About the book Kiss and Bite

i





About the book “Kiss and Bite”:

In this 16th volume of the Make My Day Book series, Larry Henares continues to

explore the human condition with his observations of history and commentaries on the

contemporary scene. He shows his expertise on his favorite American, having read and

enjoyed all the four volumes of Carl Sandburg Lincoln biography as a teenager – and it

shows in his essay on the battle of Gettysburg, the turning point of the American Civil

War. His Philippine Centennial Series in the ISYU opinion newspaper, which included

9-part series on Aguinaldo and a 16-part comprehensive and monumental history of the

Filipino people, is represented in this volume by a series on the Philippine American War

and a series on the Malolos Convention which produced the first Constitution in all of

Asia. Convention. He rounds it out with insightful observations on the presidential

elections of 1992 and 1998.

But his expertise as an engineer schooled in business administration shows in his

essays on the Organization Man, and on the dangers of leaded gasoline and the viability

of nuclear power plants. Then again his series on two most controversial characters in

Philippine history – Harry Stonehill, a GI turned tycoon, who was thrown out of the

country for corrupting the officialdom – and Danding Cojuangco (a cousin of his wife), a

supporter of Marcos and Erap Estrada, known in the business world as PACMAN and

Crocodile Dundeeing, and lusting to be President of the Philippines.

Lastly, there is his last desperate call for Nationalism, a heart-tugging essay on

why “lost causes are the only causes worth dying for.”

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BOOK 16: KISS AND BITE

TABLE OF CONTENTS





CHAPTER 1. By Arabian curse, we live in historic times……………………. 001

CHAPTER 2. Tom Alcantara and Christine's Delight………………………. 003

CHAPTER 3. To Bishops: Vox Populi, Vox Ecclesiae, Vox Dei…………. 006

CHAPTER 4. Listen to Caruso in full fidelity sound!!..................................... 007

CHAPTER 5. The Saga of Rosie Cojuangco………………………………… 009

CHAPTER 6. Building St. Lucifer’s Church……………………………….. 012

CHAPTER 7. Emilio Ong -- Charlie Chan or Fu Manchu or Siopao Man?... 014

CHAPTER 8. The Battle of Gettysburg……………………………………... 016

CHAPTER 9. The Philippine-American War (1898-1902)…………………... 019

Part 1: USA spoiling for a fight with Spain…………………………… 019

Part 2: Knuckle Head George meets Bobo Montejo………………... 021

Part 3: Time came for Americans to betray the Filipinos……………. 022

Part 4: Giving God credit that should belong to Americans…………. 023

CHAPTER 10. The 100th anniversary of the Malolos Convention……….. 025

Part 1. The Spaniard who fought for our Revolution……………… 025

Part 2. Malolos delegates were anything but the oppressed………. 026

Part 3. Eleven constitutions predated the Malolos Constitution….. 028

Part 4. We’ll dine on Aguinaldo’s sumptuous banquet!................... 029

Part 5. Tuxedos, not barongs, were in vogue 100 years ago………. 031

Part 6. The irony of the lyrics of our song of love…………………. 032

Part 7. Greatness lies in the wonder of what-might-have-been…… 033

Part 8 Our Philippine Revolution was unique in all Asia…………. 035

Part 9. Addendum: Pampanga: of noble blood and dugong aso…. 036

CHAPTER 11. On a Note of Triumph, elections of 1992…………………… 038

Part 1. Juan de la Cruz wins…………………………………………. 038

Part 2. Growing bananas in the North Pole…………………………. 041

Part 3. Windmills of the gods………………………………………… 043

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CHAPTER 12. The Battle of the Beaten, elections of 1998……………….. 045

Part 1. The Veeps: the Battle of the Beaten………………………… 045

Part 2. The Presidential candidates: I thought he’d shoot me!........... 047

Part 3. Me Trapo, Igno Ramos, Cuha-on Ko, Salompas!.................... 049

CHAPTER 13. The Organization Man………………………………………. 051

Part 1. How to make cookies and doughnuts………………………… 051

Part 2. The One Best Way……………………………………………. 052

Part 3. Business Consultant…………………………………………… 053

Part 4. Industrialization………………………………………………… 054

Part 5. Personal Leadership…………………………………………… 055

Part 6. Management Team……………………………………………. 056

Part 7. Three Types Of Organization…………………………………. 057

Part 8. Functional Organization……………………………………….. 058

Part 9. Divisionalized Organization…………………………………… 059

Part 10. Ad Hoc Organization………………………………………… 060

Part 11. The New Organization Man…………………………………. 061

Part 12. The Wise Man Of The Mountain……………………………. 062

CHAPTER 14. Imeldific!................................................................................... 062

Part 1. There is method in Imelda’s madness………………………. 062

Part 2. Non-existent gold and PCGG’s failure……………………… 064

Part 3. Imeldific effect on politics and economy……………………. 065

Part 4. Imelda gets cash, and tycoons get marginalized……………. 067

CHAPTER 15. Lead Poisoning………………………………………………. 068

Part 1. We all suffer from lead-poisoning…………………………… 068

Part 2. QC Councilor has lead in his head…………………………… 070

Part 3. Let’s phase out if not totally ban leaded gasoline…………… 071

CHAPTER 16. The Bataan Nuclear Plant……………………………………. 073

Part 1. Time to look at nuclear plants in general …………………… 073

Part 2. How safe are nuclear power plants?........................................ 074

Part 3. Lessons of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island………………. 077

Part 4. Shall we convert the Bataan nuclear plant to oil-fired?........ 079

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CHAPTER 17. The Saga of Harry Stonehill…………………………………. 081

Part 1. Harry Stonehill was the PACMAN of his time………………. 081

Part 2. The Web Of Corruption………………………………………. 082

Part 3.. Tom, Dick and Dirty Harry…………………………………… 083

Part 4. Of Captains and Kings………………………………………… 084

Part 5. CIA Agent Spielman…………………………………………… 085

Part 6. Diokno and Bobby Kennedy…………………………………… 086

Part 7. American Agents Take Over………………………………….. 087

Part 8. The Devouring Monster………………………………………. 088

Part 9. Saboteur And Squaw Man…………………………………….. 090

Part 10. Not Wild About Harry………………………………………… 091

Part 11. From an American with Love…………………………………. 092

CHAPTER 18. Lost Causes are the causes worth dying for………………….. 100

Part 1. The First Filipino and the star we followed……………………. 100

Part 2. The new Filipino follows a different star………………………. 101

Part 3. Lost causes are the only ones worth dying for………………… 103

CHAPTER 19 Council on Philippine Affairs………………………………… 105

Part 1. COPA is not a secret subversive group………………………. 105

Part 2. The Origin of COPA……………………………………………. 107

Part 3. COPA does not speak for me…………………………………… 108

CHAPTER 21. Danding Cojuangco……………………………………………. 110

Part. 1 PACMAN and the GREMLINS……………………………….. 110

Part 2. Danding's Pearl Of The Orient Seas…………………………… 115

Part 3. Detergents Pollute Our Drinking Water………………………. 119

Part 4 . Monopoly, Pollution: Laundry Soap better than Detergents? 122

Part 5. Welcome home, cousin Danding! (1)………………………….. 125

Part 6. Gretchen scandal, an outrageous lie (2)………………………. 127

Part 7. Crocodile Dundeeng may be the next president………………. 129

Part 8. Ateneans resent high school grad from La Salle (1)……………131

Part 9. Will Danding Cojuangco be another Marcos?? (2)……………. 134

Part 10. Manapat's book changes the political equations (1)…………. 136

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Part 11. The real Danding –‘capable of taking lives’ (2)……………… 139

Part 12. The terrifying monstrosity that is Imelda (3)………………… 141

Part 13. The life-style of Danding's henchmen……………………….. 144

END OF BOOK…………………………………………………………… 146

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CHAPTER 1. By Arabian curse, we live in historic times





ARABIANS are experts in curses, “May a thousand fleas infest your armpits!”

Or worse, “May you live in historic times!” historic times being times of change, of

ferment, of instability, of conflict, of bloodshed even.

My favorite Makati judge observed that ours is a historic time -- meaning that of

Diosdado Macapagal, Komong Sumulong, Teddyman Benigno and Anding Roces.

We were born when Quezon and Osmeña struggled for political independence.

We suffered through the Japanese Occupation and World War II. We were there at the

time of Independence on July 4, 1945, and the imposition of Parity Rights, Free Trade

and Military Bases on us by Uncle Sham.

We witnessed the birth of the nuclear bomb, antibiotics, LP record, space travel,

transistor, tape recorder, television, color TV, jet plane, satellites, birth control pill, organ

transplants, DNA and genetic engineering, laser beam, computer, videocam -- all of

which changed our lives beyond recall.

We have survived many economic crises, cold and hot wars like Korea, Bay of

Pigs, Vietnam, and the Middle East, the final collapse of the Communist “evil empire”

and the end of the Socialist Dream.

And we were there when the Twelve Apostles of Freedom in the Senate finally

lifted the yoke of Western colonialism from our necks.

To my youngest child Rosanna, now an executive in a multinational company,

events and people we consider modern and contemporary are ancient and antique --

Magsaysay and Recto belong to the age of Rizal and Aguinaldo -- the propeller driven

airplane, the 78 rpm record, ether anesthetic, sulfa drugs and penicillin, the slide rule and

the mechanical calculator are as primitive as the camera obscura and the silent movies --

World War II, the Yom Kippur War, the Korean War and the Bay of Pigs Fiasco are as

unreal as the Spanish American War. Nelson Eddy, Mario Lanza, Robert Taylor, who

dat??

Yet history only seems like yesterday for many of us. I met Quezon, Osmeña and

Aguinaldo when they had lunch with my grandfather at his house. I met every president

since then, Laurel, Roxas, Quirino, and served three of them, Magsaysay, Garcia and the

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great Macapagal. Cory served us coffee when we visited Ninoy with whom I was a

candidate for the Senate.

I had tea with Ike Eisenhower, and personally met Albert Einstein, Robert

Oppenheimer (father of the Atom Bomb), even Nelson Eddy and Ingrid Bergman. At

school I met Peter Black, inventor of the LP record; Edwin Land of Polaroid and the

instant camera; Norman Wiener of Cybernetics and the computer; Thomas Edgerton who

invented the stroboscopic light and electronic flash; Natalie Kalmus widow of the

inventor of Technicolor; Lillian Gilbreth, widow of Frank the pioneer in Scientific

Management.

I met and am still friends with Ka Luis Taruc and Commander Dante, both giants

in history of the dissident movement.

At this point in time, I am proudest to have The Magnificent Twelve, the Apostles

of Freedom as old friends from way back. I met Teroy Laurel and Jovy Salonga when I

was in MIT and they were in Harvard, and I baby-sat for Teroy's child. Rene Saguisag is

married to my first cousin, a close associate for a long time. Butz Aquino used to make

ligaw to his wife Popsy who lived in our house, and I still require him to make mano to

me when we meet.

Ernie Maceda replaced me in the cabinet as PACD chief and went on to greater

heights. Tito Guingona was a close colleague since we headed the Chambers of

Commerce and Industry together. Victor Ziga's mom was a colleague of my mother in

the women's lib movement. Nene Pimentel was my hero since he was incarcerated by

Marcos in Bicutan.

Bobby Tañada is the son of my greatest living hero and good friend, Lorenzo

Tañada. Orly Mercado was the professor of my daughters in UP MassCom. Johnny

Ponce Enrile and I have many common friends. And Erap Estrada will always be my

movie idol.

We thank our lucky stars for being around in the 20th century, our lives touched

by its greatest people, and participating in a small way in the shaping of its destiny.

Our regret is that our beloved Cory who came into power by toppling the

Dictator, could have ended her regime gloriously by ridding us of the last vestige of

Western Colonialism, and giving reality to Quezon’s dream of “total, immediate and

3



absolute independence.” For that she might have turned out to be one of our greatest

presidents.

Today, with faggots and freaks managing our economy, with traitors and crooks

running our government, with clowns and morons infesting our elective offices -- with

corporate greed and personal avarice dissipating our resources and destroying our

environment, our armed forces making war on our people in behalf of a foreign power --

and God striking us down with the most awful calamities -- under the two worst

administrations in our history, we Filipinos are like lemmings heading for self-

destruction.

Will the next generation be able to cope and overcome?

October 10, 1991









CHAPTER 2. Tom Alcantara and Christine's Delight





AND NOW FOR THE VISCERAL...

Joker Arroyo declined a Supreme Court post, so we are stuck with him as the

Executive Secretary. But don't give up hope. All candidates vying for the senate are

already preparing privilege speeches demanding his resignation.

But Joker should take it in his stride. Every Executive Secretary is a straw dog;

he must bear the ire of those who dare not get mad at the President herself. Every

Executive Secretary shields the President from criticism by taking the blame for doing

the unpleasant jobs. This goes on till the pressure builds up to the point of explosion,

then the executive secretary (like Alex Melchor of Marcos, like Amelito Mutuc of

Macapagal) is replaced and another straw dog is hired. What Joker should do is to set up

his own straw dog.

With JoeCon back in the Trade Ministry, Tom Alcantara has less work to do, and

can resume receiving applications from girls who want to marry him. Tom who is single,

a Harvard boy, and a good catch, treats marriage proposals like job applications. He

requires the girls to submit to an interview, IQ tests, physical examination and medical

certification. Good hunting, girls, one way to do it is to express the hope that he is not

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pondido, burnt out, kaput; that is how the girls panicked Jobo Fernandez and Beniting

Legarda into abandoning their bachelorhood.

The Opus Dei has a valid point when it says that I unfairly attribute the personal

opinions of its members to the organization itself. They are right perhaps here in the

Philippines, and to that extent, I apologize to those aggrieved, especially to my nephew

Ali Oppen who broods about what I write about his friends; also to Father Jose

Cremades, fondly referred to as the Spanish Inquisitor of the Opus Dei.

Okay, from here on I resolve not to blame The Work for the activities of its

members. That is a promise.

One reason why the Opus Dei members feel continuously maligned by this

columnist, is that they simply refuse to meet with me and give their side of any news

derogatory to themselves. This is true of most, not just a few, so one cannot help but

conclude these people speak and act with one mind.

Most of my informants are also of venerable church institutions, such as the

Maryknoll, the Jesuits, Benedictines and secular priests. I have been given several

magazine articles regarding the activities of the Opus Dei in Spain, Chile and Latin

American countries. People must learn to engage in free, open and unlimited debate;

secrecy can only arouse suspicion and criticism.

It is rare that we find an American to our liking, one with a high IQ and a sense of

humanity. One such is Ms. Robin Broad. She first came to this country in 1977 on a

year's fellowship with the Henry Luce Foundation, which finances 15 Americans every

year to go to Asia to work like the Peace Corps. She stayed in Xavier University in

Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental, and learned from people-to-people contact what

American policy does to Filipinos, especially in Del Monte and Dole, in the World Bank

and the IMF.

She went back to finish her course in Princeton University and came back to the

Philippines to work on her doctorate thesis in 1980-81. The World Bank was then

forcing the Philippines into accepting Program loans rather than Project Loans. They call

it SAL, or Structural Adjustment Loans, by which they lend us money if we surrender to

them the economic policy of the nation.

I was trying in vain to get the Letter of Intent and other pertinent information

5



from the Central Bank, which was refused me on the ground that such are privileged

communications. I met Robin who volunteered to get the information for me. Imagine

Virata giving all privileged communications to an American graduate student while

denying them to me, a citizen of the Philippines. This is the kind of colonial mentality

that afflicts the government even now.

Robin went back to Princeton, authored a book along with Waldo Bello called

“Development Debacle” on the World Bank, met and married a delightfully witty and

brilliant John Cavanaugh, with whom she is visiting the Philippines. Both are part of a

team that came to investigate on behalf of a prestigious think-tank in Washington the

implications of American Aid and Cory's Peace Initiatives on American foreign policy.

Christine Bosworth has a reputation of being a real good cook. We were looking

for one of her recipes, but none seems available. There is however a dish known as

Christine's Delight, being cooked and served by one Pamela Margoshes, which she

guarantees is eatable by anyone with a glass-lined stomach.

The recipe. Get a fresh head of cabbage, and attack it with a meat cleaver till

mutilated beyond all hope. To be sure it is really dead, drown it in chile sauce, olive oil,

onions and garlic, and sautee the mess. Separately get a squid complete with ink, attack

it likewise with a meat cleaver, and drown it in olive oil and a bottled spaghetti sauce

called “Prego”; cook it till totally incinerated and then add the mutilated cabbage above.

I had my cook try the recipe at home, and we had to discard the pot because it was

totally corroded in the process, as if someone added Aqua Regia to spice the dish. Aqua

Regia (royal water) is a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acid, the only chemical

solution known that can dissolve gold.

Alan Croghan eats Christine's Delight regularly to get off on toots.

Jose Mari Gonzalez, superstar of the late late show, of Cinema Audio and Radio

ng Bayan, is running for Congress against Ronnie Zamora in San Juan. Mandaluyong

area. Joey feels that the sponsorship of Neptali Gonzales and Mon Mitra of Ronnie under

the Lakas ng Bansa, is a slap at all non-balimbings who supported Cory. Also running

are Karen Tañada, nationalist; and Vicky Pineda Garchitorena, brilliant nuclear scientist,

wife of the missing front tooth.

March 7, 1987

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CHAPTER 3. To Bishops: Vox Populi, Vox Ecclesiae, Vox Dei





The human race has advanced to such an extent in science and technology, in

philosophy, in political thought, in social organization, that we can literally make things

happen beyond our wildest dreams. But what ought to happen? There are powerful

institutions to give us guidance about what ought to happen – the most powerful, perhaps,

being religion. Regardless of what science and modern management and

communications make possible, moral approval or disapproval has, throughout man’s

history, influenced which advances he accepts instantly, which he accepts more slowly

and which he rejects altogether.

In our country, it is the Catholic Church which speaks out with authority on the

moral issues of our time. Such a voice has not always been clear, has not always been

loud enough, has not always been right, has not always been wise, has not always been

accepted and followed. But it has always been there, it has always tried to articulate the

collective conscience of the Filipino people. And it has always been important for the

Filipino people that such a voice be spoken with authority, with firm conviction and more

importantly, with credibility.

In the aftermath of the elections that ushered a new political leadership into the

21st century, the Third Millenium of our Lord, the Year of the Holy Spirit and the

Centennial of our nation’s birth, we note with great sadness that such a voice has been

discordant, confusing, and many times contradictory, even cloying in its balimbingan.

How else can we in the laity take such pronouncements as “The burial of Marcos

is a political decision which only the President can make” (it is also a moral decision for

those who have been robbed and tortured)? “Personal morality is irrelevant in public

office, compared to public performance” (Personal morality is always relevant in the

affairs of men, public or private)? “A bishop’s views is purely his own, and does not

reflect that of the Church” (only if he resigns from the leadership of a church

organization)? “We totally endorse the plan to privatize government assets and services”

(totally outside the scope of church expertise because its economics may involve non-

delivery of welfare subsidies to the marginalized)? “A priest can never marry” (once a

7



priest always a priest, but he can marry with the Pope’s dispensation and his resignation

from active ministry, or if he happens to be a Catholic priest of the Eastern rites,

Maronite or Melkite)?

Since Vatican II, even as the priest celebrating mass now faces the people and

speaks to them in a language they understand, the church voice is not only that of its

priests and bishops, but also of its churchgoers and parishioners. We of the faithful speak

with you our Bishops in one voice, and we fervently hope, with the voice of God. And

we speak to you with an appeal, to consult with us on matters that lie within our

knowledge and expertise, to consider our views and interests, when you speak for the

Church. And let such a voice be clear and unequivocal, consistent and logical, righteous

and true, enlightened and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

June 23, 1998, ISYU









CHAPTER 4. Listen to Caruso in full fidelity sound!!





Put an old Enrico Caruso record, made in the 1900s, on a modern phonograph,

and it will sound noisy and scratchy because of the wear and tear on the record grooves

and the inherent roughness of the shellac material. It will sound quite muffled, as if

Caruso was singing inside a wooden box. Something was lost in the original recording.

The human voice as well as any sound, is made up of different amplitudes

(loudness) and frequencies (tone). The fundamental frequencies are between 100 to

1,000 cycles per second (cps or hertz). Above that, from 1,000 to 20,000 cps, are the

overtones, in multiples of the fundamental frequency. The fundamental tones determine

the pitch of the sound. The overtones determine the timbre and the tonal quality of the

sound. When Baby Arenas sings a duet with Erap Estrada, they sing in the same pitch,

but the difference in their voices reside in the overtones generated by their vocal cords.

The same overtones differentiate the sounds of the various musical instruments. Without

much of the overtones, the voice and music sound muffled and indistinguishable.

On the other hand there are the lower frequencies (from 30 to 100 cps), bass

sounds that bounce off walls, and give the voices resonance and ambiance, and are more

8



frequently felt on the skin as a vibrations more than heard in the ear. Without it, the

human voice sounds tinny. And without reverberation, the voice will sound as if in outer

space, without the quality called “presence.” To experience really high fidelity sound,

listen to the THX digital system in Louie’s Theater (P100 per seat) on Amorsolo Street,

Makati.

The trouble with the old Enrico Caruso records is that the horn, unlike the modern

microphone, absorbs the highest and lowest frequencies so that frequency reponse is only

between 100 to about 5,000 cps, instead of high fidelity response of 30 to 20,000 cps.

Today, thanks to “digitalization” techniques and an American named Arno Meffer, we

may soon hear Caruso in full high fidelity sound, as we do Pavarotti, Domingo and

Carerras in their latest CD recording. We may find that Caruso had a dynamic rage of

4½ octaves, compared to most singers who have a range of only 3 to 3½ octaves, and his

voice has a purer sound, greater intensity of feeling, more fullness and strength than those

of modern singers.

I met this fellow Arno Meffert in the Frankfurt airport last October. He was

reading a book on Enrico Caruso. I told him I was a Caruso fan, and offered to buy the

book from him at a premium price. It turns out that Arno, a man in his forties, collects

rare original Caruso recordings from all over the world, accumulating some 250 different

78-rpm platters, three of which he procured in the Philippines. He is an engineer by

profession, and works in the laboratories of Radio Corporation of America (RCA) under

whose Red Label, Caruso exclusively recorded his songs.

Arno said that the recordings are of course scratchy and full of extraneous noises,

and suffer from lack of hi-fidelity because the original recordings were made with a horn

(remember the His Master’s Voice logo of RCA) instead of microphone and amplifier, It

was easy enough to digitally isolate the music and remove all extraneous noises, but how

to restore the frequencies lost in the original recording? These are the upper register of

overtones, and the lower register of bass and reverberations. Analog LP recordings of

recent vintage can be enhanced digitally because their recording characteristics of

frequency and dynamic range are set to accepted RIAA standards. But Caruso records

were made long before standards were set. Higher and lower frequencies were lost, but

to what extent in relation to the fundamental tones??

9



Here the genius of Arno Meffer comes into play. By digitalization he separated

the voice of Caruso and each of the instruments of the orchestra. The musical

instruments of long ago sound exactly the same as modern instruments. By comparing

the recording of each of the instruments to their modern counterparts, Arno was able to

determine the exact extent to which the higher and lower frequencies were lost in relation

to the fundamental tones. He applied the same formula to the voice of Enrico Caruso.

And voila, we are able to hear Caruso as if he was recorded only yesterday.

Unfortunately, neither Arno Meffer or his boss Aldo Machiso of the RCA

laboratories in 2334 Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, Tel. (718) 375-1400, would

give me a sample of the recording, so we all have to wait till the new Caruso recordings

are available commercially on CD’s.

November 30, 1994









CHAPTER 5. The Saga of Rosie Cojuangco





My name is Rosa Garcia Cojuangco. My father is Juan Cojuangco, one of the

four sons of Melecio Cojuangco, and brother of the father of ex-President Corazon

Aquino. My mother is Imelda Garcia, daughter of Don Gregorio Garcia landowner of

Paniqui, born in Paniqui of Aurora de la Torre and Don Gregorio. My mother Imelda is

the younger sister of Elena Garcia, the first wife of Juan Cojuangco, legally married in

Paniqui in 1927(?). My mother Imelda stayed in the house of Elena and Juan, who

sometime in November 1934, impregnated his sister in law. The affair was kept secret,

till the pregnancy was apparent.

According Fausto Velasco, the katiwala of Doña Tecla, mother of Juan, her

mother Imelda was forced to take a vacation at the home of her own parents, she and her

sister no longer on speaking terms. According to Velasco, Rosa was born in San Juan de

Dios Hospital in Intramuros (which was burned down during World War II) on July 23,

1935, the feast of Sta. Rosa de Lima, after whom she was named when she was baptized

in Paniqui on August 30, 1936, with the matriarch Doña Ysidra Cojuangco as the

godmother. My mother remained single till she died at the age of 37 years in the year

10



1942 in the Manila Doctor’s Hospital.

According to Fausto Velasco, at the time of her birth, she was taken in by her aunt

Elena and lived with her and her husband and her mother Imelda. The sisters were still

not in speaking terms and avoided each other even if they lived in the same house. Rosa

was made to believe that Elena was her real mother and Imelda her aunt.

During the war she joined the rest of the family Cojuangco first in Paniqui, then in

San Marcelino, Malate, the residence of Lola Ysidra, and then to Gold River, Baguio, the

residence of Pitok, the relative of Gregoria Murphy, the grandmother of Danding

Cojuangco. Her childhood days were spent with Cory in Paniqui, with Danding in

Baguio. While the Juan Cojuangco house in Villaruel street was being built, Juan

brought his family to live in the house of Jose, Cory’s father, where they were also joined

by the family of Igmidio Tanjuatco, his wife and children. They stayed there for 8

months in 1946 till their house was built.

Her adopted mother Elena died May 6, 1948 in her conjugal house, 43 Villaruel

Street in Pasay, at the back of our Lady of Sorrows Church. This was sold after the death

of his first wife (buisit daw), and Juan and his child moved to a new house, 2302 Roxas

Boulevard, Pasay, formerly belonging Commissioner Paul McNutt, an asshole American.

The widower Juan Cojuangco remarried Lualhati Aldaba on March 15, 1950. And she

moved into the house with her husband and her stepdaughter. After two years, according

to Rosa, she was inveigled by Lualhati to marry a man she did not like, Bayani Fabros,

nephew of Aling Felisa Callao, caretaker of her Mama Elena. Lualhati called Aling

Felisa to come to Manila with the mother of Bayani (Remedios Callao, wife of Leon

Fabros). With Bayani they went to the house of Juan. When Rosa came back from

school, she went up to her room. Lualhati called her to come down, and said, “This is the

man you will marry,” to the surprise of both Rosa and Bayani, who indicated that they

were not ready to marry and they were not in love with each other. Lualhati was

insistent, and threatened to kill her with a hidden ice-pick. Rosa was only seventeen and

terrified. A lawyer friend of Lualhati, Florencio Bernabe, made the arrangement with the

Parañaque municipality to have the marriage brought about, using the name “Rosita

Fernandez” with address “La Huerta, Parañaque” where Bernabe lived.

When they went home, Juan who just arrived from a Rotary meeting, was

11



surprised. She gets home and she get married. After one week kinuha na ako.

Pagkakuha sa akin, sumama rin ako dahil natatakot ako.kay Doña Lualhati. Sumama

ako. Ayaw kung sumiping sa kanya pero sabi niya pumayag na lang. Ako nagawa na rin

yung gusto niya.. Pag asawa ko diyan na nagumpisa ang kalbaryo ko. Tumira na ako

dito Evangelista, Quiapo. Sa isang apartment na pagari ni Naty Aquino. At si Bayani ay

pinasok sa Paniqui sugar mills sa Opisina ng Father ko. After six months in the sugar

mills he is also a student in Mapua University taking up Mechanical engineering and later

shifted to Commerce. Nagkasakit siya ng ulcer due to excessive drinking of alcohol.

Pumunta na lang sa Baguio dahil may sakit siya and also to work there. Then he was

given a job by Jose Solano, his relative, in the DPWH. He passed the CPA Board exam.

He became the accountant and then he was addicted to gambling, like casino, monte,

mahjong and sabung and also womanizing. He had 37 children. After Evangelista I went

back to my parents’ house in Roxas Blvd. But my fake husband does not like to stay

with me there. So I have to leave that house because nobody cares for him. My father

made a house in Baguio. We stayed together until I bore all my children while he

working at the Public Works. My father shouldered all our expenses, our everyday needs

and the schooling of all our children. When my father got sick, I use to visit him at the

hospital. He was confined at San Juan Hospital and went back home at Roxas Blvd.. We

used to take vacation there with all the children. My stepmother Lualhati does not like

our being near and sweet with my father. So we went back to Baguio with all the

children except my husband. Then I learned that my father had a second stroke.. and

was confined at the Manila Doctors Hospital. . When I was getting near to my father, my

stepmother Lualhati stopped me from getting near. And I tried to tell everybody to let me

near my father and she forbade me to get near. So I cried. Cried that I was not able to

see my father. In spite of the fact I tried so much to get in but she even told my father I

did not bother to see him. That’s a lie. Then I comfronted her, “Why did you not allow

me to see my father?” She said it is the order of Isabel Cojuangco Sultay, the sister of

Danding Cojuangco. Then I went to the house of Aurora Cojuangco Lagdameo sister of

Isabel and asked her, “Rory, bakit naman ayaw akong papasukin nung maysakit na ang

father ko?” . “Sabi ni Lualhati. Don’t get inside,” said Isabel. But it is only the doing of

Lualhati.. Then I went to the house of Rory Cojuangco Lagdameo I asked her what Isabel

12



said, “Bakit nanam huag akong papasukin doon?” Wala naman daw silang sinasabing

ganoon. So I just kept quiet. Within a week my Father died. He died February 5, 1979.

Most of the Cojuangco family were around. His remains was brought to his residence at

2302 Roxas Blvd. Sister Benjie of Sacred Heart of Espana street. near UST came to see

the wake of my father. He has buried in Paniqui, Tarlac. I just waited because the estate

is with ACCRA Angara Concepcion Cojuangco Law Office. The last will paid Doña

Lualhati P20 million and all my father’s real properties taxes were paid by Isabel

Cojuangco Suntay for P11 million. They promised me that they will attend to my case.

But the promises were never fulfilled until now So PLDT told me to live with friends.by

Nina Enriquez Exec. Secretary. Names of her children: Maria Elena Fabros Bautista,

born Feb. 16, 1954, Maria Imelda Fabros Cansino, Nov. 17, 1955, Joseph Fabros, Sept.

19, 1957, Martin Fabros, Oct. 7, 1960, Maria Lourdes,Fabros Feb. 20,1965, Maria

Teresita Fabros

In 1991 there was a news that my husband was found in the street somewhere in

Baguio and he wass already dead.

April 26, 1997









CHAPTER 6. Building St. Lucifer’s Church





Saturday October 14, I was invited to attend a dance party in the Jade Valley

Restaurant in the Timog Circle. I came in at dinner time and someone was making a very

long speech, exhorting his audience to contribute to the building of a church. I turned to

the woman seated beside me and remarked that a long speech, like a long homily, is

liable to decrease the crowd’s enthusiasm for parting with their money.

“Madaldal talaga itong tao, sino ba siya?” I asked, “who is the talkative speaker?”

The lady answered, “He’s my husband.” That shut me up for a while. She continued:

“He’s my husband, Lito Santillan, president of the Quasi Parish Pastoral Council of the

Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the Barangay of Apolonio Samson, Quezon City. I am his wife

Mila.” I stammered my apologies for calling her husband a talkative person, and politely

inquired, “ Excuse my impertinence but what noun does the adjective Quasi modify?

13



You used the word Quasi, which means seeming but not quite, virtual but not real.

Which is Quasi – the parish? the council? the heart of Jesus? the barangay? the city? or

the wife (like those of Erap Estrada)??”

Mila ignored my impertinence and instead signaled her husband Lito to come and

explain. Lito explained that his church parish is quasi because it has no church. His

barangay Apolonio Santos has been assigned to the nearby Most Holy Redeemer parish

of barangay Masambong, despite the fact that it has grown much bigger than its neighbor.

Apolonio Santos has a population of 26,000 registered voters and a total of approximately

200,000 souls. It deserves a parish of its own, but has to remain quasi until its

parishioners can build a church of their own. Lito Santillan, architect, bewails that fact

that after 6 years as president of the parish council, he was able to raise only P1 million.

Lito stated that the lot alone costs P20,000 per square meter, and he will need at

least P10 million to purchase a 1,000 square meter lot on which to build a church. He

plans to distribute 500 savings bank cans to his parishioners, each to contribute within a

year at least P20,000 per can. Each can has a finger hole about ½ inch in diameter,

instead of a coin slit, the idea being to force the donor to roll up paper money only for the

contribution. That night only 36 of the 500 cans were accepted by his parishioners. “My

God, Lito,” I exclaimed it will take you another 6 years to raise the next million. By that

time the cost of the real estate alone will double. Catch 22 situation!”

“Listen,” I said, “I offered my daughter P5 million if she makes her first-born my

namesake, either Hilarion or Hilariona. She refused, ang pangit raw ang pangalan ko!

Tell you what, you can have the P5 million if you name your church St. Hilarion,

agreed?” He went on the mike and asked for a vote. My suggestion was rejected because

P5 million is too little and Hilarion too ugly. I took the mike and spoke thus:

“Sacred Heart is a useless throw away name, there are at least 200 churches of

that name in Manila alone. I suggest you get a donor and name the church after him. St.

Andrews in Bel-Air Village was named after Andres Soriano. Sanctuario de San Antonio

in Forbes was named after Don Antonio Roxas; St. James the Great in Ayala Alabang

was named after Jaime Zobel, and the nearby St. Susan was named after Doña Susana

Madrigal. Why don’t name the church St. Edward’s in honor of Danding Cojuangco, or

even better, St. Lucifer in honor of Lucio Co who made billions bringing in duty free

14



chicken parts to destroy the poultry industry. I am sure he does not mind spending P50

million pesos to buy a lot and build a church, as a ticket to heaven.”

Lito Santillan will put it to a vote in the next meeting. St. Lucifer’s Church !!

October 30, 2000, Philippine Post









CHAPTER 7. Emilio Ong -- Charlie Chan or Fu Manchu or Siopao Man?





In the annals of contemporary literature, the trash usually read by the American

public, there are two stereotypes of the Chinese: Charlie Chan, and Dr. Fu Manchu.

Charlie Chan is the good guy, a master detective in Honolulu who in spite of his

bungling Number One Son and the stupid police department, spouting quotations from

Confucius, solves the most baffling murder mysteries. Charlie Chan, played in the

movies by the venerable Warner Oland, is on par with the greatest detectives of the

genre: Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Ellery Queen, Bulldog Drummond, Sam Spade.

Dr. Fu Manchu is the bad guy, the inscrutable Oriental who, like Dr. No, wants to

conquer the world, Played on the screen by the great actor Lon Chaney, Fu Manchu lures

his victims into the room of a thousand knives, into a snake pit, over the cliff, over a

thunderous cataract, into a flooding chamber. He is on par with the greatest villains of

the world: Spectre, Luthor, Marcos, Hitler, IMF, CIA, Jimmy Ongpin.

There are those who think that Emilio Ong, the head of the National Food

Administration and a political hack from Northern Samar, is not Charlie Chan the good

guy, but Dr. Fu Manchu the villain. Truth to tell, there is really no one as exasperating as

this Emilio Ong, who is quoted as saying, “Today akin na Noldeln Samal, bukas akin

Filifinas, and tomollow, the wolld!”

There is no greater clown than Emil Ong. He really thinks he is Superman, “Ako

si Siopao Man!”

First, as soon as he got appointed NFA administrator, he terminated the

employees en masse and triggered a series of demonstrations and noise barrages against

the Cory administration.

Second, according to Jake Macasaet, he appointed his close relatives and Samar

15



political has-beens into the agency.

Third, by his indecision, he allowed the Philbake flour to rot. The Philbake was

an association of bakers financed by Marcos friend Danding Cojuangco. To escape the

blame for the rotting flour, he turned it over to the PCGG so that his political rival Raul

Daza gets the blame. Fortunately the flour millers bought the flour to save the

government from embarrassment.

Third, right after his appointment, he went on a sabbatical to Beijing, where his

Chinese compatriots talked him into buying a shipment of apples! He signed the sales

contract with the momentous announcement that “Ana apol a dee, keeps da doctol

awee!” Up to now, Cory has not seen it fit to honor Emil's commitment, prompting Emil

to remark, “Coly tinks del al a lot a lotten apols in each ballel.”

Fourth, turning his attention back to the flour industry, which was doing well

since wheat importation was taken away from Tanchanco and given back to the private

sector, Emil the Clown, started to turn intriguer, trying to make the bakers and flour

millers quarrel, so that he can effectively revive the role played by Tanchanco during

Marcos' time.

Only recently bakers came to him to complain about the soaring prices of sugar,

lard and vegetable oil. In his press statement, Emil twisted the facts to make it appear

that bread flour prices were also soaring, when in truth, bread flour is the only material

used in bread-baking that has gone down in price -- from P240.00 per bag to one ranging

from P170.00 to P200.00 today -- since the February Revolution.

Emil the Siopao man is trying to picture the flour millers as monsters so that he

can act as avenging angel. He remembers how Tanchanco's NFA made P2 billion a

month out of flour millers and consumers. Like Tanchanco, he thinks there is a lot of

“dough” in flour.

Emilio Ong was one of the Chinese supporters of Raul Daza in the Samar election

of 1969, which Raul won. Raul proceeded to be a much awarded congressman of his

time. When Raul Daza went on exile to the United States, Emilio Ong took over. He ran

against del Valle for the Batasan and lost.

After the Revolution, Emil Ong attached himself to the powers-that-be and got

himself appointed as NFA administrator, and proceeded to make a damn fool of himself.

16



But it is the field of politics that Emilio Ong showed his talents as an unmitigated

villain.

First, he turned against his erstwhile master, Raul Daza, and disputed Raul's

nomination to one of the senatorial slots of Cory's Coalition. Through his connection

(“Compadle, palehong Intsik naman tayo dalawa!”), he was able to get himself included

in the senatorial list. And although Raul Daza was able to advance as one of the 9

candidates in the common list of all parties in the coalition, Emil Ong went on a rampage

of black propaganda to keep him from being chosen.

When Raul finally decided to run for congressman of the 1st district of Northern

Samar, Emil Ong set up and financed his own candidate. He wanted to run too, but NFA

is too good to abandon, so he decided to promote the candidacy of a 35-year old

inarticulate brother in the 2nd district.

His opponents claim that Emil spent at least P15 million getting his brother

elected. He is being accused of using facilities of the NFA, its trucks, cars and two

helicopters.

One day money rained in the 2nd district of Northern Samar -- P2 peso bills were

being thrown out of an NFA helicopter down the crowd of voters.

Some of the money fell into the swamps, hung on tree branches, into the gutters

and drainage pipes. But there were more being thrown about. On the last day, vote

buying became more rampant and shameless, as much as P200 per vote.

And there as conspicuous as Fu Manchu was Emilio Ong, our Siopao Man who

will someday be our Chinese Emperor.

August 8, 1987









CHAPTER 8. The Battle of Gettysburg





The Battle of Gettysburg, rendered famous by Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg

Address, was made into a film masterpiece now showing in our movie theaters. The

Gettysburg battle on July 1 to 3, 1863, during the American Civil War, is probably one of

the bloodiest in American history, claiming in three days of fighting, 51,000 dead,

17



wounded and missing, equivalent to all the American dead in more than 10 years of the

Vietnam war.

The Confederate Army led by the brilliant General Robert E. Lee had been

beating the Army of the North, at Fort Sumter and Bull Run in 1861, in Shenandoah

Valley, Harper's Ferry and Melvern Hill in 1862, at the Second Battle of Bull Run against

the General McClellan, at Fredricksburg against General Burnside, and at Chancellorville

against General Hooker. The timid generals of the North -- McClellan, Burnside and

Hooker -- were relieved and a new untried general, Meade, was sent by President Lincoln

to face Confederate General Lee at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

This was the first battle in Lee's invasion of the North, by which he planned to put

an end to the war with the siege of Washington DC. This was also the turning point in

the war between the North and South of the United States, fought with tragic blunders,

missed opportunities, and useless human sacrifice, all blood and guts and no glory. It

was the bloodiest battle of the bloodiest war in American history. In Gettysburg, the

South had 75,000 men and lost 28,000; the North has 88,000 men and lost 23,000 -- a

combined casualty rate of 31 percent.

In comparison, the entire American Civil War had 12.7 percent casualties, while

the Mexican War cost only 5.2 percent casualities; the Spanish American War, 1.34

percent; World War I, 6.76 percent; World War II, 6.67 percent; Korean War 2.75

percent; Vietnam War, 2.4 percent.

General Robert E. Lee, one of the greatest generals the world has known, ordered

General George Pickett to charge into the cannon's mouth in Gettysburg. The assault was

doomed to failure because of lack of men and ammunition in the face of a superior

strategic position. When ordered to re-assemble the remains of his forces, Pickett said he

had no force to re-assemble. General Lee offered his resignation to President Jefferson

Davis of the Confederacy.

For his part, Union General Meade lost as much men as Lee did, but he had

enough men and ammunition to pursue and destroy the rest of Lee's Army and end the

war. Lincoln urged him to attack in an agony of obliterative hope. General Lee and his

army escaped by secretly fording the flooded Potomac River. Meade, too, offered his

resignation to the Union President Abraham Lincoln.

18



Both presidents rejected the resignations of their respective generals -- Jefferson

Davis because he still needed Lee's magic to carry on the war; Abraham Lincoln because

a reprimand would unravel the North's morale and make him lose the next year's

elections. But while a fiasco occurred at Gettysburg, a Union General Ulysses S. Grant

won the battle of Vicksburg in the Western front. Ulysses then took over the flagging

Union Army, beat General Robert E. Lee and received his surrender at Appomattox, and

went on to be the president of the United States.

There were eight thousand human bodies and five thousand horses rotting on the

battlefield of Gettysburg through the whole month of July. The horses were burned, and

the humans buried in shallow graves by suffocating soldiers and prisoners of war,

shoveling and vomiting by turns. Three weeks after the battle, arms and legs protruded

from the earth and hogs were rooting out bodies and devouring them. The buzzards did

not share in this labor, they scattered far away by the incessant shelling and sounds of

war.

The battle of Gettysburg showed that despite its brilliant generals and battle

victories, the Confederacy could not possibly have won the war. The North was

composed of 23 loyal states; the South of only 11. The North had 23 million population;

the South had only 10 million, a third of which were black slaves. The North was fully

industrialized, with 90 percent of the US manufactures, twice the wealth of the South,

and twice the railroads, plus all the US Navy. The South was agricultural, with few

industries, and had to import its war materials from Europe through a tight naval

blockade.

It is ironic that all the muddle, the failures, the missed chances, senseless deaths

and ugly reality of the battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, would in November 19 of the

same year, in the dedication ceremonies of the cemetery, be transformed into something

rich and strange, a symbol of national purpose, pride and ideals expressed in only 272

words and delivered in just over two minutes: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, written on

the back of an envelop, probably the greatest, noblest and most moving speech ever

spoken in human history.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new

nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created

19



equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any

nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battle-

field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-

place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether

fitting and proper that we should do this.

But is a larger sense, we cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate – we cannot

hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have

consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor

long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us

the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here

have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task

remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that

cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve

that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation under God shall have a new

birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people,

shall not perish from the earth.

Lincoln was wrong in saying that his Gettysburg Address, ignored by the

newspapers at the time, would be little noted nor long remembered by the world. It is

this speech that will live long after the Battle of Gettysburg is forgotten.

March 19, 1994









CHAPTER 9. The Philippine-American War (1898-1902)





Part 1: USA spoiling for a fight with Spain

His name is Theodore Roosevelt, and he was a weakling, a sickly runt compared

to his elder brother Elliot. So Teddy hied himself off to the frontier Badlands of the

Dakotas, and there he founded a whole school of pseudo-virility, a la Ernest Hemingway,

by fording icy streams, climbing jagged rocks and otherwise embarking upon totally

unnecessary and masochistic exercise as final proof of masculinity.

20



When Teddy became Assistant Secretary of the Navy of the United States, he was

prone to write that a war might do for the muscles of his nation what the Badlands did for

him. He decided that a war with Spain might just be the thing. Spain, once the greatest

of all colonial powers, failed to industrialize and in a few generations became a 4th class

power which did not even know how to manufacture guns and ammunition, lost all its

colonies in South America, and at the end of the 19th century, had only Cuba, Puerto

Rico and the Philippines to call its own.

On February 15, 1898, the American battleship USS Maine on visit to Cuba, was

blown up in the Havana harbor, with a loss of 246 men. The weight of evidence was that

Spain had nothing to do with it; in a conciliatory gesture, she gave humiliating

concessions in a desperate effort to avoid war. But the United States was spoiling for a

fight, and this was as good an excuse as any. Actually, no excuse was necessary, phony

atrocities were invented, and with the cry "Remember the Maine!" the US Congress

declared war on April 21, 1898.

Commodore George Dewey of the US Pacific Fleet just happened to be in Hong

Kong with seven warships when war broke out between the United States and Spain on

April 21, 1898. He was there by divine providence and by the secret and unauthorized

machinations of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt in the absence of

his boss the Secretary.

Now, George Dewey was never considered one of the best in the Annapolis Naval

Academy. His grades were lousy: 60.8 percent in naval tactics; 57 percent and 76.6

percent in mathematics, and 71.4 percent in navigation. He was called Knucklehead

George. But he was the lucky one, because always he was in the right place at the right

time, and got more credit that he deserved. Lady Luck would bring him to Hong Kong

and Manila Bay. On April 25, Knucklehead George was ordered to proceed to Manila

Bay and attack the Spanish Fleet.

Again Lady Luck was with Knucklehead George. One would expect that in the

64 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean, Commodore George Dewey would find it

almost impossible to encounter a commanding officer more stupid than he was, a

mathematical possibility akin to finding a needle in a haystack. But lucky George, not

only did he find one, he found one twice as stupid as he was in the person of Admiral

21



Patricio “Bobo” Montojo of the Spanish Imperial Navy, affectionately called Bobo

Montejo, assigned to the Philippines.





Part 2: Knuckle Head George meets Bobo Montejo

Admiral Bobo Montojo was aware that Knucklehead George was on his way to

Manila. He had months to set up mines across the Bay entrance, and activate shore

batteries in Corregidor and the Manila waterfront, but he did not. And at the time of

Dewey's arrival, he might have simply placed his ships across the entrance to the Bay. If

he did, he would have crossed the T of Knucklehead Dewey's battle line, bringing his full

broadside guns to bear on it, and sending most of the American ships to the bottom of the

sea.

But Bobo did not do it. In the early morning of May 1st, Knucklehead sailed into

the Manila Bay virtually undetected. In fact, not only was he undetected, but he himself

failed to detect the entire Spanish fleet lying at Cavite. A couple of idiots both playing

blind in a game of blind man's bluff.

Here again was a matchless chance for Bobo Montojo to destroy Knucklehead Dewey,

again crossing the American T, this time even better, from the rear whence he could have

battered Dewey's ships to scrap iron. But Bobo did not. Incredibly, the American

Squadron was permitted a half-turn, and Knucklehead George Dewey issued his famous

command, "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley!"

Gridley was ready, but Admiral Patricio "Bobo" Montojo was not, his men could

not even shoot straight. Spain's policy not to industrialize was obvious. Bobo's ships had

guns that could not shoot straight. His ships were steel-plated wooden ships;

Knucklehead's ships were made of steel. Bobo Montojo lost all of his nine ships; not one

of the seven American ships was sunk. Bobo had 381 casualties; Knucklehead had none.

One American sailor died of heat prostration, shoveling coal in the hold of SS Olympia,

Knucklehead's flagship. The massacre was mercifully over by 12:30 noon.

General Emilio Aguinaldo rushing up from Singapore, missed the boat. He

arrived in Hongkong after the US Asiatic fleet under Knucklehead George Dewey left for

Manila. But Dewey left the cutter USS McCulloch to bring Aguinaldo to the Philippines.

Aguinaldo landed in Cavite, where he was received by Commodore Dewey aboard his

22



flagship Olympia. There Knucklehead George asked Aguinaldo to lead the Filipinos

against Spain as an ally of the United States, promising him American recognition of the

Philippine Republic. It is a measure of his IQ that Knucklehead George later could not

remember he made such a promise.

On the strength of such a promise, General Aguinaldo rallied his people,

proclaimed Philippine Independence on June 12, 1898, with one American officer in

attendance, signing the proclamation as a witness, and then liberated practically the entire

Philippines. Dewey by sea and Aguinaldo by land laid seige to Manila. Aguinaldo

offered honorable surrender, but this was refused. The Spaniards were touchy about

surrendering without a fight, worse, surrendering to the inferior Indios, as they used to

call the Filipinos.





Part 3: Time came for Americans to betray the Filipinos

Three waves of American Army reinforcements rushed across the Pacific, and the

last of them arrived on July 13, under General Arthur MacArthur, father of Dug-out

Doug, the non-hero of Bataan and Corregidor. The time had come to betray the Filipinos.

The Spanish General Jaudenes proposed a mock surrender; with the cooperation of

Commodore Dewey and General Wesley Merritt. Together they prepared a script. By

secret agreement, they decided to keep the Filipino forces out of the city.

General Aguinaldo was asked to yield the bayside positions in Malate to General

Greene, ostensibly as a jump-off for the assault on the Walled City. On August 13, a

dark and dreary day, the USS Olympia opened bombardment of Fort San Antonio Abad

at 9:30 AM. Greene's column advanced from Malate at 10:30 AM. MacArthur went

over at 11:00 AM, and at 11:20 AM the white flag went up over the Spanish positions,

although it was not till noon that General Greene noticed it. Knucklehead George had no

monopoly on lack of perspicacity.

Actually the day before, US President McKinley had proclaimed a cessation of

hostilities. Thus, like the Battle of New Orleans, the battle of Manila took place after

hostilities had officially ceased.

In Paris, five Spaniards and five Americans sat down to prepare the Treaty of

Paris; the Filipinos were not even invited. On December 10, 1898, the Philippines was

23



ceded to the United States for $20 million and equal Spanish trading privileges in certain

commodities for ten years. The treaty was ratified by the US Senate after an acrimonious

debate on February 6, 1899, by a majority of only two votes. The Anti-Imperialist

Democrats might have turned the vote the other way around, had not war broken out

between the United States and the Philippines only two days before the vote, on February

4, 1899.

The war was provoked by an American sentry who fired on a Filipino soldier at

the San Juan bridge. Quite naturally Filipinos resented the Paris Treaty which denied

them full independence contrary to the promise of Knucklehead George Dewey. Such a

treaty, they declared, could only be effected over their dead bodies. And so started the

Philippine American War, known to American historians as the Philippine Insurrection.

The capture of Aguinaldo and his oath of allegiance to the United States, on April Fool's

Day, 1901, and the subsequent surrender of General Malvar on April 16, 1902, ended the

war.

By the time the war ended, 16,000 Filipinos were dead, plus 4,234 dead

Americans too. In contrast only 385 Americans died in in Cuba during the Spanish

American War. The Filipinos were the deadlier enemy.





Part 4: Giving God credit that should belong to Americans

The U.S. also entered into the Bates Treaty with the Sultan of Sulu, in tribute to

the Moro's contribution to the efficiency of the U.S. Army, to wit: the vast increase in

caliber and rapid fire power of the 45 caliber automatic, necessary to usher the Muslim

into a permanent state of non-belligerency. The Moros believe that if they are killed in

battle, they will enter Heaven on a white horse, thereafter to be each waited upon by eight

dark-eyed sensuously beautiful women called houris, who are probably a lot more

interesting than the Born Again types we expect in the heavenly section reserved for us

Christians.

And whatever happened to the man who started it all? The irrepressible Theodore

Roosevelt resigned from the Navy, and together with a character named Leonard Wood,

rounded up a bunch of unsuspecting cowboy extras in a cavalry regiment called the

Rough Riders. As producer and director, he starred himself in a wild charge up the San

24



Juan Hill in Cuba, which will forever be known as a military classic of incredible

blunders and wretched markmanship. According to witness accounts, they did not even

charge on horses; for the most part, they stumbled up on foot.

For the rest of his life, Teddy kept charging. He was given the vice presidency to

get rid of him. Instead some crazy assassin got rid of President McKinley, and Teddy

Roosevelt became President of the United States. And so Teddy not only exercised his

muscles, he exercised all the powers incidental to the Presidency, at one time exclaiming

that the beauty of his new job was that 9/10ths of his illegal acts were not even

questioned.

The idea of the Anglo Saxon as a super race originated naturally in England, but

the Americans were not far behind. Senator Albert Beveridge held that it was God who

made the English speaking peoples a little better than others. Teddy did not go along

with this kind of thinking, he thought it was giving God too much credit.

Chauncey Depew settled the theological question at the Republican Convention

which nominated Theodore Roosevelt for President. "The American people now produce

two billion dollars' worth more than they can consume," he declared ominously, "But we

have met the emergency and by the Providence of God, by the statesmanship of William

McKinley, and the valor of Roosevelt and his associates, we have our market in Cuba, in

Puerto Rico, in Hawaii, in the Philippines. We stand in the presence of 800 million

people, with the Pacific as an American lake, and American artisans producing better and

cheaper goods than any country in the world."

It was time for the elevation of the Host. Cried Depew the High Priest: "Let

production go on, let the factories do their best, let labor be employed at the highest

wages, because the world is ours and we have conquered it by Republican principles."

God has indeed been given credit that should properly belong to Americans themselves.

The amusing part about all this is that Depew and Roosevelt, and every American

Ambassador to date believe it implicitly. In fact nothing quite enraged Anglo Saxons

more than when their German cousins stomped around bellowing "Deutschland uber

Alles" and declaring that Germans were designated by God as Herrenvolk (Master Race).

As for His original Chosen People the Jews, well, even God has His little jokes.

Americans know better.

25



Thus it was written in the Republican Book of Revelations. It came to pass that

Bruce Barton revealed the Gospel Truth: that God was not only a Republican and an

American, but also the first Great Business Executive, a fellow who knew how to pick

the right men, as proven by his Board of Directors, the Twelve Apostles. All of this crap

was delineated in a book entitled, appropriately enough, “The Man Nobody Knows.”

Certainly Jesus Christ as an American Republican Businessman is a man nobody knows

or care to know, except the big boys managing the multinational corporations.

No wonder then that assholes from the American Embassy and the American

Chamber of Commerce are so endowed with divine wisdom that they can with

sanctimonious and pompous preachments tell us what is good for the Filipino people.

With due credit to Harry Stonehill and our delightful conversations

May 4 to 7, 1998, Centennial ISYU









CHAPTER 10. The 100th anniversary of the Malolos Convention





Part 1. The Spaniard who fought for our Revolution

Exactly 127 years ago yesterday, on January 20, 1872, a mutiny broke out in

Cavite that lead to the execution of 42 mutineers and several prominent Filipinos

including three martyr priests, Fathers Jose G. Burgos, Mariano Gomez and Jacinto

Zamora who were garroted in the Luneta. In an obscure town called Calamba, a

precocious eleven-year-old boy would be so horrified by this bloody deed and by the

subsequent persecutions against an elder brother Paciano that he would determine to give

his life to his people’s vindication. Also on that bleak December morn in 1896, when it

was Jose Rizal’s turn, a brilliant valiant band of propagandists, conspirators, soldiers and

patriots were already where they had to be to best serve their country.

On June 12, 1898, President Emilio Aguinaldo declared the independence of the

Philippines, and assembled the Malolos Congress, the first parliament in all Asia, which

drafted and approved the Malolos Constitution, also the first in Asia, so modern it had the

bill of rights and separation of church and state.

Exactly 100 years ago today, on January 21, 1899 the Malolos Constitution was

26



proclaimed and on January 23, a few days shy of 100 years ago, the First Philippine

Republic was officially inaugurated, the first democracy and the first republic in all Asia

– the culmination of the first Asian nationalist revolution against Western colonial rule.

Today on our television program, Make My Day, to be aired tonight at 11:30 PM on

Channel 9, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Malolos Constitution, together with

the illustrious descendants of the Malolos delegates.

In the Malolos Congress there was one Spaniard, a Spanish soldier who declared

at the end of the Spanish American War: “ I have served the country of my father. Now

I will serve the country of my mother.” His name is Col. Manuel Sityar.

He was born 1863 in Cavite City of a Spanish father with illustrious antecedents.

His great grandfather was lawyer of Spanish King Alfonso. His great grandmother was

the nearest of kin to Queen Isabela. Both his grandfather and father were Spanish Dukes,

and his father was in addition a commodore of the Spanish Navy. Col. Manuel Sityar

served as aide-de-camp and assistant chief of staff to General Emilio Agunaldo. He

founded our first military academy, a fact duly noted in ceremonies held at the Philippine

Military Academy. In the Malolos Congress he represented the provinces of Tarlac and

Laguna.

Col. Manuel Sityar, the grandfather of Rita Sityar del Rosario, who is a historian

at UP, was a soldier in the Royal Armed Forces of Spain. He went to Toledo, Spain to

further his studies at the Academia Militar. Serving the Spanish forces in the Philippines,

Col. Sityar was the first to discover the existence of the Katipunan but he was not

believed when he reported this to his superiors. When he switched allegiance to the

Philippines he enjoined some 100 Spanish officers to fight for the Filipino cause. Even

though he joined the Philippine revolution, the Spanish government and the Queen

Regent later awarded him the title of Knight First Class (Caballero) of the Military Order

of Maria Cristina in 1890.

Thus is told the story of the son of Spain who also fought for our country.





Part 2. Malolos delegates were anything but the oppressed

Revolutions are borne out of aroused hopes, not despair, and mostly by the middle

class rather than the unlettered masses. Of all the peoples of Asia, most of them living a

27



marginal existence under cruel despots, the Filipinos were the most well off. The

Spanish regime was not as bad as painted by historians. Filipinos were shielded from the

convulsions of Spanish history, and were better treated than their Asian brothers, freely

intermarried with the Spaniards and the Chinese, many of them wealthy, educated and

independent in thought, and as such were predisposed not to tolerate abuses or place their

trust in the colonizers. Most of 89 delegates to the historic Malolos Congress were rich,

influential and well educated, among them:

• Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, the grandfather of former Secretary of Social Welfare and

ex-Chairman of the Sweepstakes Office Mamita Pardo de Tavera. Trinidad Pardo de

Tavera was a physician-scholar, graduate of Ateneo, Sto. Tomas and of the Sorbonne

University in Paris. He was appointed delegate representing Cebu, and as such was a

member of the Committee on Felicitation, Committee on Internal Regulations,

Reception Committee, and Committee on Style. He was a member of the Medical

Faculty of the Universidad Cientifico-Literaria de Filipinas.

• Joaquin Gonzales, great grandfather of Giselle Madrigal Gonzalez Montinola, born

1853 in Baliuag, Bulacan, graduate of Universidad de Villadolid and the Universidad

Central de Madrid. Elected delegate of Pampanga. Joaquin Gonzalez, who was a

member of the Committee to Draft the Constitution, Committee on Style, Reception

Committee, and Committee on Internal Regulations.

• Sotero Laurel, grandfather and namesake of Ex-Senator Sotero Laurel. He was like

his grandson a lawyer, born in Tanauan, Batangas in 1849, and a graduate of Sto.

Tomas, and was appointed delegate representing Bongao.

• Pablo Ocampo, grandfather of his namesake ex-Congressman Pablo Ocampo. He

was like his grandson a lawyer, born in Sta. Cruz, Manila, in 1853, a graduate of Sto.

Tomas, and was appointed delegate to represent Principe and Infanta. He was a

member of the law faculty of the Universidad Cientifico-Literaria de Filipinas, and as

a Malolos delegate was a member of the Committee to Draft the Constitution.

• Telesforo Antonio Chuidian, great great grandfather of my grandson Antonio H.

Chuidian III. Telesforo Chuidian was a businessman born in Binondo, Manila, in

1855, graduated from Ateneo, and was appointed delegate of Tucuran. Jose Rizal

identified Telesforo as the model for Capitan Tiago, notorious character overly

28



obeisant to the Spanish authorities, in his novel Noli Mi Tangere. Apparently this

rich businessman helped finance the revolution, and was once Treasurer of the

Philippine government. He also founded and was the first president of the Club

Filipino.

• Col. Manuel Sityar, grandfather of historian Rita Sityar del Rosario – a Spaniard who

at the end of the Spanish American War, declared. “I have served the country of my

father well. I will now serve the country of my mother.”





Part 3. Eleven constitutions predated the Malolos Constitution

At the time of the Philippine Revolution, Malolos was the new capital of the First

Republic. There in the Church of Barasoain met the Malolos Congress. The President’s

residence was in the parochial convent. The delegates were “the most noted for their

education and social position,” among them lawyers, physicians, engineers, pharmacists

and chemists, artists scholars, historians, and one priest. Unlike other Asians, they were

no strangers to laws and constitutions.

At least two Spanish constitutions existed in the Philippines, the first being the

Cadiz Constitution of 1812, the first democratic constitution of monarchist Spain, one of

the signatories of which was a Filipino, Ventura de los Reyes. The second was the Royal

Statute of 1834, which restored civil liberties and allowed representation in the Spanish

Cortes for overseas possessions, including the Philippines.

There were seven constitutions made by Filipinos prior to Malolos: (1) Katipunan

Constitution of July 1892, (2) Evangelista Constitution of 1896; (3) Constitution of Biak-

na-Bato of November 1897; (4) Emilio Jacinto’s Pagkatatag ng Pamahalaan sa

Hukuman ng Silangan, of February 1898; (5) Makabulos Constitution of April 1898; (6)

Ponce Constitution in Hong Kong, April 1898); Aguinaldo’s Organic Decree of June 23,

1898.

In addition there were two drafts submitted to the Malolos Congress: the

Autonomous Program of Pedro Paterno, and the Constitutional Programme of the

Philippine Republic of Apolinario Mabini, distributed to the delegates in June 1898.

Both were rejected -- because Mabini wanted a dictatorial government designed to pursue

the war of liberation and his draft was based on the statutes of Masonry -- and because

29



the Paterno draft smelled of the Spanish Constitution.

As a consequence Felipe Calderon made a third draft. The majority of the

Congress voted for a parliament with powers, upheld by President Aguinaldo himself

against the advice of Mabini. The Calderon draft was adopted in toto except for one

provision making the Catholic Church the official religion, which was defeated by one

vote in favor of one decreeing separation of church and state. The Malolos Constitution

establishes three separate branches: legislative, executive and judicial. It has a

parliamentary system with a President, not the Prime Minister as head. A powerful

legislature elects the President for a term of four years with reelection. Supreme Court of

Justice and the lower courts are absolutely independent and the Congress elects its head

with the concurrence of the President and his cabinet. Thus in 8 eventful months, the

government passed through three stages – dictatorial regime, a revolutionary

administration, and finally a republican system.

On January 21, 1899 President Aguinaldo issued a Proclamation addressed to all

Filipino citizens, commanding them all to guard the constitution as it should be guarded,

and comply with and execute it in all its parts, because it is the sovereign will of the

Filipino people. On January 23, two days later, the first Philippine Republic was

inaugurated in elaborate ceremonies and amidst tumultuous rejoicing in Malolos.





Part 4. We’ll dine on Aguinaldo’s sumptuous banquet!

Two dates in January follow each other closely a hundred years ago. On January

21, President Emilio Aguinaldo declared the effectivity of the Malolos Constitution. On

January 23, two days later, the first Philippine Republic was inaugurated in elaborate

ceremonies and amidst tumultuous rejoicing in Malolos. Months before, on September

29, 1898, there was an inaugural dinner for President Emilio Aguinaldo.

Last week January 20, 1999, on my TV program Make My Day, we celebrated

with five descendants of Malolos delegates the 100th anniversary of the Malolos

Constitution, the first in all Asia. Tomorrow on January 27, 1999, we celebrate the 100th

anniversary of the First Philippine Republic, with a dinner that is a re-enactment of the

Aguinaldo Inaugural Dinner with another set of descendants of Malolos delegates. This

dinner will be under the auspices of Gene Gonzalez, descendant of Malolos delegate,

30



Don Joaquin Gonzalez, whose family also cooked the food served in the Aguinaldo

Inaugural 100 years ago. Here we will have a facsimile of the Menu presented to the

guests, and we will be served the same food in a very similar tableware and china used

100 years ago. And in a house similar to the same place where the inaugural was held in

Malolos -- the old Gonzalez Residence in Quezon City with the same turn of the century

ambience as the old venue. For this we are thankful to the Gonzalez family and to Gene

Gonzalez in particular, the proprietor of Café Ysabel. His sense of history and generosity

is fully appreciated.

We will distribute in our special dinner a facsimile of the menu handwritten on

cards to be placed at the table in front of each guest. The menu cards are designed to

fold in two places, and stand up on three sides. The center side has a tall gable pyramid

on which is written the date, Septiemre (misspelled) 29, 1898. Each side has one of the

three French Revolution battlecries: Libertad (Liberty), Igualdad (Equality) and

Fraternidad (Fraternity). In the center side overlaying the word Igualdad, is the Menu,

all written in French, herein translated:

DEJEUNER (Luncheon Menu). HORS D’OEUVRE (Appetizers): Huìtres

(Oyster); Crevettes Roses (Shrimp Roses); Beurre Radis (Buttered Radish); Olives

(Olives); Saucisson de Lyon (Lyon Sausage); Sardines Aux Tomates (Sardines in

Tomato); Saumon Hollandais (Salmon in Hollandaise).

ENTREES (Main Courses): Coquilles de Crabes (Stuffed Crab with Salmon; Vol

au Vent á la Financière ((Puff Pastry with Tongue, Mushrooms, Sweetbreads, Truffles

and Ham); A Batis de Poulet á la Tagale (Pie of Chicken Gizzards and Liver); Cotelettes

de Mouton á la Papillote (Baked Lamb Cutlets); Pommes de Terre Paille (Potatoes in

paper); Dinde Truffèe á la Manilloise (Colonial Style Braised Turkey), Filet á la

Chateaubriand (Roasted Eye of Tenderloin); Haricots Verts (String Beans); Jambon

Froid (Terrine of Cold Ham in Aspic and Parsley), Asperges en branche (with asparagus

stalks)

DESSERT: Fromages (Cheese), Fruits (Fruits), Confitures (Jams), Gelèe de

Fraises (Strawberry Mousse), Glaces (Old Fashioned Mantecado ice cream)

VINS (Wines): Bordeaux – Sauterne – Xeres – Champagne

LIQUEURS: Chartreuse, Cognac

31



Café (coffee) – The (tea)

How sumptuous, how mouth watering, a banquet for the gods!!





Part 5. Tuxedos, not barongs, were in vogue 100 years ago

Of those who have consented to attend our Aguinaldo dinner today are the

following, all in black suits or tuxedos and mestiza gowns. Barongs, the shirts of the

lowly Indio, were not considered appropriate wear at the turn of the century. They were

cheap to make and were forced on the Filipino to prevent him from concealing weapons

or things he may steal, and it is considered an insult to have to wear them. Women’s

native gowns were more elaborate and considered fitting for wealthy women to wear.

• Supreme Court Justice Ameurfina Herrera, daughter of Carmen Aguinaldo Melencio,

and granddaughter of President Emilio Aguinaldo, the president of the First

Philippine Republic. Justice Herrera’s escort is her son Binky, who is a successful

lawyer in his own right.

• Ex-Congressman Herminio Aquino, uncle of national hero Ninoy Aquino. Most

descendants can trace their connection to the Malolos Congress through a grandfather

or great grandfather. Hermie is the only one who can claim that his own father,

General Servillano Aquino who sired him at the age of 75 with his third wife, was a

member of the Malolos Congress.

• Opinion maker and intellectual, Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, the granddaughter of Leon

Maria Guerrero, pharmacist, born in Ermita, Manila in 1853. Dr. Guerrero took his

Bachelor of Arts in Ateneo, and earned his degree as a pharmacist in the Sto. Tomas.

He was appointed to represent Davao. He became the second president of the

Universidad Cientifico-Literaria de Filipinas. He was appointed Secretary of Public

Works and Communication in 1899. Ms. Nakpil’s escort is her son, Jose who is a

banker in his own right.

• And our host Hon. Gene Gonzalez who invited all of us to his house, full of the

ambience of the turn-of-the-century, there to serve us the same meal served by his

family in the inaugural of President Emilio Aguinaldo, as cooked by his family and

served in similar tableware and china used one hundred years ago. His great

grandfather Joaquin Gonzalez was born in Baliuag, Bulacan in 1853, and got his

32



doctorate in medicine in the Universidad de Villadolid and Universidad Central de

Madrid. He was the first president of the Universidad Cientifico-Literaria de

Filipinas. Elected delegate of Pampanga. Became a Member of the Committee to

Draft the Constitution, Committee on Style, Reception Committee and Committee on

Internal Regulations.

• And last but not least, Victor Buencamino, grandson of Felipe Buencamino, born in

San Miguel de Mayumo, Bulacan in 1848, studied in Sto. Tomas U., appointed

Secretario de Fomento in 1988, Secretary of Foreign Affairs in 1899. And appointed

delegate of Zamboanga. He became a Member of the Committee on Felicitation,

Committee to Draft the Constitution, and Committee on Internal Regulation. With

him is his wife Bessie Ocampo, once Miss Philippines, the most beautiful woman in

our country.

• And beside me are my daughters Rosanna Henares Angeles who will serve as my co-

host, and Dra. Elvira Henares Esguerra who will sing for us the songs of old.





Part 6. The irony of the lyrics of our song of love

When the National Anthem was composed for the Declaration of Independence, it

had no lyrics. During the American occupation , lyrics were made for it in Spanish, but

the Americans forbade the singing of it. When we were granted autonomy during the

Philippine Commonwealth, we made a new set of lyrics for our anthem in English, and it

was this version that we sang so fervently during the dark days of Bataan and Corregidor.

It was during the Japanese Occupation that the National Anthem was first sung in the

Filipino, the national language, because the Japanese did not like the language of the

Americans.

President Aguinaldo lived to hear all three versions of the anthem we inherited

from him. And it must seem ironic to him that when we liberated ourselves from Spain,

our national anthem had no lyrics. Under the American Occupation, we sang it in

Spanish. Under our own Filipino Commonwealth, we sang it in English. And under the

Japanese occupation, we sang it in Filipino. We asked our daughter Elvira Henares

Esguerra to sing the anthem in Spanish and in English, the two versions our young

audience probably never heard.

33



Here is the original version, music composed when we became a nation under a

28 year old President Emilio Aguinaldo, and Spanish lyrics written during the American

Occupation:

Tierra adorada, hija del sol de Oriente,/ Su fuego ardiente en ti latiendo esta./

Tierra de amores, del heroismo cuña,/ Los invasores no te hollaran jamas./ En tu azul

cielo, en tus auras, en tus montes y en tu mar,/ Esplende y late el poema de tu amada

Libertad./ Tu pabellon que en las lides la Victoria ilumino,/ No vera nunca apagados

sus estrellas y su sol./ Tierra de dichas, de sol y amores, en tu regazo dulce es vivir,/

Es una gloria para tus hijos cuando te ofenden, por ti morir.

Here is the English version, lyrics written for the Filipino Commonwealth period,

and sung at Bataan and Corregidor:

Land of the morning, child of the sun returning,/ With fervor burning, thee do our

souls adore./ Land dear and holy, cradle of noble heroes,/ Ne'er shall invaders trample

thy sacred shore./ Ever within thy skies and through thy clouds and o'er thy hills and

seas,/ Do we behold the radiance, feel the throb of glorious liberty./ Thy banner dear

to all our hearts, with sun and stars alight,/ O never shall its shining field be dimmed

by tyrant's might!/ Beautiful land of love, O land of light, in thine embrace 'tis rapture

to lie./ But it is glory ever when thou art wronged, for us thy sons to suffer and die!

It was during the Japanese Occupation that our Anthem was first sung in Filipino.

And it was this version that was sung during the inauguration of both the Second

Republic under President Jose P. Laurel, and the Third Republic under President Manuel

A. Roxas. Also at the inauguration of Martial Law under President Ferdinand E. Marcos,

the Edsa Revolution and the Restoration of democracy under President Corazon C.

Aquino. President Fidel V. Ramos and President Erap Ejercito Estrada.

Unlike the Star Spangled Banner which is jingoistic and war-like (the rocket’s red

glare and bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that the flag was still

there), our national anthem is virtually a song of love.





Part 7. Greatness lies in the wonder of what-might-have-been

Aguinaldo should rank with Rizal and Bonifacio in the pantheon of our heroes. At

the age of 29, he fought two of the greatest colonial powers, Spain and the United States

34



and set up the first republic in all of Asia. We owe him our democracy, our flag, our

anthem, and our nation – he is truly the father of our country as Washington was the

father of his.

If the Katipunan uprising, so swiftly checked, had been all there was to 1896, it

would not have been a special year in our history. The uprising would only be one more

in the long list of our abortive revolts against Spain, and Bonifacio just another name to

place beside Diego Silang and Dagohoy.

Fortunately in Cavite, there rose educated men led by Aguinaldo -- engineers,

lawyers, teachers, poets, town mayors, businessmen, landowners -- who knew what to do.

They raided the courthouse and garrison for arms with which to face the troops sent

against them, and got more arms by defeating them. Trenches and fortifications were

then built, a hierarchy of officers established, and Cavite thus had an organized army

within four months after the Cry of Pugad Lawin.

Within that period, during which Bonifacio's men were still brandishing bolos in

futile raids in the towns around Balara hills, the Caviteños had gained control of their

province, were carrying the war outside its borders, and were already organizing a

government.

They never lost sight of what Rizal and the ilustrados said: a war could be won

only with an organized army, trained leaders and arms.

And so the leadership passed from Bonifacio, the mass organizer of the secret

revolutionary society, to Aguinaldo, the military leader of the armies of the Philippine

Republic.

Aguinaldo at Biak-na-Bato did not have a nation behind him. For the first phase

of the Revolution failed largely through the efforts of the Ilocano, Bicol and Visayan

volunteers in the Spanish Army. But Aguinaldo was wise enough to interrupt the war, to

buy more arms and consolidate his position --- the reason for the Pact of Biak-na-Bato.

Two years later the picture changed. Aguinaldo at the Malolos Convention had

the entire nation behind him.

Together at last, after 300 years movement towards this point, here stood the

Creoles (Calderon, Pardo de Tavera), principales (Paterno, Araneta, Legarda), and the

ilustrados (Mabini, Luna, the Guerreros), standing side by side with the native clergy and

35



peasantry -- as one nation, one people under one flag, united against the Americans, in

the first war the Philippines fought as a nation.

The tragedy of Emilio Aguinaldo is that he lived to a ripe old age at a time when

heroes died young, when martyrdom was the final badge of greatness.

He lived to be 94 years of old. He outlived Recto and died in 1963.

We often ask ourselves why old age is fatal to greatness. Perhaps it is because

dying young, as happened to Rizal and Ninoy Aquino involves the factor of what-might-

have-been. We know what happened to Aguinaldo in his old age. We wonder what

might have happened had Rizal and Ninoy lived, and in the exercise of our imagination,

the sky is the limit.





Part 8. Our Philippine Revolution was unique in all Asia

Throughout our country’s history, patriotic songs have always strengthened our

resolve and determination to triumph in freedom. Among these are Bayan Ko and Sa

Sariling Bayan, which will now be sung by Elvira Henares Esguerra:

Kay sarap mabuhay sa sariling bayan / Kung walang alipin at may kalayaan /

Ang bayang sinisiil bukas ay babangon din / Ang silanga’y pupula sa timyas ng paglaya.

Ang bayan kong Pilipinas / Lupain ng ginto’t bulaklak / Pag-ibig nasa kanyang

palad / Nag- alay ng ganda’t dilag / At sa kanyang yumi at ganda / Dayuhan ay nahalina

/ Bayan ko binihag ka / Nasadlak sa dusa / Ibon man may layang lumipad / Kulungin mo

at umiiyak / Bayan pa kayang sakdal dilag / Ang di magnasang makaalpas / Pilipinas

kong minumutya / Pugad ng luha at dalita / Aking adhika / Makita kang sakdal laya.

Thus we end our broadcast series on the 100th anniversary of the Malolos

Constitution and the First Philippine Republic, on January 21 and 23 of 1899

It has been said that the Philippine Revolution was “anti-history”, against the tides

and currents of history. It broke out when Western Imperialism was at its high tide --

when Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India, when European powers were

apportioning Africa and Asia into colonies and spheres of influence, when Hawaii,

Egypt, Borneo, and the Sudan were practically begging for colonial masters.

At the turn of the century, the Philippines ran counter to this current of history --

because it was following an older current, the one released by the French Revolution in

36



1789. Like a pebble thrown into a pond, creating ever widening circles, the French

Revolution that made a militant creed of Democracy and Nationalism, first spread all

over Europe, then all over Spanish America, and finally reached the Philippines.

The Philippine Revolution was the last of the Hispano American wars of

independence, deriving its inspiration from Voltaire, Rousseau, Juarez and Simon

Bolivar. We belonged to that world then and were shaken by its tides.

Thus the Philippine Revolution was unique in all of Asia. It was the first

nationalist revolution in all of Asia and the first to set up a democratic republic. We were

the first people conscious of its common heritage, fighting for ourselves and not for some

personal leader, to break the shackles of Western Imperialism in this part of the world.

Our revolution antedated that of China in 1911, and it was only in 1945 when the rest of

the nations in Asia caught up with our revolution.

January 21 to February 1, 1999





Part 9. Addendum: Pampanga: of noble blood and dugong aso

THERE are two large distinct ethnic groups in Luzon, each with a dialect

different from any other -- as if they were enclaves foreign to the Filipinos. These are the

Pangasinenses (or Pangalatoks) and the Pampangueños (or Capampangans). Hemmed in

on all sides by Ilocanos and Tagalogs, they managed to survive as distinct entities.

Both are a goodlooking race -- with a smooth clear fair skin usually free of

pimples, almost like pink alabaster, Chinese-Spanish-Filipino in shade, but not quite.

From Pangasinan came the handsomest of movie stars: pre-war superstar Rosa del

Rosario (Rose Stagner), dimpled Fernando Poe Sr. who is fairer than his junior, and

Gloria Romero who often lapses into Pangalatok on television. From Pampanga came the

greatest of all leading men, Rogelio de la Rosa.

The talented Pangalatoks get more than their fair share of members in the cabinet

-- Baltazar Aquino, Juan Manuel, Conrado Estrella, Gregorio Cendaña, Jacobo Clave,

Carlos P. Romulo, Jose Aspiras in the Marcos cabinet, all of whom speak Pangasinan --

Alberto Romulo, Letty Shahani, Fidel Ramos, Oscar Orbos in the Cory cabinet.

But the purely Pangalatok is a dying race, edged out by the relentless invasion of

Ilocanos, such that when I ran for the Senate campaigning with Ninoy, I was asked by the

37



crowd, “Ilocano na salita, Manong!”

Pangalatoks rarely identify themselves as such, but Capampangans do so with

inordinate pride, inspiring resentment among other Filipinos. Dugong Aso, them's

fighting words to a Pampangueño.

Dugong aso which means “blood of a dog” is a derogatory term that implies the

Capampangans are underhanded and treacherous, but that is not true. The origin of the

term stems from the loyalty of Capampangans to friends and family, at one instance even

canine loyalty to our colonial masters. The mercenary Macabebe Scouts fought for the

Spanish and the Americans during our Revolution.

It is a mistake to assume however that the Macabebe Scouts were inherently anti-

Filipino. It is tragic that Aguinaldo's Revolutionary government did not even try to

recruit the Scouts, the most disciplined and most effective Filipino fighting force,

comparable to the British Ghurkas. Too bad, we might have won some victories over the

Americans. Macabebe Scouts, one recalls, maneuvered the capture of Aguinaldo by Col.

Funston.

The Pampangueños, Bung Karno once said, came from a certain village in eastern

Sumatra, where even today people speak a dialect very similar to Capampangan. Other

Filipinos originated from Malaysia and Java.

The only surviving nobility in the Philippines are descendants of Lakandula of

Manila who made peace with the Spaniard Salcedo, and who migrated to Pampanga with

his two sons.

Because Lakandula's peace pact with the Spaniards gave his descendants

exemption from taxes in perpetuity, the Spanish government kept meticulous records on

the family for hundreds of years, including Diosdado Macapagal, Gil Puyat and Alfredo

Carmelo. The latter is our first aviator, marine painter and related to the famed

Bartolome de las Casas, who came to America with Columbus and whose blood mixed

with Lakandula in Pampanga.

The Pampangueños startle the imagination. Felix Roxas, once mayor of Manila

and a progenitor of the Ayala-Zobels, wrote that in Porac, every visitor was provided a

personal valet, and the rigodon dance was performed by persons on horseback! After the

guests were served, the expensive plates they used were conspicuously thrown into the

38



river “so one one else may be accorded the same honor.” They were not smashed like

wine glasses in Europe, because the plates are surreptitiously retrieved later.

Bacolor became our national capital when the British occupied Manila; and here

Filipino matrons refused to yield the cabecera place of honor to the Spanish governor

general.

From Sulipan, where Ortigas of Greenhills originated, came our best cooks. Juan

Padilla and Capitan Gonzalez cooked for Aguinaldo's state dinner celebrating the

Malolos Republic, with Filipino dishes described in the menu in perfect French! To taste

such cooking, go to Gene's Bistro on Morato st. QC, where Gene Gonzalez, nephew of de

La Salle's Brother Andrew, serves such elegant dishes as cold Ube Vichyssoise soup.

Pampanga certainly made its mark in our history. Panday Pira made the cannons

that enabled the Spaniards to complete their conquest. Pedro Abad Santos founded the

Socialist Party that pricked the conscience of the nation and gave birth to Social Justice,

Land Reform and ever-expanding Communist rebellion. His brother Justice Sec. Jose

Abad Santos was the most celebrated Fil-American martyr in World War II.

Pampanga gave us Diosdado Macapagal the greatest president of our sovereign

republic, who made June 12 our Independence Day, claimed Sabah and projected our

nation on the world stage.

August 7, 1991









CHAPTER 11. On a Note of Triumph, elections of 1992





Part 1. Juan de la Cruz wins

TAKE a bow, Juan de la Cruz, you won this election. You won it fair and square.

In a peaceful free and orderly political exercise, you won the laurel wreath on your brow,

the palms (ramos) at your feet, the miter (mitra, headdress worn by Popes and bishops)

on your head above that of Sin and win (manalo), jovy-al, merry-am, imeldific, fine and

dandy-ng -- you triumphed. You are the best and the greatest and you earned a crown of

rainbow over your head.

This is the most peaceful elections we ever had (there was more damage to life

39



and property in one night of wrath in Los Angeles than in our entire campaign period),

thanks to the Comelec and the National Police enforcing the ban on guns and private

armies; to a vigilant press and citizenry wielding cameras and flashlights, quick to react

to abuse and to intervention by CIA and Embassy control freaks with their “internal

memos” and bag of tricks; and to the pervasive presence of the media: radio (in 97

percent of all the homes), the television (55 percent of all the homes), and print (8 percent

of all, but practically 100 percent of the nation's decision makers), according to a recent

SWS survey.

Thanks to the Armed Forces under Abadia which managed to remain neutral and

benign, despite an unwritten policy to murder the best of our students, intellectuals,

priests, patriots, workers and peasants in behalf of local caciques and American colons.

Even Nemesio Prudente, subject of several assassination attempts, campaigned for the

senate without harassment (maybe because he looks like Mitra with his beard), and

escaped the fate of Edgar Jopson, Lando Olalia, Lean Alejandro and Father Romano.

Traditionally, the Armed Forces composed mostly of Ilocanos have been used to

subvert the people's will when their president and commander-in-chief is an Ilocano -- as

in the elections of 1949 between Ilocano Quirino and the nationalist Jose P. Laurel, and

during the Marcos years. Magsaysay the Ilocano from Zambales was able to neutralize

the Armed Forces when he ran against Quirino in 1953; and People Power neutralized

them again at EDSA.

Our traditional politics was handed down to us by Irish immigrants to the United

States, refugees from the potato famine in the lowest rung of the social scale. They had

only two ways to escape the slums: priesthood and ward politics.

American Irish priests landed in the Philippines because on the way to an

assignment in India, they were refused entry by the British wary of Irish rebels. They

were diverted here and the Spanish Jesuits were sent to India in their place.

Election Dirty Tricks were first employed in the USA by Irish immigrants seeking

to improve their lot through partisan politics. There was Boss Tweed who ruled

Tammany Hall and New York from 1858 to 1871 and died in prison in 1878... Mayor

Daly of Chicago who gave Kennedy his winning margin in Illinois, and ruled Chicago in

the 1960s... Mayor Curley in the 1950s who ran the city of Boston from his jail cell.

40



What the Irish are to the USA, the Ilocanos are to the Philippines -- clannish and fiercely

partisan.

The Great Ilocano Marcos used the Armed Forces and raised Dirty Tricks to an

art. He perfected the “eight-zero club” with financial incentives for governors to deliver

majority votes to his eight senatorial candidates. He bought votes with over-printed

Central Bank notes, bribed, intimated and cheated in the counting.

In a close election dirty tricks may provide the winning margin. Fortunately

Ramos is a Pangalatok and actively disliked by the Ilocanos. The lack of campaign funds

minimized vote-buying. Attempts to spirit away the ballot box proved difficult with at

least seven watchers in every precinct.

The cheapest and easiest way to cheat is to change the election returns in the

treasurer's office, or by bribing a few hi-tech computer operators involved in the counting

of the ballots. But we doubt if these can be done as it was reportedly done during the

1988 elections, there are just too many whistle-blowers. And the best proof of this is that

Miriam Defensor Santiago, without money, organization or political base, manages to

challenge Ramos the administration candidate supported by Big Business for the

presidency in a close contest.

Today I have every reason to be euphoric. Early reports indicate that my province

Pangasinan went overboard for Pangalatok Eddie Ramos, despite a history of indifference

to its own sons in previous senatorial elections: Ilonggo Gerry Roxas won over

Pangalatok Ambrosio Padilla; Tarlaqueño Ninoy Aquino won over me; Tagalog Erap

Estrada and Jovy Salonga won over Letty Shahani and Bert Romulo. Ilocanos already

had two presidents and Pangasinan never had any, even though Pangasinan has 50

percent more votes than the entire Ilocandia.

All because Pangalatoks have millstones around their necks... lanlandet, patpata,

milmilay baton dwara, on legep, on imwas (we sink, we swim, carrying with two rocks)...

so goes a popular song, hahaha!

No longer, if Eddie Ramos wins. (to be continued)

41





Part 2. Growing bananas in the North Pole

PITY the poor foreign correspondents converging on the Philippines, trying to

ferret out the least evidence of election anomaly, fraud, terrorism and violence, with

which to pass judgment on us little brown brothers.

They say our election rhetoric has evaded valid issues and sunk to insults and

personal attacks, even while their own politicians in the USA are being subjected to

invasions of privacy, exposes of flirtation and sexual harassment, marital infidelity,

experiments with marijuana which is less a threat to our health than tobacco, racism and

draft evasion. At least it can be said that we Filipino accepted Doy Laurel’s thesis that

anything happening below the belt is nobody's business but his wife’s, and that the issue

of character is more valid than issues born of ephemeral campaign promises.

They say our elections are violent, but this one proved much more peaceful than

all previous elections, and less violence prone than in most countries.

They say that our multi-party electoral system is not compatible with the

presidential system, and leads to political confusion. But we Filipinos have found this

election the most fascinating, the most exciting, the most significant, the most mature

political exercise we ever had, best ever in our entire history.

Before martial law, we had a two-party system where we are presented two

candidates of two colonial parties, practically indistinguishable from each other, in

political philosophy, in economic school of thought, in lack of culture and the humanities,

in qualities of mind and character. Our choice is limited to two birds of the same feather.

Today, however, we have a smorgasbord of fascinating alternatives: a nationalist, an

iconoclast, a crony capitalist with a mestizo mafia, a military democrat, a traditional

politician with a Colgate smile, a pro-American with a smile that looks like a sneer, a

snarl and a smirk combined, and a willful extravagant woman. With the entry of

Danding and Imelda into the fray, the basic confrontation developed between Marcos

forces and the Cory forces, the first perceived to be malevolent, the second to be

incompetent.

The spirit of EDSA is dead. The symbols of Yellow Ribbons and the Laban sign

no longer raised enthusiasms and were abandoned. A third force came into being: a

plague on both your houses, it said, and spread like contagion! Doy Laurel and Jovy

42



Salonga tried to ride that tide, and failed. It devolved on the shoulders of Miriam

Defensor Santiago, also known as Genghis Khan-tiago, Atilla the Hen, Mad Maid

Miriam, Brenda-maged, Rita-rded, Alona-tic, Abner-mal.

She is a character only Shakespeare could have invented: as smart as Portia, full

of wit and mischief as Rosalind, sharp-tongued as Beatrice, quarrelsome as Kathy, proud

and obstinate as Cordelia, imperious as Lady Macbeth, who calls her opponents fungus-

faces and certifiable idiots. And without money or organization, she captured the

imagination and support of many. My God, if I knew that the Philippines was ready for

another woman president, I would have run my wife for the presidency, perhaps even my

mother-in-law, editor or publisher. And Belinda Cunanan as well as Ninez Olivares to

boot, along with virgins Corito Fiel and Baby Orosa thrown in for good measure.

But win or lose or tie, Miriam Defensor Santiago has made history and deserves

our congratulations, though we shudder to think how the country might fare if her

supporter, pro-IMF and pro-American Tony Abaya, became Finance Secretary. Yet Fidel

Ramos, her closest rival, is so impressed with her that if he wins, he plans to ask her to

join his cabinet. He should do the same to Erap Estrada who is sure to be elected vice

president.

Erap Estrada is the other phenomenon in this election. A movie star with a macho

image, more elequent in Filipino than in English, he has earned his spurs as the mayor of

San Juan and as a senator, with his integrity and courage in espousing the cause of

Nationalism and Social Justice. Derided as an idiot as Ramon Magsaysay was once, and

as an inveterate loverboy, like our presidents Quezon, Roxas and Marcos were, Erap

Estrada ran for the presidency, consistently topped the polls surveys together with

Miriam and Ramos, lost his nerve when he ran out of funds (he never realized everyone

did too), slid to the vice presidency, and beat everyone hands down.

If only Jovy Salonga reined in his high and mighty ways and allowed his party to

choose his vice president mate, instead of insisting on a pledge to allow him alone to

make the choice and forcing Erap out of the party! With Erap and the INC vote, the

Protestant and Nationalist constituencies, and the conscience vote, Jovy Salonga might

have made it to the presidency.

Mitra may be gratified to know that most of the Lichauco clan voted for him

43



because the Ukrainian visionary Josyp Terylya foretold that the next president will wear a

beard.

Miriam may have to grow a beard to win this election, though it may prove more

difficult than planting bananas in the North Pole or making Tony Abaya smile.





Part 3. Windmills of the gods

THIS is the best election ever. Even its perceived defects brought forth its

greatest triumphs. The ban on political advertising was the great equalizer, and it forced

the candidates onto the same TV platform where the voters can compare them and judge

them with respect to each other.

Monching Mitra started his slide down in the people's estimation, when he could

not hold his own in the debates specially under attack from Doy Laurel. Madame Imelda

did not show up. Eddie Ramos shed his military image and looked like the boy next

door. Advertising executives like Emoy Quiogue said Danding looked cool and

confident, but to others he looked like Al Pacino as the Godfather. Miriam, hahaha,

intimidated all others by acting as if she would pull hair and scratch out eyes if anyone

ever so much as hint that she was off her rocker. Doy was a good debater and spoiler, but

he still had That Certain Smile. Jovy looked like Batman's Joker while speaking with the

voice of the God and Charlton Heston; it was weird.

But in these confrontations we learned more about the basic issues than if we

were subjected to a barrage of posters, T-shirts, stickers, streamers, junk mail, radio, TV

and print ads. Thank God there were none to clutter the environment and our minds. Of

course the ban gave undue advantage to the incumbents and popular entertainers, and

something should be done to allow the unknown to catch up in the public view.

The pervasive presence of the media brought the electorate close to the

candidates, allowing the voter to judge each office seeker without the intervention of

political machines and organized image makers.

The statistical survey has finally come into its own as an accurate gauge of public

opinion and as a valuable tool of campaign strategy, through such organizations as Social

Weather Stations (SWS) who shared their findings with people outside of their client

circles, and courageously made public fearless forecasts on which their reputations stand

44



or fall. Others like Pichong Henares' Asia Research and Simeon Ventura's Krystal

Research service only paying clients, and simply don't take the risk by publishing their

findings.

Surveys are not always accurate, and some are better than others. The undecideds

and the change-their-minds often make a mockery of poll surveys at the last minute, and

produced such boo-boos as the unexpected victory of Harry Truman over Tom Dewey in

the US presidential elections of 1949, and the recent victory of the Tories in Great

Britain. In the States pollsters developed what is known as the “exit survey,” conducted

on representative samples of voters AFTER they had already voted. The results of this

can be made known long before the actual vote count is finished and made public. Two

such surveys were conducted in this election, by Reuter News Service and Mahar

Mangahas' SWS.

Independent surveys using different samples and coming to the same conclusions,

are perceived to have validated each other. Both these surveys predict that when the final

tallies are made, Fidel “Steady Eddie” Ramos will win a closely contested election over

Miriam Defensor Santiago. He will be a plurality president with at most 28 percent of

the votes, but so was Kennedy and Lincoln. Perhaps in the future we should have a run-

off election between first and second placers, as in many European democracies.

This is the last time we shall elect 24 senators, an arduous and tiring task. From

here on we will elect 12 senators every three years.

All seems well yet we wonder as Adrian Cristobal does, with a considerable

amount of apprehension, why in heaven's name we Filipinos have to spend a great

amount of our time and talents in Namfrel, Pollwatch and MCQC to insure that our

government and politicians do not subvert the people's will. There is one thing that even

corrupt dictatorships hold sacred, and that is the sanctity of the ballot. Dozens of

Communist regimes stood by while the people voted them out of office. In Pakistan, and

even in Burma, the authorities allowed the emergence of the democratic opposition in

clean honest elections -- even if they were toppled by the military right afterwards.

Almost everywhere, people cast their votes and go to sleep at night, confident that the

next morning, their will shall be known, even if it does not prevail.

Here again and again, we doubt the validity of our election results, held under

45



ever changing rules to favor the status quo, and have to stay up late worrying if our

ballots are being counted or stolen and destroyed. Here again and again, our leaders rule

under a cloud of uncertainty, never knowing whether or not they have the mandate to do

so.

Yet all of us Filipinos rise to the challenge when needed, cast our votes, wait up

and witness and risk our lives to make sure our votes are all counted, and hope that we

chose our leaders wisely and well.

And so the windmills of the gods grind on, and with this election, our history in

the next six years and even unto the next century, stand ready, ready to be suddenly

launched and set upon its course.

May 1 to 20, 1992









CHAPTER 12. The Battle of the Beaten, elections of 1998





Part 1. The Veeps: the Battle of the Beaten

It was very nice to watch on television the vice presidential candidates mixing it

up in a debate with each other under the prodding of Jullie Yap Daza and Teodoro Locsin

Jr. Of course the only one who was not there was Joe de Venecia’s running mate,

Senator Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is loath to endanger her invincible 48 percent

survey rating by appearing in the same show with those she will surely beat in the

election.

So in effect what we witnessed on television that night was the Battle of the

Beaten – Erap’s Edong Angara, Fred Lim’s Serge Osmena, Raul Roco’s Irene Santiago,

Rene de Villa’s Oscar Orbos, Miriam Santiago’s Francisco Tatad, Santi Dumlao’s

Nanding Pacheco (the gun ban advocate), and Lito Osmena’s running mate.

One is forced to conclude that the vice presidential candidates are a sight brighter

and more eloquent than their presidential running mates. They were good. And the best

of them was Serge Osmena who was quick witted and well informed. His demolition job

on cousin Lito Osmeña was devastatingly applied with minimum force, like the hammer

tap of a Jewish jeweler cutting a diamond. He pooh-poohed Lito’s Tale of Two Cities

46



with the observation that while Cebu City prospered, the Cebu province under his

governorship was in economic doldrums and remained poor; and that Lito only wants to

transfer power from Imperial Manila to Imperial Cebu.

Come to think of it, while Lito proposes to decongest Manila by attracting the

jobless to share in the prosperity of the provinces, Manila is being congested primarily by

Cebuanos, the only ones who accept menial domestic jobs. No longer do Ilocanos and

Pangalatoks, Ilonggos and Bicolanos, and certainly not Pampangueños and Tagalogs,

accept such low paying jobs. They would rather go abroad for greener pastures. Serge

Osmeña is absolutely right. Only Cebuanos come to Manila seeking jobs as domestic

help. Also the Muslims of Mindanao of course, but who would risk being dispatched to

the Muslim heaven by the kris of a juramentado? Only Cebuanos promdi probins ni Lito

will do, thank you. Almost all servants in Forbes Park and Dasmariñas Villages are

Cebuanos.

Nandy Pacheco, a gun ban advocate from Opus Dei whose leader once presented

the dictator Marcos with a gold plated gun, was talking too much on the qualifications of

his candidate Santi Dumlao, and neither sleet or snow, neither fire or flood, neither

Teddyboy or Jullie, could deter him from his appointed task. But when he started to

question Serge about his stand on Pro-Life as promulgated by Opus Dei, Serge Osmeña

waited patiently for the end of the kilometric question, and said, “Such a complicated

question deserves a complicated answer. Write it down and I will answer you through

the mails.” The perfect put-down.

And when Nandy Pacheco expounded on his promise to abolish income taxes,

and increase the Value Added Tax to compensate for the loss of government revenue,

Serge wryly calculated that the VAT may have to be increased from 10 percent to 100

percent. And Irene Santiago put in her two cents; “Consumption taxes like the VAT

burden the poor more than the rich.” This is true; income tax is the only tax based on

ability to pay. Consumption taxes are considered retrogressive by social reformers.

Oscar Orbos says he will refuse to accept a cabinet position and would rather do

advocacy work like an NGO, rather than share power with the president. Everyone else

snickered. Irene Santiago said she has been offered by President Roco the job of

Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Kit Tatad was ecstatic about his running mate Miriam

47



Santiago who he said will eradicate graft and corruption once she is in office – well, in

the Bureau of Immigration and the Department of Agrarian Reform, even in her previous

bid for the presidency, it was the other way around, the grafters got rid of her. But maybe

with the aid of Opus Dei…

Edong Angara said that he is happy with Erap as President because Erap can

command the respect and support of the masses in the difficult days ahead, when bitter

economic medicines may have to be taken. We gather that Edong is convinced that Erap

is not the problem but definitely part of the solution (haha).

When the time came to pass judgment on the Vice Presidential candidate who was

not there, Irene Santiago demurred, but Teddyboy said: “Fire away. Gloria deserves the

beating by not being here.” Maybe so, but Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, heading for a

landslide victory with 48 percentage points, is actually doing the beating in this Battle of

the Beaten.





Part 2. The Presidential candidates: I thought he’d shoot me!

So we had a TV program with all the vice-presidential candidates except Gloria

Macapagal Arroyo, the one conceded to win the election. No holds barred debate among

them, billed as the Battle of the Beaten, because none of them is expected to win. The

other night it was the turn of presidential candidates to have a no holds barred debates.

All were there except the two who will probably win the election, Erap Estrada and Joe

de Venecia. Thus do we witness the Battle of the Beaten, Part 2.

It was fun nonetheless. This time it is not Roco who shines, it is Manoling

Morato who was needling everyone within range, especially Alfredo Lim. He started off

by saying that whereas Mayor Lim provided hospitals for the poor, he neglected to give

them medicines. It was he Morato through the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes who

provided the medicines. Mayor Lim insisted that he also provided medicines, but Morato

instead of conceding that some of the medicines were supplied by Lim, insisted that Lim

did not give at all. Lim was incensed at the implication that he is a liar.

“Kasinongalingan!” Lim shouted several times.

If there is something Morato is good at, it is getting people mad. He knew he had

gotten the goat of Lim, so he continued needling him by implying that Lim won the

48



sweepstakes under suspicious circumstances, “I keep wondering how come as soon as we

picked Lim's number, everybody knew it was he who won. The names of Sweepstakes

winners are supposed to be confidential.” Lim lost his cool, his integrity is being

challenged, he shouted “Lies!” and he stood up threateningly. Morato did not flinch, “I

thought he was going to shoot me,” he exclaimed.

When someone asked why Erap Estrada was not there, it was Morato who

remarked, “He probably could not get up the stage, being either drunk, sick or lame.”

Manoling just wouldn't stop talking, even while Roco was trying to make a point about

the qualifications of a presidential candidate (all the constitution says is that he must be a

natural born citizen and is not crazy). Morato started to point out that civil service

requires some academic qualifications, “You mean to tell me a government clerk has to

have better qualifications than the President of the Philippines?” Roco angrily asked him

to be gentleman enough to listen, but Manoling ranted on and on about Erap’s

qualifications and character flaws. When someone said that Erap was not around to

answer back, Manoling said that Erap insults him even in his absence, so why shouldn't

he do the same? Finally Morato said that if the Filipino people are stupid enough to vote

Erap into office, they are not, as Ninoy said, worth dying for. And we won't even have a

country to love.

Miriam was brilliant as usual, and we are sorry she had to leave early. Roco was

brilliant as usual and we are sorry that someone brought up that canard about his being a

wife-beater, a fornicator, and a bad tempered boss who verbally abuses the office girls.

Accuse of fathering two children with his law partner, Lorna Kapunan, he blurted out that

at the age of 46, Lorna cannot bear children, and immediately he was sorry he said it,

because his answer implied something worse.

Lito Osmena earned brickbats for making his children and all Cebuanos sing the

National Anthem in Cebuano and for insisting that what is known as Filipino is not the

National Language. Again as he did when his cousin Serge debunked his Promdi

program, poor Lito lost points, and tarnished his plastic smile.

April 17 and May 1, 1998, ISYU

49





Part 3. Me Trapo, Igno Ramos, Cuha-on Ko, Salompas!

YOU remember the story of the US congressman visiting Africa, making

speeches punctuated with enthusiastic cheers from his audiences, “Oompa! Oompa!

Oompa!” This pleased him no end, until he was being led through a field full of cow

manure, and his escort admonished him, “Be careful, Congressman, don't step on the

oompa.”

Oompa, oompa, we hear nothing but oompa from electoral candidates. In the new

Firing Line program on Channel 7, we saw Teddymen Benigno and Oscar Orbos

promoting some sort of debate between presidential candidates Mitra and Ramos on their

respective economic programs.

Oscar defined the problem by mouthing inane generalities, without mentioning

Import Liberalization, Debt Relief, Export-oriented Agriculture. Did I say mouth? How

can Oca mouth anything with a stiff upper lip, clenched teeth and a lower lip curled up to

the side of his mouth? It is sad to see Oca’s idea of economic development consists in

preaching “Don't give up the ship!” and Benigno’s in promoting dictators as

implementors of policy, as in other Asian countries.

All four had thick pancake make-up, Ramos and Orbos colored deep red and

Benigno and Mitra colored deep yellow. The debate deteriorated into speculations over

Ramos’ trip to Zurich, with Benigno and Ramos wiggling their ears at each other.

Monching Mitra says that since most of our population are farmers, his priority is

agricultural development. That's oompa! You go over the roster of nations and it is

obvious that industrial nations are rich, while agricultural nations are poor. What

Monching means is that as president he plans to keep us forever poor and controllable by

the USA. Oompa!

In another TV program, VP candidate Lito Osmeña says that industrial nations

have higher agricultural production than agricultural nations. This is because

industrialization makes agriculture modern and efficient, producing fertilizers,

insecticides, irrigation systems, tractors and combines, and hybrid seeds for the farmers.

In the USA where only three percent of the labor force are farmers, they grow enough

food to feed themselves and the rest of the Free World as well. In the Philippines, 70

percent of the labor force are in the farms, which is so fertile all we have to do is to flip a

50



seed into the ground to make it grow, and we cannot even grow enough to feed ourselves,

importing our yellow corn, sorghum, garlic, apples, oranges.

Lito is right, an American farmer can feed thirty Americans and 20 foreigners,

while two Filipino farmers can only feed themselves and one other Filipino, and all three

of them are still be starving. Lito is right, but it is doubtful if Ramos’ financial angels,

the biggest of whom imports agricultural chemicals, would allow Ramos and Lito to do

anything except continue the oompa policies of Estanislao and the Cory administration.

Miriam Santiago and Marcelo Fernan anchor their campaign on “justice to every

man,” and the extirpation of graft and corruption -- which they say they can accomplish

by personal example. That's a tall pile of oompa. Every cheap politician of low IQ

promises that, knowing that they could never do it, and that all they could really deliver is

more oompa!

Erap Estrada has been chosen one of the Three Best Senators by the Philippines

Free Press, and we agree with this assessment. Erap, Jovy Salonga, perhaps Dundeeng,

among the presidentiables, Nene Pimentel, Jun Rivera and Lito Osmeña among the VP

candidates, are in my estimation well grounded in the policies and principles of

nationalism and industrialization. They deserve your favorable consideration and vote.

And so do the nationalists among the senatorial bets: Butz Aquino, Gloria

Macapagal, Jose Concepcion, Tito Guingona, Orly Mercado, Raul Roco (in the Mitra

camp); Adolfo Azcuna, Alran Bengzon, Frank Chavez, Marietta Goco, Ramon Jacinto (in

the Ramos camp); Nikki Coseteng, Ernie Maceda, Katrina Santos, Moning Osme¤a (in

Danding's ticket); Nemesio Prudente, Bobby Tañada, Lorna Yap, Victor Ziga (in Jovy's

ticket); Roger Arienda, Wilson Gamboa, Gat Inciong (in the Laurel camp); and Tony

Leviste in Miriam's ticket.

The rest of the others are full of oompa in varying degrees -- the most coming

from Imelda Marcos and Doy Laurel. Eddie Ramos, Sonny Osmeña, Letty Shahani, Bert

Romulo, Sonny Alvarez, Manuel Morato, Komong Sumulong, Blas Ople, Monching

Mitra have other sterling qualities that make up for their stand on the US bases.

Not everyone agrees with me. My schoolmate Pontororoy insists that our

judgment must be based on track record, not campaign promises; the future belongs to no

man, he said, while one's past is his very own. As far as Pontororoy is concerned, of the

51



four leading presidential candidates, one is a wimp, one is a fascist, another is a

crocodile, and the other is an ingrate.

None deserve his vote: Monching Me-Trapo, Eddie Igno Ramos, Dundeeng

Cuha-on Ko Tanan (that's Ilonggo; translated in Wikang Pinoy, Kunin Ko Lahat), Jovy

Salompas, Stan Laurel, Mad Maid Miriam, Erap Sharrap, and Imeldific Narcosis.

Oompa, oompa, nothing but oompa.

February 25, 1992









CHAPTER 13. The Organization Man





Part 1. How to make cookies and doughnuts

I remember when I was still an engineering student in U.P., how I was introduced

to a concept in Scientific Management. It was in 1945, during the time of the so-called

Liberation. The whole U.P. compound between Padre Faura and United Nations Avenue

was in rubbles and was occupied by a U.S. Army Camp; the Nurses Home on Taft and

Padre Faura was occupied by the U.S. Women's Auxiliary Corps (WAC); and we U.P.

students had to attend classes in the Institute of Hygiene, also on Padre Faura. I was

being initiated into the Tau Alpha Fraternity, and I asked my masters to assign me to

clean the floors of the WAC barracks. That was the first time I was ever initiated into the

delightful company of women who were generous in sharing their charms with a poor

student.

The WACs did not have their own kitchen, and were depending on the Army to

supply them with food. One day, a WAC lieutenant asked me to accompany her to the

Army mess to check up on the kind of food they were getting.

The mess sergeant was showing us around the army kitchen. To our

consternation, we saw the army cook, a big black man stripped to his waist and sweating

mud; he was kneading dough. He took a little bit of dough in each hand, slapped the

dough on his stomach, and placed them in a pan... took a bit of dough, slapped it in his

stomach, placed it in a pan... took a bit of dough, slapped it on his stomach, placed it on a

pan. His navel protruded outward, so the dough had dents. That was where he put the

52



raisins. Then he pushed the pan into the oven, and baked cookies out of the dough.

“Terrible!” the WAC lieutenant exclaimed to the mess sergeant, “Don't you think

it's simply terrible?”

“Terrible?” answered the mess sergeant. “Lady, you should see the way he makes

the doughnuts!”

Dirty minds, he did it with his fingers. And he employed one of the techniques

discovered by Frank Gilbreth to achieve efficiency in repetitive tasks: “Both hands must

travel in symmetrical and opposite directions in the performance of the work.”





Part 2. The One Best Way

Much later I read a book entitled “Cheaper by the Dozen”, a hilarious biography

about a pioneer in Scientific Management, Frank Gilbreth. In it was described how Frank

Gilbreth as a teen-ager hired out as a bricklayer's helper, and thoroughly irritated his

foreman by asking too many questions. One day, he approached his foreman and asked:

“Did you ever notice that no two men use exactly the same way of laying bricks? Do you

know what it means?"

And foreman answered, “One more word out of you, Gilbreth, and I'll put this

brick into your mouth, sideways.”

After retreating a safe distance, Gilbreth shouted, “It means that if one bricklayer

is doing it the right way, then all the others are doing it the wrong way. If I were you, I'd

find out who does it the right way, and make all the others do it the same way."

Thus did young Gilbreth find out the principle of the “one best way” of doing a

job. He put this principle to work, and by the time he was 27 years of age, he had offices

in New York, Boston, and London. He had a yacht, smoked cigars and had a reputation

for being a well-dressed man.

These two incidents started the train of events that led me to graduate from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in Business and Engineering

Administration. By the time I came back to the Philippines in 1949, I was billed as the

first Filipino Management Engineer.

My first offer of a job came from my father who owned and managed a paint

factory. He offered me P300 per month. I said that it was too little, that I was offered 4

53



times as much if I worked with ESSO in Shanghai. He said, “After all, you'll inherit the

factory. Does it matter?” And I replied, “It does matter. I want to be paid what I'm

worth. I tell you what,” I said to my disappointed father, “let me be on my own for a

while, I want to find out how good I really am while you're still in a position to help me.

It would be a hell of a thing to find out how lousy I am when you're no longer around to

pick up the pieces."





Part 3. Business Consultant

So I became a business consultant. First job I had was with Jose P. Marcelo of

Marcelo Rubber. I convinced him to buy the nail plant from NDC and set up the Marcelo

Steel Corporation, and showed him how to make money where NDC couldn't. He paid

me P10,000 for a week's work (that's equivalent to P100,000 at today's exchange rates,

and P300,000 at today's prices). This enabled me to cable my girlfriend in San Francisco,

and get her to come back and get married.

Soon I was business consultant to many firms: GSIS, Philippine-American Life

Insurance, Ysmael Steel Corporation, Lexal Laboratories, Rizal Motors, National

Printing Co., Aboitiz and Co., and others. My usual approach was simple. I went to a

firm and offered to simplify their procedures, physical lay-out and factory operations. I

guaranteed them their present profits. I offered to double their profits without

compensation; I get paid 10% of anything over double the profits. I had no one to help

me in my work, so I organized the Graduate School of Management Engineerg in Feati

University, and the School of Commerce in the Lyceum, and got paid for being the dean

in those two schools. I was only 25 years old then and most of my students were older

than I was. And I was earning more than my father was.

My father said to me, “Larry, you're making millionaires out of Ysmael and

Marcelo. Why don't you make me a millionaire?” And so he turned over the paint

factory to management of his two sons, myself and my brother Teddy.

The original paint company expanded to an industrial complex of 56 products,

among them Crayola under the license of Binney & Smith, Old Town Carbon Paper,

Mongol Pencils under license of Eberhard Faber Co., Parker Quick Ink under license of

Parker Pen Co. Soon we were organizing new companies with many other partners. To

54



mention a few, we were at one time the biggest stockholders of Philacor, maker of

Westinghouse refrigerators (the winning brand); of Pacific Office Machines, distributors

of Monroe calculators and Triumph typewriters (Be Specific, Buy Pacific); of Amphil

Chemicals in joint venture with Rohm and Haas.





Part 4. Industrialization

During this time, I gradually realized that for our country to survive, we must

industrialize. And we couldn't industrialize unless we change many of the rules and

regulations, laws and policies that govern the Philippine economy. Dominated by the

influence of the American government and American carpetbaggers, our economy was

geared for the exportation of raw materials and the importation of finished products, a

plantation-type of agricultural economy like that of the American-dominated banana

republics of South America.

It became necessary to do something about it. Young industrialists joined the

Philippine Chamber of Industries and made it a potent weapon to change the status quo.

A decade later, students manned the barricades in street demonstrations against American

imperialism. In the late 1950s we did the same thing not in the streets but in the higher

councils of state, in the august chambers of the Monetary Board, Tariff Commission,

Legislature and even Malacanañg itself. But that is another story. Suffice it to say that

we were able to change the Central Bank's basis for allocating foreign exchange from that

of historical pattern, i.e. favoring American importers, to that of industrialization, i.e.

favoring manufacturers with raw materials to import. We were able to raise tariff duties

on finished goods being manufactured locally. We were able to secure passage of a law

giving tax exemption to new and necessary industries. We were able to force American

importers to set up oil refineries and other industries in the Philippines under pain of

losing their markets. And in time this unremitting war on American imperialists and

carpetbaggers brought me to the forefront, first as President of the Philippine Chamber of

Industries and second as Cabinet member, Chairman of the highest economic planning

body, the National Economic Council.

As the first Management Engineer in the Philippines, and as one intimately

involved in the nationalist industrialization of our country, what can I tell you about the

55



prospects and opportunities for professional managers in the years ahead?

There are external and internal factors that affect your business or the firm you

work for.

You must recognize the fact that such external factors as the state of the economy,

laws and regulations, and above all monetary, fiscal, tariff, tax, trade and investment

policies followed by the government have a profound effect on business in general and

your firm in particular. It behooves you therefore to take an active interest in what your

government is doing, and attempt to influence public policy by group action through

trade organizations or by direct appeal through petitions and recommendations.





Part 5. Personal Leadership

Of the internal factors, the most significant is the organization itself, the basic

structure by which money, men, machines and materials are combined into productive

and profitable relationship.

Every business firm starts its growth under the highly personalized leadership of

one man. Inevitably however the time comes when the personal leader gives way to an

“organization man and his management team”.

This shift from the leadership of one personality to that of a management team

comes as part of the natural process of growth, but is rarely as smooth as some people

think. It is often a painful and laborious process that starts with the refusal of the

personal leader to abdicate his power and position, a breakdown of the organization

sometimes to the verge of bankruptcy, a vacuum of leadership and a struggle for power

quite analogous to the bloody revolutions that new nations of Asia and Africa have

experienced within our lifetime.

There are many classic examples of how personal leadership gives way to the

organization man and his management team.

Gen. Henry DuPont who started a chemical complex bearing his name, was a man

of fabulous capacity. He personally directed a highly centralized organization where

decisions were made at the top, and subordinates were judged, not by some impersonal or

pre-formulated criteria, but by how “I (the personal leader) would have done it if I had

the time to do it myself.” General DuPont reviewed all chemical formulations (300

56



everyday); he interviewed, hired and fired all personnel; wrote every letter in longhand

and bought the stamps himself; and approved every expenditure down to ten cents. He

was still doing it when he died. His son, Eugene DuPont, tried to run the company the

same way, and it killed him. He just didn't have the capacity of his father and he died

shortly of ulcers, and the DuPont Co. went into bankruptcy. Three DuPont cousins

bought out the assets and brought the company through the period of transition to a

“management team leadership.”





Part 6. Management Team

Another example is that of the automobile industry in the United States. In 1923,

General Motors, an unwieldy combine of car factories, was under the personal leadership

of Walter C. Durant, a master salesman who sold more cars than any man in history. He

also sold the company almost into bankruptcy and General Motors was, for the second

time, on the verge of extinction. Then Alfred B. Sloan, an organization man, carried the

company through the transition to management team leadership.

Ford Motor Company, the oldest car manufacturer in the world, grew to become a

giant under the personal leadership of Henry Ford I, a mechanical genius who had his

own ideas about car styles and labor relations. It is a tribute to the capacity of this man

that his company survived up to 1946, when he died. By that time, the Ford Co. was

losing $9 million dollars a month, and sinking fast until his grandson, Henry II carried it

through the crisis and made an amazing comeback under a management team.

Other firms went through their crisis and never recovered. Out of 2,042 car

companies that existed since 1899, only 4 exist today in the United States. And these 4

exist today by virtue of their ability to make this transition towards management team

leadership.

Students of the management movement in the Philippines may well look into the

cases of the many big firms here that experienced or about to experience this crisis of

management transition: Marcelo Rubber which branched out into steel and chemicals;

Danding Cojuangco who still exercises effective personal leadership over a fabulous

industrial empire; Sarmiento, Yulo, Silverio and others.

All these firms -- DuPont, General Motors, Ford -- found out the hard way that

57



management is a profession in itself and that a manager does not necessarily have to be

an engineer, an accountant, or a marketing man; that a company cannot progress on the

opportunities of the moment and that advances in business must be planned and provided

for in the future by acts that are done today; that management control should be in terms

not of personal judgment but of the pesos and centavos of profit realization; and finally,

that there must be an organizational provision for the inevitable transition from the

leadership of one man to the leadership of an organization man and his team.





Part 7. Three Types Of Organization

It is a fact that most organizations just happen. An organization just grows

around people; then new people change it. No two organizations are alike, any more than

two houses are alike; but a sound structure and foundation adopt to all kinds of houses

and all kinds of organization. Organizations are of many classifications: line and staff,

committee, centralized or decentralized, vertical or horizontal.

But a brilliant young management authority named Louis A. Allen put forth the

thesis that all such organizations are either one of two types; that we have really no

choice between these two types of organizations, because we have to adopt them both;

that we must start with one, and then at some time in the life of the organization, adopt

the other; and that the time between the two is a time of crisis where failure may mean

bankruptcy, and where we must, if we are to survive, bridge the transition between

personal leadership to the leadership of a management team.

Alvin Toffler, author of “Future Shock” adds that because of the accelerative

forces of change, a third type of organization is emerging, which he calls the “ad hoc”

organization.

Thus we have 3 types of organization, following one after the other in the process

of growth. They are:

1. The Functional Organization under a one-man leadership.

2. The Divisionalized Organization under a management team.

3. The Ad Hoc Organization under task force management.

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Part 8. Functional Organization

The first is the functional type of organizational structure, where organizational

groupings are made on the basis of the kinds of work to be performed. A manager of a

small firm who does his own selling, finds later that he no longer has the physical time

nor the capacity to cope with the work. He then hires specialists --- production manager,

an accountant and a sales manager. What the manager does at this stage is not to hire

professional managers, but professional specialists, mere extensions of his power and

function as a highly personal leader of the organization.

This functional type of organizational structure is ideal at this stage when the

company is still at its formative period under a highly personalized leadership. It is the

most direct, the fastest acting, the least demanding and the fastest growing of

organizational structures. It simplifies training by encouraging specialization and places

specialists in top management positions. It maximizes the span of command and

minimizes the levels of management if it can, for the spiralling and pyramiding can

sometimes add up as it did in the case of General Motors to 19 levels of organization

from the Board of Directors down to the worker at the operative level.

Because this functional structure is built like a pyramid, decisions even minor

decisions tend to be forced to the apex. This is fun as long as a high personal leadership

exists. As soon as it outgrows the scope of such individual, the organization breaks

down.

This is where the transition starts, not before. When the firm grows in size and

diversity of activities develop to a point beyond the capacity of one man to control, the

functional structure begins to show its defects. For one thing there are few positions

where decisions are made, and specialists are not necessarily good managers. This type

of organization, built around specialists, does not encourage the development of

professional managers.

For another, how can you measure the performance of each functional unit in

terms of pesos and centavos? The Accounting, the Production, the Sales Departments all

depend and interact on each other for the realization of profits. Each unit is harder to

evaluate and the organization becomes harder to control.

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Part 9. Divisionalized Organization

Most of all, an overgrown functional organization with its pyramid of

innumerable levels of management, inevitably suffers from line loss. The line of

communication from the apex of the pyramid to the operative base becomes longer and

weaker. Facts and decisions based on facts traveling through this long line of

communication, become distorted and outdated, plagued with loss of meaning and loss of

time. The pyramid which was its strength eventually becomes the weakness of the

functional type of organization structure. The symptoms that call for a change are:

1. More and more decisions are forced to the top; the manager complains of

overwork and frustration over misunderstood instructions and delay in communications;

this in turn is followed by

2. The appointment of assistants, an army of assistants doing the same thing and

acting in the name of the manager;

3. The proliferation of committees, coordinators, and liaison men to effect

coordination between levels of management, bypassing the line of authority and

responsibility.

When these symptoms appear, the time has come for a change, or the company

plunges headlong into a crisis.

The time finally comes to reorganize and adopt the second type of organizational

structure -- the “divisionalized” type of organization, where organizational groupings are

made on the basis of product groups or on the basis of geographical location, each a

complete unit catering to a special need. The San Miguel Corporation has a division for

each product it makes (beer, soft drinks, ice cream, animal feed, bottles and containers,

etc.), each division having its own sales, production, finance, and complete unto itself.

Every bank has its branches that are physically apart from each other and autonomous in

their operations. The divisionalized structure in effect pushes decision making down to

the lower levels; authority and responsibility are placed closer to the actual operations;

more capable and really professional managers are required, managers who may be

shifted from one division to another with impunity. The beer manager may take the place

of the animal feed manager, but the production manager is not interchangeable with the

sales manager.

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The divisionalized structure of organization is therefore very much like an

amoeba which divides itself into complete units, each with a functional structure of its

own and a renewed capacity for growth. But it no longer needs a highly personal

leadership at the top, it now needs an “organization man” and a management team, totally

divorced from the complications of specialized operating work and concentrating on the

main business of managing. Thus into full flower blossoms the true professional manger.





Part 10. Ad Hoc Organization

As long as society is relatively stable and unchanging, the problems it presents

tend to be routine and predictable. Organizations in such an environment can be

relatively permanent. But when change is accelerated, more and more novel first time

problems arise, and the traditional forms of organization prove inadequate to the new

conditions. They can no longer cope.

And in this day and age, a new concept of organization has emerged, the “Ad

Hoc” organization, under a “task force” management. Here teams are assembled to solve

specific short term problems. Then like toy “erector sets”, they are disassembled and

their human components reassigned. Sometimes these teams are thrown together to serve

only a few days (e.g. to write up a project proposal). Sometimes they are intended to last

many months or a few years (e.g. to comply with a bridge building contract). But unlike

the functional organization or the divisionalized organization which are assumed to be

permanent, the task force is temporary by design.

In the late 1960s we have seen a tide of mergers and de-mergers in the United

States, and in the Philippines as well, a tremendous rolling wave of acquisitions, the

growth of giant conglomerates, and diversified corporate monsters. In the late seventies,

we have witnessed an equally powerful wave of divestitures, reacquisitions, bankruptcies,

changes in business strategies and product manufacture. We have seen in our country the

rise and fall of the business empires: the Ysmael, the Madrigal, the Lopez, the Soriano,

Benedicto, Cuenca and Disini.

Internal reorganizations almost inevitably follow corporate swaps, foreclosures

and change of ownerships, but they may arise for a variety of reasons as well.

Technological breakthroughs; changes in life styles and consumer demands; increasing

61



government requirements; changes in laws, policies, and regulations; gigantic but

temporary contracts in government contracts; the accelerated pace of life and production

speed-up due to automation; the need for specialists in vital fields so narrow that often

men on top have difficulty understanding them --- all these contribute to the rise of “ad

hoc” organizations under task force teams, temporary and disposable as Kleenex and

plastic containers. And as computers take over the routine tasks of management, more

and more Ad Hoc organizations will be called upon to solve non-routine problems.





Part 11. The New Organization Man

The individual within these organizations need frequent reorientation. He finds

himself frequently reassigned, shuffled about from one substructure to another. Even if

he remains in the same fast changing table of organization, his position in the overall

maze is no longer the same. We find him the New Organization Man, the man of the

future.

While the traditional bureaucrat is immobilized in a predetermined slot in the

organization, the new organization man moves from slot to slot in a complex pattern that

is largely self-motivated. While the traditional bureaucrat is hierarchy conscious, seeking

status and prestige within the organization, the new organization man is committed to the

task not the job, and derives his reward from inward standards of excellence, from their

professional societies and the intrinsic satisfaction of their task. While the traditional

bureaucrat dedicates himself to the solution of routine problems according to well-

defined rules, avoiding any show of unorthodoxy or creativity, the new organization man,

faced by novel problems, is encouraged to innovate. Where the traditional bureaucrat has

to submerge his own individuality to “play ball in the team”, the new organization man

recognizes that the team itself is transient. He may subordinate his individuality for a

while under conditions of his own choosing, but it is never a permanent submergence.

In all this, the New Organization Man bears with him a secret knowledge: the

very temporariness of his relationship with the organization frees him from many of the

bonds that constricted his predecessor. Transience in this sense is liberating.

My friends, I have in this speech of mine, given you a short summary of how of

how a professional manager fared in the hustle and bustle of a developing economy as we

62



have witnessed in the Philippines. I have summarized for you how organizations grow

and change in its various stages of development. I have stressed the importance of

changing with the times, of breaking the shackles of traditional bureaucracy to emerge as

a liberated new organization man. In all this, I have hurled a challenge to you

professional managers.





Part 12. The Wise Man Of The Mountain

What will tomorrow bring?

That question brings to mind a story about an old mountain hermit who was said

to be so wise that he could answer any question without error.

Some young man in a nearby village boasted that he could ask a question which

the old man could not answer. He said, “First I'll catch a bird and hold it behind my

back. Then I'll say to the old man, ‘Oh, wise old man of the mountain, I have a bird in

my hand, is it alive or is it dead?’ If he says that it is alive, I will break the bird's neck

and hand it to him dead. If he says that it is dead, then all I have to do is hand it to him

alive. He can never answer the question right.”

He took some bets from the villagers, and with them trooped to the Wise Old Man

of the Mountain. He caught a bird and held it behind his back and asked, “Old Man of

the Mountain, I have a bird in my hand, is it alive or is it dead?”

The Wise Old Man thought, and he thought, and he thought, and he said, as I say

to you now my young friends, he said:

“Young man, the answer is in your hands.”

Speech, November 7, 1985









CHAPTER 14. Imeldific!





Part 1. There is method in Imelda’s madness

What made Imelda Marcos come up with a series of revelations that admitted her

husband took over most of the Big Businesses of the land: PLDT, San Miguel, Fortune

Tobacco, among others? Admissions that confirm the guilt of her husband and her

63



family for economic plunder and ill-gotten wealth? All this time, it has been assumed

that most people Marcos entrusted his shares to were secretly funneling funds to the

Marcos family. Maybe, the fund source dried up as it must eventually do, and Imelda in

retaliation is threatening to expose every one of them and send them all to jail, even if she

may join them there. Perhaps. But the effect on the economy of the Philippines and its

political landscape may prove devastating.

What is the extent of Imelda’s claim? That the revelations are true has long been

the suspicion of those in the know. JV Cruz testified that in his very presence Imelda

personally handed over to Tonyboy’s father $30 million with which to buy out American

interests in the PLDT. Mariano Quimson testified that three surrogates held the

controlling shares of Bulletin for Marcos. Danding Cojuangco bought control of San

Miguel with the proceeds of the coconut levy imposed by a Marcos decree. Kokoy

Romualdez with his Opus Dei gang, blackmailed the Lopezes into selling them the

Meralco at the market price at the time of purchase. And the Lopezes were allowed by

Cory and PCGG Mat Caparas at the same purchase price, a bargain basement price way

below the real market price at the time of re-purchase.

In effect, Imelda claims total holdings of P500 billion worth of prime properties,

the most lucrative businesses of the land. “We own practically everything in the

Philippines!” She claims to have signed deeds of assignment, stock certificates and other

documents proving ownership of these firms. All are contained in a 50-kilo black pilot’s

bag which is the last thing she looks at before sleeping and the first thing she looks into

upon waking up. And in this act, she is defended by Edsa hero Senator Juan Ponce

Enrile, whose PECABAR firm as well as Angara’s law firm, handled many of the Marcos

transactions. But why does Imelda come up with it this time?

Senator Miriam claims Imelda’s confession is enough to send her to the prison

and death by lethal injection for the heinous crime of economic plunder. The Communist

assassination squad the Alex Boncayo Brigade promised to eliminate her and her family.

Her own son Bongbong and daughter Imee complained to the press that “My mom’s gone

crazy, she is totally ballistic!” Many expect to see a murder for hire contract on her life

paid by those whose interests she threatens.

After the 5th of the nine headline articles in the Inquirer series, Imelda is starting

64



to chicken out and wants the Inquirer and the press in general to stop airing her “crazy”

statements. But Pandora’s box has been opened, never gain to be closed.

But like Hamlet’s, there is method in Imelda’s madness as we shall soon see at the

conclusion of these broadcasts. I sat down with Ponce Enrile and the chief of his staff

(good-looking dame!) at the Via Mare, and he told me in pride that he is the best lawyer

every trained in Ateneo, UP and Harvard. He and the other lawyer of Imelda, Ed Angara

are no fools. Their PECABAR and ACCRA law offices documented all of Marcos’

transactions. Watch out, there is a lot more to this.





Part 2. Non-existent gold and PCGG’s failure

Where did Marcos get the money to buy all these lucrative corporations being

reclaimed by Imelda Marcos? Christine Herrera’s Inquirer expose is full of Imeldific

fairy tales, chief of which is how Ferdinand Marcos got super-rich. Imelda claims he was

already fabulously wealthy when he met and married her in the early 1950s. Marcos had

come upon the gold hoard, weighing 1,000 tons, plundered by General Tomoyuki

Yamashita from various Asian countries, when Marcos was a guerrilla leader during the

World War II. The Golden Buddha was included in this gold find.

Through smart trading in the 1970s when the price of gold jumped from $32 to

$400 per ounce, Marcos managed to quadruple his gold holdings. It was this personal

wealth that Marcos used with the help of his trustees to acquire several American-owned

properties in anticipation of the expiration of parity rights enjoyed by the Americans up

to 1972. Marcos would dip into his personal treasure every time money was needed to

bankroll government projects, which the bankrupt government could not afford. When

Marcos and his family fled to exile in Hawaii in February 1986, he left the Philippine

government with $28 million in foreign debt. Imelda’s claim of 4,000 tons of gold would

be more than half of the gold reserves in Fort Knox.

I have been personally connected with the search for the so-called Yamashita

treasure, and have to admit that most are the wild imaginings of confidence men and

crooks out to fleece stupid investors abroad. The so-called gold certificates (xeroxed

copies) being held by Imelda are fakes, according to Swiss prosecutor Cosandey who

personally looked into the Kloten airport for any evidence of its existence. Steven

65



Zuellig, a Filipino of Swiss descent who married into a banking family in Switzerland,

and who was commissioned by Ramos to help recover the unexplained wealth of Marcos,

reported that all Imelda’s claims of a gold hoard are false. PCGG lawyers were able to

trace the source of the Marcos wealth, although it failed miserably in its mission to

recover it. Simply it was plundered from the Filipino people, leaving them bankrupt and

destitute while the rest of East Asia prospered.

The failure of the PCGG to achieve its mission can be traced to the fact the law

was defective to begin with. Under the revolutionary powers Cory acquired at Edsa, she

should have confiscated the Marcos wealth outright, and challenged the Marcoses to

prove their ownership. Under her revolutionary powers she should have summarily

instituted forfeiture proceedings of the now sequestered assets. The way the law was put

up, Presidential Decree no. 3, the government merely sequestered the properties and took

the burden of proof upon itself. Thus Salonga’s concern for democratic due process even

for the enemies of democracy gave the Marcoses a chance to freeze the ball till their

friends again take over the government.

Second, the PCGG’s fiscal agents did not bother to give back the properties to

whom they were stolen. They were more interested in substituting themselves in place of

cronies, and installing themselves in the lucrative board seats of the big businesses.

Worse than that, as mere fiscal agents they were not bound by any oath of office and

many used their positions to enrich themselves. The loss of so many corporations so

obviously owned by Marcos, is due to their bungling, incompetence and crookedness.





Part 3. Imeldific effect on politics and economy

What is the effect of Imelda’s revelations on the economy and political

landscape?

In the political front, it would seem that the Marcoses are back in power, Imee

and Bongbong in Ilocos Norte, Imelda herself as congresswoman in Leyte. The PGH

case that might have sent her to jail as Al Capone was sent to jail, was dismissed by the

Supreme Court, by justices who once served under her husband. Ombudsman Ani

Disierto cleared her and the Marcos cronies, and was cleared by the Supreme Court for

having acted within his discretionary powers, his impeachment by the House held

66



unlikely because as one newspaperman says, “congressmen are even more corrupt and

more stupid than he is.”

On the other hand, ex-Solicitor General Frank Chavez wins his taxpayer’s suit in

the Supreme Court, nullifying the 75-25 sharing of the Marcos wealth forged by a secret

agreement with Imelda and her brood by PCGG’s Chair Magtanggol Gunigundo, because

among other things, the compromise agreement did not bear the President Ramos’

signature and violated transparency and other provisions of the Constitution regarding the

plunder of the national treasury.

The effect on Big Business is devastating. Stock prices plummeted. Investors

investing in Big Business are having second thoughts. The management, in a bad year of

business, feel insecure in their positions, and have lost the aggressiveness and initiative

that may help pull them out of the rut. The radical left is again on the march, as are the

forces of Edsa and the religious right. How will it affect the new Erap administration,

plagued as it is with economic troubles and political instability? As far as we can

determine, Erap just wants to put all these divisive issues behind him and get on with the

nation's business. Where it will end, no one knows. It comes at a really bad time.

The effect of Imelda’s eruption of revelations is as newsworthy and earth-shaking

as Mt. Pinatubo’s volcanic eruption. Imelda has seared the nation’s soul with her

revelations of cronyism and economic plunder during the martial law years, and has again

reopened the wounds of the Edsa revolt.

Is Imelda a liar or a purveyor of True Confessions? Most people think she is

both. She lies when she said that the source of the Marcos gold is the Yamashita

Treasure. In truth, she and her husband and family plundered the nation’s resources and

left it the basket case of Asia while Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia,

Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia emerged as the tiger economies of Asia.

She probably is telling the truth, according to most people we know, when she

said that Marcos took over the business assets of the nation. She has the proofs of

ownership she claims, and a secret list of the Marcos wealth made by Imee and found

among the papers left when the family fled, confirms all these. Marcos was just too

greedy to share his loot with others, when obviously he got them all for himself. It was

obvious during martial law, just as it is obvious today.

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With the brilliant Juan Ponce Enrile and the crafty Edgardo Angara as her

lawyers, the ex-Marcos lawyers who can really substantiate her claims, Imelda is set to

play her biggest card.

Watch for the great revelation in the following broadcasts!









Part 4. Imelda gets cash, and tycoons get marginalized

Suppose, just suppose, Imelda proposes to give all her business holdings worth

P500 billion to the government in exchange for the $500,000 (or P20 billion) deposited in

the Swiss banks. Don’t laugh. She has among her lawyers, Juan Ponce Enrile of

PECABAR and Edgardo Angara of ACCRA, the former lawyers of Marcos and his

cronies, who documented all Marcos’ transactions with his cronies. Surely one must

assume that being the legal advisers of Imelda, encouraging her in her dangerous game of

tease and tell, surely these two brilliant lawyers can substantiate Imelda’s claims. All that

remains to be done is to see to it that Imelda does not go to jail for complicity in Marcos’

economic plunder of our nation.

Put yourself in the shoes of Erap para sa mahirap, with his difficulty in helping

the poor and the economic slowdown plaguing his administration. If he plays his cards

right, his government can enter into a compromise agreement with Imelda much better

than that negotiated by PCGG chairman Magtanggol Gunigundo, which was nullified by

the Supreme Court. Instead of 75-25 percent sharing of $500,000 or P20 billion, the

government will get 96-4 percent sharing of a much bigger amount P520 billion. Wow!

In other words, by giving Imelda immunity from persecution, the Erap administration

may get the P500 billion worth of shares of the biggest Philippine companies, while

leaving the P20 billion in dollar deposits to Imelda Marcos. It is worth the exchange.

The political high side is that in one fell swoop, Erap para sa mahirap will

marginalize all the tycoon king-makers who choose and finance the elected leaders of our

country, and will have the resources to comply with his campaign promise to redistribute

income, empower and enrich the poor. Wow.

Imelda will not escape her just punishment. Already the tycoons, issuing stupid

bluffs and empty challenges to Imelda to prove her claims, are scared to the innermost

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dregs of their large intestines. And it is not inconceivable to assume that a contract to kill

has already been issued on Imelda’s head. This in addition to the threat of the

Communist assassination squad, Alex Boncayo Brigade, to wipe out the entire Marcos

family. But Imelda and her children with $500 million in the bank, can join her nephew

Count Dracula Disini in exile, away from threats of extinction, and spend the rest of her

days getting fat and singing off-key. To spare us her presence in the political scene, we

suggest that her permanent exile be part of the agreement.

As I said before, JV Cruz asserts that in his presence $30 million was handed over

to Ramon Cojuangco by Imelda to purchase PLDT from the Americans. Former Bulletin

partner Mariano Quimson says that Bulletin shares were kept for Marcos by Danding

Cojuangco and JY Campos, and diluted by shares issued in defiance of their preemptive

rights, and Supreme Court bribed to legitimize it. Danding Cojuangco bought control of

San Miguel with coco levy funds authorized by Marcos. Meralco was re-purchased from

sequestration and the Filipino people at a fraction of what it really is worth, and P4 per

kilowatt hour is being charged us while NPC power is bought by Meralco at only P1 per

kilowatt hour (in Malaysia, power costs only P1.20 per kwh.) Watta racket!

That and many transactions involving the issuance of trust certificates to Marcos

as evidence of ownership, as documented by the top lawyers of the land in PECABAR

and ACCRA, point to very interesting possibilities in the efforts of both the Erap

administration and the Marcos family to come to a realistic and mutually advantageous

compromise agreement. Goody, goody gumdrops.

January 11 to 14, 1999









CHAPTER 15. Lead Poisoning





Part 1. We all suffer from lead-poisoning

We all suffer from lead poisoning, especially those of us who are situated along

streets and avenues where car and trucks spew poisonous fumes from their exhausts.

Especially those of us in Metro Manila, the place known as the most polluted city in the

world next to Mexico City. Worse even because Mexico has plans to phase out the use of

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leaded gasoline in their cars, and we haven’t.

What makes car exhausts deadly is the tetraethyl lead compound mixed with the

gasoline as an anti-knock additive. Unlike other poisons, lead is never expelled from the

body by any means, by excretion or urination. It remains in the body and accumulates

there where it causes irreversible brain damage that results in lowering of the IQ, in

learning disabilities, behavioral abnormalities, even permanent brain injury in children. It

contributes to high blood pressure and heart disease in adults, and at high levels damages

kidneys, liver and nervous and reproductive systems in both adults and children. By

God, no wonder we have the kind of moronic policemen and congressmen inflicted upon

us.

Tetraethyl lead chemical compound is added to gasoline as an ant-knock additive

to reduce the tendency of the gasoline-air mixture to explode prematurely under high

compression, resulting in reduced power. Car engines were designed to operate under

high compression inside its cylinders in order to provide more power and fuel efficiency

to the car. This gave rise to the manufacture of “high octane” gasoline containing

tetraethyl lead to answer this need. But the danger of lead poisoning has led to the

phasing out of leaded gasoline in most of the advanced countries including the United

States.

Unleaded gasoline is not necessarily “low octane.” As a matter of fact, the

unleaded gasoline being sold at the local gas stations has an adequate octane (about 95

down to 92-R) rating to serve all cars. This is done by the addition of more aromatics,

olefins and benzenes that serve as substitutes to tetraethyl lead. The aromatics are more

expensive than the lead additive, and as such afford the gasoline companies less profits.

It is a matter of economics, unleaded gasoline is more expensive to make than

leaded gasoline. But it is actually cheaper to buy, so it gives even less profits to the

gasoline companies. My local Petron station sells unleaded gasoline at P10.94 per liter,

lower than the P11.40 per liter charged for the poisonous leaded gasoline labeled as

“premium.” Diesel fuel is P7.70 per liter and though sooty, does not contain a trace of

lead. So you have every reason to start using unleaded gasoline, and save our nation

from lead poisoning.

The United States banned leaded gasoline in1996. Austria, Antigua, Brazil,

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Canada, Columbia, Korea, Guatemala, Surinam and Sweden banned it even earlier.

Japan has been using unleaded gasoline for more than 20 years. Other countries

including our neighbors, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Malaysia are on the way to

phasing out leaded gasoline.

The gasoline companies, who are not concerned about our health, are actually

advertising their Premium Gasoline containing tetraethyl lead, and keeping a deadly

silence about the benefits of unleaded gas. All because leaded gas is cheaper to make and

is sold at a higher price. Greedy bastards.





Part 2. QC Councilor has lead in his head

In the June 27, 1996 issue of the Bulletin, a headline screamed “Super Unleaded

Gasoline Causes Cancer, Asthma,” and included a proposal of a Quezon City Councilor

Moises S. Samson banning unleaded gasoline in Quezon City. Samson must have had

lead in his head, for the leaded gasoline he is intent on championing, with tetraethyl lead

as anti-knock additive, causes lead poisoning among those who breath its poisonous

fumes resulting in permanent and irreversible brain injury over time. What Councilor

Samson must have read and believed, aside from the comic strips his mind is barely

capable of comprehending, are propaganda materials prepared by Octel Pty., Ltd.

Who is Octel? Octel is “almost the sole producer of lead gasoline additives

worldwide,” according to Valerie Thomas, Center of Energy and Environmental Studies

of Princeton University. Octel is the most visible source of misinformation about

unleaded gasoline. According to Dr. Michael Walsh, air pollution expert and publisher of

Carlines and air pollution periodical, Octel is waging a vigorous campaign to prevent the

phase-out of leaded gasoline in Southeast Asia. On October 27, 1994, Octel released a

news report to Manila dailies about the recommendation of the British Parliament

Transport Committee to ban high octane unleaded gasoline. The report neglected to

mention that the British government rejected the recommendation for lack of merit, and

also that the particular “high octane unleaded gasoline” referred to is not even available

in the Philippines.

The British company Octel is fast losing the lead market in advanced and

enlightened countries because of the phase out of leaded gasoline, including the USA

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which banned leaded gasoline in 1996. Octel is dumping its inventories of lead on

ignorant Third World countries like the Philippines, who easily swallow their myths and

continue using leaded gasoline. In this, Octel is aided and abetted by British firm, Shell

Philippines, with its campaign promoting its special Premium Gasoline laced heavily

with tetraethyl read. Premium leaded gasoline, manufactured cheaper than unleaded

gasoline, and sold at a much higher price ( P11.40 as against P10.94 per liter for unleaded

gas) affords the greedy gasoline companies much more profits to the detriment of our

health and that of our children who are fast turning into morons like Councilor Moises S.

Samson.

Octel is promoting myths against unleaded gasoline that are absolute and

unconscionable falsehoods – that unleaded gas cannot be used in old car (the British

SMMT/DOE published on October 1, 1897, says that practically all cars made since 1967

can use unleaded gas without modification – that unleaded gas is bad for the engine

(World Bank in May 1996: “leaded gasoline because it contains lead salts and halogen

acids cause greater corrosion of exhaust systems and requires more frequent oil and spark

plug changes.” -- that switching to unleaded gas harms the car engine (US studies show

that switching from leaded to unleaded gas may increase engine life by as much as 150

percent. And there is no need for re-tuning) -- that you cannot use unleaded gas without

a catalytic converter (Actually it is the other way around, lead poisons the converter and

prevents it from neutralizing other pollutants.). Lying bastards.





Part 3. Let’s phase out if not totally ban leaded gasoline

So I received this letter and literature from the Concerned Citizens Against

Pollution (the latter dated February 12, 1997) warning us Filipinos about the lead

poisoning that comes from the use of leaded gasoline. Right away I called Renato

Grande, schoolmate of mine in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a

knowledgeable engineer and a retired top executive of Shell Philippines. He confirmed

everything that the Concerned Citizens wrote, and added e few facts of his own. It is

really Rene and the Concerned Citizens that we quote and paraphrase in this series

against leaded gasoline.

Rene told us that leaded gasoline is still being manufactured because it is much

72



cheaper to make than unleaded gas to which costly aromatics are added to restore a high

octane rating. A high octane rating is needed for today’s high compression engines, for

its anti-knock qualities, for its ability to prevent premature explosion of the gas-air

mixture in the compression chamber of the engine cylinder. Leaded gas is cheaper to

make and sold at a higher price.

Told about the propaganda claims of Octel, prime source of tetraethyl lead

additives, Rene keeps repeating: bullshit, that’s crap, mga sinungaling,. walang hiya,

they are liars! That is what Octel is, unmitigated, unconscionable liars of the first water,

who in the face of the global trend towards unleaded gasoline especially in the USA,

Canada, Japan, and other advanced countries, is desperately trying to unload its

inventories in undeveloped countries with ignorant uncaring officials like the Philippines.

Octel has been saying in effect that the world is having second thoughts about

unleaded gasoline and may revert back to leaded gasoline – a statement worthy only of

Hitler’s propaganda chief Goebbels who said that a lie repeated enough times becomes a

truth. It is goodbye to leaded gasoline in almost all countries because of the

overwhelming and unquestionable advantage of unleaded gas over the highly poisonous

leaded gas.

According to the US pollution watchdog, the Natural Resources Defense Council,

in its paper “Phase out of Leaded Gasoline by Year 2000,” countries that have already

phased out lead in gasoline have experienced large benefits to the health of their

population and to their budgets. In monetary terms alone, the U.S. saved over $400

million in health costs from its phase out. According to a World Bank study, the U.S.

saved $10 for every $1 it invested in the conversion, due to reduced health cost, savings

on engine maintenance and improved fuel efficiency. “The benefits of doing away with

leaded gasoline are immediate and measurable and far outweigh the costs,” says Casio

Koch-Weser, Managing Director of the World Bank, “The conversion to unleaded

gasoline could be carried out within five years if countries commit themselves to a phase-

out program. The challenge is to change the incentives to petroleum refineries and

gasoline users.” According to the World Bank study, the main bulk or about 90% of

airborne lead pollution in cities is caused by leaded gasoline. In fact, a drastic, dramatic

drop in the population’s blood lead levels is noted when a country phases out leaded

73



gasoline.

So what the hell are we waiting for? Let’s phase out, if not totally ban leaded gas.

May 26 to 28, 1997. ISYU









CHAPTER 16. The Bataan Nuclear Plant





Part 1. Time to look at nuclear plants in general

The time has come to look at nuclear plants in general from a technical, rather

than a political or legal viewpoint. The Bataan plant aside, we may still consider a

nuclear plant in the future.

Why go nuclear? While nuclear plants cost more to build than coal or oil plants,

their overall cost is lower because the uranium fuel costs less, about one tenth the cost of

low-sulphur oil. At current prices, a new nuclear plant can pay for itself in 12 years or

so.

Nuclear plants use less fuel. One large coal plant requires 2.3 MILLION tons of

coal a year; the same size nuclear plant requires only 30 tons of nuclear fuel. One thimble

sized nuclear fuel pellet, 0.4 inches in diameter and 0.6 inches high, produces as much

energy as 149 gallons of oil, 1,780 pounds of coal or 16,000 cubic feet of natural gas.

Using breeder reactors it is possible to produce more fuel (plutonium) than is

actually used, and provide an almost unlimited supply of nuclear fuel in the future.

But isn't radiation dangerous? According to Dr. Robert W. Deutsch of General

Physics Corporation, radiation bombards us throughout our lives from the sun's cosmic

rays and from x-rays, watch dials and TV sets, which from 1970 to 2000 AD is estimated

to cause 300,000 cancer deaths in the USA; weapons fall-out is expected to cause 7,000

deaths; the 300 nuclear plants in operation by 2000 AD, only 90 deaths.

Overweight by 25 percent decreases life expectancy by 3.6 years; just being male

instead of female, by 3 years; smoking one pack a day, 7 years; smoking two packs a day,

10 years; city instead of country living, 5 years; but the radiation from 300 nuclear plants

decreases life expectancy by less than 30 minutes.

All in all there are more than 200 nuclear power plants in over the world, 70

74



commercial nuclear power plants in the USA in 1979, and 130 additional plants in the

USA scheduled to go into operation in the next 10 years.

The Bataan plant with the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine which exploded in April

1986, killed 31 people, fatally affected 80 more, and poisoned millions of hectares of

land as far as Western Europe. But this betrays Hayes' ignorance of various official

reports that the Chernobyl plant is different from any built in the West (Part 3 of our

series). The Bataan plant is more like the nuclear plant in Three Mile Island, which went

out of control in March 1979.

Post-accident analysis of the Three Mile Island by three panels (a Presidential

Commission headed by president John G. Kemeny of Dartmouth College; one headed by

Norman Rasmussen of MIT; and a third one headed by Prof. Harold Lewis of the

University of California) revealed that the there was never any danger of radiation

leaking outside the ``Containment Building'' of the nuclear plant. Every nuclear power

plant built in the USA has an outer containment building, a very large concrete,

earthquake-proof, leak-tight structure, designed solely to confine radiation within the

building in the event of an accident, no matter how severe.

With regard to Chernobyl, an article of William Sweet in the MIT-edited

Technology Review (issue of July 1989), interviewing official experts from the USA and

Canada who studied the Chernobyl incident, which we quote and paraphrase later,

concluded that a runaway nuclear reaction set off a chain of events that damaged the

reactor core and the plant structure, and caused two nuclear explosions in Unit 4 that

released radiation into the atmosphere. The experts said that the possibility of such an

accident in a US reactor is vanishingly small. Only some Canadian plants are susceptible

to a Chernobyl type accident. (to be continued)





Part 2. How safe are nuclear power plants?

How safe are nuclear power plants in general, without going into the particulars of

the Bataan Nuclear plant?

Indeed despite the strident objections of anti-nuclear environmentalists, nuclear

power plants have proliferated all over the world, specially in industrial nations affected

by the price of Mideast oil. As of 1987 there were four nuclear plants of 300 MW or

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more capacity operating in Switzerland, 11 in West Germany, 24 in France, 10 in

Sweden, 24 in Japan, and 77 in the United States, according to a report by a team of MIT

experts in the February/March 1989 issue of the Technology Review. Many are located in

earthquake-prone areas in California and Japan.

The world's dominant nuclear technology is that of the ``light water reactor'' (one

that uses ordinary water for cooling) in two versions: pressurized-water reactors (PWRS)

and boiling water reactors (BWRS). Most are designed to operate almost continuously

with six weeks a year shutdown for maintenance and refueling, or full power 88 percent

of the year.

Only PWRS reactors in Switzerland came close to this goal, more than 80 percent

energy availability throughout ten years since 1975. West Germany improved in 1982 to

above 80 percent; Japan to above 70 percent in 1982. Sweden which has only two PWRS,

averaged 55 percent availability over 10 years.

The USA which has as many PWRS as all others combined, shows a great

variation in performance. Some plants performed as well as the Swiss plants year after

year, others fluctuated from excellent to poor, and some performed consistently badly.

On the overall, The USA was constantly outperformed, averaging only 60 percent energy

availability in 1984. The Westinghouse nuclear plant installed in Bataan is a pressurized-

water reactor like those in the USA.

As for the BWRS reactors, Switzerland again achieved outstanding results (86 to

90 percent during a ten year period), with Sweden second (80.9 percent in 1984),

Germany spotty (78.8 percent in 1984), Japan (72.1 percent in 1984) and the United

States the worst (50 percent in 1984).

The report said that strict safety standards account for only a fraction of the poor

US performance, the main reason being the highly antagonistic relationship between

regulatory agencies and the power utilities, the media hype that attend every discussion of

nuclear power and the legal process that permit indefinite delay in obtaining a license to

operate; and the reluctance of plant operators to share information. Just like what is

happening in the Philippines.

Electricity is produced in a copper wire cutting through lines of magnetic force.

An electric generator contains coiled wire inside a magnet, rotated by water or steam

76



under pressure moving through a shaft with curved blades called turbines. Hydroelectric

plants have turbines spinning by falling water flowing over man-made dams. In thermal

plants, the steam is generated by boiling water with heat from the burning of oil, of coal,

or by nuclear reaction. The turbine steam is cooled down back to water and sent back to

the boilers for the next cycle.

Nuclear plants are more friendly to the environment than coal burning plants

which release sulfur dioxide (responsible for acid rain), nitrogen oxide and carbon

dioxide (which warm the earth through the greenhouse effect). In addition, coal burning

accumulates ash, which is a solid waste and must be removed for land burial.

All the nuclear waste produced in the USA is less than one thousandth of all the

total solid waste regarded as hazardous. A large nuclear plant supplying power for

Pittsburgh would produce each day high level waste the volume of two basketballs, and

each year such waste could fit in a single phone booth -- which can be turned into a

durable solid such as glass or ceramic, sealing the radioactive material inside. And this in

turn is buried safely inside a stainless steel container until its radioactivity is exhausted.

A nuclear explosion is physically impossible in a modern nuclear plant, which

traces its development from the nuclear propulsion power plants developed by Admiral

Hyman Rickover for the US submarine, not from the Hiroshima bomb developed in Los

Alamos. The reactor core has a shape similar to a honeycomb, where fuel rods are

inserted to generate heat, and graphite control rods to slow down or stop the reaction

process if need be. Cool water is pumped continuously through the core to prevent

overheating. This reactor releases energy at a relatively slow rate and under no condition

does it give rise to a nuclear explosion.

And to make sure that no radiation escapes, the entire reactor core and water

pumps are sealed inside a large steel and concrete dome-shaped building called the

containment building, so strong it withstands even earthquakes and tornadoes.

Then two nuclear accidents happened in Three Mile Island (1979) and in Chernobyl

(1986) that called into question the basic safety of nuclear power plants.

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Part 3. Lessons of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island

THERE were two accidents that shocked the world into taking a second look at

the safety aspect of nuclear plants: the Three Mile Island accident on March 28, 1979,

and the Chernobyl accident in the Soviet Union in April 25, 1986.

The Chernobyl reactor is an RBMK, a derivative of reactors built to produce

plutonium for the first Soviet bombs, a military type reactor not built for safety, which

“should never have been built.” Unlike modern plants, it suffers from one defect, it tends

to gain power rather than slow down when cooling water is lost or converts into steam.

“In all the reactors licensed to operate in the USA, the fission rate slows down if

water is lost, so the system tends to be self-correcting. In the RBMK, fission increases if

water converts into steam faster than expected, or if there is a sudden leak.”

This undesirable feature called positive-void effect can make the reactor go out of

control, especially at low power when it has been operating for a long period and the fuel

is relatively depleted.

Another defect is that a slow control-rod system cannot respond quickly enough

to sudden changes in reactivity, and inserting control rods might even increase rather than

dampen reactivity.

The third major design defect is the RBMK's inadequate containment. Nuclear

reactors in the West are designed to operate in a concrete, leak-tight, earthquake proof

building, cylindrical in shape, about 300 feet high, 130 feet in diameter with reinforced

concrete walls nearly 5 feet thick and a dome about 3 feet thick, sealed at all times with

entry and exit through specially designed chambers, with containment isolation valves

that close automatically under accident conditions.

The RBMK containment system only protects the bottom of the reactor, leaving

the top relatively defenseless, sealed by 1,000 tons of steel slab that can be lifted by

pressure as little as 6 pounds per square inch (psi). A rupture of some of the 1,661 tubes

would dump enough boiling water into the reactor to exert a pressure of 1,000 psi!

A number of reckless measures taken by a maintenance crew on the eve of the

annual maintenance period on the April 25, disabled safety systems and put the reactor

into its most unstable state, at a low-power zone when the positive void factor is most

dangerous.

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The fuel load went out of control. In less than a second, the reactor's power went

from nearly zero to 50 to 100 times maximum rated capacity. Fuel melted and interacted

with water and steam, generating enough pressure to lift the reactor lid, rupturing

pressure tubes and control rods. A steam explosion was followed by a hydrogen

explosion, a nuclear excursion of 400 to 500 times normal maximum power that

completed the destruction of the plant and blew parts of its core into the upper

atmosphere.

It is misleading to say that the reactor blew up like an atomic bomb. A bomb is

designed to make a critical mass explode in microseconds with an energy measured in

millions or billions of gigojoules. The Chernobyl reactor exploded thousands of times

more slowly with an energy of perhaps 1,000 joules.

The report concluded that ``US reactors, in which water as opposed to graphite

moderates the reaction, are not seriously vulnerable to a Chernobyl-type mishap. A

fizzling steam explosion could occur in a US reactor if a molten core dropped into a pool

of water, but the possibility is remote, and the result would not be the enormously violent

nuclear explosion that destroyed Unit 4 of Chernobyl.''

The Three Mile Island accident began with the stopping of a pump that supplied

water to the steam generators. A series of multiple failures including a valve in the

primary coolant system that failed to close, permitted the escape of over one-third of the

coolant water in the first 100 minutes. If the four operators on duty closed a backup valve

or simply did nothing, the accident would not have occurred. Unfortunately they thought

there was “overpressurization” and turned off safety injection pumps that might have

replaced the cooling water. Two hours later, the loss of coolant damaged the fuel and

released radioactivity within the plant, but only within the Containment Building, causing

no casualties whatsoever and no risk to the public.

The Three Mile Island experience proved that no matter how carefully a plant is

designed, it is impossible to totally eliminate human error. But modern nuclear plants like

those used in Japan and the Western nations, are designed with a redundancy of safety

systems and have built-in operation limits. By preventing the plant operator from

exceeding those limits, the plant protection limits mitigate against human error.

Nuclear power is the cheapest and most abundant form of energy available. It has

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become fashionable and politically expedient since Three Mile Island and Chernobyl to

oppose nuclear power. Perhaps the time has come to debate the vital issues in a rational

manner and separate inflammatory rhetoric from hard fact. (to be concluded)





Part 4. Shall we convert the Bataan nuclear plant to oil-fired?

The main objection to the Bataan nuclear power plant is that it lies near a

geological fault vulnerable to earthquakes, but it may be argued that there are nuclear

plants also set up in California and Japan where earthquakes occur more often. Structural

design to render a building safe from earthquakes is reckoned in terms of gravitational

acceleration ``g,'' a constant equivalent to 32 feet per second per second (ft/sec/sec) or

980 centimeters per second per second. According to Newton's Second Law, a building

must be designed to withstand a force equal its mass times the fraction of gravitational

acceleration expected from the quake of the earth: (F=ma). Acceleration measures the

change of velocity or speed (of earth movement) from 0 to maximum, per second during

the earthquake.

The International Atomic Energy Commission in Vienna reportedly

recommended a shut-down earthquake design for the Bataan plant on the basis of 0.5 g.

The Bataan plant is designed on the basis of only 0.4 g, while the Daloy-Daloy

Multipurpose Dam in Tarlac only 80 km. away, subject to the same hazard from the

Manila Trench west of Luzon, had to be designed on the basis of 0.53 g, based on a study

by ELC-Electro Consultant of Milan. That is enough reason to redesign the

Westinghouse Bataan plant to make it truly and really safe.

Two alternatives have been presented: rehabilitate the nuclear power plant or

convert it to a gas or oil-fired combined cycle power plant.

First from the viewpoint of safety. Safety means freedom from harm or danger to

our health and well-being. In the USA, medical doctors who are experts on industrial

safety, have studied the dangers to power plant operators, to miners who dig coal and

uranium, to others who drill for oil and natural gas, and the dangers of air pollution and

radiation to all of us. They concluded that electricity generated from natural gas is safest,

that nuclear power is next safest, followed by oil and coal.

As senator, Teopisto Guingona proposed that the converted plant be fueled by

80



natural gas from Palawan; it is clean, but it may prove difficult and expensive to transport

from Palawan to Luzon. Natural gas is cheapest when transported by pipelines, but not

under the sea. It would be cheaper to generate electricity in Palawan and connect it to the

Luzon grid by submarine cable.

Fuel oil (mostly imported) is much more expensive and releases such pollutants as

carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide which causes the greenhouse effect

and acid rain.

Using nuclear power is like driving a diesel car. The diesel car costs more than a

gasoline-powered car, but it gets more miles per gallon and saves fuel costs. To

rehabilitate the nuclear power plant may take 36 months, cost $400 million in 1992 and

will generate only 620 megawatts (mw). To convert it to oil-fired may take 35 months,

cost 50 percent more, $595 million in 1992, but it will have more than twice the capacity,

1,464 mw. To put it another way, the rehabilitated nuclear would cost $645 per kilowatt

(kw) capacity; the reconverted oil-fired would cost only $406 per kw.

But the important thing is the cost of electricity generated in terms of kilowatt-

hours, not capacity in terms of kilowatts. Just as in a car, the important thing is the cost

of gasoline used per mile of travel, not unit cost of horsepower.

And if US studies are right, nuclear fuel from breeder reactors is much cheaper

(one-tenth the equivalent low-sulfur oil), more manageable (a fuel pellet 0.4 inches in

diameter and 0.6 inches high is equivalent to 149 gallons of oil, 1,780 lbs. of coal or

16,000 cubic feet of natural gas) and practically limitless (without any additional mining

of uranium, breeder reactors can produce energy equivalent to 5 times the oil reserves of

Arabia, and 2 times the US coal reserves!).

The point of this article is that while to avoid continuous controversy, we may

want to convert the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant to an “oil-fired combined cycle power

plant,” let us in the future always consider, as most countries do, the possibility of setting

up a nuclear power plant in the Philippines.

May 6 to 9, 1997, ISYU

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CHAPTER 17. The Saga of Harry Stonehill





Part 1. Harry Stonehill was the PACMAN of his time

The Cultural Center Complex is built on land reclaimed from the Manila Bay, a

dream project originally envisioned and half started by an American businessman some

25 years ago. If the Ilocos region is awash with prosperity due to the growing, flue

curing and export of tobacco, it is because this same American with the help of Johnny

Litton's elder brother smuggled tobacco seeds from the United States in defiance of

American laws. If we are now deriving some benefits from crude oil production in

Palawan, it is because this American first thought of it when he organized American

Asiatic Oil Company. He headed one of the first Filipino multinationals to get into joint

ventures abroad.

He was even more successful than Lucio Tan of today, pioneering in cigarette

manufacture that made most of the popular brands of the time; his U.S. Tobacco

Corporation became the flagship of his empire. He grew cotton for the first time in the

Philippines since the Spanish times, and cotton growing is one industry now being

ballyhooed by the technocrats. He was one of the original backers of Jobo Fernandez

when Jobo set up Far East Bank and Trust, the first of many banks set up by Filipinos

after the war.

He owned Evening News, an afternoon daily that eventually came into possession

of Manuel Elizalde, then of Bobby Benedicto as Daily Express. He established Republic

Glass Co. and started the career of now Minister of Energy Geronimo Velasco who still

thinks of him as “kind and unselfish”. He set up the first low-cost housing, the United

Housing (Parañaque), which paved the way for B.F. Homes and Pilar Village and started

the real estate development of south metropolitan Manila.

His name is Harry S. Stonehill and he was the PACMAN of his time. Deported

and in exile for 24 years, he wants to come back to the Philippines -- a “trauma free”

return with investments for our ailing economy.

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Part 2. The Web Of Corruption

Like the cronies and other big businessmen, Harry was drawn into the political

vortex of the nation. He was on a first name basis with all our presidents, was one of the

financial backers of the Liberal Party of the newly inaugurated President Diosdado

Macapagal and Senator Ferdinand Marcos, and was promised, it was alleged, a major

cabinet portfolio. At that point in time he stood at the zenith of his business career, his

associate Fernando E.V. Sison was just appointed Secretary of Finance and chairman of

the Monetary Board. Then like a bolt from the blue, disaster struck.

Only 2 months after the inauguration of President Diosdado Macapagal, in the

afternoon of Saturday, March 3, 1962, Harry Stonehill and his two associates, the Brooks

brothers, were invited to the office of Secretary of Justice Jose W. Diokno. There

without warning they were placed under arrest. At the same time special agents of NBI

director Jose Lukban suddenly swooped down on the offices and residences of Harry

Stonehill, seized all records that purportedly provided evidence of wide-spread economic

sabotage and a veritable web of official corruption.

During the next year and a half, the Stonehill case hugged the headlines, cast a

cloud on the national scene, wrecked the reputations of prominent businessmen and

public officials, and unveiled a “web of corruption” that shook our government to its

foundations. Nothing so totally traumatic as it was, ever happened in the Philippines till

the Plaza Miranda Bombing, the declaration of Martial Law and the assassination of

Ninoy Aquino.

On May 18, the President practically fired Justice Secretary Diokno with a “Dear

Pepe” letter accepting his resignation. On August 5, Harry Stonehill and Robert Brooks

were prevailed upon to leave the Philippines voluntarily to avoid “trial by publicity.”

They were escorted to the airport by 200 crack army rangers to make sure they emplaned

for Australia. The new Justice Secretary Juan Liwag began a series of revelations that

resulted in mass resignations in the executive department, and threatened to reveal names

of Senators and Congressmen in the payroll of Stonehill. The Senate Blue Ribbon

Committee under Tañada took up the investigation of the case.

For the leaders of our nation, in government and in business, the 12 harrowing

months that followed can only be described by E.M. Forster in Howard’s End: “It was as

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if the splendor of life might boil over and waste to steam and froth... Panic and

emptiness! Panic and emptiness! Even the flaming ramparts of the world might fall!”





Part 3.. Tom, Dick and Dirty Harry

The Stonehill case refused to die down. The discovery that Menhart Spielman, a

close associate of Stonehill who testified against him, had disappeared, revived public

interest in the case. It was alleged that Harry and Bob Brooks ordered him liquidated,

that his body was dropped in the shark infested waters of the Sulu Sea. Again charges of

official corruption at the highest levels were raised.

Stung by a revelation of Jose Diokno of a “Dear Dadong… Yours, H” letter

linking Stonehill to Malacañang, on Sunday July 14, 1963, Justice Secretary Salvador

Marino appeared on TV. “It appears,” he said, that the former President Carlos Garcia

and his Nacionalista colleagues were in the payroll of Stonehill. On July 21, Marino

continued his “It appears” revelations with 10 more names, on July 23 he added 86

names, and on July 26 he added 22 more names. “It appears,” said Marino that every

Tom and Dick in society's Who's Who is associated with Dirty Harry.

The “It Appears” series of revelations by Secretary Marino was cleverly contrived

to smear everyone within range in such a way as to cause confusion and panic, provide a

smokescreen for those previously maligned, and avoid libel suits. A sample of those

whose reputations were besmirched: President Carlos Garcia, Vice President Emmanuel

Pelaez; Senators Ferdinand Marcos, Gil Puyat, Cipriano Primicias, Fernando Lopez,

Sergio Osmeña Jr., Oscar Ledesma, Roseller Lim; Congressmen Salipada Pendatun,

Leonardo Perez, Carmelo Barbero, Rogaciano Mercado; NEC chairmen Alfredo

Montelibano and Jose Locsin; Mayors Arsenio Lacson and Pablo Cuneta; businessmen

Romeo Villongco, Leonides Virata, Fernando Sison, Peter Lim; Ambassador Melchior

Aquino; and a lawyer who was to be Supreme Court Justice, Enrique Fernando.

The people were shocked into silence by the sheer prodigality and profligacy of

the mudslinging, the black humor and malicious glee with which Secretary Marino (the

spit image of today’s Speaker Iñiguez) pushed everyone into the mudhole. Everyone, but

everyone, even those who just bought stocks in Harry's corporations, or shook his hand,

or attended any of his parties, even newsboys receiving donations, was smeared by the

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revelations. Secretary Marino’s strategy apparently worked, because by the end of July,

1963, the newspapers and everyone else wearily stopped the mudslinging and

muckraking, and settled back to normal living.

The entire upper crust of Manila heaved a sigh of relief, and went along its

business. Secretary Fernando Sison who was a former Soriano executive, a Boy Scout,

and a prominent Catholic lay leader, went back to private business where he prospered

and won the respect of the business community. Jose Diokno went on to become Senator

and one of the leading lights of the Nationalist Movement. Subsequently, the records

seized in the Stonehill raid were declared inadmissible evidence by the Supreme Court.

And the Stonehill case ended as mysteriously as it began, after 17 months of national

trauma and ordeal.





Part 4. Of Captains and Kings

Which leads us to ask: What was the purpose of so much sacrificial bloodletting,

so much muckraking, so much destruction of reputations, so traumatic an economic

dislocation, at the expense of the national psyche and sanity? Why and how did it come

about?

Well, gather around, m’hearties, and hearken to “time honored tales of captains

and kings”, suddenly available to us when the American Congress passed the Freedom of

Information Act that opened the confidential files of government agencies of the United

States to those affected by them.

Early in the election year of 1961, industrialist Harry Stonehill was approached by

the CIA head in the Philippines, John Richardson and his deputy Don Richardson (no

kin). John Richardson by the way engineered the murder of President Ngo Diem of

South Vietnam, because he and his assertive sister-in-law were no longer willing to be

subservient to the Americans.

The CIA agent Richardson solicited the assistance of Harry in helping Diosdado

Macapagal get elected president because the incumbent President Carlos Garcia was

developing a pro-Filipino position with his Filipino First policy, which, according to

Richardson, is prejudicial to American business and therefore gives aid and comfort to

the Communists.

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Stonehill was reluctant because Garcia was a close friend who was previously

elected with his financial backing. But the Richardsons (who kept waving a little

American flag in front of Harry), the American Embassy and the State Department

(which was harassing him lately) appealed to his American patriotism, and he finally

acquiesced.

The election was a three cornered fight among President Garcia, Diosdado

Macapagal and Rogelio de la Rosa, movie actor who was running as an independent and

threatened to split the opposition vote. Shelling out more than a million pesos, Stonehill

was able to arrange the withdrawal of de la Rosa from the race a week before elections.

And Diosdado Macapagal became the 5th President of the Third Republic.





Part 5. CIA Agent Spielman

Prior to the election campaign, the CIA managed to slip one of their agents into

the Stonehill organization in the person of Menhart Spielman. Mike Spielman was a

surplus sale officer stationed in Japan when he was caught stealing funds from the U.S.

government in the sale of surplus equipment and receiving illegal commissions and

kickbacks. For agreeing to spy for the CIA, he was promised that all charges against him

would be dropped. Spielman was Jewish like Harry is, and as such was able to wriggle

his way into the confidence of Harry. Through Mike Spielman, the NBI was able to

wire-tap Stonehill's offices and residence with impunity. Upon instructions of NBI

Director Jose Lucban, the transcripts of conversations from Harry's tapped telephones

were handed over to Mr. Robert Hawley, an FBI agent based in the U.S. Embassy.

I personally met Mike Spielman twice: once at the Central Bank when I saw him

shouting at CB officials in obscene language for not being quick enough to give him what

he wanted; and once at my office when he tried to lend me money at 3% a month interest,

a loan shark operation that was illegal until IMF conditionality made usury standard

operating procedure. Spielman was a foul mouthed S.O.B., and I told him off. He was

no Jew, I said, he was a Kike, the type that makes Shylock and Fagin look like angels.

Macapagal was elected in November. The following month, CIA agent Spielman

came to Harry Stonehill’s office and demanded 10% of the voting stocks of the U.S.

Tobacco Corporation, otherwise he would expose Stonehill’s relationship with Filipino

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politicians, and expose before the public damaging information ruinous to his career in

the Philippines. Stonehill refused to be blackmailed, lost his temper and together with

Bob Brooks, beat Spielman to a bloody pulp. Spielman received first aid in a hospital

and rushed to report to his bosses in the U.S. Embassy.

Macapagal was sworn into office in January 1962, and shortly thereafter he

appointed as Secretary of Justice a man who did not even take up a law course, studying

by himself, and who topped the bar examinations along with Jovito Salonga (both of

them had the same grade). His name was Jose W.(Wright, not Wrong) Diokno, who is so

brilliant, he topped the CPA board exams as well.





Part 6. Diokno and Bobby Kennedy

At about that time, the Office of International Operations in Washington was

informed of the visit of Howard L. Parsons of the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines to the

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) upon instructions of the Charge d'Affaires Minister

Gordon Mein (there was no American Ambassador at the time).

Parsons who was the Embassy's Economic Counselor stated that “in the opinion

of the Embassy, it is imperative for American interests in the Philippines that some way

be found to get Stonehill out of the Philippines, and break his stranglehold there.”

Gordon Mein (I knew him, he was my friend) later reassigned to Guatemala, became one

of the first American diplomats to be assassinated by an anti-American terrorist.

At about that same time, a series of meetings were held at the basement of the

U.S. Embassy by CIA bosses John and Don Richardson, CIA agent Menhart Spielman,

FBI agent Robert Hawley, agent Robert Chandler of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS),

a Mr. Bond of the U.S. Immigration Service, and NBI Director Jose Lukban of the

Philippine government.

That was the time when the NBI-NICA and the CIA had an “Exchange of

Information Agreement” that allowed the Americans to use our own NBI to spy on Claro

M. Recto, Carmen Guererro Nakpil, I.P. Soliongco, Amado Hernandez and other Filipino

patriots to advance the cause of American Imperialism. The same agreement was

invoked to get the NBI to put away Harry S. Stonehill.

NBI Director Lukban was told that the American government was interested in

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making a tax case against Stonehill and wanted the assistance of the Philippine

government in gathering evidence from the offices and residences of Stonehill.

On Sunday, February 4, 1962, IRS agent Robert Chandler together with CIA

agent Menhart Spielman briefed Secretary of Justice Jose Diokno, and the Secretary

agreed to Chandler's request that the raids be made and that the documents seized be

turned over to American agents, subject to the approval of President Macapagal, and with

firm guarantees of U.S. support for the raids.

On Monday February 5, according the sworn statement of NBI agent Damaso A.

Nocon, Director Lukban went to Malacanang to brief President Macapagal and get his

permission to conduct the raids.

On February 6, Hawley, Chandler, Spielman and Secretary Diokno met at the

Philippine Columbian Club. Chandler stated that he is arranging a meeting between

Secretary Diokno and Attorney General Robert Kennedy in Hong Kong the following

week.

On February 7, Chandler, Hawley and Diokno met at Chandler's house on Pasay

Road. Chandler confirmed the arrangements for the Hong Kong meeting, and asked

Diokno to bring him back a parrot from Hong Kong.

On February 11, in Hong Kong, Secretary Diokno was unable to speak directly to

Bobby Kennedy, but a Kennedy assistant assured him of complete U.S. support of the

Stonehill raids, including the participation of American agents and U.S. experts in

tobacco (why tobacco, was not explained).





Part 7. American Agents Take Over

In the meantime, Chandler provided NBI agents with diagrams of Stonehill’s

offices, with specific instructions on how to locate concealed books of accounts which

would be of prime importance to the IRS. Chandler also requested for photos of all target

areas, then gave instructions on what to do in each specific area. According to NBI agent

Nocon, “the NBI had never before been involved in massive raids of this kind and we

relied heavily on Mr. Chandler’s apparent expertise for guidance and instructions.”

On Saturday March 3, at 4 PM, 100 NBI agents and 200 support people raided the

offices and residences of Harry Stonehill, while Chandler and his associates, pursuant to

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an agreement, set up temporary offices at the Arson Building in theNBI compound.

Chandler even went to witness the searches at the offices of Stonehill in the former

Cuban Embassy in Roxas Boulevard. Later, Chandler wanted to look over all documents

seized in the raids, but Secretary Diokno said no because he was not comfortable with the

idea that American agents were behind the raids.

But Chandler would not be denied, he went into the offices of U.S. Tobacco,

segregated documents which he marked “IRS”, and asked that they be taken at once to

the office of Director Lukban. Later at Chandler's request the NBI conducted more raids,

in one instance in Room 304 of the Army and Navy Club where they found private

records of Harry Stonehill and Robert Brooks.

By this time, Secretary Diokno was thoroughly irritated by the Americans and

wanted them out of the NBI. Director Lukban, at the insistence of Chandler, transferred

most of the documents to a private house on Fernando Rein, Pasay City, where Chandler

set up photo-copying equipment. There were other Americans involved: a Colonel

George Lizinski who lived in the Carmen Dewey Apartments next to the former Cuban

Embassy; and Colonel Lee Telesco, wartime intelligence operative of MacArthur and

longtime close associate of Andy Soriano at San Miguel Corporation.

According to Secretary Juan R. Liwag, in an affidavit executed in 1970, the raids

on Stonehill would NOT have occurred if the Philippine government was not prevailed

upon to accede to the demands of the American Embassy and the American IRS and

Treasury agents.





Part 8. The Devouring Monster

But why did the CIA do this to Harry Stonehill, he who would finance Filipino

politicians at the behest of the CIA itself? Ninoy Aquino used to say that the CIA is a

monster that devours its own friends. The CIA would install Ngo Diem as President of

South Vietnam, then later plot his downfall and murder. The CIA would ask President

Garcia for permission to use Philippine bases to support Indonesian rebels in Sumatra,

while at the same time plotting Garcia’s political defeat.

What did the CIA expect the Americans to gain with the banishment of Harry

Stonehill, the confiscation of his properties in the U.S.A., the kidnapping of his person by

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American agents in Mexico, his status as persona non grata inhibited from entering

Canada, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore, upon the instigation of American

authorities?

Stonehill came at the tail end of the lamentable McCarthyist Era in the United

States, when such great artists as Charles Chaplin, Paul Robeson, Arthur Miller, Dalton

Trumbo, Lillian Hellman and Clifford Odets were hounded and persecuted because their

sympathy with the poor gave “aid and comfort to the communists.”

This was also the time that the CIA plotted a military coup in Guatemala to save

the business of the American multinational United Fruit Co. Also the time the CIA set up

a coup against Mossadeq of Iran in order to get a consortium of American and British

companies to control its oil fields. This was the time the neanderthal psychopaths of CIA

played God. And the usual method to persecute American enemies of the American

government is to have the IRS prosecute them for income tax evasion, just as it did Al

Capone and Lucky Luciano.

What did Harry do that was so condemnable in the eyes of the Americans? His

greatest sin was to smuggle tobacco seeds from the United States to the Philippines, and

engage in tobacco growing, flue-curing and export that have prejudiced American

tobacco interests in the United States which have always looked upon the Philippines as a

captive market. He also pioneered in cigarette manufacture here that also cut the profits

of American cigarette manufacturers.

At the time of his downfall, Harry was involved in a war against Agro-Industrial

Products, Inc., headed by Emerito Ramos who had a huge shipment of tobacco leaf at the

piers, which was unreleased because its entry prejudices the tobacco farmers of Ilocos as

well as Stonehill companies involved in the processing of local tobacco. The American

Tobacco Bloc of course and Embassy Economic Counselor Howard Parsons, were

applying pressure to have the shipment released. The case was brought to the Supreme

Court where influence was brought to bear by interested parties to resolve the case in

their favor.

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Part 9. Saboteur And Squaw Man

Like most big Filipino companies, like the Sugar and Coconut Blocs, like most

American multinational companies, especially in the drug, tire, and petroleum industries,

Harry Stonehill tried to influence senators, congressmen, judges and officials in the

executive department. Like the Filipino robber barons and American Imperialists, he

wanted to set up a apparatus for “business espionage, counter espionage and business

sabotage”, as he suggested to his brother-in-law Major Vernon S. Prickett. It's terrible,

but it is done all the time.

Remember how Dindo Gonzalez put cockroaches in Coke bottles, and spread the

rumor that a dead man was found in a Coca Cola vat? Those were results of his PRO

skills and black humor -- a business sabotage of Coke to give advantage to his client

Pepsi Cola. Remember the poison scare that took Tylenol off the market? All these are

basically business sabotage -- which was what Harry said he meant.

Remember what San Miguel did to Halili Beer? And how it appropriated the

plans of Lucio Tan to use the brand name “Golden Eagle” and a distinctive bottle shape?

That is business sabotage, my friend, exactly what Harry had in mind against his many

competitors. This is a lamentable practice learned from such American firms as Standard

Oil, ITT and Lockheed, quite normal in the jungle world of business.

But economic sabotage of our nation? Hardly. Harry was after all the one

American in agreement with our industrialization program. He was a man of initiative,

imagination and talent for organization, who pioneered in cigarette manufacture, tobacco

growing, cotton growing, low cost housing, glass manufacture, oil drilling, land

reclamation, even Filipino joint ventures abroad. He was easily the most liked American

in the Philippines, a founding member and President of the Manila Jaycees, a founding

member and Vice President of the Philippine Chamber of Industries. He certainly

compares favorably with the likes of Lew Burridge and the curmudgeonly American

monopolists of the drug, petroleum and tire industries.

Harry Stonehill was an American GI (a veteran of the World War II), who got

mustered out in the Philippines, married a Filipina (Jackie Lou Blanco’s aunt), and built a

business empire as extensive as the present empires of cronies. He was one of a group of

Americans some of whom even now have left their imprint on Philippine business: the

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late Claude M. Wilson of Business Machines Corporation; Louis Scheff of real estate

interests; the late Roland E. Thompson of Rennolds & Co. and Amalgamated Specialties;

Ronnie Reidenbach of Pacific Office Machines who is the brother-in-law of Minister

Totoy Dans; retired businessman Hans Kasten who married Claro M. Recto's daughter

Chona; Russell Swartley lately of Meralco; Jack Small, onetime representative of

Reader's Digest; the late Wellington Koo Jr., son of Chiang Kaichek's ambassador to the

United States, who became a Stonehill side-kick.

These Americans married Filipina girls and were tagged by racist white trash in

the American Embassy and in the American Chamber of Commerce, as “Squaw Men”, a

contemptuous reference to low class cowboys taking Indian squaws to wife.





Part 10. Not Wild About Harry

Definitely, Embassy officials were not wild about Harry.

The Embassy did not like Harry Stonehill because he did not believe, as Virata,

Valdepeñas and Villegas do, that the Philippines should be content being a vegetable

garden to an industrial state, concentrating its efforts in “export oriented, agriculture

based, small scale, labor intensive, rurally dispersed” industries, like rattan furniture, hat

weaving, shellcraft, ipil ipil, and mail order brides.

The Embassy did not like him because he was a “Squaw Man” who made the

Philippines his home, and contributed to the industrialization program that might have

ushered the Philippines from benighted centuries of poverty and ignorance into the light

of day of 20th century progress and enlightenment, which is contrary to American policy

to keep us poor, pregnant and barefooted, forever held under short leash.

And because the Embassy did not like Harry, the little gods of the CIA, IRS and

FBI, forced our people into a tortuous gauntlet that seared and scarred the national soul.

Harry S. Stonehill has many faults, but nothing he ever did can ever match the

economic morass, political quagmire and moral mudhole to which we are being

consigned by the IMF, American monopolists, the U.S. Embassy, and their surrogates

among our Technocrats.

December 8, 1985

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Part 11. From an American with Love

Senator Claro M. Recto called it “colonial mendicancy”, Ninoy Aquino's

grandfather General Serviliano Aquino bitterly assailed what he called “patriotas de

estomago” (patriots of the stomach). Everyone practices it as if it was the most natural

thing to do, begging for donations from Rotary Clubs in the States, asking for used

equipment from Clark Field and Subic, panhandling for aid from the United States

Congress. We are a nation of beggars.

Yet who is to blame us if we beg for crumbs from tables laden with goodies from

our own riches? Having given all to foreign carpetbaggers, giving them priority in the

exploitation of our own resources, we stand barefoot on the richest soil on earth. We

starve. We beg. And we are thankful for crumbs we need to survive.

This is not to disparage those who would help us. Most Americans would extract

our wealth, look upon us with contempt, and retire in the old home town with our riches,

full of stories of their life in the Philippines with servants, beautiful mistresses, and

Harvard-trained toads and yes-men.

To their credit, there are some Americans who would out of the kindness of their

hearts, share a little with some unfortunate Filipino. Harry S. Stonehill who wants to

come back to retire and die in this country, is one that may be credited with at least one

act of kindness. That is one more that we can ever expect from the likes of Phil Kaplan,

CIA station chief Norbert Garrett, or the denizens of the American Chamber of

Commerce.

His name is Mario V. Quiros, and he works at the Philippine Virginia Tobacco

Administration. He is a friend of Harry S. Stonehill, American industrialist who came as

a GI during World War II, stayed and became the biggest businessman and industrialist

in the Philippines till 1962 when his offices were raided by Filipino NBI and American

CIA and IRS (Internal Revenue Service) agents, accused of economic sabotage, and sent

packing off on a long exile.

Mario Quiros' father was bayoneted to death by Japanese soldiers during the war

right before his very eyes. Later he saw his own mother raped and killed also by

Japanese soldiers. Through the Liberation years he struggled as an orphan, and decided

to leave his province Isabela in the north to seek his fortune in Manila. But things got

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worse, he literally had to beg for bread from third class restaurants, competing even with

cats and dogs for a morsel of food.

It started in a July morning in 1965, long after Harry Stonehill had left the

Philippines. Mario woke up hungry from the stone bench in the Luneta park where he

spent the previous night. Rifling through his soiled pants, he managed to find two five-

centavo coins with which to buy four fist-sized pieces of pan de sal. The bread was

wrapped in a page of a week-old issue of Manila Times.

He noticed an item in the paper about Ira Blaustein, an American old timer and an

associate of Harry Stonehill, being accused of a $2,000 bribery of a Presidential

candidate in the Philippines.

Mario said to himself, “These politicians are at it again, trying to blackmail a far-

away person who had done something good for the country.” Then getting his ball pen,

he penned a note on a crumpled piece of coupon bond:

“Dear sir: Regarding the bribery charge against you, I wish to let you know that I

don’t believe in the allegation as I personally know the good things that you had done for

my country. These politicians are just itching to find an excuse to satisfy their deceitful

nature. It's exactly what happened to that great American industrialist who in no small

measure helped in our socio-economic progress but was presidentially deported

recently.”

Mario mentioned the name of the American industrialist, Harry S. Stonehill, and

explained his situation in life and his difficulty in seeking employment. Later with

borrowed money he sent the letter by surface mail to Ira Blaustein, care of the New York

address mentioned in the news item.

Ah such Filipino of simple faith --- believing that a letter so obviously written to

play on the sympathies of a stranger whose guilt or innocence he surely does not know,

will move the heart of a hard-hearted American!

If Mario wrote that letter to Norbert Garrett or Phil Kaplan or Steve Bosworth the

Stuff Shirt, the letter would have elicited one horse laugh before being consigned to the

waste-basket. And if you don't believe me, all you guys out of work because of IMF

policies, write to the three at the U.S. Embassy in the Roxas Boulevard. Tell them you

disagree with Larry Henares, and that you need a job. Then write to me telling me if they

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bothered to answer and if they really gave you a job. Ha. Ha.

Well, at that point, Harry Stonehill who was in exile in the States, has just found

out that the raid on his offices was an American CIA and IRS operation from start to

finish, to punish him for starting the tobacco and cotton industries in the Philippines at

the expense of the red-neck white trash Simon Legrees of Tobacco Road and King Cotton

plantations.

The whole story revolved around John Anderson, CIA station chief in the

Philippines, and his deputy Don Richardson (no kin) who got Stonehill to influence the

course of the Garcia-Macapagal presidential fight by getting Rogelio de la Rosa out of

the race; a CIA agent named Menhart Spielman; Minister Gordon Mein and Howard L.

Parsons of the U.S. Embassy; FBI agent Robert Hawley, IRS agent Robert Chandler, a

Mr. Bond of the U.S. Immigration Service and NBI director Jose Lucban. But that is a

long story.

Well, as I said, Harry Stonehill found out he was skewered by his own brother

Americans who got him exiled by the Philippine government. Ira sent him a copy of the

letter of Mario Quiros, and he was touched. It seemed to him that in the whole world, he

had only one friend, a stranger who stretched out his hand in friendship. Harry Stonehill,

who was a better man than his American tormentors, responded in kind. Mario found a

friend.

But Mario did not expect all this. He left Manila for Mindanao as a stowaway on

an interisland ship. After eight months of doing some lowly jobs over there, he was

shipped back through a government welfare agency as a sick penniless man.

Arriving in Manila, Mario proceeded to his sister’s one-room family home in

Marikina. “We had been looking for you all these months, Mario, where on earth have

you been?” his sister exclaimed.

She recounted that a month after he left Manila, a dignified looking man in a

black sedan came by to say that an important official from the United States was

interested in contacting Mario because of his letter to Ira Blaustein. This man also said

that a $100 check for Mario may be claimed in his office. He left a calling card which

somehow could not be located.

After three days looking for the missing calling card in the tiny room, Mario gave

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up in despair. But a week later, a letter arrived with a message from an E.E. Escuadro,

that said:

“Mr. Quiros, I am not sure if you are still in that address. In case you are around,

please drop by at the WHO office, Taft Avenue, because I have a very important matter

to discuss with you. When I was in the United States, a good friend of mine asked me a

favor to find you here. He wanted to befriend you and wishes to know what your

interests are in life.”

The security guard at the WHO, like many Filipinos who work for Americans and

foreigners are arrogant bastards. He stared at Mario Quiros in his faded khaki pants and

tattered shirt jacket, and told him to get lost, “No begging here, no loitering.”

“Now look here,” Mario replied vehemently., “I don't give a damn coming here if

not for this letter,” handing the letter to the guard. After reading it, the guard opened the

gate and said, “Mr. Quiros, sir, please excuse me, I did not know it was you. Dr.

Escuadro instructed me to let you in any time.”

Dr. E.E. Escuadro, a Hawaiian psychiatrist assigned with the WHO, clasped both

his hands over those of Mario, “Welcome, Mr. Quiros, it’s wonderful to see you. As I

said in my letter we want to know about your plans and interests in life. Your friend back

home is very much interested in helping you.”

Mario Quiros told Escuadro that he needed a decent job so he could pursue his

studies. He was sent to an exclusive medical clinic for complete physical and psychiatric

examination. Then two weeks later Escuadro gave Mario a letter to Mr. Gassman,

general manager of the U.S. Tobacco Corporation: “Mr. Gassman: At last we have found

our man, no other than Mario Quiros, a friend of H.S.S. It is imperative that you give

him the lightest administrative job possible so he would not be hard up on his studies.

These are instructions from the top.”

The very next day, Mario was given an easy job at the payroll section, his

working time adjusted so he could catch up with his classes. In addition to shouldering

all the tuition fees, the benafactor gave Mario a monthly allowance of P100.00.

Mario wrote a profuse letter of thanks to Harry S. Stonehill at his U.S. adddress.

After two weeks the reply came:

“Dear Mario: You owe me nothing. I only want to help you so that someday you

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will become a useful citizen in a country I have learned to love so well. How you use this

opportunity depends on how you apply it. If in the future you will succeed, then I shall

be happy to know that I have not failed you. Your friend, Harry S. Stonehill.”

This was the first time Mario Quiros found out who his benefactor really was,

“Oh no, it’s impossible! He's too big to do that for me. If this is a dirty trick, I'd soon

know about it.” He was proven wrong, it was Harry Stonehill, the boss of Ira Blaustein

to whom his first letter was addressed. And as the years passed, the letters between the

two increased in frequency and friendliness.

Then one day, Mario Quiros fell seriously ill with a sickness which needed an

urgent surgical operation. Not wanting to let Harry know of his predicament, Mario ran

home to his barrio in Isabela to wait for the inevitable. A week later, he received a

telegram from the office:

“Mario Quiros, your address was referred to us in the University. Please come

immediately so we can talk about your problems. Signed: Garon Arsam, secretary to

Richard Gassman, US Tobacco Corporation, Manila.”

Mr. Arsam and Mr. Gassman were reproved by cable from Harry for letting

Mario disappear like that. Harry had only one mission for them: “Find Quiros by all

means!” This they did and persuaded Quiros to undergo a physical examination to

determine exactly what it was that was ailing him. The doctors concluded that only a

delicate operation can dislodge the stone-hard phlegm that clung to his lung like a

barnacle. This and the very high cost of the operation scared Mario so much that he

returned again to the province.

And shortly afterwards he received another letter from his friend Harry:

“Dear Mario, it is most essential and your own good that you submit yourself to

surgery immediately. For some unknown reason, I consider you like a son. Rest assured

that whatever resources I have, should be used to save that important life. Together we

must combat that illness at all costs.”

Tears of joy filled his eyes, as he read the letter, saying to himself, “What manner

of man is this whose understanding and compassion transcend any language?” Mario

found himself in an exclusive hospital where prominent figures were confined. Four lung

specialists from abroad attended to the operation in which two segments of his right lung

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lobe were removed. Afterwards, paid private nurses attended to him round the clock

while the hospital staff treated him like a VIP.

After recuperation he sprung back to health. To his surprise, he was no longer

required to report for work. His allowance was increased almost four times and all

school expenses prepaid every semester. He took up journalism and did very well, his

grades regularly sent abroad for Stonehill's information.

Stonehill continued to write: “Dear Mario, I am very much pleased with your

letters so that in Christmas Eve, I gathered all my children and read your letter to let them

know that no matter how miserable a man’s lot can be, there’s always hope if he strives

and persists.”

Things went smoothly for Mario Quiros and Harry Stonehill until the early

1970's, characterized by student unrest, demonstrations, confrontations, and eventually

Martial Law. Harry Stonehill wrote Mario ordering him to stop his studies so as not to

endanger his life. On top of this Harry wrote that in view of a pending financial distress

on his part, he was constrained to stop all outside commitments, and advised Mario to

look for a job and to stand on his own two feet.

With a final help of Harry, Mario was able to buy a motorized tricycle to eke a

living back in the home province, trying to support a family. In doing so, he began to

neglect his health, and to meet his family's needs, he sold the tricycle. This worsened the

situation and drove him to desperation. He again wrote to Harry:

“My dearest sir, come your birthday on the 15th, may God shower you with

blessings of prosperity and health. May I still be remembered even for a moment. At

present I am suffering from acute proverty. If ever there is a kernel of compassion left in

your heart, please help the man you once considered like a son who must be saved at all

cost."

Oh dung, I think I might have to stop telling this story of interminable woe,

because my stomach is turning, and I have already vomited twice. Allow me then to

summarize the rest of the story, and then come to my own conclusions.

Scarcely a month passed and Harry came across with a $50 check, and continued

to send Mario “a substantial allowance on a periodic basis.” Things looked up, Mario got

a job as a casual employee in NIA, and in the PVTA at P33.55 a day for three months.

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He got a chance to meet Harry in Bangkok, all expenses paid, but because his travel

papers were not cleared on time, as Harry said, “perhaps it's not yet God's will that we see

each other.” Mario's daughter is continuing her studies in Switzerland with all expenses

shouldered by Harry.

Mario Quiros, friend of Harry S. Stonehill, writes in conclusion: “It's now almost

20 years since that fateful morning at the old park by the seaside... So much has happened

during this span of time and if everything were to end right now, I'd still be grateful to

God Almighty for having given me an incredibly strange and beautiful friendship that is

so near I can almost feel its presence ... yet so far. I choose to remember Harry as a kind

and loving friend who was there to lend a helping hand when I was down and out."

The story of Mario Quiros is the kind of story that would move to tears Jaime

Ongpin, Christian Monsod, Bernardo Villegas, and Richard Peter Romulo --- a

heartwarming tale of love and benevolence, incontrovertible proof that even the worst

American is the best friend of the Filipino.

The story of Mario Quiros is the story of Jaime Ongpin and his benefactors, the

Allen brothers. It is the story of Christian Monsod and Dick Holmes; of Bernie Villegas

and the multinationals, and the low class Americans from whom he never acquired

immunity; of Dickie Romulo and the forty foreign firms who give him monthly retainers.

The story of Mario Quiros is essentially the story of the Philippines and its

“benefactors” -- the American government, the IMF, the multinationals --- from whose

laden tables we are thrown scraps of doggie food.

This is not to denigrate Harry Stonehill’s act of charity and kindness. In

retrospect Harry is a better man than the WASP Americans who hated him because he

was a Jew, married a Filipina, and helped industrialize the Philippines. These are the

Americans --- the Richardsons, Gordon Mein, Howard Parsons, Robert Hawley, Robert

Chandler --- who lorded it over the Filipinos and had Stonehill thrown out of the

Philippines.

For the record, Harry Stonehill pioneered tobacco growing, flue-curing, and

processing in the country; he set up the first cigarette industry, the first glass making

plant, the first housing project (United Parañaque); he also pioneered the growing of

cotton in our country, and started the land reclamation project in what is now the Cultural

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Center Complex. Boy, that's a hell of a lot more than Jimmy Ongpin, Winnie Monsod,

Steve Bosworth, the IMF and the multinationals, all combined, have ever done for this

country.

One act of charity followed by one act of gratitude would have been enough,

commendable, inspiring even. But this is too much. This hurts because it is essentially a

symbolic morality play --- of Filipinos who live on the charity of foreigners in their own

country.

The act of Harry Stonehill is a shining act in whose light bask the rest of the

Americans, those who hated Harry because he helped Filipinos and had him thrown out

of our country. There are only a few Americans like Harry Stonehill; as a matter of fact I

can cite only one, my friend Fred Whiting, ex-president of the American Chamber, who

sent me a nice Christmas card saying I am his favorite Yankee basher. He is also my

favorite Yankee because he says he is here to help us Filipinos and probably means it.

Filipinos like Quiros who need jobs and a subsistence allowance are urged to contact the

wonderful Fred Whiting, president, Sime Darby International Tire, Buendia Avenue

Extension, Makati, or better still, call on him in his Forbes Park residence. He loves to

help Filipinos in dire need. [NOTA BENE 2002: Hahaha. Whiting was bloody mad

that I should send “them Filipino bums”to his Forbes Park mansion.]

The Mario Quiroses of this country should realize that their penury, their poverty

and their hopeless degradation are due to policies imposed upon us by the IMF, the

American Embassy, the American multinationals and their technocrat surrogates like

Ongpin -- to stop us from industrializing and keep us dependent on industrialized

countries like the USA for our barest necessities -- and that if we are poor it is because

Americans choose to keep us poor.

And that in the ultimate analysis, no one, absolutely no one, can save us but

ourselves.

Date?

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CHAPTER 18. Lost Causes are the causes worth dying for.





Part 1. The First Filipino and the star we followed

For the 100th anniversary of Rizal's martyrdom, we reprint an old piece.

Rizal was the First Filipino, according to Leon Ma. Guerrero. Before Rizal, we

were a conglomeration of many tribes which the Spaniards divided and ruled and called

Indios. “Filipino” was then a term applied only to Spaniards born in the Philippines, as

distinguished from “Peninsulares,” who were Spaniards born in Spain.

Throughout our history, one tribe after another revolted in protest against a tax, or

forced labor, or some personal grievance, never in the name of all the Indios. And the

Spaniards led other tribes to put down the revolt. Whether the revolt lasted 85 years as

did Dagohoy's in Bohol, or just a few hours as did Novales’ who was “outlawed at

midnight, proclaimed emperor at 2 A.M., and shot at 5 P.M.,” natives fought natives and

kept our archipelago Spanish and Christian. Malong proclaimed himself king of

Pangasinan; Almazan, the king of Ilokanos; and Apolinario de la Cruz, king of the

Tagalogs. No one proclaimed himself a Filipino. So wrote Leon Ma. Guerrero in his

epic The First Filipino.

It was Rizal who taught his countrymen that they could be Filipinos who were

members of the Filipino Nation, a narrower concept, more exclusive than the Catholic

Church or the Spanish Empire -- a Filipino nation embracing all the tribes and serving the

interest of its members above those of other nations.

Nationalism was the Star that Rizal followed. And this guiding Star led us to the

first Nationalist Revolution and the first Democratic Republic in all of Asia, even if it

lasted only 4 years from 1898 to 1902. Our Philippine Revolution and Malolos Republic

were to inspire Sun Yat Sen to execute the Chinese Nationalist Revolution in 1911

against the Manchu Dynasty, and against American, British, French and Japanese

Imperialism in parts of China.

It was the same Star that many of our Asian neighbors followed. Nationalism

impelled Quezon, Osmeña and their followers to demand and secure the Independence of

the Philippines from the U.S. in 1945. Even then we were still the first country in all

Asia to break the shackles of Western Colonialism. India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Burma,

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Shri-Lanka, Korea, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore followed later in

their bid for independent nationhood. We were the first and the greatest!

Nationalism is born out of a people's sense of belonging to each other, a sense of

common purpose and common destiny, a national pride, a creative conceit that makes

possible the impossible. This is the same sense of nationhood that sustained the Jews

through two thousand wandering years of the Diaspora to the birth of modern Israel.

Yet in less than a decade after our Independence, Senator Claro M. Recto found it

necessary to launch his Nationalist Crusade. Why was Asian Nationalism such a dirty

word in the postwar years, in the very land of its birth and at the time of its greatest

glory?

Don Claro spoke of our “lingering colonial mentality ... such touching faith in

Mother America that we have almost irretrievably lost faith in ourselves.” Raul

Manglapus spoke of “Faith in the Filipino” and the need to “slay the American Father

Image.” And the American McCarthyists and their Filipino lackeys did drive our

nationalists to the wall by smear, sneer, the whispered lie and the secret dossier.

“When, Don Claro, when?” I asked the Great Nationalist, Don Claro M. Recto

some 30 years ago, “When will we have Presidents who will not pay obeisance to the

Great White Father in Washington? When will we have officials who will promote,

protect and defend our interests against the interests of U.S.A.and other nations? When

will we get rid of our colonial mentality, our Oedipus complex towards Mother

America?”

“Be patient, Larry,” answered Don Claro, “Roxas, Quirino, Magsaysay, Garcia --

all grew up before the War under the tutelege of Americans and went through the trauma

of a cruel Japanese Occupation. They just cannot shed off their conditioned reflexes.

They and the Presidents who will follow in the near future will be the last of the

dinosaurs.”





Part 2. The new Filipino follows a different star

Claro M. Recto promised, “A new generation will rise out of the postwar years, a

generation born without an umbilical cord to the colonial past. These are the young who

will never have known what it is to be under a foreign master. These are the Youth who

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will follow the Star of Rizal and his generation, the same Star Quezon and Osmeña

followed, the same Star we must follow, Larry! These are the leaders who will bring

greatness to the Nation!”'

In the 1950s there was the generation of Empire Builders, of industrialists,

financiers and their Schumpeterian cluster of followers. But they operated in the fringes

of our economy. Because of American Parity Rights and our own colonial mentality, the

Americans kept a monopolistic grip on the most lucrative sectors of our economy. And

this Filipino Middle Class on whom hopes for a Nationalistic Renaissance were placed,

faltered and became part of the colonial status quo. But not for long, because today this

industrial class is being liquidated by the Technocrats upon orders of the IMF. Marcelo,

Ysmael, Elizalde, Araneta, Puyat, Teodoro, Bayan – they’re all gone now.

In the 1960s, there was the generation of young nationalists who rose to challenge

the status quo. I remember some of them ... Voltaire Garcia III, Gerry Barican, Gary

Olivar. I remember in the midst of bullets and barricades, they carried our flag upside

down with the red on top, crying out, “Oh God, the Philippines is at war and we are the

enemy!” I remember having cried out too, “A nation at war with its own youth has no

future!”

Whatever happened to those clear-eyed young men who followed our Star?

Voltaire Garcia III distinguished himself in the Constitutional Convention, was

incarcerated, and was released so he could die peacefully of cancer. Gerry Barican is a

full time executive of Ayala y CIA, part time writer of wit, and sometime actor of

considerable promise. And the last time I saw Gary, he was in Harvard with my son,

content to be burgis.

What Claro M. Recto did not anticipate, what we did not know at the time, was

that Mother America was already giving birth to the New Filipino. By travel grants,

scholarships, and fellowships, young Filipinos were being enticed to go to the United

States to gain an “international viewpoint.” Such travels earned them an impressive bio-

data, and eventually, a good position in the University, in the Government, and in Big

Business. Multinational companies under pressure from Nationalists, were upgrading

talented Filipinos into management positions, and ironically, these talented men became

the quintessence of the New Filipino.

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We of Recto's Nationalist Crusade should have known even then that we were

losing the War. Jaycees, Rotarians, Lions, Kiwanis, not to mention the mysterious Opus

Dei, far outnumbered the once prestigious Knights of Rizal and the NEPA. Long lines of

visa applicants formed in front of foreign embassies, seeking opportunities that are

denied them in their own country. And who can blame them?

Ninoy Aquino came home alone against a full tide of Filipinos leaving the

country. His martyr's death was a lonely act of Nationalism at the time of the Mass

Exodus out of the country by green card holders and TNTs seeking personal

advancement.

The New Filipino is clearly following a different Star. He no longer believes in

the Filipino Nation, he believes in One World and the Global Village. He no longer

considers himself a Filipino, he is now a Citizen of the World.

His heroes are the Filipino presidents of Multinational companies: Ike Joaquin of

ITT, Joe Facundo of Cititrust, Bobby Romulo of IBM, Cesar Buenaventura of Shell. His

patron saints are the Technocrats in power: Virata, Ongpin, Valdepeñas in the Marcos

Administration; Jimmy Ongpin, Jobo Fernandez and the Council of Trent at present. His

ultimate goal is to work abroad, if possible like Rafael Salas of the United Nations, and

the many Filipinos in the IMF/WB, with their high tax-free salaries, in non devaluable

dollars.





Part 3. Lost causes are the only ones worth dying for

For the New Filipino, a professorship in the university, a consultancy as an

economic forecaster, and a top government position as a cabinet member are just

steppingstones to the Ultimate Goal -- to work in a Multinational Company or an

International Organization like the UN or the IMF. And all their actions and actuations

are geared toward pleasing foreigners whose favor they must eventually need, and whose

interests they will eventually serve.

We have lost the War -- Rizal, Bonifacio, Aguinaldo, Mabini, Quezon, Recto,

Ninoy Aquino, and those of us who still believe in the Filipino Nation. Our voices are

stilled -- Leonie Guerrero, Ka Amado Hernandez, Yeyeng Soliongco are dead; Teddy

Locsin, Nick Joaquin no longer write as much. Only Renato Constantino and Alejandro

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Lichauco remain. We are Nationalists without a nation to fight for, we are Patriots

without a country to love.

We have lost the War. We have lost it to the IMF and the Technocrats, the

Multinational Corporations, the colonial minded bureaucracy, and most humiliatingly, to

the American Statehood Movement. We have lost the War. But the realization never

really dawned on me until one day in December long ago, when I phoned my grandchild

Celine in Portland, Oregon to greet her on her 4th birthday. My beautiful and talented

Celine, daughter of Ronnie and Merce, she with the dimpled smile and twinkling eyes,

the repository of so much of our hopes!

“Celine, you talk like an American,” I teased her. “But Laki, I am an American,”

she replied. And there followed a silence, then another, and another. An icy, lonely

silence on a mountain peak. A scalding silence, soaked with sweat, inside a prison cell.

A brooding silence nursed in hurt, the silence of alienation, the silence of pain, of

unbearable sorrow, of unrequited love.... a thousand silences, till at last the silence of

defeat, the final silence of the grave.

I knew then that the War was finally, irretrievably lost. I suppose we will still

fight, bloody but unbowed in the glow of a Lost Cause, but there will be fewer and fewer

of us. For we are indeed the Lost Generation.

And sooner or later, in the Final Battle the pitiful remnants of Recto's Nationalist

Crusade will stand defiant to the end, like Cyrano de Bergerac with his white plume,

waving our tattered flag of Sun and Stars, amidst the wreckage of so many, many broken

dreams and shattered hopes.... and under the faltering light of a Star we followed no

matter how hopeless, no matter how far.

And sooner or later, I shall die as all of us must, knowing in my heart of hearts,

that somewhere far away, in Oregon USA, there will be one part of me that will live on,

with dimpled smile and twinkling eyes, following a different Star.

The war may have been lost but there are still battles to be fought. I am reminded

of the scene in the movie Gone With The Wind, when Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara

were going back to Tara, borne along by a tide of soldiers, retreating from the burning

Atlanta and General Sherman's relentless March to the Sea. The Confederate Army was

at last defeated, demoralized and dying.

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Rhett Butler, who reaped fame and fortune as a smuggler of arms during the war,

decided to say goodbye to Scarlett, “I am going, my dear, to join the Army. They are

running away, I know, but they will turn around to make a Last Stand before the Final

Defeat. And when they do, I want to be there. I may be a little late, but better late than

never.''

When Scarlett protested that she was being abandoned, Rhett answered, “Selfish

to the end, aren't you, thinking only of your precious hide without a thought for the noble

cause. Well, maybe I have a weakness for lost causes, once they are really lost. Or

maybe, I am just ashamed of myself.”

Rhett Butler was right, you know. Lost Causes are the only causes worth fighting

for, the only ones worth dying for. The whole history of the human race is lighted by the

glow of Lost Causes consuming in their flame the Christ-like martyr who consummates

with his Tragic Failure the Redemption of his people.

Christ, Lincoln, Rizal, Gandhi, Martin Luther King... and now Ninoy Aquino.

They all died for Lost Causes, and not in vain. For the blood of their martyrdom

quickens the seed of rebirth, of resurrection, of ultimate triumph. Christianity and almost

all religions, mighty movements and great nations were born out of Lost Causes. The

War and the Nationalist Crusade may have been lost. But we will turn around for the

Last Stand in the Final Battle.

Join us. Together we shall reach for the unreachable Star.

January, 1997; January 2003









CHAPTER 19 Council on Philippine Affairs





Part 1. COPA is not a secret subversive group

People hear of the organization called COPA, the Council on Philippine Affairs,

as the support group behind the Chavit Singson Juetengate expose, and the organizer of

the street rallies against Erap Estrada. Billy Esposo of the COPA issued a statement

revealing the members of the organization, a ragtag group that included among others,

Teddy Benigno, Boy Saycon, Peping and Tingting Cojuangco, Boy and Maria

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Montelibano, Amaury Guttierez, Ching Montinola, Michael Mastura, Tony Oppen and

myself.

Take it from me, COPA is primarily a discussion group whose motto is “to be

informed, to be concerned and to be involved in the affairs of the nation.” It has taken

the acronym COPA which means cup or chalice, bringing to mind the quest for the cup

from which the Lord drunk in the Last Supper, Holy Grail. In the case of COPA, the

Holy Grail is the quest for truth, justice and service to the nation.

Take it from me, the COPA is not beholden to any one group, or even to one

another. Politically, we are diverse. During the last elections, some of us were with

Gloria Macapagal, some with Fred Lim, some with Cory and Cardinal Sin, some with

Fidel Ramos, and believe it or not, some were with Erap primarily for his courageous

stand against the American Bases. Ideologically we are also diverse. Some are

Rectonian nationalists, unabashed pro-Americans and cacique landlords, and Jeffersonian

democrats. As an economic class, we belong of the AB and high C groups. Our

educational background is Ateneo de Manila, La Salle University, University of the

Philippines, and Colegio de San Juan de Letran. It is not a secret society, it is a brain-

storming think tank open to all who want to join, and dedicated to open, free and

unlimited debate. It is a catalyst, more than an action group.

The most remarkable thing about the COPA is its intimate links with all

ideological hues and demographic groups, from the radical left to the rightist elements of

the cacique and the military, women’s lib, gays, students, academe, workers’ groups,

soldiers from the generals and colonels down to the majors, captains and lieutenants,

Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, and all the political parties. Its connections within the

military intelligence and foreign spy agencies is just amazing. Within two hours after the

Malacañang received an intelligence report on the “sources of funds” for the anti-Erap

movement, a copy was in the hands of the COPA’s secretary general, Boy Saycon. Most

of the information therein were inaccurate. Linking Boy Saycon to Fidel Ramos and

General Almonte was laughable – they hate each other. The Makati businessmen

contribute to the political organization of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, not to the COPA.

It may a surprise for everyone to note that COPA was instrumental in exposing

the Ital-Thai scandal of the Ramos Administration, and the aborted plan to plant

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landmarks on the Spratley Islands preparatory to claiming them as part of our territory.

This plan, approved by Ramos, was aborted by the sudden disappearance of the allocated

financing from the military intelligence fund. The COPA was also responsible for the

offer to use the American Spy-Eye satellite to monitor the Abu Sayyaf, and even

arranged for a briefing about the satellite facilities for Erap in Hawaii after his state visit

to the USA. Erap Estrada therefore cannot claim that COPA is his enemy. COPA’s role

as a support group for Chavit Singson’s expose was undertaken in the service of truth and

justice, was accurately narrated in the Star newspaper columns of Teodoro Benigno and

TingTing Cojuangco, and the credit actually belonged only to former Congressman

Peping Cojuangco and COPA Secretary-General Pastor “Boy” Saycon.





Part 2. The Origin of COPA

I have been tagged as a founding member of COPA, the Council on Philippine

Affairs, a controversial organization that has had its share of bouquets and brickbats. I

wish to share my thoughts with you about the origins of COPA and what it really stands

for. COPA was born under the aegis of Jaime Cardinal Sin, and his desire to elevate our

democracy to a higher moral plane. Originally it involved the confluence of two distinct

groups. One group represented by Antonio C. Oppen and myself were involved in the

campaign of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for the presidency, vigorously advocating that

President Fidel V. Ramos anoint her as his successor and run as her vice-presidential

mate to insure her election. The other group represented by Teodoro Benigno and Pastor

Saycon were initially involved in the actual candidacy of Gloria Macapagal for the

presidency too, but withdrew from the campaign because of policy differences with

another group of Gloria supporters.

The four of us got together after Gloria slid down to vice-presidential level, with

the Cardinal as our accepted leader. If the Cardinal is the Father of COPA, it was

Antonio C. Oppen who acted as Godfather. He is a pillar of the Church, a prestigious

Knight of Saint Gregory, a trusted colleague of Cardinal Sin, and a close cousin of my

wife. Teddy Benigno and I grew up together in Lourdes Street before the war, had our

first job together, and I credit him for having defended me from my tormentors with his

fists and encouraged me to write with his pen – quoting my writings in his Agence France

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dispatches all over the world.

Tony Oppen was the one who introduced me to Boy Saycon, and brought us

together (Teddy, Boy and I) to Jaime Cardinal Sin who in his office gave us our first

marching orders: to support Mayor Alfredo Lim in his bid for the presidency. It was

there that we helped write the Cardinal’s pastoral letters in an old computer manned by a

nun. It was there that COPA was conceived as the force to keep the country from the

disaster of an Erap presidency. Of these five who ushered COPA into being, three (the

Cardinal, Tony Oppen and myself) DO NOT carry an emotional baggage involving a

traumatic break with Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her husband Mike Arroyo. The

Cardinal, Tony Oppen and I do not share that experience and refuse to be influenced by

it. It no longer bothers Boy Saycon or Teddy Benigno, so why should it still bother

others?

If the Cardinal is the Father, and Tony Oppen is the Godfather, it was Teddy

Benigno who was the Voice and the Visionary, who with his eloquence and perspicacity

hurled his mighty Jovian thunderbolts against the enemies of democracy and Edsa1. I did

my share of the work with my weekly TV show on Channel 9, and my daily radio

broadcasts, and daily newspaper columns (while it lasted). But the real muscle in COPA

is Boy Saycon, with his initiative, imagination and talent for organization, and his ability

to motivate diverse groups of differing agendas to work together for a common cause.

And it was I who introduced Boy Saycon, now a TV and media personality in his own

right, to television, radio and the newspaper – at least he owes me that.





Part 3. COPA does not speak for me

How did COPA gets its name? It was at a meeting in the Manila Club that Billy

Esposo, then the PRO of the group, proposed that our group assume the name Council of

something or other patterned after the US Council of Foreign Relations. I believe Billy

proposed something like Philippine Council of National Affairs. We discussed the name,

but I wanted a name like COPA, a cup for Holy Grail, the cup from which our Lord made

the miracle of the bread and wine and the First Holy Communion. It was I who coined

the COPA slogan, “to be informed, to be concerned, to be involved.” The name Council

On Philippine Affairs was concocted to conform with COPA, and was Billy’s “second

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option.” Billy designed the logo and drafted the manifesto. I do not really care who has

the credit, but COPA belongs to all of us, not exclusively to any particular group.



It was Boy and Teddy, and later, Peping Cojuangco who brought in others into the

COPA in its founding year. Let me add that Teddy Benigno and I as columnist and TV

hosts, have always been independent and forthright in our convictions, and we have

earned the right to be critical even of our friends. We have on occasion, and especially

myself who have been often accused of libel, used very strong language that offended

many of our leaders. But Teddy and I ALWAYS spoke for ourselves, not for others or

the COPA organization. And we stand or fall on our own convictions, we do not drag

anybody else into our personal prejudices, controversies or our way of expressing our

stands. My point is that like Teddy Benigno, I do not speak for COPA. And COPA’s

Billy Esposo does not speak for me. I do not necessarily disagree with some of things he

says, but I have my own way of expressing my opinions. As Billy Esposo says, COPA is

made up of 23 independent thinkers, each a king in his own right.



I have been accused behind my back of exposing confidences of a “COPA family

and its in-laws.” This probably refers to an article I wrote on Sonny Jaworski and his

son. I am no admirer of Sonny, and I did not write anything about him that was not

openly discussed with Boy Saycon, Peping Cojuangco and others in a COPA meeting at

the Hilton. I was not aware that this basketball player who was once accused of point-

shaving, this Erap crony who voted against the opening of the second envelop and who

was assaulted in Edsa 2, is considered an IN-LAW of COPA, and therefore not subject to

public scrutiny.



I also have been accused behind my back of compromising my independence of

mind by accepting an appointment as Presidential Consultant on National Affairs, for

P1.00 a year compensation. If so, so did Tony Oppen who accepted the same

appointment I did. If so, so did Boy Saycon who accepted the position of member of the

Board of PDIC.



I have taken insults from those I choose to ignore because they presently face a

life-threatening medical condition that brings them close to death’s door. But I will be

damned if I will take any gratuitous and uncalled-for insult from any other, especially a

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nobody with no visible means of support. The first time I noticed this man at Mr. Poon’s

restaurant, he was being berated by a famous columnist for obnoxious behavior. The last

time I noticed him in Boy Saycon’s party he was shouted at by the same columnist for the

same reason, for undue “moralizing,” in which he dared to suggest the barring and

purging of COPA members who do not agree with his ilk, and that includes me



December 20, 2000; August 23 and 24, 2001









CHAPTER 20. Danding Cojuangco





Part. 1 PACMAN and the GREMLINS

Today we are going to say something nice about Danding Cojuangco, not so

much in the hope that he withdraws his libel suit against our favorite newspaper, but most

certainly because Americans do not like him, and he happens to be a Filipino.

Now some people might say we have been bought. Don't you believe it. Any one

who knows our nationalistic sentiments should know we would not only do this for

FREE, we'll even pay for the privilege. This is going to be fun!

Americans do not like Danding because he beats them at their own game. Long

before the Philippines opened diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, Danding

booked Soviet vessels to ply the Far East routes at comparatively cheap rates. This did

not please the Americans and the Japanese who dominate the Pacific “Conference Lines”,

the Shipping Cartel that sets freight rates in this part of the world.

Then Danding was able to secure a “rationalization” of the coconut industry,

creating the UNICOM Monopoly that frustrated the Monopsony of American companies,

specifically Cargill & Co., Pacific Vegetable Oil, Lever Brothers and Proctor & Gamble.

The Americans were so frustrated they filed an Anti Trust suit against Danding in the

United States.

Then Danding took over the San Miguel Corporation. Andy Soriano was an

American citizen, the former President of the American Chamber of Commerce, the

bankroller of the Philippine Association, the most effective lobby group for American

interests. Andy was quarreling with his cousin Enriquito Zobel, the biggest single

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stockholder of San Miguel, when Danding came in quietly and with such finesse that left

even Andy Soriano gasping but relieved.

Andy was the linchpin of the American Community, and the San Miguel take-

over scared the hell out of the Americans. They began to call Danding “PACMAN”, that

cute little ball of a creature in the most popular of video games, and in the 7-Up

commercial. You know, the one that goes gobble, gobble, gobble, gobbling everything in

its path.

From here on, PACMAN is suspected of trying to take over every company up for

grabs, from the Bulletin Today newspaper to Banco Filipino. The Americans even got

the IMF and the Technocrats to try to clip his wings. But if Danding is PACMAN, then

the Americans are the GREMLINS, those malevolent creatures in Steven Spielberg's

latest blockbuster movie.

The Gremlins have been described as “E.T. with Teeth ... Muppets reborn as

Hell's Angels”, teetering on the edge of lunacy and violence. That's accurate enough to

describe American monopoly in the Philippines.

If the IMF, CRC and the U.P. School of Economics are so concerned about

Danding's Coconut Monopoly, why are they not equally concerned about the American

Monopolies in the Philippines?? Why is there never a proposal for Anti Trust

legislation??

(1) Three American companies -- Goodyear, Goodrich and Firestone --

monopolized the tire business for 3 decades, but instead of planting enough rubber trees,

they waste our dollars for the importation of their materials.

(2) Reynolds Aluminum was handed a monopoly here on its promise to set up an

Aluminum Smelter in Iligan. That was 30 years ago; we might as well have asked them

to plant bananas in the North Pole, ha ha!

(3) Until only recently Esso, Caltex, Mobil and Shell completely monopolized the

petroleum industry, but none of them made any serious attempt to explore for oil in the

Philippines, preferring to use our dollars to import their crude at higher than world prices.

(4) The American drug companies together dominate the market for ethical and

the proprietary medicines which they import in bulk, and sell at exorbitant prices,

according to a study by the U.P. Law Center. They have yet to manufacture a single

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aspirin or a single tablet of broad spectrum antibiotic.

(5) Colgate Palmolive, Proctor & Gamble (PMC) and Lever Bros. (PRC)

monopolize the detergent, shampoo and toothpaste market -- yet until they were forced

to, none of them would use coco fatty alcohols, preferring instead to import petro

chemicals as material.

(6) Two American communication firms, Globe McKay and RCA were given

franchises that extend well into the 21st Century, putting our communications to the

outside world subject to foreign control, something no self respecting nation would

countenance.

(7) Two companies, American Wire & Cable and Phelps Dodge have a grip on

the manufacture of copper wires and cables, but they do not use the copper from our

smelters, preferring to import their copper.

(8) We export a lot of Activated Carbon, but Union Carbide which has a

monopoly of our Dry Batteries (Eveready), uses up our foreign exchange importing

Activated Carbon at higher cost. The government of India, getting sick and tired of

Union Carbide, told the company to raise its own dollars for its operations. Union

Carbide then became the world's largest exporter of shrimps, from India. Do you think

our technocrats can get the same deal for us? Ha ha ha.

(9) Dole and del Monte which monopolize the export of pineapple with land

leased from the government at bargain prices have been observed shipping through tax

havens, why?

(10) Why are General Electric and Phillips who supply us those lousy

incandescent bulbs and flourescent tubes that do not last two months, not forced to

improve their products?

(11) How much royalty and franchise fees have already been wasted on American

brands of cigarettes?

(12) and on American junk foods of little nutritional value?

(13) How about milk companies that do nothing except import milk powder,

instead of setting up dairy farms?

(14) And the American manufacturers of ketchup who import huge quantities of

tomato paste rather than grow tomatoes here??

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It is plain to see that our biggest MISTAKE was to hand over our industries to the

MONOPOLISTIC control of the Americans, something South Korea and Taiwan

NEVER did. Because of our Colonial Mentality and American Parity Rights, we blew it.

Thirty years ago, our Import Control authorities handed our Industries over to the

very people who wanted to keep our economy import oriented, to the very guys who did

not want us to industrialize, the same buggers who tell us, “We shoulda left ya to the

Japs! Listen, we pull outa here, and you monkeys will be back climbing trees!”

These GREMLINS, these American Monopolists made sure our industrialization

stopped exactly where it started -- importing semi-processed materials. What? The

Americans do that to us? Those wonderful god-men who civilized the Indians, the

Negroes, the Filipinos, the Vietnamese? What for?

Greed, that's what. By transfer pricing, by overpricing their imports, they can

send their profits out with ease and at the same time understate their income for tax

purposes. To further integrate their industries they have to make bigger investments.

Why should they? Of their entire capital requirements, 88% is secured in pesos from

domestic sources; and they send out more than 90% of the profits in dollars. These

GREMLINS send out $5.56 for every $1.00 they bring in.

The GREMLINS' grip extends beyond our shores. The Shipping Conference is a

organization of Capitalist Shipowners who determine the Rates we pay for the goods we

ship. It is a Cartel which the industrial countries use to gain comparative advantage over

the poor nations.

For instance, the Philippines makes plywood cheaper than Japan does, because

Japan has to buy the logs from the Philippines to make plywood. Yet Japanese plywood

dominated the U.S. market because Conference rates between Japan and the States are

cheaper than the rates between the Philippines and the States.

Conference freight rates are often manipulated to give advantage to the United

States and other rich countries. When the Soviets and Danding Cojuangco set up the

FILSOV Shipping, in effect they challenged the Conference Lines. And the Americans

could not even call Danding a Communist; he is more of a capitalist than any of them.

Without defending the UNICOM, we will tell you why it came into being. Long

before Danding was born, the trading in copra was between a Monopsony of 4 American

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firms and thousands of unorganized Filipino coconut planters. As a result, we sold

mostly copra instead of processed coconut oil, and at a very low price which Americans

controlled. The Philippines supplied 65% of the free world's market for coconut

products, but these Americans were the only ones making money.

Two events changed the destiny of the Coconut Industry. First, from 1967 to

1970, the BOI encouraged foreign companies to set up oil mills in the Philippines. In

1979, the UNICOM took over most of the oil mills and became a Monopoly that now

faces up to the American Monopsony. OK, OK, I'll explain: Monopoly exists when the

seller controls the market; Monopsony when the buyer controls the market.

From 1954 to 1966 at the time of American Monopsony, the price of copra

averaged $162 per metric ton. From 1967 to 1978, when the Oil Mills were in operation,

the price went up by 30% to an average of $211. From 1979 to 1982, when UNICOM

was our sole trader, the price went up by a fantastic 88% to $396 per metric ton.

At the time of American monopsony, the price of coconut oil averaged $250 per

metric ton. When the oil mills were set up, the price increased ton average of $427/MT,

but when UNICOM took over, the price zoomed to an average of $609/MT, in one year

up to an average of $920/MT!!

At the time of American Monopsony, we sold an average of 6.25 tons of Copra

for every one ton of Coconut Oil. When the oil mills were set up, we sold 1.28 tons of

Copra for every one ton of Coconut Oil. When UNICOM took over, the situation was

permanently REVERSED. We now sell a fabulous 7.14 tons of Coconut Oil for every

one ton of Copra!

And this year we are starting to export Coconut Chemicals in great quantities: in

June 1984 alone, 7.3 tons in copra terms, more than 3 times last year's.

UNICHEM is being set up to produce 70,000 tons of coconut chemicals (Fatty

Alcohols, Fatty Acids, etc.) a year, in addition to the 18,000 tons per year being produced

by Filipinas Kao. This will truly industrialize what we Filipinos long regarded as the

“Tree of Life.” This would NEVER have happened under American Monopsony.

Meanwhile PACMAN is besieged by the GREMLINS. First Danding was sued

by the Americans under the Sherman Anti Trust in the U.S., but haha, as an Ambassador

he had diplomatic immunity. Then the IMF and Virata tried to destroy the UNICOM by

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abolishing the copra levy, which the President promptly restored. Now the IMF, the

Technocrats, the CRC and the U.P. School of Economics are lobbying to abolish the

UNICOM itself, without in any way concerning themselves with the more dangerous

American Monopoly network.

For one thing, PACMAN earns more dollars than all the GREMLINS combined.

PACMAN earns the dollars, the GREMLINS spend the dollars. The American

monopolists use the dollars earned by our sugar and coconut planters to perpetuate their

monopoly and earn enormous profits.

When the IMF and the Technocrats tell us to engage in Export Oriented

Agribusiness and Cottage Industries, they are in effect telling us to go back to the

plantation and earn more dollars for the American Monopolists to spend. If we Flips are

enjoined to be EXPORT oriented, it is because the American monopolists are IMPORT

oriented.

It’s PACMAN versus the GREMLINS, folks. Those of you with personal

computers or Atari video players, should know by now that PACMAN is really on your

side. He is the partner riding on your Joystick.

But when Spielberg's movie “The Gremlins” finally comes to the theaters and

your Betamaxes, you will also discover that you deal with the GREMLINS only at your

peril. And the most effective way to deal with them is to expose them to the Light of

Truth ... or push them into the Micro Oven, and cook them. Well done, please.

August 5, 1984, Bulletin Today





Part 2. Danding's Pearl Of The Orient Seas

Stories abound about how Madame Marcos told her foreign guests that anything

they find in their rooms are theirs for the taking. And there in those rooms inevitably are

handfuls of pearls for the swine.

Only a few months before the February Revolution, Madame Imelda was

throwing pearls to her loyal blue ladies, actors and actresses at an all night party, saying

there are much much more ere they came from to ensure the election of her husband.

About the 20th of May, Rose Marie Prieto of the Spanish Army of Occupation in

Malacañang excitedly called her friends to report that a secret passageway in Malacañang

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was discovered, wherein containers of loose pearls were stored. Where do the pearls

come from?

In the 1960s, in the heady days when Ninoy Aquino led a group of us called the

Liberal Young Turks, our colleague Ramon Mitra then a Congressman, was nagging the

rest of us to help develop the land of promise called Palawan. None of us ever took him

seriously, saying there is nothing in Palawan except crocodiles and the leavings of bat

diarrhea. Then one day, Mitra got a phone call from Ninoy’s cousin-in-law Danding

Cojuangco. Danding told Monching that his plane was waiting at the airport, that he

wanted Monching to show him around Palawan.

As their plane circled all around Palawan, Danding pointed out an island at the

southern tip of the province and said, “That is the one I want.” The island he pointed to

is called Bugsuk Island. For a long time after that, we used to kid Monching Mitra for

delivering the island to PACMAN, and Monching would grimace and say, “Hell, I gave

you guys first choice, did I not?”

Bugsuk Island became the centerpiece of Danding's economic empire. Here copra

levy funds were poured to set up a seedling project for replacing old coconut trees with

new high yielding varieties. What very few people know is that Bugsuk Island is also the

source of pearls worth a king's ransom.

The most remarkable thing was that close corporate buddies of Danding did not

even know, neither Joe Concepcion of ACCRA, Danny Ursua of UCPB or Chit Pineda of

San Miguel Corporation. Danding's spokesman, Gabby Villareal, and his publicity man,

Dennis Navarro said in a press conference that the Bugsuk Island was only suited for

coconut seedling production and nothing more.

This best kept secret of Danding Cojuangco is now known. The Bugsuk Island is

the center of the most fabulous pearl farm ever . There was a pearl farm long ago in

Davao, a joint venture between Danny Aguinaldo and the Japanese, but that somehow

fizzled out after years of successful operation. But this fellow PACMAN must have the

Midas touch, because his pearl farm produced pearls much more beautiful and more

valuable than the cultured pearls of Mikimoto.

To market the pearls under the name “Pearl Island”, Danding set up Jewelmer

International. In the early days, deposed President Marcos is said to have invested a tidy

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sum to be the majority stockholder of the company but that is probably not true; Marcos

never invests, he just collects dividends. The marketing company, Jewelmer (in an

illiterate way, translatable to Jewel of the Sea) is based in San Francisco, and has

branches in Los Angeles, Texas, Australia, and right here in the Manila Peninsula Hotel.

Danding is loathed to part with his pearl farm which is the fountainhead of his multi-

million dollar shops.

The holding company of Jewelmer International is called Bertex, which controls

other trading outfits in the United States, and numerous landed estates located primarily

on the West Coast.

The pearl catch in Bugsuk was so fantabulous that Gretchen was said to have been

giving handfuls to her friends. The First Family found out about it in due course and

regarded the pearls as their very own possession, to be dispensed with as campaign funds,

or as pearls to be cast among their jet set swine.

Danding’s pearl farm was probably financed from the total of P426.26 million

appropriated from the Coconut Industry Development Fund (CIDF) for the development

of more than 1,000 hectares of frontier land in Bugsuk for the establishment, operation

and maintenance of a hybrid coconut seed nursery. The seed nursery was intended to

propagate high yielding, fast growing hybrid coconut seednuts for the replanting of three

million hectares of coconut lands. But Minister of Natural Resources Ernie Maceda

believes that part of the funds were used to develop the pearl farm of Danding.

Gabby Villareal and Dennis Navarro, speaking for Danding, revealed that the

total amount was released in several tranches (installments to you, non-IMF fans) from

1974 through 1979, pursuant to a Memorandum of Agreement executed in September

1984 between Agriculture Investors Inc., developer of the seed nursery, and the National

Investment and Development Corporation (NIDC) which administered the project for the

CIDF.

But not one of Danding's loyalist cronies can explain how the pearl farm was

organized, financed, and made successful. None will say categorically that the pearl farm

was financed out of the pocket of Danding, or of Marcos. Neither can they explain how

Danding was able to set up a pearl farm on a property that was supposed to be used

exclusively for a hybrid coconut seed nursery.

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The big question is WHY this pearl farm was not sequestered by the PCGG. It

continues to operate, the sea divers continue to dive for handfuls of pearls, but WHO is

actually running the pearl farm, WHO is taking ownership of the pearls?

Up to now, the Cory government has not made a total accounting of the total

value of pearls that have been taken by Jewelmer International since the Revolution. So

called probers tell newsmen that in their preliminary investigation, no less than P100

million worth of pearls may have already left the country. And to this very day pearls

continue to be taken by the caretakers of the pearl farm without official government

cognizance or supervision.

One of the more interesting sidelights is the weekly discussion between

Danding’s boys and the people of Minister Ernie Maceda as to the so-called trade-off of

Bugsuk Island and the lands of Danding Conjuangco in Luzon, which Ernie insists should

have been on a one-to-one basis, meaning one hectare of raw frontier land in uninhabited

Palawan for every one hectare of developed and productive land in populous Luzon. The

Ministry's insistence on this rather unfair exchange smells of something that should be

left unsaid, don't you think?

In the meantime, it is being bruited about in the business community that the pearl

farm of Danding is now being operated under the auspices of three Cabinet ministers who

are also using Jewelmer as their marketing arm.

To lay such speculations to rest, the Cory government should take cognizance of

Danding's secret pearl farm, and make clear who is running the show and who is really

benefiting from its operations.

. Bugsuk island is the place were the new government is convinced that there were

actual siphoning of coconut levy funds to the tune of P45O million. Bugsuk island was

taken over by Danding after he arranged a land-swap with some of his properties claimed

to be located at Nueva Eciya, Pangasinan, Occidental Mindoro and Antique. This by

itself is a revelation since only few persons really knew that Danding had so much land

holdings to swap for Bugsuk.

The suspension of the coconut levy in l982, the CIDF determined that it could no

longer meet its commitments. CIDF claimed that it was faced with the prospects of huge

losses not only of the investments already made but also of the opportunities forgone

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during the long gestation period of the project. But CIDF while funding the pearl farm

was not able to collect the capital it infused for Danding’s almost unnoticed white gold

(pearl) project.

Ministrer Maceda insists that the heirs of Danding and Ernesto Oppen Jr. failed to

deliver the required hectarage in exchange for the frontier lands granted to these two

Marcos cronies. But Danding's front company Agricultural Investors Incorporated claim

that l,600 hectares were exchanged. If indeed Danding gave out l,600 hectares to gain the

frontier properties, why is it that the two groups continue to meet weekly to rediscuss the

areas involved in the tradeoff. Both of them have papers to prove their contention but

Danding's group follow the Marcos era while Maceda insists that these papers are

fictitious or done for a vested bloc.

June 6, 1986, Philippine Daily Inquirer





Part 3. Detergents Pollute Our Drinking Water

With Ramon Garcia sitting in the San Miguel board as PCGG representative (his

paternal grandma is a Salonga), one may surmise that the Garcias of LMG Chemicals are

in good with the Cory administration, so that we may expect LMG continue

manufacturing “hard” alkylbenzene materials for detergents that pollute our environment.

The detergent you use --- Tide, Mr. Clean, Superwheel, Breeze, Drive or Ajax --

contain ingredients that are non-biodegradable, meaning they do not, like ordinary

laundry soap, break up into harmless components by the action of bacteria, sunlight, air

or water. This means that such detergents can seep into our underground water table and

pollute it permanently, so that in some areas of Metro Manila, people using deep wells

sometimes pump up frothy sudsy water that is not drinkable.

Detergent manufacturers insist that rains and waterways dilute and wash off this

pollution, but this is a self-serving statement that the National Pollution Commission

refuses to accept, with the observation that congested areas like Metro Manila is fast

being polluted beyond remedy. The fact is that “hard” alkylbenzene which is non-

biodegradable is banned for use in the manufacture of detergents in almost all developed

nations.

LMG says that detergent consumption in the States is 30 kilos per capita, while

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Philippine consumption is only 3 kilos per capita per year; but neglects to add that

population density in the U.S.A. is only 65.9 persons per square mile, while that of the

Philippines is 436.4 persons per square mile. The degree of pollution is quite

comparable.

In other underdeveloped countries, laundry soap is still used in great quantities, so

the use of “hard” alkylbenzene is still allowed since the level of pollution is slight. But

the Philippines is unique in this respect. As the Soap and Detergents Association (SDAP)

admitted, “The Philippine laundry products market is composed mainly of detergent bars

and powders. Detergent bars are by far the most popular laundry product. Their high

degree of popularity is unique to the Philippines.”

There was a time when the detergents first made by the multinationals were made

of biodegradable coco fatty alcohols. Later it was found out that detergents can be made

cheaper and more profitably with petrochemicals, specifically alkylbenzene. And the

shift was made worldwide, till in the Philippines, the multinationals were importing and

using more than 30,000 tons per year of the stuff.

It was then that Dr. Eusebio Garcia, son Tony and his family, of Maria Cristina

Chemical Co. and Chemphil, set up the LMG Chemicals to manufacture two chemicals

used by the detergent manufacturers: “hard” alkylbenzene (AB), a “surfactant” which is

responsible for cleaning and sudsing action; and sodium tri-polyphosphate (STPP) which

softens the water and makes the detergent action more effective.

Garcia proposed to manufacture the Alkylbenzene from 60% local materials

(propylene tetramer, from Caltex refinery which was to invest in 45% of LMG), and

imported benzine. He also proposed that he make that STPP from Alkylbenzene and

locally made oleum.

Garcia's proposal was REJECTED by the BOI upon the strong objection of the

National Pollution Commission which pointed out that hard AB is a pollutant banned in

all developed nations such as Japan, the United States, Great Britain and most of Europe.

It is used only in poor underdeveloped sucker countries like Malaysia, Indonesia,

Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, and in many African countries, who

either do not know any better or use too little detergent to pollute their environment to

any great degree.

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Besides, Caltex reneged on the deal to supply LMG with propylene tetramer, so

that LMG will then operate with 100% imported materials, making a product that is

cheaper if imported.

Ultimately Tony Garcia’s project was approved by the BOI “with reservations.”

Tony justified the approval with the statement that the consumption of detergents was not

yet at such a level as to pose a major pollution problem, and with the promise that if it

does become a problem, the LMG will shift to the manufacture of “soft” alkylbenzene

which is less of a pollutant.

The National Pollution Commission and the BOI agreed with the reservation that

in the near future the detergent manufacturers will shift either to the “soft” AB or to coco

fatty alcohols (CFA) which is most biodegradable of all and is made out of 100% local

materials (coconut oil).

P.D. 1872 was actually the ploy of Marcos and Danding Cojuangco to take over

the lucrative LMG business, for it gave Dandings's Unichem the sole right to import what

LMG makes (alkylbenzene) and also the materials that LMG needs (propylene tetramer

and benzene), all justified by the intention to shift to coco fatty alchols at a later date.

Tony fought back against Danding's monopoly with the help of the IMF, the

Americans, the PCCI, and the Samahan Sa Pilipinas ng mga Industriyang Kimika (SPIK).

But actually Tony was shoring up his bargaining power as he secretly negotiated with

Danding for the sale of his plant. His brothers and sister were incensed; so Bimbo, Lito

and Mrs. Ordoveza shifted their support from Tony to the other brother Ramon with

whom Tony had not been on speaking terms for years. Ramon took over, and Tony was

left out in the cold where he turned his attention to his partner in Dynetics, Vicente

Chuidian.

The Unichem, a $100 million enterprise, is financed 94% by the copra levy paid

by the coconut farmers who retain 70% voting control with 30% given to Lurgi of

Germany. It is now operating in a small way, exporting all of its products in competition

with Henkel of Germany, Proctor & Gamble, and Kao of Japan, while LMG still has

practical monopoly of the hard AB and the STPP market in the Philippines.

In the face of IMF pressure, the best thing that Minister Jose Concepcion can do is

(1) ban the manufacture and importation of “hard” alkylbenzene, as an undesirable

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pollutant; (2) force LMG to shift to “soft” alkylbenzene as per the original condition of

BOI approval; (3) encourage the Unichem to make coco fatty alcohols for export and

local use in shampoos and detergents; (4) encourage small Filipino firms to go into the

manufacture of low cost low technology laundry soap using 100% local materials.

June 11, 1986, Philippine Daily Inquirer





Part 4 . Monopoly and Pollution: Laundry Soap better than Detergents?

When Tony Garcia of LMG Chemicals took on Danding Cojuangco of Unichem

on the issue of Alkylbenzene versus Coco Fatty Alcohols, he did so with the assurance

that he will have the unqualified support of the IMF, the World Bank, the American

Embassy, the American multinationals, and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and

Industry. It was in the public perception a contest between David and Goliath, between

Tony the good free enterpriser and Danding the bad monopolist. In the aftermath of the

February revolution, Danding fled the country and LMG won its fight.

Of course the long suffering soap and detergent industries, led by Philippine

Manufacturing Co. (Tide, Mister Clean), Philippine Refining Co. (Superwheel, Breeze,

Drive), Colgate Palmolive (Ajax), who have to use the products produced by Tony or

Danding, are not happy in any case. They see the Tony/Danding contest as a choice

between the devil and the deep blue sea.

They have unhappy memories of the time Tony Garcia decided to manufacture

Alkylbenzene in the Philippines and forced them to buy his product at a higher price than

they could import it. Being a real good friend of President Marcos, Tony Garcia had BOI

tax exemption privileges, and a hefty tariff protection, and in addition he filed a petition

for outright banning of imported Alkylbenzene (AB).

This panicked the American multinationals into entering into a “modus vivendi”

agreement with LMG sometime in late 1970s, in which the detergent manufacturers

agreed to buy one half of their requirements from LMG at P12,000 per metric ton, while

importing the other half at P9,000 per ton, so that their average cost is P10,500. That is

free enterprise?

On the other hand, came Danding of Unichem who talked Malacanang into

issuing P.D 1872 which arrogated to Unichem the monopoly of importing alkylbenzene

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or the materials needed to make it, and of eventually substituting it with coco fatty

alcohols -- which would have driven Tony and LMG out of business.

As far as PMC, PRC, and Colgates are concerned, both Tony and Danding can go

to Hades, for they find it a lot cheaper to import their materials than to buy from either.

Of course, if one is a consumer and takes to heart the IMF condition of free trade

and open economy, then it is a lot cheaper for us Filipinos to import soap and detergents

from Korea and Taiwan, than to have them manufactured here by the three American

companies. Before the war, we exported our copra and imported Lux, Camay, Palmolive,

and Uncle Sam's gift to the malodorous armpit, Lifebouy. This is the kind of situation

that will eventually be ours, if we followed the IMF's import liberalization plan.

There are two ways of handling our economic policy. If we are to follow IMF

and Jaime Ongpin, then eventually we should just import our soaps and detergents and

chuck off Danding’s Unichem, Tony’s LMG Chemicals, Proctor & Gamble’s PMC,

Unilever’s PRC Colgate Palmolive and the other small manufacturers -- Armour Dial

Philippines, Central Vegetable Oil Company, Philippine Detergent Products, Malabon

Soap & Oil Industrial Co., Manufacturing Services & Trade Corp., Novel Manufacturing

Corp., Peerless Products Manufacturing Corp., and Royal Industrial Development Corp.

which is owned by my neighbor and favorite Celestial Dragon and fellow Pangalatok,

Mr. Ben Lim and his favorite wife Pet.

The other way is to follow an industrialization program that will make full use of

our labor and natural resources, build up a strong self-reliant, self-sustaining economy.

In which case we should get the Unichem away from Danding and let it manufacture the

coco fatty alcohols the 11 manufacturers need to make shampoos, soap and detergent.

And force LMG Chemicals to make “soft” biodegradable alkylbenzene rather than the

“hard” alkylbenzene it is making now which pollutes our environment.

Maybe we should even reexamine the policy of allowing multinationals to make

detergents from petrochemicals instead of making plain laundry soap out of coconut oil.

In his Introduction to the Chemical Process Industries, and engineering textbook,

R.M. Stephenson points out that there is “no absolute reason why old-fashioned soap

cannot be used for most household and commercial cleaning.” But detergents have swept

laundry soap from the supermarket’s shelf, with a resulting twentyfold increase in

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polluting phosphates in rivers, lakes and seashores. Not only that, the "brightener" in

detergents, a light-reflecting additive which makes clothes look whiter but does nothing

to remove dirt, uses about three times the energy needed to produce oil for soap

manufacture.

In the United States, people woke up to the fact that every time they turn on the

faucets, frothy sudsy water poured out; that the detergents they used were non-

biodegradable, that it does not break into its basic components by the action of bacteria,

air or sunlight; that their precious underground water table has been permanently and

irretrievably polluted, in many areas no longer potable or drinkable.

That is why all developed nations have banned the use of “hard” alkylbenzene

which is the principal ingredient of non-biodegradable detergents. “Hard” alkylbenzene

is what the LMG Chemicals manufactures for our detergent needs. It is banned for use in

Japan, the United States, Great Britain and most of Europe. It is used only in poor

underdeveloped sucker countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia,

Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, and in many African countries, who either do not know any

better or use too little detergent to pollute their environment to any great degree.

However, being the happy hunting ground of American multinationals, the

Philippine market is one of the biggest per capita user of pollutant detergents. As a

matter of fact, National Pollution Commission has warned that the Metro Manila area is

fast becoming irretrievably polluted. This Commission vigorously opposed the

manufacture of “hard” alkylbenzene by LMG Chemicals, and that's another story.

Why do multinationals make detergents when laundry soap will do? Profits, that's

why. In 1947, when the soap industry sold soap, the profit rate was 30 percent of sales.

In 1967, when the industry was selling two boxes of detergent for every box of soap, and

selling them at a higher price (as a better product kono), the profit rate had risen to 42

percent. Today, the profit rate on pure detergents, Barry Commoner calculates, is 52

percent of sales.

June 30, 1986, Philippine Daily Inquirer

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Part 5. Welcome home, cousin Danding! (1)

ADRIAN CRISTOBAL accosted me one day last week and said,

“Congratulations, Larry, you and I are the only columnists who ignored the coming of

Danding Cojuangco!”

“We did?”

“Yes, we were magnificently Olympian to realize that in the long run, how

Danding got here or who is to blame for it, is not important. He is here and how he will

affect the political equation is the big question.”

Danding is my cousin too, having married Gretchen Oppen, the second cousin of

my wife Cecilia, and being the son-in-law of our favorite auntie, Tita Nuning. So we see

each other in family gatherings.

In the national elections of April 23, 1946, Jose and Eduardo Cojuangco were on

opposite sides of the political fence. No, they were not Peping and Danding, they were

their respective fathers: Don Pepe who was a Nacionalista candidate for the Lower

House, and Eduardo who was a Liberal candidate for the Senate.

Both lost. Don Pepe, Cory's father, lost to Eduardo's candidate, Jose J. Roy. And

Eduardo lost badly in the Senate contest being 25th out of 50, where only 16 senators

were elected.

When on March 12, 1952, Eduardo died of a kidney ailment, his last words to his

eldest son, 17 year-old Danding, was “Sama-sama kayong mga pinsan -- you cousins

should unite,” with a presentiment of what was to be a political rivalry between Jose III

(Peping) and Cory (married to Ninoy Aquino) on one hand, and Danding on the other.

Danding’s maternal grandfather was John Joseph Murphy, a racist who wanted

his daughter Josephine to marry a white man instead of Danding's father. Murphy called

Danding a “chink” and Danding in retaliation punctured all the tires of the old man's car

with an ice-pick. Danding never forgave his grandpa for that slur.

Graduate of La Salle High and a dropout of UP Los Baños, he finished his studies

in the California State College, and started work in the family plywood factory managed

by Bill Murphy, his mother’s brother, whom he accused of mismanagement and almost

shot with a revolver.

He asked Washington Sycip of SGV to audit the books of the company. Armed

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with Wash’s report he went to his mother with irrefutable evidence of his uncle's

mismanagement and involvement with a gambling syndicate. His uncle was fired.

At the age of 21, Danding married the beautiful Gretchen (German diminutive for

Margaret) Oppen, daughter of Ernesto “Caruso” Oppen Jr. and Margarita “Nuning”

Cuyugan. Caruso is a third generation German immigrant married into the Montillas of

Negros, and is so-called because at birth he squalled so loud he sounded like the great

tenor Enrico Caruso.

Nuning is the only daughter of Timotea Lichauco who died early and left her with

the largest Lichauco fortune undivided among many descendants -- including the

Cartimar markets in Pasay and Recto Avenue.

Danding’s romance with Gretchen started when he shyly let Gretchen bathe his

car accident wounds with mercurochrome, and developed when he invited her, her family

and friends to see Marilyn Monroe in “Niagara,” occupying the whole front row of the

loge at Baguio's Pines Theater.

Danding entered politics in 1958 when he ran for councilor in Paniqui, while his

cousin Peping ran for Vice-Mayor. In 1965, he ran against Peping for the Lower House,

and lost, because while he was supported by Ferdinand Marcos who won the Presidency,

Peping was supported by President Diosdado Macapagal and Ninoy Aquino then

governor of the province.

In 1967, Danding ran for governor while Ninoy ran for the Senate. Campaigning

out of each other's way, both won. In 1969, Danding ran for the congressional seat of

Peping, while Peping sensing defeat, withdrew his candidacy.

Danding in Congress, despite being a neophyte, was one of the ten best

congressmen, having filed some 30 bills. Among them was the most controversial bill

gerrymandering Tarlac into two provinces, moving satirist Joe Guevara to write: “Tarlac

should be divided into four provinces: Sur for Pampangueños, Norte for Ilocanos,

Oriental for Tagalogs and Occidental for Pangasinenses. I am glad the Laurel family of

nine brothers and sisters is on the best of terms. Otherwise my province of Batangas

might be subdivided into nine provinces!''

Because of his anti-Huk activities, Danding became a man marked for death, with

six assassination attempts on his life, according to newspaper reports. In the face of Huk

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assassins called “Beatles,” the large landowners and armed forces hired their own

assassins called “Monkees,” and also the BSDUs which were the vigilantes of those

times.

Thus the stage was set for the declaration of Martial Law and Danding’s

collaboration with the dictator Marcos.





Part 6. Gretchen scandal, an outrageous lie (2)

GRETCHEN Oppen Cojuangco was born with a golden spoon in her mouth,

being the eldest daughter of the fabulously wealthy Margarita “Nuning” Cuyugan y

Lichauco de Oppen. And she was one of the most beautiful women of the Philippines

who insisted “on the quiet seclusion of married life -- no publicity, no fanfare, just

wifehood and motherhood in elegant style.”

Yet she was drawn into the social whirl of Manila, because her husband Danding

was a prominent member of the political and financial leadership, a much sought-after

party guest.

She was featured in the July 1964 issue of Harper's Bazaar, together with

TingTing Cojuangco (Peping's wife), Chona Recto Kasten, Josie Hilado, Conchita

Melchor Hechanova, and Chito Madrigal. For the pictorial, Gretchen wore a Maria Clara

costume against the background of Malacañang, with her children Tina, Lisa, Mark and

Charlie.

Susan Donnell, associate editor of the magazine expressed her admiration for the

Filipina’s “complexion and her ability to stay young.”

The Fashion Guild .of the Philippines in May 1967 chose Gretchen as one of the

Ten Best Dressed Women of the country, together with Elvira Manahan, Chito Madrigal,

Chona Recto Kasten, Remy Arguelles, Priscilla Moran Sison, Imelda Cojuangco (mother

of Emperor Tony), Baby Fores Araneta, Nelly Lovina and Pressy Panganiban.

Gretchen campaigned as a Blue Lady with Imelda Marcos, usually singing a

couple of native songs after Imelda had sung her Dahil sa Iyo.

After her husband Danding won a seat in Congress in 1967, Gretchen joined the

Malacañang crowd. As recounted by Carlos Quirino, Danding's biographer, President

Marcos enjoyed her company, and sought her during parties, because she was intelligent,

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cultured and beautiful -- in contrast to the majority of the Blue Ladies who were known

neither for beauty or conversational ability.

Quirino: “With her, Marcos could play golf, bowl or go swimming in the pool on

the other side of the Pasig River. Furthermore she was an excellent dancer, and after the

President half a dozen times as his partner on the dancing floor, tongues began to wag.

“And the first of these gossipers were the Blue Ladies who, envying her looks and

her popularity, began whispering about a supposed liaison with the Chief Executive. And

since chief executives, starting with Manuel L. Quezon, were known for their machismo,

the news filtered out to the coffee that the couple were having an affair.''

This was not true of course, but Primitivo Mijares, disenchanted press confidant

of Marcos, wrote a book “The Conjugal Dictatorship “ in which he wrote of this gossip

and elaborated it with Imelda sending a warning through Mrs. P to Gretchen, and Ferdie

confronting Mrs. P: “Hoy ano ba ang pinagsasabi mo? Aba, eh, hindi na yata titigil ang

kaiiyak ang kawawang babae yan”'

Danding and Gretchen Cojuangco could not sue Mijares for this scurrilous libel,

because the book was published outside the Philippines, and Mijares never returned to

Manila and is widely believed to have been killed.

To make a public denial in Manila would be merely adding to the fire. All they

could do is to suffer in silence, and to turn down invitations to the Palace.

In the meantime, Danding --

• Was appointed Governor of the Development Bank (DBP).

• In 1968, formed the Northern Cement Co. in Sison, Pangasinan, from which the

government bought ALL its cement requirements at less than market price.

• In 1972, was appointed a member of the Presidential Sugar Commission, to look

after funds contributed by the sugar industry for community development and

social amelioration; in 1973 sugar prices went up and in 1974, went down.

• In 1973, was appointed vice-chairman of the Philippine Shippers’ Council to sit

down with the Shipping Conferences in other parts of the world on all matters

pertaining to Philippine shipping.

• In 1974, became the chairman of the Filsov Shipping Corporation in partnership

with Soviet Russia for chartering Soviet vessels.

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• In 1975, set up the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB, or CocoBank), with

himself having a management contract for five years extendible to another five

years, with coco levy funds purchasing the old First United Bank owned by

Cory's father, Don Pepe Cojuangco.

• In 1978, set up the Seven Trading Co, dealing in copra, and the United Coconut

Planters Life Assurance Corp which issued P3 billion worth of insurance policies

to coconut farmers.

• Was appointed Chairman of the Philippine Racing Commission to supervise the

Sport of Kings, and mediate between Manila Jockey Club and Philippine Racing

Club.

But the best was yet to come.

December 5 and 6, 1989, Philippine Daily Inquirer





Part 7. Crocodile Dundeeng may be the next president

PRESIDENT Cory dismissed Monching Mitra and Celing Fernan as unworthy

and unelectable respectively, and anointed Eddie Ramos as her presidential candidate.

Mitra's LDP was supposed to disintegrate as his supporters realize that Eddie is a sure

winner and a conduit of election funds from the Americans, Chinese, Japanese and the

Council of Trent. According to the script, Fernan will be forced to join Ramos as his vice

presidential candidate.

But Mitra's party is holding out. Peping Cojuangco and the Aquinos are still with

him. And the rest of the congressmen and senators of the LDP, resentful of the

“betrayal” of Cory and her assumption that they could be bought so easily, have stayed

together and united with Mitra.

The Osmeña family, like the Cojuangcos and Aquinos, is in disarray. The sick

Governor Emilio “Lito” Osmeña was inveigled to join Eddie Ramos as a tentative VP

candidate with the hope that Fernan may be convinced to take his place. It did not work.

His brother, Senator John “`Sonny” Osmeña, in an act of sibling rivalry and in defiance

of his own family, joined Danding Cojuangco as VP candidate. And to complicate the

situation further, Fernan, resentful of Cory, joined Mitra instead of Ramos, as VP

candidate, with the encouragement of Cardinal Sin.

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Four candidates have completed their tickets -- Danding with Sonny, Eddie with

Lito O, Danding with Sonny O, and Jovy Salonga with Nene Pimentel. At presstime,

Imelda Marcos, Doy Laurel, Miriam Santiago and Erap Estrada cannot get a viable

partner or an effective political party.

Unless Eddie Ramos replaces the ailing Lito with either Miriam or Erap, and

takes over the LDP from Monching Mitra, he may be in trouble. Unless Mitra finds an

inexhaustible source of funds and keeps his organization loyal and in good working

condition, he is in trouble too. Imelda and Doy are sure losers.

Jovy Salonga is nationalistic, and will probably make a good president if he did

not have a personality problem. If he runs this country like he ran the PCGG, we are all

in trouble. He has lost the support of those who kept the Liberal Party together and

elected him LP president in his absence, like Anding Roces. And like Cory, he is unable

to choose good people, except his Protestant Mafia and legal cronies. He is a loser too.

As of today, Danding and Sonny seem the most winning combination. I have just

been to my hometown in Pangasinan, and found to my dismay that my vote-rich

province, second only to Cebu, is not solidly behind Pangasinense Eddie Ramos. Gov.

Rafael Colet and Sen. Bert Romulo are for Mitra; the Estrellas are for Danding, and

Danding’s son Mark is running in the 5th district where his Northern Cement is located.

Also my other vote-rich province Negros Occidental, next only to Pangasinan, is

almost solidly for Danding whose wife Gretchen is not only a cousin of my wife but also

a member of the Montilla family of Negros. With Sonny Osmeña by his side, Danding

may commandeer a big bulk of the Cebuano votes.

Danding Cojuangco who was once flattered when I called him Pacman, seems

equally pleased when Gary Lising christened him Crocodile Dundeeng, in parody of a

1986 movie blockbuster, Crocodile Dundee, starring Paul Hogan. In this disarming

comedy romance, Hogan plays the quintessential Aussie, a macho crocodile poacher who

takes an American reporter on a tour of the Australian outback, where Danding has a race

horse farm, and proves more than a match for the bullies of New York.

Crocodile Dundeeng, a friend of Marcos, controlled the coconut industry through

the use of the coconut levy, with which he increased the capital of his United Coconut

Planters Bank (Cocobank), took over coconut oil refining, the export of coconut oil and

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its marketing in the USA, thus getting for himself and the country a much better price for

our coco oil, long under the monopoly of four American firms: Cargill, Pacific

Vegetable, Proctor and Gamble, and Lever Brothers.

For this he was accused of violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Marcos

appointed him Ambassador and gave him diplomatic immunity. He also controlled the

propagation of a new variety of coconut tree, closer to the ground, higher-yielding but

very site-specific.

He set up United Chemicals to fractionate coconut oil to provide a new detergent

material in place of alkyl benzine, replacing the monopoly of Monchoy Garcia's

Chemphil with his own monopoly, and producing a product which is more expensive,

more biodegradable and not a pollutant like alkyl benzine.

He got control of San Miguel Corporation by buying the shares of Ayala's

Enrique Zobel, and by an exchange of stock -- Cocobank non-voting non-participating

preferred shares for San Miguel's voting profit-participating common shares. He was

also said to have controlled both Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola. He is also in pearls, prawns,

cement, paints.

Crocodile Dundeeng has been called a monopolist, but he is also a nationalist

industrialist, not as greedy, and not crook and traitor like the Council of Trent.

Mitra, Ramos and the Cory forces better get their act together.





Part 8. Ateneans resent high school grad from La Salle (1)

THE oldest, most global rivalry in the world is not between the Soviet Union and

the USA (70 years), or between Pepsi-Cola and Coca Cola (almost 100 years), but

between the Jesuits and the Dominicans (450 years).

The greatest frustration of the Jesuits is that the Dominicans, who were the

enemies of Rizal and the 1898 Revolution, have already given our republic five good

presidents: Emilio Aguinaldo, Manuel Quezon, Sergio Osmeña, Jose Laurel and

Diosdado Macapagal. But the Jesuits have not contributed a single president.

The upstart University of the Philippines was able to give us three presidents:

Manuel Roxas, Elpidio Quirino, and Ferdinand Marcos; Jose Rizal College, Ramon

Magsaysay; and Sta. Escolastica College, Corazon Aquino.

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In the late 1950s the Jesuits recruited their best and brightest to capture the

presidency for the Blue Eagle: Manuel Manahan, Raul Manglapus, Ambrosio Padilla,

Soc Rodrigo, and Emmanuel Pelaez. They were all honest, clean-cut, good-looking,

competent and pro-American, and none of them made it. Manahan ran for the presidency

and lost, and Pelaez became vice president but no farther.

What is doubly frustrating to the Jesuits is that in this election where seven are

candidates, three came from UP (Laurel, Santiago, Salonga); one from San Beda (Mitra);

one from Holy Infant Academy (Imelda); one from West Point (Ramos); two from La

Salle (Laurel and Dundeeng Cojuangco); and curses foiled again, none from old Arrneoo.

Dundeeing is only a high school graduate from La Salle; his running mate, Erap

Estrada, is from Ateneo grade school and did not finish school. Ramos was Ateneo

MBA, but that does not make him an Atenean. The Ateneans anointed by the Jesuits,

brilliant topnotchers, cum laude, eloquent, wealthy and elitist are nowhere in sight.

Many Ateneans find it intolerable that a high school graduate from La Salle,

Danding Cojuangco, became the richest man in the land so fast and so easy, and may

succeed to the presidency with shocking credentials. Atenean Emmanuel Pelaez came

forward to accuse Danding of perpetrating the greatest scam in the history of the country,

involving P9 billion of cocolevy funds, of being Robin Hood in reverse robbing the poor

to give to the rich, and hinting that Danding may have had something to do with the

attempt on his life ten years ago.

It was a terrible accusation, aired simultaneously in two different programs in two

different stations last April 20, after 10 years of the silence of the lambs, because

“Danding is seeking the presidency and the people have the right to know what kind of a

man he is. How can we face the world with a president like that?”

Many people are deathly scared of the man, scared of what they perceive to be his

violent temper and contempt for human life. They speak of the feud he had with his

American grandfather who called him a “chink” and the savage way he punctured all his

grandpa's car tires with an icepick. They speak of how he threatened his uncle Bill

Murphy with a revolver.

They recalled an NCAA championship game between Letran and La Salle, where

Danding’s Tarlac goons pounced on young Letran students with “guns and lead pipes”

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and sent many of them to the hospital.

They spoke of a long line of heavily tinted Mercedes Benzes during years of

martial law, carrying Danding and his security men, and to foil assassins no one knew

which car Danding rode in. An army report recounts how a Tarlac army contingent

blasted the Radio Veritas during the Snap Elections and proceeded to Danding's house for

a rest.

They recount how Jaime Cardinal Sin pointedly asked him if he had any advance

knowledge of Ninoy's assassination. But it was the narrative of Manny Pelaez on the

attempt on his life on July 17, 1982 that brought a shudder to many a TV watcher.

Manny’s car was stopped at his own housegate, and subjected to a barrage of

machine gun fire. Sixty eight bullets penetrated the car, five of them were lodged in his

ribs, and one near the spinal column, one near the jugular vein and one in his elbow.

Instinctively he dove to the car floor. The killers dragged his driver out of the car and

pumped him full of bullets. Then they aimed a bullet at Manny as a final coup de grace.

Fortunately their vision was blurred by the cracked shatterproof window glass, and they

missed.

Manny Pelaez woke up in the hospital in a serious condition, and his first words

were; “What is happening to our country. Who would want me killed? I have no known

enemies!” If he did not know then, everybody else knew. And today, 10 years later, he

pinpointed his enemies: those who benefited from the cocolevy scam led by Danding

Cojuangco and/or Marcos himself. The killers were on contract and probably killed to

keep them from talking, says Manny.

Asked what he thought of a Danding presidency, Manny Pelaez shuddered and

said, “God help us!”

As hosts of the Firing Line where he appeared, Teddy Benigno and I thanked

Manny for telling the nation about Danding Cojuangco. In doing so, he was risking his

life... and our own, Teddy's and mine, both of whom as simian hosts, bully our human

guests. Manny is the first to appear on two talk shows being aired at the same time, thus

giving credence to his being a “media butterfly” in addition to being a political butterfly.

Manny said, “Like Cory Aquino, I have no respect for political parties. They're

all the same. Cory is too pure, she refused to join any of them. But being practical, I

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joined many to advance my political programs.”

He joined the Nacionalista Party (NP) with Magsaysay; the Progressive Party

(PPP) and Grand Alliance with Manglapus and Manahan; the Liberal Party (LP) with

Macapagal; back to the NP with Marcos; back to PPP with Manglapus, back to the LP

with Macapagal; KBL with Marcos; and Cory's Coalition with Aquino.





Part 9. Will Danding Cojuangco be another Marcos?? (2)

AMBASSADOR Emmanuel Pelaez finally made it to the Planet of the Apes,

appearing in Options of Channel 2 and Firing Line of Channel 7, in did serve his

constituents well, from the Rural Electrification Law to the Congressional Investigation

of the Coco Levy funds that almost led to his assassination.

Teddy “Doring” Benigno, goon of Lourdes Street, who was my co-host in Firing

Line, had an idea, “The Options Three, Tony Abaya, Melinda de Jesus and Nelson

Navarro respect Pelaez too much to interrupt him with embarrassing questions, so they

will let him drone on with boring statistics. But you and I know Manny from way back,

you even served with him in Macapagal's cabinet. We can bully him into saying

something that will make headlines. okay?”

Teddy and I kept interrupting Manny and highlighted his use of strong words like

estafa, malversation, scam, robbery, robbing the poor; twitted him again and again about

the attempt on his life and the reason why he would court the same risk by talking about

it now.

“I am already 76 years old, and I am not afraid to die. But you two (Teddy and I)

are much too young to die at the hands of those who wanted me killed. There is more

than just the coco levy funds involved here. Today it is no less than the presidency of the

republic. Be careful. Be prepared to die.” Having scared the shit out of us, he went back

to Washington DC and Virginia Beach a day later, leaving Teddy and I to face the firing

line.

The next day, Teddy Benigno and I paid up on our life insurance premiums, went

to Communion, and bid a tearful goodbye to our loved ones, just in case.

And Anding Roces, walking with me that morning, saw some tough-looking

characters waiting in a car, backed off from me and shouted, “I am not Larry Henares.

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He is the one!” pointing to me. “No, no”' I screamed, pointing to Anding, “He is the

one!”

“You jerks are not worth killing. We wait for one more deserving,” the goons

laughed. They were parked by 5386 Amorsolo Street when Jess Estanislao lives.

Let us not use the figures of Manny because the pesos at the time of martial law

was worth a lot more than today’s pesos. Let us use the figures of Ricardo Manapat in

his book “Some are Smarter...” because the figures are in dollars more stable in value.

If Manny is to be believed, Danding Cojuangco is most likely the clone of

Ferdinand Marcos whose reign was marked by violence and massive looting of public

funds.

According to Manapat, $475 million (M) today valued at P12.3 billion (B) were

officially collected as coco levy funds; but the amount was closer to $585 M (P15 B).

This represents 25 percent of the market price of the copra sold, and 33.8 percent of the

total income of the farmers, all appropriated for use by Danding and his cohorts, “for the

account of the farmers.”

For the farmers, my aching ass! Only five percent of the farmers registered their

receipts with the Cocofed, only 28 percent of the levy was actually registered, and only 9

percent of the farmers were members of Cocofed.

The levy funds were spent:

• to subsidize consumer prices of coconut products (CCSF);

• to set up the UNICOM monopoly with 93 percent of coco milling capacity and a

strangle-hold on copra trading;

• to finance the COCOPEC (his answer to OPEC oil cartel) coco oil trading cartel

in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (and losing $34 M in inventory losses

and damages to clients);

• to set up Cocobank (UCPB) fully controlled by Danding with a management

contract, with bonus shares, and with shares bought at $0.13 and valued at $24.60

per share. He deposited coco levy funds in the bank without interest, and charged

farmers 15 percent interest on one-year loans.

• to set up the disastrous Bugsuk hybrid coconut project, which was financed with

$58 M levy funds, and then abandoned with the government paying $59 M in

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liquidated damages -- a total loss of of $117 M or P3.04 billion in today's pesos.

For this Manny Pelaez is filing a class suit against Danding for malversation

and/or estafa of P900 M. For this Danding promised to give the government one

hectare of his farm lands for every ten hectares of public lands he took. Of the

1,600 hectares to be given, he only gave a token 300 hectares.

Will the presidency of Danding be a repeat of Marcos??

May 4 and 6, 1992, Philippine Daily Inquirer





Part 10. Manapat's book changes the political equations (1)

RICARDO Manapat's book, “Some Are Smarter Than Others: The History of

Marcos’ Crony Capitalism” (Aletheia Publications, New York, 1991) is on its second

150,000 copy printing, and shows no sign of flagging sales; at press time, no copies are

available in book stores. Selling for P350 per copy, Manapat's book, with its well-

documented exposes of the Marcos years, is changing political equations in the 1992

presidential elections, and will no doubt have a decisive effect on its outcome, especially

on the fortunes of four presidential candidates: Danding Cojuangco, Imelda Marcos,

Ramon Mitra, and Jovy Salonga.

It’s greatest impact is on the candidacy of Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, one of

the front-runners in the presidential derby, whose image of a self-made businessman and

entrepreneur, is shattered by revelations of unconscionable abuse of power (pages 216-

246). Also Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and Rep. Maria Clara Lobregat for their roles in the

coconut levy (p. 163-198).

The book reconfirms Imelda Marcos’ role in the pillaging of the nation (p. 422-

536), and her insensitivity to the plight of the poor (page 1-67). Also, Ramon Mitra's

friendship with Danding Cojuangco, and Ninoy Aquino's remark in 1980 that “Mitra had

forfeited all claims to national leadership because of his association with Cojuangco” (p.

234, 251).

Jovito Salonga is criticized for his reluctance and failure to prosecute Juan Ponce

Enrile for his role together with Cojuangco in the abuse of the coconut levy (p. 198).

Candidates Sec. Fidel Ramos and sister Sen. Leticia R. Shahani, both close

cousins of Marcos and serving him as Vice Chief of Staff and Ambassador respectively,

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were not mentioned in Manapat's book as part of Marcos’ crony capitalism.

The book also documents the involvement of many of the candidates and high

officials very much identified with the Cory administration. Among these are the

ACCRA lawyers, Sen. Edgardo Angara, Executive Sec. Franklin Drilon, Rep. Raul Roco

(p. 237-240), who were involved in Cojuangco’s corporate raid on the San Miguel

Corporation.

Sen. Angara (p. 165), senior law partner of the ACCRA Law office, was the

candidate of Marcos for IBP president, and appointed by the dictator to the UP

presidency. He was closely involved in Enrile's take-over of the coconut industry, served

in the board of Enrile’s JAKA holding company, and in Cojuangco’s San Miguel (p.

238). He is widely suspected of having been Enrile's silent partner.

Sec. Franklin Drilon, ACCRA lawyer, helped Danding Cojuangco take over the

San Miguel Corporation, and served in ECI Challenge Corp (p. 240), the holding

company for all Cojuangco's Pepsi Cola operations. Rep. Raul Roco, is spite of

suspicions to the contrary, was and still is the lawyer for the Sorianos up to the present,

and not lawyer for Cojuangco. The ACCRA lawyer most used by Cojuangco was Jose

Concepcion (not JoeCon the senatorial aspirant), a “shadowy figure” who was director of

UCPB, Unicom, and a number of coconut mills, as well as SMC corporate secretary.

Senatorial aspirant and born-again Christian pastor Ramon Orosa was alleged to

have been a special consultant to Hermini Disini, and accused of mishandling millions of

schoolteachers’ investment funds. The Philippine Public School Teachers Association

(PPSTA) composed of poorly paid school teachers say that under Orosa, they could not

determine the status and whereabouts of their investments. Orosa was also connected

with the Romualdezes through the First Philippine Holdings Corporation (p. 334).

Bulletin publisher Emilio Yap (p. 363), who was boycotted by Cory, then taken

into her inner circle, and now accused by Ramon Pedrosa of being prejudiced against

Cory's candidate Fidel Ramos, is widely believed to be a dummy for Marcos when the

executor of Menzi's estate forced the Menzi Trust Fund to accept a non-documented sales

on 154,472 Bulletin shares to Yap, “by bluntly stating that President Marcos was the real

buyer of the shares.”

Rep. Jose R. Zubiri Jr. was part of the Benedicto-Africa-Nieto (BAN) group, as

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executive vice president of their Bukidnon Sugar Co. (Busco), the biggest sugar refinery

in the Visayas and Mindanao area (p. 117).

Manapat dwells on PCGG efforts to recover ill gotten wealth, and his judgment is

that PCGG chairman Jovito Salonga, presumably honest, has an unfortunate tendency to

have as his colleagues and subordinates, his political friends even if they were connected

with Marcos cronies -- a failing that does not stand well with his aspiration to the

presidency.

Mary Concepcion Bautista, controversial PCGG Commissioner and Chairman of

the Human Rights Commission, was a charter member of the “Friends of Marcos.”

Adolfo Azcuna, officer in charge of PCGG, was a “dummy of Kokoy Romualdez, and

served as president and chairman of Trans Middle East Phil. Equities of Kokoy, and

incorporator of PNI Holdings which was used to move the shareholdings of Kokoy in 36

corporations right after EDSA. Salvador Hizon whom Salonga chose as chief legal

officer of PCGG and who is still in his Senate Staff, worked with Rodolfo Cuenca who

controlled the construction industry and who was never prosecuted by PCGG; Hizon was

later appointed to head the Los Angeles based Century Bank, owned by Marcos cronies

(p. 594, 595).

The most controversial is Salonga’s appointment of Rafael Fernando as the

Executive Director of the PCGG and head the overseas recovery efforts, in spite of the

fact that Fernando was general manager of Cojuangco's trading firm in Los Angeles, part

of the coconut cartel set up in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust law, on which

Fernando refused to testify (p. 581-583, 587).

Fernando, chairman of the Liberal Party in the US West Coast, was appointed as

“a blatant act of patronage” to advance Jovy's drive to the presidency. Fernando who still

serves Salonga as his campaign coordinator made many questionable moves in the

PCGG, including the RICO suits against Marcos that proved poorly planned and weakly

argued, resulting in legal defeat and payment of huge fees to Fernando's lawyers. And to

cover up the resultant failures, in view of Salonga's senatorial bid, deals were made with

Jose Campos Yao and Antonio Floirendo, Marcos cronies, under questionable terms.

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Part 11. The real Danding –‘capable of taking lives’ (2)

PRESIDENTIAL candidate Eduardo “Danding'' Cojuangco is touted by his staff

as an astute businessman and financial genius who will lead this country out of the mire

of economic depression. Manapat's “Some are Smarter than Others” debunks this

thoroughly with a well-documented exposes‚ on the source of Danding's wealth.

Quoting liberally from my articles quoting an unpublished book by historian

Carlos Quirino, commissioned by Danding Cojuangco himself (page 207-209), Manapat

details three sources of the family wealth. One was through the grand aunt Doña Ysidra

Cojuangco, who was left a considerable amount of gold belonging to the First Republic

by General Antonio Luna, allegedly her sweetheart, before the General went to

Cabanatuan, there to be assassinated. ‘Tis said she threw the treasure into a well and later

retrieved it as her own.

The other source was through the grandfather Melecio Cojuangco who offered

General Arthur MacArthur the use of his warehouses, in exchange of which MacArthur

gave Melecio free transportation for his rice stocks from Paniqui to Manila where the

price of rice was considerably higher. It is ironic that after his collaboration with the

enemy, Melecio, then a congressman, died of heart attack on a railroad trip harassed by a

couple of American soldiers demanding his sons’ seats.

The third source is money lending activities by Doña Ysidra resulting in such

large rice land holdings (12,000 hectares) that the family could set the price of rice in

Luzon and was thought by their lawyer to have owned practically all of Central Luzon.

But Danding Cojuangco surpassed all these wealth, at the height of Marcos' crony

capitalism controlling $1.5 billion in corporate assets or 25 percent of the country's GNP,

and earning from this writer the sobriquets Pacman, Crocodile Dundeeng, and “Coha-on

ko” (Ilonggo for “I will take it!”).

The dark side of Cojuangco's character is shown, according to Manapat, in the

NCAA championship game between La Salle of which Cojuangco was manager, and

Letran a school known for its rowdy behavior against La Sallites and Ateneans. I was

told that Danding instructed his men to wear red ball pens so that they may recognize

each other. When the Letranites, having lost the game, started to tear up seats and

assaulting the La Sallites, Danding’s “goons with guns and lead pipes... beat up the young

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Letran high school kids.” His own lawyer and spokesman, Gabriel Villareal was quoted

as saying that “Danding is capable of taking lives” (page 218).

According to the book of Carlos Quirino, as a kid he had a feud with his

American maternal grandfather, John Joseph Murphy who contemptuously called him a

“chink,” and whose car’s four tires he punctured with an icepick. Then again as a young

man, he quarreled with his maternal uncle Bill Murphy and almost shot him with a

revolver.

Manapat’s book mentions that Emmanuel Pelaez, then an Assemblyman, called

for an investigation of the Coconut Levy, and called for its suspension, “was later

ambushed by gunmen who riddled his car with machine gun fire, seriously wounding him

and killing his driver” (page 186).

Jaime Cardinal Sin in a TV interview in Channel 7’s Firing Line, recalled that he

asked Danding Cojuangco if he had anything to do with the bombing of the Radio Veritas

broadcast facilities during the Snap Election, and whether or not he had advance

knowledge of Ninoy Aquino’s assassination.

Subsequently it was revealed by confidential military documents that troops from

the Tarlac Constabulary under the command of Lt. Col. Cesar Alvarez knocked down the

Radio Veritas transmitters on February 23, 1986, and then went to Cojuangco's residence

in Balete Drive for a rest (PDI Mar. 25, 1992).

Cojuangco (p. 219, 220) has an armory of modern sophisticated weapons; a fleet

of 21 expensive cars including two Mercedes Benz 600s, four Ferraris, Rolls-Royce,

Porche, Daimler, two Jaguars, two Mustangs and a de Lorean gull-wing; several horse

stud farms, including one in Australia; large fighting cock breeding farms, including one

where NPA rebels twisted the necks of cocks worth as high as P100,000 each.

Manapat's book documents in detail how the Coconut Levy started to be collected

by the Philippine Coconut Administration (PCA) under Juan Ponce Enrile in 1972, $.08

per 100 kilos, later increased to $2 and peaking to $13 and remained at $10 per 100 kilos

from 1977 to 1981 -- eating up 33.8 percent of the poor farmer's income (p. 181). The

bulk of the funds ($412 million) went to the Cocofed under Maria Clara Lobregat; by the

time the Marcos government collapsed only $1.9 million in cash was in the bank.

What happened to those funds? They were used to finance the United Coconut

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Planter's Bank (CocoBank) and the United Coconut Mills (Unicom), a conglomerate that

cartelized the milling and international trading of coconut products -- both controlled by

Danding Cojuangco through agreements with Enrile's PCA and Lobregat's Cocofed.

Unicom set up Unichem as a monopoly to import alkyl benzene and eventually to

replace it with coco fatty acids for the manufacture of detergents. He got a total of

14,674 hectares of public lands, including Bugsuk island where he grew the hybrid

coconuts for forcible adoption by all coconut farmers at government expense, and he paid

in exchange only a token of 300 hectares instead of the 1,600 hectares he is supposed to

(p. 229-233).

In addition to the $49 million he used to buy Ayala shares in San Miguel

Corporation (SMC), Danding used $150 million from the coconut levy though 14

corporations to control more than 60 percent of SMC shares. He was into pearls

(Jewelmer), paint (Dutch Boy), soft drinks (Coca and Pepsi Cola), tobacco (Tabacalera’s

13,000 hectares), lease of Soviet ships (Filsov), textile industry (Diversified Holdings)

and agri-industries. He probably is the biggest owner of sugar cane plantations in the

country. He attempted to dislodge Benedicto from the monopoly marketing of sugar, and

the wheat millers from monopoly importation of wheat and flour (p. 240-244).

Gabriel Villareal, his ever-faithful spokesman, says that all these wealth was

gained through ”hard work” and “honest dealings” (p. 246). And Villareal added in the

February 10 issue of Newsweek, “Let's not waste time with a lot of propaganda crap

about the national interest. The bottom line is he (Cojuangco) is running for president to

protect his own private interests.”





Part 12. The terrifying monstrosity that is Imelda (3)

ONE of the most fascinating things about Ricardo Manapat's book “Some are

Smarter Than Others” is its ability to evoke images of such intensity that it can be

devastating or strangely elevating for those mentioned who are candidates today.

Just one mention of Hortensia Starke of Occ. Negros (page 107) calling Roberto

S. Benedicto, Marcos’ Sugar King, a “thief” and a “cheat” during those dangerous martial

law days, somehow adds a shine to the brow of this spunky homely woman with beautiful

grandchildren, who is now fighting for her political life against another Marcos crony,

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Danding Cojuangco.

The casual mention of Jose de Venecia as a Marcos proxy in Land Oil deal, is

enough to tarnish a man who has done so well as a legislator, with an active and

reasoning mind focused on our foreign affairs and US relations, and now the principal

supporter of presidential candidate Fidel Ramos

A whole chapter (pages 163-198) dedicated to Juan Ponce Enrile and his role in

the Martial Law and the Coconut Levy, terrible as it is, on the other hand, does not

detract from his performance as the lone oppositionist in the Senate, his stand on the

Bases Agreement, his complete metamorphosis in the public mind from a military fascist

to a great nationalist.

Just two mentions of presidential aspirant Ramon Mitra, one of him on a plane

ride with Danding Cojuangco pinpointing Bugsuk island as the one Danding wanted (p.

234), and the other buried in the endnotes (p. 251), quoting a report that “Ninoy Aquino

remarked in 1980 that Mitra had forfeited all claims to national leadership because of his

association with Cojuangco” -- gives a shine of truth to what Eddie Ramos and Doy

Laurel have contended all along, that Monching Mitra and Danding Cojuangco are after

all peas of the same pod.

Danding Cojuangco's lawyer, spokesman, apologist and drumbeater, Gabriel

Villareal, who is running for the congressional seat of his father ex-Speaker Cornelio

“Kune” Villareal, appears several times in the chapter on Danding (p. 216-246), turning

up regularly like a bad penny, a staccato counterpoint to Manapat, always denying

allegations, challenging the facts, apologizing, praising his boss to high heavens, and

occasionally admitting the worst, such as Danding being “capable of taking lives.”

Manapat even reveals more where he remains silent: Fidel Ramos and Letty

Shahani, Marcos' cousins were never involved in crony capitalism.

But the most effective thing about Manapat's book is its ability to juxtaposition

the trials and tribulations of the common man with the lifestyles of the rich and the

powerful. The obscene extravagance of Imelda Marcos has been documented before, and

to the rest of the world she is seen as a spoiled and willful woman trying to keep up with

the jet set, and surpassing them. But only when Ricardo Manapat contrasts her lifestyle

(p. 1-53) with the marginal existence of her poor countrymen do we Filipinos realize the

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terrifying monstrosity that Imelda really is.

From the first page, Manapat tells the story of the poor squatters living near

Intramuros, who, to prepare for the state visit of Prince Juan Carlos of Spain, were

forcibly evicted from their hovels and moved to a garbage dump in Quezon City called

Constitution Hill.

“Close to a thousand families were relocated to the area and left to fend for

themselves... totally cut off from their traditional means of livelihood. Access to public

transportation was a walk of several miles on a dusty trail... no water, no electricity, no

sanitation system... only famine, desperation and death... hostile environment beside tons

of garbage.

“Drinking water had to be fetched from hand pumps several miles away and

carried by hand. The community had to endure the stench and eat inside mosquito nets to

fend off the hordes of flies that feasted daily on them, their food and the Quezon City

garbage. During the first few weeks of this painful diaspora, children died by the dozens

because of the exposure to the elements and the lack of potable water.''

With the help of the Sisters of the RVM nuns, the squatters covered the garbage

with soil, rebuilt their homes, cleared the land to plant rice, even built a school and a

basketball court. Alas, all was short-lived, because the government decided to build the

Batasan on Constitution Hill, and demolished the remaining homes.

“What were formerly the homes of 400 families became a gigantic pile of wood

by the evening. People slept under the boards which used to be the walls of their modest

dwellings. The crying of children was everywhere. Pain and despair were written on the

faces of the men and women.

``For four days and three nights, no one could say he had a home. Within these

four days children started to get sick, and by the time the community was able to put up

make-shift dwellings, four children died.”

While the squatters” homes were demolished, Marcos and Imelda built nine

mansions in Baguio, including Wigwam House for Bongbong, Fairchild House for Imee,

Hans Menzi House for Irene. And many more mansions in Makati, Parañaque,

Pandacan, San Juan, Mariveles, Cavite, Leyte and Ilocos Norte, and several more in the

USA.

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While 74.58 percent of our children were malnourished, and Prime Minister

Virata worried that “Filipinos may have to give up one meal a day,” Marcos and Imelda

spent $2.4 million in two years for food and accommodations, and Virata’s wife

complained about the difficulty of finding Butter Ball brand turkeys to celebrate the

American Thanksgiving Day! And in Floirendo plantations, workers are forbidden to eat

discarded bananas which was either thrown into the sea or given to Angus cattle for feed.

While 68 percent of our doctors emigrate to other lands and 29 percent serve the

urban elite, only 3 percent are in public health and hospitals are ill-equipped and

crowded. Marcos had eight doctors at $2,500 per month retainer, and Imelda built

designer hospitals: Heart Center with only 50 out of 250 beds reserved for charity; Lung

Center with only one patient in 1986 while the poor crowded Quezon Institute; Kidney

Center; Research Institute for Tropical Medicine run for the research requirements of

Japan rather than Philippine health.

While out of 100 children who start school only four graduate from high school,

Imee in Princeton and Bongbong in Wharton each received a monthly allowance of

$10,000.

All these and many more, which moved readers of Manapat's book to exclaim in

tears: “We wish Imelda Marcos would stay in the presidential race, so that we Filipinos

can show her what we think of her.”

March 31 and April 1, 1992, Philippine Daily Inquirer, front page





Part 13. The life-style of Danding's henchmen

RAFAEL “Paeng” Fernando came to see us to deny he has ever worked for

Danding Cojuangco. He was president of Los Angeles based trading company called Pan

Pacific Commodities, originally owned by Enriquito Zobel and bought by Danding’s

Legaspi Oil. The Zobel board resigned on Feb. 14, 1979, but Paeng was asked to stay a

month more so that a smooth turnover of management may be effected.

Paeng resigned after being asked to:

• participate in price-fixing of coconut oil at 42 cents per pound when the market

was only 36 cents, a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act he duly reported to a

grand jury and to Emmanuel Pelaez.

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• buy a Lear Jet with funds sent from the Philippines without Central Bank

approval.

• disbursed $32 million to buy a Cargill coconut mill when the actual cash price

was only $26 million.

• disbursed $100,000 (in small tranches to comply with the by-laws) presumably to

Danding, and $10,000 each to his yes-men, through Elenita Soriano without any

receipts.

But most interesting are the stories Paeng tells us of the life styles of the rich and

powerful.

His boss Enriquito “EZ” Zobel use to drop into Los Angeles unannounced

without asking to be picked up at the airport. He came to the Pan Pacific offices to say,

“Is there anything that needs my attention? Otherwise I'm off by myself.”

EZ would check into a regular room in the downtown Hilton, drive a small

Volkswagen to his ranch at Santa Barbara, and never get cash from the firm without

signing a receipt.

On the other hand, Danding maintained a string of expensive and luxurious suites

in the Westwood Marquis Hotel in Beverly Hills, a blue Silver Cloud Rolls-Royce with a

naughty naughty personalized license plates “DUTYON” and got as much $100,000 from

the company coffers without signing receipts.

Every so often, Danding’s associates came to Los Angeles, rebuking Paeng for

meeting them in a taxi, and demanding that from here on, they were to be met with rented

limousines, and billeted in expensive hotel suites. These associates, according to Paeng

Fernando, included Danny Ursua, Chitong Pineda, Atty. Joe Concepcion the Thin Man

not JoeCon the Fat, Mervin Encanto, Amado Manuric; and the Cocofed people, Pepot

Eleazar, Maki Mendezon, Rolly de la Cuesta and Maria Clara Lobregat.

Most of the funds wasted so profligately were probably from the Coconut Levy,

Paeng reasoned, as he quoted Joe Concepcion as having said, “If the coconut farmers

know what we are doing, we would probably be lined up against the wall in the Luneta.”

How will Joe Concepcion, Danilo Ursua et al. behave when Danding Cojuangco

becomes President of the Philippines??

The debate among the presidentiables on April 12 was better than those

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preceding. Everyone was at their best -- Mitra, Ramos, Salonga, Laurel and Santiago --

with carefully reasoned arguments eloquently espoused, neat, well-dressed with their best

Sunday smiles.

But of all of them, Doy Laurel understood the TV medium well enough to be

relaxed, conversational and pleasant. Monching still had an expression that said, “I’m

sure Doy will be gunning for me again. I wish I were somewhere else.” Jovy smiled

badly and couldn't get rid of his obsolete oratorical style. Miriam was plainly oratorical

and in English too, which cut her off from 80 percent of her audience.

Eddie Ramos improved a lot, he no longer projected an image of a martinet or a

military fascist, but a charming boy next door, ears and all. He scored when he reminded

his audience the day was Domingo de Ramos, Palm Sunday, and somehow gave the

impression that the symbol of victory was no longer a Laurel wreath as in the Roman

days, but Ramos, palms waving during the triumphant entry of our Lord into Jerusalem.

But in the debate of April 12, the laurel wreath clearly belonged to Doy Laurel,

who had nothing to lose and everything to gain by needling his rivals, who in turn are

loathe to criticize him because he is not the man to beat. Besides, having accomplished

nothing and said nothing memorable, he had nothing much to be criticized.

Doy noticed that while there used to be eight candidates, there were only five that

showed up that evening, most conspicuous of all, Pacman Crocodile Dundeeng Coha-on

ko, who while still basking in the glory of having captured Erap Estrada and Iglesia ni

Cristo, did not show up because he knew all his rivals would concentrate on him, and this

would only highlight his vulnerability and inarticulateness.

It was Doy who made the best summation of all. He pricked the balloon of his

rivals, specially Miriam who made a stirring appeal to the youth, by saying, “All these are

memorized spiels prepared by staffers. What is really at issue here is the character of the

candidates, most of whom were part of the Cory Administration and must bear the burden

of its failures.”

Even as Doy spoke, there were loud reactions from the audience, and the anchor

woman, the coldly impartial Tina Monson Palma, was moved to say, “Applause, please,”

then embarrassed, corrected herself, “Let's clap for all of them.” The clapping was

obviously for Doy. April 15, 1992 End of the Book