Spilling The Beans by Erick San Juan

Spilling The Beans by Erick San Juan

Certain issues with the US verbalized in a not so nice way by President Rody Duterte plus his name calling like kids engaged in petty quarrels has created a backfire through the former US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg who is also a victim of PDU30’s  not so “flowery words”.

Like what I usually say in my daily radio program that the Duterte administration or anybody who has dealings with the US, they should be careful because speaking from experience, I know their ways and sentiments especially when it comes to character assassination so to speak.

From a source through the Manila Times, an article by Dr. Dante Ang - US ex-envoy plotting Duterte fall stated that source said former US Ambassador Philip Goldberg has outlined a list of “strategies” to undermine President Duterte and called for his eventual ouster. The blueprint gave a timetable of one-and-a-half years.

Quoting Goldberg, it said the “political actors (the opposition) would need all the political weapons in their arsenal to replace the Duterte administration and replace it with something more to the opposition’s liking.” He noted, however, “that (deposing Duterte) would be a challenge for the opposition.”

Analyzing the President’s weakness, Goldberg said that Mr. Duterte “has no real friends” outside of his region for his propensity to mock and ridicule people close to him. He also said that the President’s “views are shaped not by ideology or personal ambitions, but by old-fashioned nationalism where he holds the United States accountable for the Philippines’ current state of poverty and dependency.”

To bring down Duterte, the alleged Goldberg plan calls for stoking public dissatisfaction with the President over unfulfilled election promises, isolating the Philippines from the rest of the ASEAN by extending military assistance to member countries except the Philippines, and/or through economic “blackmail” that aims to limit trade by some ASEAN member countries with the Philippines.

Goldberg also reportedly encourages support for the opposition through aids and grants, sowing discontent among the Duterte supporters and cultivating the cleavage between the congressmen and the senators over the Charter Change issue.

In brief, the plan calls on the US government to employ a combination of socio-economic-political-diplomatic moves against Duterte “to bring him to his knees and eventually remove him from office.”

I did my part of reminding the President, time and again of the undercurrents that will translate to something else if not handled properly, locally and in the global front. The writings on the wall are very clear – signs of an impending storm in the offing.

The alleged predictions of former ambassador Goldberg will have a timetable of one-and-a-half years and the “strategies to be employed” are:

Political and economic isolation of the Philippines in the region by engaging the leaders of Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and by “highlighting the basic question of the risk of doing business in the Philippines.”

Enhanced US military relationship with members of the ASEAN community except the Philippines.

Blackmail neighboring countries so they would turn against Duterte by reducing trade with the Philippines in favor of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

Deepen ties with Philippine officials (the opposition), the police/military and leaders in the region who share the US concerns over Duterte.

Track corruption cases and highlight the failures of Duterte.

“Focus on the needs of the people at the grassroots and assist the opposition groups in delivering those failed promises through USAID – such as alleviation of poverty, housing and education – to name a few.”

Utilize the media to expose the truth about Duterte – “his false vision for the Filipino people and his dangerous international relationships with China and Russia.”

Some might ask that exposing these alleged predictions of a former diplomat to the country is a warning and what will the new Trump administration will do, and in the process, who will benefit?

But the plot thickened when a close ally of PRRD, Mocha Uson who's now a columnist at Philippine Star exposed an ouster plot against the president and even fast tracking the plan. To quote, "There is also a rumor that some people are working to oust Duterte this 1st quarter of 2017. Are we just going to allow that to happen?"

Christmas in the Philippines is never postponed despite the unusual super typhoon but let us all be prepared for the coming storm in the coming new year.

Prepare for the Worst by Erick San Juan

Prepare for the Worst by Erick San Juan

China appears to have installed weapons including anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems - on all seven of the artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea.

Last Wednesday, December 14, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), a US think-tank, said that its findings come despite statements by the Chinese leadership that Beijing has no intention of militarizing the islands in the strategic trade route, where territory is claimed by several countries.

AMTI said it has been tracking construction of hexagonal structures on Fiery Cross, Mischief, and Subi reefs in the Spratly Islands since June and July. China has already built military-length airstrips on these islands.
"These gun and probable close-in weapons systems CIWS emplacements show that Beijing is serious about defense of its artificial islands in case of an armed contingency in the South China Sea," AMTI said. (Source: Reuters news agency)

And we thought (especially President Rody Duterte) that China has no intention of raising the already high tension in the contested area in the South China Sea but in reality China or shall we say President Xi Jinping did not stop or even hesitate in building the defense system to protect its interest in those reclaimed islands in the SCS.

We cannot blame the world’s perception that China is actually pushing towards achieving its so called 'China dream' no matter what, even to the point of going to war and seeking an outside enemy in the process just to unite the Chinese nation.

If the independent foreign policy that PDU30 wants to implement means engaging friendship and cooperation with China and doing away with the international law principles and arguments based on UNCLOS, we are heading for trouble.

Engaging in bilateral talks with China is not as easy as a walk in the park in which PDU30 wants to adopt to settle the territorial disputes. As what former Assistant Secretary for ASEAN Affairs (1988-89) and Asian and Pacific Affairs (l997-1999) at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Juanito P. Jarasa writes in his article @manilatimes online – “As a member of the Philippine delegation to two high-level bilateral meetings with China regarding the South China Sea held in Beijing in May 1997 and Manila in March 1999, I saw how difficult it was to deal with China on a one-on-one basis. The Chinese wanted us to swallow hook, line, and sinker their “historic rights and indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea” while rejecting international law principles and arguments based on UNCLOS. Unless China changes its mind about the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling, I am afraid entering into bilateral negotiations with China will belike going into a cul-de-sac(dead end). Indications are strong that the South China Sea will remain as one of China’s three core national interests, along with Taiwan and Tibet.

It seems the only hope for the Philippines, and the world for that matter, is for China to realize that the “China Dream” to bury its past humiliation in the hands of Western powers and to gain respect as a leading civilized state does not lie in disregard or disrespect of the rule of law but in abiding by the time-honored 'comitas gentium', or comity of nations. Merriam-Webster says that since 1862, comity of nations has referred to countries bound by a courteous relationship based on mutual recognition of executive, legislative, and judicial acts. In essence, comity entails friendship and respect among countries as well as mutual civility and courtesy between them. That could be hard to achieve in today’s world beset by turmoil of various kinds but it is an ideal situation worth aspiring for.”

But this China dream could be a tool to unite China and actually Xi Jinping’s propaganda to save himself from so many angry Chinese which will soon realize that their losing their funds invested to the government.

Let us help this present administration realize that it is not easy to deal with China and put our country’s security in danger. Let us pray for our president because no matter what, any wrong decision will drag us all down and face a war unwittingly in the process.

Who said that Digong's deal with the Marcoses is a jinx that will pull him down like anyone else who made deals with them? Just asking..

Strategic Dilemma by Erick San Juan

Strategic Dilemma by Erick San Juan


If we thought that the tension in the contested area in the South China has already subsided due to some factors like change in leadership in some countries in the region, actually it didn’t.

Based on the article of Peter Layton - The South China Sea’s Worsening Strategic Dilemmas, he gave two possible scenarios, negative and positive that might occur in the SCS in the next seven years.

“Alternative futures represent a way for us to think about possible tomorrows. Imagine that the future lies somewhere between the best of all possible worlds and the worst, somewhere between a cooperative and a conflictual state. Neither extreme future is necessarily more likely than the other, but they allow us to think about the spectrum of possibilities. Using the cooperative and conflictual variables creates two possible alternative as follows:

The cooperative future will be considered by many to be wildly optimistic, while pessimistic realists will say that the conflictual world bears some resemblance to where we are now. But the task for policymakers is to steer the future towards the ‘good’ tomorrow and away from the ‘bad’ one. Worryingly, the two major strategic thrusts at the moment, driven by ASEAN and the United States, don’t seem to be moving us in the good direction. .

ASEAN is trying to encourage China to sign a Code of Conduct (COC), an agreement conceived as a binding preventive diplomacy measure that’ll forestall conflict. Talks continue, as they have since 2002. Late 2017 is now the hope-for target date for completion of the code, or at least an agreed draft. China though has long argued—and formalized in various international agreements—that the South China Sea isn’t a multilateral issue and so ASEAN as a grouping has no place discussing it. And in recent years China has convinced Cambodia, Laos and now the Philippines to embrace the PRC’s South China Sea stance, making an ASEAN South China Sea consensus unlikely. More pointedly, why would China sign something that doesn’t advance its interests?”

The year 2017 could be the deciding moment for President Rody Duterte as our country will be the host of the next ASEAN meeting. For obvious reason that PDU30 is now ‘friendly’ with China, and it seems a consensus among ASEAN members is farfetched to encourage China to sign the Code of Conduct, being the host country, our President must consider what the other members’ stand on the COC in relation to the Code of Conduct. He must be sensitive enough not to hurt other ASEAN leaders because he favors China.

The mere fact that we purchased armaments from China, are we going to use them against our neighbors or from our long time ally? If the conflictual theory will prevail, like what I have been saying for quite some time now that if the program is on, yes it can be delayed but it will push through because the man made global crisis by the globalists whose interest is to depopulate the world, another world war is possible.

Our country will play a major role in this future war game for it to happen or not in Duterte’s term, just like what president-elect Donald Trump said about not to meddle in other country’s regime change, in the end the globalists will prevail and leaders will just be pawns in the chessboard of war mongers in the process.

Be wary!

Fake News by Erick San Juan

Fake News by Erick San Juan

We thought that the advancement in science and technology can weaponize vaccines and also manipulate weather to use it as weapon against target areas only, but there is another one that we never imagine that such evil geniuses will manipulate and use as weapon – the so called ‘fake news’ via the internet and mainstream media.

In his article “Is the US Government Behind the Fake News Media Attacks on President-elect Trump?” (12/4/16), Dr. Paul Craig Roberts writes - Eric Zuesse has brought to our attention that US intelligence officials have placed a story in Buzzfeed, “a Democratic party mouthpiece,” that the Russian government used fake news to get Donald Trump elected president.

 http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/12/63755.html

According to Buzzfeed:

US intelligence officials believe Russia helped disseminate fake and propagandized news as part of a broader effort to influence and undermine the presidential election, two US intelligence sources told BuzzFeed News.

‘They’re doing this continuously, that’s a known fact,’ one US intelligence official said, requesting anonymity to discuss the sensitive national security issue.

‘This is beyond propaganda, that’s my understanding,’ the second US intelligence official said. The official said they believed those efforts likely included the dissemination of completely fake news stories. …

One intelligence official said, ‘In the context, did Russia attempt to influence the US elections; the aperture is as wide as it can possibly be.’” ‘The real unanswered question is, why did they do it?, the second US intelligence official said. ‘Is it because they love Donald Trump? Because they hated Hillary Clinton? Or just because they like undermining Western democracies?’

Who are these US intelligence officials who are portraying the president-elect of the United States to be a “Putin stooge, a tool of Russia”?

Pundits advice that once in office, Trump must investigate these hostile elements in US intelligence who are working to discredit the US president and the American people who voted him into office.

As one reader pointed out, those who debunk “conspiracy theories,” that is, explanations that they do not like, now have a conspiracy theory of their own: Vladimir Putin used independent American websites to elect Trump with fake news. Only voters living in a few large coastal cities were immune to the fake news.

In other words, the presstitute media has lost control over Americans’ minds to Putin.

With an opponent, this powerful, neoconservatives better think a dozen times before fomenting any more tension with the Kremlin.”

The use of weaponized fake news could actually lead to confrontation among nations and if such big nations are involved it might trigger a global conflict.

That is why the architects of these weaponized fake news had used all means to reach the masses day in and day out in all popular media outfits.

“You really know that masses of people are living within a mind-control matrix when the greatest, most pervasive purveyors of fake news denounce others for the practice.”  (Finian Cunningham)

Blaming others like alternative media and websites and credible blogsites is the scapegoat to lead the masses away from the truth and towards synthetic news.

Discussed with truth and credibility, Prof. Michel Chossudovsky in his article ‘Who is Behind “Fake News”? Mainstream Media Use Fake Videos and Images’ (Global Research, November 24, 2016) – “The mainstream corporate media is desperate.

They want to suppress independent and alternative online media, which it categorizes as “fake news”.

Readers on social media are warned not to go onto certain sites.

The intent of this initiative is to smear honest reporting and Truth in Media.

Our analysis confirms that some mainstream media are routinely involved in distorting the facts and turning realities upside down.

They are the unspoken architects of “Fake News”.

One area of routine distortion is the use of fake videos and images by the mainstream media.”

Prof. Chossudovsky has given Four Notorious Cases of Media Distortion and the most controversial and very deceiving was the news on 9/11.

Fake News regarding the Collapse of World Trade Center Building Seven in New York.

The most grotesque lie pertains to the BBC and CNN announcement in the afternoon of September 11, that WTC Building Seven (The Solomon Building) had collapsed.

The BBC report went live at 5.00pm, 21 minutes before the actual occurrence of the collapse, indelibly pointing to foreknowledge of the collapse of WTC 7.

CNN anchor Aaron Brown announced that the building “has either collapsed or is collapsing” about an hour before the event.”

The regular users of Facebook has experienced one way or another as victims of fake news using images and videos that were altered. Finding only in the end that they were taken for a ride, maybe after they were corrected by friends or worst bullied and laughed at for the mistake believing it was for real.

Actually we have our own share of fake news, intended or not, or sometimes tagged as a joke, but it has created a controversy already so the people responsible for such boo-boo has to do a lot of explaining and corrections.

There will be court cases to be filed by major newspapers soon due to trolls and PR wrecking crew operators using newspaper letterheads in their psy war op.

So the famous line ‘think before you click’ or be careful in using all the facets in the internet so as not to create trouble, should be in the minds of all users. Be wise and avoid being the carrier of fake news.