Gloria plans to hire lobbying groups in the US and plans to spend 50 million US dollars for six months while she can't even provide books to children and repair dilapidated elementary schools - K.I.
Again Gloria has found a new basis to get money from the people through taxes by hiring lobby groups in the US worth 50 million dollars for six months, much bigger than the military aid the US will give. So what is the rationalization put forward by Gloria’s through her spokesperson Sergio Apostol? He says there is no such thing as free when it comes to lobbying and that the Philippines if it really wants to strengthen its export and import, has to spend this huge amount of money. Apostol even further stated that the money to hire lobby groups in the US is to counter “leaftist” lobbying efforts with leftists tapping Protestant churches doing the lobbying in the US to stop sending US military aid in the Philippines. It is clear with this new statement from Malacanang that Gloria really in the offing of protecting herself and goingto stay beyond 2010. Filipinos are now getting a better picture having them a President that has to sense of decency and priority. Gloria uses people money to stay in power. She uses it to pay US lobby groups while majority of Filipinos back home wallow in poverty. Everyday there are at least 4,500 plus Filipinos going abroad to work.This is because Gloria's government fail's to provide decent jobs back home. In the lastest SWS survey Gloria is far more isolated now. Aside being tagged as a lier, she is also known becoming a fascist dictator whereby up to this day she has not solved the killings, tortures as well as abductions of ordinary people. But who is she to solve these? In the first place she’s the brains behind it as many people think. She has her military generals who had enriched themselves in office and continues to jail people opposed to Gloria. Gloria is what people call desperada. She spends people's money for her image building and PR efforts in the US when she cannot even provide decent books and repair dilapidated elementary school building for children in towns and cities. While Imelda bought thousands of shoes you have Gloria now spending millions of money just to stay in power. People she her as the queen of bribery and deception. I do not know who she will use again as a scapegoat if this issue will again be investigated in public. She had Abalos as her scapegoat during the ZTE deal. She had her Kampi as scapegoats when she bribed congressmen at Malacanang. She had the lunatic Norberto Gonzales before as scapegoat when the later was exposed in cutting a deal with looby groups way back last year. Gloria the queen uses pawns. Just like the game of chess, it will not be long she'll be checked and she can't run anywhere.
Modi is doing the right thing evading Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's military after praising her coersive machinery as defenders of democracy - K.I.
The fascist regime of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has hastened their militarization campaign dubbed as Operation Freedom Watch 2 or Oplan Bantay Laya 2. Three days ago she praised her fascist coersive machinery as defending democracy. This praise is patting her lapdogs telling them that it is fine to kill innocent civilians for her to stay in power. This morning my friend pastor Modesto “Modi” Villasanta went into hiding in Surigao after he had helped indigenous people escape militarization in the area with the usual hamletting and bombing of their homes. Modi works for a national human rights organization named KARAPATAN. The military had distributed leaflets accusing him as a communist. Most of the time when the military distributes leaflets, many understands it as a signal of an impending assassination with the usual military scheming to lay basis to isolate the person then go for the kill. But Modi is probably used to this. He was a student leader then during our student days in Silliman University. I even remembered asking how it feels having a brother who graduated from the PMA and is a high ranking military intelligence officer working for the government. I forgot what is answer was but he was confident in what he did. His disposition was not unique though as I saw this type in the Zumel’s and the Capulong’s with brothers working for opposite sides. The last time I saw Modi was way back in 2002 . I went to Butuan City to join a Church Peasant Conference, a meeting of clergy and lay talking to each other and sharing biblico-theological reflections. Modi is a jolly person. During our student days I remember him of bringing just a piece of paper wherein he based his talk and lecture. He was active in the student movement. He helped the student reforms movement in the 80’s in the advancement of student's democratic rights and economic welfare and helped a lot in the reestablishment of student councils, student government’s and organizations. Modi though frail and small is witty and sharp. He is more than you can ever imagine when it comes to public speaking and political campaigns.
Christmas is about birthing of the new. Revolution represents newness, vision of hope that someday we have a country that is democratic and free- K.I.
How can their be a “unilateral truce” when the other party does not recognize it. Gloria telling the public that the government is for truce is pure hogwash. The revolution of the people has always been the recognition of rights, rights of peasants and people. Every single minute is survival against the status quo. Gloria insures that status quo to remain. It is Gloria’s and her government that doe not respect peace. Peace necessitates the realization of social justice. When many of the poor are landless, many are hungry, many do not have jobs, every single minute is of value in doing revolution and social overhaul. The people has the right to resist the dictatorship of the few that Gloria represents. Christmas is about birthing of the new. Revolution represents newness, vision of hope that someday we have a country that is democratic and free.
Danding Cojuangco is expanding his business. His export business needs raw supplies. One of his SMC business is making noodles (which the poor usually eat and Gloria promotes it) and animal feeds. These needs flour. He thus set up cooperatives to lure and entice peasants to plant cassava for flour giving them incentives, only to later on reposses their lands. The hog farm in Sumilao is feed by animal feeds from cassava flour. So you have hundred of hectares planted by cassava in Northern Luzon, Negros and even in Mindanao. To protect his lands he has the paramilitary units like the RPA-ABB and the CAFGU’s. Of course he funds Gloria’s election bid. So the question, will Gloria dump Danding? I think not. That’s for sure.
Knock your head, negotiating with the representative of big compradors and big landlords lends credence to Gloria’s posturing.
When I saw the Sumilao farmers marching inside Malanang I had this impression that this will be used by Ignacio Bunye and company for a news blitz in Gloria's favor with farmers as props. The dialogue gave Gloria the opportunity to lure the public in believing in her posturing, that she listens to the poor. Facilitating these are Gloria's operators like Dodi and the rest. Ignacio Bunye and all the rest of the her cabinet prepared a public show by walking in the peasant leaders from the gates of Malacanang as if leading them see a saviour not noticing later they will be devoured by posionous snakes in the snake pit called Malacanang.
In my student days, negotiations with administration were done in a careful manner. Every year when our schol increased their tuition without proper consultation with the students, student leaders involve themselves in a negotiation calling for a rollback and many more. Through the years student leaders learned the art of doing negotiation wherein they evade the lures of being placed in a disadvantage bargaining position called shuttle negotiation. This type of negotiation is a situation wherein the powerful takes advantage using a divide and rule, by choosing a select of leaders pinning them down in a close door dialogue, asking them to commit things outside the groups decision. Gloria and her cabal did the same to the Sumilao farmers. She had called a select of representatives plus religious leaders who's role may have been giving fundings for these farmers group such as trainings and even logistics thus may have explained their presence in that negotiations. Gloria thus well succeeded in her plan. One, she used the event to deodorize her administration amid political isolation, with claims banner headings in news that "Palace restores Sumilao land to agricultural use" and that "GMA cares"! Two, she uses this event to win the naive and backward segment of the church who believes in the illusion of " class reconciliation". Of course never in history did the elites in our country, the biglandlords and compradors, gave their power in a silver platter. In a way it has always been a struggle and a violent one, a combination of deception. Malacanang's dialogue” was nothing but a scheme to deceive the public and in this case the group in Ateneo were accomplices to this big lie. In Jesus time you have the Pharisees who are alway present to lure the people to believe that the Roman empire can do some changes and even had a hand in Jesus murder. They have schemed their way to kill Jesus in the feast of the light whereby Jesus eluded arrest. In this time of advent, a time of anticipation, these church people in Ateneo just sold these people and made them kneel to their class enemies. Gloria, Ignacio Bunye and Ermita are just praising these priests handing in the captives, inside their pit.
Need to explain to the masses in a comprenhensive way - K.I.
Gloria is seen as the most corrupt President in the Philippines. This is not new. This is not surprising. Everybody knows that her style of clinging to power is using people’s money to buy loyalty. She is notorious in using people's money. She is the queen of bribery. She bribed her way to become president. Gloria hired Mr. Garci to do her presidential election rigging operation. She gave money to congressmen to keep their mouth sealed for her not to be impeached. She used people’s taxes bring her 300 people entourage going to Spain two weeks ago with 37 congressmen who’ expected role is to legislate laws and spend time tailing her. Gloria uses money all the time. She now deny Senator Sonny Trillanes senate’s allocation telling the public he will use it to boot her out of power. She dangles money everywhere. She schemes for money through his husband. Corrupt? No question about it.
The people seems cynical what to do with her given that many believe that it will be a cycle all over again even getting rid of her with the next president doing the same. What is lacking in understanding however is a comprehensive view which the national democratic forces has been explaining for quite a while -- that is graft and corruption which is an essential feature of bureaucrat capitalism cannot be taken out unless we addres the issue of landlessness or feudalism and foreign domination which is imperialism. It is not easy to ease out Gloria and her cabal. She represents the interest of biglandlords and compradors and of course US imperialism. The momemt Trillanes and company called for her to resign by walking out the courtroom and went to occupy Manila Pen, the US immediately registered its voice that they supported Gloria. Gloria insures US imperialist's social base. Thus while graft and corruption is a fine issue that broadens people participation, there is a need to tie it to US imperialism. For me, it is of great importance to link issues of beaurucrat capitalism to issues of feudalism and imperialism. When people understands the interconnection will they get rid of Gloria, with a vibrant call to change even in a tactical manner.
In memory of Nick Atienza, a true revolutionary and servant of the Filipino people - K.I.
I am posting Volt Contreras feature on Nick in the Philippine Daily Inquirer - K.I.
See more of Nick's Picture at Arkibongbayan ( 1 and 2 )
MANILA, Philippines -- Activists from two generations -- those who survived fighting the Marcos dictatorship and those too young to have gone through that long, dark night -- are in mourning for Monico Atienza, beloved comrade, inspiring professor and, perhaps, a study of what one stands to gain or lose for a revolutionary cause.
After lapsing into a coma a year ago, Atienza succumbed to throat cancer on Wednesday afternoon at his home on the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City, where he taught Rizal and Pilipino subjects.
"Nic," who in the 1960s became secretary general of the militant Kabataang Makabayan and in 2003 worked to reorganize the old street cadres from the historic First Quarter Storm (FQS) marches of 1970, was 60 years old.
Disease finally felled the man who, some three decades ago, barely survived the torture chambers of the martial law regime and later an assassination attempt allegedly carried out by the post-Marcos military.
In separate interviews Thursday with the Inquirer, two of Atienza's close friends -- Boni Ilagan, chair of the FQS Movement of which Nic was founding president, and UP professor Luis Teodoro -- remembered the man for his convictions, which were neither eroded by time nor bowed for expediency.
With a tone of reverence, Ilagan and Teodoro both described Atienza as one of the most "heavily tortured" detainees during martial law.
A UP student who went underground two years before martial law was declared in 1972, Atienza was arrested in 1974. He was about 27.
Never bowed to torturers
Atienza's genitals were "burned," the two men said, although their memories conflicted. Ilagan said the torturers used rolled-up newspapers or comic books for a torch; Teodoro said a lighter was used.
This was on top of the other brutalities -- electric shock, sleep deprivation, being left naked in a room with the air-conditioner going full-blast and repeated beatings.
Atienza was also injected with "truth serum" to induce a confession, Ilagan said.
He will be praised for many things, but his "biggest triumph was that he never bowed to his torturers," Ilagan said. "He did not crack and send more into the hands of the enemy."
Nervous breakdown
Atienza eventually suffered a nervous breakdown during his detention and was brought to the V. Luna military hospital. He was still a patient there when he was released in 1980, or six years after his arrest, Ilagan said.
Both Ilagan and Teodoro said Atienza might have emerged psychologically scarred from the ordeal.
He seemed more short-tempered, for one thing, Teodoro noted.
Except for a TV interview he granted in 2003, Atienza never spoke publicly about what the then Philippine Constabulary, including a lieutenant named Rodolfo Aguinaldo (later to become governor of Cagayan), did to him in Camp Crame, Ilagan noted.
When both of them were still in prison, Ilagan said, "I saw him being dragged by two escorts [after a torture session] back to his cell. All he had was this blank stare."
More severely than others
"He was tortured more severely than the others probably because he was suspected of being a ranking officer of the communist party and, therefore, knew a lot about the leadership structure," Ilagan, a playwright who himself endured two years in jail, surmised.
Ilagan recalled that he, Atienza and others were held in what was supposed to be Camp Crame's armory -- "thick walls, steel doors, one-foot-by-one-foot windows, a place not built for human habitation."
There were no toilets in the cells. The inmates were provided biscuit cans and old newspapers for their use.
The inmates could hear torture sessions going on in adjacent rooms, and Ilagan was convinced that the PC deliberately let others hear what was going on.
Still fiery
After his release, Atienza was able to re-enroll at UP, and shifted courses from political science to Philippine studies, Ilagan said.
He eventually secured a teaching position at the university and resumed his "fight" as a fiery, sought-after speaker in student forums and as a supporter of progressive groups.
Once, shortly after EDSA I people power uprising in 1986, Teodoro and Atienza were on their way to a colleague's birthday party.
But the latter decided to turn back upon seeing certain guests at the venue: It was one of those weird occasions when officers of the rightwing Reform the Armed Forces Movement got to mingle with the leftist set.
"I see one of my torturers among them. I think we're no longer needed here," Teodoro recalled his hesitant friend saying.
No demand for compensation
And more of Atienza's true grit showed when the time of reckoning with his jailers finally came: He distanced himself from moves by fellow detainees to demand compensation from the Marcos regime.
Said Ilagan: "He had a different view. I remember him saying, 'What I went through cannot be compensated in terms of pesos.'
"But he did not stop anyone [from demanding compensation], and did not campaign against it."
Added Teodoro: "'I never thought of receiving any reward for fighting the dictatorship.' That's how he also put it."
Ambush
Atienza, a native of Cuenca, Batangas, would have his next brush with death shortly after EDSA I. (Teodoro said Atienza was disappointed with the results of both EDSA I and II, in which he took part.)
In 1987, Atienza, Bernabe Buscayno, former communist guerrilla commander and then senatorial candidate, and three companions were ambushed in their car by a suspected military death squad.
A piece of shrapnel became embedded in Atienza's head, and a leg wound sustained from that attack never healed up to the time he had a heart attack in December 2006.
Until then, a mass in his throat that blocked his air passage had remained undetected. He was diagnosed with cancer.
Fund-raisers were held to pay for his continued stay at the Philippine General Hospital, and among those who pitched in were a left-leaning party-list group and a few lawmakers, Ilagan said.
After seven months, friends from the FQS Movement decided to bring him home.
Atienza, who lived apart from his wife and their two sons after he was released from detention, died with two caregivers hired by his comrades at his bedside, Ilagan said.
In less than 24 hours, the first eulogies came in the blogs of his UP students -- those who were not even born yet when their "Sir Nic" was being brutalized for his cause.
Gloria's penchant spending people's money throws a junket for 37 congressmen to insure their support bringing along close to 200 people in her entourage to Spain - K.I.
General Razon cannot take back his arrogance in singling ABS-CBN a few couple of days ago. He is in the delimna. He knows the power of media and he can't afford to antagonize them. He is used in manipulating information being an intellegence officer before. With ABS-CBN news staff insulted and harassed he wants to pacify them. However the more he talks the more we see him desperate.
Now General Razon wants to silence the left movement. He wants now to establish basis in arresting personalities from Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Anakpawis once again by telling the public that they where there.
But who where there? Most of them were church personalities and public officials. Some came from Sanlakas and KME.
With what General Razon is doing he wants to hoodwink the public that there is a conspiracy just to prove that what he did was right. But was it right? Was having a curfew constitutional?
Indicator that Gloria is so politically isolated: She utters her fascist mantra- follow the rule of law, her law - K.I.
There is no question Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been put in a defensive light amid the coverage of the media when Sen. Sonny Trillanes called for her to resign. Major mainstream media outfits where there. The PNP is now trying to get the raw footage because what they have done was an overkill. They were at a rampage. But they cannot do nothing. The international community had read the stories about what is happening in the Philippines. How corrupt is Gloria, how fascist her Generals are. The World Bank had put conditonalities for her to access infrastructure loans, the US Senate had also put conditionalities before they give her favorite food—US military aid. Gloria is now panicked but shows off with smiles in the media, the same she did with out batting an eye lash that she will not run in the elections. State repression is at work. People are put in jail speaking up against her. It does not matter they are Bishops or priests. She indeed is isolating her self. She is leaning to a fascist option. The slogan – follow the rule of law. Who’s law? Her law. What law? Fascism, condoning and silence amid corruption and extra judicial killings, and keeping mum over deep seated poverty in the Philippines.
Again Gloria has found a new basis to get money from the people through taxes by hiring lobby groups in the US worth 50 million dollars for six months, much bigger than the military aid the US will give. So what is the rationalization put forward by Gloria’s through her spokesperson Sergio Apostol? He says there is no such thing as free when it comes to lobbying and that the Philippines if it really wants to strengthen its export and import, has to spend this huge amount of money. Apostol even further stated that the money to hire lobby groups in the US is to counter “leaftist” lobbying efforts with leftists tapping Protestant churches doing the lobbying in the US to stop sending US military aid in the Philippines. It is clear with this new statement from Malacanang that Gloria really in the offing of protecting herself and goingto stay beyond 2010. Filipinos are now getting a better picture having them a President that has to sense of decency and priority. Gloria uses people money to stay in power. She uses it to pay US lobby groups while majority of Filipinos back home wallow in poverty. Everyday there are at least 4,500 plus Filipinos going abroad to work.This is because Gloria's government fail's to provide decent jobs back home. In the lastest SWS survey Gloria is far more isolated now. Aside being tagged as a lier, she is also known becoming a fascist dictator whereby up to this day she has not solved the killings, tortures as well as abductions of ordinary people. But who is she to solve these? In the first place she’s the brains behind it as many people think. She has her military generals who had enriched themselves in office and continues to jail people opposed to Gloria. Gloria is what people call desperada. She spends people's money for her image building and PR efforts in the US when she cannot even provide decent books and repair dilapidated elementary school building for children in towns and cities. While Imelda bought thousands of shoes you have Gloria now spending millions of money just to stay in power. People she her as the queen of bribery and deception. I do not know who she will use again as a scapegoat if this issue will again be investigated in public. She had Abalos as her scapegoat during the ZTE deal. She had her Kampi as scapegoats when she bribed congressmen at Malacanang. She had the lunatic Norberto Gonzales before as scapegoat when the later was exposed in cutting a deal with looby groups way back last year. Gloria the queen uses pawns. Just like the game of chess, it will not be long she'll be checked and she can't run anywhere.
The fascist regime of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has hastened their militarization campaign dubbed as Operation Freedom Watch 2 or Oplan Bantay Laya 2. 
General Razon cannot take back his arrogance in 
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