Aquino’s “last word” on Mamasapano, the writing on the wall?

President Benigno S. Aquino III’s speech at the PNPA graduation was meant to write finis to the public uproar over the bloody, botched counterterrorist operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.  Instead it only managed to further rile a people sick and tired of the finger-pointing, the obfuscation and lies about what really happened, the stonewalling about key factors that caused the failed operation and, to top it all, the pathetic excuse that the president is, after all, only “human” and also makes “mistakes”. 

But the only mistake Aquino admits to is the total trust he conferred on the sacked SAF Commander Napenas (who he says “fooled” him about the seemingly foolproof design of Oplan Exodus and his capability to lead it) and on suspended Chief PNP Purisima (who he says failed to follow his order to coordinate with the AFP and who failed to give him accurate updates on the progress of the operation).  The question he refuses to answer:  why didn’t he, as Commander-in-Chief/Chief Executive, ensure that AFP chief Catapang and the OIC PNP Chief Espina were in the loop from the very beginning? Why did he rely on a suspended general with no authority whatsoever, and a lower level PNP officer whose authority is not at par with either Catapang or Espina, to call the shots in this complex, high-level and high-risk operation?

What Aquino is still trying to obscure is the fact that he authorized Oplan Exodus including the so-called “time-on-target coordination” with the AFP, meaning the AFP would only be informed when the operation was already under way.  He also agreed to set aside the ceasefire protocol with the MILF which meant the SAF commandoes would enter MILF territory without any prior coordination whatsoever with the joint AFP-MILF bodies overseeing the ceasefire.  These two factors are what led to the Mamasapano fiasco: the lack of proper and timely coordination with both the AFP and the MILF.

Aquino stonewalls about his authorizing the setting aside of the ceasefire protocol with the MILF despite knowing about the dangers of fully armed contingents of MILF, BIFF and PAGs (private armed groups) in the area and the likelihood of the “pintakasi” phenomenon (where the armed community unites to resist any armed intruder) as clearly pointed out in the BOI report.

According to the BOI report, Aquino never gave any guidance as to how Oplan Exodus would take into consideration the ongoing GPH-MILF peace process. Aquino obviously agreed with the assessment that the MILF was coddling Marwan and was not to be trusted on that score. He apparently did not consider weighty the ensuing fall-out on the peace process should anything go wrong.  Aquino does not admit to any of these and still pretends to be the leader who would do everything to achieve “peace” in Mindanao, even if it only means getting Congress to pass a watered down Bangsamoro Basic Law that he wagers the MILF will nonetheless accept.

These two fatal errors sealed the doom of the SAF troopers who in effect walked into a death trap:  there was no escape and no rescue until it was already too late.

What stands out in Aquino’s speech is that he was most silent about US involvement in the Marwan operation. The Foreign Affairs department had all but exonerated the US by testifying in the Senate hearings that they accepted hook, line and sinker the US embassy’s declaration that US involvement was limited to the medical evacuation of the trapped SAF troopers.

 That claim by the US embassy was proven to be a big lie when a video taken by a SAF commando of a drone flying just overhead and monitoring the battle surfaced. This validated reports from independent fact-finding missions of the presence of drones days before and on the night of the SAF operation.

Forced to amend its statements, the US and some Philippine government officials subsequently admitted that they helped in intelligence gathering (which is allowed under PH-US agreements such as the VFA) but continued to insist that US forces were not otherwise involved, especially in combat operations.

However, SAF commander Napenas testified under oath during executive sessions of the Senate hearings that there were six US officers, three of whom arrived with him, at the Tactical Command Post along with other SAF commanders. The presence of the six Americans, one of whom was even reported to have issued an order to an Army brigade commander to initiate artillery fire, speaks not only of the high interest the US had in the operation but the hand that they were allowed to have by the Philippine government -- Aquino no less -- in directing the operation.

Did the American "advisers" lead Aquino to believe that they had such reliable intelligence information, and they had trained and armed the SAF commandos so well, that arresting Marwan and Usman would be a walk in the park and that there would be no need to inform the AFP and MILF?

Was BSA so enthralled by the thought that personally turning over “international terrorists” Marwan and Usman to the FBI would be a publicity coup without equal?  Coupled with the capping of the Bangsamoro peace process with the imminent passing of the BBL, would this not make him a shoo-in for the Nobel Peace Prize which had eluded his mother? The thought that he could even surpass his revered mom's record and name must have been so titillating, the other side of the coin -- the high probability of a firefight and costly casualties -- was completely  overlooked or shunted aside in his calculations.

As a bonus, a successful operation would redeem the name of his BFF (best friend forever) General Purisima, justifying his decision to allow the latter to direct the entire operation despite his suspension from office on corruption charges.

Some quarters continue to press the question of where funding for Oplan Exodus could have come from.  If the US funded it, then Aquino, Purisima and the SAF could be considered as mercenaries doing the US bidding.  But if not, then Aquino and Purisima could be criminally liable for misusing the SAF personnel and related resources outside of the authorized government budget and chain of command and thereafter for bringing about the unnecessary death of the SAF 44, MILF 17 and several civilians.

For the nth time, Aquino dissembles and stonewalls on the full extent of his and US complicity in engineering the Mamasapano disaster.  The lid on this political can of worms is off and all attempts at a cover-up by Aquino and his apologists are failing. 

The political demise of the Aquino regime is all but written on the wall. #

Published in Business World
30 March 2015

Venezuela stands up to US bullying

The failed coup in Venezuela last February and US President Obama’s declaration this March that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is a “national security threat” to the US have escaped most Filipinos’ notice.  Understandably so, with the entire country preoccupied with  another monumental blunder by the Aquino government that has cost  scores of lives including  elite police forces and has  undermined the GPH-MILF peace negotiations. 

Yet Filipinos should sit up and take notice.  These  recent events in Venezuela underscore hard lessons  learned by the Venezuelan people and its democratically-elected government as they try to chart their nation’s destiny towards greater equity, social cohesion and national progress.  In the process they find themselves continuously, systematically and violently opposed by the small but still powerful socio-economic elite with the solid backing of the US government.

Fifteen years ago, under the leadership of President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan society underwent sweeping reforms that aimed to redistribute the revenue from its oil wealth for the benefit of the greater majority.  This entailed nationalizing the oil industry and utilizing its earnings for government programs  to make basic goods and services such as food, housing and education  universally accessible and affordable.  The Chavez leadership also pushed aggressively for genuine land reform.  It capitalized on its huge popularity with the masses to build grassroots-based people’s organizations such as worker-managed cooperatives and community councils. All these  galvanized the popular will behind Chavez and his  reform programs.

The Chavez government prevailed over unrelenting destabilization moves by its opponents including an army  coup d’état in 2002 that deposed Chavez for 48 hours, until   millions of Venequelans poured into the streets to demand his release and  loyal officers of the armed forces restored him  to power.  He ruled from then on winning a series of democratic elections until his death from illness in 2013. 

The Maduro government that took over and has carried on  the sweeping reforms of Chavez (dubbed the Bolivarian Revolution) has been met from day one by a new round of attacks from the US-backed right-wing forces code named “El Salida” or “The Exit”. 

The elements of the plot are: 1) sabotage of the supply and distribution chain for food and other basic goods in order to induce artificial shortages and run-away inflation; 2) widespread, violent “protests” that would cause chaos in the streets; 3) systematic and sustained anti-government reportage by the elite-owned private mass media outlets beamed to global media; 4) vilification of President Maduro and his government and  the projection of unrepentant coup plotters as representing the legitimate political opposition and deserving international  support  5) military actions such as assassinations of government officials, bombings of government centers and  false flag operations such as the assassination of some rightist  leaders  and deaths in violent street protests blamed on state security forces.

For two years now the government has been exerting every effort to overcome the economic sabotage measures.  According to reports, while scarcities and inexplicably inflated prices are being fought back through government police action such as forcing stores to lower their prices  and raiding warehouses to flush out hoarded goods, the economic warfare continues.  But the disturbances have not resulted in the kind of mass unrest they were meant to incite; Venezuela’s poor hold fast to their experience of much better times under the Chavez and Maduro governments.

The so-called mass protests have died down despite the efforts of opposition leaders holding the reins of local government in rich enclaves to sustain these with sporadic thrashing of public parks and government buildings by hoodlums.  The destabilizers have been trying to project the image that the Maduro government is unable to enforce basic law and order, much more, is violating its citizens’ right to freely assemble and express their grievances.  But this has not been able to stick despite willful media manipulation echoed by imperialist-controlled global corporate media.

What has become more starkly clear is that the right-wing opposition is resorting to the more dangerous option of military actions up to a full blown coup d’état to bring the government down.  It would appear from the account of the latest attempt in February of this year that the plan was to conduct aerial bombings of the Presidential Palace, the government media center Telesur, the Ministries of Defense, Interior and Foreign Relations, the Department of Military Intelligence and the Attorney General’s Office.  The publication of a manifesto in a national newspaper calling for a transition government would be the plotters’ signal fire. There would be a call for street protests once more with intentions of fomenting wanton violence and confusion in order to portray the events as the result of government repression.  A video of a detained general, a confessed coup leader in an earlier failed attempt, would be repeatedly shown to agitate members of the armed forces.  Failing this, a video of men in the uniforms of the different services of the military would be shown to announce to the country and to the world that the armed forces had risen up against the Maduro government.

This plot was  nipped in the bud and fell apart when a recidivist coup-plotting general was turned in by another officer he was trying to recruit.  The government  acted quickly to preempt any of the plotters moves.  According to Mark Weisbrot (Al Jazeera), “The Venezuelan government has produced some credible evidence of a coup in the making: the recording of a former deputy minister of the interior reading what is obviously a communiqué to be issued after the military deposes the elected government, the confessions of some accused military officers and a recorded phone conversation between opposition leaders acknowledging that a coup is in the works.

The government also categorically accused the US embassy in Venezuela of direct involvement in this latest as well as previous attempts to topple it.  It pointed to the “close relationship” of the political and military figures at the core of the February attempt at another putsch with US embassy officials.

After the standard US denial of any involvement, came in quick succession US President Obama’s declaration that the Venezuelan government is a “national security threat” to the US and that US sanctions would be imposed on seven Venezuelan officials.  This is indeed ironical given the long history of US political interference up to armed intervention not only in Venezuela but the entire breadth of Latin American countries to remove governments not to its liking or to prop up those that are its vassal states.

Aside from being a defensive reaction to the revelation of US complicity in attempts  to subvert and overthrow the Maduro government,  Obama’s declaration of Venezuela being a threat to US national interest is primarily due to Venezuela's continuing  key role  in building and strengthening alternative political and economic alliances among Latin American and Caribbean states such as Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and Petrocaribe. These alliances further the interests of these states and their peoples more than the traditional US-initiated and dominated alliances such as Organization of American States (OAS) and the so-called "Caribbean Initiative".

Rather than isolate Venezuela, Obama's move to attack and isolate Venezuela is yet another futile attempt to stem the decline of US global supremacy in its own hemisphere. #

Published in Businessworld
23 March 2015

Marching for authentic change

As of this writing, two marches are taking place on the 8th of March.  One is the annual celebration of International Women’s Day led by the militant women of Gabriela with the spotlight on the critical role of women in the struggle against the beleaguered US-backed Aquino regime in order to put in its place a more competent, accountable and democratic  government.  The other is the “March for Justice for SAF 44” organized by the alumni association of the Philippine National Police Academy with its tangential reference to women through a call for solidarity with the widows of the SAF commandoes slain in the ill-fated police operation codenamed Oplan Exodus .

The latter march is noteworthy not just for its novelty but its portent for the status quo and the regime that presides over it; a significant section of the state’s security forces remains restive over what they deem to be the unnecessary sacrifice of forty-four of their comrades.  Too bad one of the organizers, a Catholic priest who runs as a means to espouse his favored causes, is reported by mass media as already succumbing to intrigues that predict the failure of the policemen’s march because of the unwelcome participation of “leftists” and those with a “political agenda”.  (Someone should advise these well-meaning “mamang pulis”, who have been thrust into the unusual role of citizens with a grievance by no less than their Commander-in-Chief, to not get sidelined by attempts to confuse,  gag and otherwise rein them in.)

On the other hand, the women’s yearly march is being held in the midst of the Aquino regime’s worst political crisis in the aftermath of a foreign-hatched, ill-conceived and subsequently botched counterterrorist operation that has cost the lives of 62 combatants and 6 civilians, several more seriously wounded, and the fragile peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) severely, if not irreparably, damaged. 

The bloody Mamasapano clash has punctuated and pretty much exacerbated Aquino’s  record of disastrous leadership from the Luneta hostage crisis, Zamboanga siege, the inept relief and rehabilitation post-Yolanda typhoon and other calamities, pork barrel and patronage politics, MRT mishaps and the breakdown of public infrastructure and services, to name a few.  Thus calls for his resignation or ouster have been gaining a lot of traction in a surprisingly short span of time.

The struggle for women’s liberation, specifically in the Philippine setting, is firmly embedded in the continuing struggle of the Filipino people for national and social liberation from neocolonial and feudal shackles.  This Sunday, the women’s march will be celebrating the glorious history of courageous women all over the world taking their place, alongside the menfolk, in the place of honor – the line of fire. 

They are challenging sexual stereotypes and gender oppression in the context of class structures of oppression and exploitation.  In the Philippines, they are fighting against a moribund social system perpetuated by the domestic ruling elite in partnership with foreign, notably US, imperialist interests.  This system has been installing and propping up a series of reactionary, deceptive and repressive regimes since the grant of nominal self-rule.  The regime of Benigno S. Aquino III is no exception.

Gabriela and the broader Women for Aquino’s Resignation Now (WARN) will be joined by the multisectoral formation Noynoy Out Now (NOW).  NOW is demanding not just Aquino’s removal from office but the establishment of an interim People’s Council for National Unity, Reform and Peace that will “lead the transition to a new and better government…that better responds to the people’s clamor for political, economic and social reforms.”  NOW says categorically, “It cannot be business as usual.”  Thus the group rejects turning power over to the constitutionally mandated succession, i.e. to the incumbent Vice President, for the remainder of Aquino’s term.

It is premature at this point to name “who” will take over the helm of government.  NOW asserts that the People’s Council will be formed “through a democratic process, from the wide array of organizations, groups and individuals involved in the movement to compel Aquino’s resignation.”  NOW believes that there are more than enough “patriotic Filipinos with a track record of leadership in the people’s movement for democratic reforms, with known probity, integrity and independence” who can step up the plate and lead at the proper time.

What is important are the urgent reform measures that such a caretaker or transitional government will undertake in the short time it is envisioned to govern -- one to two years.  According to NOW, these are: 1) create an independent Truth Commission to investigate and prosecute those accountable for the Mamasapano fiasco; 2) undertake electoral reforms to prevent cheating and fraud, reduce patronage politics and prohibit political dynasties; 3) abolish the pork barrel system and prosecute  those responsible for the DAP and the PDAF scams;  4) introduce key economic policies to ensure food sufficiency, land reform, national industrialization, jobs, higher incomes and basic social services for the poor and middle class; 5) review lop-sided agreements such as the Visiting Forces Agreement and Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA); 6) pursue peace negotiations with the MILF and NDFP by honoring agreements and addressing the root causes of the armed conflicts.

Filipinos have gone through two successful people’s uprisings dubbed “people power” that have brought about a change in regimes but sorely failed in reforming, if not overhauling, a backward, undemocratic, unjust and corrupt social order.  In the meantime the status quo is being weakened by socio-economic decay and rocked by social unrest, deadly infighting among factions of the ruling elite and armed conflicts with the communist-led revolutionary movement and Moro secessionist movements. 

Even the ruling classes and their foreign backers know that the system is bursting apart at the seams and thus the opposing factions jostle each other to take the mantle of “reforming” the system while ensuring things remain essentially the same for as long as possible.

There is understandable pessimism or even cynicism among the middle forces (those for whom the system has still something to offer, if not a bright future, then a tolerable one) that another stab at reform via “people power” will only lead to more disorder and instability.  They are suspicious and leery of opportunists among the so-called Opposition or among the military who may simply wish to grab power.  The politically conservative also fear the “militant Left”. 

Those among our people whose lives have gone from bad to worse on a daily basis and whose futures are as bleak as ever will embrace the window of opportunity for changing the system that accompanies removing an inept, uncaring and anti-people president like BS Aquino.  For they having nothing to lose and much to gain once organized to push for authentic and meaningful societal change. #

Published in Business World
9 March 2015