39 years after martial law was declared

Tomorrow is the 39th year when Martial Law was declared… a decision by the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos to plunge the entire Philippine archipelago into an unwanted dictatorship, throwing away Asia’s first democracy out of the window. I have written volumes about the years we were under martial law and everyone will agree with me that the biggest failure of the Marcos Dictatorship was that, it did not implement a system of governance that would have made the Philippines the great nation that we are.

While the Marcos Dictatorship removed the oligarchy, it put in place a new group of “New Colonialists” as defined in the speech by former Rep. Romulo B. Lumauig which was called “cronyism”. After the EDSA Revolt, Pres. Cory Aquino brought back the oligarchy, but did not stop the cronies from keeping their stolen properties, which is why the Filipino people today have to deal with a well-entrenched oligarchy and those untouchable cronies. Yet you wonder why the Philippines is still poor 39 years after martial law?

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My Sept. 15 article dubbed “Will US Imperialism return with a vengeance” has triggered a lot of positive commentaries… thanking me for reminding them of what the 12 Senators did 20 years ago when they refused to sign a treaty with the United States to extend their military bases in the country. Now people are watching our Senators closely whether they would still support the RH Bill which is pressured by US State Department Secretary Hilary Clinton. As we said, all this is in the hands of our Senators.

I did get a negative response from a certain Frank Beltran, a Filipino who is now living in the US who told me that he saw how overpopulated we are in this country and that we should listen to the United States on how we should decrease our population. I simply replied… because he saw too many poor Filipinos, he then decided that we are overpopulated. But I asked him, what if he only saw middle class Filipinos? Would he still think that we are overpopulated? Finally, I told him that a few days ago, a US research group admitted that there are now 46 million Americans in the poverty line, so I asked him... Can we now consider America as overpopulated? I got no reply!

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Speaking of America, last Friday, I met with US Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. at the SM Northwing during the launching of America in 3D. 3D stands for, Diplomacy, Development and Defense. I was elated to see the US Ambassador wearing casual clothes and greeting us in Cebuano “Maayong Gabii kaniyong tanan!” At least the US Ambassador knows well enough that in this part of the country, we do not speak the Tagalog language. What was surprising to me was that, our dear friend, Sara Soliven de Guzman (the daughter of Sir Max Soliven) was part of his entourage. It was good to spend some time with her in SM for a cup of coffee.

Actually, the US Ambassador was in Cebu last Friday together with Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia to support the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) in the Province of Cebu that created a group called “Movement of Anti-Trafficking Advocates (MATA) which has networked with the Visayan Forum Foundation (VFFI) to help in the fight against human trafficking, which was formally launched at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).

I submit that I’ve been staunchly asking for the abolition of the SK for reasons that they have become irrelevant to society. However this is a new twist in their roles in society and if the youth under the SK would be the eyes and ears of our authorities in curbing trafficking against persons prowling in Internet cafes, then perhaps the SK has now found a new objective in their lives. Anti-human trafficking is supported not only by the Philippine government, but also by the US government.

On Saturday, US Ambassador Thomas again together with Cebu Gov. Gwen F. Garcia presented the keys to the new homeowners during the inauguration of a new street in Minglanilla at the Gawad

Kalinga (GK) Village named Sugbo. Lexmark which has a huge facility in Cebu has pledged to build 150 homes in that 9-hectare property which is the biggest GK village in the Province of Cebu. Even US Navy personnel has pitched in to help build a few homes in this GK Village.

Last Sunday morning, US Honorary Consul John Domingo invited all his friends on board the USS Russell (DDG-59) which is anchored off Talisay City. This is an Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer armed with Harpoon Ship-to-Ship missiles and the famous Tomahawk cruise missiles that could reach targets thousands of miles away. If only we got one such Destroyer instead of that old Hamilton Class cutter, perhaps China would show us some respect!

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