Duterte-phobic Notes of the Week

1. ONE basic thing you need to know about history deniers (historical negationists), fact deniers, fake news writers, and their ilk. They will name anything and anyone as a case to study and confront it/them so to avoid focus on themselves. Don't fall into this trap. They are the cases that you need to examine and confront! The focus ought not to be on anything or anyone other than them! They are the basic issue! Expose everything there is to know about them!!

2. Degrees of Corruption
    True, if you're a media or religious institution or persona fixing every now and then the function of your privilege in order to serve the interests of holding companies or specific corporations or of political factions, you deserve to be called corrupt by the President of the State.
    Then again, if you're a President of the State who has devoted himself to the facilitation of another state's natural resource and market interests in his state, you are not just displaying corruption of the third or second degree, but absolute treason, one being committed by no less than You as the leader of the government of this State. That is corruption of the supreme or highest universal degree.

3. Planning a Novel
    What if I explore this premise for a novel's plot?---
    The 21st century. China would only have to look at its history where, once upon a time, there was this British-instigated Opium War against it designed by Britain to get its silk, porcelain, and tea. In that looking back would be born enough inspiration for a now-rich China to plan a 21st-century fear-farming War on Drugs false flag on a neighboring state. They will have to do this through---or care of---a potential puppet in that state that they can sponsor and install as that state's new leader. Once installed, that leader can farm all the fear he wants through that new "Opium War", through which fear-farming war the leader can facilitate China's slow and smooth entry into the leader's state, not just to get this neighboring state's silk, porcelain and tea but resources more precious and ready for a hefty harvest. Does that sound like a good plot for a fiction novel to you? Or would I be plagiarizing life for a historical one?

4. In the Era of Simplified Psychometrics
    Garth Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell have provided a concise, workable definition of the term "propaganda," viz., "Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist."
    Following that definition, it should be easy for us to see why government would be busying itself presently with the labeling of everyone in the divided opposition as "bobos" (stupid people), most especially the Vice-President, Leni Robredo, in recent days.
    Is the intent of this propaganda move to shape the manipulable public's perception that it is the critics of this government's policies who are bobo, in order to hide its own series of boo-boos?
    Is it to manipulate cognitions that everything that it is doing is the smart thing, if not the only smart thing, which process of manipulation may involve the hyping up of the truly smart it's done and hiding beneath the quilts all the stupid moves it had committed?
    Is it to direct behavior towards a derogation of critics and the celebration of this government's supposed revolutions?
    I think we're all intelligent enough to know when propaganda is twisting us or sucking us in. Or are we?
    And if we are, or suspect we are, being sucked into it, how do we fight it? Do we fight by throwing the same techniques it is using? Or do we fight it by exposing its lies? By exposing all the truths behind its lying?
    Do we expose the whole anatomy of processes in its propaganda that aims to "achieve a response that (will further) the desired intent of the propagandist"?
    What are those desires?
    Are we as a nation intelligent enough to in turn desire answers to these questions? Or are we truly bobos enough to desire nothing, simply wallowing in never-ending trust?

5. THE argument that says Duterte's spitting on due process ought to be thanked because the drug pusher and his addicts that used to be the kings in one's neighborhood are now all gone . . .
    is no different from the argument that says Hitler's regime should be thanked because it furthered the popularity of Wagner.
    Or don't you see the similarity? If you don't, well, . . . perhaps you never will.
    Perhaps you never will see that that legitimization of Hitler by one's deep love of Wagner is the same sort of legitimization that you are placing on Duterte's aggressive wariness towards all his critics, in this republic and outside, a legitimization motored by your understandable love of peace in one particular anecdotal neighborhood.

6. UNTIL that day comes when good people in a land start invoking violent resistance in order to protect rights, violent evil will continue to prosper in that land and in other lands. That is not inciting rebellion. That is a mere articulation of a historical truism operative among frightened peoples in repressive, suspect regimes.

7. ARE we afraid? My friends: government is excited about, and not wary of, creating a fearful people, for the fear-farming reasons we articulated above.
    But it, government, seems to be ignorant of the fact that courage is actually 100% fear. Let us rejoice, then. For as government makes progress in creating more frightened people, its hold on the people is not strengthened, it is lessened. Fear pa more! [S / -I]

Paano Mamuhay sa Glorious Century ng mga Mesdames, Eraps, at Erams

photo from http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections-2013/29417-gloria-arroyo-proclaimed-winner-in-pampanga

NAGTATAKA ka pa kung bakit malaya si Imelda na ngayo'y Kongresista pa, si Erap na ngayo'y meyor na uli, at---ilang oras mula ngayon---si Gloria na maaari nang ibalik sa Konggreso, ayon sa kaniyang mga in-appoint na maging mga "hustisya" ng Korte Suprema? Di ka masanay.
     Alam naman nating sa Pilipinas, walang kapamilya ng isa sa mga pamilya sa tuktok ng ating plutokrasiya at oligarkiya ang nakukulong ng matagal, dahil parating ang kanilang pagkakulong ay bahagi lamang ng drama, ng isang serye ng moro-moro plays, sa gitna ng tunggalian ng mga magkakalabang pamilya rito.
     Drama, o moro-moro play, dahil kahit man may tunggaliang pulitikal, tunggalian sa lupa o sa negosyo, o anumang away sa gitna ng mga pamilyang ito, bahagi pa rin ang bawat isa sa kanila ng magkakakabit na relasyon ng kanilang mga angkan na may mga sariling iginuhit na linyang di dapat nilalalagpasan ng anumang aksyon ng isang Bahay. Kumbaga, sa bandang huli, pare-pareho lang naman ang kanilang mga ipinaglalaban---ang kanilang mga sariling yaman.
     Batas? Ang batas sa mga pamilyang ito ay isa lamang laruan, at minsan ay isang punyal na maari lamang ipukol ng tuluyan sa mga di-nila-kauring lapastangan sa kanilang royalidad.

PERO, siyempre, pagkalabas nila sa kanilang drama-entabladong kulungan, iboboto natin sila uli. Dahil alam mo naman, ang star system sa ating representative democracy ay isang sistemang walang pinagkaiba sa noong malayang pinapipili ang tao kung sino ang gusto nilang magdala sa kanila sa kalayaan: si Prinsipe X o si Prinsesa Y. [S / -I]

Mas mabenta sa mga network ang bakbakan at iyakan sa Sabah kaysa ang mapayapang usapan sa geopolitics (o, Ang tunay na kuwento sa likod ng Sabah invasion)

photo from blauearth.com

AWAY SA TOPIC

JANUARY 9, 2013. Naroon kaming tatlo, ako, ang kaibigan kong pintor at ang kaniyang asawa, sa Ma Mon Luk Quezon Avenue kasama ang ilang mukhang pulitiko sa ibang mga mesa na dumating lulan ng mga Pajero nila na may kasama pang mga police escorts.

      Kung maririnig mo ang usapan namin, parang see-saw: ang kaibigan ko'y gustong mag-focus sa mga simbolo ng pop culture habang ako ay nakatuon, at least sa araw na iyon, sa mundo ng geopolitics. At lahat ng ito ay sa harap ng mainit pang siopao bago dumating ang aming wonton soup.

      Geopolitics. Don't we just love this topic? Isn't this the alphabet we'd like to see in our soup? By we, of course, I can't include Philippine television.

      Unti-unti, nadala ko rin ang kaibigan ko sa topic na mas gusto ko noong araw na iyon, at napunta na nga ang usapan namin sa pagtulong ni Mr. Ma sa mga Hapon noong panahon ng giyera, mga Hapong gustong magpalaki ng teritoryo para makakuha ng yamang maiuuwi nila sa kanilang Emperador at mga isla. Painful memory, but almost forgotten. Sa isang mesa naman, pinag-uusapan ang isang tumatakbo sa pagka-senador na si Mitos Magsaysay, na sabi'y dismayado at di natuloy ang ZTE deal ni Gloria Arroyo with China (see ZTE scandal). Pero bagamat politics na may geopolitcs pa rin ang usapan from table to table, walang cinematic theme sa Ma Mon Luk, walang barilan kahit me mga talk of wars of the past. Dito, everything's pure, boring Discovery Travel and Living television around a hot siopao while waiting for one's wonton soup.

AWAY SA LUPA

FAST-FORWARD sa February 9.

      Around 200 kataong pinamunuan ng kapatid ni Jamalul Kiram III na si Agbimuddin Kiram ang nag-land “illegally” sa Lahad Datu, isang town-district sa “Malaysian state” ng Sabah. Supposedly iyon ay isang irredentist siege na nag-a-assert ng claim ng Sulu Sultanate sa state ng Sabah. Ang mga taong yaon ni Kiram, na ang karamiha’y heavily armed, engaged in a standoff with Malaysian police, telling reporters Malaysia is "only renting" Sabah from the heirs of the Sultanate and should be the one to leave.

      Ang pangulo ng Pilipinas, si Benigno Aquino III, ay nagpadala ng mensahe kay Kiram na mag-stand down at i-settle ang kanilang claim sa pamamagitan ng isang peaceful process. Tinukoy niya ang kabuhayan ng mahigit 800,000 na Filipino (documented at hindi) sa Sabah na madidiskarel ng isang bayolenteng konprontasyon with the Malaysian forces. Inusig ni Aquino si Kiram sa kanyang ginawa at sinabihang pabalikin na niya ang kanyang mga tagasunod at pag-usapan na lang ang lahat, habang sinabi rin niyang nararapat arestuhin si Kiram sa kanyang ginawa, dahil siya’y nakikipag-giyera sa ngalan ng Pilipinas, na isang krimen ayon sa Konstitusyon. May mga nagalit sa media at sa oposisyon sa tough talk ng Presidente.

      Si Kiram naman, for his part, ang nagsabing siya’y naubusan na ng pasensya sa gobyerno ni Aquino (at ng mga nakalipas na gobyerno), at ito'y matapos ang isang diumano’y sulat niya sa Palasyo ay ayon sa kanya'y hindi binigyan-pansin ng kasalukuyang Pangulo. Malacañang searched, or pretended to search, for the letter. Sa kasagsagan ng standoff, nagpatawag ang Palasyo ng isang press briefing upang ianunsyo na ang nasabing sulat ay nakita, kung kaya’t makabubuti na sa lahat kung magpunta na si Kiram sa Maynila para mapag-usapan ang kanyang claim. Ngunit, dagdag pa ng announcement, di ito nangangahulugan na abswelto na si Kiram sa ginawa niyang paglabag sa batas ng Pilipinas.

      Nang tangkain nang arestuhin ng Malaysian forces ang grupo ni Kiram, nagkaroon ng palitan ng putok. Nabalita agad na may mga nasawi, kasama ang ilang sibilyan. Nagkaroon ng isang exodus ng mga manggagawang Pilipino (karamihan Tausug) by outrigger boats and small launches. Bagamat binalita ng Philippine media ang pagkasawi ng ilang Malaysian police, majority ng reports ay tungkol sa mga nangyayari sa partido ni Kiram at sa mga displaced Filipino workers, understandably.

      Ngunit tila sinisi ng media at ng social networking public opinion ang tough talk ng Aquino administration sa mga mensahe nito sa partido ni Kiram na tila raw siyang nag-udyok sa partido ni Kiram na ituloy ang “invasion” at naging sanhi na nga ng pagsiklab ng putukan. May tila pagkiling daw ang gobyerno natin sa mga reactionary forces at interes ng Malaysia. Yun ang sinasabi ng pamilya Kiram at tila yun din ang slant ng maraming reporting ng media at propaganda/amateur “reporting” sa Facebook. Gumamit ng hindsight bias ang mga opinyon ng kritiko ng gobyerno para ipagduldulan ke Aquino ang hard tone na ginamit niya para takutin si Kiram, na ayon sa kanila’y isang tonong tila di umobra. Hi-nype-up ng mga opinyong ito ang isang “amateurish handling” daw ng gobyerno sa ongoing crisis, at tinawag pa nga ang later “disengagement” call ni Secretary of Interior and Local Government Mar Roxas na mabagal ang pagdating sa huling minuto.

      Sa kasagsagan ng conflict, umapela rin si DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman sa media na huwag tawaging “refugees” ang mga Pilipinong pabalik ng Mindanao galing Sabah. “Can I also request the media not to call them refugees because they are not,” she reportedly said. “They’re returning citizens. They are not refugees. Kasi iba ‘yung refugee. It’s as if you’re fleeing your country and you don’t have a country; they do. They are Filipino citizens, working in Sabah [who are] unfortunately not documented.”

      Tila nag-backfire ang statement na ito ni Soliman, what with media’s focus on the horrors of the ongoing armed conflict. Soliman ought to have been aware of the fact that media’s micro-journalism was painting a patriot out of Kiram’s person and a Malaysian collaborator out of Noynoy Aquino’s.

photo from gmanetwork.com

AWAY SA DEPINISYON

OKEY. GUSTO kong dito simulan ang sanaysay ko tungkol sa isyu. Let us examine Soliman’s statement.

      “Kasi iba ‘yung refugee. It’s as if you’re fleeing your country and you don’t have a country; they do. They are Filipino citizens, working in Sabah [who are] unfortunately not documented.”

      Technically, mukhang wala namang mali. Dahil kung may paghahanap man ng refuge na nangyari, tila ito’y nangyari noon pa, noong lumikas ang mga workers na ito sa Mindanao patungong Sabah bilang mga economic refugees mula sa bansa nilang walang maibigay sa kanilang trabaho o kabuhayan.

      Technically also, di natin puwedeng masabing bansa nila ang Sabah, unless they count themselves as subjects of the Kiram monarchy, and many of them do not. Kahit ang isang Pilipinong nagkaroon ng titulo ng lupa roon would have a readily existing technical dispute between himself and the Kiram royal family.

      Technically, ang Sabah ay bansa in transit. On paper, it may be said to belong to the Philippines, ngunit wala pang may may-ari, dahil puwede mo ring sabihing technically ay maaaring di i-honor ng Kiram family ngayon ang 1962 ceding of Sabah to the Philippines ng previous Raja Muda na si Muhammad Esmail Kiram I. Puwede mo ring sabihing hindi rin atin ang Sabah kung wala tayong kakayahang i-enforce ang ating claim by force, which force would technically strengthen the claim. Technically, therefore, wala pang may may-ari dahil in transit, pinag-aagawan ang sovereignty, by both paper claims or claims by force (or disguised force).

      So, umaksyon na nga si Kiram III para sa kanyang sovereignty claim, na meron nang force element, through his irredentist move. Sadly, though, ang action na ito ni Jamalul Kiram III demonstrating sovereignty also presumed a sub-sovereignty, parang provincial sovereignty claim under the Philippines' national sovereignty claim. Malungkot ito, sabi ko, dahil may kontradiksyon. Malungkot, dahil ang kontradiskyon na ito ay hindi makita ng mga kritiko ng gobyerno, kung kaya’t tila kulang ang sumusuporta sa posisyon ng sarili nating gobyerno.

      Kaya tutulungan kong magpaliwanag ang gobyerno rito kung ano itong kontradiksyon. Ganito ang takbo no’n: ikaw, Kiram III, habang sinasabi mong ang provincial sovereignty claim mo ay dapat tinutulungan ng national sovereignty claim, gumawa ka ng isang unilateral na aksyon na nagpapakita na wala kang pakialam sa national sovereignty claim. Kaya ka nga gumawa ng sarili mong action demonstrating your own sovereignty, e. In effect, habang sinasabi mong Pilipino kang dapat tinutulungan ng Pilipinas, ang action mo ay walang pakialam sa Pilipinas, di nakinig sa Pilipinas, di pinansin ang concerns ng batas ng Pilipinas, at di nag-isip sa puwedeng mangyari sa mga Pilipinong nasa Sabah. At, kung totoo ang lahat ng sinasabi mo sa propaganda mo tungkol sa kadakilaan ng aksyon mo, prinesume mo na tutulungan ka ng isang bansang ayaw mo na o di mo kinikilala. Ano ka ba kung ganon? Masasabi kong ikaw ang hindi naging Pilipino, ikaw ay naging Kiramian lamang. Pero, of course, hindi nakita ng mga kritiko ng gobyerno yung kontradiskyon na iyon, kaya suwerte mo (at suwerte ng mga propagandistang nasa likod mo).

      Ang action ni Jamalul Kiram III ay hindi para sa Pilipinas. Ang aksyon niya ay para sa kanyang pamilya lamang, o para sa isang faction ng pamilya Kiram lamang, dahil ang pamilyang Kiram ay isang pamilyang mayroon ding kani-kaniyang claim sa soberanya sa kanilang apelyido at pagka-heredero. In short, mga kababayan, kung meron tayong claim sa Sabah, tayo sa Pilipinas, ang kalaban natin sa claim ay dalawa: ang Malaysian claim at ang claim ng faction ni Jamalul Kiram III. Sa palagay ba natin ay ibibigay sa Pilipinas ng faction ni Kiram ang Sabah kung makuha na natin ito mula Malaysia? Di matatapos doon ang giyera. Tayo naman ang gigyerahin ng royal forces ng Sulu.

      Entonces, tama si Soliman. Refugees nga ang mga lumikas na Tausug noong nasa Sabah pa sila, dahil ang Sabah mismo ay lupa that doesn't have a country yet. Nung bumalik sila sa Pilipinas, napunta sila sa isang bansang kanila at siguradong sila lang ang nagmamay-ari.

photo from positivelyfilipino.com

AWAY PARA KANINO?

SUBALIT umiikot ang talakayan ngayon sa nakalipas, sa History ng Sabah, na tila may malakas na patunay na sa Pilipinas na nga ang Sabah. Ngunit, assuming na pakikinggan ito ng Malaysia, di ba iikot din ang tanong sa kung ano ang ibig sabihin natin ng “Pilipinas” na may karapatan sa Sabah? Ito ba’y ang buong Pilipinas bilang estado o ito ba’y Kiram family lamang (na kinikilala natin bilang mga Pilipino)? Kasi kung ang latter, ibig sabihin hindi natin ipinaglalaban ang karapatan ng Pilipinas sa lupa ng Sabah, ipinaglalaban natin ang karapatan ng isang pamilyang Pilipino upang makuha nila ang kanilang inangking lupa. Ito ay dapat klaro, sa dahilang kung tayo ay makikipag-giyera sa Malaysia, dapat alam natin na nakikipaggiyera tayo hindi sa ngalan ng Pilipinas kundi sa ngalan ng isang Pilipino-kunong pamilya. Ang lupang ipaglalaban natin gamit ang dugo ng ating mga anak ay upang maibalik sa pamilyang Kiram ang kanilang lupa. Tanong ko: ipadadala mo ba ang anak mo na gawin ang patriotic act na ito para sa isang inagaw na islang pagmamay-ari lamang ni Lucio Tan?

PUNO’T DULO NG AWAY

SO, OKEY. Technically Sabah is the Philippines', as per the former sultan’s ceding of Sabah to the Philippines in 1962. Pero this is all technicality looking at the past. Technicality looking at the future would shed light on the behavior of the country's leadership, at maaaring magbigay-sagot sa atin kung "bakit ganun ang behavior ng Malakanyang at tila pumapabor pa sa Malaysia."

      Eto. Bakit ba nag-apura na si Jamalul Kiram III at ang kanyang mga funders at gumawa na ng isang desperate na show of force para i-claim ang kanyang proprietary rights sa lupa ng Sabah (habang hinihimok ang gobyerno natin na tulungan siya kasama ang “ating” sovereignty claim)? Hindi ako naniniwalang nagpadala nga ng sulat sa Malakanyang si Kiram. Tumakbong senador ng Lakas-Kampi-CMD noong 2007 at nakabili ng million-pesos worth of weapons, pero di makalipad sa Maynila para makalapit sa ilang mga opisyales ng gobyerno? Simple lang ang rason. Ayaw talaga ni Kiram at ng kanyang mga funders ng peaceful talks na alam niyang (nilang) walang patutunguhan. (Ngayon na lamang sila nanghihingi ng talk with the president, matapos nilang makita na wala silang ipoprogreso sa standoff maliban sa pagkalipol ng kanilang angkan).

      Oo, iniisip nila noon, bago ang bakbakan, na walang patutunguhan ang peaceful talks. Kasi nga naman, in a matter of months na lang, come 2015, magsisimula na ang ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), isang magaganap na economic at political revolution sa Southeast Asian region that would recontextualize (and postmodernize) the Sabah dispute. Prime movers ng ASEAN Economic Community ang Philippines at Malaysia. Why do you think inapura rin ang Bangsamoro treaty? Why do you think Malaysia finally agreed in the Aquino period, after starting to entertain the idea in the Ramos period, to have nothing to do with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) [with Indonesia’s help] any longer? Gusto na ng ASEAN region na tapusin ang mga maliliit na territorial disputes sa rehiyon para imbis na papunta sa secessions ay magtrabaho na ang lahat para sa integration, kahit man may mga autonomous na regions sa loob nito. Naniniwala ang ASEAN governments na narito ang tunay na power para sa lahat ng ASEAN members, at sa mga corporations ng ASEAN member countries, laban sa superpowers at kanilang mga super-siopao intereses.

      Alam ng gobyerno natin na hindi padadala si Kiram sa mapayapang usapan dahil alam niya rin na getting obsolete na ang sultanate claim. At alam din marahil ni Aquino na walang saysay ang makipag-usap kay Kiram, kung kaya’t ang unang naging hakbang niya ay ang takutin si Kiram ng arrest, dangling the Philippine constitution, at para takutin ang sinumang iba pa na gustong sumunod sa movement ni Kiram.

      Habang nangyayari ang Sabah invasion ni Kiram, ano sa palagay niyo ang binabalita sa PTV-4, ang government channel? Ang pag-uusap ni Noynoy Aquino at ng Sultan of Brunei. Ang Brunei ang isa pa sa hinihimok na sumali totally sa integration, na may tila konting problema sa integration dahil sultanate din ang lupa ng Brunei. By the way, ang Malaysia ay mayroon ding mga sultanates, being a state with a constitutional monarchy. . . .

      Itong lahat ang macro-view at future view, hindi ito ang past view. Sa pananaw ng mga Pilipinong sumasang-ayon sa integration, ang malaking kalaban natin ay hindi ang Malaysia kundi ang economic at political bully na China! Makakaalis tayo sa pagka-inferior sa China (or, more properly, makakacompete tayo sa standing ng China) kung mag-iintegrate ang Malay race, economically at first at pag-isa ng aviation routes nito sa 2015. Who knows kung susunod na agad ang United States of Southeast Asia in a matter of a few years, towards a supranational union.

      Ito. Ito ang puno't dulo ng lahat ng kaguluhang ito. (With some sidebar stories, perhaps, about Lakas-Kampi-CMD interests to boot).

photo from nst.com

TINAPOS NA AWAY

MALAYSIA helped the MILF and MNLF movements precisely to protect its interests in Sabah. Tapos, bigla-bigla, ayaw na niya. Ito ang rason: may mas maganda nang interest na hindi lang para sa kanya, para sa lahat din. Hindi maaaring walang rason ang mga biglaang pagbago ng ihip ng hangin kung bakit ang magkaaway ay biglang magdedecide na huwag nang mag-away. Ito yun, ito ang rason. At iyon din ang rason kung bakit may free flow na ng workers to and from Malaysia na di na istrikto sa dokumentasyon. Sa mga susunod na dekada, hindi na foreign country ang Malaysia, parang ibang state/province na lang ng isang rehiyon na may iisang ASEAN passport.

photo from internationalist.org

DAHIL SA MGA KAAWAY?

Okay, so, now that it's out of the bottle, tanong ngayon: bakit tinago ito ng Malakanyang at hindi na lang sinagot ng diretso ang puno at dulo? Ito pa siguro ang pagkakamali. Sa takot na any loud masses-directed announcement regarding the AEC would mobilize pro-China Philippine leftists to sing anti-globalization songs, Malacañang contrived diverse rationales for its actions that looked "favorable to Malaysia." But that reason, the AEC reason, is the only reason that will pacify the nation. Well, understandably, of course, the pro-China Left sa buong rehiyon ay maaaring makalikom ng following ng madla para ibalik tayo sa middle ages ng division.

CONSPIRACY:
President Aquino issues warning to people who plotted the expedition of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III’s men to Sabah. MALACAÑANG PHOTO BUREAU

WALANG KAAWAY?

Noong di pa nagsisimula ang bakbakan, may pinakalat na feelers ang Malakanyang na may intelligence reports daw silang nakuha na may kinalaman ang dating administrasyon sa pagsalakay ng mga Kiram sa Sabah. Marami ang natawa rito. Ipatatawag daw ng Palasyo ang ilang tao noon ng administrasyong Arroyo, kasama na rito si former defense secretary Norberto Gonzales, ang parating pinaghihinalaang may pakana pag may ganitong mga pangyayari (Glorietta explosion during proceedings for Arroyo’s impeachment, LRT explosion during proceedings for Joseph Estrada’s impeachment, etc.) Sabi ng oposisyon at ng media, ano na naman daw stretch ng imagination ito ng Malakanyang? Bakit daw naghahanap ng kaaway na wala rito? Nasa Malaysia raw ang kaaway natin, at bakit daw di tulungan ng gobyerno ang ating kapwa Pilipino, ang mga Kiram?

     Pero kung intelligence reports, iaassume ba natin na walang katotohanang mayroon nga nito? Sa pagkakaalam ko, matagal na ang understanding ng Lakas people with CMD (Christian Muslim Democrats)/PDSP (Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas) people, kaya nga Lakas-Kampi-CMD alliance, which latter party includes Kiram (under Norberto Gonzales’ PDSP’s banner). Natatandaan mo ba noong pinag-uusapan pa lang ang ASEAN Economic Community na mula pa sa panahon ni Fidel Ramos? Tapos nagpatayo si Gloria Arroyo ng quasi-consular office sa Sabah noong panahon na niya? At di ito pinayagan ng Malaysia? Nung luminaw na ang usapang ASEAN Economic Community noong latter part of 2007, biglang sinabi ni Gloria Arroyo na di na interesado ang Pilipinas sa sovereignty claim nito sa Sabah. Marami ang umangal. Ano ang nasa likod nitong pagbabagong ito? Noong 2007, pinatakbo ng Lakas-Kampi-CMD si Kiram for senator. Bakit? Kung wala ka nang sovereignty claim na isinusulong, bakit kaalyado mo ang isang taong may patuloy na prorprietary claims sa Sabah? Ha? A, oo, may proprietary claim pa nga pala. Sinabi ba ni Gloria Arroyo na di na rin interesado ang Philippine government na suportahan ang proprietary claims na ito? Ibig sabihin, kung magkaka-ASEAN Economic Community, at ang Sabah ay magiging autonomous province ng ASEAN Economic Community, at rendered obsolete na ang sovereignty claims ng lahat ng bansa, at least mayroon pa ring proprietary claims. Shortly after Kiram was adopted by Lakas-Kampi-CMD's senatorial slate, pinalaya rin ng Arroyo government si Nur Misuari early in 2008. Naaalala rin ba natin ang dating attempts ng Arroyo government later for a Bangsamoro treaty on ancestral domain na nauwi sa pag-teterrorize ng ilang paksyon ng MILF dahil sa conflict ng gusto ng Malakanyang at ng desisyon ng Korte Suprema tungkol sa treaty? At may pamumugot pa ng ulo ng ilang miyembro ng Philippine Marines na nangyari?

     Tanong: ano ba ang maaaring interes ng mga tao ng Lakas-Kampi-CMD sa Kiram clan? At kay Misuari, gayung delikado pa ring challenge ang waning MNLF sa stronger MILF? Or, by a stretch of the imagination, ano ang puwedeng interes ng mga funders-we-don't-want-to-believe sa Sabah? Hmmm. Alam niyo, ang oil reservoir sa ilalim ng sedimentary rock na pinagkukunan ng mayaman-na-ngayong Brunei ay parehong source na pagkukunan mo kung magdidrill ka sa Sabah offshore. Matagal nang binalak palawigin ng Malaysia at ng Petronas ang drilling doon, pero dahil nga sa claimants hindi ito magawa (ng hayagan).
     Balik tayo sa funders. Noong pinaplantsa pa lang ang Bangsamoro treaty ng Noynoy Aquino administration, wala kang maririnig kay Nur Misuari. O baka lang hindi marinig dahil walang lumalapit na taga-media. Noong malapit na ang araw ng pirmahan at kumpirmado na ng government media ang withdrawal ng support ng Malaysia sa MILF (at waning MNLF), at Malaysia pa nga ang tumulong sa pag-uusap ng lahat ng partido, heto't nag-iingay na si Misuari laban sa treaty bagamat may mga delegates siya rito, na kung tutuusin mo ay wala namang mababawas sa kanya (unless maging unreasonable siya tungkol sa hatian ng natural resource revenues at sa territory na masasakop ng autonomous region). Or, heto't may mga taga-media nang lumalapit kay Misuari (sino kaya ang nagsabi sa kanila na puntahan si Misuari?). Ngunit ito ang tanong ngayon: kailan ba nagkaroon ng multi-million peso weapons ang mga Kiram? Sino ang nag-supply sa kanila? Bagamat sa una ay dineny ng MNLF na nasa likod din sila sa napabalitang sabotahe sa Bangsamoro treaty between the Aquino government and MILF at sa pag-provoke sa mga Kiram na gawin ang balak nila, noong Marso 5, 2013 ay kinumpirma ng MNLF spokesman na si Hadhi Acmad Bayam na mayroon silang mga Malaysia-trained na tao at mga nakatagong weapons na ipapadala para tumulong sa mga Kiram.

     Ngayon, corollarily, sino ang may kapangyarihan o access para ma-monitor ang accounts ng pamilya Kiram, their capacity to buy weapons, outgoing funds and incoming funds, big and small? At sino ang may capacity to monitor a sudden influx of journalists to Sabah prior to the Kiram's Sabah announcement of an "invasion"? Dalawa: Philippine government and Malaysian government. Ano ang findings ng intelligence nilang dalawa?

     Of course, we can choose to believe na walang funders, na lahat ng $3,000 ArmaLites ay donated lang ng mga concerned citizens. Oo nga at mahirap magpatunay sa publiko, lalo na kung may mga bagay na di puwedeng sabihin sa publiko regarding how governments can monitor the traffic of funds and sources (e.g., ipapaalam ba ng US na ang naintercept nilang Iraqi weapons ay galing sa team ni Oliver North kung hindi nag-leak sa media? Syempre hindi, internal na lang yon). Mahirap talaga para sa press release managers kung may delicacy sa paglabas ng information sa media kung may diplomatic repercussions din dito vis a vis a flammable public lacking in knowledge about the whole picture (inclusive of opposition partisans na may sariling propaganda agenda na nagbubulagbulagan sa whole picture). Tandaan natin na marami sa mga weapons ng MNLF ay nanggaling din ng Malaysia, at maaaring makasira sa role ng Malaysia sa mata ng publiko (both Philippine public and Malaysian public). [Conversely naman, puwede mong ilabas sa media ang mga bagay tulad ng existence ng isang Jose Pidal account na common knowledge sa isang bangko, pero iba naman ang haharang sa iyo roon sa paglabas ng detalye. Batas, hindi diplomatic issues.]

     We can choose to believe na walang funders, and even choose to believe all sorts of meme reports of rampant rape and torture sa isang Facebook wall na may larawan lamang ng nahuling mga bihag na galing sa kampo ni Kiram. Nagkalat ang “reports” sa Facebook na ni-layout sa Microsoft Word na nagsisisigaw ng katotohanan tungkol sa nangyayari sa Sabah na mga pagsasamantala ng mga Malaysian forces doon. Tila nanalo ang propaganda ng mga ganitong “reports” sa unang bugso sa mata ng matatalinong tao sa Facebook. Sabi ko sa sarili ko, kanya-kanyang confirmation bias na lang ito, sabi pa nga sa sociology. Hay naku, galing na ako riyan. Sa advertising industry, ang liit ng tingin namin sa masa (kasama na ang well-educated masses), madali mong mabilog sa pamamagitan ng mainstream at guerrilla media sa ngalan ng "katotohanan".

photo from loyarburok.com

AWAY NG MALALAKI VS. MALILIIT?

NGAYONG narito na nga tayo sa usapang AEC, sasabihin ba natin na tila biktima pa rin dito ang maliliit na tao na may mga buhay na nasawi at kailangan pa rin silang tulungan? Teka nga muna, sino bang maliliit, ang mga tao ni Kiram? Kung sasabihin nating ang AEC ay panaginip lamang ng mga malalaking industriya para sa kanilang mga sarili, thus an issue between people in power or big business and ordinary people like the Kiram warriors na namamatay sa sagupaan, hehehe, sino ba itong latter na tinutukoy natin? Ano ba ang interes nila? Di ba big oil business din para sa kanilang amo?

      Mas mainam na tanungin kung sino ang caught in the crossfire, sino ang kawawa. Inisip ba ni Kiram ang maaaring mangyari sa kanila, silang mga undocumented workers na Tausug sa Sabah, pag nakipagbakbakan siya sa Malaysian forces? Ano ang pakialam niya sa mga aliping Tausug na hindi miyembro ng royalty, ang interes niya ay ang claim niya sa oil reserves. Wala siyang pakialam sa maaaring mangyari sa kanila, pero ang nakakatawa, lumabas sa media na siya pa ang champion ng Tausugs. Ang micro-journalism nga naman, oo, at ang kanyang profitable na anecdotal factualizing at conclusions from one premise.

     Iyan ang nakakalungkot kapag puro facts ng politics on the ground and on Facebook walls ang kina-cover ng media, hindi ang facts ng geopolitcs behind the curtains na maaari sanang magbigay-linaw sa tao kung sino ang tunay na kakampi nila at sino ang huwad na champion. Lumabas na champion si Kiram ng mamamayang Pilipino at traydor ang sabwatang Pilipinas-Malaysia. Subalit sino ba ang magpapaganda sa buhay ng nakararami at sino ang mangingiwan lang sa maliliit sa tabi? Kaya lang kasi, ang mga usapang ganyan, PTV-4 lang ang nagcocover, boring.

     So, global conspiracy kaya itong AEC ng mga malalaking industriya? Subalit ang "global conspiracy" na ito ay transparent, lahat ng dokumento tungkol dito sa ASEAN Economic Community na ito ay available online. Pero magkakainteres ba ang ABS-CBN News o ang GMA 7 dito? Walang tensyon e. Syempre do'n sila sa mabenta. Isang babaeng ni-rape ng Malaysian police, kahit hindi kumpirmado at sinubo lang ng Kiram party o ng anti-Aquino part ng media, gagawing geopolitical reading. Nagsasaya ang opposition propaganda.

photo from http://www.prolanguage.co.th/

AEC LABAN SA AWAYAN

KUNG interesado sana ang media sa dapat ipinapaalam sa tao, o kung interesado sana ito sa konsepto na hindi dapat parating government-averse fourth estate ang media, at kung di rin sanang masyadong matatakutin ang government sa pagsiwalat ng tunay na impormasyon, disin sana ay matagal nang malinaw kung bakit inapura (as against “minadali”) ng Aquino government ang mga bagay-bagay tulad ng K-12, Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro, etc.

      Kung may gagawa ng dokumentaryo tungkol dito, mainam sana kung ito’y all about the preparations for the 2015 ASEAN Economic Community launch, mga preparations mula pa sa panahon ni Fidel Ramos o beyond hanggang kay Arroyo kung kelan ito finally pinirmahan noong Nobyembre 2007, at hanggang sa Aquino period, kasama na ang pag-apura sa K-12, ang RH BIll (kasi kelangan kang magpakita na may interes kang magbawas ng liability para sa regional welfare fund), ang Bangsamoro treaty, airlines development at airport plans para sa ASEAN Single Aviation Market, etc., etc. Isama mo na rin diyan ang pagluwag ng Burmese government ke Aung San Suu Kyi, ang takot ng China kaya pinalibutan niya ang Spratlys at Scarborough Shoal, etc.

      Subalit kailangang i-brainstorm ng mga producers sa Ma Mon Luk iyang dokumentaryo na yan. Alam mo naman, sa network may awayan ang programming people tungkol sa topic, tungkol sa market, tungkol sa profit. At madalas nababasura ang usapang maganda ng geopolitics laban sa madalas na nananalong tensyong bigay ng micro-journalism, tulad ng bakbakan at iyakan. Sa Philippine news television, maliban sa PTV-4 at ABS-CBN News Channel talk shows, tila walang may gusto ng Discovery Travel and Living programming kung saan ang usapan ay umiikot lamang sa mga nakaraan nang labanan habang nagsasalo ang lahat sa mainit pang super-siopao. [END]

Aquino's and Everyone's Lacuna

THE NOYNOY AQUINO administration’s opponents had had quite a field day during the week of the Manila hostage crisis of August 23 and the week after. Apparent current spokesman for Gloria Arroyo’s presidency, Elena Bautista-Horn, released the most glorious claim no one else had had the daring for—that the bungled assault wouldn’t have happened had Arroyo been president. As for the Aquino party’s $54 hotdog lunch in Washington, she said, “That may be good for keeping travel costs low. For our part, we kept the number of hostage deaths down.” Never mind the beheadings in Mindanao, the disappearances the police couldn’t solve, the apparent executions in Quezon City by a police team, the internally and externally disputed police report on the Glorietta mall explosion, the Lakas Kampi CMD-Zaldy Ampatuan-Alberto Agra connection, among many other police- or DILG-related puzzles during Arroyo’s watch. Never mind those, because those aren’t the point. Or are they? Should they be the point?

photo borrowed from Inquirer.net

     Horn's claims are not surprising. In fact, Horn's attacks are the kind of attacks we should expect from the Arroyo party hereon in, to the next senatorial and presidential elections. You see, any “mistake” the present government is perceived by popular wisdom (or by broadcasters Erwin Tulfo or Mike Enriquez) to have made will be exploited by the current opposition as material for the propaganda war of politics, especially so as most people in government today and from the recent past put premium on political gains over governance. The aim of such voices as Horn’s is simple: get Lakas Kampi CMD back into the game and help it become the ruling party once more in the 2013 elections, and especially in the elections of 2016. The job, therefore, is to portray the Aquino government as inexperienced, inept, and whatever else popular wisdom would allow. If the sound bites accumulated are to prove not enough propaganda artillery for the coming campaigns to service such new warfront voices as Popoy Lagman’s Lakas-leaning brother’s, then just you wait—the Lakas Kampi CMD machine will patiently keep watch.

     And, lest you think it’s all going to be an exciting exchange concerning principles, well, it’s not really going to be that kind of battle, though everyone has principles (good and/or bad). It’s just going to be primarily a battle of propaganda sound bites, as I said. An example is Edcel Lagman’s complaint that Aquino’s State of the Nation Address this year didn’t even address the future of farmers. Anyone familiar with the news, present as well as recent, would be quick to note that that could not exactly have been a complaint of a cause, so to speak, for otherwise Lagman would already have been championing farmers’ plight during the height of the Fertilizer Fund scam under Arroyo’s government and or while other Arroyo-term farmer-related issues (like the rice over-importation issue) were hugging headlines. Party principles have been hogwash in this country, only sound bites seemingly have need for principles, at least for the duration of their delivery, and mp3 files of those sound bites or YouTube clips are more important hereabouts than e-books on history.

     So, expect the sound bites war to worsen as the Aquino administration marches on and 2013 looms.

BUT, FOR HIS TURN, what should Aquino do, given this not-so-impossible threat of a Lakas Kampi CMD return?

     Well, some other president might contemplate changing the charter (the Constitution) so he could extend his stay at the Palace beyond his term, or whatever else changes could be made to his advantage. Aquino, if he were that other president, might even contemplate designing an ambush or a mall bombing or a massacre to be able to declare martial law and proceed from there. Or, well, maybe something more novel than those already-gasgas scenarios from our mental History Channel.

     Here’s what I have to say about Aquino extending the term of his type of governance/government. For Aquino can actually change the country’s Governance Charter without changing the Government Constitution. Here is one way. . . .

BUT, FIRST, let me just note down this fact. Noynoy Aquino’s supporters had it wrong when they thought the Aquino triumph in the May elections was a signal moment for a historic turning point towards renewal and revolution in the life of the Filipino. Perhaps for a temporary turnaround, yes, but I dare say it’s not gonna last forever.

     Call me a liberal killjoy and a son of the gods of pessimism, but bearing witness to my killjoy attitude is the majority’s election of Aquino in May 2010 not really as the lord of social liberalism but primarily only as the persona with the celebrity potential that ran against the diminished value of Erap Estrada’s celebrity worth. It’s all been like a TV ratings poll, really, with the majority acting as casting directors for the tragic-comedy series called Bansang Pilipinas in its 112th season. As proof of that mere-entertainment valuation, consider the majority’s avoidance of a different manner of valuation, a more ideological form of valuation. It was an avoidance that found them not voting for Aquino’s senatorial candidates who arguably shared Aquino’s political/social/economic philosophy (excepting already familiar names like the Drilon and Guingona and Recto and Osmeña family names, being family names, and so names that should sound much like Padilla or Quizon or Cuneta-Concepcion of the showbiz-royalty-laden Pinoy star-studded mind that has in turn created a sort of feudalism of naked, meaningless names).

     So what am I saying? I’m saying this is proof enough of the freshness—in the eyes of the majority—of the liberal packaging that some (only some) Liberals’ supporters have been so crazy about on Facebook. To the Filipino majority, Liberal means nothing more than Tide or Sony or Coke and Pepsi, it’s just another naked brand. The majority is really, has always been, more interested in the brands and the new models of some old brand. And the parties don’t want to do anything to change all that, not even the President’s Liberal Party, it would sadly seem.

     Which should lead our present conversation to the next level, which is the level where we discuss the necessity of selling what needs to be sold for Aquino’s type of governance, for it to be able to extend its term.

AS I SAID, the potential for the return of Gloria Arroyo’s centrist or quasi-rightist or neo-liberal Lakas Kampi CMD, or Estrada’s pseudo-liberal or pseudo-progressivist Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino, into the national ship captain’s helm, five years or so from now, will get brighter as Aquino’s critics accumulate mistakes and “mistakes” to report on and successfully sell these to the intrigue-welcoming open media industry and media-opinion-worshipping masses. There is now the wide possibility of Lakas Kampi CMD’s return in the coming local elections in 2013, because this time it will be on the attacking end, exploiting the ideology-less and can’t-get-no-satisfaction masses’ momentary expectations of instant gratification.

     Impossible!—pro-Aquino optimists would tell us—because  a hefty number of local and national politicians formerly with the Lakas Kampi CMD’s approach to things are now with the Aquino camp’s approach to things, if not as Liberals, then at least as “program allies”. And there you go. Therein is the charm of the virtue of openness in our politics that nurtures the seeds of the averrhoa carambola (balimbing) like bees attacking flowers or squirrels the acorns. This balimbingism is not entirely due to politicians themselves, many of whom only ride the tradition for pragmatic reasons; it is often what our party-political system requires.

     Many a leader has in fact welcomed the advantage of this openness. The reform-minded Aquino camp itself exploited this openness for the furtherance and expansion potential of its support base during the pre-May election campaign period. Now in power, it has also rightly become like a softened Vatican open to the possibility of welcoming to its fold “rebellious” Francises of Assisis formerly allied with Gloria and Mike Arroyo’s heresy. And so it is as if we have become a nation replete of Miriam Santiagos who are open to the job of defending Erap Estrada’s policies today and Gloria Arroyo’s tomorrow, with everyone’s media-friendly Santiago-ish sound bites open for any partisan hiring. The media themselves ride on this circus; the sound bites make news which in turn rake in profits.

     It was more astounding in the other camps. Manny Villar of the Nacionalista Party exploited this openness during the election campaign by appropriating the integrity of both the Right and the Left for his party’s platform, a platform which was as abstract as a slogan for a bank’s TV ad or a World Bank press release brief. And the Right and the Left exploited the invitation in turn, again for pragmatic reasons. Lakas Kampi CMD, during their stint at the helm (which almost extended itself had it been given the chance to), also embraced the advantage of this openness, hauling in—to complete their roster of allies—such people as the former stalwart of liberal thrusts, Edcel Lagman (the brother of the slain leftist Popoy Lagman that we mentioned above), even while it advanced in what many in the media’s opinion-wielders regarded as Arroyo’s single-minded neo-liberal mission to rake in as many contracts for her party’s friends.

     So, how can Lakas Kampi CMD or the PMP possibly come back?—many Liberals are wont to ask. Simple. It’s been done before and it can be done again. As people in the past forgot the charges against Marcos and Estrada and accepted the possibility of their innocence, thus delivering Imee and Bongbong and Imelda to the august halls once again and almost delivered Erap instead of Aquino to Malacanang once again, so will the people forget all the charges against Gloria Arroyo’s government and accept the possibility of the Arroyo camp’s innocence. All the opposition has to do now is to bring the criticism and propaganda against Aquino’s camp on, and keep bringing it in to the media battlefront. The media will be all too happy to welcome any party’s headway in the marketing race to 2013 and 2016. The media, after all, are business entities whose first worry is the performance of their shows on the ratings wall, the country be damned.

SO, TO GET BACK to our topic now: how can Aquino’s camp avoid this return of its ideological nemeses and keep its ideological utopia on top? Will it fall into the same trap that Fidel Ramos and Gloria Arroyo and Erap Estrada attempted, which was—to repeat—the facile cop-out of changing the national government charter so terms can be extended, as if that would guarantee their parties’ long acceptance in the parliamentary runoffs? It remains to be seen. But there are possibly other ways. Here is one way.

     You see, dedicated though Aquino seems to be to his principles and aims and vision of good governance and an empowered populace, he can actually transform his own person too. Or transgress, if you will. And I don’t mean in the context of Richard Gordon’s and Bayani Fernando’s mutual “transformers” self-label that tickled some pink with the promise of an Olongapo- and Intramuros- and Marikina- and EdSA (or EdlSA)-looking archipelago. I mean into something more spiritual beyond the merely technical. I mean the transformation of his personality-selling to become the selling of a philosophy, a philosophy the people can take in like a religion instead of merely follow like a yellow traffic light sign because they like Noynoy’s yellow personality at the moment of its novelty.

     That transformation can actually be done if the Aquino administration gradually distances itself from the positioning of Aquino as mere redeemer of a people from a fleeting problematique into the positioning of Aquino as leader of a philosophy and religion. For all intents and purposes, Aquino’s philosophy can be deemed liberal, specifically social liberal, and not just because he now belongs to the Liberal Party of his father. And it is this philosophy that not just Aquino but his followers has to start selling if his type of administration and his type of followers are to maintain their position as the ruling ideological class of the present. The ideology is there, but it is still in need of a label and a selling scheme.

     Why do it? Firstly, not to do it is to say that only Aquino carries the Aquino spirit and belief, and so be damned his senatorial slate, let’s sell Aquino alone for only Aquino is Aquino and there is no other Aquino than Aquino himself. In contrast, to sell the Aquino philosophy as a movement with a specific set of transparent agenda is to sell the movement itself, of which Aquino is merely the charismatic celebrity symbol. To sell this philosophy is to transform Aquino from being a personality figure cum celebrity name into a mere synecdoche of a movement’s beliefs. To sell this philosophy, and free Aquino from the image that he is one of a kind, is to aid Aquino’s philosophy from the threat of dying with him when he begins to fade away. To sell his people’s and supporters’ philosophy is to sell a party, a movement, a dream army, complete with a hierarchy of leader-heirs who share the dream of the army.

     If the Aquino camp can succeed in selling to the public this philosophy label upon itself, and I don’t mean just the label or just the slogan that follows the label but the basic tenets of the camp’s beliefs and dreams, then Aquino would have been deemed served well in his possible dream of extending his term beyond 2016, free of the threat of the return of a contending political philosophy of governance or mal-governance. For with that marketing success will come the near-guarantee that the next Liberal Party senatorial and congressional candidates can carry themselves onstage as stars in their own right, not needing the shallow valuation of a casting-director majority with a weird sense of measure but only the determination of a visionary director of a dreaming majority with a sensible sense of measure.

     And, can PR and ad firms stand up to this challenge? Or would they, too, sell back to Aquino’s camp the virtue—whatever it is besides their facile personality-selling comfort zones—of the status quo marketing scheme.

IN WRITING this, I am of course also betraying my leaning towards the liberals and my seeming abhorrence for all things Lakas Kampi CMD. Betray like Judas likewise, for in exhorting the liberals to upgrade their market value, it is to be acknowledged that parties like Lakas Kampi CMD or the PMP can in fact initiate the same moves towards the same direction, even create some headway over a slow-to-decide liberal movement, selling their respective philosophies over and above the personalities that carry the party or movement or mission to which they belong.

     In short, this sermon-piece could be providing an advantage marketing view to just about any party that decides on this transgression of the traditional, should it be interested in extending itself beyond its present status into an expansive horizon which it can continue to serve or exploit.

     In the meantime, the masses—themselves devoid of philosophies—eagerly await a new religion as we speak, one that could physically and mentally deliver them from all evils. Should the liberals or the conservatives (neoliberals) fail to give them their due, God knows what Nazi group can easily fill in the lacuna.

Golf, a synecdoche of the land reform problematic

THAT tiny picture up there is a shot of the Hacienda Luisita Golf and Country Club, of course, but let's begin our story with a smaller symbol: Jun Lozada. Jun Lozada was hero of the year in 2008, hero qua symbol of penitence and reversed loyalty. He became the new Saint Paul the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines refused to champion during the Senate hearing on the NBN-ZTE scandal (which Gloria Arroyo's Department of Justice and appointed Ombudsman seemed to have wanted to turn into a hearing on Lozada's heresy in their turf instead). Luckily, the Jesuits of Ateneo de Manila University (or Ateneo de Manila, which is most likely its correct appellation) and the La Sallians of De La Salle University were there to protect Lozada's newfound saintliness.

     One thing we are forgetting, however, is the other Jun Lozada, the Jun Lozada who loved to play golf and live the high life. We saw in the bright camera lights Jun Lozada the truth-teller, the one who couldn't tell a lie, the dude who loved Jose Rizal. Today, we lay aside the fact that he was a penitent precisely because he used to be one of the privileged guys, raking in funds here and there for perks unbeknownst to you and me. He played golf and ate expensive "hamborjer" at that Wack Wack Golf and Country Club for the ones with wang-wanged SUVs. To dismiss this Lozadian facet is to dismiss Saint Paul's past and merely look at the saint as that brave expansionist for the Jesus club. To dismiss such facets is to forget to share Paul's and Lozada's repudiation of their respective pasts. To dismiss those is to dismiss that other significance.

NOW, I've seen great golfers and golf teachers talk on TV and I must say I have nothing but great admiration for their lot and the sport as a sport, especially for the men and women who've played those entertaining historic games on the sports cable channels. I've seen a Travel Channel take on the Scottish hills, on the origin of the sport, and can understand the game's relationship with the landscape (the Scottish landscape).

     However, there is something that Karl Marx taught everybody, and I mean everybody (in the same manner Che Guevara's One Latin-Am-ism or Guevarism taught everybody something, including the Interpol). I don't just mean the Marxist virtue of having a social security system or Government Service Insurance System or the Marxist entertainment to be derived from looking at the politics behind the production of an artwork. The Marxist lesson I'm talking about proclaims that in everything is politics, or, conversely stated, that there's politics in everything.

     And so, golf as a necessarily political presence in our pop culture must likewise be read as having a symbolic/semiotic value, and I mean a value within our polity (as against an intrinsic value independent of its surround which, in Marxist criticism, is a deny-er's cop-out). It is by this prompting that I must say golf as such, as a necessary semiotic signifier, deserves a second serious look beyond the analyses of ESPN. Never mind that Golf is often denigrated to mean "game off limits to females", since, apart from being untrue, there are today arguably more female golf athletes representing Asian women in the major circuit than there are men. Jennifer Rosales and Dorothy Delasin are familiar Filipina names in the LPGA, whereas a Filipino has yet to achieve a PGA championship.

     And never mind that in subcultural rock music society golf is frowned upon as a Republican game, nearly throwing eggs at Hootie and the Blowfish in the '90s and only forgiving the elderly Neil Young for being elderly.

     I'd like to encourage an independent assessment of the game's context today, in the Philippine setting, an assessment that is ideally non-partisan. And though I know there's been some opposition to golf in many countries including non-tropical ones like France and Japan and Scandinavia, I'd still be happy with having a look at how golf may represent a semiotic something, as it were, in the Philippine body politic worthy of our opposition to it as citizens living in the armpit regions.

     First, one of the basic complaints against the golfing sport derives from environmental activism, concerning water supply usage for the hectares of must-be-green-grass. And although this has always been promptly countered by many an articulate golf course owner by referring investigating reporters to a well or mini-reservoir built within the course for its own use, still the water table supply must be spread democratically, and so on and so forth, and that's not even mentioning yet---say the activists---the "organic" dye that goes into the already Strontium 80-laden grass that can't be meant for cows, with the elements in the mixture, too, going into the soil composition as well as the atmosphere, and so on and so forth, oh, I must stop.

     I must stop. I must stop, for I'd much rather have beef against the implication of land usage for golfing purposes per se. It is certainly an implication that completes itself vis a vis the contradictory policies of Philippine governance:

WE are a country rightly or wrongly running a land reform policy, for one, and a human settlements department in government, secondly, tasked to address the squatters and the migration-of-the-homeless problematique. And here we are, flaunting the idea that wide tracts of land, as long as their owners don't declare them as agricultural land, can either delay these properties' usefulness for some future industrial leasing, or otherwise use now for the golfing elite minority's pleasure under the guise of tourism or shoring up the real estate boom. Some will say that by this picture alone golf becomes a symbol of one side of a governance contradiction. For while land reform and the human settlement program are progressivist in intent, tourism and industrialization are a different set of priorities altogether. But I say, we must not stop there; we must move on, to conjecture upon the anatomy of that contradiction as a possible monster produce of sheer Hypocrisy.

     In the Marcos era, much government talk was disseminated against the presence of idle lands, a campaign of course which turned a blind eye to Marcos' fronts and Marcos' Kilusang Bagong Lipunan Party's members and their own teeming tracts of idle property. Hypocrisy in this country does not merely find symbolic amplification in sports, say, the golfing sport. No. For Hypocrisy is the sport.

     Farm estates in the United States are owned by private individuals or private companies instead of Hacienda Luisita-style "corporate" systems with former tenants for new incorporators, and maybe because hypocrisy is not a tradition in American agriculture. On the other hand, we've heard about the many problems posed against Philippine land reform, or Japanese land reform for that matter.

     For example, one claim has it that national agricultural objectives have not been achieved hand in hand with the Philippine land reform plan. The contending argument, on the other hand, goes that agricultural output was never the program's objective to begin with, the umbrella objective being political instead of economic. For surely, if the program is being moved by an economic thrust, then we'd have a problem with the alleged reality that many farmers are not necessarily guaranteed of a better life with land reform, which is a euphemistic way of expressing the dread of an opposite resultant. Unless perhaps the farmer converts his land to more profitable industrial leasing, in which case the land reform program qua agrarian reform would have to be deemed as having lost its purpose, success may yet prove to be elusive. Or would the program really lose its "redistributionary" objective this way? As long as one practices "charity" in his feudalistic heart, it shouldn't matter now what the recipient of one's goodness does with his new property.

     Others argue that land reform as a philosophical direction must be consistent and extend itself as a philosophy into factories and the services industry, for---after all---many families have had several of its generations serving under some same manufacturing dynasty, an ad agency's janitorial division for that matter under some same agency owner's family.

     Should the land reform philosophy extend stock options into this area of what could be a new labor-friendly national GDP?

BUT this is not a piece aiming to instigate a resurgence of debates on the land reform program and philosophy, lest I be mistaken for somebody sounding apologias for the landed. This is, rather (and I hope you'd believe me), a light examination of and/or rumination on the enveloping philosophy 1) of our republic itself and 2) around its regard for land ownership and that ownership's responsibilities, whether involving reformed land or not.

     An individual who owns a thousand hectares of farmland must subdivide it to tenants who have the option---helped by tax money---to buy the little pieces, so they can have their own little grape plantations. Well and good, at least for the utopia. But an individual who owns a thousand hectares of land not used for the production of pectin-rich vegetables can actually still exploit his area as he pleases before the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program catches up with him, and I am reminded of Lucio Tan's long-idle hectares in Quezon City beside homeless squatters.

     Agricultural farms up for land division/distribution. Golf courses. Agricultural production programs. Idle lands. Put two and two together and you have a picture of contradictions, perhaps deriving from a hypocritical lying elite culture, perhaps from a country's non-philosopher-kingship devoid of an integral wisdom that may serve as soul for the never-ending pornography of naked slogans. This non-philosophy has churned a religion of evasiveness, and its gods have been playing golf.

HOWEVER, I would like to say that perhaps the Filipino habit of throwing in the towel might someday swerve to more proactive attitudes of Davidian defiance, especially now that a purportedly social liberal government has been installed.

     Let me start with the "moderate" form of such a defiance. I could, for example, beyond wallowing in disgust, propose a sublimating potential for the golf sport in the tropical setting. I have in mind, for instance, a possible "progressivist" value for golf as a social item, one that will address instead of ignore its Philippine setting wherein a democracy is struggling to empower itself over a long-established plutocracy. I could start with the proposition, and perhaps a new millionaire can be created by my suggestion, that standards for golf course bunkers, roughs and other hazards can be upgraded to include forest trees, ponds containing edible fish, with the fairway areas occupying less acreage than the rocks and weeds, with even a fruit grove or corn area to be placed in, on, and around them. I'm talking about what modern parlance might dub as "extreme golf". Unacceptable, perhaps, to the traditionally conservative crowd that make up golf country club memberships, but then there are always industry companies like Virgin or Pixar or Apple willing to take up the slack of contentment and tried-and-tested business formulas. The new golf course of the future can now begin to look like this forest photo here.

     This new, one might say liberal or progressivist, type of golf might not mind venturing into earth-friendlier and necessarily people-friendlier redesigns of things we've come to accept, inclusive of pricing. Following the examples of Henry Sy, et al., and I don't mean their relationship-with-labor records, "extreme golf" investors can profit from membership volume instead of from a conservative neoliberal marketing of exclusivity. It's about time we cease to behave like fearful loyal subjects to a fearless royal class; let's liberate golf as though this were France in 1799!

     After all, the world has changed. And if we are to learn anything from this new phase---in the same manner that we've learned that centrist governments only tame, while fooling, a people, and that rightist governments that play conservative golf actually merely promote contesting communist and Muslim insurgencies---, it is that the latest world order demands a rehash of our concepts of a Promiseland, one less inspired by trickle-down economics perhaps, lest we wake up one day to find all our neighbors acting like terrorists with clubs, shouting defiance towards our golf clubs.

     But here's the disclaimer. Given our tame general populace's outlook which has long learned courage to fight only the little neighborly fights among themselves, the above grim down-with-Marie-Antoinette's-head picture is pretty unlikely. Golf courses will continue to blossom, agricultural tracts converted under our noses to industrial estates or resorts and subdivisions, and the hypocrisy will give way to a new comfortable utopia of Imeldific investing by the nouveau Imeldas. Fine utopia. Or should I say outbreak of rampant myopia?

     And the masses that will suffer will never know what hurt them, and they'll continue to murder themselves with petty bickerings, unable to protest against those beyond their education's comprehension. Even as many say we've always had a socialist tendency as a people, always expecting government to take care of us and blaming government for our ills, yet our magnificent elite shall continue, yet again, to flaunt a self-centeredness that recognizes the reality of the tamed "socialism" of our people that has been amply uneducated by our educational policies, unable therefore to find the art of war. But this is risky. How long will our children be safe from the surprises of sudden terrorist or criminal recruitment? Might we already have sown the seeds of such a subculture? Are we continuing to farm such a field of seeds? When wealthy Chinese-Filipinos and Spanish mestizos and new Malay-brown billionaires display their privileged delight in a golf course, dismissing Jun Lozada's example of repudiation, will a small-minded waiter who has had the all-too-common racist impression that Chinoys are an anti-labor Kuomintang lot, all millionaires myopic as East India Company, . . . will he plant the ire of a neo-Nazi in his spirit? Would his racism be checked by Chinoys' and mestizos' better presence in Rotary Club medical missions, say, for free breast cancer checkups on municipal grounds?

     Golf. It's going to be a game off limits to Filipinos. And by Filipinos I mean to include the homeless and the squatters and the communists. As well as the political opportunists/climbers. As well as the ordinary men and women of the village or town or city who drink the communal water, slosh in the global-rain puddles, try to understand the word "freedom" in an ever-decreasing ground space for their fenced-out habitation.

     Game off limits to Filipinos. That's what we're playing. And there are still 18 holes to play before trophy day, in case we reach it in this Philippine open.

SO, . . . yeah, well, one could say all the above simply amounts to inciting to rebellion instead of some simple semiotics and free political-cum-social-cum-cultural analysis, but I believe we all must address such issues as this regarding an exclusive sport one day, the same way we are addressing the exclusive private wangwang today, for it also somehow represents the latest glaring conflict of philosophies between today's two contending parties: the ruling Liberal with its supposed new Aquino social liberalism and the rest being one with their supposed conservatism or pseudo-liberalism or pseudo-progressivism. The new liberals' philosophy, it seems, is aimed at calling for a defeat of the things that sow the seeds of terrorism and rebellion and that plant such trees as Jose Maria Sison and Nur Misuari, and is aimed further at the thought that toppling rebellious trees is not enough (not enough, for given the rich soil for seeds, many similar trees will always be ready to replace toppled ones). Given our elite that has learned---from the time of our Spaniard conquerors on to the time of our turn-of-the-century American invaders, our Tojo masters, as well as the eras of the Aguinaldo and Marcos and Erap and Gloria movements---to test the limits of the average Filipino's patience, the new liberalism's order would be easier said than done in our "local geopolitical" reality.

     It behooves us, then, to play on with this game of g-o-l-f, which will eventually gloriously bring us to wherever it will when it does. Gloriously, I say, because it would be beyond the lip service of doomsayers like me.

     So, okay, then. Let's go back to business. What's your handicap? ♦

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Author's note: This essay is adapted from a 2004 column I wrote for the now-defunct provincial e-zine Bananacue Republic.

Readings related to golf and the Philippines I'd recommend:

• "He used golf to carry messages undermining the Marcos regime"
• "The Golf War: A Story of Land, Golf and Revolution in the Philippines"

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Photos borrowed from:

• http://www.thefilipino.com/golfcoursesinthephilippines/ - Hacienda Luisita Golf and Country Club
• http://coconuter.blogspot.com/2008/02/scandal-tainted-nbnzte-deal.html - Jun Lozada
• http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/poli/current/ug/modules/marx.html - Karl Marx
• http://www.hootiegolf.com/news.asp - Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish playing golf
• http://blogs.knoxnews.com/pineda/2009/09/living-under-martial-law-part.html - Ferdinand Marcos
• http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=733434&page=20 - Lucio Tan
• http://thenextreporter.com/jg/philippine-election-2010-results-benigno-noynoy-aquino-iii-leads-presidential-race-wide-margin/086496/ - Noynoy Aquino
• http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov/OpenSpaces/Pages/ForestPreservation.aspx - forest
• http://timeslikethis-wrigley.blogspot.com/2009/06/squatters-in-philippines.html - squatters in the Philippines