by Daniel Long

 

The Philippine Star reported on February 20 that the University of the Philippines (UP), University of Santo Tomas (UST), and De La Salle University (DLSU) had announced their intention to suspend classes on February 25 to “allow students, faculty, and staff to join events commemorating the revolt”. Last February 5, Akbayan partylist nominee Atty. Chel Diokno said that the House’s impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte is a triumph of the spirit of EDSA. “As we mark 39 years since the EDSA People Power Revolution, the House’s impeachment of Sara Duterte is a testament to the power of active citizenship. The recent waves of anti-Sara protests found their epicenter at EDSA—the very ground where Filipinos once dismantled a dictatorship and where they now stand resolute against the Dutertes,” he said. The grandson of the late President Corazon Aquino, Kiko Aquino Dee, also calls for the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte. Kiko is one of the signatories in an impeachment complaint against the Vice President. What does this day commemorate? According to the Yellow narrative – For 3 days, 2-3 million Filipinos gathered at Epifanio de los Santos Avenue to call for the removal of President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. who was a dictator, murderer, and a thief; this was an organic peaceful uprising that ultimately forced Marcos and his family to leave Malacañang Palace and give up power out of fear of the people. Freedom was restored and poverty would finally be eradicated!

The truth is that only the economically illiterate and historical mythologists still insist that EDSA Uno was a positive event for the nation. It was nothing but a power grab by elites and the Americans that has resulted in four decades of rapid de-industrialization (only ASEAN country w/ no steel mill), devaluation of the peso, perpetual debt service, agricultural import dependency, corruption of the national budget, ayuda mendicancy, a mothballed nuclear power plant, and privatization of public utilities like water and power which has made the nation poor and underdeveloped. The biggest joke is that it restored “democracy” to the people – one should look at their electric, grocery, and water bills and really ask themselves, “Do I feel free?” What is worse are the Yellows who wish to keep this scam alive by championing the impeachment of the duty elected Vice President Sara Duterte. She is the highest vote getter in Philippine election history, receiving 32 million votes (61%). It is not ironic, but actually consistent, that while the Yellows are a loud minority, they like to pretend as if they are on the side of democracy but are in fact engaging in mob rule. After all, less than 2% of the population (mostly from Metro Manila) went to EDSA on February 25, 1986. President Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada was removed by the oligarchs in the Second EDSA revolt after he stood up to them and refused to raise the price of electricity and water. Recall that “democracy icon” Cory Aquino herself apologized to Erap. I am almost certain that many politicians will be doing the same thing to VP Sara if she does get convicted by the Senate and her replacement will turn out to be even worse than what they claim she is. Impeachment of Sara is not about accountability, it is about politics and eliminating her as a candidate for the 2028 elections. Recall the P500M bribe given to senators for the impeachment/conviction of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona.

The Americans are behind VP Sara’s impeachment in the same way they were the masterminds of EDSA Uno ousting President Marcos Sr. This is because both Marcos Sr. and VP Sara Duterte champion an “independent foreign policy”. Both of them are firmly against the CPP-NPA-NDF terrorists. Sara crushed them in Davao as Mayor and made it her mission to end the cycle of terrorist recruitment at DepEd, which has the most number of government employees and protect 6-7 million elementary and high school students from taking up arms against the state. Marcos Sr. made sure the US bases in Subic and Clark would leave by 1991. In fact, First Lady Imelda Marcos herself was bragging that the “first thing” her husband did was to bring down the US bases agreement in 1966. The elder Marcoses were rightly proud of their legacy of ending American colonialism in the country. Cory Aquino called US Ambassador to the Philippines Stephen Bosworth and told him to “get them [Marcos] out of the Philippines”.

She demanded the Americans kidnap Marcos and his family and send them to Hawaii from Clark Air Base. US Secretary of State George Shultz himself admitted the US role in removing Marcos when he said it was the “unanimous conclusion of people from defense, state, and CIA” that Marcos “was not able to govern” and that “WE should get him out of there,” Sara was the only top government official who objected to the US’ request to send 50,000 Afghan refugees to the country temporarily for visa resettlement, citing national security and sovereignty issues.

It was Madam Imelda Marcos who began the Philippines’ diplomatic relations with China in 1975, even before the US did. This year is the 50th year anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Last year, Imelda herself asked Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian to “continue Philippines-China friendship for peace”. VP Sara is heeding Imelda’s call by being “always present” in Chinese Embassy gatherings, the latest being her personal acceptance of the Ambassador’s invitation to celebrate the Chinese Lantern Festival. It is my view that genuine democracy and development in the Philippines can only be achieved in a Sara presidency.

The noisiest propaganda machine in the Philippines that demonized Marcos Sr. – with stories of ill-gotten wealth and martial law abuses are Rappler and the VERA Files, who have received tens of millions of pesos in funding from the US based National Endowment of Democracy as well as indirect financial support from the USAID. They are now demonizing VP Sara Duterte as being corrupt due to her confidential funds use and push impeachment as a way to hold her accountable.

First, the Office of the Vice President is not the only agency with confidential funds and she is not even the top spender. Second, the Commission on Audit has given both the OVP and DepEd under Sara an “unqualified opinion”, the highest audit rating a government agency can receive. In other words, a clean report. Third, Atty. Gloria Camora, from the COA’s Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (the proper forum for answering questions about CFs use), has testified under oath in multiple congressional hearings that Sara’s use of CFs are in line with their rules and that she has submitted documentary evidence. COA’s audit of her CFs use is ongoing and there is no judgment finding her guilty of plunder and malversation of public funds. Fourth, because of the sub judice rule, which prevents the accused in an ongoing court case from commenting on the matter publicly, Sara cannot disclose details of her CFs use. (For more details on this subject, please visit my articles “The Truth about Sara’s Confidential Funds” and “Why I’m Against Sara’s Impeachment“)

Now that Sara has announced that she is “seriously considering” running for President in 2028 because “naiiwan na ang Pilipinas” (The Philippines is being left behind by its neighbors), Sara must continue the legacy of the elder Marcos and her father Duterte in pushing for an independent foreign policy. Food self-sufficiency and food production is how true sovereignty is exercised by a nation. News reports of the country being the top rice importer in the world and even importing galunggong fish are unacceptable since we have more than enough arable land and claim to be an archipelagic state. Sara must create a separate Department of Fisheries, as we are the only country in ASEAN without one. A mere “Bureau” of Fisheries is not enough as they are limited to managerial and inconsequential tasks, hindering decision-making. The Philippines during the time of Marcos Sr. used to provide free irrigation for farmers and was self-sufficient in rice and even exported them to neighboring countries Malaysia and Indonesia. Marcos Sr. also issued a declaration that all rice farmers would be the owners of the land they tilled. After EDSA, irrigation fees were charged to rice farmers before President Duterte signed the Free Irrigation Act in 2018. Sara must boost hybrid rice production, which the late Chinese scientist “Father of Hybrid Rice” Dr. Yuan Longping introduced to the country in the 1970s which boosted the income of our farmers. Hybrid rice is less dependent on pesticides and more of it can be produced in a shorter period of time. During this time, the US introduced NSM200 (National Security Memorandum 200), which advocates for a policy of food import dependency for developing countries like ours. The only way out of poverty is to abandon the US-led World Trade Organization and reject its population control plans for the Philippines to depend on the “global market” for our food supply.

Marcos the Elder built the Light Rail Transit (LRT) system in the country, the first ever in Asia. Like Sara said, many Duterte-era projects with Chinese funding like the Subic-Clark, Bicol, and Mindanao railways have been shelved. Indonesia was the first country in Southeast Asia to have a high speed rail thanks to Chinese loan assistance. Kaliwa Dam, which would provide 600M liters of water to the 20 million residents of Metro Manila daily, should have been fast-tracked. The reality is that China is now the sole manufacturing superpower in the world. While continuing to uphold our claim in the South China Sea, Sara says the territorial dispute “must not define” the totality of bilateral relations with China. Let us also revisit the wisdom of Marcos Sr.: “China is on the side of developing countries like the Philippines.”

President Sara must resurrect her father’s 2018 deal for a 60-40 (60 for PH, 40 for China) joint oil and gas venture in the disputed Reed Bank. This is consistent with UNCLOS, specifically Article 122-123 which calls on coastal states to jointly manage, explore, exploit, and conserve the resources in semi-enclosed seas like the South China Sea / West Philippine Sea. The path forward is not to pursue moot and academic debates about ownership but to share the resources in the area instead. Tito Sotto, a top choice in the 2025 Senate race, also holds this view.

A Sara presidency must kick out the US EDCA military bases out of the country. Article 18, Section 25 of the 1987 Constitution is very clear that foreign military bases are unlawful. EDSA Uno was supported by the US primarily because Marcos Sr. gave them the finger. In 1966, Marcos Sr. cut the lease of permanent US military bases (1947 Military Bases Agreement) in Subic and Clark from 99 years to 25 years and demanded that the Americans pay $900 million for rent in the form of “economic aid”. Marcos Sr. had said that US military bases expose the Philippines to conflicts which were not of our own making and would endanger Filipinos from attacks by enemies of the US.

In 1986, it was Cory Aquino’s chief PR manager and speechwriter British citizen Mark-Malloch Brown who led the propaganda campaign against Imelda in the “Trial of the Century” at New York City where she was eventually acquitted. Cory Aquino had led a 200,000 person “people power” rally to try to save the US bases in Subic and Clark in 1991. According to the book “Alpha Dogs: The Americans Who Turned Political Spin into a Global Business”, Malloch-Brown would admit a few years later regarding his activities, “I was probably a little guilty of not [offering] complete clarity.” Mark Malloch-Brown also coached Cory and the Yellows to brand Marcos Sr. as “dictator and corrupt”. The slogans (Magnanakaw, Diktador) we hear today from anti-Marcos activists find their origin here. Malloch-Brown was the man responsible for the election returns after the 1987 snap elections claiming Cory won against Marcos Sr.

Sara must take a setup further than what her father did in crushing the oligarchy by triggering Article 12, Section 17-18 of the 1987 Constitution which grants the State the power to take over public utilities like electricity and water distribution in times of emergency. The economy would actually experience a boom – “ayuda” is just a band aid solution to our current economic woes. She must see to it that the culture of unconditional cash assistance, which is just pork barrel and vote buying in different names, is abolished.

In 1997, President Fidel Ramos, upon US-run World Bank and International Monetary Fund recommendations, privatized the water distribution sector. The Philippines was the first country in Asia to do this. 25 years later, the fruits of privatization are clear: profit-making at people’s expense, overcharging, shortages, and interruptions. Then in 2019, water distribution companies Manila Water and Maynilad won an arbitration case in Singapore against the Philippine government and asked the state to pay them the billions they believed they were owed. President Duterte was furious – he cursed the owners Jaime/Fernando de Ayala and Manny Pangilinan and threatened to take over their companies. He then ordered a new revised water deal which stopped the water companies from passing on their taxes and income losses to the consumers.

Finally, Sara must also make abolishing the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) law, which banned government involvement in the power sector, a top priority measure. The law was sold to the public that it would lower the price of electricity. 24 years later, we can see that that was a lie. Last June, Meralco reported that 2 million households in Metro Manila, Rizal, Pasig, and other areas suffered brownouts. Senator Risa Hontiveros has asked Meralco to refund an estimated P100 billion of overcharging fees to consumers. At the same time, the elites who own Meralco were practically bragging about making record profits at people’s expenses. Every business suffers risk and losses, but the power sector in the Philippines is the only one that passes on its lost profits (system loss charges) to its consumers. This is not the case with our neighbors China, Singapore, and Vietnam. The country has one of, if not the most expensive electricity prices in Asia which drives away foreign investors. During the time of Marcos Sr., electricity was cheap and abundant because Meralco was in government hands. After EDSA, the housewife with no political experience Cory Aquino returned Meralco to the Lopezes in what the now 101 year old Juan Ponce Enrile described as a “sweetheart deal”.

God Save the Philippines! Filipinos deserve better Leaders!

   

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