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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Human Rights in ASEAN
By Antonio C. Abaya Written on Aug. 08, 2007 For the Standard Today, August 09 issue One of the most useless gestures in the recently concluded ASEAN conference celebrating its 40th anniversary is the earth-shaking announcement that ASEAN seeks to include a human rights proviso in the charter that it plans to hammer out sometime in the near future, before global warming swallows up the region. Articulating a common position on anything among ten vastly divergent nation-states would be a Herculean effort. Defining a unified stand on human rights would be nothing less than miraculous. If it ever achieves that nebulous goal, the resulting document would most likely be so amorphous � in order to accommodate diametrically opposed national priorities � as to be useless. Who in ASEAN will be the judge and jury of what human rights entail? Myanmar has been under a military junta since 1962, and has placed under house arrest the champion of Myanmarese liberal democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, whose political party won the national elections in May 1990 but was never allowed to assume the political power inherent in that victory. Who or what will force the Myanmar military junta to give up its monopoly of power? Certainly, not ASEAN. Thailand has been under a military junta since September 2006, when the Army staged a coup d�etat against the elected government of Thaksin Shinawatra. The Army had promised that it would return to the barracks �after a few weeks.� It is now almost one year since it grabbed power and there are no discernible signs that the military are about to fold their tents anytime soon. So who or what will force them to do so? Certainly, not ASEAN either. Vietnam and tiny Laos are under Communist dictatorships, with total and absolute monopoly of power for the communist parties. That means no free elections, no free press, no political opposition, no independent judiciary, no human rights. Can ASEAN force Vietnam and Laos to suddenly adopt the accoutrements of liberal democracy? Of course not. As Western and domestic busybody liberals do not tire in reminding the rest of the world, Malaysia and Singapore are under authoritarian regimes, despite the outward appearances of liberalism in the guise of consumerist prosperity. Their media are tightly controlled by government, political opposition is marginalized, and Communists � now ironically the poster boys of Western liberalism � are specifically barred from participating in their political life, under threat of lengthy imprisonment without trial, under their Internal Security Act. So what are the chances of ASEAN moderating the authoritarianism of Malaysia and Singapore ? In a word, zero. Indonesia under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is being touted as the epitome of pragmatic moderation, principally for his successful handling of the Aceh separatist crisis. But beneath the placid exterior is a seething sectarian animosity between the Muslim majority and a besieged Christian minority that periodically erupts in gory violence in Sulawesi, Kalimantan , and Menado. Also sidelined for the time being is the Indonesian military, the Angkatan Bersanjata Republik Indonesia or ABRI, which for decades under President Suharto exercised dua fungsi or dual functions, of looking after both security and development matters, of defending the republic against both external threats and internal subversion. In reaction to an abortive attempt by the Parti Komunis Indonesia to seize power in 1965 � by machine-gunning to death the entire high command of ABRI, except for one general who escaped � the ABRI staged a counter-coup during which anywhere from 300,000 to two million Communists and suspected Communists were summarily executed. If President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono were to stumble for whatever reason in the foreseeable future, the ABRI would most likely step into its former role to save the Republic, and no pompous declarations from ASEAN is going to make any difference. Also haunted by the recent past is Cambodia where in 1975-79 the Communist Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot, inspired by Mao Zedong�s Cultural Revolution in China , attempted to turn the clock back in Cambodia to Year Zero by forcing urban dwellers and educated middle-class types to move back to the rural areas, which quickly became �killing fields.� An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians were killed in that bloodbath. While no one expects the return of another Pol Pot genocidal maniac anytime soon, the natural bias of most Cambodians would be against the re-entry of Communists into their political life � even if it means depriving them of their human rights - especially if they are perceived to be puppets of their historical enemies, the Vietnamese.. One bloodbath in 100 years is enough for most people. So who will be the poster boys and the role models for the ASEAN Human Rights extravaganza? The 380,000 royal subjects of Brunei Darussalam, who have no voice in the choosing of their leaders or in the political management of their feudal fiefdom? Or the 88 million quarrelsome Filipinos, captives of the complicit media, whose idea of human rights is showing solicitous concern for the welfare of Communist militants and terrorists trying to overthrow their own government, and to replace it with a Maoist �dictatorship of the proletariat� which does not tolerate any human right that would stand in the way of the allegedly inevitable triumph of Communism?. This na�ve liberalism is best exemplified by the Human Security Act, which may be grudgingly accepted by the incorrigible meddlers in Amnesty International, but which was most likely greeted with howls of derisive laughter at �those stupid Filipinos��in the corridors of power in Yangon, Bangkok, Hanoi, Vientiane, Phnom Penh, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. ***** ******** AND SPEAKING OF MYANMAR . Since the 1980s, Myanmar has been a willing client state of China , another Asian state with a disdainful attitude towards human rights. (Tienanmen, Falun Gong, public executions and all that.) China has been supplying the Myanmar government with tons of military materiel, has been upgrading the tortuous Burma Road between Myanmar and China �s Yunnan Province , and has built a major naval base at the mouth of the Irrawaddy River for the Myanmarese Navy, but with berthing rights for the Chinese Navy. I wrote in my column in the late 1980s that this was a strategic move on the part of the Chinese to be able confront their regional rival, India, not only over their Himalayan border but, now, face to face in the Indian Ocean. In the late 1980s or early 1990s, India already possessed two (ex-British) aircraft carriers, one stationed in the Bay of Bengal, the other in the Arabian Sea . With their new base in Myanmar , China is now in a position to confront the Indian Navy in India �s own front yard. And this confrontation almost certainly will include aircraft carriers. China has long been itching to acquire aircraft carriers. Even in the 1980s, according to Taiwanese intelligence, China had been training aircrews to land on and take off from carriers, using marked open spaces on land as substitute carrier decks. China bought Australia �s sole carrier, the HMAS Melbourne, whose structure was minutely studied by Chinese naval engineers before being dismantled for scrap. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Soviet Navy had a super-carrier under construction in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Nikolaev , the 65,000 ton Varyag. The Chinese bought that too, for, if memory serves, $2 billion. According to an article in the August 02 issue of The Economist, China bought two other aircraft carriers from Russia , the Kiev and the Minsk, both of which are being used (temporarily?) as floating theme parks for tourists, one berthed in Bohai, the other near Hong Kong . But this may be just a ploy to soften the image of a China becoming a naval super power. But I recall receiving and writing about a white paper published by the Royal Canadian Navy in the late 1980s or early 1990s which said that China intended to acquire a blue-water (or ocean-going) navy by the year 2025. That goal now seems to be comfortably attainable. According to The Economist, aside from three aircraft carriers, China has also bought 12 Kilo-class diesel attack submarines, the newest ones equipped with supersonic Sizzler cruise missiles �that America �s carriers, many analysts believe, would find hard to stop.� These supersonic cruise missiles are also aboard four new Sovremenny-class destroyers, made to order by the Russians for the Chinese and designed to attack aircraft carriers and their escorts. Chinese naval yards are also fabricating a new class of nuclear-powered attack submarines, the Shang, which would allow the Chinese Navy � to push deep into the Pacific, well beyond Taiwan , and, China hopes, help defeat American carriers long before they get close.� According to The Economist, China has acquired more than 200 advanced Russian Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-30 fighter-bombers, and is said to be interested in the more advanced Su-33, which can be deployed on an aircraft carrier. The Chinese have also developed their own carrier-based aircraft, the J-10 The Chinese are also developing mobile-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles, the DF-31, and the longer-range DF-31A, as well as the submarine-launched Jl-2, all of which can hit any target in the continental US. The Americans certainly have reasons to be worried; more so do the Indians. And 2025 is still 18 years away. ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles in www.tapatt.org and in acabaya.blogspot.com. If you wish to be unsubscribed from this newsletter, please send a blank email to [email protected], with the subject heading Unsubscribe, and you will be removed from our distribution list. Thank you. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �Human Rights in ASEAN� �Greed in the Pharmaceutical and Telecom Industries� �Stock Market Brushfires� �Heroism� �Courage� MABUHAY ANG PILIPINAS, I LOVE THE PHILIPPINES . It is so resilient and since world war 2 we are making progress, however slightly still it is progress. Halika Balik Tayo. At your service, Dick Aquino, (by email), Aug. 10, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony: If the ASEAN nations are serious about human rights, but because of cultural diversity and differing legal traditions are unclear on what these entail, they can always use as reference the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Mariano Patalinjug, (by email), Yonkers , NY , Aug. 10, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Read your article on human rights among ASEAN countries. Really ridiculous for ASEAN to talk but not to walk . Very interesting about the naval build-up of China . Didn�t realize it was that intensive. Looks like it is well-planned. Reminds me of Germany post-WW I. By the way, just got an excellent quality DVD �Road to War of the Superpowers� from a Muslim store near Home Depot in Ortigas�deals with why Germany , Italy , Britain , U.S. and especially Japan went to war, plus the lies perpetrated by governments through media and armaments of the modern soldier. I remember admiring Oscar Orbos many years ago. Thought he was one of the rare breed of promising Filipinos who could lead the country in the near future. Then he became governor of Pangasinan (?) and disappeared from the news. What happened? (I have no idea, Poch. For a while, he joined Tito Guingona and the Black and White Movement in opposition to President Arroyo. Then he disappeared again. I don�t know what his game is. ACA) Poch (Robles), (by email), Pasig City , Aug. 10, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww You need to check your information about Cambodia . The country is still Communist but allied with Vietnam rather than China . The ruling party is the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) and its Hun Sen has been the PM, ruling the country since Pol Pot was driven out. The leaders of the two other major parties, Funcinpec and Sam Rainsy, have been hounded by Hun Sen and are in virtual exile. The country has a new king but he, and even his politically astute father the old king, do not have any say in the government other than moral persuasion. Remedios Marmoleno, (by email), Aug. 10, 2007 (The 2007 World Almanac and Book of Facts classifies the governments of Laos and Vietnam as �Communist�, but refers to Cambodia �s as �constitutional monarchy.� According to Wikipedia , Cambodia was a one-party state under Vietnamese military occupation until the restoration of multi-party democracy in 1993, and has been ruled by a coalition of the CPP with FUNCINPEC since 2004. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Only the leftist communists who are NPA sympathizers are scared of the Human Security Act. Anything that scares the hell out of these public menaces is good for the country. Cesar M. de los Reyes, (by email), Aug. 10, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, Your addendum on Myanmar-China connection is quite provocative and portending at the same time. In a time when it is quite fashionable to be a "China-worshipper," your reading on China's motives drives the point that (geo)politics is yet to be replaced by economics in the way interstate relations are framed, especially in Asia. Resurgent (ultra)nationalism plus communist authoritarianism are potent ingredients for Chinese adventurist foreign policies, and indications are rife pointing precisely to this conclusion. I remember Victor Corpus' lecture at John Hopkins University , expressing concern about China 's geopolitical ambition (which I attached in pdf format for your perusal). He has enumerated a number of what he terms as "trump cards" against potential U.S. intervention, and one of them is the huge holding of US treasury bonds by the Chinese. The Chinese holds the American and by extension the world economy by the throat. Dumping these dollar bonds will surely result in a global depression. The moral of the story is as long as the Chinese society is a closed one, there will always be the danger of miscalculation from the political leadership. And we know, given China 's brinkmanship in several issues such as Taiwan , the Chinese Communist Party is not the one that will step first from the edge of the precipice. Allan Mendoza, (by email), Aug. 15, 2007 (The lecture that Victor Corpus delivered at Johns Hopkins University on March 30, 2006, and which Reader Mendoza sent as an attachment to his email above, is too long [17 pages] to be included in this posting. But I will refer to and quote from it in a future column. Thank you, Allan. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, Thanks for sending me a copy of your pamphlet., A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Communism. It was a great read. And funny thing happened along the way too, someone you called a "rabidly Marxist" writer is now an unrepentant ideologue for market fundamentalism. In your case, at least, you have shown consistency in your views. But, of course, that is an understatement. Cheers and more power. Allan Mendoza, (by email), Aug. 15, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww On Greed in the Pharmaceutical and Telecom Industries Dear Tony, I have a special request. If you have not written about the scandalous if not criminal way our medicines are priced (did I miss it?) kindly do so for the sake of many suffering Filipinos like me! Also, pls expose the millions our local mobile phone service providers are making daily from the expiry they impose on PRE PAID subscribers. Their greed is very obvious at the expense of many poor cellphone users like house-helps who buy 10 to 20 pesos to keep in touch with their families in the provinces. . Nagtitipid sila only to realize that Globe, Smart and Sun have already robbed them of their pre-paid loads. Why do the Dept. of Trade and the NTC allow this thievery? Where is the much vaunted Corporate Social Responsibility of these companies? If the profit motive is the main driving force for Capitalism, then am afraid it will ultimately self-destruct because of GREED! There ought to be a law against abuse or unbridled profiteering after a certain period of profit bonanza for business pioneers. Ed J. T.Tirona, (by email), Paranaque City , Aug. 14, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (This article was forwarded to Tapatt by Doug Adam) Stock Market Brushfire; Will there be a run on the banks? By Mike Whitney 08/12/07 "ICH" -- - On Friday, the Dow Jone�s clawed its way back from a 200 point deficit to a mere 31 point loss after the Federal Reserve injected $38 billion into the banking system. The Fed had already pumped $24 billion into the system a day earlier after the Dow plummeted 387 points. That brings the Fed�s total commitment to a whopping $62 billion. By some estimates, $326.3 billion has now been added to the G-7 Nations� intra-banking system to prevent a breakdown. That amount will rise considerably in the weeks ahead as the situation continues to deteriorate. Some readers may remember that on Tuesday, August 7, the Fed announced that it was NOT planning to bail out the market. My, how quickly things change. So far, economic pundits and CEOs have applauded the Fed�s intervention as a �constructive� way of staving off an impending credit crisis. Are these same �experts� who always sing the praises of unregulated �free markets� while condemning any government intervention? Yes. The investment banks and fund mangers love �free markets� when it means eliminating the rules that prevent them to �gaming the system�. But they don�t like it so much when their shabby *Ponzi-rackets start to unravel. Then they�re the first in line to beg for a bailout. That�s what�s happening right now. The Fed is keeping the stock market afloat by increasing liquidity at the banks. If it wasn�t for Bernanke�s billions of dollars of low interest credit---the banking system and stock market would collapse in a heap. The Fed�s �not-so-invisible hand� is the only thing holding the whole dilapidated system in place. Is that the way it�s supposed to work in a free market system---with the Fed acting as the nation�s Economic Central Planner intervening whenever it suits the interests of its wealthiest constituents? Sounds more like a Financial Politburo, doesn�t it? In truth, the �free market� means nothing to the men who run the system. It�s just a public relations scam designed to dupe investors into plunking their money into a system that�s rigged for the carnivores at the top of the economic food-chain. Does anyone really believe that the market-commissars would allow the system to operate according to the arbitrary swings in investor confidence and random speculation? This is THEIR SYSTEM and they run it THEIR WAY. The only time that changes is when their twisted schemes go haywire and they need a handout from the taxpayer. In the present case, they are asking Big Brother Bernanke to bail them out on trillions of dollars of non-performing subprime garbage-loans which masquerade as securities in the secondary market. The Fed has already indicated that it is only-too-willing to help. But what good will it do? The banks are currently holding (roughly) $300 billion in collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and another $225 billion in collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) More than one-half trillion dollars in debt which is essentially �illiquid� and has no clear market value. They could be worthless for all we know. That hasn�t stopped the Fed riding to the rescue, buying up many of these toxic CDOs and increasing banking reserves so the great fractional banking con-game can continue unabated. This is what one astute observer called �alchemy finance�. Central banks around the world have opened up the liquidity spigots to avoid a global credit meltdown. But their efforts are bound to fail. The banks are sitting on huge losses from assets that they can�t move through the pipeline and which have gobbled up their reserves. Bloomberg News summed it up like this: �The $2 trillion market for mortgages not backed by government-sponsored agencies is at a standstill�. The same is true of the corporate bond market. As the Wall Street Journal reported last week: �The investment grade corporate bond market HAS GROUND TO A HALT, making it difficult for companies to access capital and hard for investors to find a place to put their money to work. �.The problems in the primary market could, if they persist, throw a wrench in the workings of corporate America, making it tougher for companies to finance, among other things, investments, buyouts and equity buybacks�.For July, corporate bond issuance was down 77% from June.� (�Corporate Bond Market has come to a Standstill�, Wall Street Journal) The mighty wheels of commerce have rusted in place. Nothing is moving. Only the sense of panic continues to grow. Trillions of dollars poisonous CDOs need to unwind, but the banks cannot put them up for bid for fear that they�ll only get pennies on the dollar. This is what a slow-motion train-wreck looks like. The Fed�s cheap credit won�t help either. At best, it�ll just buy a little time before the true value of these bonds is established and trillions of dollars in market capitalization vanish into cyber-space. Banks, equities, hedge funds, insurance companies and pension funds are all in line to suffer major losses. The irony, of course, is that the Federal Reserve created this mess by lowering interest rates to 1% and flushing trillions of dollars into the economy. That cheap money created a series of lethal equity-bubbles in housing, credit, stocks and bonds which are quickly falling to earth. Expanding the money-supply might be a short-term fix, but it�s really just throwing more gas on the fire. Why add hyper-inflation to the long-list of existing problems? The volatility in the stock market is a red herring. We should be paying attention to the underlying problems which are just now beginning to surface. The banks have been originating loans and bundling them off to Wall Street to avoid the normal reserve requirements. Now they�ve been �caught short� and don�t have adequate funding to cover their bets. If the Fed doesn�t help out, we�ll see at least one or two major bank closures. This is a story that won�t appear in the media. Bank-runs are the beginning of the end---financial Armageddon. And there�s more bad news, too. If the stock market corrects more than 10 or 15%, the massive overleveraged $1.7 trillion hedge fund industry will crash-and-burn. This may explain why the stock market has behaved so erratically recently. There have numerous late-day rallies with no good news to support the soaring equities prices. Is the market being micro-managed behind the scenes to keep it above a certain level? Many people think so. There�s been a flood of articles about the activities of the Plunge Protection Team�s in the last two weeks. The Fed�s desperate infusions of credit into the banking system will only reinforce growing suspicions of market manipulation. DERIVATIVES DOWNDRAFT Banks routinely hedge against adverse moves in the market by purchasing various types of insurance in the form of derivatives contracts. Derivatives trading has skyrocketed in the last few years and the �British Bankers Association estimated last fall that by the end of 2006, the market for all credit derivatives was $20 trillion and expected to be $33 trillion by the end of 2008.�These relatively new instruments are about to be put to the test by worsening market conditions. �Hedge funds may account for as much as 30% of such credit protection� but that is little solace for the banks �because hedge funds that are losing money but also selling credit insurance may not be able to honor their commitments, rendering the protection worthless.� (�Insuring against Credit Risk can carry risks of its own� Henny Sender, Wall Street Journal) Credit insurance in the form of credit default swaps have created a false sense of security that may prove to be unfounded. In fact, the Credit insurance business has probably encouraged lenders to make shakier and shakier loans believing that they were protected from risk. But that doesn�t appear to be the case. For example, Bear Stearns tried to soothe investor�s fears during the collapse of its two hedge funds by pointing to its derivatives coverage. �Bear executives repeatedly referred to their dependence on hedges, including credit derivatives, to offset their losses on subprime mortgages and loans to poorly rated companies, stating that such hedges would offset losses.� (Ibid, H. Sender, Wall Street Journal) We all know how that story ended up. Derivatives have been celebrated as a critical part of the �new architecture of the financial markets�. Now we can see that they are poor-performers under real-life conditions and liable to trigger an even greater disaster. If the stock market stumbles, we can expect a major breakdown in credit insurance-trading with trillions of dollars in derivatives disappearing overnight. The abstruse world of derivatives trading will suddenly explode onto the headlines of newspapers across the country. HOUSING BRUSHFIRE SWEEPS THROUGH THE ECONOMY The contamination from the massive real estate bubble has now infected nearly every area of the broader market. The swindle which began at the Federal Reserve--with cheap, low interest credit---has spread through the entire system and is threatening to wreak financial havoc across the planet. The Fed�s multi-billion dollar bailout will do nothing to contain the brushfire they started or avert the catastrophe that lies just ahead. Greenspan opened Pandora�s Box and we�ll all have to live with the consequences. ===================== *A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves paying abnormally high returns ("profits") to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from net revenues generated by any real business. It is named after Charles Ponzi. "PYRAMID SCHEMES" Bth pyramid and Ponzi schemes are illegal www.ftc.gov/speeches/other/dvimf16.shtm wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Heroism, By Rafael M. Alunan III August 21, 2007 Today we honor Ninoy Aquino. It was 24 years ago that he was murdered upon his arrival at the Manila International Airport . He knew the grave risk to his life but his desire to come home from exile and lead the people out of the darkness of dictatorship vetoed all pleas to stay in the United States . Ninoy�s selflessness and courage against the odds is like Leonidas of Sparta who refused to bow before Xerxes of Persia. Both stood their ground and paid with their lives. Both chose freedom over tyranny and repression. Their deaths inspired events that breathed new life to their nations and eventually changed their worlds. Xerxes was defeated at Platea and, after a naval battle, abandoned his campaign to subjugate Sparta . Marcos was deposed by a popular military revolt and people�s uprising that started at EDSA and quickly spread nation-wide. According to Aristotle, "A man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall." An Aristotelian tragic hero must have four characteristics: Nobility (of a noble birth) or wisdom (by virtue of birth); Hamartia - translated as flaw, mistake, or error; Peripetia � a reversal of fortune brought about because of the hero's Hamartia; and Anagnorisis � the discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero's own actions. Ninoy was such a man, a tragic hero. In reference materials I dug up on the subject, there are other common traits characteristic of a tragic hero, many of which, if not all, apply to him given his saga as journalist, politician, oppositionist, prisoner and freedom fighter. A tragic hero suffers more than he deserves; he is doomed from the start, but bears no responsibility for possessing his flaw; he must be noble in nature, but imperfect so that the audience can see themselves in him; he must have discovered his fate by his own actions, not by things happening to him; he must see and understand his doom, as well as the fact that his fate was discovered by his own actions; his story should arouse fear and empathy; he must be physically or spiritually wounded by his experiences, often resulting in his death; ideally, the hero should be a king or leader of men, so that his people experience his fall with him; he must be intelligent so he may learn from his mistakes. Ninoy Aquino came back despite grave warnings not to; he saw his killers face-to-face and his impending doom, yet, he went with them; and he conquered tyranny with the loss of his life. A shot rang out on August 21, 1983 that changed the course of Philippine history. A hero may have been killed that day but it sparked the flames of freedom that eventually engulfed the dictatorship three years later. Honoring Ninoy Aquino�s heroism today brings me to also honor the bravery of our soldiers in Basilan and Sulu, despite persistent training, leadership and resource shortfalls that pose grave risk to their lives in combat. They rush to places where many fear to tread, oftentimes, with inadequate or malfunctioning weapons and equipment that prevent them from moving, shooting, seeing and talking with efficient precision. They get ambushed from lack of accurate field intelligence that leads to improper planning, bad judgment and poor execution; while the injured bleed to death because of the lack of medical kits and means of quick extraction and evacuation. Getting ambushed signifies mental and technical unpreparedness. In Sulu and Basilan, the AFP�s foes are born warriors. That culture and knowledge of their terrain places them at rough parity with the better equipped AFP. Because of their resource disadvantage, however, they rely on their intellect to deceive, bait and ambush at a place and time of their choosing. Because they are in their home grounds and fear its loss � real and imagined � they fight to the death. Consequently, operating in enemy territory should not be taken lightly or for granted. Failure to anticipate worst-case scenarios, estimate the real situation in the field and calculate the resources needed to bear on a mission is the recipe for tragedy. How often does the rush to war, half-baked in terms of information and preparation, result in needless injury and death? One too many, I�m afraid; yet, heads have not been rolling for incompetence or criminal neglect. The few that displayed their contempt or have spoken their minds for institutional reform have done so at great sacrifice to their careers and family life. Instead of being listened to, they have been placed behind bars. This is grossly unfair to our valiant men and women out there who are braving the odds but are not getting the wherewithal they need to get the job done at the least loss of lives and limbs. On a higher plane, our soldiers have been in harm�s way far too long because national and local leaders through the years have always opted for the military solution to address an insurgency. In all counter-insurgency manuals, the clash of arms is only a component to deal with the armed threat. The rest have to do with public service reach and excellence, complemented by economic growth and development to win hearts and minds. This takes years and years of sustained practice until the target communities are truly won over, not by arms but by proper nurturing and care. I place our soldiers at the level of the tragic hero. Their sufferings and deaths today, like Ninoy�s, will someday be avenged by an enlightened society that will finally put a stop to the pretense, irresponsibility and mediocrity afflicting everyone�s lives. As day follows night, that moment will surely come. But like Ninoy Aquino and our soldiers, society too must die before it gets to live again. ***** wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Courage By Fr. James B. Reuter, SJ Phillip Pesta�o graduated from the Philippine Military Academy. He was an ensign in the Philippine Navy, cargo master on the Navy ship Bacolod . He confided to his family that this ship was loading logs, illegally. They were loading shabu, illegally. And the shabu was worth two billion pesos. And they were loading arms, which were being sold to the Abu Sayyaf. Phillip, as cargo master, was asked to sign the document registering this cargo as legal. He would not sign it. His father received phone calls, saying: "Get your son off that ship! He is going to be killed!" Phillip came home for two days, on leave. His father begged him not to return to the ship. Phillip said: "In conscience, I have to go back. I cannot ignore this." His father kept trying to persuade him to resign, up to the last minute, on the night before he was to report back. When Phillip was already in bed, his father said to him: "Please, son! Don't go back!" But Phillip answered: "Kawawa ang bayan." He reported back. The ship was scheduled to take a short trip from Cavite to the pier on Roxas Boulevard . This would normally take about 25 minutes. But on that day it took one hour and a half. When the ship docked, Phillip was dead - shot through the head. With him was a suicide note. The Navy recorded this as suicide. But Phillip was scheduled to be married! He had already set the date. And the signature on the suicide note was not his. There were no powder burns on his hand, or on his head. So there was a Senatorial Investigation. The report of the Senate was this: 1. The death of Phillip Pesta�o was not suicide. 2. It was murder. 3. He was not killed in his stateroom, where the body was found. 4. He was killed somewhere else, and the body carried into his stateroom. 5. The murder was done by more than one, because the effort to cover up was so complex it could not have been done by one person. All this happened eleven years ago, in 1995. Nothing has been done about it, to this day. So the schoolmates of Phillip are asking the Ateneo to give him the Lux in Domino award, as a starting point. And there is a movement to bring those who killed him to trial. But the important thing is not recognition! It is the reality! Phillip Pesta�o was really a martyr. You are a martyr if you die for the faith, or for a Christian virtue. He died for justice. The fact is there - heroism. Whether it is recognized or not, it is still a beautiful thing, an inspiration to every Filipino. The courage of the Filipino is amazing. And it is very seldom recognized. My first realization of this came long ago, when I was living for about six weeks on the Island of Culion , with Father Vilallonga. He was then 94 years old. He was standing on the roof of the old Ateneo in Intramuros, watching, when Jose Rizal was marched from Fort Santiago to the Luneta, to be executed. Father Vilallonga said: "I had a bright boy in my class. But he never graduated. He dropped out of school to join the revolution". That was Gregorio del Pilar, the best friend of General Aguinaldo. They really won that revolutionary war against Spain , but before anyone could say: "And the winner is. . . . ." the Americans came in and took over the revolution. The war continued against the Americans. Aguinaldo lost 150 men in a battle at Malolos. He was withdrawing north, with the remnants of his shattered army. When he reached a narrow mountain pass in Nueva Vizcaya he said to Gregorio del Pilar, who was 24 years old: "Take sixty men and hold this pass for as long as you can." Del Pilar said: "Yes, sir". He took sixty men, built two trenches, and held up the whole American Army for a full day. All sixty men went down. Del Pilar was the last to fall. You will not find greater heroism than this anywhere in history. Not only Gregorio del Pilar, the schoolboy, but the sixty men who died with him, whose names we do not know. Even if they never got an award, they did it! They were a "Light in the Lord" for the American Battalion that marched past their dead bodies. Major March, the Commander of the American Advance Guard, stood over del Pilar's body and said: "Bury him here with full military honors. And put a cross over his grave, with this inscription: General Gregorio del Pilar, Killed at the Battle of Tirad Pass, December 3, 1899. An Officer and a Gentleman." Aguinaldo knew. The Philippine Army knew. Their mothers and fathers, sisters, brothers, wives and children knew. And God knew. . . . .That's enough. That same heroism, unrecognized, I saw in one of my students in 1941 - Ramon Cabrera. He went to Bataan out of second year college, a schoolboy, exactly like Gregorio del Pilar. He fought there for three months, without enough food, without enough ammunition, but with more than enough courage. He was in the Death March. He survived the prison camp at Capas, where they were burying the boys fifty a day. When he was released, he went into the underground. The Japanese picked him up, and brought him to Fort Santiago . They wanted him to give the names of his friends who were in the underground with him. He said: "I don't know any names." To make him talk, they beat him in the mouth with a gun butt. They broke out all his teeth, smashed the jaw, the nose. But still he would not talk. They brought him to the cemetery and gave him a shovel, saying: "Dig your own grave!" Cabrera said: "Dig it yourself!" So they bayoneted him. He dropped to his knees, looked up at the guard, and smiled. . . . .Greater love than this no man hath, that he lay down his life for his friends. So far as I know, Cabrera never received any award. But he was a "Light in the Lord" for the Japanese who killed him. He must have made an impact on their lives. His friends in the underground. . . . they knew. His wife, his baby who was born after he was dead, his grandchildren. . . . . they know. And God knows. That's enough. And so it is with Phillip Pesta�o. Even if he never receives any recognition, he is a "Light in the Lord". The men who killed him. . . . .they know. And they can never be the same again. His family knows. His classmates know. . . . .And God knows. Even if his death is recorded in the Navy records as "Suicide" . . . . . the truth is written in the heart of God, for all eternity. The important thing is not recognition. . . . . . .It is reality! We know that this country is filled with men like Gregoio del Pilar, like Ramon Cabrera, and like Phillip Pesta�o. . . . . .That is why we still have hope, no matter how bad things get. The strength of this nation lies in the quiet thoughts our people think, when they are alone. It lies in the quiet things our people do. . . . which nobody knows. . . . except God. ***** OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |