Tag: Ferdinand Marcos
Former President Duterte and the farce of international justice
EDSA1: The Snap Revolution


Off to the side was a more youthful Wolfowitz. He told me that this picture, which had pride of place in his office, was of exactly the moment when the Reaganites had narrowly voted to dump the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines in 1986 and to recognize the election victory of his opponent Cory Aquino.* “It was the first argument I won,” said Wolfowitz proudly. “I said that if we supported a dictator to keep hold of a base, we would end up losing the base and also deserving to do so. Whereas,” he went on, “by joining the side of ‘people power’ in Manila that year, we helped democracy movements spread through Taiwan and South Korea and even I think into Tiananmen Square in 1989.“
* See, for the best account of this upheaval in real time, James Fenton’s book The Snap Revolution.
Related:
*The Snap Revolution (Part One: The Snap Election) | James Fenton
*The Snap Revolution (Part Two: The Narrow Road to the Solid North)
*The Snap Revolution (Part Three: The Snap Revolution)
Previously: PH’s EDSA1 AKA People Power Revolution
Google Document: PH’s EDSA1 AKA People Power Revolution & Chile’s 1988 Plebiscite
Don’t Deify Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter, out of office, had the courage to call out the “abominable oppression and persecution” and “strict segregation” of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” He dedicated himself to monitoring elections, including his controversial defense of the 2006 election of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and championed human rights around the globe. He lambasted the American political process as an “oligarchy” in which “unlimited political bribery” created “a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors.”
The Soviet Union was asked by the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to intervene to help fight against the Afghan mujahideen that the US was arming: Soviet-Afghan War
Carter, Charter 77, and Solidarność (Solidarity):
Read More »PH: The BongBong Rocket 🤭

The Mystery of Marcos’ Rocket Program
Read More »’A Failed Project?’
The only VALID reason I could think of for all these “secrecy” or lack of transparency is that the program itself was NOT successful, and there are a number of ways that it could have failed. For one, the FAILURE or SUCCESS RATE of the launches were never published, and it’s possible that there were just too many launch failures, like the rockets exploding or veering off course at their launch pad or after launch, or even rockets not taking off at all. And even if the launches were successful, there is the issue of how accurate the rocket was in terms of hitting its target. If it ends up several hundreds or thousands of meters from its intended target, then it’s not very useful. And just like the Launch Rate, the Accuracy of the rockets were also never published.
PH’s EDSA1 AKA People Power Revolution
Politics at a critical juncture in Philippine history
For so many years, we have complained and howled against political dynasties.
Ever since we established ourselves as a republic and began electing leaders in government, it has become a given, even deep-rooted and thus an innate limitation. Ever since, only a few, and therefore the same people from the same families are always elected into office.
MaryKay Carlson is The Cartoon + More
Part One: Americans Prospecting GenSan as EDCA Site
In a flash, May Kay Carlson proved she is part of the problem President Bongbong Marcos Jr. has created with China rather than any solution.
Related:
US envoy says China’s maritime claims a ‘cartoon’
Read More »PH gov’t encourages youth participation in SCS campaign
Surprisingly, I didn’t see Powell there. /s
PH gov’t encourages youth participation in WPS sovereignty campaign (Translation by Google Translate)
The Philippine government anchors transparency* efforts in its vision to make the West Philippine Sea (WPS) an “intergenerational concern.”
Commodore Jay Tristan Tarriela of the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) said that the main objective of the government’s efforts is to ensure that the fight for the WPS will be continued by future generations.
Tarriela joined the third episode of the PN Conversations organized by Palawan News on September 13.
“The national government’s responsibility now for the younger generation is for us to hold the line so that the next generation of Filipinos can still be able to fight for our rights in the West Philippine Sea,” he said.
The transparency effort implemented under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., is part of the government’s obligation to provide the right information to Filipinos, he added.
Tarriela believes that the right information will also awaken Filipinos’ sense of patriotism, particularly among the youth.
The government’s transparency could also raise awareness among the international community about the situation in the WPS.
The limited information given during the previous administration under former president Rodrigo Duterte made it easy for China to spread disinformation, Tarriela said. In contrast, the current administration supported the concept of having “many voices with one message.”
“We recognize that our fight in the West Philippine Sea cannot be met by us alone,” he said.
National Youth Commission (NYC) Commissioner-at-Large Karl Josef Legazpi, a Palaweño himself, shares the view on the need to emphasize that the future of younger generations is at stake in the fight for sovereignty.
“But the waters that belong to us are gradually being taken from us—we want to convey to you what is happening. Our future is at stake,” he said.
NTF-WPS is actively working with various partner agencies, including the state information arm, Philippine Information Agency** (PIA). Director General Jose Torres, Jr.***, also joined Tarriela in the forum, believing in the role of the youth in the fight over the WPS.
Torres emphasized that the youth’s use of technology plays a significant role in fighting misinformation and disinformation about WPS.
“The young people play a great role and challenge when it comes to the West Philippine Sea. As young people, we need to stand up for our country and truth,” he said.
The PN Conversations is a Palawan News initiative that provides a platform for in-depth discussions on pressing issues faced by the community, such as WPS.
Notes on page 2:
[1999] Philippines: The Great Left Divide
A SPECTER is haunting the revolutionary movement in the Philippines — the specter of seemingly interminable splits.
In the seven years since Armando Liwanag issued his “Reaffirm our Basic Principles and Rectify Errors” document, the Left — or more appropriately, the Left of the national democratic (ND) tradition — has gone through an unprecedented period of metastasis. The once monolithic movement that at its peak in the mid-1980s commanded 35,000 Party members, 60 guerrilla fronts, two battalions and 37 company formations, and foisted ideological and organizational hegemony in the progressive politics during the Marcos dictatorship is now history. Out of it have emerged fragments of disparate groups — eight at least — that continue to wage “revolution” in similarly disparate forms.
The Great Left Divide
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