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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Is FPJ an Extra-Terrestrial? By Antonio C. Abaya January 21, 2004 By the time this piece sees print or flies off into cyberspace, the debate on whether or not FPJ is a natural-born Filipino, and therefore is or is not qualified to run for president, will either have been settled by the Comelec, or will have acquired the dimensions of a constitutional crisis and will have been elevated to the Supreme Court for it to issue a landmark ruling on. As of this writing, this much we know. FPJ or Ronald Allan Poe was born of a Spanish father, Fernando Poe Sr., and an American mother, Bessie Kelley. That all Spanish citizens and Spanish subjects born in the Philippines after 1898 were legally considered Filipinos, by virtue of the Treaty of Paris in which Spain ceded these islands to the US, except those who specifically chose to remain Spanish, automatically made the elder Poe Filipino, unless he chose to remain Spanish, which he did not. Or did he? A portion of a supposed marriage contract between the elder Poe and one Paulita Gomez (on July 5, 1936), reproduced in those full-page ads that appeared in many broadsheets plus some tabloids on January 20, 2004, put Poe�s nationality as �Espanol.� If the elder Poe had chosen to remain Spanish, then his son FPJ was/is Spanish and at most could have been only a naturalized Filipino, hence disqualified from running for president. Someone in the Poe camp has circulated a photocopy of a birth certificate � also reproduced in those full-age ads � that purports to show that Ronald Allan Poe (FPJ) was born on August 20, 1939 at St. Luke�s Hospital of a Filipino father (Allan F. Poe) and an American mother (Bessie Kelley). That would make FPJ a natural-born Filipino and hence qualified to run for president. But this birth certificate has been denounced in those full-page ads as a fake because, among other things, it listed the infant Ronald as a legitimate child when he was allegedly illegitimate, given the elder Poe�s earlier marriage to Paulita Gomez. Furthermore, said the full-page ads, the data on the birth certificate had been typed in with an electric typewriter, which had not yet been invented in 1939. Furthermore, the law supposedly states that in an illegitimate union, all children follow the citizenship of the mother. If this union was legitimate, then why are Poe�s siblings all American citizens? Did they become Americans solely on the citizenship of their mother? If so, why is FPJ any different? Or is he? No one has focused on this angle. On the other hand, the pro-Poe camp insists there was no earlier marriage with Paulita Gomez and their partisans have challenged the antis to produce the original marriage document. This has become a quintessentially Filipino controversy: who was faking which documents to prove or disprove that someone was a bastard? From where I sit, after listening to the senators grill National Archives Director Ricardo Manapat and some of his own (hostile, to him) subalterns, and given the enormous expense involved in buying those full-page ads in several broadsheets and tabloids, I tend to believe that this was a production of the Sulo Hotel Operations Group, Second Edition, which will now backfire against its intended beneficiary, President Arroyo. Rather than bust our guts trying to wade through a minefield of fake documents to determine if FPJ is or is not a natural-born Filipino, I would instead ask: is FPJ an extra-terrestrial being who has taken on a human form, for reasons only ETs know? (I used to be, during my teenage years, a science fiction aficionado and I still have my collection of Weird Science and Weird Fantasy comic books from the 1950s, with stories written by the formidable Albert Feldstein and the more celebrated Ray Bradbury, and published by EC Publications, which also published the original 10-cent MAD comic book, later magazine. In the 1980s, my precious EC Collection, which includes the first 100 issues of MAD, a real rarity, had an estimated value of $12,500 in the US comic book collectors market.) One of the recurrent themes of sci-fi in those days was the unannounced presence on Planet Earth of alien beings from other galaxies who assume human forms, for benign or evil reasons, and gain control of the minds of earthlings without the earthlings even realizing that they have been mentally captured. I mention this because I am flabbergasted that anywhere from 36% to 45% of voters in presidential surveys that I have seen or read about will vote for FPJ if the elections were held tomorrow, without even knowing what FPJ plans to do - and FPJ himself, if he is not an ET, doesn�t have a clue as to what he would do either - if he becomes president. Such blind and total faith in the healing and salvific powers of a mythic icon borders on religious hysteria�.. or on intergalactic psycho-manipulation. I doubt if even Jesus of Nazareth had 36 to 45% of the Jewish public on his side when the Romans nailed him to the cross. This is more than amazing. It is downright eerie. Weird Fantasy, no less. Those nationalists and communists who see in the rise of FPJ the revolt of the masses that they have been ominously predicting for decades are in for a disappointment. There is and will be no such revolt. But there could be a benign and bloodless social revolution. FPJ, phone home! Ask for a jumbo space ship to abduct all the trapos and deposit them permanently on Mars before the Americans get there. Let NASA have a close encounter of the turd kind. ***** The bulk of this article appears in the January 31, 2004 issue of the Philippines Free Press magazine. Other articles may be viewed in the website www.tapatt.org. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �Is FPJ an Extra-Terrestrial?� Ricardo Manapat, National Archives director, wrote the book "Some are Smarter than Others." The employees of the National Archives, who are all apparently chaffing under Mr. Manapat's strict management style, would like to change the title of this book to "Some are Dumber than Others"! Would Mr. Manapat be so dumb as to ask his untoward subordinates to fake documents under the custody of the National Archives? The accusation of the 3 National Archives employees before the Senate committee is so absurd that it has the effect of establishing, in my opinion, the truth of Mr. Manapat's own testimony! Yours truly, James Litton, [email protected] 312 Shaw Boulevard Mandaluyong City January 22, 2004 ����������������.. i love this. funny yet weighty Eros Kaw, [email protected] January 22, 2004 �������������� After trying to digest your article, it actually gave me an indigestion as to the weirdness of all this hullabaloo or horse manure nonsense about someone's Filipino citizenship or being natural-born to qualify for the office of presidency. Millions of our countrymen are in an exodus to move to other countries to improve their chances in life or to better utilize their skills as professionals, be they medical doctors, nurses, accountants or other professions. Are there the same number of multitudes emigrating to the Philippines to seek Philippine citizenship and gain the employment advantages or becoming at least an elected official a notch below the chief of state? If someone like FPJ ( I am aware of these initials being Fernando Poe, Jr., although when you meet him which I did, he will greet you immediately by saying "Ronnie ako"), would like to run for the presidency and if he can really be a saviour to the country, let him do so. Others have been presidents, from Marcos to now the incumbent GMA, and our country is still wallowing in the mud and left behind by our neighboring Asian countries, like Malaysia, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, China and others. This is the golden opportunity of the Comelec or the Supreme Court to show the people that they are independent by making a decision declaring FPJ eligible and qualified to run for the presidency. The WORLD is watching and for a brief moment in history, we can demonstrate to everyone that the Filipinos are made of the same guts and heart as our national heroes. We have to realize that FPJ is as qualified to run for any office as any Filipino. He was born in the Philippines, worked all his life in the country, hired employees and paid them justly, lived, owned properties in the Philippines and paid taxes in his native land. How insensible can our officials be to try to disqualify him? Is it because he is leading in the polls? So many issues face our country every day. In the past few months, very little attention has been given to the economy, the spiraling peso exchange to the dollar, unemployment, crime, kidnapping and the Muslim situation. If the officials in the high offices ever would have given attention to these issues and the people could see the improvements, they will be staying in office for a hundred years. As the adviser to then candidate Bill Clinton once said, "it is the ECONOMY, stupid". Jay Bart, [email protected] January 22, 2004 MY REPLY. Agreed, �It�s the Economy, Stupid.� But what gives you the confidence that FPJ can mend the economy, given that he has not only no experience in matters economic, he also has not uttered a single word on how he is going to do it, and willfully avoids every opportunity to speak on it. Good intentions and popularity are not enough. You mention that the Philippines �is still wallowing in the mud and left behind by our neighboring Asian countries, like Malaysia, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, China and others.� But these countries were modernized by leaders who spoke openly, fully, eloquently and competently on their economic as well as other programs of governance: Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Lee Kwan Yew, Chaing Ching-kuo, Deng Xiao-ping and Jiang Zemin, and others. Do you really believe that FPJ belongs in the same category as these giants even though he is functionally and by choice a mute? �����������������. Dear Mr Abaya, Relative to the topic of your article "Is FPJ an ET?", the following questions bug me. 1. FPJ is obviously the party to benefit if that fake certificate presented by his camp were overlooked as genuine. Yet why were the trapos focusing only on Manapat as the mastermind and does not include the three employees of the National Archives who may be stooges themselves of the opposition? Is that not a neat scheme? Produce a fake birth certificate which if overlooked will benefit FPJ and if discovered point to somebody in the administration as the mastermind? Will somebody from the pro-administration block in the Senate be transparent enough to answer this question 2. The Senate is supposed to be composed of pro-administration and opposition senators. And yet the only investigations that are being investigated are those issues that further the opposition. Where are those pro-administration senators? Is this a case of solo dancing the tango? Have the pro-administration senators composed themselves into a committee of silence? 3. The Senate initiated many investigations in aid of legislation. Yet I could not recall one bill that came out as a result of one investigation in aid of legislation. Will somebody help me with this dilemma and give me consolation that my tax money used to pay for those investigation ever produce anything of value. Jorge Matanguihan, [email protected] January 23, 2004 MY REPLY. No pro-administration senator, especially the re-electionists, will stick their necks out against the three National Archives employees who testified against Manapat for fear of a populist backlash against them, no matter what the merits or demerits of the disqualification bid may be. A key element in this controversy is the identity of the person who called them up and reserved the advertising space in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Philippine Star for a full-page ad (on Monday) supposedly for the government�s rice program. What came out (on Tuesday) instead was the ad questioning the citizenship of Poe. Media has said that person was a member of President Arroyo�s campaign team, but declined to name him or her. Malacanang has admitted that someone from GMA�s team did make that reservation, but did not identify him or her, and did not explain why the rice ad did not appear. People can draw their own conclusions. My own conclusion, stated in the above article, is that the whole scheme was a production of the Sulo Hotel Operations Group, Second Edition. As for the Senate and its innumerable investigations �in aid of legislation�, I am sure there have been instances where those investigations have produced something of value. But don�t ask me to name them. I have always batted for the abolition of the Senate and the adoption of a unicameral legislature. ��������������������� One important thing that appears to have been overlooked is the fact that FPJ was born in August 1939 while his father married his mother, Bessie Kelly, a year later in 1940. Doesn't that make FPJ an illegitimate at the time of his birth since he was born out of wedlock? And since he is an illegitimate then he takes the citizenship of his mother an American citizen. This could not have made him acquire a perfect citizenship to qualify for presidential election. At best, he is a naturalized Filipino. Cesar M. de los Reyes, [email protected] January 23, 2004 MY REPLY. A lawyer has explained to me that an illegitimate child is automatically �legitimated� if and when his parents marry, which seems to be the case with FPJ. Let�s see how the Comelec en banc and the Supreme Court will rule on this. ��������������. Dear Mr Abaya Thank you for talking to me about American cultural imperialism recently. I attach a copy of my article, which was published on Jan 15 and syndicated to news organisations around the world. best regards Mark Rice-Oxley, [email protected] London correspondent Christian Science Monitor January 22, 2004 By Mark Rice-Oxley | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor LONDON � Down in the mall, between the fast-food joint and the bagel shop, a group of young people huddles in a flurry of baggy combat pants, skateboards, and slang. They size up a woman teetering past wearing DKNY, carrying Time magazine in one hand and a latte in the other. She brushes past a guy in a Yankees' baseball cap who is talking on his Motorola cellphone about the Martin Scorsese film he saw last night. It's a standard American scene - only this isn't America, it's Britain. US culture is so pervasive, the scene could be played out in any one of dozens of cities. Budapest or Berlin, if not Bogota or Bordeaux. Even Manila or Moscow. As the unrivaled global superpower, America exports its culture on an unprecedented scale. From music to media, film to fast food, language to literature and sport, the American idea is spreading inexorably, not unlike the influence of empires that preceded it. The difference is that today's technology flings culture to every corner of the globe with blinding speed. If it took two millenniums for Plato's "Republic" to reach North America, the latest hit from Justin Timberlake can be found in Greek (and Japanese) stores within days. Sometimes, US ideals get transmitted - such as individual rights, freedom of speech, and respect for women - and local cultures are enriched. At other times, materialism or worse becomes the message and local traditions get crushed. "The US has become the most powerful, significant world force in terms of cultural imperialism [and] expansion," says Ian Ralston, American studies director at Liverpool John Moores University. "The areas that particularly spring to mind are Hollywood, popular music, and even literature." But what some call "McDomination" has created a backlash in certain cultures. And it's not clear whether fast food, Disney, or rock 'n' roll will change the world the way Homer or Shakespeare has. Cricket or basketball? Stick a pin in a map and there you'll find an example of US influence. Hollywood rules the global movie market, with up to 90 percent of audiences in some European countries. Even in Africa, 2 of 3 films shown are American. Few countries have yet to be touched by McDonald's and Coca-Cola. Starbucks recently opened up a new front in South America, and everyone's got a Hard Rock Caf� T-shirt from somewhere exotic. West Indian sports enthusiasts increasingly watch basketball, not cricket. Baseball has long since taken root in Asia and Cuba. And Chinese young people are becoming more captivated by American football and basketball, some even daubing the names of NBA stars on their school sweatsuits. The NFL plans to roll out a Chinese version of its website this month. Rupert Murdoch's satellites, with their heavy traffic of US audiovisual content, saturate the Asian subcontinent. American English is the language of choice for would-be pop stars in Europe, software programmers in India, and Internet surfers everywhere. America's preeminence is hardly surprising. Superpowers have throughout the ages sought to perpetuate their way of life: from the philosophy and mythology of the ancient Greeks to the law and language of the Romans; from the art and architecture of the Tang Dynasty and Renaissance Italy to the sports and systems of government of the British. "Most empires think their own point of view is the only correct point of view," says Robert Young, an expert in postcolonial cultural theory at Oxford University. "It's the certainty they get because of the power they have, and they expect to impose it on everyone else." Detractors of cultural imperialism argue, however, that cultural domination poses a totalitarian threat to diversity. In the American case, "McDomination" poses several dangers. First, local industries are truly at risk of extinction because of US oligopolies, such as Hollywood. For instance in 2000, the European Union handed out 1 billion euros to subsidize Europe's film industry. Even the relatively successful British movie industry has no control over distribution, which is almost entirely in the hands of the Hollywood majors. Second, political cultures are being transformed by the personality-driven American model in countries as far-reaching as Japan and the Philippines. Finally, US domination of technologies such as the Internet and satellite TV means that, increasingly, America monopolizes the view people get of the world. According to a recent report for the UN Conference on Trade and Development, 13 of the top 14 Internet firms are American. No. 14 is British. "You have to know English if you want to use the Internet," says Andre Kaspi, a professor at the Sorbonne in Paris. A main problem is that culture is no longer a protected species, but subject to the inexorable drive for free trade, says Joost Smiers, a political science professor at the Utrecht School of the Arts. This means that it is increasingly difficult for countries to protect their own industries. France tries to do so with subsidies, while South Korea has tried quotas. Such "protectionist" tactics meet with considerable US muscle, Dr. Smiers says. "America's aggressive cultural policy ... hinders national states from regulating their own cultural markets," he says. "We should take culture out of the WTO." Another danger, detractors say, is the consolidation of the communications industry into a few conglomerates such as AOL-TimeWarner, Disney, and News Corporation, which means that the "infotainment" generated for global consumption nearly always comes from an Anglophone perspective. "You can't go on with just three music companies organizing and distributing 85 percent of the music in the world," says Smiers. "It's against all principles of democracy. Every emotion, every feeling, every image can be copyrighted into the hands of a few owners. "American, with a twist." A backlash is being felt in certain places. In Japan, locals have taken US ideas like hip-hop and fast food, and given them a Japanese twist, says Dominic al-Badri, editor of Kansai Time Out. In Germany, there is still strong resistance to aspects of US pop culture, though there is an appetite for its intellectual culture, says Gary Smith, director of the American Academy in Berlin. In France, resistance is growing partly because of frustrations over the Iraq war - but partly because Americanization is already so advanced in the country, says Mr. Kaspi. He notes one interesting anecdotal sign of US influence - and the futility of resistance. France has repeatedly tried to mandate the use of French language in official capacities to check the advance of English. "But most of the time, the law is impossible to apply, because if you want to be understood around the world you have to speak English," Kaspi says. In the Philippines, even the best US ideals have caused complications. "The pervasive American influence has saddled us with two legacies," notes respected local commentator Antonio C. Abaya. "American-style elections, which require the commitment of massive financial resources, which have to be recouped and rolled over many times, which is the main source of corruption in government; and American-style free press in which media feel free to attack and criticize everything that the government does or says, which adds to disunity and loss of confidence in government." Meanwhile, for all the strength of the US movie industry, sometimes a foreign film resonates more with a local audience than a Hollywood production - and outperforms it. For instance, Japan's "Spirited Away" (2001) remains the top-grossing film in that country, surpassing global Hollywood hits like "Titanic." In addition, British TV has influenced and served up competition to US shows, spawning such hits as "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", "The Weakest Link," and "American Idol." 1,000 years from now. So how much good does American culture bring to the world? And how long will it last? Ian Ralston cautions against sweeping dismissals of US pop culture. British television may be saturated with American sitcoms and movies, but while some are poor, others are quite good, he says. "British culture has always been enriched by foreign influences. In some ways American culture and media have added to that enrichment." Others note that it is not all one-way traffic. America may feast largely on a diet of homegrown culture, but it imports modestly as well: soccer, international cuisine, Italian fashion, and, increasingly, British television. As to the question of durability, some experts believe US domination of communication channels makes it inevitable that its messages will become far more entrenched than those of previous empires. "The main difference now in favor of American culture is the importance of technology - telephone, Internet, films, all that did not exist in ancient Greece or the Mongol empire," Kaspi says. "American influence is growing, it's so easy to get access to US culture; there are no barriers. "Disney is known worldwide now," he adds. "Plato is more and more unknown, even in Greece." But not everyone thinks American culture will stand the test of time. "It remains to be see whether the Monkees and Bee Gees are as durable as Plato," says Professor Young, with a dab of irony. "Let's have another look in 4,000 years' time." Mark Rice-Oxley 14 Heatherdale Close Kingston-upon-Thames KT2 7SU 0208 9749765 07786225794 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |