A Torch Has Been Passed

…to a new generation of Filipinos.

His stints in both chambers of Congress have been pretty unremarkable.  I do not know of any law of national significance that he has authored.  However, when Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III announced a month or so ago that he was going to run for the highest office in the land, I must say that I found my usually skeptical self quite willing to give him a chance.

Yes, he does come from the country’s landowner class and his late dear mother belonged to one of the nation’s wealthiest families.  Yes, it is true that as a politician, his leadership skills and capabilities have not been fully tested.  Yes, both his parents had the ability and gift to rally people around their cause but the same can’t be said of him YET.   But there is something in this man that somehow tells me that he may end up being a good President, if not a great one.

Unlike his late mother though, Mr. Aquino didn’t toss his hat into the ring bearing the disadvantage of political inexperience.  He has been a member of the Philippine Congress for more than a decade now, having served as a member in both its upper and lower chambers. He has run his own political campaigns for office and has witnessed first hand how Philippine party politics work.

I don’t think we can also question the man’s personal courage and moral strength.  Unlike a great many of us, he has had to deal with the prolonged absence of a jailed father during the martial law years and the unbearable pain of his father’s subsequent assassination.  He himself had been the target of an assassination attempt back in 1989 when mutinous soldiers led by former Col. Gringo Honasan launched an unsuccessful coup attempt against his mother.  He and his bodyguards were ambushed by mutinous soldiers.  He was seriously wounded and three of his four bodyguards were killed.  Fragments of those bullets are said to be still lodged within his body to this day.

Unlike a lot of his peers who harbor Presidential ambitions, Mr. Aquino’s style has been decidedly low-key.  Don’t expect to see from him any of the chest-thumping and grandstanding antics that ambitious politicians often resort to just to gain public and media attention.  I may be wrong but in the 10 plus years that he’s been a politician, I haven’t seen Mr. Aquino make outlandish statements in public or in House/Senate subcommittee hearings for the sole purpose of landing himself on the evening news.

Unlike Malacanang’s current occupant who seems to have discarded the doctrine of separation of Church and State, I view it as an encouraging sign that Mr. Aquino has chosen to stand by his support of House Bill 5043 otherwise known as the “Reproductive Health and Population Development Act” even if he risked losing the support of the Catholic Church and the so-called “pro-life” groups.  He is showing quite a bit of spine here by going against the stand of an institution that was instrumental in bringing his late mother to power.  Not all Filipinos are Roman Catholics and thus, the cause of national unity will better be served if our leaders show that not one religion is afforded preferential treatment over the others.  In my humble opinion, it’s a very smart move on his part.  Through such a move, the ball is now on the Church’s court.  It forces them to reassess their position and see whether to go for an honest politician who happens to support the reproductive health bill or to throw their support behind another politician of unproven character.

But I also have my reservations about Mr. Aquino.  Mr. Aquino is part of the country’s landed elite, part of the Filipino Establishment.  So far, I haven’t seen any legislative and/or economic proposal from him that shows a strong willingness to shake the status quo.   I don’t know if he has the character and political will to go so far as to sacrifice his family’s economic and political interests for the sake of the country’s.  I’m afraid that he might take the conservative route where radical changes are required.  He has spent many years working under his mother’ shadow and that could work either for or against him.  He has good name recognition but to be honest with you, I think he hasn’t been impressive in tv interviews.  He has been a “big picture” guy so far but in the coming months, he must provide the people with more details on how he plans to solve the country’s problems.

I don’t know if this will come to pass but in my humble opinion, it could be good for the country if the 2010 Presidential elections feature a matchup between Senators Aquino and Francis “Chiz” Escudero.   Both are decent men who deep in their hearts, truly care for the country.  I have seen Senator Escudero appear on some morning tv shows.   Unlike a lot of his peers, Sen. Escudero tries his very best to explain legal issues in words that can be easily understood by the average person.  He often speaks in the vernacular and in a very calm demeanor.  One can see that he is doing his part to educate people and to lift the national discussion of issues to a higher level.

Mr. Escudero exudes dynamism, something that Mr. Aquino does not.  Mr. Escudero is a man rich with specific, detailed ideas on how to solve a number of the nation’s problems such as poverty, government reform, and the economy.  He simply doesn’t mouth off high-level, general statements about the nation’s problems.  He provides specific, detailed answers and solutions to those issues.  By doing so, he proves to his listeners that he has a very good command of the issue(s) he speaks of.  As a result, he commands a lot of support and respect from a lot of people, especially the youth.

Some held Mr. Escudero’s previous party affiliation as a member of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) against him due to that party’s close identification with former Marcos crony (and now GMA crony), Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco.  But aside from intelligence, Mr. Escudero’s other asset is that he has not been tainted by any corruption scandal.  The conservatives and entrenched interests in the party simply found some of his progressive ideas too radical that they decided to not support his run for the Presidency.  His proposals are just way too “people-oriented” for their comfort, short-sighted people that they are.  Now that he’s gone solo, maybe voters will give him a second look.

I say that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Filipinos (borrowing the words from JFK’s 1961 inaugural address) because for the first time, we are faced with the probability that the two leading candidates for the Presidency are men who were both born in the 1960s and who had lived through the martial law years, albeit on opposite sides of the political fence.  Both had a view of how life was like in the country during the pre-martial law, martial law, and post-martial law years.  Both saw how the country worked its way down from being Southeast Asia’s 2nd most prosperous nation (second only to Japan) in the 1960s to one of its poorest. They witnessed how the country got mired into tons of foreign debt due to the free-spending ways of the Marcoses, their cronies, and the political leaders that came after them.  They saw how the Peso lost its value from about P4 to $1 in the late 1960s to the P48 to $1 that it is today.  They saw how the population exploded out of control from a manageable 35 million in the late 1960s to a disastrous 90 million today.

The country deserves a serious Presidential contest with serious candidates to choose from.  Serious national problems require serious and thoughtful solutions.  With that view in mind, Messrs. Aquino and Escudero would be the top two candidates on my list.  No doubt that in the coming months, political opponents along with their hired guns in TV and in print will be throwing mud at these two gentlemen in an effort to undermine their character and their intentions.  But that is part of the game of Politics.  How Sens. Aquino and Escudero deal with all the accusations and attacks hurled against them will help show us either their inner strength or their inner weakness.

Photo Credit:  Keith Abongco/AKP Images

Corazon Aquino (1933-2009)

This blog takes pause to mark the passing of a former Filipino President, the Seventh President of the Philippine Republic, the lady in yellow, the unexpected heroine who brought down a corrupt, overstaying, and much hated dictatorship.  She came to power on a wave of massive popular support goodwill, domestic and international.  She had the mandate to reform a system that had grown hopelessly corrupt, dysfunctional, and worse, criminal.

I wish I could say more positive things about her but in good conscience I can’t.  23 years after our people kicked the Marcoses out, we all can certainly say that things haven’t turned out for the better.  The country remains polarized, the political system and government bureaucracy remain highly corrupt, brain drain has gotten much worse, economic opportunities remain limited or non-existent for millions of Filipinos, and millions of lives remain mired in poverty.

I did not agree with her on a number of issues such as the ineffectual agrarian reform law she and her Congress passed; the decision to junk the 1935 Constitution that led to a multi-party political system that has become mired in endless gridlock; , the way she let her closeness to the Church influence some of her political decisions; and to scrap any program that was associated with her predecessor without regard to the benefits it bore.  I also did not agree with the very weak hand she displayed towards elements of both the extreme left and extreme right.

Although she led a revolution, Cory Aquino was no revolutionary.  She came from a family of oligarchs and she pretty much preserved the system that fed and sustained such oligarchy.  By bringing the Marcos dictatorship down, she simply destroyed a new, crony and military-supported oligarchy to reinstate the old landowner-dominated form that enriched and empowered her clan and others like hers.  A lot of the faces and family names of people in her administration reflected the return of the old order.

Like millions of Filipinos, I had high hopes that February day in 1986 when Mrs. Aquino took her oath of office.  I had hoped then that with Marcos out of the way, the Philippines could get back on the road to economic development.  I had hoped that the people who had plundered the country for 20 years will be brought to justice.  I had hoped that in spite of my country’s imperfections, there were enough very good men and women among us who could help lift the nation out of its economic misery.   But as I found out later on, intelligence, good intentions, and a willingness to serve are not enough.

My idealistic and naive mind didn’t realize then that there was a much bigger hurdle to overcome in order for the country to gain a place among the world’s prosperous nations.  That hurdle was, and still is, the inability of Filipinos to unite and set aside their differences in order to achieve a higher and greater good.  A lot of cause-oriented groups and political parties sprung out of the new political system created by the 1987 Constitution.  All these groups had noble goals and were led and supported by smart and gifted people with a genuine concern for the country’s future.  I do not question their patriotism and I do not question their sincerity.   And I will not go into any more details as to what happened or did not happen.  But our system has failed to deliver because of the failure of these groups and parties to reach a middle ground somewhere, to compromise some of their faction’s ideals for the sake of a higher, more unifying national goal.

Mrs. Aquino had, for a brief shining moment, the opportunity to unite a tired, frustrated and weary nation.  But in my humble opinion, the inability to think and rise above her oligarchic comfort zone, coupled with her own failure to compromise with both pro-administration and opposition groups in order to foster a more united nation made her miss out on such a golden opportunity.

An Evening at Merk’s

It was my SO who first told me about this place. She said that she, along with a couple of friends, went there a couple of years ago and had a nice time listening to some good live music. She was referring to Merk’s Bar Bistro owned and operated by that great Filipino jazz singer Richard Merk and located on Level 3 of Greenbelt 3 at the Ayala Center in Makati City in the Philippines.

The band she and her friends listened to was called Route 70, a band whose repertoire consisted mainly of music from the 1970s.  The band performs regularly at Merk’s Bar every Friday at 9 pm.  My SO was so impressed with their performance when she went to Merk’s with her friends that we decided to also come to Merk’s one Friday night to see the band perform.  However, to our disappointment (especially the SO’s), Route 70 had other commitments that evening and thus another band, Aretha and the Souled-Out Band, had to fill in for it.

The disappointment didn’t last, however.  This seven-member band led by a lady gifted with a great set of pipes named Aretha turned out to be a very good one.  They played a rather vast repertoire of songs from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s and belted out classic tunes such as the Supremes’ “Stop In The Name of Love”, the Stylistics’ “Betcha By Golly Wow”, Madonna’s “True Blue” and “Like A Virgin, and the hugely popular Donna Summer songs “Last Dance” and “On The Radio”.

Aretha also had great rapport with her audience.  She would joke around with selected members of the audience making everyone feel relaxed.  She also encouraged the audience to dance and sing along.  On several occasions, Aretha walked through the tables and handed the microphone to a certain audience member to encourage him/her to take a stab at singing a few lines of a particular song.  SO was “lucky” enough to be picked to sing a few lines from the Madonna song “True Blue”, a challenge that I must say she handled with aplomb.

The show started promptly at 9 p.m. and consisted of three hour-long sets with half hour breaks in between.  Everyone seemed to have a good time and quite a number, like us, stayed for the entire three sets.  Thus, the final set closed at around 1 a.m. and the band closed it off with the Doobie Brothers’ tune “Long Train Running” and Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine”.  By that time, almost everyone in the place were up on their feet dancing.

We had a fun time that night.  For me, after many years of being away from the country, this band’s superb performance sure brought back fond memories of very good Filipino bands I watched and listened to many years ago in small, intimate venues like Merk’s is today.  Listening to superb live Pinoy performances and musicianship is one of those things I truly miss.  I told the SO that I want to go back to this place the next time I’m in the country. 

In closing, there was one beautiful song the band performed that night that I haven’t heard for the longest time.  It’s a gem from the 70s from a trio that hit it big then called the Hues Corporation.  The song became a hit in the Philippines and in many other countries in the world, except in the US.  Thus, in all the many years I’ve lived in the US, not once did I ever hear this particular song played on the radio.  The song’s called “How I Wish We Could Do It All Again”.  Enjoy.

 

A Presidential Inauguration in 1935

This event was a first in Asia. This event marked a crucial milestone for a region that was lorded by Western powers at the time. Some of the colonial powers even expressed their concern over the event’s impact on the peoples of the region. Time Magazine reported that the British voiced displeasure over this development because it could signal the demise of the white man’s rule over that part of the world. The event I’m referring to is the subject of the following newsreel from 1935 that reported on the inauguration of Manuel Luis Quezon as President of the new Philippine Commonwealth.

President Quezon’s inauguration was held at the steps of the neoclassic Legislative Building on November 15, 1935. As can be seen from the video, the occasion was graced by then US Vice President John Nance Garner (1868-1967) who served under Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1933 to 1941. According to Time, Mr. Garner led a party of 17 senators, 26 representatives, and 34 American newspapermen. Secretary of War George Henry Dern (1872-1936) also attended the event as President Roosevelt’s personal representative. It was estimated that about 15,000 official guests were on hand to witness history being made.

Mr. Quezon was sworn in to a six-year term by Justice Ramon Avancena (1872-1957) who was then Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court. The 1935 Constitution, which the Filipino people had approved in a plebiscite held in May that same year, called for the election of a President to a single six-year term with no reelection. It also called for a unicameral National Assembly. These provisions were however changed later that same decade (1939-40) when the Constitution was amended to allow for a bicameral Congress and to allow a President to govern for a maximum of two four-year terms.

One can see from the video that it was a very well attended affair. It was estimated that about a quarter of a million people attended the ceremonies marking the inauguration of the President and the birth of the Commonwealth. It is to be noted too that President Quezon’s inaugural ceremonies were held on the steps of the Legislative Building and not at the Luneta Grandstand as succeeding Presidents have done since 1946. I am assuming that the decision to hold the inaugural ceremonies at the steps of the Legislative Building was patterned after the American tradition of holding Presidential inaugurations at the steps of the US Capitol Building.

The Legislative Building stands at the corner of Taft Avenue and P. Burgos Street. Thus, I’m assuming that the impressive military parades shown on the newsreel were held on P. Burgos Street. It can also be seen from the joyous and excited attitude of the crowd that the move towards independence enjoyed broad popular support.

The newsreel also briefly showed President Quezon’s son, Manuel L. Quezon, Jr. (1926-1998), standing attentively and smartly dressed in an aide-de-camp’s uniform. Unfortunately, due to the age of the film, it was quite difficult for me to identify the elegantly dressed couple MLQ Jr. stood next to.

I don’t mean to deviate from the historical significance of this newsreel but there is one last observation regarding its content. It can be observed from the video that as President Quezon took his oath of office, one of the microphones that stood before him prominently showed the call letters KZRM. Quite a bit of historic information can be derived from the call letters on that microphone stand.

Note that this was the 1930s, a period before the birth of television broadcasting. Thus, all events of historic or national importance were broadcast over radio. Unlike today where call letters of radio stations in the Philippines begin with the letter “D”, it is to be noted that during the pre-war years, specifically from 1924 through 1947, the call letters of radio stations in the Philippines began with the letters “KZ”. This designation was in accordance with the radio broadcast laws of the US which applied to our country being an American colony.

KZRM was one of six major radio stations that operated in Manila during the pre-war years. The others were KZEG, KZIB, KZRC, KZRF, and KZRH. KZRM was owned and operated by the Radio Corporation of the Philippines (which later became known as RCPI) and began broadcasting in 1928. The Radio Corporation of the Philippines was then a fully-owned subsidiary of the Radio Corporation of America, or more popularly known to radio and music enthusiasts as RCA.

Of the six stations mentioned, KZRH, owned and operated by the Manila Broadcasting Company is the only one that is still around to this day. This radio station began operations in 1939 atop the Heacock Building in Escolta and is now known to Filipino listeners by its call letters DZRH.

It was at a 1947 International Telecommunications Union conference held in Atlantic City, New Jersey where the radio call letters for the Philippines were changed to begin with the letter “D”. Radio stations that broadcast from Manila were assigned call letters that begin with “DZ”; radio stations in Luzon were assigned the letters “DW”; Visayan stations got “DY”; and Mindanao stations were assigned “DX”.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this newsreel. Though it runs for less than a minute, it still manages to provide us with a wealth of historical information about our beloved country.