False Hope, False Alarm by Erick San Juan

False Hope, False Alarm by Erick San Juan

There were so many wild rumors emanating from coffee shop wags as to the real intention of President Noynoy's travel to China, U.S. and Japan. It started with his trip to China that coincided with Congresswoman Imelda Marcos open-secret trip to Beijing. There were speculation that it's all about the possible negotiation for the return of some Marcos accounts kept in China. When PNoy returned back to the Philippines, the only news that we got was that the anomalous transactions of the previous administration like the ZTE-NBN deal, Northrail, etc. will be revived with modification. Thanks to the Chinoy powerbrokers-carpetbaggers of the GMA government who are now rubbing elbows with PNoy and his loop.

Suddenly, Mrs. Marcos has been so quiet. But the rumor mill coming from some Marcos loyalists are boasting that this month of October will be a merry month not only for them but for all the Filipinos. The funds will allegedly be coming from the so called Asean-China Investment Fund, a private equity fund where it's unusual that the Swiss government will be involved together with the ADB(Asian Development Bank and the UOB(United Overseas Bank) are investors.

While in China, out of the blue, PNoy said that he has to go to the U.S. to meet with President Barack Obama and the big guns of Asia Society in New York and then he will visit Japan. My favorite Marcos loyalist friend said that there's a possibility that the American elites would like to get their piece of the action, reason why PNoy has to leave as soon as possible for the U.S. From America, instead of going straight to Japan, he returned back to Manila. In Japan, he got what he wants. According to news report- a new computer game for his favorite nephew, Josh and an audience with Emperor Akihito. But it got the ire of so many Filipinos when it was published in the newspapers that he gave US$ one million dollars to Japan's Tsunami victims when millions of Filipinos needs help too.Even Manila Standard columnist Jojo Robles made a hard-hitting observation that PNoy is insensitive and out of touch with the poor Filipinos. PNoy reportedly made a stupid act.

Even our oldies are up in arms as to the actuation of the president. Up to now many of our female senior citizens who were victimized during the second world war and became "comfort women" or "sex slaves" were not given justice by the Japanese government. The relatives of the so called "Jugun ianfu" or military sex slaves said that they are doubting the sincerity of the Japanese government in resolving these humanitarian problem which affected not only Filipino women but of many nations conquered by the Japanese during the war. What the surviving comfort women got up to now were unofficial apologies and meager financial awards where many of the surviving comfort women refused to accept.

The situation compounded when Typhoon Pedring hit Luzon and the president was bombarded by comments that he's nowhere to be found and tried to address the situation after the damage has been done. The finger pointing among government agencies worsened. Actually, the people are used to flooding but blaming Typhoon Pedring for making so many areas in Luzon like a water world is not justifiable. According to some local government officials, it was due to illegal logging and unprecedented release of water from several dams. According to PAGASA, the rainfall of typhoon Pedring was just 10% of Ondoy while that of Quiel was much SMALLER in volume. So who's the real culprit? According to activist Ferdie Pasion, most of our dams now are privatized. The dam operators DON'T want to release water before the typhoon arrives due to fear that the typhoon may not come or it will not be sufficient to replenish the water that were earlier released. Profit from electric generator is their priority vis-a-vis human safety and welfare.

My Opinyon publisher, Ray Junia, made a 'bulls eye' detail of what really transpired in PNoy's bothersome trips to China, US and Japan. In his latest analysis titled, 'Gullible's Travels', he said that the Americans and the Japanese are into something. Japan is behind the US in this regional maneuver with the Philippines as the battleground, the reason the secret meeting by PNoy with the MILF leaders was held in Japan. China could react to the bullying of US and Japan. It could call the bluff and we get pinned in the firefight. US could end up getting Mindanao, China getting the Spratly Islands and Japan getting it's share of our natural resources.

We never learned from our past mistakes...... Wake up!