I)
By Rawlein Soberano, PhD

The Republicans tried their best during the months leading to the elections to demonize Sen. Obama and scare the county that the candidate of the Democratic Party for president will lead the country to socialism for supporting bailing out different financial institutions, from Fannie-Freddie and the banking industry to the insurance companies and the automobile industry, to avoid imploding the economy. They have conveniently forgotten that “democracy” during their tenure was a meaningless word that shut us out from what was going on and assured us “not to worry about anything because they knew what was best for us.”

Their attitude towards America was disturbingly dictatorial. The slogan that would best articulate this shameful attitude is: Because we said so! How do you know there was nothing constructive or innovative in that special hearing that was off limits to the public? Because we said so! How do you know that there were no private sector attendees in a government policy meeting who shouldn’t have been there? Because we said so! How do you know the American people will accept and support this initiative? Because we said so! And they called this “democracy”?

How could we have access to public records of what the government is doing? No problem because state-of-the-arts media manipulation software makes it easy to get away with misstatements, half-truths and outright lies. Remember Paul Wolfowitz’s astounding assertion in front of a Congressional Committee in 2004 that the US death in Iraq was 500 (to make it palatable), but the correct number was 722. What are a few hundred more among armchair warriors? Besides, round numbers are so much easier for congressmen and the media to work with. The Right is messing up the lives of the American people. The guiding principle of its New Democracy is a deep mistrust, bordering on contempt, of the American people which is in inverse proportion to their undying faith in the ability of the over-privileged, under-taxed elites to decide what is best for America and the world.

They follow their mentor (GWB) who has abused his power and trampled upon the Constitution. He bypassed laws and treaties that he said infringed on his executive power, hid information from Congress and the courts, centralized control of government in the White House, detained American citizens without charges, and used signing statements to challenge more laws than all his predecessors combined. He willed more executive power than was allowed to do lasting damage to our institutions. He has given bad example to other presidents after him about unfettered power on how to govern as a tyrant, even in a “democracy.”

We talk big about being a country of laws, but our actions show otherwise. In the spring of 2007, the US was racked by scandals and their consequent cover-ups, e.g., Scooter Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame case, our treatment of our wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital, the firing of 9 US Attorneys for their prosecution of GOP corruption or too sluggish in prosecuting the Democrats. The cover-ups that followed pointed to the White House as the originator of this intervention in the office of Karl Rove.

This administration is in the pockets of the Right. The White House is subservient to the Right. It is not a coincidence that of the elected officials and candidates under federal investigations between 2001 and 2006, 79% were Democrats and 18% were Republicans. They have made some of the agencies the “bad guys” of their anti-social agenda, e.g., using EPA to weaken environmental protection, State to campaign against diplomacy (vs. going to war to kick butts), FDA to undermine food safety, NASA to demolish climate change.

The habitual lying of rouges Bush and Cheney and their propensity for using bullying tactics, e.g., fighting Islamic extremists at home if we do not destroy Saddam Hussein’s WMD now, approval of the $700 billion bailout now or we face a financial Armageddon. This style of governing was exposed at the Libby trial and the vicious campaign against the “uncooperative” US Attorneys. It has contaminated the White House and the Republican Party. The American people saw through all their shenanigans and threw the rascals out and almost everyone identified with their Party on Election Day.
RGS/AABR (11-18-08)

PerryScope
Perry Diaz
Gloria’s ‘Undivided’ Government

Once again, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is in the hot seat. No president in Philippine history — or perhaps the world — has experienced the ignominy of impeachment four times. But to Gloria, that is just another occupational hazard. Otherwise, it’s business as usual.

As in the first three impeachment petitions, she is expected to survive this fourth and, perhaps, last attempt to remove her before her term ends in 2010. With only six — including former Speaker Jose de Venecia — of the 29 opposition congressmen endorsing the impeachment petition filed by De Venecia’s son, Jose “Joey” de Venecia III, there is not an iota of chance — or luck — that the House of Representatives would impeach Gloria. With her deep pockets and political patronage, there is just no way Congress would impeach her. That is like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

So, what the hell is Congress trying to do? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what’s going to happen next, which is: vindication of Gloria. And once vindicated, she could then boldly make her next move which is to stay in power beyond 2010. And if you look at what’s going on right now, the parameters to prolong her kleptocratic reign are pretty much in place. Her political machine is ready to go rolling… and roll over anyone who stands in her way.

The only thing that would stop Gloria is world public opinion which could cause the international financial cartel to react convulsively and tighten — or stop — credit to Gloria’s government. And without international credit, Gloria’s “Enchanted Kingdom” would crumble like a sand castle.

One of the Philippines’ biggest creditors is Japan. With Japan officially in recession last week, it will predictably tighten the flow of money to a drip. With China going through financial crisis of its own and the United States already in deep shit, the Philippines’ economic outlook is dim. And with the peso plummeting against the US dollar, Gloria’s ambitious economic programs — which is predicated on the continuous flow of OFW remittances — are in big trouble.

In July 2008, the unemployment rate was 7.4% and underemployment rate was 21%. With the global economy melting down, the increasing number of unemployed OFWs are going home.

What is strange is that a lot of Philippine economic “experts” were saying that the Philippines will not go into recession despite the global economic meltdown. These experts should remember that what fueled the “economic boom” in the past few years were three factors: 1) Increased OFW remittances; 2) Weakened US dollar; and 3) Increased Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs). Now, let’s look at each of these factors today. With OFW losing their jobs and going home, remittances will decrease. The US dollar vis-à-vis the Philippine peso is no longer weakening; it’s the peso that is now weakening. At the beginning of the year, the peso was very robust at P41 to US$1. Today, it is P51 to US$1… and continues to weaken. In regard to FDIs, during the first five months of 2008, FDIs totaled a net inflow of US$725 million. A year ago, the net inflow was US$2.3 billion — a 25% drop in FDIs. That’s triple whammy!

Last November 17, 2008, in a blitzkrieg-like assault in the Upper Chamber, Senate President Manuel Villar was ousted and Senator Juan Ponce Enrile — a close ally of Gloria — was swiftly installed. But what is odd is that the coup was supported by several opposition senators including Panfilo Lacson, Jamby Madrigal, Mar Roxas, Loren Legarda, Jinggoy Estrada, and Francis Escudero. What made them do it? Well, they can all say, “The Devil made me do it.” Interestingly, Lacson, Roxas, and Legarda are presidential wannabes. And with Villar, who is the front-runner in the presidential derby, their move appears to be motivated by their personal ambition. And by removing Villar as the Senate head honcho, it would enhance their chances in the presidential race. That’s wishful thinking. What they didn’t realize is that the ouster of Villar will only consolidate the powers of Gloria in the three branches of government. For the first time the country has now an undivided government. Next year, Gloria’s grip on the Supreme Court will further tighten when nine justices will retire and, of course, Gloria will replace them with her loyalists.

Gloria had been trying very hard to impress the international community with untruthful and hyperbolic pronouncements. She tried very hard — and failed — to connect with US President-elect Barack Obama before and after his election. The word “snubbed” has been used in the media to describe her failed attempt to contact Obama right after the election. She then went to Chicago on her way to the United Nations in New York to meet with the local Fil-Ams. The Fil-Am community, however, was abuzz with words that Gloria’s real purpose in going to Chicago was to seek a meeting with Obama. But it seemed that Obama’s cordon sanitaire was impenetrable and Gloria high-tailed it to New York without seeing him. However, on November 17, Obama returned Gloria’s November 4th call and two others. A generic statement from Obama’s office said that he “expressed his appreciation for their congratulations on his election.”

While Gloria tried very hard to gain international recognition with her globetrotting junkets, her satisfactory rating back home is 6.6% and her unsatisfactory rating is 82.2%. Her net satisfaction rating is -75.6, the lowest since 2004. Unfazed by these negative polls, Gloria is taking off again for Peru to attend the APEC meeting. It was reported that 42 congressmen will be joining her. The last time Congress tried to impeach her, she took off on a European junket with more than 70 congressmen and their spouses in her entourage. When they returned, Congress rejected the impeachment petition.

Amidst the economic turmoil that is besieging the country, the Filipino people continue to suffer in hunger and unemployment. But to those in power, it’s business as usual — to hell with public opinion!

(PerryDiaz@gmail.com)

Obama and Gloria
By Antonio C. Abaya

So that President Arroyo does not further humiliate herself trying to get an audience or at the very least a photo-op with President-elect Barack Obama, she should always keep in mind that Obama belongs to the liberal wing of American domestic politics.

It should be assumed that there are Filipino-Americans in Obama’s staff, and they, too, are liberals. They know what is going on in their country of origin. Through the Internet, they know about the stealing, the lying, the cheating and the killings that have been going on in this country for the past seven years, and they input this knowledge whenever Obama asks them for a briefing on the Philippines.

Through them, Obama knows that she is maneuvering to change the Constitution so that she can stay in power beyond 2010.

It is no wonder, therefore, that when Gloria visited the US last June, Presidential Candidate Obama was always in New York when she was in Washington, and was always in Washington or somewhere else when she was in New York. It was a deliberate snub. American liberals do no not approve of the way she has been running this country.

All Obama was prepared to give her, to acknowledge her presence, was a polite telephone call, followed by a letter..

Even that was not forthcoming when President-elect Obama received congratulatory telephone calls from dozens of world leaders, including President Arroyo. Obama returned the telephone calls of only nine of them – the leaders of the most important countries – and Arroyo was not one of them.

When President Arroyo went to the US early this month, ostensibly to speak before a United Nations forum on interfaith dialogue, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said that meeting Obama was “high” on her agenda.

But there was no meeting with Obama, even though President Arroyo made a two-hour stop-over in Chicago – Obama’s home base – ostensibly to talk to the Filipino community there.

And not to forget her visit to the US last October, supposedly to speak before the United Nations General Assembly. If Malacanang is to be believed, President Arroyo met with the heads-of-state, heads-of-government, or chefs de mission of 19 countries – including seven Lilliput ones – all within the space of 48 hours. (See my article Gloria and the Lilliputs, October 02, 2008).

But no meeting with Barack Obama, although I am sure frantic efforts were made by her staff to wangle an audience. She would have gladly junked those meetings with 19 boring leaders of silly countries, in exchange for one with the devastating Barack.

And it is not just the liberals who have blacklisted President Arroyo. The outgoing neo-conservatives have neither forgotten nor forgiven her for abandoning the Coalition of the Willing in Iraq and for playing footsies with the Chinese, whom the neo-cons believe will be the next strategic enemy of the US, after the Muslim extremists..

During her visit to Washington last June – during which Candidate John McCain, bless his gentlemanly soul, gave her 15 minutes of his time in a hotel lobby – the neo-cons insulted her by forcing her to conduct a press briefing outdoors, on the sidewalk of a busy DC street. No self-respecting head-of-state or head–of government would have put up with such indignity, but she did.

If you do not believe me, look at the color photo on the front page of the June 25 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, credited to Malacanang Photo. There she is, talking into one of two stand-up microphones, flanked by Deputy Secretary of State (and neo-con) John Negroponte, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and Press Secretary Jesus Dureza.

There are no lecterns, no chairs, no tables, no presidential seal. But in the background are motor vehicles going about their normal business. (See my article Weird, June 30, 2008)

Malacanang is complaining that media prints/broadcasts too many negative stories and not enough feel-good ones about President Arroyo. But why does she put herself in such humiliating situations, and why does she herself create such self-destructive conditions?
She is her own worst enemy, not media.

Such as giving executive pardon to the convicted murderer Claudio Teehankee Jr.? She knew this was going to be a very unpopular decision, yet she went ahead and did it.

Even the convicted murderer knew his pardon would infuriate most people. He did not leave prison through the front door in broad daylight. The previous evening he stayed in the “special” room of convicted child rapist Romeo Jalosjos, then destroyed the decorative tiles close to the ceiling, crawled through the hole (which was later patched up by someone with a new set of decorative tiles), and out into the street where a man on a motorcycle was waiting to speed him away. It looked more like a jailbreak than the implementation of a presidential pardon..

Did President Arroyo really think anyone other than Teehankee and his family rejoiced over this caper? Is she really wondering why, according to a recent Pulse Asia survey, 46 percent of Filipinos disapproved of her performance and 51 percent distrusted her?

Even the defeat of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s bid for a seat in the International Court of Justice could not be prevented by President Arroyo even though one of the rationales for her trip to the UN last October was to campaign for Miriam’s nomination. Presumably PGMA lobbied for Miriam when she met with the top officials of – if Malacanang can be believed - 19 countries, including seven Lilliput ones, in 24 working hours.

But Miriam lost to the nominee from, of all places, Somalia. Somalia is considered a failed state; it has no functioning government. It is run and overrun by marauding bands of armed men loyal to rival warlords who, in turn, clash with Islamist rebels, while increasingly bold Somali pirates hijack ships off the Horn of Africa with impunity. (Their latest catch, just today, is a Saudi supertanker weighing 318,000 deadweight tons).

To lose to Somalia is therefore deeply humiliating and requires exceptional talent..

Last June, when a Senate committee chaired by Sen. Miriam was hearing the complaint of foreign car assemblers that second-hand cars were being illegally imported through Port Irene (Cagayan Province), Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, who is from Cagayan, told the chairman of the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce (JFCC) to “get out of the country if you can’t live with us.”.

The JFCC is currently chaired by a Frenchman and represents some 2,000 employers/investors from the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, South Korea and the European Union, who employ some one million Filipinos.

In my article ‘Get out of the country!’ of June 09, 2008, I wrote that with Sen. Enrile’s outburst, Sen. Miriam “can kiss goodbye her ambitions to be named to and accepted by the International Court of Justice.” Quite influential and powerful, the countries whose representative Sen. Enrile chose to publicly humiliate..

If they couldn’t get back directly at Sen. Enrile, they could get back, and did, at committee chair Sen. Miriam and the Philippines, despite the charm offensive, assuming there really was one, by President Arroyo, and that she was really charming. *****

CULTURAL NOTES. Tomorrow night, Nov. 29 at 8 pm, it will be From Russia with Love at the CCP, with Russian pianist and (since 1998) Steinway Artist Katya Grineva, who will perform romantic piano music for the benefit of skills training and vocational education for soldiers and their families in Camp O’Donnell, Tarlac. The New York Times has described her performance as “liquid, dream-like…”

Tickets at the CCP Box Office, Ticketworld and National Bookstores. *****

Reactions to tonyabaya@gmail.com. Other articles in www.tapatt.org and in acabaya.blogspot.com..

COMMENTARY FROM PERRY DIAZ

Finally, the last bastion of opposition collapsed in a “bloodless” coup in the Senate. With Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile — a close ally of President Gloria Arroyo — as the new Senate President, all investigations on corruption in high places like the NBN/ZTE and the Fertilizer Scam will end.

But what is very strange is the support of several opposition senators including Panfilo Lacson, Jamby Madrigal, Mar Roxas, Loren Legarda, Jinggoy Estrada, and Francis Escudero. What made them do it? Well, they can all say, “The Devil made me do it.”

Interestingly, Lacson, Roxas, and Legarda are presidential wannabes. And Viilar being the front-runner in the presidential derby among the oppositionists, their move appears to be motivated by their personal ambitions. But didn’t they realize that the ouster of Villar would consolidate the power of Gloria? Hello, 2010.

Perry

Villar ousted as Senate president; Enrile sworn in
By Ellen Tordesillas

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile was sworn in this afternoon as the new Senate president in a coup that caught Senate President Manuel Villar and his allies by surprise.
Enrile, whose oath of office was administered by Sen. Gregorio Honasan Jr. at 4 p.m. when the chamber opened its plenary session, was supported by administrator senators and several senators, including Sen. Rodolfo Biazon.
Following Villar’s ouster, Senators Francis Pangilinan and Aquilino Pimentel Jr. resigned their posts as majority and minority leaders.

Pangilinan was replaced by Juan Miguel Zubiri as Senate majority leader.
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano also resigned as chair of the blue ribbon committee. The committee is probing the P728 million fertilizer fund scam and the Moscow incident involving retired police comptroller Eliseo de la Paz, among other cases.
Initial reports said the coup against Villar was orchestrated by senators who are alumni of the Philippine Military Alumni: Honasan (1971), Biazon (1961) and Panfilo Lacson (1971).
Lacson nominated Enrile as the new Senate president. “Nothing is spontaneous here in the Senate. It’s planned,” he said of Villar’s ouster.
He had earlier linked Villar to the double entry in the 2008 national budget for the expansion of the C-5 Road.
Enrile said nine senators initially approached him with a resolution to effect change in the Senate leadership and four more signed on later. “I’m surprised, I’m overwhelmed,” he said. “I’ll make sure that the Senate will maintain its independence and integrity.”
The nine senators were Lacson, Honasan, Biazon, Zubiri, Jamby Madrigal, Mar Roxas, Loren Legarda, Edgardo Angara and Richard Gordon. The four who later approved the resolution were Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Francis Escudero, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Lito Lapid.
Senators Pimentel, Pangilinan, Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Joker Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III. Jr. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago was absent.
Malacanang denied any involvement in Villar’s ouster.
Presidential Political Adviser Gabriel Claudio said in a statement: “We respect the independence of any action taken by the Senate regarding its own organization. The Palace had no involvement whatsoever in the Senate’s leadership change. Nonetheless, we extend our warm felicitations and congratulations to the new senate president, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile and look forward to fresh opportunities for greater cooperation between the Executive and Legislative branches in addressing the pressing challenges and problems confronting the nation.”

The Philippine STAR
Racism as colonialism: Jefferson, Obama and us
HINDSIGHT By F Sionil Jose

Way back in the early ‘90s, I was asked to speak about our American colonial experience before a university audience at the International House in Berkeley. I went to the United States for the first time in 1955 and for three months, with a US State Department grant and a princely per diem of $12 a day, I crisscrossed that vast continent. Since then, I had visited that land of milk and honey on so many occasions; if I were to name the three most deadly sins of the Americans, the first is racism, then wastefulness and the third, smugness. After my talk, a retired black professor commented that I had glossed over racism. I told him they were doing so much about it from what I know of that problem in the ‘50s when I visited the South and saw segregation at its worst. He agreed; indeed, the Americans have narrowed the racial divide but not their wastefulness and smugness.
The entry on January 20 of Barack Obama and his family in the White House — the residence of this world’s most powerful single individual — has elicited universal encomia, and so many expectations as well.
Let us now peruse briefly racial discrimination by our former colonizers bearing in mind that they passed on to us not just their genes but their vices, not their virtues.
For all its might America is a young country of immigrants. The first went there because of religious persecution in England. The United States then should be the last nation on earth where racial discrimination would thrive, given this background — but it flourished when succeeding settlers brought slaves from Africa to work in the plantations in the South.
It is one of those historical ironies that Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the American Declaration of Independence, was not only the owner of several slaves but had a mistress who was one.
When his wife, Martha Wayles Skelton, died, it would seem that he promised her he would never marry again. His wife’s half sister, Sally, was black. She was with Jefferson when he was in Paris; Jefferson was 46 and Sally was 16. She bore Jefferson’s child and six others; all of whom bore Jefferson’s name.
Sally could have stayed on in France as a free woman because there was no slavery in France, but she went back to the United States and lived in Jefferson’s beautiful home, Monticello.
It is presumed that there was affectionate bonding between the two and that when their children reached the age of 21, Jefferson would free them. When Charles Dickens, the English novelist, visited Washington, he heard of this not-too-secret story and he satirized it. All these delicious details, dug up through extensive research, are in Annette Gordon-Reed’s new book, The Hemingses of Monticello.
The American Civil War (1861-1865) resolved the conundrum of slavery. Great moral issues create equally great moral leaders, Abraham Lincoln in this Civil War. Great writers as well, from the oppressed — Ralph Elison, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison, to name just a few of the blacks who brought their artistic skills to fruition in their depiction of the injustices their forebears suffered. And in South Africa, non-Blacks like Nadine Gordimer and Alan Paton.
Racism in America is directed not just to the blacks but to the Jews who, though a small minority, have a lot of economic and cultural clout. Asians, Latinos have not been spared. And of course, Filipinos, as the writer Carlos Bulosan tells it only too movingly in his book, America is in the Heart.
Anti-miscegenation laws in California, for instance, were aimed at Asians and a Filipino was even lynched for cohabiting with a white woman.
From time immemorial, racism has existed all over the world in so many forms, as religious bias, and not just as color. We are only too familiar with how Hitler massacred millions of Jews in gas chambers in the concentration camps in Dachau, Auschwitz and Buchenwald.In Japan, racial discrimination is subtle but very demanding and real. The Japanese believe they are a superior and divine race; they regard all other Asians as inferior — but not Caucasians. The natives who do dirty jobs, the burakumin, are regarded as low caste and are avoided in marriage. So are the Koreans though they have lived in Japan for generations. Birth records are well preserved and it is not difficult to check and trace one’s lineage.
The term gaijin, though it refers primarily to foreigners, illustrates the quiet subtlety of Japanese racial discrimination. It is easy to justify the exclusivity of the natives, the need for harmony of millions packed tightly in a small island nation. Ever polite, ever hospitable, discrimination in Japan does not scream at outsiders; it lurks behind those ritual bows, beneath the dizzying patina of modernity that suffuses this powerful, well-bonded nation — the second richest in the world.
And what about Mother Espana which once shaped an empire where “the sun never sets”? The ultimate specter of racial discrimination is in the Spanish Inquisition, which started in the 14th century, was revived two centuries later and persisted all through the 19th century. Led by the Dominicans and those exemplar rulers, Ferdinand and Isabella, it was first established by Rome to combat the Reformation; it burgeoned in Spain independent of the Vatican. Its inquisitors burned books, seized properties of infidels, drove the Jews out, enforced conversions on them and the Moors. By its “acts of faith” it tortured and burned at the stake thousands upon thousands. With its fanatical search for doctrinal purity and cleansing of the blood (limpieza de sangre), it crippled the financiers, the royalty. It eventually defined the Spanish character; as the Spanish writer, Marcelino Menendez Pelayo, explained it: there was no industry in Spain; the bullfights, the long siesta, the laziness of Spaniards — all these were the after-effects of the Inquisition.
Maybe so, but this vaulting aberration also produced the world’s greatest novel, Don Quixote de la Mancha.
And for us, the Noli and Fili.
What about us brown Indios? Of course, we are racists, too; and we discriminate most against our ethnics — the aetas, the manyans…
But first, we as victims. Serapio/Canceran, President Quezon’s private secretary, told me about a pre-war Caucasian club in Manila that did not admit Indios until one evening when this club was celebrating an annual ball. Quezon marched into it with a Constabulary sergeant and a huge Doberman and announced to the well-groomed assembly that he would close the club, if…
And among us are Spanish mestizo families still who do not want their bloodline diluted with mongrel genes. I know of a very sophisticated, pretty Indio girl whose boyfriend was a Spanish mestizo. All long I presumed that they had gotten married and were now living happily somewhere in Pangasinan. It didn’t turn out that way; the mestizo dumped her in accordance with the family dictate, went to Spain and married a Spanish girl instead.
We grow up mouthing limericks like Intsik Baboy, tulo laway, bahay silong knowing only too well that Chinese parents don’t want their daughters to marry Indios.
Lilia G. Hernandez, my doctor when I am in America, is semi-retired after a very successful practice in California. Her family has a beautiful home in Pleasanton an hour away from San Francisco. She and her husband, an engineer, founded Tambalan, an NGO devoted to helping Filipinos. She visited Manila the other week and here is her latest communication:
“The more time I spend in my country of birth, the more I feel so discriminated against by people whose language I speak, whose skin color is mine, whose poor I dedicate more of my time to.
“On one of my trips in 2006, an Italian-American came with me to see the programs my group in the Bay Area help support financially. On that same trip, my husband was finalizing plans for a house with the architect. My husband (a Filipino-American), the Italian-American and myself went to the site. Standing close to my husband, I stepped aside for a local woman to pass. She asked ‘Are you and your husband (pointing at the Italian-American some meters away) the ones who are building a house here?’ I was so surprised, and pointed at the man beside me as my husband. I soon realized that people thought I had to have a white man to be able to build a nice house in the Philippines!
“One of the reasons I travel to the Philippines is to bring Americans to see what locals do to help improve themselves through community effort. These people going on an ‘exposure’ may be native-born Americans, Caucasians, or Filipinos who have immigrated to the United States.
“Upon arrival at the airport, one customs officer mumbled questions concerning what was in my suitcases (cheap school supplies I got from Target to give away, a few medical supplies donated by health professionals). Before I stepped aside to open my suitcases, I mentioned to him in Bisaya that the lady after me was my guest. My friend noticed the sudden change in his facial expression when he saw her, and how quickly we were sent through (without opening my suitcases), so quickly that my friend had to ask ‘What was that all about?’ Perhaps the guy thought I was a returning domestic helper, an easy target for a bribe, until he saw that I had to be someone ‘important’ to have a white guest.
“On checking in at hotels, in department stores, she was always given more attention. The most blatant was our visit to the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). At the door, I was asked to open my tiny purse and to surrender my camera. My white friend, with a 24”x18” bag, bulging with a high-powered camera, breezed through. I did not say anything until after coming out, when I told the chief of security, the very guy who insisted on taking my camera ‘unit,’ that their discrimination against their kapwa (fellow) Filipinos was truly disgusting.
“As I was leaving, I proceeded to the Cathay Pacific Business Class check-in line. (Being a frequent flyer, I have the privilege of checking in through business even if I am traveling economy.) “Ma’am,” a guard said, “that’s the business class line.” So why didn’t he stop the brusque-looking white man with a young Filipino lass, and a Chinese man before me? I recalled what Barack Obama wrote in his book, when he and his half-sister were waiting to be served at a bar in Kenya — ignored, as the white patrons were attended to!”
Indeed, Filipinos also ridicule their countrymen because of their looks, because someone has a low chin (baba), cubitus varus (kumang), slit eyes (singkit) or is bald. The journalist Arsenio Lacson poked fun at President Carlos P. Garcia because he was quite dark. The antic could be considered funny, as it was staged in the past by the Reycard Duet, or the comedians Pogo and Togo. But it can also be disastrous when such remarks impede recognition of integrity, or intellectual and artistic rigor.
What is often said of us can be self-fulfilling: Caviteños are dangerous. Batanguenos are naked without their balisong. Pangasinenses are filthy. Warays and Negrenses are profligate and indolent. So the Capampangans have dugong aso, the Boholanos are stupid, the Moros are traitors, the Ilokanos may be hard working and thrifty but they are dumb like carabao. And nobody now takes us seriously, for as a famous American editor confided, how can he when our leaders are “silly”?
All such farcical clichés have a way of insinuating themselves into the national psyche and every day, they are aggravated by the nonsense on our TV screens, on the front pages of our newspapers. And we are outraged when the BBC pokes fun at our maids in London. So we ask again, whose fault is it?
What event of such apocalyptic magnitude or epiphanic redemption would rid us of racism and truly humanize us? Maybe it will be the forthcoming catastrophe of climate change, maybe an invasion from outer space that will threaten the whole world itself, or some such pandemic that threatens to decimate the human species.
Shakespeare said it is conscience that makes cowards of us all.
This is one of those asinine afterthoughts; perhaps, it is best that the Spaniards colonized us, that we did not become Hindus, else we would have the caste system which ordains that “we are born unequal, live unequal and die unequal.”
What, then, makes us all equal?
So the beautiful Taj Mahal commemorates a loved one’s passing, and the pyramids are supposed to last as a refuge in the afterlives of the pharaohs. All those hundreds of terra cotta warriors excavated in China are to safeguard an emperor’s journey to the great beyond.
Whatever, death is the great leveler and if we only thought more often of this ultimate truth — that we cannot bring anything with us — then, perhaps, ours would be a safer and more just society.
Remember when the Nazis grabbed a contiguous piece of real estate in the late ‘30s? Hitler crowed: “Today Sudetenland, tomorrow the world.”
In a way, Obama’s victory is a shining triumph of democracy. It signifies not just the final liberation of the Black Man but all of the world’s oppressed from the bondage of race. Truly this is the greening of America, and prayerfully, tomorrow, the world as well.
But I have news for all of us who placed our bets on Barack Obama. Racism will continue in America, and everywhere, though possibly in a more muted form.

Text of letter from Obama in Illinois newspapers
By The Associated Press

Text of President-elect Barack Obama’s letter published in Illinois newspapers Sunday, when he officially resigned from the Senate:

Today, I am ending one journey to begin another. After serving the people of Illinois in the United States Senate — one of the highest honors and privileges of my life — I am stepping down as senator to prepare for the responsibilities I will assume as our nation’s next president. But I will never forget, and will forever be grateful, to the men and women of this great state who made my life in public service possible.

More than two decades ago, I arrived in Illinois as a young man eager to do my part in building a better America. On the South Side of Chicago, I worked with families who had lost jobs and lost hope when the local steel plant closed. It wasn’t easy, but we slowly rebuilt those neighborhoods one block at a time, and in the process I received the best education I ever had. It’s an education that led me to organize a voter registration project in Chicago, stand up for the rights of Illinois families as an attorney and eventually run for the Illinois state Senate.

It was in Springfield, in the heartland of America, where I saw all that is America converge — farmers and teachers, businessmen and laborers, all of them with a story to tell, all of them seeking a seat at the table, all of them clamoring to be heard. It was there that I learned to disagree without being disagreeable; to seek compromise while holding fast to those principles that can never be compromised, and to always assume the best in people instead of the worst. Later, when I made the decision to run for the United States Senate, the core decency and generosity of the American people is exactly what I saw as I traveled across our great state — from Chicago to Cairo; from Decatur to Quincy.

I still remember the young woman in East St. Louis who had the grades, the drive and the will but not the money to go to college. I remember the young men and women I met at VFW halls across the state who serve our nation bravely in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I will never forget the workers in Galesburg who faced the closing of a plant they had given their lives to, who wondered how they would provide health care to their sick children with no job and little savings.

Stories like these are why I came to Illinois all those years ago, and they will stay with me when I go to the White House in January. The challenges we face as a nation are now more numerous and difficult than when I first arrived in Chicago, but I have no doubt that we can meet them. For throughout my years in Illinois, I have heard hope as often as I have heard heartache. Where I have seen struggle, I have seen great strength. And in a state as broad and diverse in background and belief as any in our nation, I have found a spirit of unity and purpose that can steer us through the most troubled waters.

It was long ago that another son of Illinois left for Washington. A greater man who spoke to a nation far more divided, Abraham Lincoln, said of his home, “To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything.” Today, I feel the same, and like Lincoln, I ask for your support, your prayers, and for us to “confidently hope that all will yet be well.”

With your help, along with the service and sacrifice of Americans across the nation who are hungry for change and ready to bring it about, I have faith that all will in fact be well. And it is with that faith, and the high hopes I have for the enduring power of the American idea, that I offer the people of my beloved home a very affectionate thanks.

How much does it cost to kill a man?
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR
By William M. Esposo

How much does it cost to kill a man? The late Bishop Fulton Sheen posed this question during a replayed 1968 episode of his internationally followed television series.
In the 1960s, Catholic schools used to assign pupils to watch Bishop Sheen’s TV show as homework. As a kid, I would have protested such homework which interferes with viewing my favorite programs.
Ironically, I find myself viewing Bishop Sheen replays these days on the two Catholic Cable TV Networks, EWTN and Familyland Network. It is not for the preaching of Catholic dogma that glues me to Bishop Sheen replays whenever I happen to chance upon it. It is for the timeless values he talked about in his show.
I was never keen on dogma, rituals and ceremonies that we see too much in the Catholic Church. Many times, I have called the Church hierarchy to task for being too “ceremonious” like the Pharisees Jesus Christ used to denounce and I’ve suggested to them to be more involved with the communities, especially the poorest of the poor.
I have always espoused that Filipinos need to overhaul their values if they are to move forward. This should be one of the top priorities of the Catholic Church — to help reform the values of the poor that conspire to keep them trapped in their station in life.
“How much does it cost to kill a man?” Bishop Sheen asked in that 1968 telecast. He proceeded to list the facts and figures that painted a grim picture of the destructive tendencies of man which, from Cain and Abel and up to this day and age, continue to be the darkest side of mankind.
Bishop Sheen explained that it needed Cain a mere branch of a tree to kill Abel. From this first murder (according to Christian faith), the concept of weaponry evolved — the sword, the arrow and the spear. Bishop Sheen presented what it cost warriors (based on 1968 value of money) through the centuries to kill their fellow man.
For Julius Caesar, it cost an estimated 75 cents. For Napoleon, to kill a man cost him US$700. In World War I, despite the existence of the capacity for wholesale killing, Bishop Sheen said it averaged to $21,000. In World War II, where more nations were involved and where even more deaths occurred, the cost to kill a man averaged $200,000. As of 1968 when the telecast was done, the US spent $1 million an hour in the Vietnam War, according to Bishop Sheen.
Of course, the cost in money terms is one aspect — the least mankind should be concerned with. Money can be recovered but not human lives. The toll in human lives and human misery must never be accepted as collateral for war.
But what mankind should worry about is the tracked tendency to engage in war even when times have improved in terms of economic standard of living, health and education. In many cases, of course, the more developed country adopts an imperial inclination and decides to make vassal States of the weak ones.
Bishop Sheen cited several periods of peace between wars that became shorter and shorter. Between the Napoleonic Wars and the Franco-Prussian War, Bishop Sheen said that there was an interval of 55 years. Between the Franco-Prussian War and World War I, there was a shorter interval of 43 years. Between World War I and World War II, the interval was only 21 years. Progress, it appears, increases instead of decreases the likelihood and incidence of war.
In the case of two European powers, Great Britain went to war 76 times during the last 100 years (note that reference point here is 1968). France went to war during the last 100 years — 16 times. Of course, after Napoleon, France became less imperial.
In 2007, US President George W. Bush asked for a Defense Appropriation of $493 billion, a 7% increase from that of 2006. At its height, the US spent an average of $40 billion a month in the Iraq invasion. These are monies that could easily go to health care, a thorny issue during the recently concluded US presidential election.
Let’s not go far from home. Over here, Dictator Ferdinand Marcos sent his First Lady, Imelda Marcos, to charm Muammar Khaddafi in Libya in order to seek a resolution to the Mindanao War. Marcos realized that the cost of the war could destabilize his martial law regime. The Tripoli Agreement resulted in that trip of Imelda Marcos and we had peace, albeit temporary.
If wide scale hostilities erupt anew in Mindanao, the Madame Gloria Macapagal Arroyo regime will find it extremely difficult to cope with the cost of a full scale war in addition to the economic crisis we are already encountering. A full scale Mindanao War could undo her just as World War I brought the end of the Romanov Tsars in Russia.
The sum of Bishop Sheen’s presentation is the dark side of man that is focused on using technology for things that can kill better and faster instead of using technology and resources to foster peace, harmony and development. After all, prosperity and development is the best insurance that a nation will not go to war.
Normally, a nation that is enjoying prosperity and peace will not willingly want to go to war. Japan today, an aggressor in World War II, is the best proof of that. The only reason why Japan is now rearming is because of signs of the US weakening and the looming threat of North Korea and China — both being Japan’s enemies in the past.
War as an instrument of foreign policy is too unpredictable. Who would imagine that a superpower like the US will run away from Vietnam with its tail between its legs? On the other hand, look at what the Great Depression created — the dawn of Fascist regimes in Spain, Italy and Germany under Franco, Mussolini and Hitler, respectively. Look at the casualties and devastated cities of Hitler’s World War II.
Invariably, the extreme income disparity in a society where many are miserably poor and too few are filthy rich proves to be the best promoter of conflict. A strong man emerges when there is a down trodden class in society, a big brother who promises to spread the wealth.
This is the reason why up to now we have not resolved our issues with our Communist rebels. Nothing promotes the ideas of Karl Marx better than a Wealth Gap such as the one that festers in our society.
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Chair Wrecker e-mail and website: macesposo@yahoo.com and www.chairwrecker.com