Economic Nationalism and Mendicant Foreign Policy

i
About the book “Pretty Ugly”:

Not all Americans are Ugly Americans. Some Americans are pretty. Some
Americans are ugly. But most Americans are a combination of both. They’re pretty
ugly. And that is the title of this book, the 23rd of the Make My Day Series, Pretty Ugly..
This book is notable because of a special section occupying almost one-third of
the book, that features Claro M. Recto, deemed one of the greatest Filipinos who ever
lived. Here in articles on his life and works, Larry Henares extols him as the alpha and
the omega of the best in the Filipino, and gives us five of his greatest speeches, on
foreign policy, economic policy, nationalism and the constitution – which are more
relevant as the years go by..
And then the fun begins when Larry Henares resumes his role as a witty,
knowledgeable, and profound commentator on the contemporary scene. In Hisory and
Economics he writes of the Filipino immigrant Dagohoy and his mastery of American
history; the force of falsehoods, the epic Long March, gold, historical myths, air pollution
and judicial activism, armor plating the car – and one of the most beautiful pieces ever
written “The Brightest Star in all the Heavens”!
In Entertainment and the Arts, he writes to an obscene caller, he writes a very
funny piece on the invention of Golf, he write about Pelvis Presley, Michael Buble the
new Sinatra, Lani Misalucha the Songbird, the late Sculptor Solomon Saprid, and the
movies of Quark Henares and Roberto Benigni – and the Words made Flesh that dwell
among men.
In Health and the Amenities, he writes of your real name (not your baptismal
name), durian, stress and heart attacks, and what happens when the Lord responds to your
prayers.
In Personalities, he speaks fondly of his doctor, a justice friend, his wife’s great-
grandfather, and scathingly of the beetle-brow beetle brained US president, the asshole
Belgian Ambassador, and a convicted rapist-torturer-murderer.
Read, laugh, cry, and get yourself an education from an educated man.
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BOOK 23: PRETTY UGLY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by Juan L. Manuel, Secretary of Education………………………... vi

1. The Management Revolution……………………………………………. vii
2. The Industrial Revolution………………………………………………... vii
3. The Revival of Nationalism……………………………………………… viii
4. Control of Foreign Investment…………………………………………... ix
5. The End of the Laurel Agreement……………………………………….. ix
6. Trade with Developing Nations and Socialist Countries……………….. x
7. The Multiple Man……………………………………………………….. xi
Nota Bene…………………………………………………………………….. xii
CLARO M. RECTO…………………………………………………………..… 001

Part I. Recto: a titan walked amongst us……………………………………..… 001
Part II. The Mind of Recto spanned all time and all seasons……………...….. 002
Part III. Recto changed our history and our lives…………………………...… 005
Part IV. Recto’s speeches -- a perfect wedding of logic and eloquence……….. 007
Part V. Recto and Constitutional Suicide…………………………………….…. 009
NE REQUIESCAT IN PACE………………………………………………...….. 011
The dogfight of the top dogs…………………………………………………..…. 012
THE SPEECHES OF DON CLARO M. RECTO…………………………...… 014

I. OUR MENDICANT FOREIGN POLICY…………………………………. 014
II. NATIONALISM, MY UNCONQUERABLE FAITH…………………….. 022
III. OUR FUTURE UNDER THE CONSTITUTION…………………….…… 028
IV. OUR CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS………………………………………. 036
V. ECONOMIC NATIONALISM……………………………………….……. 046
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HISTORY AND ECONOMICS………………………………………………… 054

Who Said That?..................................................................................................... 054
The Force of Falsity……………………………………………………………… 055
Buying a new car………………………………………………………………… 057
THE LONG MARCH…………………………………………………………… 058
1, The Long March, greater than Xenophon’s retreat………………………. 058
2. Good Manners and Right Conduct in warfare……………………………. 060
3. Self-sacrifice becomes a theatrical gesture………………………………… 061
4, The Grand Illusion…………………………………………………………… 063
GOLD…………………………………………………………………………….. 064
1. Gold, gold, gold!................................................................................................ 064
2. The Americans cheated everyone by going off the gold standard…………. 065
3. Our word for money, Pera, originally meant Puta…………………………. 067
DEBUNKING HISTORY……………………………………………………… 068
1. Debunking Historical Myths: The Spanish Armada………………………. 068
2. Debunking Historical Myths: The Battle of Agincourt…………………… 070
3. Debunking Historical Myths: The Battle of Agincourt.(continued)……… 072
4. Debunking Historical Myths: The Charge of the Light Brigade………… 074
5. Debunking Historical Myths: Custer’s Last Stand………………………… 075
AIR POLLUTION………………………………………………………………. 077
1. Supreme Court asked to clean up air pollution …………………………… 077
2. Supreme Court of India shows the way……………………………………. 078
THE BRIGHTEST STAR……………………………………………………… 080
1. All life and matter are subject to cycles of change………………………… 080
2. George Gilder’s Brightest Star in all the Universe………………………… 082
3. Internet, light of infinite dimensions, according to Gilder………………… 083
ARMOR PLATING……………………………………………………………… 085
1. The car is the worst place to be when you have enemies………………….. 085
2. For protection, armor plate your car ……………………………………… 087
3. Rich men deserve to be protected from kidnappers and armed robbers… 088
4. IAC protects vulnerable spots and keeps the original appearance……….. 090
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5. IAC protects gas tanks and uses ballistic glass laminates…………………. 091
ENTERTAINMENT AND THE ARTS………………………………………... 094

To my wonderful obscene caller………………………………………………… 094
Inventing the game of golf………………………………………………………. 095
Conching Sunico: Save the Met!.......................................................................... 097
The Plant and the Tree…………………………………………………………. 099
Elvis was not even a hound dog………………………………………………… 101
Keka, a black comedy…………………………………………………………… 102
A couple of jokes………………………………………………………………… 104
MICHAEL BUBLE……………………………………………………………… 106
1. Michael Buble, the new Frank Sinatra……………………………………… 106
2. Michael Buble, the remembrance of things long past……………………… 107
SOLOMON SAPRID……………………………………………………………. 109
1. Saprid, Then, Now and Forever…………………………………………….. 109
2. Solomon Saprid, Sculptor par excellence…………………………………... 110
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL…………………………………………………………… 112
1. Life is Beautiful, a movie review…………………………………………….. 112
2. Life is Beautiful, Satire with Laughter……………………………………… 113
WORDS…………………………………………………………………………… 115
1. The light of words we leave behind…………………………………………. 115
2. Words, words, words…………………………………………………………. 117
LANI MISALUCHA…………………………………………………………….. 119
1. Lani Misalucha, world-class universal singer……………………………… 119
2. Lani Misalucha evokes awesome spectacles……………………………….. 120
3. Lani Misalucha, a singer for all the seasons……………………………….. 122
HEALTH AND THE AMENITIES……………………………………………. 125

What is your real name?...................................................................................... 125
Shaving the beardless baby face……………………………………………….. 126
Durian tastes like heaven, smells like hell…………………………………….. 128
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How to survive a heart attack alone………………………………………….. 129

Filipinos love Non Verbal Communication…………………………………… 131
Stress Management…………………………………………………………….. 132
THE LORD’S PRAYER……………………………………………………….. 135
1. Our Father Who Art In Heaven…………………………………………….. 135
2. Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread…………………………………………. 137
3. Deliver Us From Evil………………………………………………………… 139
Endless are the ways of worship………………………………………………… 140
PERSONALITIES……………………………………………………………….. 143
Maytime for May Sison………………………………………………………….. 143
Faustino Lichauco, the rich and the famous…………………………………… 145
To Mariano and Cynthia de Castillo on their 25th Wedding Anniversary…… 147
GEORGY BUSH…………………………………………………………………. 149
1. Resume of George W. Bush………………………………………………….. 149
2. The Madness of King George………………………………………………… 153
BELGIAN ASSHOLE…………………………………………………………… 154
1. The Belgian Ambassador does not pay his debts………………………….. 154
2. The Belgian Ambassador is arrogant………………………………………. 156
3. Belgium is the doormat of Europe………………………………………….. 157
4. The Belgian Congo was cruelly exploited by Belgians……………………… 159
HUBERT WEBB………………………………………………………………… 160
1. The most perfect love is Webb’s love for Hubert…………………………… 160
2. Caught in the Webb of lies…………………………………………………… 162
3. One is presumed innocent till defended by Saguisag………………………. 163
4. Utter the Curse of the Undead………………………………………………. 164
5. The Vizconde case revisited…………………………………………………. 165
6. Hubert’s Web of preponderant evidence…………………………………… 167
7. Vizconde murder trial, judgment by a mountain climber…………………. 168
END OF BOOK………………………………………………………………….. 169

vi
FOREWORD
Written for Larry Henares’ book, “Suns and Stars Alight”
By Honorable Juan L. Manuel
Secretary of the Department of Education
Republic of the Philippines
1976, before the betrayal of Marcos, Virata, Fernandez, Jimmy Ongpin etc.
The good old days were economically speaking never that good. Prewar
Philippines, then a colony of the United States was a feudal, agricultural, export-import-
oriented backward country, dominated by land-owners and foreign trading corporations.
Even the candies we ate and the soap we used, made out of Philippine sugar and coconut
oil, were imported from the United States.
The Second World War laid waste our country’s meager resources and made us
realize the importance of economic self-sufficiency. At the same time World War II in
the United States gave rise to tremendous advances in all areas of human endeavor,
particularly in technology, management and economics.
After the war an economically prostrate Philippines accepted Independence from
the United States along with “parity rights”, the right of Americans to enjoy the same
rights as Filipinos to operate public utilities and exploit national resources, later to
operate “all forms of business activities”.
The War became a demarcation line between the old generations of Filipinos with
a lingering sense of gratitude to Americans, comforted by the pastoral peace of an
agricultural economy, and a new generation, heirs to the great advances of the war years,
born without an umbilical cord to the colonial past, restless, independent, whose destiny
it was to rebuild our nation out of the ashes of World War II.
Hilarion M. Henares, Jr. was of this new generation, the “New Filipino” as
President Marcos was to label them in the 1970’s.
The Philippines of 1970’s, a modern industrial nation, independent, nationalistic
and proud, is the result of the struggles of the 1950’s and 60’s in which Henares and his
generation played their part. Fiercely nationalistic, Henares chose as his field of battle
the area of economics. There are many milestones that marked our way to economic
emancipation and Henares was there first. He was a visionary, a gadfly, and achiever
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whose writings, speeches, TV programs, actions and actuations prodded this country
almost against its will to accept the challenge of change in the postwar years.
Consider these milestones:
1. The Management Revolution:
In the 1950’s, fresh from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Henares
visited one Filipino firm after another, and like Frank Gilbreth before him he
proposed: “Let me handle your firm for a year and I’ll double your profits. Just give
me 10% of the profits over and above twice your profits now.” He was consultant to
20 large firms, and for the first time, scientific Management in project study,
production planning, work simplification, wage classification and financial
management was applied in the Philippines. To train his managers, Henares set up a
Graduate School for Management in Feati and Lyceum Universities, also for the first
time in the Philippines. He was Dean of two Colleges at the age 25, and spearheaded
Philippine participation in International Management Conferences.
A decade later, when Scientific Management became a regular course in all
universities in the Philippines, culminating in the establishment of the Asian Institute
of Management (AIM), one recalls what Lillian Gilbreth said of Henares: “Henares
is the Father of the Management Revolution in the Philippines”.
2. The Industrial Revolution.
What was the exact turning point at which the Philippine government took a
concrete step to revise its economic policy and embark on an all-out industrialization
program? Most economists point to the time, during the era of Import Controls, when
the Central Bank decided to reallocate dollar quotas on the basis of “historical pattern
of import.” Before that date, in 1954, traders and agricultural export industries had
priority; after that date, industries manufacturing goods for domestic consumption
began to intrude on the economic scene.
It is for record that it was young Henares, then representing his own company and
the Philippine Chamber of Industries, who challenged for the first time the “historical
pattern import” policy of the Central Bank. He demanded and got public hearing
before the Monetary Board, and after a brutal and often comic confrontation with
viii
representatives of 10 American firms, won the day for the cause of Philippine
Industrialization.
Almost single handedly, young Henares lobbied for the passage of Tax
Exemption Law for new and necessary industries, and prodded the Tariff
Commission to issue, for the first time, tariff amendments to protect local industries.
Thus did Henares initiate the Industrial Revolution in the Philippines through
Foreign Exchange Priority for Industries, Tax Exemption for New Necessary
Industries, and Economic Protectionism by Tariff Amendment.
He practiced what he preached. The small paint factory he took over from his
father became an industrial complex making 56 different products, and made him a
millionaire before the age of 30.
3. The Revival of Nationalism.
It was Senator Claro M. Recto who unfurled the flag of Nationalism in the post-
war years but his approach was mostly political, in the field of foreign policy.
Henares was one of his many admirers. When Recto died, in a cocktail party where
drunken Americans toasted the death of the great nationalist, Henares stood up and
cried, “Recto alive was vulnerable. Recto dead is invincible”.
It was Henares who moved the field of battle into the arena of economic policy
which became in turn the overriding concern of every government administration.
He took issue with the Americans on foreign investment, industrial development,
the Laurel Langley Agreement, the Bell Trade Act, the Asian Common Market, Trade
with Socialist countries, and even the Bases Agreement. As director, vice president
and eventually the President of the Philippine Chamber of Industries, he debated with
representatives of the American Chamber of Commerce and the now-defunct Free
Enterprise Society. As a cabinet-ranked Chairman of the National Economic
Council, he took on the American Embassy and the US Agency for International
Development.
He was reviled in poison pen letters, rebuffed by government officials and
sneered at by Americans, but with his 2 books, 1 documentary movie, 10 pamphlets,
5 newspaper columns, 1 television program, 1500 public debates and speeches, and
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2500 press statements, he almost single-handedly persisted in his “lonely battle” and
lived to see all his battle won. Just look at the record:
4. Control of Foreign Investment.
In the December 7, 1960 issue of the New York Times, Hilarion M. Henares, Jr.,
first came to attention of the world. There headlined on page 7, was his heretical
view that Foreign Investment is not necessarily desirable as an instrument of
economic progress, a view he expressed in the Businessmen’s Conference of the
International Chamber of Commerce at Karachi, Pakistan, on December 6, 1960. (He
introduced himself “as Chairman, and Jose Aspiras as Vice Chairman of a delegation
of two.”)
By today’s standard, it was a rather innocuous statement, but it sparked a
propaganda war that involved the Henares in a series of debates with the Americans
and their allies in the Philippines. In the next ten years, Henares was able to prove,
against all conventional wisdom, that foreign companies took out considerably more
dollars than they put in, that they secured 85% of their capital expenditures from local
sources, that they have considerably more privileges than their Filipino competitors,
that they discriminate against Filipino employees, and that they “intrude upon centers
of political power with such offensive familiarity”.
Henares made his position clear right from the start. “We welcome foreign
assistance, primarily as foreign loans, secondarily as joint ventures, as partners not
masters, to supplement not to supplant Filipino capital, to stimulate not to overwhelm
Filipino businessmen, and only in areas where Filipinos are unable or unwilling to
invest”. The phrases where originally those of Henares, but if they seem familiar to
us who have listened to many a public pronouncement, it is because Henares
succeeded in making his “private vision” become a “public truth”.
In these days of the 1970’s when the Lockheed and ITT scandals have rocked the
political institutions of many countries, in these days when the Board of Investment
has strictly hewed to the policy of social control of foreign investments, we may look
back and thank Henares for what he started and fought for almost alone in the 1960’s.
5. The End of the Laurel Agreement.
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Perhaps the greatest battle Henares fought was against the Laurel Langley
Agreement. Earlier as a student he expressed strong opposition to the Bell Trade
Agreement which gave Americans the same rights as Filipinos in the operation of
public utilities and exploitation of natural resources. Later as a businessman, he
assailed the Laurel-Langley Agreement for expanding American parity rights to
include “all forms of business activities”.
He was relentless in his opposition to parity rights, against the prevailing view
that American parity rights should be extended beyond July 3, 1974 the termination
date of the Laurel Langley Agreement. As Chairman of the Economic Council, he
held public hearings in all the major school schools in Manila, urging students to
debate the merits of parity rights and crystallize their opinions on the Laurel Langley
Agreement. For the first time, students began to demonstrate in the streets against
American Imperialism. And to fan the flames of dissent, Henares began to write
speeches for politicians and legislators to deliver.
Caught flatfooted by this unexpected opposition to parity rights, Americans began
to argue for recognition of their “vested rights”, that is, the right of Americans already
enjoying parity to keep on enjoying parity beyond the terminal date of the Laurel
Langley Agreement as a matter of vested right. Henares encountered by having the
National Economic Council pass it famous resolution #90 series of 1965, which
denied Americans “vested rights” and advised all government agencies to limit all
contract, licenses, concession, leases and other forms of authorization for American
companies to period up to and not beyond July 3, 1974.
By the 1970’s before martial law, students, legislators and delegates to the
Constitutional Convention were already near-unanimous in their opposition to parity
rights. And in 1974, President Marcos refused to renegotiate the Laurel Langley
Agreement and the termination of the agreement ended forever American parity
rights in the Philippines.
For this, a large measure of our gratitude goes to Mr. Henares.
6. Trade with Developing Nations and Socialist Countries.
Henares had always expressed dissatisfaction with the traditional pattern of trade
between the Philippines and the industrial nations led by the United States and Japan
xi
claiming that our nation has been reduced to an exporter of raw materials and
importer of finished goods, a “vegetable garden to an industrial colossus”.
For that reason, Henares proposed as early as 1958, a Pan Malayan Common
Market among the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, by which he felt that a
common source of materials including iron ore and oil, and a common market of 160
million people will provide a basis for the industrial development of the region. This
led to Mr. Henares being asked by President Macapagal to be chief negotiator for the
historic Philippine Indonesian Trade Agreement and Manila Memorandum. This
further led to the establishment of Maphilindo, and later the Association of Southeast
Asian (ASEAN).
In 1960, Henares proposed trade with the Socialist countries. In 1974, he was
part of a mission to bolster trade with Russia and to follow up the proposal for
Philippine-Soviet Trade Treaty. And today, the Philippines is trading with all
Socialist countries.
Likewise, he opened the Philippine Japan Treaty of Trade, Friendship and
Navigation, and the entry of the Philippines into the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT), until the Philippines is committed to a regional common market.
It is amazing to note that Henares single-handedly through a series of public debates,
was able to delay the ratification of the Philippine-Japan Treaty and Philippine entry
into GATT for a full 15 years, until ASEAN finally became a reality.
Also, he singled out the Military Bases Agreement for making “honky-tonk
towins out of Olongapo and Angeles City”, and for “economic sabotage through the
sales of tax free PX goods”. With his NEC Assistant Manuel Salientes (soon to be
Undersecretary for Munitions), he established a munitions plant to lessen our
dependence for ammunition on American military sources. And he called for the
renegotiation of the Military Bases Agreement.
7. The Multiple Man
A writer once called Hilarion M. Henares, Jr. the Multiple Man, for Larry is an
economist, engineer, industrialist, management expert, educator, essayist, poet,
columnist, movie maker, photography enthusiast, electronics buff, radio amateur and
xii
civic leader, who was at one time or another, a cabinet official, treaty negotiator and
senatorial aspirant.
As a public speaker and debater, he was one of the best, a familiar guest in Rotary
meetings and university convocations, who invariably applied the dictum of his old
professor, Father Mulry: :First all, make them laugh to open their minds. Now plant the
seed of thought. Then water it with their tears”.
As a writer, he is to be found in many textbook anthologies; and his books are to
be found in every library of the nation. His first two books were entitled “With Fervor
Burning”, and Behold the Radiance”, titles taken from the English version of the
Philippine National Anthem, like his subsequent books, “Sun and Stars Alight” and “For
Us Thy Sons”.
Land of the morning / Child of the sun returning /
With Fervor Burning / Thee do our souls adore. . .
Ever within thy skies / And through thy clouds /
And o’er thy hills and seas / Do we behold the radiance /
And feel the throb of glorious liberty . . .
Thy banner dear / to all our heart /
With sun and stars alight . . . .
But it is glory ever / when thou art wronged /
For us thy sons / To suffer and die.
As a nationalist, Larry Henares was a voice in the wilderness who lived to see
himself vindicated.
In 1961, Congressman Ferdinand E. Marcos pinned on Henares the “Pride of
Youth” Award on the occasion of the Rizal Centennial.
In 1974, President Marcos gave him an autographed picture that said “To Larry
Henares, nationalist and economist”.
The judgment of posterity will be no less.
Nota Bene: Subsequently the Filipino people were betrayed and delivered to the
IMF, GATT, WTO and the Americans by President Ferdinand Marcos,
Prime Minister Cesar Virata, Central Bank Governor Jose B. Fernandez, the
Opus Dei and the rest of the colonial lackeys.
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CLARO M. RECTO
Part I. Recto: a titan walked amongst us

A Titan walked in our midst, a towering intellect who has influenced the course of
our history for three quarters of a century. If he were still alive today, he would have
been celebrating his 105th birthday last February 8th, 1995.
He died 35 years ago on October 2, 1960. But his death was a mere biological
accident. For in the historic sense, he has just begun to live, and in the last 35 years he
stood like a Colossus bestride the universe of Ideas and Ideals by which our nation lives.
His name is Claro M. Recto. The middle initial stands for Mayo, the same Mayo
that is the name of a famous medical clinic in the United States. For Recto had an
English grandfather, Ferdinand Mayo, a cavalry commander of the British army that
occupied Manila briefly in 1762.
He took his lower education and his bachelor's degree in Ateneo when it was still
a Spanish Jesuit School, and his law in Sto. Tomas when instruction was still entirely in
Spanish. Claro M. Recto was a true genius. He studied the same courses Rizal studied in
the same school, Ateneo de Manila, and his grades were better than those of Rizal. In the
3-year curriculum of the grammar school (equivalent to high school), he obtained a grade
of 90% in the first year, 100% the second year, and 100% in the last year, the Spanish
equivalent of all being Sobresaliente, Excellent!
In the 4-year college course, his freshman average was 94%, sophomore 100%,
junior 100%, senior 100% -- and was graduated at the age of 19, with an A.B. degree
MAXIMA CUM LAUDE, not just Summa Cum Laude which means With Highest
Honors, but MAXIMA, the Highest Possible, the very Ultimate. Not ever before, nor
ever again was such grade ever bestowed on any other. He took up his Master's degree in
Law in the Santo Tomas University, and earned the grade of EXCELLENT or 100% in
ALL his subjects in the four years he studied there.
2
Yet he failed in his first bar exam, in one subject Civil Procedure, because he
could not express himself in English and the examiner Justice Fischer could not make
heads or tails of his handwriting. He then wrote two books on Civil Procedure that
became the standard textbooks and authority on the subject. He became one of the few
Filipinos ever admitted to the American Bar.
The mind of Claro M. Recto spanned two cultures: the Spanish, under which he
received his education and made his early incursion into Poetry and Letters; and the
American, under which he pursued a distinguished career as a politician, jurist and
statesman.
He wrote two Spanish plays that brought to full flowering the Intellectual
Renaissance started by Rizal and his band of propangandists. He dared to revive the
Nationalism of Rizal at the time the Filipinos started their love affair with Mother
America, and provoked a storm of controversy that branded him an “anti-American” and
a reactionary.
Such savage criticism moved him to abandon Spanish letters and make the
weapons of his enemies his own. He mastered the English language, the English
parliamentary procedure, law and American style politics. In time, he became a
Congressman, a Senator, the President of the Constitutional Convention, a Justice of the
Supreme Court, and the Great Nationalist.
Part II. The Mind of Recto spanned all time and all seasons
In his first term as a member of the House of Representatives, Claro M. Recto
was elected Minority Floor Leader. He went to the United States as a member of the
Independence Mission. He became a Senator of the Republic, a successful practicing
lawyer, a Justice of the Supreme Court, and the President of the Constitutional
Convention of 1935.
In 1931, he ran for the Senate for the first time against Jose P. Laurel who was
supported by Manuel L. Quezon the Philippines’ political kingpin. A loner and a
novatos, Recto was not given the ghost of a chance, but he won in what was to be the
most memorable upset in Philippine political history.
In the heat of the campaign, Recto and Laurel found themselves on the same
3
platform. Laurel spoke first: “My opponent Clarito is a very good looking man, and as
you can see I am pock-marked and not so good looking. Unfortunately for Clarito, there
are more not-so-good-looking voters who will vote for me, than there are good-looking
voters who will vote for him."
When his turn came, Recto stood up and scanned his audience most studiedly, and
said slowly with mock deliberation: “From where I stand.... I can see that everyone
around here is good-looking... except one... I am afraid, Mr. Laurel, you can only count
on your OWN solitary vote.”
Recto and Manuel L. Quezon, Sergio Osmena Sr., Rafael Palma, Jose P. Laurel,
Manuel Roxas and Benigno Aquino Sr., sometimes in partisan opposition to one another,
but always united against American Imperialism, dominated the decades before the
World War II, demanding “total, immediate and absolute independence from the United
States.” It was a youthful Nationalism, untroubled by doubts and extremely self-
confident, that impelled Quezon with a toss of his handsome head to exclaim: “Better a
government run like hell by Filipinos than a government run like heaven by Americans.”
Yet forces were already at work to undermine the Nationalism of Recto and Rizal.
A new generation was growing up that looked to Washington and Lincoln as exemplars,
to Tin Pan Alley, Madison Avenue, Wall Street and Hollywood for attitudes and
appetites -- the generation of Carlos Romulo, Ramon Magsaysay and Ferdinand Marcos
who were to fight bravely and loyally under two flags in Bataan and in the mountains,
while the old nationalists, from Emilio Aguinaldo and Artemio Ricarte to Laurel and
Recto himself sought to protect the people in the Second Republic under the Japanese
from conscription and other excesses.
When the Americans returned with Camel cigarettes, Coca Cola, K-rations and
condoms, and the Philippines gained its Independence, it seemed “almost callous
ingratitude to haul down the good old Stars and Stripes, and leave the Filipino Flag lost
and forlorn over the ruins of Manila.” Presidents Roxas, Quirino and Magsaysay set
down the policy to “follow in the wake of America,.” America the Beautiful, America the
Bountiful. And Filipino Nationalism entered a new phase under the leadership and
inspiration of Don Claro M. Recto.
The mind of Claro M. Recto also spanned all time and all seasons --- the past,
4
present and the future.

His mind could roam at will the cultural worlds of antiquity and pluck from their
gardens some ripe fruit of wisdom... evoking images of Boabdil, the last Moorish king of
Granada, standing on the bridge that has come to be known as el ultimo suspiro del Moro,
“the last sigh of the Moor,” as he looked for the last time on his lost kingdom... of strange
undecipherable messages on the sarcophagus of Egyptian kings... of the brilliant
historical essayist Thomas Babington Macaulay and his traveler from New Zealand
exploring a dead world of monstrously deformed survivors... of Rizal and our own
historic past, of Tasio the Philosopher who planted trees knowing he will never sit in their
shade. Plutarch the chronicler of ancient heroes and philosophers would have found
Recto worthy of his art.
But Recto did not only belong to the past, he was also attuned to the present, to
the great events and issues of our time, and in a tragic sense, he also was “ahead of his
time,” he was moving into the future as the one-eyed man in the country of the blind. To
the classic spirit, to the man of thought and action, must be added a third dimension --
that of a prophet.
We Filipinos owe more to Don Claro than we realize or care to admit. Almost all
alone in his lifetime and even after his death, he kept us on mental alert, he forced us
almost against our will and in the face of heavy handed American pressure, by his
eloquence and incontrovertible logic, to face the challenge of Change and Nationhood.
Even more than Rizal or Bonifacio or even Ninoy Aquino, they whose bright
promise was cut short by an untimely death, and who died at an early age, and more than
any Filipino leader, Recto who lived to a ripe old age of 70 years, left in the hands of his
countrymen a Body of Work --- speeches, articles, poems, plays --- that was clear and
definitive, logical, consistent, and true --- in words that shone with beauty and elegance
of language. More than any one else, he analyzed our national problems and prescribed
solutions that are still relevant and true today. He was to us Voltaire, Rousseau,
Montesquieu, Lincoln, Patrick Henry, Thomas Mann, and Alexander Hamilton, all rolled
into one. He was the alpha and omega of all that is best in the Filipino Mind and Psyche.
5
Part III. Recto changed our history and our lives

1. It was Recto who fathered the Constitution of 1935, a constitution he nourished
through the dark days of the McCarthyist postwar years. President Quirino
suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus and exercised emergency powers in 1949,
for the same reason President Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972: to protect us
from Communism, and to resolve deadlocks in the slowness of the democratic
process. Fortunately Recto's eloquence and logic, and a courageous Supreme
Court nullified Quirino’s executive orders, something the Supreme Court in the
Martial Law era failed to do.
2. If the memory of Rizal and what he stood for, has not become dim and
meaningless, if Rizal is not dismissed as a good man who was shot by the
Spaniards in a struggle that has no longer any significance in a modern free
society, if our Youth are rediscovering our nationalist past -- it is because Recto
made Rizal’s Noli and Fili compulsory reading in the schools of the nation in
defiance of religious bigots, Spanish Dominicans and American Jesuits.
3. It was he who first questioned our blind subservience in foreign affairs and
advocated an independent policy based on national self-interest. And if we have
moved into the community of nations with the organization of ASEAN, with the
recognition of China and the Soviet Union, and trade with all the Socialist
countries; with our joining the Group of 77 and the Non-Aligned nations of the
Third World -- it is because Claro M. Recto showed us the way.
4. If our Catholic prelates enjoy the respect and patronage of Rome, it is probably
because Recto committed the impropriety of calling attention to the absence of a
Filipino Cardinal from the only Christian nation in Asia, at the time when the
College of Cardinals already had Africans, Japanese and Koreans among their
number.
5. If the Japanese apologized and paid us Reparations for their wartime atrocities, it
was because Recto successfully opposed the ratification of the Dulles peace
treaty, in spite of American pressure, until the principle of reparations was
accepted.
6. It was Recto who challenged the desirability of Foreign Investments, American
6
Advisers, and “Export oriented Agriculture,” he who first demanded a Nationalist

Industrialization which he saw as the only foundation for economic independence.
There will always be those who will argue otherwise in behalf of the IMF, the
Paris Club and the American multinationals. We will always have our Jesus
Estanislao and Bernardo Villegas, just as the Americans had their Tories and the
Latin Americans had their Malinches, but in the fullness of time, history will
judge them as a temporary aberration, a momentary blind spot in our Grand
Design of Nationhood.
7. If the Filipino flag flies over Clark Field and Subic Bay, it is because Recto
challenged the American Attorney General Brownell’s contention that the United
States never relinquished title over the Base lands; because he demanded the
revision of the Bases Agreement to restore sovereignty and dignity to our nation;
because he denounced the cynical infringements of American military that
instituted in the Philippines a state within a state.
8. If the Filipino can still insist on being the Sole Determinant and Principal
Beneficiary of this nation’s economic progress, it is because of Recto’s relentless
opposition to American Parity Rights, and insistence that the Constitution he
fathered reserve the national patrimony only to the Filipino people.
9. If today we celebrate our Independence Day on June 12th rather than the
American mandated July 4th; if all streets, military camps and parks no longer
carry the names of Dewey or Murphy or Ferguson, it is because Recto made us
proud of our own people and our own heritage. The only foreign names left are
those implanted by Ayala y CIA in its elitist villages, but those too will pass out
of existence some sunlit day.
10. Recto’s greatest and most lasting accomplishment is the Transformation of the
National Character, the Transfiguration of the Filipino colonial into the Filipino
Nationalist, proud and unafraid. It is almost axiomatic that in our colleges, when
the student is brilliant and talented, he becomes a Rectonian Nationalist, and
winds up in the Student Council and in the Parliament of the Streets. But when
the student is an imbecile, he becomes a worshipper of the Americans, and winds
up as a private in the ROTC or the low man in the goon squad of some lousy
7
fraternity, and eventually member of the Filipino CIA Rat Patrol.
Part IV. Recto’s speeches -- a perfect wedding of logic and eloquence

Our officials may bow to pressures from the IMF, the Paris Club and the
American Multinationals, but there is a defensive air about them, a shade of shame, a
secret resolve to get back at their white trash tormentors. And it is evident that the
American CIA can hardly recruit any Filipino but the crazy, stupid or the incompetent, or
the utterly venal who would sell their souls and their country for a grant from the Ford
Foundation or the Hans Seidel Stiftung.
The Nationalism of the present generation is the Legacy of Don Claro M. Recto.
His life is a testament bequeathing to his people, the re-invigorated tradition of pride of
race and nationhood that was first handed to us by the great Jose Rizal.
Like Winston Churchill before him, he recruited the English language, taught it
the manual of arms, and marched it off to war. Teodoro Locsin was moved to write: “No
man commanded more respect by sheer force of mind than Claro M. Recto; no one had a
cultural background so broad, a logic so implacable, a rhetoric so firmly based on the
masters. Heaven help the one whose pretensions he chose to demolish. His sentences
marched like ordered battalions against the innermost citadel of the man’s arguments and
reduced them to rubble. Meanwhile his reservations stood like armed sentries against the
most silent approach and every attempt at encirclement by the adversary.” The reduction
to absurdity of Carlos P. Romulo, of A.V.H. Hartendorp, of Quirino and Magsaysay,
were simply shattering.
Recto’s speeches were masterpieces which people thronged the Senate to hear,
which newspapers printed in full, and which students clipped out and pasted for
posterity.... speeches that were “a perfect wedding of matter and manner, thought and
style, eloquence and logic. In the grand English tradition, the language is elevated, the
phrasing perfect and the peroration like the closing of the doors of a great cathedral.”
His Nationalism brought him into the fields of Foreign Policy, Economic Policy,
and above all the defense of our Constitutional freedoms.
He spoke of our need for nationalism, industrialization, and an independent
foreign policy. He spoke of McCarthyist elements among us rushing to fight Russia and
8
China after the United States made peace, and had a détente with them. Exactly the way
we are fighting the Arabs and our own Muslims today because Mother America wants us
to. He warned that as a small nation we must not involved with the quarrels of the great
powers, that in doing so, we may be plunged into a surrogate war, awaiting “liberation,”
as we were during World War II. He spoke of being the target for the first volley of
nuclear warfare. And he ends his speech with one of the greatest perorations ever made,
like the closing of great cathedral doors:
“Let not Macaulay’s traveler from New Zealand exploring the spectral ruins of
Manila in the course of his post-atomic war peregrinations, and cautiously testing the
radioactive waters of the Pasig, from the broken arches of the Quezon Bridge, have cause
to ponder that in those shattered tenements and poisoned fields and rivers once lived a
nation unique in the annals of mankind, free men who put their liberties on the auction
block, a sacrificial race with a mysterious urge to suicide, who, being weak and
weaponless took upon themselves the quarrels of the strong, and having been warned of
their abandonment still persisted in their lonely course, and whose brutalized and
monstrously deformed survivors, scrambling with stunted limbs in the infected debris of
their liberated cities, had forgotten even the echo of the memory of the strange illusion
for which their race had fought and perished.”
Recto’s words still ring true in our time and place.
In the last years of his life, Recto would regret the grant of excessive powers to
the President as conducive to dictatorship: “The President could easily convert himself
into an actual dictator within the framework of the Charter... with his control of local
governments, with huge sums and unlimited sinecures to distribute, with emergency
powers to rule by executive decree as a last resort... restrained only by his own
conscience from perpetuating himself or his party in power.”
Recto would challenge the continued use of emergency powers by President
Quirino in a period of normalcy, and a courageous Supreme Court would declare those
powers null and void, something our present Supreme Court failed to do the crucial days
of Martial Law.
Recto spoke of the many enemies of the Constitution: “the corruption of
Imperialism, the criminal assaults of its own defenders and protectors... the most sinister
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and deadly of all its dangers, the danger of its own suicide... the pretense that the
Constitution could be nullified by the Constitution itself, that the provisions of the
Constitution were at war with one another so that an apparent constitutional power and
prerogative could be used and abused to destroy the entire structure of our democracy.”
What Recto meant was that the Constitution is supposed to limit the powers of
rulers, and any provision that allows the President to exercise powers solely on his own
judgment without check or balance or public accountability is against the spirit and very
essence of the Constitution.
Part V. Recto and Constitutional Suicide

Had he lived, on how many counts would Recto have indicted our Supreme Court
during the Martial Law?? In the case of Javellana in 1973 when the Court ruled that the
new Marcos Constitution had not been ratified in the mandatory manner required by the
1935 Recto Constitution, but pathetically said it was powerless to stop its enforcement.
In Legaspi in 1982, when the Court ruled that Amendment 6, which gives the
President the power to rule by decree even when the Batasan was in session, is not
repugnant to the Constitution. Recto would have called the decision “constitutional
suicide.”
In Padilla in 1983 when the Court ruled that it was powerless to inquire behind
the Presidential Commitment Order (PCO) and prayed that the President would not
misuse his power to bypass the court system.
What would Recto have said about P.D. 1807 authorizing the president to waive
for government officials sovereign immunity from suit, himself already immune from suit
under a constitutional amendment? Or P.D. 1892 allowing 100% foreign ownership of
certain industries against the Nationalist intent of the Constitution? Or the decree
allowing mass and discriminatory naturalization of aliens?
To the men and women of this generation, Recto cries out: “If we permit such
men to violate, to ignore and to evade the Constitution, if we permit them to remain in
power, fear to denounce them, compromise with their misdeeds, and perhaps even profit
from their violations, then we are a people that do not deserve a constitution.”
And to those who violate the constitution, who deprive others of their lives and
10
rights, like those who jailed political enemies without charges, and killed Ninoy on the
tarmac and who would now demand the right of “due process” in our courts, Recto had a
very special and very poignant warning:
“The very persons who now defy the Constitution or allow it to be subverted and
undermined without protest, may themselves cry out for its protection tomorrow, and
bewail of the loss of the guarantees that they themselves destroyed or denied to their
enemies. Then indeed may they weep like Boabdil, the last Moorish king of Granada,
who pausing in his flight at a bridge for one last look at his beloved city, wept for his lost
dominions only to be bitterly reproached by his mother in these unforgettable words:
“Weep like a woman for the loss of the kingdom you did not defend like a man.”
And to all Filipinos Claro M. Recto cried out with all the pain and anguish of a
haunted heart:
“Neither in the toils of the day nor in the vigils of the night can the sentinels of the
Constitution relax their vigilance. Let us all be wary and stand on our arms, lest by
culpable tolerance or by criminal negligence, our country should in some forbidding
future become a desolate Carthage, wherein only the naked ruins of our Republic shall
remain, fallen monuments of the past in whose debris our descendants, by then the
forlorn bondsmen of some corrupt despot, shall in vain, endeavor to decipher the
language of the Constitution, inscribed as in forgotten hieroglyphs on the sarcophagus of
our dead freedoms.”
Like the closing of great cathedral doors.
We are all his heirs, and may God give us the strength and determination to accept
this inheritance with all its burdens, obligations and sacrifices. For in the long run, the
judgment of history will be upon us Filipinos, his contemporaries and successors, who
will be measured by the Ideas and Ideals of Don Claro M. Recto.
A Titan walked among us. Well may we exclaim with Shakespeare’s Mark
Anthony upon the death of mighty Caesar: “When comes such another??!!”
December 29,1984; February 8, 1985, Recto’s 95th birthday anniversary and the Golden
Anniversary of the 1935 Constitution; February 10, 13, 17, 1995 , ISYU
Sources quoted and paraphrased: Emmy Arcellana, Leon Ma. Guerrero, Teodoro Locsin
11
NE REQUIESCAT IN PACE
Don Claro, rest not in peace.
Fifty million hearts in these un-Pacific isles
Drumbeat a dirge for your passing...
The arms we stretched out to you for guidance
Now fall to our sides, empty, apart ...
Who shall now protect us from ourselves?
And from those who pretend to be our friends?
Never was there a foil to our frailties and follies,
Never a shield against the heavy hand of friendship,
Save your wrath, your wit and your wisdom.
Where is the Constitution you fathered
To shield us from the tyranny of despots?
The Industrialization you envisioned
To nourish hopes for a better life?
The Nationalism you espoused to unite us
In common purpose and common destiny?
Where are your legacies, your dreams, your wild hopes?
Lost perhaps, misplaced, but not forgotten, never!
The battle you fought is still to be won.
Let your spirit live on to inspire us to fight
For that cause for which you gave your mind,
Your heart, your soul, your life,
And all you have --- beyond all measure.
You were the greatest and the noblest Filipino
That ever lived in our tide of times.
Wherever you are, far above the far horizons
Where faith and prayers and visions have wing-room,
Sing out the songs that sing of our past glories,
12
Write out the words that spell out our destinies,

That we may stand up to all the world and say,
"I am a Filipino", nevermore in shame.
Nor shall we rest till the Final Battle is won,
Until the Filipino Tao, ill-starred and striped no longer
In the prison garb of colonial double allegiance,
Shall stand, head high in pride and dignity
On every field and valley of this land ----
So that when all the stories have been told,
And all the songs have been sung,
And all there is to be, has become,
Our children’s children will sit under the shade
Of the tree you planted, and say: “There were those
Who kept vigil in the night of our forefathers!”
On Recto’s death, October 2, 1970; December 22,1984; and on his 25th Death
Anniversary, October 2, 1985;
The dogfight of the top dogs

I had a nightmare about the elections, a dogfight among the top dogs, a free-for-
all wrestling match among the four leading contenders for the highest post of the land.
First there is “The Macho Man,” (Editor: Erap Estrada) an actor like John Wilkes
Booth who killed Lincoln and President Ronald Reagan who eats jelly beans. I saw The
Macho Man approaching the wrestling stage, walking on three legs with four beautiful
wives by his side, slow and lumbering, the decrepit shadow of a fatso that he has become.
Second there is Yoda of the Star Wars (May the Force be with him!) (Editor: Jose
de Venecia), also known as Mickey Mouse, with ears as big as Dumbo’s, small, lithe,
tireless. Third there is John Wayne who won the West with his six-shooter, (Editor:
General Alfredo Lim) also known as Dirty Harry who makes our day, the no-nonsense
hero who promises to send all crooks and criminals to jail or to hell.
13
And last but not least, young David who fought Goliath (Editor: Raul Roco), Sir
Galahad seeking the Holy Grail, Moses parting the Red Sea and leading his people to the
Promised Land.
In the free-for-all battle on the mat, I saw The Macho Man sitting in his corner,
with his three legs and four beauties, sipping Johnny Walker Blue -- while the other three
contenders were beating each other up at the center of the ring. Finally The Macho Man
was proclaimed winner by default, with hardly a scar of battle. And I woke up in cold
sweat. Is this the battle of the century, of the millennium, of the centenary of our
nationhood? A nightmare bathed in cold sweat?
I went back to sleep with another dream. I dreamed of two presidents that might
have been. The president we should have in the year 1998, the year of the Philippine
Centennial, the eve of the third millennium and the onset of the 21st century, is one who
is no longer with us -- the great Claro M. Recto. No man incarnated the spirit of Filipino
nationalism as much and as long as he did. He belonged to the two generations that
spanned the century. Schooled in Spanish, he was not too young to remember
Aguinaldo’s republic; and he lived long enough to shine in the era of Magsaysay,
Macapagal and Marcos.
Recto was the last of a generation to imbibe the European culture that bred the
1898 revolution. Yet his was a modern mind attuned to the great events and issues of our
time. Of him it was said, “Recto is ahead of his time.” It is because of him that the US
bases no longer blight our land. It was he who foresaw the recognition of China and
Russia, and the end of the Cold War. He was a man steeped in the classics, a man of
thought and action, a prophet.
Another who could have been worthy of being our president in this Centennial
Year and Third Millennium is Ninoy Aquino – freedom fighter, martyr, who even in
death gave us our Edsa Revolution and a renewed sense of freedom. Recto and Ninoy,
what great presidents they would have been! We are all their heirs and may God give us
the wisdom to be worthy of their legacy.
It was a dream bathed with the warmth of the sun, not a nightmare lashed by a
storm of tears and cold sweat. Oh the glory of what might have been!
May 11, 1998, ISYU
14
THE SPEECHES OF DON CLARO M. RECTO

Edited for today’s generation
I. OUR MENDICANT FOREIGN POLICY

The strange illusion for which we fought and perished
NOTE: Congenital colonials among our politicians are again peddling treason,
subservience and mendicacy, with the encouragement of control freaks in the Embassy
and the CIA. In anticipation of Recto’s 95th birthday anniversary on February 8th, this
speech dated April 17, 1951, is offered to the present generation of Filipinos unfamiliar
with the thoughts of the illustrious Great Nationalist. With ever closer relations between
saber-rattling President Ronald Reagan of the United States and our own President
Ferdinand Marcos, with the Economic Crisis involving “assistance” from the IMF and
the USA, and increasing involvement of the CIA in our coming elections, our foreign
policy is coming around a full circle to the point so eloquently denounced by Recto more
than 30 years ago. Read on. And don’t miss the last paragraph, the peroration “like the
closing of great cathedral doors” which is a classic in Philippine English literature.
***
Sentimentalism and emotionalism should not play a part in international relations.
It is folly to expect any nation to ever sacrifice its welfare and security to pure idealism or
to sentimental attachments. As Filipinos, we must look out for ourselves, because no one
else will. That is the essence of our independence.
To be realists, we must free our minds from the foolish illusion that we play a big
role in international politics as if we were ourselves a great power.
To be realists, we must cease believing that there is altruism among nations.
To be realists, we must realize that in a world where the nation-state system still
prevails, every state takes care of its own national interests, and it is the responsibility of
the government to determine what those interests are, and to adopt and carry out the
15
necessary policies towards safeguarding them, sacrificing if necessary the more transitory
interests, like temporary trade advantages, in the same way that the good strategist
foregoes a battle to win the war.
To be a realist is to accept the fact that it is to serve her own self-interest and to
safeguard her security and position as a world leader, and only incidentally for our own
protection, that America built her imposing military and diplomatic establishments in our
country, and it is only in that sense that the words common defense, mutual security, and
partnership must be understood.
Time and time again I have consistently opposed dangerous and provocative
entanglements. They distract our attention from our own grave and urgent problems;
they dissipate our already limited strength and energy which we need so much to
establish our political, social, and economic security; and, what is worse, they expose our
people to the fearful consequences of another war, a war which will be fought on Asian
soil with only expendable and bewildered Asians for sacrificial victims on the altar of
power politics and international intrigue.
We have become victims of our own propaganda which we pompously call
“psychological warfare”. Like a small dog, we go tagging along behind Uncle Sam
wherever he goes in Asia, barking here and there at the Communists, with our little,
almost inaudible, bark. Of course the enemy knows that “our bark is worse than our bite”
and so far we have not produced any reaction except perhaps some annoyance.
Let us awake from the daydreams of adolescence, and cease to imagine ourselves
as saviors of a world in distress, riding on our fanciful adventures for which we have
neither heart nor strength, while we neglect the care of our own concerns. We have no
manifest destiny to fulfill, no historical missions to carry out in the age of superpowers.
Our aims are simple and well defined: to preserve the integrity of our national territory, to
safeguard the independence and liberties of our people, and to promote their welfare by
the enforcement of our rights and the fulfillment of our obligations. It is on this
irreducible basis of national interest that we should build our foreign relations.
We are faced with the problem of our people's survival. I said that it is the
problem of problems. If we all must die in a nuclear war, we at least have a right to know
why we have accepted such a sacrificial resolution. If after we have been properly
16
informed of the appalling consequences of having stockpiles of ballistic missiles and

launching bases in our midst, and if our people should still want to commit race suicide to
help America survive, then be it so. I can picture the last agonizing Filipino under the
flaming clouds of a devastating nuclear attack gasping out to Mother America the famous
deprecation of St. Augustine, the greatest Doctor of the Church, addressed to God
perhaps in one of those trances when reason capitulates to faith: “Lord, if we are
deceived, it is by Thee.” Mother America, if we are deceived, it is by thee!
It is in the control of foreign policy that we may find the decisive difference
between the Commonwealth and the Republic, the one significant gain that we expected
to make in moving from autonomy to independence. Freedom of speech, of the press, of
religion, self-rule, due process of law, social justice --all these rights we already enjoyed
under the enlightened imperialism of the American people, and perhaps we enjoyed them
to a greater degree during the Commonwealth than in these uncertain and ambiguous
times of indefinite detentions, private armies, fiat and farcical elections, de facto
governments, and open rebellion. What we sought and what we expected to gain with
national independence was the right to give our own national interest, security and
welfare the primacy in our loyalties, services and sacrifices. Now that the clock turns
back to strike alarms of another war, we may well ask ourselves what we have done with
our independence.
For unhappily, the times have not changed, and small nations must still pay the
price of quarrels between great powers. Already we see before our eyes a reenactment of
the tragedies of the last conflict, when, in Europe and in Asia, the small nations that
became the battlegrounds of the great were compelled to endure the identical horrors of
conquest and liberation. What have we done with our independence to make sure that
our country will not again become the battleground of foreign wars? What have we done
with our independence to make sure that our people will not again be deserted in the
interest of higher strategy and military necessity, and left to fondle the hard comfort of
another “I shall return”?
To find the answer to these questions, which are the test of the validity of our
independence, and of the worth of our foreign policy, we must begin by examining our
present world position.
17
We are a small nation surrounded by the most populous races on earth, Christian
among non-Christians, westernized in Asia, conservative in the face of a continental
revolution, clinging to a high standard of living amid perennially starving masses, and yet
unable in an age of industrialization even to feed, clothe, and arm ourselves.
Weak in numbers, we have compounded our weakness with disunity. Poor in
developed resources and therefore under the necessity of pooling our strength, we have
plunged into a fratricidal struggle for whose prosecution the government must waste fully
one-third of its revenue, and which not only has rent national solidarity, but also has
worked incalculable harm on the nation’s economy. Still worse, each faction in the
conflict has openly proclaimed its adherence to one or the other of the two great
antagonists in another world war which they believe inevitable, so that if war comes it is
a certainty that we shall become involved in the most cruel and sanguinary manner, for
our own people are already set, brothers against brothers, with unforgiving hatreds.
Unable to defend ourselves against foreign aggression, we have not only
weakened ourselves further with domestic strife but also given cause and provocation for
attack. We have become war-mongers without armies, by making boastful challenges,
threats and denunciations.
But what is beyond comprehension is that, having fought three wars for our
independence, we have surrendered it without a fight; and while vociferating about the
reality of our national freedom, we have acted as if we did not want it or believe in it.
We are tied to the dollar without having any dollars. We continue to be dependent upon
the American market without having retained any permanent right of access to it. We
continue to be equally dependent upon American protection without any real guarantee
that it will be timely and adequately extended.
The tragedy of our foreign policy is that, being an Asian people ten thousand
miles away from the effective center of American power, our behavior has been that of a
banana republic in the Caribbean. We have fed upon the fancy that we are somehow the
favorite children of America, and that she, driven by some strange predilection of our
people, will never forsake us nor sacrifice our interests to her own or to those of others
for her own sake.
Unfortunately, our preferences have been disappointed by so prosaic a thing as
18
geography, and so indelicate a topic as race. The Creator, in His inscrutable wisdom,
gave a brown pigment to our skins, and brought forth our people in the littoral of Asia. It
is therefore an illusion to believe that America has the same strategic obligations to a
Caribbean republic as to a distant archipelago across the expanse of the Pacific, fairly
exposed to enemy conquest; while to believe that America, or any other great power for
that matter, in the terrible crisis of war, will under the imperative urge for self-
preservation, ever sacrifice her own security and interest to idealism or to continental
attachments, is to misunderstand the biological laws which determine the course of
action of any great power in war or in peace, and to ignore the categorical imperatives of
international behavior.
Yet our foreign policy was conducted from the very beginning, and is being
pursued, on the erroneous assumption of an identity of American and Filipino interests,
or more correctly, of the desirability, even the necessity, of subordinating our interests to
those of America. Thus, on the fourth of July 1946 it was announced that our foreign
policy would be to follow in the wake of America. We have, indeed, followed. We
followed America out of Spain and back again; we followed America in her aimless
pilgrimage in the Holy Land, from Jew to Arab and Arab to Jew, as the American need
for Arab oil and the administration’s desire for Jewish votes dictated; we recognized e
independence of Indonesia when America did, and not one moment before. In the world
parliament of the United Nations, it is no more difficult to predict that the Philippines will
vote with the American Union, than that the Ukraine will vote with the Soviet Union.
American policy has found no more eloquent spokesman and zealous advocate, and
Russian policy no louder critic and more resourceful opponent, than the Philippines.
Americans may disagree violently with their own foreign policy, but it has no better
supporters than the Filipinos.
We have followed America even in our domestic affairs. Nowadays any
American Ambassador to the Philippines may be given, without incongruence, the
concurrent title of Governor-General, High Commissioner or Proconsul, to whom the
President of this Republic himself must go humbly to apologize in person for an
offensive press release. For its part, we have seen our Congress, since the fourth Monday
of January, engrossed in the singular task of enacting into law the recommendations of an
19
American economic survey mission. Organized pressure has been brought to bear with
ill-concealed impatience to stampede the passage of the desired legislation.
Whom are we to blame for this curious process of legislation through foreign
control, this unprecedented surrender of the most cherished privileges of an independent
state? When we are so dishonest, inept, and prodigal, that we cannot run a government
on the resources of the potentially richest and most democratically schooled people in
Asia, and must beg constantly for subsidies, then the United States have the right to see to
it that the dollars they lend are not dissipated in extravagance, purloined by malefactors
in high office, or misspent on fraudulent elections, and that, in return for their assistance,
they shall have the final say on our foreign policy and receive the services of our
diplomats as their spokesmen and press relations officers.
A bankrupt administration must necessarily have a foreign policy of mendicancy;
and it is inevitable that it should invite foreign intervention to do what it cannot do for
itself. When a government cannot count on the united support of its own people, then it
must unavoidably have recourse to the support of a foreign power; and because beggars
cannot be choosers, we can be safely ignored, taken for granted, dictated to, and made to
wait at the door, hat in hand, to go in only when invited.
Our only possible lifeline is obviously the traditional American connection, drawn
across the vast expanse of the Pacific, and made more tenuous still by lack of confidence.
Dependent entirely upon American arms for self-defense, we find it increasingly difficult
to secure them. Having rested our hopes upon American bases, we find that rather than
be a source of protection they may become targets for attack. We have been encouraged
to oppose and fight the expansion of Communism in Asia, and we have done as we have
been told, but in return we have received only vague and uncertain promises of
assistance, and the confirmation of a policy that would surrender Asia rather than imperil
Europe.
If war should come, therefore, we would be doomed to another and a worse
Bataan. Once again, as Manuel Quezon feared and lived to see from the tunnels of
Corregidor, ill-fed, ill-armed and ill-trained Filipinos, discriminated against by their
friends and outmatched by their enemies, would take on their flesh and bone the first
shock of aggression by an overwhelming power. Once again our people would have to
20
endure the horrors of war, compounded beyond human experience by weapons of mass
extermination and wholesale destruction, and the agony of enemy occupation, stretched
beyond human endurance by the perfected techniques of tyranny; and, for added tragedy,
would find themselves divided into irreconcilable factions, one clearly committed to the
United States, and the other allegedly aligned with Soviet Union, in the most cruel of all
wars, a fratricidal war.
But as long as we are an independent Republic, we can and should act as a free
people and as Filipinos. As Filipinos we must profess and declare that the security of our
nation is paramount, and as a free people we must profess and declare that, while the
liberties of other peoples are important to us in this world of interdependence, our first
duty is to our own.
The first objective of our government must be peace, for, as a small and weak
nation, it is to our prime interest to explore with patience and sincerity every avenue of
honorable and enduring settlement by negotiation and mutual concessions. If war must
come, it must not be of our own making, either directly or indirectly.
We understand that even the vast resources of America are not unlimited, and
that, in the priorities that must be assigned between Europe and Asia, every appeal of
racial instinct, every atavistic impulse, every consideration of a common heritage of
culture, and even the requirements of domestic politics, would draw the American people
to the homelands of their ancestors. If that is so, and it is so, then America should also
understand that Asia cannot be more solicitous than America herself for her own
interests.
While the American administration has openly reaffirmed its preference for
Europe and its racial kinsmen in the Atlantic Community, we continue parroting the
slogans and mimicking the gestures of American policy.
But no reasonable, no patriotic, no self-respecting Filipino can be content with
promises to return, or relish a situation where we place ourselves in the vanguard of an
atomic war, without arms, without retreat, without cover or support, destined to be
annihilated at the first encounter, and therefore rendered unfit for a belated liberation. If
America really believes that war is inevitable, then let her give us in Asia a resolute
leadership we can trust; let her give us the same unconditional pledge and guarantees and
21
the same actual evidence of a spirit of equality and common fate that she has given to her
kinsmen and allies in the Atlantic Community; and we shall have justification for the risk
of war, and incentive to make common cause.
Otherwise, we must restrain our enthusiasms, dissemble our sympathies, moderate
our words and actions, and in fulfillment of the primordial duty of self-preservation,
make no enemies where we can make no friends, and hold our peace. It may be a
precarious peace, of uncertain duration, at the mercy of military time-tables and power-
politics, but if it is broken, at least it shall not be said that we sought it, and if we are
attacked, that we deserved it. Meanwhile we must, whether in rebel camps or in the inner
sanctums of governmental power, whether within or beyond the pale of present authority,
forswear allegiance to any foreign power, and cease to fight the battles of one or the other
of the super-states beyond our borders. Whatever our economic theories, social
grievances, and political beliefs and affiliations, and whatever the future has in store, we
must stand united, under a lawful and legitimate leadership, as citizens of one country,
one flag, and one Constitution, so that if war comes, it will not find our nation rent
asunder in a paroxysm of self-annihilation.
Let not Macaulay’s traveler from New Zealand exploring the spectral ruins of
for which their race had fought and perished.
December 22, 1984; February 8, 1992;
22
II. NATIONALISM, MY UNCONQUERABLE FAITH AND BURNING HOPE!

Note: February 8th, 1985 will be the 95th birthday of one of the greatest
Filipinos of our times, Claro M. Recto. A true genius, he graduated from the Spanish
Ateneo with grades better than those of Rizal. His Freshman Average was 94%,
Sophomore 100%, Junior 100%, Senior 100%, and he received his A.B. degree, maxima
cum laude, not just summa which means the highest, but maxima, the highest possible
grade, the very Ultimate. He did this at the age of 19. Then he took up law in Sto. Tomas
University and earned his master’s degree at the age of 24, with an incredible grade of
Excellent in ALL his subjects.
Senator, Supreme Court Justice, President of the Constitutional Convention, he
revived our Nationalism in the face of our “lingering colonial complex”. The following
are excerpts from his many speeches on Nationalism, edited for unity and continuity, and
are specially offered to our friends BOI Governor Federico V. Borromeo, PCCI
President Felix K. Maramba Jr., and Cavite politician Fernando Campos, avowed
Internationalists who have been overheard to remark that Filipino Nationalism is
obsolete and no longer relevant --- with a gentle reminder that the same remark was
directed to Rizal by the Spanish Dominicans, to Recto by A.V.H. Hartendorf, and even
now to the Filipino people by Bartolome Cabangbang and the American Statehood
Movement. In this speech, Recto referred to them as the “internationalist” Nationalists.
***
The battle-cry that animates and sets in motion millions of hearts and minds is
nationalism. It is not a passing emotion, not a naive longing for the trappings of
sovereignty. It is persevering, militant and mature. Its militancy is evident in its
determination to correct the wrongs of the past, to effect changes that shall place the
political, economic, and cultural life of peoples under their own forging and control. It
connotes perseverance because it is consubstantial and, as such, coeval with country and
people. Its maturity may be perceived in its refusal to accept form for substance, illusion
for reality. In Africa, for example, where the nationalist movement is comparatively
new, people will no longer acquiesce in political sovereignty without economic
independence, for they know too well that the first without the second is hollow, if not
meaningless.
23
There is a special bond that unites the new nations and the peoples of Asia and
Africa. In these two areas of the globe, once the sites of great ancient civilizations and
ever the cradle of faith and spiritualism, but now, in the eyes of the economically
advanced West, merely a conglomeration of underdeveloped countries, a new and mighty
force is stirring nations and peoples, opening new vistas, and raising new hopes for the
future. Peoples inhabiting far-flung territories, with widely divergent cultures, find that
they all have one common ideal, one common rallying point, one common allegiance --
Nationalism. For the emerging nations of Asia and Africa have come to realize that their
aspirations to freedom, equality, social justice, prosperity, and peace can be achieved
only by a resolute assertion of the nationalist spirit.
Nationalism is the natural antagonist of colonialism. Nations that are still ruled
by imperial powers are rallying behind nationalist leaders to secure their independence.
Nations, like Indonesia and the Philippines, that have succeeded in regaining their
political independence must still rely on the nationalist spirit in their struggle against
colonialism. For the independence of countries such as ours cannot be complete until the
last traces of colonialism have been eradicated.
What are the basic components of nationalism? One is the growing and
deepening consciousness that we are a distinct people with our own character and spirit,
our own customs and traditions, our own ideals, our own way of thinking, our own way
of life. What sets us apart as a people distinct from any other are the experiences and
vicissitudes we have gone through together as a nation in our own environment. A
Filipino cannot assert this identity and call himself a nationalist unless he is one with his
people’s history and has enshrined in his heart the precepts and examples of our heroes
and martyrs.
Yet it is strange indeed for us to hear, in the very morning of our independent
existence, the voices of some of our own countrymen, decrying in borrowed accents and
servile flattery, the very nationalism that has made us what we are. The great and noble
achievements of our nationalism are depreciated; its very desirability is questioned. It is
mocked as impractical; it is disparaged as an actual danger to the prosperity of the
Republic.
We are beginning to catch up with the nationalism that is raging all around us in
24
Asia. But, perhaps, because of the corruption and the demoralization to which many of
us have been for years exposed as a result of alien interference in our political, economic,
and even educational life, and because of the evil proclivities of our leaders, the cause of
nationalism has not advanced as fast and as far as it should have. There are still in our
midst a few anti-nationalists. You can find them among those who covet positions of
privilege or influence but who can obtain them only by renouncing nationalism and
becoming advocates or agents of foreign interests. They are few today, but they are well
entrenched in the executive and legislative departments. And as the foreign stranglehold
on our national economy increases, their number will increase, unless the tendency is
counteracted by a stronger movement for nationalism.
Today, the prime problem of the nationalist is how to enlighten those Filipinos
who fail to recognize the root cause of their predicament, how to make them understand
that they are the victims of their own distorted ideas, planted and nurtured in their minds
by subtle colonialistic methods.
This task is made more difficult by the emergence in our midst of different types
of so-called nationalists who stand in the vanguard of this movement while blunting,
distorting, perhaps destroying it. First, there are the barong tagalog nationalists who deal
in superficialities. The sum total of their nationalism consists in singing the national
anthem in the national language, reciting the sophomoric piece "I am a Filipino", and
wearing the national costume. Then there are the "internationalist" nationalists, who
would rather sacrifice nationalist advances in the political and economic fields than dare
touch a hair on the head of one foreigner who must be granted national “parity” in the
name of “special relationship”, in exchange for a military protection of dubious value, at
whatever cost to us, Filipinos, in sovereignty, national dignity, and physical survival.
Finally, there are the hypocritical nationalists who mouth nationalist slogans but have no
intention of living up to them, or who actually use these slogans to camouflage their
active undermining of nationalist objectives, because to them there are authorities
superior to the Republic and laws superior to the Constitution.
Our peculiar situation has been heightened by the unique circumstances in which
we attained our independence. The other liberated Asian nations have been spared the
ambiguities under which we labor; they faced issues that were clear-cut; blood and tears,
25
exploitation and subjugation, and centuries of enmity, divided the Indonesians from the
Dutch, the Indians and the Burmese from the British, the Vietnamese from the French;
and their nationalist victories were not diluted by sentiments of gratitude, or by regrets,
doubts and apprehensions.
But an intensive and pervasive cultural colonization, no less than an enlightened
policy of gradually increasing autonomy, dissolved whatever hatreds and resentments
were distilled in the Filipino-American war, and, by the time of the enactment of the
Jones Law, promising independence upon the establishment of a stable government, an
era of goodwill was firmly opened, one which even the cabinet crisis under Governor
General Wood could only momentarily disturb. A system of temporary trade
preferences, under which our principal industries were developed, cemented the
relationship with the hard necessities of economic survival, for it was belatedly realized
that the same system of so-called free trade had made us completely dependent on the
American market. The vicissitudes and triumphs of the common struggle against the
Japanese Empire completed the extraordinary structure, and it was not at all strange or
unexpected that, when our independence was finally proclaimed, it was not so much as an
act of separation, as one of “more perfect union.”
Great numbers of Filipinos, therefore, pride themselves in professing fealty to
America even without the rights of Americans. Their gaze is fixed steadily and
unwaveringly on the great North American Republic, which is to them the alpha and the
omega of human progress and political wisdom.
The habit of continuously and importunely soliciting American assistance, and of
running to the seemingly inexhaustible treasury in Washington whenever faced with
financial difficulties, has only fostered a thoughtless and irresponsible prodigality, which
has already been condemned by the most responsible among the Filipinos and the
Americans, and has led to the preaching of the new gospel of self-reliance and self-help.
I cannot emphasize too strongly my firm belief and conviction that only an
administration which shall have Nationalism as the unifying factor and basis of its social,
political and economic policies can solve the grave, manifold problems which afflict our
country today.
Lack of Nationalism is behind the half-hearted attempts at industrialization,
26
because colonial minds do not dare take a step which would undermine the favored
positions of foreign interests.
Lack of Nationalism is behind our continued reliance on a disadvantageous raw
material export economy, because colonial minds believe that only by dovetailing our
economy with that of the United States can we survive as a nation.
Finally, lack of Nationalism is behind the weak, docile and unassertive policies of
our government, which have resulted in a high degree of foreign control over our
economic life, because colonial minds instinctively underestimate native wit, ingenuity,
and skill, while self-respect and self-reliance are strange concepts to them.
Since our lack of Nationalism has prevented us from using our resources in the
most effective way and primarily for our own benefit, we are today a poor nation beset by
problems of unemployment, low per capita income and underproduction.
Today the Nationalist struggle is far from won. There are elements in both parties
that seek to perpetuate colonial rule. Alien economic interests are trying hard to oppose
and to sabotage the movement. Some enemies of nationalism are fighting it frontally.
Others, masquerading as nationalists, are boring from within, acting as fronts for
powerful foreign interests, or seeking to emasculate its meaning by trying to limit its
operation to our cultural life alone so that the nation’s economic exploitation by aliens
may continue undisturbed behind a pleasant facade of cultural nationalism.
But these anti-nationalists must realize that their hours are numbered, that
everywhere there are unmistakable signs that the people are experiencing a reawakening
of the nationalistic faith which animated and gave meaning and substance to the lives of
their forefathers, a growing awareness and understanding of the vital importance of
reshaping our policies with a view to freeing them from alien control, so that, after our
economy shall have passed into Filipino hands, this and future generations may at long
last come into the full fruition of their priceless heritage.
I trust that a generation from now, the Filipino people may stand with legitimate
pride before the world and before history as a paragon of democracies; and that it may be
said of us that, in adversity, we were united and undismayed; in prosperity, magnanimous
and prudent; against dictators, whether fascistic, or communistic, or just opportunistic,
relentless and uncompromising; against demagogues, aloof and contemptuous; in
27
fulfillment of our duties, earnest and self-exacting; in love of country, pledged with “our
lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor,” and practicing a firm but restrained
Nationalism illumined by the thought that this world is one world and we are one with
humankind.
Only when we rise from the knees we have bent in beggary, and stand beside the
other nations of the world, not on crutches but on our feet, thinking and speaking and
acting as free men and as free citizens of a true Republic, in name and in fact, with
undivided loyalties to our own sovereign nation and people, and under a legitimate
regime dispensing justice and promoting the general welfare, then and only then can we
rightly claim to have achieved and deserved our independence, and have cause to indulge
in a national celebration of the glorious resurrection of our freedom after the long and
mournful season of its betrayal, passion and crucifixion.
I place in your hands this message, from one whose authority is a firm conviction
and a lifelong experience, and who, in his declining years, still loves to plant trees
knowing that he will never sit in their shade, happy in the thought with Tasio, the
Philosopher, that some day, in a distant future, one may say of him and the nationalists of
his generation: “There were those who kept vigil in the night of our forefathers.” (No
todos dormian en la noche de nuestros abuelos.)
Filipinism, Nationalism: this is my unconquerable faith and my burning hope... It
is the one logical and courageous answer of Filipino patriotism to all the plots and
designs to keep our people forever subservient to foreign interests. It is a banner of
freedom proclaiming the national interests of the people, to be promoted and safeguarded
by themselves, so that the fruits of their efforts and the wealth derived from their God-
given resources shall, at long last, accrue to them and thus enable all of our people to rise
above poverty and march on to prosperity, contentment, and dignity.
A Nationalist Crusade is long overdue. I have, in all humility and with dedicated
love of country and countrymen, undertaken to lead it. I am confident that our people
will rally behind it. As long as there is an ounce of breath in me, I shall never fold the
banner of this crusade. So help me God.
December 22,1984; January 15, 1985
28
III. OUR FUTURE UNDER THE CONSTITUTION

NOTE: This speech was delivered on February 8, 1960, on the Silver Jubilee of
an event that happened on February 8, 1935, at 5:45 in the afternoon, as recorded by one
of its most distinguished chroniclers, Dr. Jose M. Aruego. The text of the Constitution
was put to a final vote for its approval by the delegates to the convention. The vote was,
to all intents and purposes, unanimous, despite the negative vote cast by Delegate Cabili
which was not really a vote against the Constitution but a manifestation of his objection
to the method of enfranchisement of the province of Lanao for the election of its
representatives to the National Assembly. Delegate Cabili wanted an express provision
in the Constitution itself for the purpose and not mere constitutional authority for a future
ordinary enactment.
***
After voting on the Constitution, but before parting from one another, I gave a
valedictory ending in a paragraph which I am going to repeat, with your gracious leave,
in its original Spanish:
Pasaran, rodando al olvido y a la nada, los anos y los lustros; nuevas
generaciones sucederan a las presentes, cada cual con un ideario nuevo y su caudal de
progreso aumentado o disminuido a traves de siglos de ascension o decadencia; el
tienpo, en incesante devenir, hara en los mundos existentes su obra lenta, pero
inexorable, de renovacion y exterminio; y la humanidad, presa de nuevas locuras,
arrojara una vez y otra al incendio de las espantables guerras del porvnir los tesoros de
la civilizacion; pero cuando nuestros descendientes vuelvan la mirada al pasado en
procura de inspiracion y doctrina, y fijen su atencion en esta ley fundamental que ahora
sale de nuestras manos, confio en que la juzgaran reconociendo la alteza de nuestros
propositos y la magnitud de nuestro esfuerzo y veran que los cuidados y afanes que
orientaron el curso de nuestra labor no fueron para recoger aplausos del presente y
legar nuestros nombres al futuro en el bronce y marmol de una glorai perdurable, sino
realizar para nuestro pueblo, por medio de esta Constitucion aquel santo anhelo que
palpita en estas palabras llenas de sabiduria humana y de uncion divina con que un
ilustre prelado, gloria del sacerdocio indigena, invoco al Supremo Hacedor en aquel dia
memorable en que iniciamos nuestras tareas, “Senor, Tu, que eres fuente de todo poder y
29
toda bienandanza, haz de Filipinas un pueblo en el que reinas.”

It contained melancholy premonitions about the future, and what seemed to be a
prophecy of the total war that three years later was to bring misery and desolation to
mankind was nothing more than the knowledge acquired from history of a phenomenon
that recur in cycles. But because I spoke in your name and expressed your feelings my
parting words were, nevertheless, pregnant with hope for a great destiny for our people
and with faith in the merciful Lord Who at that very hour was bringing them out or
secular bondage.
That memorable day marked the birth of the Constitution of the Philippines.
Almost one half of those of us who participated in its writing have crossed the Great
Divide. The youngest among us today, like delegates Abella, Aldeguer, Canonoy,
Cloribel, Crespillo, Conejero, Duguiang, Galang, Gumangan, Jose de Guzman, Joven,
Melendez, Jesus Perez, Toribio Perez, and Velasco, may still hope to be among the
celebrants of the Golden Jubilee of the Constitution. Beyond that all of us, its framers,
shall be no more, but the Constitution shall, from one centennial to another, live through
the ages, as long as the Filipino nation shall live. In this quarter of a century of the life of
the Constitution we went through a world war, the cruelest that has ever scourged
mankind since Cain dipped his hands in Abel’s blood and three years of a most vicious
enemy occupation, but the nation and its Constitution have survived, and they shall
survive, because Divine Providence, whose aid and guidance we invoked in framing this
historical instrument, will not deny our people His sustaining care.
Our hope not only for national survival but for the realization of a great destiny
for our people is rooted in the firm conviction that the free and ordered life of our nation
depends upon the preservation of those ideals and injunctions proclaimed in the preamble
and the declaration of principles of the Constitution: conserve and develop the national
patrimony, promote the general welfare and insure the well-being and economic security
of all the people, renounce war as an instrument of national policy, but making the
defense of the state against aggression the prime duty of all citizens, and secure to this
generation and the succeeding ones the blessings of independence under a regime of
justice, liberty and democracy, forever united in a common destiny, under one flag and
one God.
30
In an American magazine (The New Yorker, Dec. 27, 1952) I read many years
ago that the original documents containing the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution of the United States were transferred from the Library of the United States
Congress to the National Archives Building. The editor of the magazine, after reporting
that a military escort and military band had attended them observed: “How
uncomplicated it looked, this physical act of guarding our greatness treasures! And
serene” -- he continued -- “life would be if the essence of the documents could be
guarded so easily, so precisely, and with such gay props as bagpipes and such exact ones
as machine guns! Ah, liberty” -- the magazine editor concluded -- “you look so simple
crossing town!”
We are perhaps in a clearer position. The war destroyed the original of the
Constitution, and we are free from any confusion between the historic document itself as
a treasured possession and the infinitely more precious spirit which it once embodied. It
is only the spirit of the great charter over which we must stand guard to preserve its
purity and integrity.
Yet we may regard that spirit to be too simple a thing, just a matter of
bureaucratic routine, adorned with good intentions and vehement protestations of loyalty
to the ideals of freedom. We may grow to believe that the Constitution will work on us
like grace from heaven, or like a guardian angel, benevolent and detached, leading us
away from temptations of personal vainglory and unbridled love of power and riches, and
delivering us from all the evils of misgovernment.
And yet such is not the case, for when the people no longer agree on the necessity
of living under the Constitution both in good and in bad times, when they are ready to
discard it for immediate material rewards or to close their eyes to its violation for
temporary advantage, the Constitution cannot work.
These are not idle speculations. Our faith in the Constitution has been repeatedly
tested by numerous events during the twenty-five years of its life and often found
wanting.
Let us ask ourselves certain questions and answer them honestly in the sanctuary
of our conscience.
Are we ready to defend the freedom of speech of those with whom we disagree,
31
of those whose concepts of society and political authority we violently detest? Are we
ready and willing to test the validity of our beliefs in the open market of ideas? Are we
disposed and willing to maintain the purity of suffrage even at the price of an adverse
popular verdict? Shall we keep faith with the Constitution even though it may mean the
sacrifice of our political fortunes or economic security?
Throughout the history of democracy men have faced these questions and have
seldom given clear and definite answers. In the late 1930s the German people, in their
millions, haunted by fear of Communism, groaning under the weight of the Treaty of
Versailles, desperately eager for security, infinitely weary of destitution and
unemployment, cast aside the Weimar Constitution and gave absolute power to a mad
dictator, only to suffer the calamitous consequences of such an injudicious choice. Can
we, who believe in democracy and in the advantages of our Constitution over any other
form of government, take for granted that our people, if put to the same test shall always
believe what we ourselves now believe, or that we ourselves shall always be true to our
present convictions?
In our country, democracy is still an educational process. We must train
ourselves in its principles and practices; we must help to train all the people by precept
and example; we must risk unpopularity and misunderstanding to show the people the
distant goals, the hidden dangers the necessity of temporary sacrifices if our democratic
system is to survive. And this obligation rests more particularly on those of us who had a
hand in the framing of the Constitution or who are vested with the powers of government
it has defined and provided.
I see around me tonight old and beloved colleagues of the Constitutional
Convention of 1934, I take it that not only they but all the Filipinos in this distinguished
audience are committed by their very presence here, to the defense of the Constitution. I
should like to see all of us unite in the common effort of making our people deeply
conscious that the Constitution must be obeyed by and enforced upon both rulers and
governed, and that its ultimate and permanent advantages will far outweigh any
temporary discomforts and privations we may suffer in enforcing it. Only thus can we
make certain that the Constitution shall long endure, and with it the system of
government and way of life which it was its purpose to establish, guarantee and preserve.
32
The plebiscite of 1935 that stamped its approval on the greatest instrument which
the Constitutional Convention adopted as the supreme law of the land, did not adjudicate
the question for all time. It was not a final judgment. In a democracy such as ours there
is a permanent plebiscite in which we cast our votes for or against the Constitution by the
way we act or fail to act.
For, let us not forget, the ideals of democracy, the spirit of the Constitution, not
only may be uprooted or felled by direct assault, but they can also wither through disuse
or abandonment. Inasmuch as in the course of our national existence we are bound to
face, oftener than not, the temptations of expediency and suffer frustration and the fears
that ripen into despair, the faith of our people in the Constitution must be constantly kept
militant, vigorous and steadfast.
I do not mean to underestimate the wisdom and maturity of our people when I say
that the gospel of democracy must be constantly preached to them. When even lawyers
cannot agree on what the Constitution says, it is folly to expect the lay mind to perceive
fully the implications and effects of any encroachment upon its dominions. When ancient
and cultured peoples have despaired of the efficacy of democratic processes in times of
upheaval, we can hardly expect our people to maintain an unwavering faith in the
Constitution under adverse circumstances, unless, in this formative period our Republic,
they are thoroughly acquainted with it principles and constantly disciplined in habitual
loyalty to them.
Their doubts and difficulties must, therefore, be squarely met and resolved as
soon and as often as they arise, and the dangers of hasty and opportunistic decisions
fearlessly and promptly exposed. Those who can now look beyond present fears and
desires must share their forebodings with the people, not in a spirit of vainglory, or
presumptuousness, or of defeatism, but simply in the consciousness of a common fate.
For all of us, regardless of party, regardless of ideology or condition, must suffer
equally from the debasement of the Constitution and the resulting impairment of
democracy. Isolated infractions, if left uncorrected may in time become a chronic
condition. If the Constitution is allowed to be violated in one provision, it will be easily
violated in another provision. If the Constitution is suspended as to one group of citizens,
it can be suspended as to another group of citizens. If one department of the government
33
can invade and usurp the powers of another, so can it invade and usurp the powers of still
another, so can it invade and usurp the totality of power.
And if, as a result, the Constitution falls, all of us shall fall with it, the learned and
the untutored, the foresighted and the improvident, the courageous and the hesitant, the
wealthy and the poor, the lovers of liberty and its enemies and detractors.
None of us can be sure that he will have no need of the Constitution; it behooves
us all therefore, to protect and preserve it for an evil day. The very persons who now
defy the Constitution or allow it to be subverted and undermined without protest, may
themselves cry out for its protection tomorrow, and bewail the loss of the guarantees that
they themselves destroyed or denied to their enemies. Then indeed may they weep like
Boabdil, the last Moorist king of Granada, who, pausing in his flight at a bridge for one
last look at his beloved city, wept for his lost dominions only to be bitterly reproached by
his mother in these unforgettable words: “Weep like a woman over the loss of the
kingdom you could not defend like a man.”
It is true that upon our judges rests the responsibility of interpreting and applying
the Constitution, finding its true spirit in and between the faltering language of its human
authors. The Congress has convened in regular session a few days ago in the usual
atmosphere of political intrigues, selfishness, and lust for power. Before the 100-day
period ends we shall, I am sure, witness bitter and protracted political battles between
Congress and the President, between the two houses of Congress and between the
members of each House not only among those professing diverse party loyalties but even
among those under the same political banner.
I am not to decry such conflicts when they arise from honest differences of
opinion and for altruistic motives. It is good, within limits, that we should disagree.
There are less chances that the people will be robbed and swindled of their rights when
their agents and trustees are mutually jealous and vigilant. Such conflicts and differences
are part of a democratic system; only tyranny can impose an artificial unanimity of
thought and action, the unanimity in a graveyard. Politics, by its very nature, is conflict,
and conflict for power, which is the most unrelenting of all conflicts.
Let us then congratulate ourselves that we still have the inclination and the ability
to disagree, to expose errors and misdeeds wherever they are found, and to detect and
34
resist any conspiracy to unite and seize political power, and in the end, to call upon the
people to restore the balance.
I am reminded of a character in Bernard Shaw’s play, The Devil’s Disciple. A
woman reputed to be religious, finds her faith shaken when she sees her enemies, whom
she considers sinful, succeeding and prospering while she fails, and she upbraids the
minister of the gospel with a heart full regrets for her virtue. “Why should we do our
duty and keep God’s law,” she remonstrates, “if there is to be no difference made
between us and those who follow their own likings and dislikings and make a jest of us
and of their Maker’s word?” I wonder if there are some of us who, like that embittered
old woman, believe that we should keep the Constitution and love democracy only in the
expectation of material rewards. Can our faith surmount the trial of suffering and resist
the temptations of prompt and relief in times of distress or ignore the lure of expediency
for the attainment of political ends?
What if we were facing a real national emergency? Could we be sure that the
majority of our people would not follow the sad examples of desperate and angry nations
in the annals of the democratic experiment, and that they will not discard the Constitution
to gain a delusive salvation?
Perhaps we believe in the Constitution only because it is the thing to do, because
we have learned its provisions by rote in school like arithmetic and spelling and the
Lord’s Prayer, and not because we sincerely and consciously believe it to be the best and
surest guaranty of our chosen way of life.
The Constitution, through which all good things in our democracy have come into
being, and without which they could not have come to be, is the light of our nation, but
this light cannot illumine those who neither understand it nor love it, because men of little
faith, Pharisees and money changers, generations of vipers, in the angry words of the
Lord, have hidden it under the bushel of their hypocrisy and greed.
Let us then bear witness to the Constitution, so that in the language of the gospels,
all the people may learn to believe. If our nation is to survive and attain greatness in
freedom, the Constitution must live in our actions, both as individuals; and as a people, in
the enlightened conviction and steadfast belief that only in the spirit of the Constitution,
infused in us, shall democracy abide with us and our nation forever enjoy the blessings of
35
independence under a regime of justice and liberty, and fulfill its destiny within the
Lord’s Kingdom.
Neither in the toils of the day nor in the vigils of the night can the sentinels of the
Constitution relax their vigilance. Let us all be wary and stand by our arms, lest, by
culpable tolerance or by a criminal negligence, our country should in some forbidding
future become a desolate Carthage, wherein only the naked ruins of our republic shall
remain, fallen monuments of the past in whose debris our descendants, by then the
forlorn bondsmen of some corrupt, despot, shall in vain endeavor to decipher the
language of the Constitution, inscribed, as in forgotten hieroglyphs, on the sarcophagus
of our dead freedoms.
February 8, 1960; January 9, 1985
IV. OUR CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

Note: On February 8th, 1985, on Recto’s 95th birthday, the 1935 Constitution
which Recto fathered would have reached the first 50 years of its existence. In 1949,
President Quirino did not go so far as to declare Martial Law and create a new
Constitution, but he suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus, for the same reason offered
by President Marcos in 1972: to save us from Communism. This triggered a
Constitutional Crisis similar to what we have today. Only the Father of the Constitution
could have reacted as Recto did. Only the brilliance of Recto could convince the
Supreme Court to repudiate the "emergency powers" exercised by the President in 1949,
something the Supreme Court of today failed to do in 1972.
The present 1973 Constitution has been subjected to a lot of Amendments -- 7 in
1976, one in 1980, 4 in 1984, a total of 12 amendments in 11 years, or an average of one
amendment every 11 months. On the other hand, Recto’s 1935 Constitution had 4
amendments in 38 years, or one amendment every 9.5 years. The American Constitution
existed for 197 years and was subjected to 22 amendments, or one amendment every 9
years. One is forced to conclude that our present constitution is either not well thought-
out, or is just being casually amended to meet the desires of the moment, and not one
“destined to endure for ages to come,” in the famous words of Justice Marshall.
The 1973 Constitution started out with a Parliamentary System headed by a
36
Prime Minister, something like the English system; then the offices of the President and
Prime Minister were merged during the transitory period; then separated again, this
time, we have a strong President under a system like that of France; with Amendment #6
it has acquired the trappings of one of those newly independent African states. Perhaps
ruling by decree can be beneficial in times of emergency under a wise and self-restrained
ruler; but it can be an instrument of abuse in the hands of an unscrupulous tyrant.
Claro M. Recto, the Father of our 1935 Constitution makes the point that WE are
the Constitution; that the “Constitution is only as good as the men who enforce it and the
men who obey and respect it.” Who shall rise to defend it, he asks, “when the people
shall have been inured to the repeated spectacle of the Constitution violated, the
Constitution defied, the Constitution desecrated and contemned?”
***
I wish to thank your President, my good friend Dr. de los Santos, as well as the
members of the administration, faculties, and student body of this university, for the
opportunity afforded me to be with you this evening. I have always entertained a high
and special regard for the University of Manila. In fact, I consider myself an alumnus of
this institution of learning, having received from it the honorary degree of doctor of laws.
Moreover, it has seemed to me that, without ostentation and false pride, the
University of Manila has quietly done more than its share in educating our youth in
nationalism, democracy, self-reliance, and industry. The high standards of its educational
mission were again demonstrated when a graduate of this university obtained the highest
rating in the last bar examinations.
I deem it not inappropriate, therefore, to speak before the students of this
university on what has become a grave national problem, calling for the prudent and
patriotic consideration of all our citizens. I refer to our chronic constitutional crisis; a
crisis, because the very effectiveness of our Constitution has been placed in doubt, and
chronic, because it has persisted for more than a decade.
Indeed, it has been more than a decade. From the year 1941 we have had, if we
are to confine ourselves to the legal technicalities, two legislative bodies in the Republic:
one, the Congress created by the Constitution and vested exclusively with the power to
make laws; and the other, the titular Chief Executive who, not content with the normal
37
executive and administrative powers granted to him by the Constitution, claims also,
under his so-called emergency powers, to exercise the prerogative to make laws. And
this has been done, with the sufferance until only recently of the majority in the
Congress, and with a Supreme Court crippled by an indecisive division.
Furthermore, from the year 1950, a vital part of the Constitution has actually
ceased to operate, and citizens of this Republic can be arrested without warrant, and held
under custody indefinitely, deprived of their liberty without knowing the charges against
them, without, in fact, any charges having been filed against them in a regular
information, and without either trial or bail. Again, I must repeat, this has been done, and
is being done, and, to all appearances will continue to be done, without the least protest
from the majority in the Congress, in the face of the self-contradicting pronouncements of
the Executive, and the inability of the Supreme Court to arrive at a valid judgment.
Surely, no one can honestly deny that in such a situation as we now find ourselves
in, there is a constitutional crisis, a grave and chronic constitutional crisis. When public
funds can be spent for purposes other than those for which they were appropriated by the
Congress; when in fact, they can be spent without authority of Congress and merely on
executive fiat; when, to make it still worse, they can be spent by executive fiat for private
purposes; and when all the safeguards provided by the Constitution against such practices
are set at naught, when neither Auditors General nor Houses of Congress can/or are
willing to prevent them; when the results of presidential and senatorial elections can
remain in doubt, in one case without hope of resolution, and in the other for what seems
to be an indefinite period; when the fundamental division of powers established by the
Constitution is defied, and the basic democratic rights of citizens can be suspended, and
yet the Congress does not act, and in fact the Senate cannot even organize itself, while the
Supreme Court is unable to render judgment -- that is a crisis, a continuing crisis, a crisis
the most grave, and a crisis, not only for the Constitution, but for the Republic itself and
its most cherished institutions.
Yet it is a crisis that few of us recognize for what it is. Men grow accustomed to
anything, and we have grown accustomed to this crisis. We have lived with it for more
than a decade, and it has lost its urgency and its sting. We were roused to excitement
over it briefly, in the sensation of famous test cases but the test case took their indecisive
38
and ambiguous place in the official reports, and the excitement died down. The crisis,
however, is still alive, and I am heartened by the fact that the House of Representatives
only the day before yesterday recognized the gravity of the situation by repealing the
anachronistic emergency powers, granted to President Quezon under actual enemy
bombing in 1941, yet sought to be exercised still in 1952 after the peace treaty has
brought that war officially to its end.
I am also gladdened by the fact that courageous members of the opposition in
both Houses of the Congress led by that great statesman and vir bonus, Dr. Jose P.
Laurel, have never tired to expose, at every opportunity that was opened to them, the
assaults that were being made, and continue to be made, upon the Constitution, and we
must continue to hold fast to the conviction that, sooner or later, these determined efforts
will bear fruit in obedience to the mandate of the people, and that reason and justice will
impose themselves on executive ambition, legislative submission, and judicial indecision.
Yet, even if the situation should be remedied, we would always be troubled by the
thought that it might happen again, and we must therefore look deeper into the causes of
the crisis. Whose fault is it? Is it the fault of the present Constitution? Does it carry
within it the seeds for its own destruction? Did the makers of the Constitution produce a
contradiction in terms?
There is a salutary doctrine in law that men cannot be held responsible for what
they cannot reasonably foresee, and today the members of the Constitutional Convention
of 1934 cannot be blamed if the Constitution they wrote is challenged by forces, events,
andantes of mind that they could not have reasonably foreseen.
The Constitution, as we wrote it, sought to provide for future contingencies, to
guard against human ambition, to make allowances for human frailty, to balance rights
with obligations, and freedom with authority, and to place careful limitations both on the
exercise of the powers of government and on the enjoyment of civil liberties, in the
interest of the commonweal and for the safety and preservation of the state.
I believe, in all humility, that the Constitution of 1935 was a good Constitution,
that it was as perfect as any human institution can hope to be perfect. Enforced, obeyed,
and interpreted, in the pristine spirit in which it was adopted and promulgated, by a
people dedicated to the ideal of self-government and human freedom which they had so
39
long pursued and saw at last within their grasp, the Constitution of 1935 could be an
inviolable sanctuary for our rights and liberties.
But it has not been so enforced, obeyed, and interpreted. Its best intentions have
been perverted, its balanced machinery upset, its mandates defied and ignored, its most
basic guarantees violated by men who have interpreted it in the false light of their own
political convenience.
The Constitution omitted, for example, to provide for a presidential electoral
tribunal because we could not reasonably foresee that unscrupulous and unprincipled men
in the very seats of government would, by the cynical and ruthless use of terrorism and
indiscriminate fraud, and relying on their official immunity from accountability, place in
doubt the results of the election for the very Chief Magistracy of the Republic.
We could not reasonably foresee that, in total disregard of the most sacred and
solemn oaths of office, and in violation of manifest duties to the people and the
Constitution, the exercise of dictatorial powers would be sought, and the most cherished
rights of a democracy suspended.
We could not reasonably foresee that the very men charged with upholding and
defending the Constitution would be the very first to violate and prostitute it.
We could not reasonably foresee that the fundamental democratic process of
election would be subjected, to suit the convenience of the party in power, to the
infamous device of block-voting, and thus the Constitution failed to prohibit this
ingenious instrument for the commission of indiscriminate electoral frauds, which has
given us a President without a people, and a people without a President.
These are only some, the most outstanding, of the breaches opened in the
sanctuary of the Constitution by the malice and perversity of men, breaches which have
had indeed such grave and fundamental effects that they have already opened the way for
open rebellions and undermined the very foundations of our faith in democracy.
The Constitution, as we wrote it, sought to provide for future contingencies, to
guard against human ambition, to make allowances for human frailty, to balance rights
with obligations, and freedom with authority, and to place careful limitations both on the
exercise of the powers of government and on the enjoyment of civil liberties in the
interest of the commonweal and for the safety and preservation of the state.
40
It was to repair the damages that the Constitution has suffered, before it is too
late, that I recently proposed that we reexamine our Constitution. It was for this reason
that I suggested that a new Constitutional Convention be elected in presidential elections
of 1953, and convened immediately thereafter, in order to formulate a new Constitution
that, reflecting our tragic experiences with unmeasured ambition and criminal folly,
would prove unassailable by even the most subtle or brutal of tyrants.
There has been a growing clamor for this reexamination in recent years,
particularly after the elections and events of 1949. A project for the general revision of
the Constitution was submitted to the Senate in that year. Amendments of particular
provisions of the Constitution have been imposed in the House of Representatives this
year.
I must admit that our first and only experiment in amending the Constitution has
had unfortunate results, and has only confirmed the wisdom of the Convention of 1934.
Our experience with those amendments is perhaps the root of the sincere opposition to
any further changes.
The abolition of the single term for the President of the Philippines, made to
maintain the late President Quezon at the helm of the ship of state on the basis of the
sophism that a six-year term is too short for a good president when it should be long
enough even for the best of presidents, has, in our days, given us presidents who are more
intent on promoting their reelection than the best interests of the people, presidents who
claim against all the available evidence that they are good presidents, so good that not to
extend their terms would presumably be a crime against the people, presidents from
whose actions it may be gathered that a life term would not be long enough for them.
On the other hand, the abolition of the unicameral National Assembly, and its
substitution with a bicameral Congress intended to provide a so-called “school of national
leaders” in a Senate elected at large by the entire country, has given us, not new national
leaders, but political adventurers who, from their anonymity, through the undemocratic
systems of party conventions and block-voting, abetted by a nationwide display of fraud
and terrorism, were catapulted to the highest national positions in the government of this
Republic.
But if these amendments of 1940 were bad, that is only all the more reason to
41
discard them now. And if these amendments, proposed by a subservient National

Assembly to please and flatter an imperious leader and subsequently adopted by an
indifferent electorate in a sham plebiscite, were ill-advised, that is only all the more
reason to place the task of reexamining the Constitution in the hands of an independent
Convention, as in 1934, at the very least to get rid of these amendments and to return to
the original Constitution of 1935.
I believe, however, that both the Senate and the House have vested interests in the
present Constitution, and may be unable to consider its amendment with entire
impartiality. Senators elected by block-voting will perhaps be tempted to vote against a
constitutional provision outlawing it. Senators elected at large will perhaps resist the
restoration of senatorial elections by districts. Similar considerations may affect the
deliberation of the House, whose members would insist that the Senate and the Lower
House should have the same prerogatives and functions, in which case one of them would
be a surplusage.
Furthermore, the dangers that we face, experience has taught us, cannot be
conjured by mere statutes because they involve basic principles of the Constitution.
Although the House of Representatives has at long last awakened to the necessity of
vindicating its exclusive constitutional prerogative of making law by decreeing the
abrogation of the emergency powers act of 1941, although the Senate may concur, and
although both may override the presidential veto, which is next to impossible, knowing,
as we do, the temper and inclinations of their majorities; even if the Congress may
declare that there is now no basis for the suspension of the privileges of habeas corpus,
and the Supreme Court may admit to bail persons now being held without an information
and without trial, yet the materials for another crisis would continue to exist unless the
Constitution is reexamined directly in the light of our experience in the practical working
of these provisions which so deeply affect our form of government and the fundamental
rights of the individual.
Only a Constitutional Convention, expressly elected for that purpose, in the
manner and in the spirit of 1934, can undertake this task, and undertake it with
detachment and impartiality to make sure that what has happened already will never
happen again.
42
Indeed our actual experience in the past few years is the best argument for a
reexamination of the Constitution. No Filipino with an understanding of the basic
premises of democracy would willingly place his life, liberty, and property at the mercy
of power-drunk officials intent on assuring their continuance in power.
And if we should, the root of the opposition to it are precisely those who have
breached it and assaulted it, and profited from the crime, and who now seek to perpetuate
the misinterpretations and violations of a Constitution that was intended for men of good
will, but was tragically subverted by men of boundless ambitions and perversity.
The life of any Constitution is the love of freedom in the people it serves. A
people like the Russian masses may have what is theoretically the best Constitution in the
world, but it will avail them nothing if they submit to a tyranny that makes such a
Constitution a mockery and a fraud. On the other hand, a people like the English may not
have a written Constitution at all; they may theoretically depend upon the shifting
judgment of their Parliament on what their constitutional traditions are; but their
freedoms are safe and inviolate because they know the worth of those freedoms and
guard them with their lives.
We must aspire to build our democracy upon such a pattern, for it is not for
nothing that the English have the best and oldest democracy in the world. We must learn
to make democracy more than a word, a slogan, a fetish and to look upon it as a dynamic
thing, a practical business, not only something to live with, but also something we must
live in, and live by, and live for, something that must work for the welfare of our people
if it is to mean anything.
We must learn that democracy is not a lifeless idol but a living being, and we
must train ourselves to keep it alive with our loyalty, our devotion, our every thought,
word, and action. The best amendment to the Constitution for the sake of that democracy
would be the amendment of our own lives, the amendment of our attitudes, outlook, and
actions, the realization that we are free men, and the resolution to live and act as free
men.
The free and ordered life of our nation depends upon the preservation of the
Constitution. Without its orderly processes and guarantees, its discerning allocation of
governmental authority, and its calculated system of checks and balances, it would be
43
difficult, not to say impossible, for our people to choose a truly representative
government, or having chosen it and entrusted it with power, to protect themselves from
its deterioration into an irresponsible and tyrannical oligarchy.
And yet our Constitution, or any constitution for that matter, does not and cannot
work miracles. Its lofty declaration of principles, its wise commands and injunctions, are
neither the open sesame to all the promised treasures of a republican regime, nor a magic
formula which by mere fiat will restore youth and vigor to a decrepit polity. It is an
instrument, noble, it is true, in its origin and purpose, but a very human thing, and it can
only attain validity and dynamism with popular consciousness, faith and militancy.
A Constitution is only as good as the men who enforce it, and the men who obey
it and respect it. We may embody in a new Constitution the lessons we have learned, in
peace and in war, from contemporary rackets, shady deals, administrative inefficiency
and scandals, vacillating and temporizing tribunals, communist subversion, and open
rebellion. We may foresee all that can be reasonably foreseen. And we may have as a
result a theoretically perfect instrument to promote the general welfare.
But if the men entrusted with the enforcement of the Constitution are the first to
violate it, to ignore it, and to evade it, if the men who have taken public office, swearing
on the Constitution, are the first to call it a scrap of paper to avoid its injunctions and
disobey its mandates, then no Constitution can work.
And if we the people permit such men to remain in power, fear to denounce them,
compromise with their misdeeds, and perhaps even profit from their violations, then we
are a people that do not deserve a Constitution.
We are the Constitution in the sense that it can live only in us, through us, for us,
and because of us. The best amendment to the Constitution would be the amendment of
our lives, the amendment of our attitudes, outlook and actions, the realization that we are
free men, and the resolution to live and act as free men.
Let us so live and act that our lives and deeds will be the safest stronghold against
the abuse of tyrants, the schemes of the ambitious, and the cupidity of the corrupt. Only
thus can we have a Constitution worthy of our great libertarian patrimony and the heroic
ancestors who founded it, for us to preserve it and protect it, for us to enjoy in perpetuity
its incomparable blessings.
44
When the balance of power which is the soul of democracy is destroyed, the
outward forms of democracy become meaningless. When President and Congress,
joining the power of appointment with the power of confirmation, the power of
legislation with the power of enforcement, the power to declare a policy with the power
to carry it out, the power to raise money with the power to disburse it, conspire in the
interest of total power by one man or one party, then democracy is in peril of its life.
No matter what the Constitution may say, such a joint power can exert well-nigh
irresistible pressure on the courts, wear out the rights of the people through the erosion of
repeated encroachments, or carry them away in a bold sweep against which redress shall
no longer be found within the framework of the Constitution.
And who shall rise to defend the Bill of Rights, who shall rise to fight for the
supremacy of the Constitution, and how can those who may do so expect the support of
the majority of the people, when the people, by then, shall have been inured to the
repeated spectacle of the Constitution violated, the Constitution defied, the Constitution
desecrated and contemned?
The obligation to uphold and defend the Constitution is, I should repeat, even
more pressing on those who enjoy the powers and privileges it has provided. They are
creatures of the Constitution. They are sworn to protect, obey and defend it. And by the
very nature of their office, by the authority which invests their pronouncements and their
actions, they are the better placed to shape the mind of the people and influence their will
and course of conduct.
It is incumbent upon our judges to interpret and apply the Constitution, finding its
true spirit in and between the faltering language of its human authors.
It is our manifest fortune as a democracy that we have been endowed with learned
and upright judges throughout our modern history, from the days of the Arellanos and
Mapas and Araullos, to the present; judges like those of Israel, whose verdicts were not
only testimonies of the truth but lessons and examples to their people in the face of
tyrants. The popular faith in the courts, by and large, remains unshaken, something
which can hardly be said of the other two departments of the government.
But the Constitution, after all, is political law, and democracy is a political
system, and it is inevitable that both the Constitution and democracy should be the
45
particular concern of the two political departments of the government. They it is that are
called upon to lead in the preservation of the system of government we have rightly
chosen, by showing in words and deeds that it can succeed, and succeed more fully than
any other system, in any conceivable situation, for any legitimate objective.
The Constitution is not, and should not be, an idol under strict taboos. It is not,
and should not be, a straitjacket for the growing and developing nation which it was made
to serve. The Constitution itself outlines the procedure for its own amendment, and is
thus expressly devoted to the principle that it is neither inviolable nor permanent, but a
working instrument to secure the general welfare of the people.
In truth, actual events “tamper” with the Constitution much more than persons or
parties. History reveals its defects and dangers. I believe we can do better service to the
Constitution by remedying its defects and meeting the criticisms against it, than by
closing our eyes to them in blind idolatry.
The Constitution of our Republic has known many enemies. It has felt the mailed
fist of the invader, the torch of rebellion, the corruption of imperialism, the criminal
assaults of its very sworn defenders and protectors. But I believe I do not exaggerate
when I say that it has survived the most sinister and deadly of all its dangers, the danger
of its own suicide.
For in the famous test cases whose decision we celebrate today (the Supreme
Court decisions against the emergency powers exercised by President Quirino), it was
pretended that the Constitution could be nullified by the Constitution itself, that the
provisions of the Constitution were at war with one another that an apparently
constitutional power and prerogative could be used and abused to destroy the entire
structure of our democracy. Fortunately for that Republic, the highest court of the land
has repudiated this preposterous theory of constitutional suicide. Fortunately for our
people, it has been solemnly proclaimed and declared, for all who love democracy to hear
and understand, that the will of one man, no matter how exalted his position as the chief
magistrate of the nation, cannot prevail against the Constitution.
God save the Constitution from personal ambition and partisan corruption. God
save the Constitution from the inroads of imperialism and all forms and brands of
totalitarianism. I give you the Constitution, that sacred “scrap of paper” which is the
46
embodiment of the fondest hopes, the noblest ideals, the most cherished rights, and the
inalienable freedoms of the Filipino people, the sacred scrap of paper which like another
sacred scrap of paper, the ballot of every free citizen of this Republic, is our inviolable
stronghold against tyranny and oppression, the impregnable bulwark of justice, freedom
and liberty, and the guarantee of our democracy and our victory!
Long live the Constitution!!
February 16, 1952; December 22,1984
V. ECONOMIC NATIONALISM
Note: In anticipation of Recto’s 95th birthday anniversary on February 8th, this
speech dated March 28, 1957 is offered to a generation that has never known such great
man, and is now suffering an economic crisis resulting from policies imposed by
Extraneous Forces long decried by Recto. It is specially offered to the 3 Vs -- Prime
Minister Cesar Virata, NEDA Director General Vicente Valdepeñas and CRC head
Bernardo Villegas who mouth the IMF doctrine of “Export Oriented Agriculture” so
diametrically opposed to the Economic Nationalism of Don Claro. To be kind, we do not
believe that Virata and Villegas seriously accept what the IMF prescribes -- they lack
conviction when they speak -- Virata with his hesitant speech, and Villegas with his
indeterminate bobbing of the head halfway between the shake of a No and the nod of a
Yes. In the case of Valdepeñas, we suspect he is afflicted with the post-hypnotic
suggestion of the late Father McPhelin who within his fruitful lifetime managed to set
back Civil Rights in Cornell University saying that blacks are biologically inferior and
getting thrown out as an exchange professor, and also to dim the cause of Nationalism in
the Ateneo University, with his obnoxious colonial espousal of IMF policies.
***
If according to Webster, “nationalism” and “patriotism” are synonymous, then, to
be a patriot is to be a nationalist, and vice versa.
It is for this reason that I do not believe in qualifying “nationalism” with such
restrictive adjectives as “positive” and “balanced.” To dilute nationalism thus would be
like emasculating “patriotism.”
Assuming that we are agreed on the concept of Nationalism which, as applied to
47
the Philippines, and in the light of Webster’s definition, is devotion to, and advocacy of
Filipino interests and Filipino unity and independence, zealous adherence to our own
Filipino nation and its principles, in brief, Filipino patriotism, let us examine what are the
present realities and those that characterize our “special relationship” -- so it is called --
with the United States.
Ours is still the underdeveloped country that it has been for centuries. And while
our population has increased our economy has lagged behind. Mass poverty and mass
unemployment have been the logical and inevitable results. It cannot be doubted that if
things continue drifting the way they have been, we will soon fall prey to communism,
for the decisive battle against this enemy shall be fought in the social and economic field,
and won only by giving all the people economic security and comfort, and not through
lip-service to democracy and tongue-lashing against the communists, or through
injudicious amendments of our time-tested codes and statutes that will place our
freedoms and liberties at the mercy of the power-mad and the unscrupulous. Only a bold
competent leadership can produce the break-through that will set us moving away from
this extremely perilous situation.
This requires economic planning which should be the government’s special
concern, because it has been our sad experience that private Filipino entrepreneurs,
without government initiative and intervention in the form of incentives or aid, have not
been able to offer opportunities for increased production, employment and decent
livelihood for all the people.
Our economy is heavily dominated by non-nationals. They have, per capita, more
income than our own people, which is understandable since capital, which here is to a
large extent foreign, begets profits, and profits increase capital that begets further profits,
while salaries and wages which, in general terms, constitute the share of the people in a
colonial economy, are never high enough to allow their recipients much beyond their
needs for daily sustenance, and almost nothing for savings. If, therefore, we mean to
develop an economy that will bring welfare and economic security to our people, the
pattern must be changed.
In the last three years I have been trying to show in a series of public addresses
why the Philippines must industrialize, by citing America’s own experience in
48
developing her economy from the agricultural or rural to the industrial stage. For the
benefit of those who still believe that to ensure our prosperity we must remain producers
of raw material for the use of industrial countries, and consumers of finished products
manufactured by the same countries, I beg to state anew my position in this regard with
the aid of unimpeachable historical facts and statistical data.
In 1820 the ratio of America’s working force engaged in agriculture to her total
working force was 71.8%. Which means that, as the case is with the Philippines today;
her major activity in 1820 was agricultural. In the decades that followed there was a
gradual reduction of the percentage: in 1830 - 70.5%; in 1840 - 68.6%; in 1850 - 63.7%;
in 1860 - 58.9%; in 1870 - 53%; in 1880 - 49.4%; in 1890 - 42.6%; in 1900 - 37.5%; in
1910 - 31%; in 1920 - 27%; in 1930 - 21.4%; in 1940 - 17.6%; in 1950 - 11.9%. Today
the ratio is about 5%. These figures show that from 1820 to 1870 America was
predominantly an agricultural nation, but that she became less and less so as she changed
the quality, pattern or structure of her economy in the last quarter of the last century, until
she attained her present position as the most highly industrialized nation and
consequently the wealthiest and most prosperous in the world.
These figures indicate not only that there has been a continuous reduction in the
ratio of the agricultural labor force to the total working force but also that there is a
necessary correlation between prosperity or higher production and reduction of the
working force engaged in agricultural activities.
Looking at it from a slightly different angle, we shall find that in 1910 the farmer
population in the U.S. was 34.7% of the total population and the agricultural income was
16% of its total national income. Since 1910, the percentages of the farm population and
of the agricultural income fell continuously every decade, so that in 1952, the farm
population was only 13.4% of the total population and the farm income only 6% of the
total national income. According to the latest figures the farm income in the United
States, as of 1955, was only 3.9% of the total national income, and this despite the
existence of agricultural surplus. From these facts it is clear that, as the share of its farm
income in the national income has decreased, the U.S. economy has prospered and
progressed, and that in any given year or number of years the proportion of agricultural
effort to the total economic effort has been always larger than the proportion of the
49
agricultural product to the total product. It is for this reason that economists describe
agricultural occupations as occupations of low marginal productivity. Conversely, the
share of manufacturing industries in the total product is always bigger than the
corresponding share of manufacturing effort (working force) in the total economic effort.
Thus the economists describe manufacturing occupations as occupations of high marginal
productivity.
The UN figures make the case airtight for industrialization. The relative value of
output per worker in agriculture and in manufacturing was recently studied for seventeen
nations, and it was found that with the value output per worker in agriculture as basis for
comparison set at 100, the value of output per worker in manufacturing is always above
100, ranging generally from 200 to 400 or even 500. In the United States, it is 227; in
Poland, 335; in Norway, 402; in Greece, 577. Said the report: “The value of output per
worker is generally higher in industry than in agriculture and this difference is especially
large in underdeveloped countries. In industrialized countries, mechanization and
modern practices in agriculture are important factors tending to raise the value of
agricultural output per worker to levels approximating those attained in manufacturing
and mining.” Statistics show that farm workers have the lowest income, with the only
exception of those in the domestic service. Thus, with the exception of servants, the
agricultural workers anywhere are the workers that produce the lowest value.
In the light of the above statistics no Filipino economist could be so stubbornly
skeptical as not to believe that Industrialization is the key to economic progress and that
an industrial economy like that of the United States or Britain should be our goal.
From the experience of all industrial countries we have learned that economic
progress requires the shifting of the major part of the people from the soil to industrial
pursuits. Rural development program must go on, but we must always bear in mind that,
as has been the case with other countries, increase in agricultural productivity and in
agricultural production can never hope to keep up with the growth of our population.
People in the rural areas should for their own benefit gradually turn to industry, for it is
there that they will find deliverance from an occupation which, according to the UN
Report I have already cited, for the greatest efforts gives the least returns to the worker
outside of domestic servants. It is disheartening to note that because of false propaganda
50
this is not yet fully understood amongst our people, due to the fact that our leaders have
been allowing themselves to be misled for a long time. It is only fair that they know the
truth, and it is for this reason that I decided to expose the defects of an agricultural
economy and the evils of a program designed to tie us down to such an economy.
Russia today, with all her undemocratic and godless ideology that we detest, is the
second industrial power in the world. Communist China’s amazing progress in this field
is nowhere denied. It must be on the basis of these facts that Toynbee predicted that
before the end of this century the major powers of the world would be China, the Soviet
Union, the United States, India, Germany and Japan, in that order. Why have Russia and
China progressed so fantastically in their economic development? Certainly not because
of their resources because they had those resources during their long period of economic
backwardness. Neither is it because of communism, since non-communist countries like
Britain, the United States, Germany and Japan had progressed just as fast. It must be
industrialization, their common denominator.
We must, of course, begin with industries which will use primarily raw materials
produced here, and will gradually fill the needs of our own local market, but heavy
industry - base metals, power and fuel, machine tools, machinery and chemicals ---
should not be ignored. For obvious reasons, heavy industry is the basis of any
industrialization, for it is heavy industry that insures greater potentialities for continued
increase in the production of consumer goods.
For our industrialization foreign capital is needed. But by foreign capital I mean
loans in the form of capital goods coming from foreign sources, not capital as
investments owned by foreign investors.
Time and again I have voiced my opposition to further direct investments here.
And my stand is based both on political and economic grounds. As a writer in the N.Y.
Times Weekly Review (Aug. 5, 1956) has well pointed out, foreign investment is closely
linked with political power, and “Economic independence may be far more important
than political independence. Hence the fear in some countries that foreign capital may
undermine their independence.”
Recently two distinguished Americans gave the same warning to the Filipinos.
One of them, who was here three months ago, Mr. John I. Snyder Jr., President of the
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“U.S. Industries Incorporated” said that: “The Filipinos should guard their patrimony
zealously and institute executive and legislative safeguards or controls against greedy
foreigners who want to acquire wealth quickly.” The other, James M. Langley, former
Chairman of the American panel that negotiated with his Filipino counterpart the revision
of the Bell Trade Agreement resulting in the Laurel-Langley Agreement, recently warned
that “it would be disastrous to local trade and commerce if too much foreign investments
were permitted to engage in industrial and commercial enterprises here.”
Although it must be admitted that there is need for dollars for the importation of
capital goods from abroad, it should not be overlooked that in any industrialization we
have to depend mostly on internal financing. The reason is obvious. For payment of
wages, which constitutes the bulk of the cost of production, and of raw materials locally
produced, we use our currency. We only need dollars or yens or pounds for foreign
purchases. I am afraid we have become unduly dollar-conscious as if our economy
depended under all circumstances on the dollar. That is, I believe, a mischievous error,
obviously inspired and fostered by those who will benefit from our continued dependence
on the dollar. It is, therefore, necessary to emphasize the fact that in any economic
development the chief instrument of the entrepreneur is the local currency -- the peso, in
our country -- and not the dollar.
In our historical archives there is no declaration of independence except that of
Kawit. But that independence was buried in half a century of foreign domination. When
we regained our independence in July 1946, we did not make a declaration for the
purpose; we were satisfied with a Proclamation issued by the American President, it was
the American concept, not ours, of Philippine independence that was placed in the
document: a grant, not an assertion of rights. We became officially independent in the
community of nations, but are we truly independent for instance, in the realm of foreign
relations, national defense, finance and economics? Shall we blame on others our own
shortcomings and complacency?
But we must not despair. A true national awakening shall doubtless come. The
ranks of nationalists cannot but increase; the collective conscience continues to grow; the
day of realization nears, because the moving finger continues to write. And someday this
nation will realize, and will shape in deeds, Mabini’s puissant and uncompromising
52
exhortation which just before the turn of the century: “Strive for then independence of
thy country because thou alone hast real interest in its greatness and exaltation, since its
independence means thy own freedom, its greatness thy own perfection, its exaltation thy
own glory and immortality.”
For our country today, industrialization and nationalism are twin goals. Indeed, they
are two sides of the same coin. Nationalism cannot be realized and brought to full
flowering without a thorough-going industrialization of our economy by the Filipinos
themselves. And you cannot have an industrialized Philippine economy controlled and
managed by Filipinos without the propulsive force of a deep and abiding spirit of
nationalism.
The propulsive force that will take us to our economic goal is nationalism. We
achieved political independence, or the restoration of our sovereignty as a people, by
asserting consciously, fearlessly, and unceasingly, our aspiration to become a free and
independent nation, until the foreign sovereign. power, America, finally agreed to the
restoration of our independent political status. In other words, we asserted the
prerogatives of our nationalism. Today, we are free politically, but we are far from free
economically. A nation that has been a colony for a long time cannot and does not, on
the day of its political independence, achieve simultaneously its economic independence.
But we have had ample time to be well past the first stages of the transformation, and we
would be so now were it not for the stubborn insistence of past administrations to cling to
the old system. That transformation can still be worked out by the people themselves,
under the guidance and inspiration of their leaders, through the stimulus of wise and
farsighted policies, perhaps with calculated sacrifices, and perhaps also with the advice
and suggestions of disinterested foreign friends. It is the people, through their leaders,
who must achieve economic freedom, or the change from a colonial pattern of economy
into an independent one. Only economic nationalism will enable us to achieve basic and
lasting solutions to our problems of mass poverty, unemployment, underproduction,
perennial trade imbalance, and misery and backwardness in the midst of rich natural
resources and abundant manpower.
My program of industrialization is a logical outgrowth of my stand on Philippine
Nationalism. Nationalism in the economic field is the control of the resources of a
53
country by its own people to insure its utilization primarily for their own interest and
enjoyment. Its political expression is independence and sovereignty, the desire to he
treated with respect by all other nations, and to decide, without bowing to outside
pressure, the most advantageous course of action for a country vis-a-vis these powers.
This political aspect of nationalism becomes a dynamic mobilizing force which insures
the realization of the economic objectives. In turn, the economic objectives lend practical
reality to the fight for sovereignty.
What does economic nationalism mean for us, Filipinos? Economic nationalism
means the control of the resources of the Philippines so that they may be utilized
primarily in the interest of the Filipinos. What course does this economic self-interest
indicate for the Philippines at the present time? I have demonstrated by means of facts
and figures that a raw-material exporting nation, that is, an agricultural nation, is always
dependent on a manufacturing nation. In any relation between the two, the industrial
nation is the gainer, the agricultural nation, the loser. This is implicit in the fact that we
export our raw materials cheaply, because we cannot use them as such; and we import the
finished products at high prices, because we need them in our daily lives. Clearly, under
this set-up, we are not in control of our natural resources for our best interest. But if we
industrialize, we shall no longer be at the mercy of manufacturing nations, and, in more
and more instances, as we thoroughly industrialize, our own people shall become the
beneficiaries of the values added to raw materials by the manufacturing process. There is
no question, therefore, that economic self-interest demands that we industrialize.3
The simple meaning that may be given to economic nationalism is a nation’s
aspiration, desire, and willingness to improve its material and cultural condition through
its own talents, resources, and sustained labor, and for the benefit of the whole national
community. Its mainspring is a strong sense of togetherness of the people in a common
desire to progress, to improve livelihood, to achieve worthy and noble things, to enhance
the good name, even the glory;, of the national community, of the country which is the
homeland, of the flag which symbolizes country and nation and the nation’s history and
ideals.
March 28, 1957; December 22, 1984
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HISTORY AND ECONOMICS
Who Said That?

It may surprise Filipinos who worship white Americans, that according to a
Newsweek cover story (May 18, 1992), Asian Americans, mostly of Chinese origin (23
% of the group), Filipino (19 %) and Japanese (12 %), have outscored white Americans
and all racial groups in national math tests at all levels.
On the 1990 college entrance exams, they averaged 61 points above the mean in
math, the highest of all US students, and came in a close second to the Whites in the
verbal tests -- despite the fact that half said English was not their first language.
At Harvard 18 % of the graduating class of 1996, are Asian-Americans who
comprise only 3% of the total population. Moreover, Asian families earn an average of
$35,900 per year, more than the average for White families.
We’ve heard many stories .about Filipinos and other Asian children excelling in
class in America. Many of these kids, some of them newly emigrated to the US, were
just ordinary students back in the Philippines. With that pat on the back, we share this
story forwarded in the Internet by Bobby Tordesillas
***
Ii was the first day of school in Washington, DC, and a new student named
Dagohoy, the son of a Filipino immigrant, entered the fourth grade.
The teacher began, “Let’s review some American history, class. Who said ‘Give
me liberty or give me death’?” She saw a sea of blank faces, except for Dagohoy’s who
had his hand up. “Patrick Henry, 1775,” he replied.
“Very good,” said the teacher. “Who said ‘Government of the people, by the
people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth’?” Again, no response except
from Dagohoy: “Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, 1863,” he said.
The teacher snaps at the class, “Class, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
Dagohoy who is new to our country knows more about our history than you do.”
She hears a loud whisper from the back: “Screw the Filipinos.” “Who said that?”
she demanded. Dagohoy put his hand up, “General John Pershing, Manila, 1899.”
At that point, Jack, another student, says, “I'm going to puke.” The teacher glares
55
and asks, “All right! Now who said that?” Again Dagohoy answers, “George Bush Sr. to
the Japanese Prime Minister during the state dinner, Tokyo, 1991.”
Now furious at being shown off as an ignoramus, another American student yells
to Dagohoy, “Oh yeah? Suck this!!” Dagohoy jumps out of his chair waving his hand
and. shouts to the teacher at the top of his voice, “Bill Clinton to Monica Lewinsky, the
Oval Office, 1997!!”
Someone shouts, “You little shit, if you say anything else, I’ll kill you.” Dagohoy
yells, “Congressman Gary Condit to Chandra Levy, Washington, DC, 2001!”
The teacher faints. “I'm outta here!” mutters one student as he sidles to the door.
“President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Baguio City, December 30, 2002, when she
decided not to run for the presidency,” Dagohoy responds.
As the class gathers around the teacher on the floor, someone says, “Oh shit, now
we’re really in big trouble!” “Saddam Hussein, on the Iraq invasion, Baghdad, May
2003!” Dagohoy bellowed.
“Now, I really have to run,” Jack mutters, heading for the exit. “Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo again, Pampanga, October 4, 2003, when she changed her mind about
running,” Dagohoy shouts triumphantly, jumping with glee.
February 25, 2004, DWBR-fm
The Force Of Falsity

St. Thomas Aquinas once raised the question of which is more powerful, more
convincing, more constrictive: the power of the king, the influence of wine, the charms
of woman, or the strength of truth. All four can stir a human heart to some action, he
answered, the monarch by force of law, the wine a little more than woman, having
resisted the temptation when his own brothers sneaked a naked woman into his room in a
vain attempt to convince him to be a Benedictine instead of a Dominican. But the only
force that moves the speculative intellect, he said, is truth. Such is the force of truth, but
we know too that truth is elusive, and the path to it is strewn with blood and tears and a
multiplicity of falsehoods, not necessarily lies, but certainly errors. Can we then also
speak of the force of falsity? For false myths, religious revelations, and outright lies have
motivated many events of history, maybe even more than truth, so as “to subjugate the
56
learned, generate and destroy empires, inspire poets (not always witnesses to the truth),
and drive human beings to heroic sacrifices, intolerance, massacre, and the quest of
knowledge.” In the course of history, men have acted on beliefs not shared by others, so
that we must admit that for many, history has been largely the Theater of an Illusion. So
wrote Umberto Eco, Italian intellectual, novelist and essayist. And he provides many
examples.
The Ptolemic Theory of the sun revolving around the earth, evolved every
possible argument to compensate for the falsity of the image, inventing epicyles and
deferents, and even dividing the globe into parallels and meridian degrees that prove later
to be valid. But even Ptolemy knew the earth to be round, otherwise he wouldn’t have
divided it into latitudes and 360 degrees of longitudes; so did Erastosthenes 300 years
before Christ, and so did Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid and Archimedes. But still
the flatness of the earth persisted among Christians who argued that the earth is flat with
an arc that extends heavenward like a tabernacle – simply because they could not accept
the idea of antipodes on the opposite side of the earth where men walk with their heads
down and their feet in the air, hahaha. Columbus sailed west to prove that the world is
round, but he was wrong about the size of the earth. The sages of Salamanca who tried to
dissuade him from his quest, were more precise in estimating that the world though round
was vastly bigger than Columbus supposed and that Columbus was mad to
circumnavigate it. Though they were right, the sages of Salamanca were wrong; and
Columbus though he was wrong, faithfully pursued his error and proved to be right, for
between Europe and India lay a new continent. How fragile are the boundaries between
truth and error, right and wrong.
Another falsehood that changed history was the Donation of Constantine, a 1,600
year-old forgery supposedly written by Emperor Constantine giving the Catholic Church
dominion over the rulers of Europe. Without it there would have been no mortal struggle
for the Holy Roman Empire, no temporal power of the Popes, no Vatican state, no
Crusades, no Holy Inquisition. Also the forged Letter of Prester John, who supposedly
ruled a Christian kingdom in the Far East in the 12th century. Until the 17th century, the
Letter, generating a geographical fantasy, had a decisive importance in the expansion of
Christian West toward the Orient, including the travels of Marco Polo, and then to Africa
57
by Portuguese explorers. History indeed owes a lot to the force of falsity.

April 4, 2000, Philippine Post
Buying a new car.

The first car I remember riding as a toddler was a Model A Ford owned by my
father, with a rumble seat at the back into which we dumped all sorts of devices we
brought to the farm in Negros. Then I remember an old Hupmobile owned by my
grandfather who was then Governor and Congressman in Pangasinan. I remember
having a Chrysler Studebaker, then a succession of Chevrolets up to the time I started my
own family. Then in the 1950s came the Japanese revolution, started by Toyota. It was
simply amazing to behold a low-priced Toyota fully loaded with AM-FM radio and air-
conditioner, when such accessories had to be paid for at high prices after buying an
expensive American car. Toyotas became the standard used for taxi service, and they
were good and reliable. From then on it was Toyota for the family. The American gas
guzzling monsters were slowly and forever driven out of the market.
Then came the German revolution with the coming of the Mercedes 180 Diesel.
Diesel engines were heretofore used for big American trucks and buses. Now the
Germans were able to build it into a small sedan than can be efficiently maintained and
run on cheap fuel. So economical was the MB 180 that it in turn became the standard for
taxi service. I guess that was the start of my love affair with Mercedes Benz. For myself
and my growing children, it was Mercedes all the way, old ones, new ones. There was a
time I had a collection of 10 Mercedeses, including a MB 300 top of the line pre-war
model with a hydraulic lift that raised it high above the road; and a limousine that carried
9 passengers with jump seats, 2 air-conditioners, a Blaupunkt stereo with 10 speakers,
and a television set.
Mercedes Benz simply priced itself out of the market, with the help of auto
mechanics who charged five times more when fixing my Benz. And so after the Edsa
revolt, with the economy in doldrums, it was back to Toyota. In the meantime my sons
Atom and Danby continued their love affair with German cars – Mercedes, Porsche,
BMW. I flirted with Mitsubishi for a while, with the L-300 van and the Galant but one of
them happened to be a lemon, so goodbye to Mitsubishi, and back to Toyota Corona and
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a Mercedes 100 diesel van. When I decided to buy a new sedan, my son Atom offered to
give me one of his Mercedes Benzes. My other son Danby said it was not worth owning
a Benz, the maintenance cost is astronomical, P26,000 to replace the rear view mirror,
P40,000 to make one window go up and down. Danby who owns a Porsche, BMW and a
Benz, recommended that I buy a Toyota Camry, the bestselling car and the most
carnapped vehicle in the USA.
When my cousin Atio Maramba retired in IFC/World Bank, he had a Benz, a
Pajero and a Camry which he wanted his children to take over; everyone of them wanted
the Camry. My balae, Zosimo Angeles swears the Camry is the best car he ever had, and
after 9 years, he replaced it with another Camry. My son’s partner, Dennis Villareal says
the Camry is the best buy for the amount he paid. My cousin Tony Oppen has a Bentley
and several Benzes, but it is the Camry he uses most of the time. Discovery Channel
discussed the merits of the 3-series BMW, the C-Class Benz and the Toyota Camry, and
came to the conclusion that of the three the Camry is the most reliable, the best-priced,
and the cheapest to maintain. With less power (who needs power on city streets?),
“Camry had all the features of German cars at discounted prices.”
And I bought the Camry, a damn good car, and I have no reason to regret it.
August 4, 2003
THE LONG MARCH
1, The Long March, greater than Xenophon’s retreat

October is a significant month in the Chinese calendar. Firstly, there is the
Double Tenth celebration, to commemorate the birth of Sun Yat Sen's Republic on
October 10, 1911 and the birth of Red China on October 1, 1949. Then there is the Long
March of the Red Army from October 16, 1934 to October 25, 1935, a fabulous story of a
year-long defeat, death and transfiguration that is probably one of the greatest epics of the
triumph of the human spirit ever recorded by man. For us Filipinos, whether for
democracy or authoritarianism, socialism or capitalism, for colonialism or nationalism ---
there are lessons to learn, especially in these times when we are faced with rebellions on
our own soil.
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The Long March was the retreat of the Red Army of 90,000 soldiers in the face of
the "Final Extermination Campaign" by Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang Armies of nearly
a million men. Under the advice of German generals von Seekt and Falkenhausen, with
brilliant new tactics, the Kuomintang was able to decimate the 180,000 strong Red Army
in positional battles around towns and cities. Inevitably the Red Army lost, and after
suffering all but complete catastrophe, the Communist Central Committee decided to
leave control of the remains of the Red Army and its much shrunken base of operations to
a young man by the name of Mao Zedong.
With forces reduced to 90,000 man, with the enemy almost completely encircling
them, Mao's army had to face surrender --- or retreat which would have to be speedy,
secret, and in itself a running battle. Mao decided on retreat, and on October 16, 1934,
the Red Army with scanty supplies, abandoned their hard won base in Kiangsi Province
and started out on a strategic retreat which came to be known as the Long March.
A year later on October 25, 1935 when Mao Tse-tung and his army reached their
goal, the city of Yenan in Shenshi Province far in the northwest of China, the Red Army
was reduced to less than one twentieth of its original strength, from 90,000 to 4,000 men.
Their main route covered more than 6,000 miles, but with all the twists and turns, tactical
backtracking, and circumventions, very many units were to travel twice that distance.
That is like walking the whole distance from Aparri to Jolo seven times back and forth,
sick, scared and hungry, and being shot at every step of the way!!
Mao's Army marched 368 days, more than a year; crossed 18 mountain ranges
much higher than the Cordilleras; forded 24 rivers including the great Yangtze River;
crawled through icy mountain peaks with its blinding snowstorms, deep gorges and
ravines and towering cataracts, steaming jungles, dank forests, quicksand-filled marshes;
fought a skirmish somewhere along the way once a day; and fought 15 major battles each
as terrible as the Battle of Bataan. They passed through 12 provinces, each as large as the
whole Philippines, and eluded, tricked, or defeated Kuomintang armies numbering from
300,000 to 500,000 men, while breaking through the local forces of ten different
warlords. They marched through aboriginal territories in which no Chinese army had
been seen for centuries.
In Chinese, the Long March is translated as Chang Cheng. But the word Chang
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also invokes a meaning of immortality. Indeed it should be, because the Long March was
to be one of the greatest triumphs of men against all odds and over nature --- greater even
than the march of Xenophon's ten thousand Greeks in 401 B.C. from their defeat in
Babylon to the shores of the Black Sea as recorded in Anabasis. Compared to it,
Hannibal's crossing of the Alps, and Napoleon's Russian campaigns, even Hitler's retreat
from Moscow seem like barrio fiestas. (more tomorrow)
2. Good Manners and Right Conduct in warfare

What lessons do we derive from the Long March? What can our generals learn
from Mao? Ex President Fidel Ramos is a singing soldier, who printed a collection of
song hits for his soldiers to sing; he may be surprised to learn that the Red Army had
songs especially composed for them, to be memorized, sung and remembered by all
soldiers.
One song had words like these: "Help the people. Be polite and courteous.
Return all borrowed articles. Replace all damaged articles. Be honest in all transactions
with peasants. Pay for all articles purchased. Be sanitary. Build latrines at a safe
distance from people's houses. When you borrow a peasant's door for use as a bed, put it
back when you leave the house. When you borrow a straw matting to sleep on, roll it up
before you return it." Just a corny set of rules for good manners and right conduct, and
Mao Tse-tung won the war with it.
These rules were a revolution in Chinese military conduct. For thousands of years
the soldier had been dreaded and hated by the peasant, and the soldiers' conduct had been
a long story of rape, plunder and murder. But here was a new kind of army --- an army
that helped the peasants plant their grain and helped them harvest it; an army that did not
rob them but on the contrary taught them how to improve their native villages; an army
which took land from the landlords and gave it to the people; an army which, instead of
marching off the young men at gunpoint for military service, asked them to volunteer to
defend a common cause.
Furthermore, this was an army which fought well and was led by officers who
cared so much for the well-being of their men that they taught them to read and write.
Truly a unique army in the Chinese experience.
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It may surprise our generals to know that the Chinese also had their perennial
Muslim problem --- with the Chinese Muslims, fierce and fanatical, intermittently
warring against Chinese governments for centuries in defense of their rights and native
customs. Mao knew as he approached the Muslim territory, that if the Muslims were not
to attack en masse his weakened troops, they would have to be won by man-to-man
contact and personal examples of good conduct on the part of his troops. Mao issued a set
of rules:
1. Mosques and priests must be protected. Do not enter Holy Places. Do not stick
posters on the side of mosques.
2. Never eat pork, horse or mule in a Muslim house.
3. Leave Muslim women alone and never enter their houses.
4. Do not interrupt religious services.
5. Do not use Muslim baths.
6. Wash your hands before taking water from a Muslim well and never throw
water back into the well.
7. Call the Muslims "Old Compatriots" or "Old Cousins", but never use any term
of disrespect toward them.
8. Never mention pigs in front of a Muslim. Never ask them why they do not eat
pork or what goes on in their mosques.
9. Never drink or smoke in a Muslim house.
10. Explain to everyone the party's policy regarding the national minorities.
3. Self-sacrifice becomes a theatrical gesture

An ancient Chinese sage said: "The people are the water, and the Imperial
government floats atop the water." But Mao Zedong said: "The people are the water and
we are the fishes who swim in the water." Only a complete consolidation of people and
army could, he knew, lead to victory or even survival. Lacking arms and outnumbered
many times over, Mao's army followed this simple precept, seeking protection among the
people and emerging from them. Four simple tactical slogans were evolved and repeated
endlessly until every soldier understood them:
1. When the enemy advances, we retreat.
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2. When the enemy halts and encamps, we trouble him.

3. When the enemy seeks to avoid battle, we attack.
4. When the enemy retreats, we pursue.
Mao Tse-tung the poet would above all remind his soldiers, as Napoleon did
under the shadow of the pyramids, that they were actors in a great historical drama
performing before a vast audience of past, present and future: "The whole world is
watching you; your ancestors look upon you to revive the glories of the past; posterity
shall hear of you as part of the vision of a breath-taking future." In the face of such an
audience, self-sacrifice is robbed of its inconvenience and becomes a magnificent
theatrical gesture.
National glory is a theatrical concept born of Grand Illusions, and Mao would
make the most of it. Casting his people as the wave of the future moving inexorably
toward the horizons of a classless society, he made them endure sagas of heroism during
the Long March.
The early weeklong battle at Chiang River cost the Red Army more than half of
its troops, between 40,000 to 50,000 casualties in the first ten weeks. Shortly afterwards,
at Sunyi, Mao took complete command of the revolution after ousting the German
adviser sent by the Russians. After 3 months, having lost two thirds of its men and all of
its artillery, the Red Army headed into the endless wastelands of China, there to carve out
an epic of towering proportions.
Take the crossing of upper Yangtze, the "Gold Sand River." After tricking the
Kuomintang into sending its main forces to Kunming, and making friends with a captured
Kuomintang messenger with valuable information, Mao's army proceeded to cross the
river with nine small boats, each capable of carrying ten men at a time and taking 40
minutes to make the round trip. It took the army eight days and nights to complete their
crossing of the Gold Sand River.
Then the legendary exploits of the Twenty Two Heroes of Tatu, who made their
way hand over hand across twelve iron chains stretched between two mountains over a
chasm thousands of feet deep over the white-foamed Tatu River, in the teeth of heavy
enemy fire. Each carrying a Tommy gun, a broad sword and twelve hand grenades, they
were able to establish a bridgehead on the other side, while another company of troops
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laid new planks on the bridge.
4, The Grand Illusion

Then the story of the Great Snowy Mountain pass where, in a blinding snowstorm
and treacherous ice, two thirds of the transport animals of Mao Zedong’s Red Army were
lost, and frost-bite amputations were performed in mid-march without anesthetic. And
then the impenetrable regions inhabited by wild tribesmen who were indifferent to reason
or negotiation, and who mounted ambushes and surprise attacks in jungles and marshes.
For weeks, Mao recalled, it cost the life of one soldier for every sheep they could capture
to feed the starving forces.
Then the treacherous bogs of the Great Grasslands, high swamps covered by seas
of floating grass, swept by continuous rains, into which hundreds of men sank forever,
where the only way through was a maze of narrow footpaths known to few. There was
no dry wood for fuel, nothing but herbs and roots to eat, no drinking water to be found,
not even trees to shield from the fierce sun and pelting rains, and no inhabitants to be
seen for days. By the time they emerged from the Great Grasslands into the Kansu plain,
the Red Army was reduced to 7,000 men.
The conduct of Mao's troops were so exemplary that in general, traditionally
antagonistic forces like the Lolo tribe and the Muslim minority helped them pass through
territories that would have been an impossible feat for the Kuomintang armies to traverse.
Mao Zedong, ever the poet, wrote a poem to commemorate the incredible Long
March, translated by Edgar Snow who visited him in Yenan: "The Red Army, never
fearing the challenge of the Long March, / Looked lightly on the many peaks and rivers, /
... the Gold Sand River's waves against the rocks,/ And cold the iron chain spans of Tatu
bridge./ And then, the last pass vanquished, the Armies smiled."
These then are the lessons that we must learn if we are to eliminate the threat of
Civil War in our country: Our soldiers must be one with the people, loving them, helping
them, and above all instilling in them faith in themselves, and hope for the future ... and
the Grand Illusion that every Filipino no longer belongs to himself alone, that he belongs
to all the Filipinos who died in the past and to all the Filipinos who are to be born in the
future ... that the present time is the time for self-sacrifice and united action, the time to
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build, to labor, to dream, if we will ... the time to fight, to bleed, to die, if we must ... in
order to link a glorious past with an equally glorious future.
When we learn the lessons of the Long March and realize that behind the stout
heart of a leader is the soul of a poet, a source of strength and inspiration, then surely as
God is in his heaven, we Filipinos shall overcome and will at last prevail.
October 11-14, 1999, Philippine Post
GOLD
1. Gold, gold, gold!

Ask any man what he considers the most precious and valuable thing in the world,
and he would answer, gold, gold, gold! Not air or water, which is infinitely more
valuable to him and to all the creatures of this earth. Not air or water, which is free, even
if polluted, and which he takes for granted. Not diamonds which are rarer and more
expensive, because diamonds are of different grades, and only experts and the Dutch-
English diamond monopolists know the difference, because diamonds are mostly
appreciated by beautiful girls selling their virginity. Not jade either, because jade is also
of different grades, and only a Chinese would sell his family into slavery to possess it.
No, no, the most precious thing to an ordinary man is gold.
For gold is universal, it exists everywhere and is always the same. It is forever,
indestructible, unlike the diamond which made of the same carbon that charcoal is made
of and in the presence of extreme heat, disappears with a poof, unlike jade or diamond
which can be hammered to smithereens. Gold melts at 1066 degrees Centigrade, can be
molded or beaten into any shape, and never goes out of existence. And much of the gold
in the world today existed since prehistoric times, and at least 15 percent of annual gold
consumption is recycled every year. Gold is valuable because it is beautiful. Greeks call
it the child of Zeus their god because “neither rust nor moth devoureth it.” Its beauty is
in its permanence, reflectivity, malleability and ductility – it shines forever and can be
worked by craftsmen into ornaments of great art and beauty. ***
Gold is useful too. Its prime use in industry is in electronics. Because it is best
electrical conductor, it is used as gold plated contacts in switches, relays and connectors
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in everything from pocket computers to washing machines. Gold plated connectors are
used in expensive audio equipment. And gold wires are used in every computer chip.
Space shuttles are lined with gold-brazing alloys to reflect heat, building windows,
temples and lunar modules are lined with gold foil to reflect heat and act as radiation
shields. And of course for centuries gold was used in dentistry to cap teeth and fill in
cavities, and used as adornments in jewelries, watches and what-nots, and stored in
government bank vaults as gold reserves to guarantee the value of paper currency.
Gold, gold, gold. There are 140,000 tons of gold existing as of the year 2001.
The biggest government depository of gold is in Fort Knox in the United States. The
country with the biggest store of gold is India, where it is used as a store of value for
savings and investment. The biggest user of industrial gold is Japan, the premier
producer of electronic products. The largest producer of gold jewelry is Italy. The most
expensive gold coin in the world is the US Double Eagle, minted during the depression
and never circulated because the US went off full Gold Standard. It has a face value of
$20, but is worth $7.59 million in the open market, since only ten of this coin exists in the
world. The World Cup Soccer Trophy is 32 centimeters high and is made of solid 18-
carat gold. The oldest gold jewelry was a necklace from the Sumer civilization between
the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers in southern Iraq, made 5000 years ago. The most
famous piece of gold is the face mask found in the grave of the boy-king Tutamkamen of
Egypt who died 3,500 years ago. Gold, gold, gold.
2. The Americans cheated everyone by going off the gold standard

Gold, gold, gold! The word gold is derived from an Indo-European root word
meaning “yellow” reflecting the most obvious property of gold, its color. In English and
German it is Gold; in Danish, Guld; in Dutch, Gulden; in Afrikaan, Goud; in Norwegian,
Gull, in Finnish, Kulta. In Spain however it is called Oro, from the Latin word Aurum,
meaning “Glowing Dawn,” from which we derive the word Aurora and Au, the chemical
symbol of gold.
The purity of gold is measured in gold carats. A Carat was originally a unit of
mass or weight, based on the Carob seed or bean used by ancient merchants in the Middle
East. The carat is still used as a weight measure for precious stones like diamonds and
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sapphires, one carat being equivalent to about 200 milligrams. But for gold it has come
to be used as a measure for purity where pure gold is defined as 24 carats, and 18 carat
gold has a purity of 18 parts out of 24. The Romans started this practice when they
designated a silver coin called Siliqua, as one twenty fourth of the value of the gold coin
Solidus which is about one Keration of gold or one gold carat. Gold purity is also
measured in terms of “fineness” or parts per 1000, 18 carats being equivalent to 750
fineness or 750 parts per thousand.
Who owns most of the world’s gold? If we take national gold reserves, then the
most gold is owned by the USA, followed by Germany and the IMF. If we include
jewelry then India is the largest depository of gold in terms of total gold within the
national boundaries. If we make all the gold ever produced into a thin wire of 5 microns
diameter, or 5 millionths of a meter, the finest one can draw a gold wire, then all the gold
would stretch around the circumference of the world astounding 72 million times.
Gold is one of the heaviest metals on earth, with a density of 19.32 grams per cc
(cubic centimeter). A small cube of pure gold measuring 37.27 centimeters or 15 inches
on each side, will weigh one metric ton. Gold is priced per “troy ounce” which is equal
to 31.1 grams. The official price for gold is dictated daily by the London Exchange and
is presently quoted at $353 per troy ounce. Unscrupulous Chinese traders weigh the gold
they sell in terms of “avoirdupois ounce” which is lighter (28.35 grams) than the troy
ounce (31.1 grams).
Up to the Nixon years in the 1970s, the price of gold was pegged at $32 per troy
ounce, the price at which the United States government guaranteed the worth of the
dollar, under the gold standard. Based on this guarantee, the governments of the world
accumulated dollars instead of gold in their foreign exchange reserves, and the dollar
became the universal currency in the postwar world, its worth guaranteed by America’s
mighty economy.
The Americans printed a lot more dollars than it should and bought 32 percent of
the world’s resources with overvalued dollars. All of a sudden in the 1970s, President
Nixon got the USA off the international gold standard. And the price of gold spiraled
from $32 to $400 per ounce, and the value of the dollars in the hands of nations and the
people plummeted down to less than one tenth of its original value. Who lost? The
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dollar owners of course. Who benefited? The gold owners of which the USA had the
biggest national reserves.
Nobody ever dared accuse the US government of cheating. But that is what it did.
It robbed the world of nine tenths of the value of the dollars it accumulated in exchange
reserves and personal accounts. The Americans are cheaters, there I said it. And they did
it by flooding the world with overvalued dollars, buying assets cheap, and then
withdrawing the guarantee of its worth in terms of gold. All governments do the same
thing in a lesser way by overprinting currency, by budget deficits and inflation.
3. Our word for money, Pera, originally meant Puta

Gold, gold, gold! Now that gold has become a freely valued commodity rather
than a common currency standard, it is one of the best assets to invest in as a hedge
against inflation. Gold is like land, the volume available for sale scarcely increases while
the population doubles every thirty years and the amount of money in circulation
increases at a faster rate. It stands to reason that land and gold increase in value with the
passage of years. People just do not know enough about investing in gold. One who is
an expert in this is an American Thomas Taylor who resides and does business in the
Philippines. In 1980 Taylor began trading in gold and silver, processing and refining
them into saleable ingots, in Dallas with his firm National Mint, Inc. In 1987, he moved
to the Philippines, married a Filipina, and traded in gold locally mined, and melted from
jewelry, and export them abroad, under his company Philtec Metals, Inc. The Philippines
now became the No. 3 in all of Asia, processing and trading in gold from Indonesia and
other neighbors. According to the World Gold Council, the Philippines also became No.
4 in the entire world. This is mostly due to this enterprising American who now has the
permission from our government not only to process and trade precious metals, but also
to set up a Gold Bank and a Gold Depository located in the Philippines, with a credit line
and the full guarantee of the Citibank.
Taylor’s Philtec Metals has its buying and selling office, as well as smelting
facilities, located in 2216 Pasong Tamo Extension Makati, telephone 813-2065 and
telefax 813-2062. Here he will buy any item containing gold, silver or platinum, in cash,
be it in the form of coins, scrap jewelry, or unrefined gold. He will pay top price, prices
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quoted from London, at present $353 per troy ounce minus a little percentage for
processing. Beware of unscrupulous traders who offer more money based on the
avoirdupois ounce which is 9.7 percent smaller in weight than the troy ounce. Empty
your drawers of scrap jewelry, old watches, false teeth and coins – one lady was able to
get P100,000 for her junk.
Money, money, money! In Spanish, money is called dinero, how come we call it
pera?? There is an interesting story to this. In 1833, when Fernando Rey or King
Ferdinand of Spain died, his baby daughter Isabella was declared queen with her mother
as regent. In 1843, Isabella, now 13 years old, was declared legally of age, and assumed
the crown as Isabella II. Throughout her reign, the money circulated in the Philippines
bore her likeness in gold coins (denominated in P4, P2 and P1) and silver coins (10 and
20 centavos). Apparently Isabella II was unpopular, for she and the money bearing her
likeness were called The Bitch, or female dog, and eventually she was ousted in 1868.
Her money continued to circulate till the American Occupation. Isabella II died in 1904.
In Spanish, a dog is called Perro, and a female dog is Perra. That is how our money was
called Pera, which another name for Puta or Bitch, which Isabella and her money was
known. Tom Taylor, our gold expert showed me a collector’s gold coin minted in 1862
with the likeness of the Bitch, with the markings “Isabel 2, Reina de las Españas
Filipinas, por la G de Dios y la Const.” It is mint-fresh and is part of an aras of four
coins bought by a rich Chinese for his daughter’s wedding. It is worth P8.000; but one
minted in 1867, being rare, costs P700,000.
January 27-29, 2003
DEBUNKING HISTORY
1. Debunking Historical Myths: The Spanish Armada.

There are no more accomplished myth makers than the British. Somehow they
were able to convert a nasty penchant for conquering and exploiting the colored peoples
of the world into the myth of The White Man’s Burden, with the responsibility of giving
conquered peoples the blessings of civilization.
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They have through the centuries from the French Indian Wars to the recent
imbroglio over Iraq in the United Nations managed to alienate the French from the
Americans – by stressing their Anglo Saxon blood kinship – despite the fact that the
American Revolution was partly inspired by the French Philosophers and France gave
America General Lafayette and financed 1/15 of the cost of the American Revolution
against England, and then gifted them the Statue of Liberty, the symbol of the American
dream and destiny – while the United States had to fight two wars (1776 and 1812) to get
rid of the pesky British..
Recently the Discovery Channel on the Cable Network featured episodes of
“battle detectives” to debunk many a historical myth. By looking at original historical
records, by close examination of the battlefield, by forensic evidence of the dead, these
scientists were able to reconstruct the events of long ago and the truth of what really
happened. They were able to convincingly debunk the British myths surrounding the
defeat of the Spanish Armada, the Battle of Agincourt and the Charge of the Light
Brigade.
Take the defeat of the Spanish Armada. In the 1500s, the Spanish Empire was at
its height, its treasure ships constantly harassed by English pirates (euphemistically called
privateers) with the tacit approval of Queen Elizabeth I. Finally King Philip II of
Catholic Spain, in 1588, with the blessings of Pope Sixtus V, undertook to invade
Protestant England with a mighty fleet of ships called the Spanish Armada. It consisted
of 130 large ships, manned by 7,000 sailors and 17,000 soldiers. The English had 197
ships mostly small vessels manned by seasoned sailors.
It was, according to the English myth makers, Sir Francis Drake’s dash and fire
that largely turned the scales. Drake was given carte blanche by Queen Elizabeth to
“impeach the provisions of Spain.” The year before, with a fleet of some 30 ships, he
showed that her trust in him had not been misplaced. He stormed into the Spanish harbor
of Cádiz and in 36 hours destroyed thousands of tons of shipping and supplies, all of
which had been destined for the Armada. This action, which he laughingly referred to
“as singeing the king of Spain's beard,” was sufficient to delay the invasion fleet for a
further year, according to British historians
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But the resources of Spain were such that by July 1588 the Armada was in the English
Channel. In a mighty sea battle, the English credited their victory on a new super-cannon
called “Calveran” so powerful that can shoot 600 yards at zero elevation.
Yet despite the maneuverability of English ships, and close combat, the result was
a stand-off. The Flagship of the Spanish Duke of Medina was hit 200 times but did not
sink. The super-cannon was tested by Discovery Channel and found to be extremely
unreliable. It couldn’t even hit a large target at point blank range (150 yards).
The English withdrew because they ran out of ammunition. The Spanish Armada,
still largely intact, decided to go back to Spain via a long route to the north of the
Channel, east towards the Atlantic, then south along the Irish coast on the way to Spain.
Then “the Winds of God blew,” so that half Spanish fleet was wreaked on the
Irish Coast. Drake was England’s hero, achieving a popularity never to be equaled until
Horatio Nelson emerged 200 years later. The actual truth is that, by examining weather
records of tides and storms the Discovery Channel concluded that it was the “Gulf
Stream” with its treacherous tides that drove the Spanish ships aground – the existence of
which was never known till 500 years later. Francis Drake never touched a single
Spanish ship. The myth of the Spanish Armada is British bullshit.
2. Debunking Historical Myths: The Battle of Agincourt

The mighty battle of Agincourt in 1415 during the Hundred Tears War is also one
of the most enduring myths of English history, when King Henry V, “massively
outnumbered 20 to one,” with the English exhibiting qualities of stubborn defiance and
valor, massacred a vastly superior French Army in a decisive battle – immortalized in
Shakespeare’s highly patriotic play “Henry V,” filmed by Laurence Olivier in 1945.
King Henry V is the last of Shakespeare’s long series of five chronicle plays,
starting from Richard III and Richard II, to the two-part drama of Henry IV, in which
Shakespeare traces the evolution of the young prince Harry from the immoral playboy of
Eastcheap to the sober, righteous and godly King. In Henry V, he completes the story of
his hero and shows him as the “mirror of all Christian Kings,” the conqueror of
Agincourt, and the embodiment of the national spirit of England.. King Henry V’s
speech to his soldiers before Harfleur is suffused with patriotic fervor:
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Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, / Or close the wall up with
our English dead. / In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man / As modest stillness and
humility; / But when the blast of war blows in our ears, / Then imitate the action of the
tiger; / Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood…/ For there is none of you so mean and
base, / That hath not noble luster in your eyes. / I see you stand like greyhounds in the
slips, / Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot! / Follow your spirit, and upon this
charge / Cry “God for Harry! England and St. George!”
The Battle of Agincourt on October. 25, 1415, marked a decisive victory of the
English over the French in the Hundred Years’ War. To the English it is the greatest
battle ever fought when King Henry V’s ragtag army of commoners invaded Normandy
in France, and “outnumbered 20 to one,” conquered a grand French army of well-armed
aristocrats. Not really 20 to one. Henry’s original army of 11,000, wasted by disease and
casualties at Harfleur, was reduced to a mere 5,000 archers and 900 men at arms, when
he faced a French Army of 30,000 in Agincourt, most of them mounted knights in heavy
armor. The French outnumbered the English 5 to one, still an overwhelming advantage.
The battle turned out to be a disaster for the French under the constable Charles I
d’Albret. . The constable himself, 12 other members of the highest nobility, and 6,000
men (some 1,500 knights, and about 4,500 men-at-arms) were killed on the French side,
while the English lost less than 450 men – a casualty ratio of 13 to one.. The English had
been led brilliantly by Henry, who vastly outnumbered, achieved one of England’s
greatest battlefield triumphs, a victory that changed the face of Europe for generations to
come. Shakespeare’s play Henry V is a timeless classic, overflowing with action, passion
and majesty.
History records that the victory was achieved with a new English weapon, the
long bow with arrows tipped with iron points, the equivalent of the “machine gun” of the
time because it’s arrows were easier to load than those of the crossbow, with longer range
and enough power to penetrate the heavy armor of the French. Discovery Channel’s
“battlefield detectives” in its series on Unsolved History, debunks this claim, by
demonstrating the use of the long bow arrows tipped with iron, which failed to penetrate
the French armor made of steel, even at point-blank range.
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The spoils of war at the time were captured nobles held prisoners until ransomed
by their families. The French nobles at war fully expected to kept alive for ransom, but
the common English yokels were bloodthirsty cut-throats with no such regard for the
niceties of war. They simply massacred the French, even when they surrendered.
3. Debunking Historical Myths: The Battle of Agincourt.(continued)

To continue with the enduring myth of the Battle of Agincourt:
In pursuit of his claim to the French throne, Henry V of England and an army of
about 11,000 men invaded Normandy in August 1415. They took Harfleur in September,
but by then half their troops had been lost to disease and battle casualties. Henry decided
to move back northeast to Calais, whence his diminished and exhausted forces could
return to England. However, large French forces under the constable Charles I d’Albret
blocked his line of retreat to the north. The French outnumbered the English 5 to one.
The date was October 25, 1415.
The French force, which totaled 20,000 to 30,000 men, many of them mounted
knights in heavy armor, caught the exhausted English army of less than 6,000 men at
Agincourt. The battle resulted in an overwhelming defeat of the vastly superior French
forces which lost 6,000 men while the English lost less than 450 men, a casualty ratio of
13 to one..
The question that bothered historians is not how the English won, but why and
how the French lost the battle with fresh troops mounted on horses, consisting of gallant
Knights heavily armed and armored, facing an exhausted English force of commoners on
foot, lightly armed, and one-fifth their number – the protagonists meeting each other on
the territory of the French in a battlefield of French choosing. How could the French
have lost?
The battlefield detectives of Discovery Channel debunked the superiority of the
English long bow which they demonstrated to be incapable of penetrating the steel
French armor at point-blank range. Next they examined the ground when wet, as it was
during the battle, and found that the mud was so thick, sticky and slippery that a man in
armor who fell on it found it difficult to get up. The French fell on top of each other and
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were easily slaughtered by the English, who unencumbered, were wielding axes and
swords.
But the deciding factor was the size and shape of the battlefield terrain. The
French unwisely chose a battlefield that funneled into a narrow frontage of only about
1,000 yards of open ground between two wooded areas. In this cramped space, which
made large-scale maneuvers almost impossible, the French virtually forfeited the
advantage of their overwhelming numbers.
The battlefield detectives demonstrated what happens to a thick crowd in a
football stadium funneled into narrow entrances and exits; a few persons stumble and the
entire crowd fall down like dominoes. That is what happened to the French in Agincourt.
At dawn on October 25, the two armies prepared for battle. Three French
divisions, the first two dismounted, were drawn up one behind another. Henry arrayed
his men in a dismounted line, the dismounted men-at-arms in three central blocks linked
by projecting wedges of archers, and additional masses of archers formed forward wings
at the left and right ends of the English line
Henry’s long-range archery provoked the French into an assault. Several small
French cavalry charges broke upon a line of pointed stakes in front of the English archers.
Then the main French assault, consisting of heavily armored, dismounted knights,
advanced over the sodden ground. As more French knights entered the battle, they
became so tightly bunched that some of them could barely raise their arms to strike a
blow.
At this decisive point, Henry ordered his lightly equipped and more mobile
English archers to attack with swords and axes. The unencumbered English hacked down
thousands upon thousands of the French, and thousands more were taken prisoner, many
of whom were killed on Henry’s orders, because his force is too small to handle large
numbers of prisoners. The French nobles fully expected to be kept alive for ransom as
the spoils of war, but English commoners were cut-throats who massacred them without
mercy even when they offered to surrender. The English had been led brilliantly by
Henry, but the incoherent tactics of the French contributed greatly to their defeat.
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4. Debunking Historical Myths: The Charge of the Light Brigade

Another historical myth of the British, debunked by the Discovery Channel’s
“Battlefield Detectives” was the much heralded Charge of the Light Brigade, an incident
immortalized by Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem of the same name. Who has not thrilled
to the martial cadence of that poem, often memorized for elocution contests?
Theirs no to make reply, / Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do or die. /
Into the Valley of Death / Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to the right of them, / Cannon to the left of them, / Volleyed and
thundered; / Stormed at with shot and shell,/ Boldly they rode and well, / Into the jaws of
Death, / Into the mouth of hell / Rode the six hundred.
When can their glory fade? / O the wild charge they made! / All the world
wondered / Honor the charge they made! / Honor the Light Brigade, / Noble six hundred!
The heroic encounter was part of the Battle of Balaklava, on October 25, 1854,
during the Crimean War waged by the British, French and the Turks against the Russians.
The British general who led the charge of the Light Brigade was James Thomas
Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, a man of uncertain temper who quarreled with his
officers, and dueled with one of them. He was court-martialed, relieved of his command,
later reinstated and promoted to major-general. Spending his own money, he outfitted his
11th Hussars with “cardigan jackets” and made them look the smartest in the service.
At the outbreak of the War, he was appointed commander of the Light Brigade,
under his brother-in-law G.C. Bingham, with whom he was on bad terms. The order to
attack was a blunder and was questioned by Cardigan, but without hesitation he carried
out the order with a cavalry charge that so struck the imagination of the British public
that Cardigan was lionized on his return to England. Forty percent of the brigade were
said to have been lost. Balaklava was an indecisive military engagement. In this battle,
the Russians failed to capture Balaklava, the Black Sea supply port of the British, French,
and Turkish forces, but the British lost control of their best supply road from Balaklava to
Sevastopol.
What was the truth? The real heroes of the battle were the Turks (never
mentioned by the British) who manned four redoubts on the Vorontsov heights. The first
redoubt was overwhelmed and overrun by the Russians because the British general sent
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to relieve them overslept and arrived three hours late. The Russian were observed
carrying off three captured field guns when Lord Raglan gave the order to the Light
Brigade to disrupt them. The final order became confused, however, and the brigade, led
by Lord Cardigan, swept down the valley between the heights rather than toward the
isolated Russians on the heights. The English charging in the valley between two heights
commanded by Russian guns, were massacred, according to official accounts.
But that account is inaccurate, said Discovery Channel. Judging from the 2,000
meter battle run in the valley and the positions of the Russian guns, the cavalry charge
could not have lasted more than 7 ½ minutes before the English got out of the line of fire.
The Russian guns could not have fired more than 70 shells, and not so accurately because
the valley was blanketed by gun-smoke. And the casualties? Out of 608 cavalrymen,
40% or 243 was supposed to have perished. Not true, reconstructed records show that
only 102 or 17% were killed; 56 were taken prisoners, and 450 or 74% were able to
return to England to bask in the glory of Tennyson’s poem written a year after the battle.
The Charge of the Light Brigade is nothing but British bullshit.
5. Debunking Historical Myths: Custer’s Last Stand

The British are not the only accomplished bull-shitters. The Americans are even
worse. In the name of Manifest Destiny, they grabbed the lands of and committed
genocide on the Indians, enslaved the negroes centuries after other countries in Europe
forbade slavery as inhuman, then have the effrontery to “civilize, Christianize, and
democratize” the Filipinos who were already civilized in their contacts with the Arabs,
Chinese and Spaniards; were already Christians long before the Pilgrims landed at
Plymouth Rock; and were sufficiently democratized to establish the first democratic
republic in all of Asia. American Bastards.
One of the most enduring legends of American history is General George
Armstrong Custer’s “Last Stand” against a force of savage Sioux and Cheyenne Indians
in the Battle of Little Big Horn, in the Dakota Territory on June 24, 1876.
To the last man, Custer and 264 of his men were massacred. A single horse
survived and was displayed in 7th Cavalry parades, saddled but riderless. Custer was
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given a hero’s burial at West Point. His heroic Last Stand against all odds, to the last
man and to the last bullet against savage bloodthirsty Indians, became legend.
What is the real truth? Battlefield detectives in “Unsolved History” series on
Discovery Channel, visited the site of the massacre, and scoured the field with metal
detectors and found two kinds of bullet cartridges on the ground – one fired from the
army issue 1873 Springfield carbine, a single shot designed for deadly and accurate fire
up to 700 yards away – and the other fired by the Henry hunting rifle, which is lever
operated rapid fire. By the location of the bullets, Custer’s men were armed with the
single shot carbine and the Indians were armed with the rapid fire rifle. The Henry rifle
can fire 13 rounds in the same 20 seconds that the Springfield rife can fire only 3 rounds.
Thus the Indians were better armed in close combat. There were many more bullet
cartridges on the Indian positions. Custer’s men were overwhelmingly outgunned.
The US troopers followed the rules of skirmish to the letter, dismounted in threes
while a fourth man held the horses, thus one fourth of the force did not really participate
in combat. The Indians were professional hunters, each taking initiative in attacking with
stealth and taking advantage of every situation, armed with axes and knives, and mounted
on horses. In close combat, the troopers suffered ghastly wounds from stone axes that
must have caused trauma and pain beyond endurance. The Indians simply rode into their
formations and mowed them down. Custer’s men were overwhelming outfought.
The legendary 7th Cavalry brigade was pictured to be made up of the pick of
American manhood. Official records revealed that they were only 21 years old on the
average, many of them as young as 16. Their skulls show that they were poor
immigrants, with bad teeth and diseases resulting from bad diet. They were in a bad
condition, tired after riding all night. The Indians were in a better shape and in better
condition to fight than Custer’s men were.
Did Custer and his men really fight bravely? Close analysis of the cartridges
showed that the cavalry men were bunched up, while the Indians were upon them from
every side. Many troopers were shot at the back while fleeing in fear and panic. At the
site of the so-called Last Stand, Custer’s men could not load their carbines properly,
many unfired bullets were scattered on the ground. We can only grieve for men who
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desperately tried to push the cartridge into the chamber while being hacked by axes. The
so-called Last Stand lasted less than a minute.
Custer’s assignment was to protect railway surveyors and gold miners
encroaching on Indian territory, doing so by killing women and children in a surprise
attack on Chief Black Kettle’s village on the Washita River. Custer’s death was avenged
when the Indian leader Sitting Bull was killed while he was helpless in Army custody.
Indians were defending their homes and families. In an age without heroes, the Indians
were perhaps the most heroic of all Americans.
March 1-5, 2004
AIR POLLUTION
1. Supreme Court asked to clean up air pollution

The Supreme Court was petitioned by the Henares Family and Victor C. Agustin,
journalist, to order the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board to require
all public utility vehicles to utilize compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternative fuel.
This Petition for Mandamus Case No. 158290 was filed with the Supreme Court of the
Philippines on June 6, 2003, and promises to be a judicial landmark similar to those filed
by environmentalist M. C. Mehta in the India’s Supreme Court that resulted in keeping
the City of Delhi free of air pollution.
Mahesh Chandra (M.C.) Mehta, an environmental lawyer in India, was awarded
the 1997 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service and the Goldman Award, among
others. He was cited for “claiming for India’s present and future citizens their
constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment.” Among the over 40 landmark
Supreme Court cases he has won, the most noteworthy and relevant to the Philippines, is
the petition for a writ of mandamus he filed in 1985 that resulted in the Supreme Court of
India ruling that all public vehicles in New Delhi and the Capital region be converted to
the use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). By Supreme Court order, from 1986 to 1996,
unleaded petrol, catalytic converters, CNG and low-sulphur diesel were introduced, along
with two successive sets of emission standards. By 1998, the Supreme Court directed the
phasing out of 15 year-old vehicles and the conversion of buses, old taxis and tricycles to
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CNG-based engines by April 2001. Four months later, in August 2001, Delhi had the
largest fleet of CNG buses in the world. In that year it increased from 900 to 6,811; and
by August, 2002, there were 10,234 buses, 5,973 taxis and 43,156 tricycles using CNG.
The cases filed by M.C. Mehta and decisions made by the Supreme Court of New
Delhi were a first in world jurisprudence, where public policy was initiated by a private
individual and carried to its full realization through exercise of judicial activism by public
service minded justices. And history can be rewritten again in the Philippines, where our
judiciary system allows this procedure.
Other countries have tried to push for the use of CNG by either making diesel and
gasoline prices higher, and/or by providing various incentives for the use of CNG.
However, this has proven ineffective due to pressure from business, especially the owners
of public utility companies; and due to lack of political will to resist pressures. CNG is
not universally used because of the lack of refueling stations.
In the Philippines, mandating public vehicles to use CNG would provide an
instant market that would make viable setting of refueling facilities in existing gas
stations. At the same time, the instant market for CNG would make full use of our vast
natural gas reserves (one to three trillion cubic feet) from Malampaya in Palawan. The
gas is now being moved through an undersea pipe line from Palawan to Batangas, ready
for use as an alternative fuel to diesel for buses and trucks, to gasoline for taxis, jeepneys,
motorcycles and tricycles, and saving for the Philippine economy ten of millions of dollar
exchange. The Shell Exploration is offering to sell its natural gas at 30 to 40% less than
the equivalent price of diesel fuel. The Asian Development Bank and the Development
Bank of the Philippines are willing to subsidize the conversion of diesel and gas engines
to the use of CNG. Without the political complications of passing legislation, we utilize
our natural gas resources, phase out the obsolete jeepney system, clean our air and free
our population from respiratory ailments.
2. Supreme Court of India shows the way

A recent TV documentary in News Asia described Delhi in these terms, “living in
Delhi in 1997 was like smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.” After the landmark
decision of India’s Supreme Court, the air miraculously cleared within months. In a
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paper submitted in the 8th National Clean City Conference in Oklahoma City, on May 14,
2002, it was reported that the annual average of particulate pollution in New Delhi in
1987 was 539 micrograms per cubic meter, in 1998 went down to 390 micrograms, and
in 2001 further down to 179 micrograms per cubic meter. In contrast, the particulate
pollution in Metro Manila, lower than in Delhi, started from 180 micrograms per cubic
meter in 1987, increased to 275 in 1995, and slid back to 180 micrograms per cubic meter
in 2001 – it hardly changed between 1985 and 2002.
In an independent study submitted to the World Bank in 1998, data taken from the
United States shows that the use of compressed natural gas instead of diesel, showed a
reduction of 58% to 97% in pollutants, to wit:
Emissions Benefits of Replacing Conventional Diesel with CNG in Buses
Fuel Carbon Monoxide Nitrogen Oxides Particulate Matter
Diesel 2.4 g/km 21 g/km 0.38 g/km
CNG 0.4 g/km 8.9 g/km 0.012 g/km
% reduction 84% 58% 97%
Conversion kits to convert diesel engines from compression ignition to spark
ignition, are available in the market, plus installation, from approximately US$833 to
US$1,000. The only change needed in a gasoline engine, is the substitution of CNG
pressure tanks for gas tanks, and slight adjustment air/fuel ratio in the carburetor. "Slow"
fill (up to 8 hours) and "quick" fill (3 to 5 minutes) are available for CNG. Latest world
statistics estimate the number of vehicles using CNG to be 2,814,438, and the number of
refueling stations to be 6,455.
The Henares family who joined Victor Agustin in filing this petition are Hilarion
M. Henares Jr., former Chairman of the National Economic Council, his son Alfredo
”Atom” L Henares, businessman, and his grand children Enrique “Quark” Belo Henares,
Palanca Awardee and movie director, and Cristina “Cristalle” Belo Henares, student, all
of whom suffer respiratory ailments because of the pollution of Metro Manila.
The pollution in Metro Manila is primarily due to vehicular traffic. Of the 1.3
million vehicles registered in Metro Manila as of 2001, a full 44% or 572,000 are utility
vehicles (jeepneys, taxis and vans), 14% or 182,00 are motorcycles and tricycles (of
which 75% have two-stroke engines, the biggest contributor to pollution) and 5% or
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65,000 are buses and trucks. Most of these 819,000 vehicles may be affected by a
judicial order to convert all public utility vehicles to the use of CNG.
The fight to rid Delhi of pollution started with the imposition of a deadline with
the expectation that the government would take care of the implementation. The
movement had its ups and downs, mostly due to opposition and sabotage by franchise
operators, and inaction and incompetence of government agencies insistently asking for
postponement of deadlines. Finally on April 5, 2002, the Supreme Court of India put all
arguments to rest with finality, and intervened to tell the government itself how it
implement its order. The Philippines following the same road map and taking a lesson
from India’s experience may easily jumpstart and leapfrog to achieve the same result is
very much less time.
June 24-2003, DWBR-fm
THE BRIGHTEST STAR
1. All life and matter are subject to cycles of change

All life and matter are subject to cycles of change per unit of time. The earth
revolves around the sun once every year, the moon revolves around the earth every
month, the earth revolves around itself every day. The garden swing goes back and forth
at a specific number of times per unit of time, just like a clock pendulum or a metronome
which can swing at a frequency of one cycle per second so steadily, that with it we
measure the passage of time. The watch balance wheel is more accurate because it
oscillates faster, about 10 cycles per second. Most accurate of all is the quartz crystal
which oscillates 34,000 cycles per second. That is why your cheap Timex quartz watch
is 3,400 times more accurate than your expensive Rolex mechanical watch.
When a body vibrates, you can feel it up to 30 vibrations per second. Higher than
that, 30 to 20,000 vibrations per second, you hear it, the sound being within the hearing
range of your ears. A dog can hear sounds with a higher frequency up to 40,000
vibrations per second, that is why it can hear an ultra sonic whistle. Beyond that range is
the ultra sound, used to monitor your baby’s growth and provide communications for
submarines.
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Vibrations-per-second is also termed cycles-per-second, and is scientifically

measured in units called Hertz. We measure time with quartz crystal at the frequency of
34,000 hertz or 34 kilohertz (KHz). We hear sound from 30 hertz to 20 KHz.
Further up we now enter the electromagnetic spectrum. We can generate long
radio waves up to 10,000,000 hertz, or 10 megahertz or 10 MHz. AM (Amplitude
Modulation) radio operates from 600 KHz to 1,600 KHz. FM (Frequency Modulation)
and TV (Television) operate from less than 1 megahertz to 1000 MHz. Microwave
ovens, from 100 to 1 million MHz. or from 108 to 1012 hertz. Long Distance radio Short
Wave operates between 107 to 1012 hertz.
Now we are approaching the visible spectrum, what you can see with your eyes.
Infra-red heat rays from 1012 hertz to 1014 hertz. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and
violet visible light occupy a narrow part of the spectrum, from 1014 to 1015 hertz.
Then the invisible ultra violet rays from 1015 to 1016 hertz. Medical X-rays from
1015 to 1019 hertz. And beyond that starting at 1019 hertz are the gamma rays of the
nuclear bomb.
Imagine, all creation is subject to cycles of change, from the earth around the
sun once a year, faster and faster, to your clock and watch, to the sound you hear, to
your radio and TV carrier waves, to your micro-oven, to the sun’s heat rays, to the
colors you see, to ultra-violet, to X-rays and gamma rays in one unbroken
continuum of frequencies.
All matter is subject to resonant frequency, that is, it naturally vibrates to one
specific frequency. Take your garden swing, push it back and forth, and it swings at a
specific number of times per minute, depending on the length of the rope and the weight
of the person on the swing, in the same way the pendulum in your grandfather clock
works. It has a resonant frequency.
Take a glass of water, rub it with your wet finger around the rim, and it will
vibrate at a specific tonal pitch, its resonant frequency – move faster and it will break the
glass, just as an opera singer can shatter glass singing a certain tone. In the same way, a
violin string (given its length) or a trumpet, given its column of air, resonates at a certain
tone. Each radio and TV station is assigned carrier frequencies on the dial that is
generated by resonance.
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If one were to look at the Earth through a spectroscope from outer space, the
radiant energy from the Internet and the web of communications covering our planet
would make it glow like a resonant sphere of light, like a bright new star in the heavens.
2. George Gilder’s Brightest Star in all the Universe

A spectroscope is an optical instrument that makes visible the invisible waves of
radiant energy.
Futurist philosopher George Gilder postulated that to anyone from space peering
through a spectroscope at our planet earth, the radiant energy of electromagnetic waves
from the Internet would appear as a swirling sphere of light, the brightest star of the
heavens.
This luminous ball reflects physicist James Maxwell’s rainbow, with each arc of
light bearing a signatory wavelength. As the traffic flows through fiber optic trunks, it
glows infra-red across continents and under the seas. As more people use the wireless
means to access each other through cell-phones and the Internet, this infra-red ball
grows a penumbra of microwaves suffused with billions of moving sparks.
Piercing this penumbra are rich spikes of radio frequencies confined in coaxial
cables circling through neighborhoods and hooking into each household. Spangling the
net are more than a hundred million nodes of concentrated standing waves, each a
computer host with microprocessors with microwave frequencies running up to
gigahertz.
The radiance reaches skywards from 400 to 800 miles to thousands of low orbit
satellites, each sending cords of light between earth and sky in the Ku band between 12
and 18 gigahertz.
Now imagine that every 100 days the total brightness doubles. In those 100 days,
the total number of computer and TV screens rise by one third, customers move from
28-kilobit links to 56 kilobit and beyond, and Ethernets leap up from 10 megabits a
second to 100 megabits and then to a gigabit. All pump up the lumens of the radiance
encircling our planet earth.
As the intensity of the light rises, as more and more photons of traffic flash
through webs of glass and air, the change pushes the overall frequency or average color
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of the light. So as the brightness increases, its average color also inches up the spectrum.
The global iridescence changes its dominant hues. If it were a rainbow, the center of
intensity would move from red through green to violet.
Ultimately this radiant light of the Internet will run most of the commerce of
the world. In fact more value will move by resonant light than by all the world’s
supertankers, pipelines, 18-wheeler trucks and airships put together. Yet all these
frequencies, visible on the spectroscope in space, are invisible to you.
The Internet is a cloak of many colors for the communications of the world, but
human senses can grasp none of its tints and spangles. The 400 terahertz of visible light
are absent in the links. On the ball of the Internet frequencies the only light visible to you
sparkles in the billion phosphorescent spots where there is a computer or TV screen.
The Internet is a network of networks of learning curves and melodies
seeking their points of harmonic resonance. It triumphs by proliferating the slopes
of learning, the songs of searching, the quests of curiosity that are at the heart of
wealth creation. The Internet offers a near-zero impedance environment to innovation.
It offers a promise of new freedom and prosperity to the poor of all nations. The crystal
cathedrals of light and air are increasingly reachable anywhere on the face of the earth,
eroding the power of tyrants, bureaucrats and monopolists, linking us to the global
communities of mind and liberty.
Yet turn off the spectroscope and the Web is as invisible as the life of the
mind and the laws of liberty that sustain it and which it sustains. Although the
sphere of light spans the globe and rises to 23,000 miles up in the sky, it appears to
us humans as a single point of light on a cathode ray tube rastering back and forth
60 times a second and tricking our eyes to see a single image.
It is the brightest star in all the universe.
3. Internet, light of infinite dimensions, according to Gilder

The pin was a unit of factory output in Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations,
exemplifying the power of mass production and the division of labor. Smith showed that
a worker specializing in one part of the process of manufacturing pins could be hugely
more productive than a worker attempting to produce pins entirely by himself.
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Boldly explaining the passage from the age of guilds and crafts to the age of mass
manufacturing, he showed than the factory workers of the industrial age were not twice
or even 10 times more productive than craftsmen were, but 5,000 times more productive.
A key reason that specialized workers can produce so much more is their faster process
of learning. Each worker has to master only one part of the process, does it more
frequently and therefore accelerates his learning.
In the time of Adam Smith, the workers could not gain the five-thousand fold
increase in productivity without coming together in a single factory in a single time, to
accomplish which, one must have scarce and costly capital and organization.
Imagine today through the Internet Web, oceans of capital flowing readily across
borders, and the cost of equipment based on microchips and glass fiber threads
plummeting down to less than one dollar for every million instructions per second.
Imagine that any worker can collaborate with other workers, not in a single time and
place, but anytime, anywhere in a virtual web throughout the world.
This is a measure of the meaning of the light of the Internet in our time. The
nodes of creative effort could summon their five-thousand fold magic increase in
productivity at will, in minutes rather than in years.
Rising up with little overall planning or guidance, the Internet raises again the
riddle faced by every sophomore physics student: the rise of civilization in the face of the
law of rising entropy. The Second Law of Thermodynamics defines a property called
entropy, a measure of how close a system is to equilibrium, or a measure of the disorder
in the system. It states that the entropy of an isolated system can never decrease.
In the Internet, there is the message and the carrier signal that carries it. The
entropy is the measure of “unexpected bits,” the only part of the message that bears
information; it is also the measure of “unexpected bits,” breakdown or defect that inflicts
the carrier system. By eliminating the entropy from the Net, you increase its ability to
carry information.
In the old days there was initial waste in the setting up of factory equipment and
regimented workers. Today the high entropy of heavy manufacturing is transformed to
nearly costless shuffle of photons and electrons.
In the old days when a complicated set of instructions were needed to operate the
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computer, the computer could not do very much work.

Today, with the use of the mouse and user-friendly software, we eliminate much
of the entropy of the system, and can do much more work on our computer. Comprende?
Another word for a low-entropy carrier is a dumb network. The dumber the network, the
more intelligence and more work it can carry. This can be accomplished by learning or
experience.
This accelerated learning experience on the Internet has boiled down all the
intricacies of electronic network to just one simple Internet Protocol, with IP packets
running through a low entropy network of voluminous and high-entropy traffic, soaring a
thousandfold every three years, a millionfold every decade, along wide-band boulevards
of photonic glass.
A light of infinite dimensions is concentrated in a single point of light racing
across a computer screen, resonating with the creative work of the world. The light
is the symbol and the substance of the new world economy, a creative interplay of
limit and infinite, of flesh and the divine.
It is the brightest star in all the heavens.
August 26-28, 2003 , DWBR-fm
ARMOR PLATING
1. The car is the worst place to be when you have enemies.

These are violent times in the Philippines, comparable to the Roaring Twenties of
gangsters in the United States, comparable to the mindless violence that attend the Arabs
in Palestine, the Irish in Northern Ireland, the Russian Mafia in Moscow, the Bosnians in
Yugoslavia, the Muslims and Hindus in India, and the poor blacks in the upheavals in
Africa. It is bad enough that the Abu Sayyaf kidnap you for ransom in some public
place, and kill you in the jungle if your relatives cannot pay the price. It is bad enough
that your enemies shot you with impunity while you are eating in a restaurant or watching
a movie, or just walking down the street. It is bad enough that policemen and soldiers
whom we trust to keep the peace, arrest, torture, and kill you for a bar of gold or because
they think you are a thief, or because they just don’t like your face.
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It is infinitely worse when gunmen invade your private space, your sanctuary,
your house where you and your family ought to feel safe and secure from the rest of the
world. Few armed men can invade your house. They can only do so if they are
welcomed into your home as friends, or as trusted servants, or those in cahoots with your
domestic help.
You have another private space and sanctuary, an extension of home sweet home,
and that is your car. The car is the worst place to be when there are sworn enemies
planning to kill you. Your enemy can observe your car movements from afar, and find
out the routines you are bound to do day by day. He can riddle your car with bullets
when you least expect it – while you’re backing out from your driveway, or on a lonely
street or a stretch of highway, at a time and place of his own choosing. In doing so, he
can indiscriminately kill anyone inside the car as well, your driver, your wife, your
children. Then in a fast motorcycle that can squeeze through traffic or a stolen car with
stolen license plates, he can escape easily before the police can even pursue him. The car
is the most dangerous place especially for politicians with murderous political rivals, and
especially between now and the time of elections in May, 2004.
How do you protect yourself and your family from assassins who riddle your car
with bullets? Well, you can buy yourself a war tank plated with special steel that can
resist 50 caliber machine guns and rocket propelled missiles, or have your car armor
plated with the same kind of steel. Or you can buy a Ford BPS vehicle, BPS the initials
for Ballistic Protection Series. Or you can buy NEW Hummer H-2 series of cars made
by General Motors. Or you can have the armor-plating done by a company from Utah,
USA, the same company which armor-plates the Ford BSP armored cars and the General
Motors Hummer armor plated H-2 models. This company is the International Armoring
Corporation of America, and it has ten years’ experience protecting the cars of business
leaders, religious leaders, government officials, and diplomats in over twenty countries –
Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, India,
Russia, Turkey and many other nations. It has manufacturing facilities in the United
States, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Israel, El Salvador and Argentina. It is a tribute to our
welcome to foreign investment (hahaha) and to the level of violence that is inflicted on
our population that the International Armoring Corporation of America has chosen our
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Philippines as the eighth country to be the site of their manufacturing operations.
2. For protection, armor plate your car

Good news, everyone. The International Armoring Corporation has established a
manufacturing plant in the Philippines to provide armor plating for our cars as it does for
clients in over twenty different countries. The Philippines is the eighth country to be
accorded this honor, either because of our benign investment policies, or because of the
high level of violence in our streets. From Metro Manila the company will serve the
needs of clients in the Philippines and in the entire Asia-Pacific region, including
Australia where Filipina wives have a life expectancy one sixth that of Australian wives.
The same quality of goods and services, protection and peace of mind, is now available to
all peoples of Asia, if they can afford it.
With armor plating in universal use in the Philippines, the Kuratong Baleleng
incident where a van full of gangsters, was riddled with bullets, in a non-judicial
summary execution by police agents, will never happen again. High government officials
will no longer be able to machine gun their vehicles as an excuse to declare martial law.
No more attempted murders like that of Vice president Pelaez. Politicians especially
during the current electoral season, will survive attempted assassinations by car-riding
gun-toting political rivals, in lonely streets or unfrequented highways – so that they will
survive to continue to bully the Supreme Court, and to do their worst or their best for our
embattled citizens. But kidding aside and most important of all, honest men and women
and their families may ride in their cars in safety, there to travel in their private space,
their second home, their sanctuary, their sanctum sanctorum without fear of hoodlums
riddling their car with deadly automatic fire.
Because of its world renowned and recognized innovation and expertise, the
International Armoring Corporation was exclusively chosen by Ford Motor Company to
assemble and help design the first armored vehicle designed and built for mass
production, the Ford BPS or Ballistic Protection Series, which was designed, engineered,
built and tested to exact quality standards.
Just recently, the International Armoring Corporation announced an alliance with
General Motors Hummer Dealers in the United States to provide ballistic protection for
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their new Hummer H-2 models. Furthermore, the company was the recipient of the 2001
United States Chamber of Commerce Award for manufacturing technology, and also
Utah’s 2002 Best Business Award, and in addition, the 1999 Blue Chip Award for
technological advancement. The International Armoring Corporation of America
continues to revolutionize the armored passenger vehicle industry with continuing
improvements to its proprietary armoring materials.
With the use of its patented armoring material Armormax, the company maintains
the original performance of the vehicle without weighing it down too much, or interfering
with its normal operation. In addition it also incorporates the Elitus Overlap System in its
process, to seal off all ballistic gaps within the hinges of the vehicles and prevent
penetration by deadly fire in those weak areas.
The Armormax composition is, pound for pound, ten times more resistant to
bullets than conventional ballistic steel, and weighs up to 60 percent less for the same
level of protection. It is the best car armoring material in the world, and is used in the
cars of the richest men in twenty countries.
3. Rich men deserve to be protected from kidnappers and armed robbers.

The International Armoring Corporation of America, a world renowned passenger
vehicle armoring company, is opening up a manufacturing plant in Metro Manila to serve
the needs of clients in the Philippines and the entire Asia-Pacific region. It has
manufacturing facilities in seven other countries, the eighth is the Philippines, and it
services so far clients in more than twenty countries.
The International Armoring Corporation of America had been recognized as the
company that is re-inventing the armoring industry with its pioneering use of high tech
materials and revolutionary armoring designs. Its patented armoring material,
Armormax, is pound for pound, more resistant to bullets and weighs up to 60 percent less
than conventional ballistic steel for the same level of protection. Thus the original
performance of the vehicle is maintained, neither weighing it down too much, nor
interfering in any way with its normal operation. Armormax is not made of aramid fibers,
it is not Kevlar, and does not have the inherent weaknesses that Kevlar and other aramid
fibers demonstrate. It is a self-contained material that is not affected by the ravages of
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extreme hot and cold climates. In addition, it also incorporates the patented Elitus
Overlap System, by which all the ballistic gaps and weaknesses of the vehicle are sealed
off and protected from penetration by bullets.
International Armoring Corporation of America has the capability of giving
protection to all kinds of cars and vehicles, according to established specifications. It can
provide National Institute of Justice NIJ Level III-A protection against 9mm and 44
magnum bullets. It can when upgraded, provide up to NIJ Level V protection against M-
16-SS109 and M16-M193 Armalites, the M-14 and Garand 30.6 caliber bullet fire, and
even from the excellent Russian made AK-47, and the Israeli Kalashnikov assault rifle. It
can provide protection for SUVs and sedans including the Nissan Patrol, Ford
Expedition, Ford Excursion, Chevrolet Suburban, Chevrolet Tahoe, Nissan Cefiro,
Toyota Camry, Mercedes Benz and BMW sedans. The company can also armor plate
other vehicle makes and types according to specified requirements.
With the advent and rise of kidnapping incidents, bank robberies and political
assassinations, the International Armoring Corporation of America, through its local
subsidiary, the International Armoring Corporation of the Philippines, strives to bring
peace of mind to the people of the Philippines and Asia, especially those threatened by
vendetta and death threats. All Malacañang vehicles, especially those ridden by the
President should be armor-plated. The same should be done for important cabinet
members, especially Bayani Fernando, Mike Defensor, and Lito Camacho, who attract
the most controversies. Also the head of the BIR Guillermo Parayno and the Customs
Chief Tony Bernardo, and their personnel. All legislators, congressmen and senators
alike, especially House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Reps. Mark Cojuangco, William
Fuentebella, Gilbert Teodoro and all those who signed the impeachment papers, as well
as those who opposed it, Senators Joker Arroyo and Kiko Pangilinan. Also Presidential
candidates Ping Lacson, Raul Roco, FPJ and Gringo Honasan. Above all, we urge the
richest and most powerful men in the country to armor plate their cars – Bulletin’s Emilio
Yap, San Miguel’s Danding Cojuangco, Fortune Tobacco’s Lucio Tan, Metro Bank’s
George Ty, Sta. Luisita’s Peping Cojuangco, Universal Corn’s John Gokingwei, the
Madrigal Family, RCBC’s Alfonso Yuchengco, Jaime Zobel de Ayala, the Ortigas
family, SM’s Henry Sy, ABC’s Tony Boy Cojuangco, Ch. 2’s Gabby Lopez, Rustan’s
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Tantoco family – all these rich men deserve to be protected from kidnappers and armed
robbers.
4. IAC protects vulnerable spots and keeps the original appearance

To import a Ford Expedition or Excursion that is already armored will cost from 8
½ to 9 ½ million pesos, duties already paid.. To have it done here, according to one
source, will cost half that much, P2.5 to P3 million for the vehicle and P2 million to have
it armored, a total cost of up to P5 million. Actually, International Armoring Corporation
charges $75,000 or P4.1 million to have it armored in its factory, or a total of P6.6
million total cost including the cost of the vehicle, VAT taxes paid.
The difference between P5 and P6.6 lies in the level of protection, method of
armoring, as well as the materials used. The level of protection of the local manufacture
is probably only NIJ level III-A specifications, for protection against only hand guns
from 22 caliber to 9mm to 345 caliber, to 44 magnum pistols – which International
Armoring corporation will be able to install in January, for the same amount, P2.5
million. This however gives a false sense of security because most assaults are with
M16, M14 and AK47 assault rifles – against which the International Armoring
Corporation recommends a higher NIJ specification that protects the car from high
powered projectiles. Moreover, the International Armoring Corporation will also change
all window glass to one that is “curved, not flat” to retain the original transparency
without distortion, to one that is bullet proof and 39 millimeters or about two inches
thick. For another there are weak spots in the car especially in the door hinges that have
to be covered by the patented Elitus overlapping system that seals the gap and prevents
inadvertent penetration of bullets in the weak spots. Also roof and floor armor protection
are installed to guard against grenade explosions. Lastly, the armoring material, the
patented Armormax has ten times the strength of conventional ballistic steel and weighs
up to sixty percent less, and does not weigh down the vehicle too much or interfere with
its normal operation.
I have before me, two competing armor materials: one, the conventional ballistic
steel 5/16 of an inch thick mounted on a fiberboard ¼ of an inch thick; and the other, the
IAC patented Armomax, a sandwich of composite material mounted on a thin steel plate
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about the same gauge as a car body. Both are 5 inch square in area. The conventional
steel material is half as thick as the IAC Armomax, but it weighs twice as much (3
pounds) as the Armomax (1 ½ pounds). Presumably they are both at the same level of
protection. The International Armoring Corporation of America (IAC) is the premier
designer and manufacturer of armored passenger vehicles in the world. It was founded in
1993 in Ogden Utah, USA, with the main objective of producing the finest, the most
technologically advanced armored passenger vehicles in the world. With the advent of
lightweight synthetic armor laminates and molded armored to fit the vehicle rather than
modifying it to fit the armor, IAC quickly moved to the forefront of the industry, setting
standards that few have been able to reach. IAC has produced over 2,000 vehicles in its
first seven plants around the world. Each vehicle IAC produces adheres to the strictest
standards. Each level of protection and type of armor is independently tested. When is
vehicle is built by IAC certified technicians, three goals are kept in mind constantly.
First, IAC armors the vehicle according to the perceived threat including doors, pillar
posts, roof, floor, all window areas, lateral panels, etc. Second, with proprietary designs,
IAC maintains the original appearance of each vehicle. Both inside and out, these
vehicles have that original look. Third, with the use of it registered armoring material
Armormax, IAC maintains the original performance of the vehicle. IAC’s armor is
the lightest and most ballistically resistant armor in the industry.
5. IAC protects gas tanks and uses ballistic glass laminates

In the wake of kidnappings, assassinations and massacres on our streets, those
with perceived death threats should seriously consider having their car armored by the
most advanced company in the industry, the International Armoring Corporation of
America (AIC), now operating manufacturing facilities in the Philippines. This provides
guaranteed protection against armed attack on your car, according to four levels of
specifications, paralleling standards set by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ).
Level III protects against 9mm to 44 magnum hand guns, with bullets weighing
from 124 to 240 grains and traveling at a velocity of from 900 to 1,400 feet per second.
Level IV protects against 30 caliber CAL Carabina and AK 47 assault rifles, with bullets
weighing from 110 to 123 grains, with a speed of from 2,200 to 2,400 feet per second.
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Level V protects against M-80, M-16/193 and .308 Winchester FMJ, with projectiles
from 45 to 150 grains, traveling at 2,750 to 3,250 feet per second. And Level VI protects
from 30.6 caliber Perforante and Garand with bullets weighing 166 grains, and traveling
at 2,850 feet per second.
How does the IAC armor your car? Well, first, the trained personnel weigh and
strip your car. Second, all original window glass are removed and replaced with ballistic
transparent glass and polycarbonate laminates that match the original glass with no
optical distortion. Third, all operable door windows are made to operate normally.
Fourth, all posts and sail panels are armored with molded Armormax. Fifth, Each door is
armored with molded Armormax to the perceived level of threat. Sixth, the entire
passenger compartment including the roof is armored with Armormax. Seventh, Elitus
Overlap System is placed around door windows and hatch openings, to seal off the weak
spots. Eighth, the floor is armored with molded Armormax to protect the underside of the
car. Ninth, the gas tank is sealed against gas explosions. Tenth, the wheel hump is
given armor protection. Eleventh, a Run Flat device is installed in each wheel so that
the vehicle can still drive off even with a flat tire. Twelfth, there is optional armor for the
hood. Thirteenth, also optional is a siren/ public address system / intercom system.
Fourteenth, the vehicle is re-assembled, weighed, tested and given an IAC Certification
that it has been armored to the level of protection desired.
The General Manager of the International Armoring Corporation of the
Philippines is young Mr. Dennis Oliva, a neighbor of mine in Dasmariñas Village,
Makati. You may get in contact with him at his office address, phone and e-mail address.
His office is located at 181 Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City 1105, Metro Manila,
Philippines. His telephone number 995-0477 and 995-0647, office cell phone 0917-812-
0727, and e-mail address iac@mydestiny.net. The company’s main website is
www.armormax.com in the Internet. For those interested in securing car armor
protection, be informed that the process is labor intensive and requires 2 months to finish
the job. So make your order early. Price is about $75,000 converted to pesos at current
rate. Terms are usually half the price down and the balance upon inspection and delivery.
For multiple installations, special terms may be discussed. Government jobs may be a
little more expensive due to the inherent risks of delay or non-payment. Political
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candidates are given priority especially during the electoral season. Also given priority
are those subject to threats of kidnapping or assassination.
The company is prepared to serve the needs of the entire Asia-Pacific region.
November 17-21, 2003, DWBR-fm
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ENTERTAINMENT AND THE ARTS
To my wonderful obscene caller

I am sorry, sweetheart, that I was not up to answering your obscene calls last
night, and other nights as well. I have this gimmick on my phones, by which I attenuate
the volume of their rings, so that rings are reduced to a comforting buzz. You may call
me all night every night, I do not really mind. I sleep even better with phone buzz and
TV white noise lullabying me to slumberland.
Being such a good-looking and brilliant man, I have never been a stranger to
proposals and propositions from the opposite sex. Many is the time when young women,
even students, would approach me for a squirt of my sperms with which to inoculate
themselves via artificial insemination to improve the race, sometimes with the permission
of the husband and boyfriend. Of course coitus was out, because I have always been a
hen-pecked husband and a coward.
When I was widowed, widowered that is, my sons told me, “Papa, if you don’t
use it you will lose it. Remember that you are getting along in years. You have high
blood pressure and diabetes, and that is a sure formula for an early Big Droop. You have
only a narrow window of opportunity. Do it as much as you can before the inevitable
happens and you feel like resigning from the human race.”
Of course my daughters vehemently objected, saying that any such promiscuity
on my part is a desecration of their mother’s memory. No way, they gave me only two
choices, masturbation or re-marriage (with their advice and consent of course). Well I
forgot how to perform the former, and I really do not feel like the latter, because re-
marriage would be an anti-climax after having had the best wife any man can aspire for.
My friend, urologist Dr. Telesforo Gana, asked me to participate in the trials of
the Viagra. It was great, it was wonderful, it was effective till I was told afterwards that I
belonged to the Control Group and was issued a placebo, not the real Viagra. How come
my manhood always rose to the occasion? Sex, my doctor said, is not between the legs, it
is between the ears, with a faculty called imagination. I do not need Viagra yet. So there.
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Right now, I am outperforming each of my three sons, notwithstanding their reputation

for being sex manic-impressive.
There was a time when I was bothered by strangers in the night who called up to
get my goat by insulting me, or who as insomniac faggots and nymphomaniacs, need the
comfort of my bedroom voice to give them the Big O. I went directly to the top
management of PLDT (my cousin Spanky Perez, executive vice-president) and
demanded that the calls be traced, or I will call the Alex Boncayo Brigade to perform on
them an orchiectomy (use your dix, kids, it means excision of the sex organs). Spanky
referred me to some asshole who gave me all this gobbledegook about the sanctity of
privacy, then agreed to trace the calls for me, and then did not do it. It is too bad that the
PLDT does not have the Caller ID innovation of BayanTel, which operates only in
Quezon City, leaving us no other alternative except that lousy Globe Communications.
But dear sweetheart who calls up in the night, with your sweet voice groaning and
moaning of sexual delights, I appreciate your persistence and dogged determination to
make sex the prime motivation of my life. Keep ringing my phone through the entire
night. I do not mind, the rings are muted anyway.
Keep trying to connect with obscene calls. I am flattered at the thought that at my
age, there is still some young woman out there having the hots for me.
August 13, 1999, Philippine Post
Inventing the game of golf

The Scots are the Pangalatoks of Great Britain. Just like the Pangalatoks are the
Jews of the Philippines. They all are more kuripot than the Ilocanos. The story goes that
when Charles Lindbergh made the first airplane flight crossing the Atlantic Ocean, from
the USA to Europe, he knew his flight was successful when he saw newly washed toilet
paper hung out to dry over Scotland.
Scotland is the place where golf was invented. The first written mention of golf
dates from 1457, when Scotland's King James II outlawed football and golf, and
encouraged archery, because of its military value.
The first golf player to be identified by name was King James IV in 1491, and the
first known woman golfer was his granddaughter, Mary, Queen of Scots. The oldest
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verifiable golf association is the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, which date
back to 1744. And the oldest and most famous golf course is the Royal and Ancient Golf
Club at St. Andrews, Scotland, treeless but fringed by impenetrable grasses into which a
golf ball can disappear.
The great golf writer Herbert Warren Wind once put it this way: “Of all the games
man has devised, supposedly for his enjoyment, golf is in a class by itself in the anguish
it inflicts.” And that’s from someone who loved the game. Those who don’t play
sometimes can’t even see the point. Winston Churchill, for example, compared golf to
“chasing a quinine pill around a cow pasture.” Despite its reputation as an exquisite form
of self-torture — or a waste of time — this venerable sport has undergone a remarkable
explosion in popularity.
Robin Williams has video clip on the Internet that gives a hilarious account of the
origins of golf, using the word fuck 15 times in 3 minutes. I cleaned up his act a bit.
This is what he said:
***
If you want a linguistic adventure, go drinking with a Scotsman, ‘cause you can’t
understand them at all. You land in Scotland, the first thing a Scotsman does is to drag
you into a goddamn bar.
Here have a glass of piss, laddie.
And you realize how drunk they get -- they could wear a skirt and not care! And
they’ll tell you how they invented a sport like golf.
Now, laddie, here’s my idea for a goddamn sport. You knock a ball in a gopher
hole.
Oh, you mean like pool?
Hell no, not pool! Not with a straight stick, but with a little crooked stick. You
whack the ball and it goes into the gopher hole.
Oh you mean like croquet?
Hell no, not croquet! I put the hole hundreds of yards away! You have to whack
it straight or it falls into a goddamn ditch.
Oh, like a bowling ditch.
Hell no. Not like that, not there. I put shit in the way, like trees and bushes and
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high grass, so you can lose your ball! And can go on whacking away, whacking in the
grass! Whacking away, and each time you miss, you feel you’re gonna have a stroke!
Hahaha! A stroke! Shit that’s what we’ll call it! A stroke, ‘cause when you miss, you
feel like you will goddamn die! Hahaha.
Oh, this is the better part. Oh, this is brilliant. Right at the end, I’ll put a little flat
place, with a little flag to give you goddamn hope! But then I’ll put a pool of water and a
sand box beside it to fool with your ball again! You’ll be there thrashing your ass,
jacking away in the sand, hahaha! And the ball falls into the goddamn water, hahaha!
Thrashing your ass!
And I’ll do this just one time?
Hell no! Eighteen goddamn times!
April 22, 2003
Conching Sunico: Save the Met!

MOST beauty queens nowadays, born with body bountiful, speak as if they were
brain-dead: “My greetest hambition ees to marry an American.” And wind up marrying a
beach bum with the brains of a bedbug.
Centuries ago, during the time of Komong Sumulong, we had carnival queens
gifted by God with beauty, brains and wealth, like Maria “Chiching” Kalaw (Katigbak),
Pacita “Ting” de los Reyes (Philipps), and Conchita “Conching” Sunico.
But they were never satisfied with God's greatest gifts, they demanded more.
Chiching demanded of God, from whom she got in large measure, a stupendous sense of
Self-Righteousness with which as censor, she ruled the morals of our nation.
Ting, not satisfied with beauty, brains and riches, wanted to be loved by the most
brilliant of men.
And Conching Sunico, in addition to beauty, brains and riches, had an ear for
music, and demanded the initiative, imagination and talent for organization to bring
music to her people.
She became an impresario who brought us Broadway musicals and Shakespeare
in music, Kiss Me Kate, adopted from The Taming of the Shrew, with Pinggoy Alonso
and my daughter Juno Henares.
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***
In the midst of the cement jungle that is Liwasang Bonifacio, with lumbering
elephants disguised as buses, and growling tigers disguised as jeepneys, devouring
masses of humanity, shines a sanctuary of culture called the Metropolitan Theater.
Here at the Met I brought my first date and forgot to kiss her because I was so
absorbed with the movie As You Like It by Shakespeare, with Elizabeth Bergner as
Rosalind and a very young Laurence Olivier as Orlando.
Here during the Japanese Occupation, Lamberto Avellana's Dramatic Philippines
staged the world's best plays, translated into Pilipino by Francisco ``Soc'' Rodrigo:
Cyrano de Bergerac (translation still available), The Monkey's Paw (Paa ng Kuago), even
Hamlet.
Even then, the Met was already losing the battle with movie houses belonging to
the Rufinos on Rizal Avenue and Escolta. Destroyed during the war, it was rented to
Danny Aguinaldo's companies for office space, became a boxing arena, and was invaded
by squatters.
***
Rebuilt to the elegance it was during Quezon's time, it is now under Conching
Sunico, who dispenses culture with the battle cry ``Save the Met!''
Here at the Met, we were treated to a musical extravaganza only Conchita Sunico
could have conceived and executed -- a four piano concert by four of our greatest concert
pianists: Rowena Arrieta, Raul Sunico, Rene Dalandan, and Corazon Pineda Kabayao.
And Jeffrey Ching who together with Fabian Obispo composed four-piano music for the
occasion.
There they were, so young, so talented, sparkling with confidence and verve,
gleaming with their Colgate smiles. And there in the front row were my wife Cecilia,
Pearl Doromal, myself, Mel Gamboa, Imelda Sarmiento, Ramona Cabrera Ferrer and TV
idol Raymund Lauchengco. All so good-looking.
“By God!”' King Doromal was moved to exclaim, “with the possible exception of
Dante Santos and Dick Romulo, we Filipinos are a handsome race.”
The four pianists, kings and queens in their own right, humbly submerged their
personalities into a harmonious whole, and brought forth a performance greater than the
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sum of their talents.

***
Rowena Arrieta is a world-class pianist, winning the Special Prize in 1982
Tchaikovsky Competition, First Prize in 1985 Jose Iturbi competition in Spain, and First
Prize in 1986 Frinna Awerbuch competition in New York.
Playing with “fevered demonic intensity'” and “gentle, sublime introspection,”
with the bravura of her Moscow training, Rowena continues to delight us. With fingers
strong enough to strangle an errant husband, Rowena, still looking virginal, married
Jonathan Policarpio last month, and cut short her honeymoon to be with us.
Praised by New York Times for his ``able technique and musical spontaneity,''
Rene Dalandan after graduating from Mannes School of Music, won the 1984 Artists
International Auditions in New York and had his recital debut at the Carnegie Hall.
Raul Sunico is a graduate of Julliard, won the silver medal at the Viotti
Competition, and the Henry Cowell Prize at Maryland University.
Corazon Pineda, with a smile like the morning mist, comes out of the shadow of
her husband Gilopez Kabayao to bask in her own glory, ``displaying marvelous digital
dexterity and singular brio.''
And composer Jeffrey Ching, with his King's English, French hand-kissing.
Prussian pince-nez and heel clicking, is the genius son of Alfredo Ching of Baguio Oil,
who composed a cantata when he was 14, and a full length opera at the age of 17, and
others including the Toccata Contrappuntistica for 4 pianos premiered on this memorable
night.
Hail our artists, and Save the Met!
The Plant And the Tree.

Writer Ceres Doyo posted a request in the Internet for the words to a poem
entitled The Plant, which a Marikina schoolteacher wanted for her third grade class, ds of
which has been forgotten by most. A UP professor was able to find the complete verses
of The Plant but not the author. I hope some body remembers who the author is. Here it
is:
In the heart of a seed, / Very deep, so deep
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A dear little plant lay fast asleep

Wake, said the sunshine / And creep to the light
Wake, said the voice / Of the raindrops bright.
The little plant heard / And it rose to see
What a wonderful world / It could really be. (Bow.)
Ceres remembers the she and her classmates recited it in class and they had to
raise our voices when saying Wake!, and bow at the end of the poem. She hopes
someone finds the author. The Marikina school teacher was so happy that the words
were found for her third grade class daw.
In grade school in Ateneo, we had our version of the poem “Plant,” composed by
Joyce Kilmer at the beginning of the last century, entitled “Trees.” It is a beautiful
poem, long considered a classic, but you know, very few people nowadays know it,
specially the young. To those who never had the pleasure of reciting this poem, here it is.
Trees by Joyce Kilmer:
I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree,
A tree that whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A Tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
The famous poem Trees was set to music, and is an old standby in the concert
circuit. To those who never heard it, we dedicate this song, sung by our favorite baritone,
Nelson Eddy. I bet you guys and gals have never heard of Nelson Eddy. He is the most
famous singer in the pre-war years, the Mario Lanza and Enrico Caruso of his time.
Listen. (Play the record.)
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This is Larry Henares making your day, saying good day, God bless you and
thanks for being with us. Till next time, hasta la bye bye.
January 8, 2003, DWBR-fm
Elvis was not even a hound dog by Andy Rooney

Among my more enjoyable broadcasts, is one quoting humorist Andy Rooney, in
his essay about Elvis Presley, which I now quote verbatim:
***
Elvis Presley still lives, exclaim many fans who claim to have sighted him in
various places long after he died. The mystique of Elvis Presley eludes me. Music is the
great divider of generations but age has nothing to do with my thinking that Elvis Presley
is the most over-rated singer of all time. His talent was comparable to the forgettable
sensation of my high school years, Rudy Vallee.
The Beatles said that they picked up some of their style from Presley but the
Beatles were, by comparison with Presley, refreshingly original. Even Bing Crosby had
an ingenuous charm about him that rang true. Elvis was phony clear through and
through. He never learned how to fake being sincere.
In my lifetime I have listened to a lot of bad good music. I include in that
category some operas and symphony concerts I’ve sat through. On the other hand, there
has been a lot of bad music that I’ve enjoyed. The same year that Presley recorded the
abominably bad Hound Dog, there were a dozen songs that were light and insignificant
but delightful. I think of Que Sera, Sera, Sixteen Tons, Mack the Knife, On the Street
Where You Live, The Rain in Spain, Standing on the Corner (Watching All the Girls Go
By), I Could Have Danced All Night, Bells Are Ringing (For Me and My Gal) and
Canadian Sunset.
There is an element of make-believe in all art. We allow ourselves to be fooled
for fun. Elvis Presley’s-make-believe struck a false note. Frank Sinatra could sing a
song and make it sound as if it all happened to him. With Elvis Presley you couldn’t
forget that he was up there performing. Elvis Presley looked like someone imitating
Elvis Presley, very badly.
Elvis Presley’s performance on stage was crude and calculated to be that way. I
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can understand a young generation being turned on at first and for a short while by his
sexual gyrations on stage, but it was all so fake and badly acted that I do not understand
why it didn’t eventually turn them off. In spite of all the pelvic activity, he never seemed
very masculine.
I have heard people who claim to have known Elvis Presley, speak as if he were
some kind of misunderstood intellectual. They talked about his depth of character. Was
that when he was on drugs or off them? I didn’t know he had any character, let alone
depth. He seemed weak and ineffectual. If he had any opinions, he kept them hidden.
Did he vote? If so, for whom? Was he philosophically liberal or conservative?
Elvis Presley made 33 movies that were memorable only because they were so
bad, they were hard to forget. This was partly because he was often under the control of
tasteless, money-grubbing managers, agents and friends. He was manipulated like a
boxing champion who made millions of dollars but couldn’t count.
The circumstances of Presley’s death were as mysterious as his success. No one
seems to know for sure what he died of. Pictures of him before his death show him
looking like a bloated, overweight marshmallow.
Other than that though, I liked Elvis.
August 8, 2003, DWBR-fm
Keka, a black comedy

After his first movie Gamitan, a money-making sex film about a woman seduced
and rejected on a bet – and plotting bloody vengeance -- Quark Henares presents his
second movie, Keka, based on the same theme, the vengeance of a woman against the
men who murdered her lover in a fraternity war.
This time the movie is no porno flick but a comedy, a black comedy, whose
object is to make you laugh. It was not the movie originally assigned to him by Viva
Films – Finals, about a graduating class poised to take their final examinations.
Somehow Quark was able to talk Viva’s Vic del Rosario into letting him make this movie
he has been dreaming about since his college days.
A black comedy? It is hard enough to make a slap-stick or a sitcom funny movie.
It is almost impossible to make one based on bloody murder. Only the British could do it
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well. No American has been able to do one. We all doubted if Quark could pull it off,
but he did.
I have not laughed so much since the 1949 film, Kind Hearts and Coronets, a
peerless black comedy of a cast-off member of a titled family setting out to eliminate all
his relatives. Sir Alec Guiness played the role of every one of the eight victims, male and
female, old and young, and made a name for himself as one of the greatest actors of all
time. Sir Alec Guiness did it again in 1955, this time with the incomparable Peter
Sellers, in the movie The Ladykillers, a droll black comedy of not-so-bright crooks
plotting to kill a seemingly harmless old lady. I thought I would never see the likes of
such a comedy again, till I saw the movie Keka, written and directed by my grandson
Quark Henares, a Carlos Palanca Awardee before he was 20 years old.
Keka is Theater of the Absurd, with the story line mostly carried by a stream of
consciousness from the main actors, talking at the camera to no one in particular. The
mammiferous sex star, Katya Santos, was surprised to learn from her director that she
was not to take off her clothes, that she was to carry out her role purely by acting. Wow,
she was definitely better as an actress as she could have ever been as a sexpot.
Wendell Ramos, playing opposite her in Keka was better than he was in Quark’s
first movie, Gamitan. Little surprises illumine the story line, as delightful as those ever
made by director Ernst Lubitch (Ninotchka, Shop Around the Corner)
– the doctor performing the autopsy on the victim and describing vividly how he
died, choked by vomit, which he proceeded to taste to see if it was poisoned.
– a badly acted scene between the son of Mark Gil and his girlfriend which turned
out to be a TV novella.
– the TV director Quark Henares giving his star the dirty finger.
-- the detective musing about his new love in front of the only audience who
would listen, jailbirds in the hoosegow
-- a hilarious song-and-dance performed by Keka, her past and present boyfriends
and the five victims whose deaths she sought (life, she said, is not like a movie)
– detective Jason (played by Wendell) arresting the murderess Keka, pointing a
gun at her, and caressing her with words of love, while her intended victim asks “What
the hell is going on?” and was told to shut up
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– and the movies’ end with the obligatory clinch by hero and heroine, surrounded
by armed policemen pointing guns at them, while the show-stopper line is muttered by
Keka, “It does not really matter how my story ends, love conquers all.”
I hate to boast, but this grandson of mine, Quark Henares, is a superb storyteller,
with a penchant for original story-line twists that tickle your funny bone, while making
you cringe at the horror of it all. Charlie Chaplin was a genius that can make you laugh
and cry at the same time. Quark Henares is a genius who can make you laugh and horrify
you at the same time. This picture is one of the best film comedies I have ever seen.
August 18, 2003
A couple of jokes
Just to break the monotony, today we will tell you a couple of jokes. The first one
is from Ron Hontz from Pennsylvania by e-mail.
It's a beautiful, warm spring morning and a man and his wife are spending the day
at the zoo. She's wearing a cute, loose-fitting, pink spring dress, sleeveless with straps.
He's wearing jeans and a T-shirt.
The zoo is not very busy. As they walk through the ape and gorilla section, they
pass in front of a very large hairy gorilla. Noticing the girl, the gorilla goes ape (No pun
intended). He jumps up on the bars, and holding on with one hand (and 2 feet), he grunts
and pounds his chest with his free hand. He is obviously excited at the pretty lady in the
dress. The husband, noticing the excitement, thinks this is funny. He suggests that his
wife teases the poor ape some more.
The husband suggests she pucker her lips, wiggle her bottom at him, and play
along. She does, and Mr. Gorilla gets even more excited, making noises that would wake
the dead. Then the husband suggests that she let the straps fall to show a little more skin
and cleavage. She does, and Mr. Gorilla is about to tear the bars off his cage. “Now try
lifting your dress up to your thighs and sort of fan it at him,” he says.... This drives the
gorilla absolutely crazy and now he’s doing backflips.
The husband then grabs his wife, rips open the door to the cage, flings her in with
the gorilla, and slams the cage door shut. “Now, tell HIM you’ve got a headache.”
Hahaha, Tell HIM you’ve got a headache!
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I remember how my wife used to tease me to the point of no return, only to tell
me she has a headache. Every wife does that to her husband. Hahaha.
***
The second joke is something I cooked up for Erap Estrada for his presidential
campaign. He loved it, it’s better than any joke Reli German has plagiarized and
published. And it is really original. Here it is:
Erap Estrada decided to improve his status among the Filipino people. What
better way, he said, than to get himself another wife, this time a real princess. So he went
to the oil kingdom of the Middle East and asked for the hand of the king’s daughter.
The king told him. “Erap, in this country, you just do not ask for the hand of my
daughter. You have to prove yourself worthy of her.”
“What would you have me do?” asked Erap.
“First, we put you into a room with three lions, and it is your job to pull out all the
teeth of each lion. That is to show your courage and your strength.
“If you survive that, we put you in another room with three beautiful women.
This time you have to make love to those women, after another, over and over again till
they fall faint from sheer exhaustion. This is to prove your stamina and capacity for
loving.”
“Shucks, that’s nothing. I used to do those tricks in the movies. Lead on.”
And so first, Erap was put inside a room with three lions. The doors were closed,
and for a whole hour, one could hear Erap shouting and the lions roaring.
Suddenly silence. The doors opened, and there stood Erap bloody but unbowed,
and there in a corner lay the three lions all unconscious.
Erap thumped his chest, “I’m good, I’m good, I’m good,” he trumpeted, “I did it,
I did it, I did it!”
And then he added, “Now, where are those three women whose teeth I have to
pull???”
Hahaha.
May 19, 2003, DWBR-fm
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MICHAEL BUBLE
1. Michael Buble, the new Frank Sinatra

One day, my son-in-law, Eric Angeles, came to my house, placed a CD in my
player, and played two songs, Come Fly With Me, and The Way You Look Tonight. I
listened with pleasure, and remarked, “Eric, I did not know you appreciated Frank
Sinatra.”
I pride myself for being an authority on Frank Sinatra, having probably one of the
largest private collection of Sinatra records in the Philippines, if not in the entire world,
and having printed two editions of the most complete collection of Sinatra lyrics in
memory of my wife and having contributed almost 90 percent of the lyrics in Todd
Peach’s definitive Frank Sinatra Website in the Internet.
Eric gave out one of those triumphant yells, “It is not Frank Sinatra singing, Papa!
It is a fellow by the name of Michael Buble, not bubble, but boob-lay.” I was
incredulous, “Who dat? Who is Michael Boob-lay?”
Answered Eric: “Michael Buble is a young Canadian singer in his early 20’s,
who is making waves in the United States under the guidance of Paul Anka, because he
sounds so much like the late Frank Sinatra.
I borrowed Eric’s CD and make a copy of my own, and played it in my CD
Changer. My God, he really sounds like Frank Sinatra, not the young Frank Sinatra of
Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra, but the Frank Sinatra in his Capitol years, singing songs
arranged by the great Alex Stordahl and the great Nelson Riddle – jazzy in beat. He lacks
the ability of Frank Sinatra to continue the same note for a long time as if by one breath
(he actually takes a quick second breath that cannot be noticed). But Michael Buble
really reminds us of Frank Sinatra.
Finally, Michael Buble was invited to have a concert in the Philippines by
Philippine Long Distance and the Jacinto family, which includes my daughter-in-law
Kim and which represents the Swiss watch Rado, among others. He was welcomed with
a small party to which my sons Atom and Danby were invited, and they had a close look
and opportunity to interact with this young singer of some 24 years of age.
His forebears were French Canadians. He owes much of his singing career to a
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doting grandfather who kept telling him to learn and sing his favorite songs, “Please
indulge your grandfather who is about to die of old age,” he would say. Michael wryly
remarked, “I am fortunate my grandfather kept dying for 13 years. He is now 79 years
old, still dying and still asking me to sing the songs of his youth. My only regret is that
he no longer is strong enough to travel and attend all my concerts abroad.”
Michael Buble’s grandfather is a plumber. Now in the United States a plumber
makes more money than a factory worker. The factory worker is trained to do repetitive
tasks, which does not take much skill. On the other hand, a plumber or a master
mechanic is trained to trouble shoot and fix things that do not work, and that takes a lot of
initiative, knowledge and intricate skill. In the Philippines this is not fully appreciated
and plumbers and mechanics are paid less that factory workers are.
Well, Michael grandfather promoted his grandson’s career by promising to fix the
plumbing of anyone who gives him a chance to sing on the stage, on radio and on
television. Thus Michael’s career prospered and whole areas of Hollywood and New
York had excellent plumbing for years. If his grandfather could still travel, Manny
Pangilinan’s bathroom would be in excellent shape. He invited Michael Buble to have
two concerts in the Philippines.
2. Michael Buble, the remembrance of things long past

Canadian singer 24-year old Michael Buble, who is making waves in the United
States for singing like Frank Sinatra, has been in Manila for two concerts upon the
invitation of Philippine Long Distance Co. and the Jacinto family which represents the
Swiss watch Rado in the Philippines. The latter is the family of my daughter-in-law, Kim
Jacinto-Henares, presently Deputy Commissioner of the BIR, the Bureau of Internal
Revenue. Kim was good enough to provide us with four tickets – one each for my son-
in-law Eric Angeles, my sister-in-law Sister Marissa of Maryknoll, for Kim herself and
for me.
We attended his second concert in the PICC concert hall. I was a bit
disappointed. He tried very hard not to sound like a clone of Sinatra, and I do not blame
him a bit. Who wants to be known as a second Sinatra? Any more than any one could be
a second President Bush without being a beetle browed, beetle-brained disaster? Any
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more than Gary Valenciano could prosper by being billed as an imitation Michael
Jackson.
But Michael Buble did a make a good impression nonetheless. He did sing
Sinatra songs, not the way he did in his CD record, but jazzy without a Big Band. He
sang with Martin Nievera (whom Paul Anka asked him to look up) Sinatra’s For Once In
My Life, and sang solo such Sinatra favorites as Come Fly With Me, All of Me, The Way
You Look Tonight, but the only time he really sounded like Frank Sinatra was when he
sang for his grandfather, his favorite song You’ll Never Know, and his song for a new
Album, My Funny Valentine.
Michael Buble was at his best in the concert when he sang a Bob Darin favorite,
Mack The Knife, and Bee Gee’s immortal How Can You Mend A Broken Heart? He
brought the house down with the remark, “People asked me if I wrote my own songs.”
The boy is certainly young and fresh and extremely good-looking, though by
America standards, like his friend Martin Nievera, he is a trifle short in stature. He still
does not have Sinatra’s ability to hold a high note till kingdom come, or Sinatra’s
uncanny ability to weave in and out of the melody without missing a beat. But Michael is
still very young. Give him time. He will learn.
There is plenty of time in his later years to develop a style and reputation of his
own. But as of today, before our generation and that of his grandfather become extinct,
we beg Michael Buble to give us back our Frank Sinatra, our wonderful Frank Sinatra --
who was there for us in the morning of our youth, in his Dorsey years, a great voice
sharing our hopes and dreams, our joys and sorrows -- who was there for us in the high
noon of our lives, in his Capitol Years, sharing our loves and triumphs in the sunlit
uplands of our middle years -- and who was there for us in the evening of our lives, in his
Reprise Years, his thoughts turning to last hopes and remembrances and wishing as we
do for a better and more peaceful world. Give us back our Frank Sinatra, Michael.
I hope someday someone would suggest to Michael Buble that he give people like
me and his grandfather an evening of Sinatra songs, sung exactly the way Sinatra sang
them – The Song Is You, Stardust, All The Things You Are, My Way, New York, New
York. For that is exactly the reason I and many of his Filipino fans attend his concerts –
to recapture the remembrance of things long past and past forgetting – when the world
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was young, and safe from AIDS, weapons of mass destruction and pre-emptive wars –
when Frank Sinatra was The Voice, the idol of the Bobby-Soxers and the first Superstar
of the airwaves, enduring for 60 glorious years till the end of the 20th century.
October xx, 2003
SOLOMON SAPRID
1. Saprid, Then, Now and Forever, by Patrick Caoile and Vic Salta
Solomon A. Saprid once wrote that it is a rare privilege to be an artist. Such gift
can only come from God perhaps to make this world a more colorful and pleasant place
to live in. Art is almost life itself and you need not be an artist to know that it is part of
the daily activities-both social and domestic. Art is a visual statement of one’s feelings, a
mirrored reaction to personal and national issues and a way of sharing an artistic creation
with others who appreciate it.
We, Patrick Caoile and Vic Salta, met Mang Sol on August 24, 2003 with such
thoughts lingering in our minds, at the Marikina Museo ng Bato restaurant together with
Christine Caoile, Ogie and Cherie Pasicolan. The Museo is a Spanish era house that
traces its roots with the family of Ms. Cherie Pasicolan. Food was great and the company
was even greater. Mang Sol, artist, sculptor and painter-was born on March 13, 1917 in
Imus, Cavite. He started as a scientific illustrator in water color for the Bureau of Plant
Industry and then textbook illustrator of children’s books for the Bureau of Public
Schools. After a brief stint with the government, he joined the private sector initially
with the Audio Visual Department of the Federation of Christian Churches and then as
professor of Communication Arts of the University of the East. Formal art studies was an
abbreviated one semester at the University of the Philippines but he completed his M.S.
in Education at the Ohio University (1954). While in the U.S., he visited the various
museums such as the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. ***
Saprid returned to his teaching job at U.E. and started joining the various art
competitions, starting with the “Sad Christ”, his entry at the 1967 Art Association of the
Philippines sculpture competition. His first commissioned work was St. Joseph, the
Worker at the Malate Church. He depicted St. Joseph mainly as a worker, succeeding by
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making him an Asian (rather than the typical Caucasian looking) and putting forth his
Protestant up bringing. With his earnings from his first major work, he bought a lot in
West Riverside SFDM where he built his home. His work GOMBURZA across National
Museum in Manila was a major turning point in his life as an artist. He became a full
time artist while completing this work. Throughout his four decades of constantly
developing his skill, his craft and his love of his art, Mang Sol has recurring themes- (1)
mother and child, (2) tikbalang, (3) Don Quixote, (4) nudes, (5) folk dance, (6)
merchants, (7) still life fruits and flowers.
The authors asked him after the paella and the lengua setas and while having
coffee at Cherie Pasicolan’s home, why the recurring themes? Mang Sol’s answer was as
simple as it is profound. Because he was perfecting his craft and his art with every time
he does his recurring themes. He constantly experiments and even tries new or a
different medium. Always it is with loving joy, the toil of a worker, perhaps another St.
Joseph, the Miracle Worker. And while the themes and motifs are recurring, each work
of art is likewise unique and has its own story to tell. Born on March 13, 1917, Mang Sol
died on September 25, 2003 at the age of 86, after undergoing an operation, on the very
day he planned an exhibition of his works at the Artistree Fine Art in the Art Center in
the Edsa Plaza. This then is Solomon Arevalo Saprid, then, now and forever, a painter
and sculptor who deserves to be our National Artist.
2. Solomon Saprid, Sculptor par excellence:

The first time I met Solomon Saprid was when my wife Cecilia ask him to go to
our house, to commission a sculpture. She wanted him to make two pieces on the same
theme: The Fisherman. She wanted him to make it exclusively for her, making him
promise to sell her any other sculpture he makes on the same Fisherman theme. She
paid, I believe P10,000 for each. That was during Martial Law.
We became good friends. He dropped around one day to tell me that he is doing
painting also, and won’t I please pose for him. He painted a portrait of me that made me
look like I was a 20-years old. He also gave me a paperweight about the size of a fist and
portraying a man and woman making love.
One day, when he was in the house, I mentioned that I wanted to buy a Botong
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Francisco painting, even just a small one, and told him to look one for me. For which I
am willing to pay P50,000.
He smiled and said, “What a coincidence! I think I have one in my car.”
We went to his car, and he showed me a pencil sketch of two people fighting with
arnis, a preliminary study by Botong Francisco for one of his murals. “My God,” I said,
“that is exactly what I wanted. How much is it worth?” Oh, Solomon said, “about
P80,000.” I whipped out my checkbook, and said, “To whom do I make it out to?”
Solomon smiled and said, “Kung pera ang pinag-uusapan, hindi bali na. This
painting is not for sale. It is yours for free.” I could not believe my ears. “Free? As you
crazy?” Solomon put the painting back in the car, saying, “Kung ayaw mo, di huwag!”
No, no, I said, “I accept.” The painting of Botong is still in my possession. My
friend Anding Roces later told me, “My God, Sol came from my house where I gave him
that same painting!” Anding is here, we have come to a full circle.
Later, my classmate AurelioMontinola Jr. fell in love with Cecilia’s two statues of
The Fisherman, and offered to buy one of them. Politely we refused. So he went to
Solomon Saprid to commission another Fisherman. Solomon Saprid told him that Cecilia
gave him the original idea, and that he promised to sell her all other Fisherman statues he
made.
Aureling and Solomon came to the house to beg Cecilia to allow Aureling to buy
one, arguing that a Fisherman in the Montinola Collection which was open to the public
would enhance all the other Fisherman statues in our possession. Cecilia being an astute
art collector and businesswoman, readily agreed. That is how Aureling got his
Fisherman.
Cecilia died in Paris in 1993. Solomon the painter gave me a painting of a nude,
and I bought a second one.
Then one day he came to the house and presented me a sculpture of a scorpion, a
conversation piece in brass, with a head that looks like a penis and somewhere a
depiction of a vagina.
For me? I exclaimed. No, Solomon replied, “I made it for Cecilia, because she
was born on November 22 under the sign of Scorpio. But it was so bastos, I did not have
the nerve to give it to her. Well, Larry, knowing your penchant for sex, now that Cecilia
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has passed away, I give it to you in her memory.”

Solomon is no more, and I am sure he is with my wife Cecilia sculpting
for her. But for us he is not dead. He lives in the things of beauty he has left behind.
EDSA Art Plaza, November 20, 2003, Dec. 18-19 2003, DWBR-fm
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
1. Life is Beautiful, a movie review

Winner of more than 40 awards including the Oscar’s Best Actor for Roberto
Benigni, also writer and director, the Best Foreign Film and the Best Musical Score, the
last Academy Awards, the Italian movie, Life is Beautiful is also the highest grossing
foreign film of all time.
The title comes from a quotation by Leon Trotsky, communist leader marked for
assassination by Josef Stalin. Knowing that he was to be killed, and before he was killed
with an ax in Mexico, he saw his wife in a garden and told her that in spite of everything,
“life is beautiful.”
The first part of the film is pure comedy. It is 1939 and Guido (played by
Benigni) is a Jewish waiter in a grand Italian hotel. He has a gawky, toothy face and
wears a battered hat, which he keeps trying to swap for a better one. He falls in love
with a beautiful schoolteacher, Dora (played by his real wife Nicoletta Braschi). The
winning of Dora, who is engaged to someone else, is accomplished with pranks and
games, sudden appearances, wonderfully engineered coincidences – all very funny and
accompanied by fulsome compliments and extravagant declarations of love. I especially
liked the scene in which he impersonates a school inspector and delivers an absurd
speech to a pompous school assembly, making fun of prevailing racist theories.
For a time all is sunny and untroubled. With the arrival of their son Giosue
(Giorgio Cantarini), the couple's happiness is complete. A few years pass in one seamless
cut and the story is resumed towards the end of the war, when the boy is five or six years
old and Italy's racial laws are taking their toll. It is not easy to explain to an intelligent
child why shops have signs banning dogs and Jews, but Guido – always an innocent
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himself – is determined to protect the innocence of his son. His protective powers will
soon be tested to the full. In 1945, he is arrested with Giosue and transported to
Auschwitz. (Dora, not being a Jew, escapes the round-up but insists on boarding the train
with her family.). The heartbreaking power and beauty of the ensuing scenes owe much
to Benigni's sense of humour and their mirroring of earlier moments of hilarity and farce.
Pretending that the journey is a holiday trip and Auschwitz a resort much coveted by
travellers, Guido invents an elaborate game to keep Giosue hidden from the guards: the
inmates are all secretly competing for a prize, to be awarded at the end of their stay when
the winner is decided. The boy is still young and trusting enough to believe his father, but
old enough to sense that some kind of deception is being practised. It is an amazing
performance from the child: He looks simultaneously happy, puzzled and frightened, and
it is a measure of Benigni's skill that we fear as much for his innocence as we do for his
life.
Like Chaplin, Roberto Benigni understands the power of laughter as a weapon:
the fact, well known to politicians, that although those in authority can survive hatred and
contempt, nothing can survive ridicule. Once you become a joke, you are finished. In his
bold and triumphantly good film, Benigni treats the Holocaust as a joke: not, of course, as
something funny in itself but as something to which humour, the ultimate weapon, is a
legitimate and rational response. So long as the Holocaust is seen as merely horrific –
Benigni is telling us – there will always be those who can come to terms with it; worse,
there will be those who deny it. But as soon as it looks ridiculous, it loses something of
its hateful power, its evil fascination. Or at least we must hope so.
2. Life is beautiful, Satire with Laughter

Roberto Benigni’s movie Life is Beautiful is a cinematic masterpiece. Benigni is
a natural comedian. His talent for facial gymnastics puts him with Jerry Lewis or Jim
Carrey. But the underlying melancholy is unmistakably Charles Chaplin's. Guido is
played with unflagging zest: the frantic word spinning, the torrents of flirtatious banter
and cajolery (the subtitles, I suspect, capture only a part of it), are so intense and
unremitting that sometimes we long for a breather. But the best set pieces have a fine
edge of suspense. A small but typically satisfying example is the scene when Giosue,
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hiding in a room full of German children, inadvertently betrays himself by using an

Italian word. Guido turns the room into a language class to fool the guards. Best of all is a
tour de force routine in which Guido translates a German guard's bullying harangue into
shouted instructions for Giosue’s “game”, leaving both sides in happy ignorance of what
anyone is talking about.
It is this verbal ingenuity, combined with great visual imagination, that gives Life
is Beautiful its extraordinary power. It is not, I think, a flawless film: Dora is little more
than a sweetly admiring face, some of the story is a little too cute and the title suggests a
fondness for emotional overkill that Benigni disguises with the gusto of his performance.
But the cumulative effect is devastating. Chaplin's influence can be seen even in details
such as Guido's funny walk, and the number on Benigni's prison camp uniform which is
the same number on Charlie Chaplin’s uniform in The Great Dictator (1940), the satire of
Hitler and fascism. I doubt however if even Chaplin would have dared treat the
Holocaust as a source of fun. He was quite prepared to portray Hitler as a buffoon in The
Great Dictator, but little was known in 1940 of the full horror of the Nazi era. Many
Jewish commentators in Germany and the USA criticized the Italian film, Life is
Beautiful, as trivializing the Nazi Holocaust where 6 million Jews died. We disagree.
The film is an extraordinary and successful effort to prove that love and imagination can
conquer even the worst of evils. And we urge you to see it. Roberto Benigni is the only
comic genius we know since Charlie Chaplin who can make us laugh and cry at the same
time.
In Life is Beautiful, Benigni has taken satire to a new and legitimate extreme. He
has done it with laughter. It was Adolf Eichmann who notoriously boasted that the
thought that he helped to dispatch several million people would allow him to "leap
laughing into his grave". Benigni's film gives the last laugh to the victims: Let us join in.
The one standout thing about Life is Beautiful is the film’s score. The score by
Nicola Piovani is excellent with one of the most memorable themes I’ve heard lately. It is
light when it needs to be and powerful when the time comes. And never is the score
overpowering. Kudos to Piovani for this wonderful film score. Life Is Beautiful, the
latest film from the Italian comic genius Roberto Begnini, is a comic gem, bringing
warmth and laughter to a subject usually portrayed without the slightest hint of humor. It
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uses slapstick pratfalls, social commentary, and gentle satire to create a touching tale of
love.
April 29-30, 1999, Philippine Post
WORDS
1. The light of words we leave behind

My elder grandchildren come every afternoon to await their cars, and
straightaway they head for the computer and work this chat program called Friendster. I
gave them a book of short stories to read, but they lay it aside. Read, read, read, I
frantically advised them to no avail. They are hooked to television and the computer.
How can I convince them that words, words, words are God’s greatest gift to mankind,
that one can see a thousand years back in the light of words, that no one ever dies and be
done with, in the light of words he leaves behind. In 1863, one man writing on the back
of an envelop, wrote 272 words which he delivered in three minutes on the battlefield of
Gettysburg, It is the greatest speech I have ever read, for it captured for all of us and for
all time, the spirit of democracy for which we are willing give up our lives.
Abraham Lincoln said: 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 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 in 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
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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. This
speech will live long after the Battle of Gettysburg is forgotten.
Four centuries before Christ was born, a Roman General named Julius Caesar
captured Gaul for the Roman Empire, and reported back to Rome: Veni, vidi, vinci! I
came, I saw, I conquered. The people of Rome wanted him to be their Emperor, but a
group of Roman Senators led by Brutus, fearful than the Republic of Rome was in danger
of being destroyed, assassinated Julius Caesar who cried out as his good friend Brutus
stabbed him, Et tu, Brutes, then fall Caesar.
Later, Caesar’s friend, Mark Anthony came upon the dead body of Caesar, and
swore, in Shakespeare’s deathless words: “O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
that I am meek and gentle with these butchers. Thou art the ruins of the noblest man that
ever lived in the tide of times. Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood! Over thy
wounds now do I prophecy (which like dumb mouths do ope their ruby lips to beg the
voice and utterance of my tongue): a curse shall light upon the limbs of men. Domestic
fury and civil strife shall cumber all parts of Italy. Blood and destruction shall be so in
use and dreadful objects so familiar, that mothers shall but smile when they see their
infants quartered by the hands of war. All pity choked with custom of fell deeds, and
Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge with Ate by his side come hot from hell, shall in
these confines with a monarch’s voice, cry ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war, that this
foul deed shall smell above the earth with carrion men groaning for burial.”
Words, words, words, how many times were such words repeated, at the death of
Jack and Bobby Kennedy, of Martin Luther King, of Mahatma Gandhi, of Rizal and
Ninoy Aquino?
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2. Words, words, words

Words, Words, Words! Read, read, read, for God’s sake, read. You read ten
biographies, and you live the lives of ten people, great men who will forever touch your
life. Your read ten books of non-fiction, and you read the thoughts of ten people,
thoughts of wisdom and experience that will forever light up your mind. Read ten great
novels, and your imagination will soar to unimaginable heights, beyond the limits of time
and space.
Read Shakespeare and you become an instrument that searches men’s hearts and
souls, baring the splendor and the meanness of the human spirit, the soaring heights to
which it can ascend, and the miry depths to which it can sink. Probably the most famous
of all Shakespeare’s soliloquies is “To be or not to be” uttered by Hamlet, the most
complex and most appealing figure in all dramatic literature. Here he ponders on
questions of life and death as he considers suicide as a way out of his dilemma
“To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to face
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and
by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep, no more, and by a sleep to say we end the
heartaches and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to – ‘tis a consummation
devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep, to sleep perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub.
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal
coil, must give us pause.
“There’s the respect that makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the
whips and scorns of time, the oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, the pangs
of despised love, the law’s delay, the insolence of office, and the spurns that patient merit
of the unworthy takes – when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin. For
who would fardels bear to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the thought of
something after death, the undiscovered country from whose borne no traveler returns,
puzzles the will and makes us rather bear the ills we have than fly to others we know not
of. Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all. And thus the native hue of resolution is
sickl’d o’er by the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pith and moment, with
this regard, their currents turn awry and lose the name of action.”
Probably the greatest Filipino that ever lived, is not Rizal or Bonifacio or even
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Ninoy Aquino – not they whose bright promise was cut short by an untimely death. The
greatest Filipino is one who lived to a ripe old age of 70 years, who left behind a body of
work that analyzed our national problems and prescribed solutions that are still relevant
and true today.
His name is Claro M. Recto, and his words are his legacy. He spoke of our need
for nationalism industrialization, and an independent foreign policy. He spoke of
McCarthyist elements among us rushing to fight Russia and China after the United States
had a détente with them. Exactly they way are fighting the Arabs and our own Muslims
because Mother America wants us to.
He warned that as a small nation we must not involved with the quarrels of the
great powers, that in doing so, we may be plunged into a surrogate war, awaiting
“liberation,” as we were during World War II. He spoke of being the target for the first
volley of nuclear warfare. And he ends his speech with one of the greatest perorations
ever made, like the closing of great cathedral doors:
“Let not Macaulay’s traveler from New Zealand exploring the spectral ruins of
for which their race had fought and perished.”
Recto’s words still ring true in our time and place. Read, my dear friends, and
you multiply yourselves a million times fold, an heir to the riches of the mind and to the
common heritage of man.
December 1-2, 2005, DWBR-fm
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LANI MISALUCHA
1. Lani Misalucha, world-class universal singer

Ronnie Henares’ great concert talents always had names easy to remember – Leah
Navarro, Zsa Zsa Padilla, Nannette Inventor, Regine Velasquez –with generic names that
one associates with friends and acquaintances. But the latest and probably the greatest of
Ronnie’s singers has a name that is unique and difficult to remember at first. What is her
name? Let us see, her name is a combination of Sinatra’s Hawaiian ballad, Leilani,
Bach’s Cantata for Mass (Misa), Nelson Eddy’s Irish requiem, Macushla, and a touch of
Rizal’s struggle, luchar in Spanish (luchando con delirio, struggling in delirium), that is
how I remember her name – Leilani Misa Macushla, luchando con delirio – oh yes, Lani
Misalucha, Asia’s Nightingale. A world-class universal singer.
The name that was hard to remember has now become a name never to be
forgotten. For here is a singer who is not only unique but also universal and
extraordinary, with a range unequalled in the contemporary scene.
She is partly Yma Suma with a vocal frequency range that spans almost five
octaves, from high C to B Flat Minor. She is partly Barbra Streisand with a dynamic
range from a pianissimo close to zero decibel, a soft whisper, to a thunderous 15 decibels,
a fortissimo as loud as a train whistle. She is partly Ella Fitzgerald, with a singing style
that ranges from moonlight and roses, to swing and sway, to rock and roll, to pop and
hard metal.
But Lani is more than that, she can also sing opera like Deanna Durbin and
Beverly Sills – with tonal range from 1,000 cycles per second to the upper reaches of
harmonics at 15,000 cycles per second, about the range of the human ear. She has
excellent diction, with clear pure tones with absolutely no falsettos, and lyrics never
mumbled that can be understood by an old partially deaf person like me. No wonder
Lani Misalucha is a sensational sensation on the concert stage, every concert where she
sings alone an absolute sell-out, with an SRO audience, whether here or abroad.
She can be as witty and amusing as Liza Minelli, but she is never crass or
obscene. While some singers tell dirty jokes, huff and puff, shout and scream, sweating
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like a pig to please their audience, she sings it cool and easy, with not a drop of
perspiration to mar her brow.
What really distinguishes Lani Misalucha from many others is her dignity and
touch of class, something that reminds us of Kuh Ledesma long ago, without Kuh’s
coldness and distance. It may be said of Lani that she does not belong to her audience,
but that the audience belongs to her. She does not belong to the mass audiences that
often drag celebrities down to their level of notoriety, their tendencies towards dropping
out of school, fornication and sex scandals, their invasion of everyone’s privacy, their
prurient tastes, money-grabbing, fondness for public feuds and petty quarrels, and
penchant for cheating to get undeserved credit.
No, she does not belong to her audience. Rather, the audience belongs to her
because she treats them with respect and dignity, elevating them to be the best that they
could be. I can never forget when she appeared on the stage of the Music Museum for a
concert for the Mabuhay Deseret Foundation, for the benefit of indigents afflicted with
physical deformities, such as crossed-eyes, club foot, and harelip, with her entire
repertory of talents that included Gerard Salonga, musical director, the Session Band,
Noisy Neighbors back-up singers, singer Jed Maddela, plus the revered Manila
Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra – all of whose services are rendered free, gratis et
amore – and sang for an audience who paid as much as P5,000 per ticket. She raised
over a million pesos, plus a donation of two million pesos more to match it from abroad,
a total of P3 million to pay for over 1,200 operations that will change forever the lives of
poor Filipino children with physical deformities.
2. Lani Misalucha evokes awesome spectacles

I cannot but remember with tears in my eyes, how Lani Misalucha sung Because
You Love Me, hugging and kissing children with cross-eyes, club foot and harelip
surrounding her – with words my own children sang to their grandmother while she was
dying:
You were my strength when I was weak,/
You were my voice when I couldn’t speak,
You were my eyes when I couldn’t see,/
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You saw the best there was in me …/

You gave me wings and made me fly,/
You touched my hand, I could touch the sky
I lost my faith, you gave it back to me /
Because you love me. Because you love me.
One thing about Lani is the way she sings her song, with such honesty and
transparency of feeling that she never sings the same song the same way twice. From
rehearsals to final performance, you cannot predict how she would sing, depending on
her mood. If you expect her to sing a high note, she suddenly dips into a low whisper;
when you do not expect anything, her voice suddenly soars high, much higher that you
might expect.
So full of surprises is she that her audience come again and again to her concerts
to join her in her quest for perfection, and savoring her different moods and expressions.
To listen to Lani Misalucha is an adventure in the world of sound and music.
She also goes out of her way to inspire her audience with such songs as Wind
Beneath My Wings and Climb Every Mountain. Her rendition of Andrew Lloyd
Webber’s Memory, especially arranged by Louie Ocampo, is so moving and so
memorable that my friend, Melquiades Gamboa was moved to exclaim, “She sings it
better than Barbra Streisand.” And I answered, “Well, let us say that Lani is just as good
as Elaine Stewart, the original Grizabella of the musical Cats.”
Lani Misalucha indeed brings to mind the stirring climax of Cats, the longest
playing musical play in Broadway history, with lyrics culled from the great poetry of T.
S. Eliot. To savor that song, imagine yourself in the annual Jellicle Ball of cats in a
garbage dump. At the end of the party, there is a ritual of re-incarnation and resurrection
where one cat is chosen to be reborn in another life (to one of the nine lives allotted to
cats, I suppose).
Grizabella the old Glamour Cat is chosen. She was once beautiful and desirable.
She is now pathetically old and about to die. In one great song, Memory, she explores the
theme of mortality and hope. This song will probably live forever because, like The
Impossible Dream, it touches the human heart, especially those like me who are old and
still remember the joys and passions of youth.
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Imagine Lani Misalucha on the Broadway stage singing as the dying Grizabella,
on the eve of her resurrection, her voice weak at first, and then gaining in strength to a
stirring heart-wrenching finale that moves us to tears:
Memory. All alone in the moonlight/
I can smile at the old days,/ I was beautiful then./
I remember the time I knew what happiness was,/
Let the memory live again.
Daylight. I must wait for the sunrise./
I must think of a new life,/ And I mustn’t give in./
When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too/
And a new day will begin.
Touch me. It’s so easy to leave me/

All alone with the memory/ Of my days in the sun./
If you touch me you’ll understand what happiness is./
Look! a new day has begun!
At this point imagine Lani Misalucha as Grizabella, borne on the shoulders of the
other cats to an old rubber tire platform for her trip to the cats’ heaven in the sky –
magically staged, lights blindingly ablaze, music and voices rising like a tidal wave,
smoky vapors swirling like a whirlwind around a starship launch, in a wondrous stunning
climax. Only a great singer like Lani can evoke this stupendous awesome spectacle.
3. Lani Misalucha, a singer for all the seasons

Lani Misalucha is a great supporter of the Original Pilipino Music (OPM),
probably the best known of which are Louie Ocampo’s composition and arrangement of
Ikaw Lang Ang Mamahalin, the song Bukas Na Lang Kitang Mamahalin, and the latest,
Tila, composed by Judge Liza Dy.
Lani Misalucha is a great mimic, with hilarious impersonations of her fellow
singers -- Asia’s Queen of Song Pilita Corrales, complete with body twist (A Million
Thanks To You); the candy-sweet megastar Sharon Cuneta (Maging Sino Ka Man); the
Ice Lady Kuh Ledesma (Till I Met You), the ebony funstar Jaya (Dahil Tanging Ikaw);
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the nasal voiced, pouty lipped and sexy Zsa Zsa Padilla (Hiram) and the high-pitched
Asia’s Songbird, Regine Velasquez (On The Wings Of Love). She is the only singer who
could imitate such well-known performers and do it well, amidst guffaws and thunderous
ovation, and in the words of aficionado Melquiades Gamboa, “she improves on some of
them.”
Lani Misalucha sings kundimans like the great Celeste Legaspi. She sings
Broadway musicals like Mary Martin. She sings modern pop songs like Mandy Moore.
She sings opera like Grace Moore. Oh, I must tell you of her concert in the San Agustin
Church Gardens in Intramuros, with the entire 60 man San Miguel Philharmonic
Orchestra and Master Chorale under the baton of Ryan Cayabyab, singing for the Bantay
Bata charity organization of Gina Lopez.
Lani enthralled the audience singing Nessun Dorma, an operatic aria that is part of
the repertoire of Luciano Pavarotti, and then captured their hearts by joining as soprano,
three opera singers, Jojo Velasco (bass), Julie Ann Hernandez (alto) and Frederick de
Santos (tenor), and the orchestra and chorale to render the Choral Finale of Beethoven’s
greatest work, the Ninth Symphony in D Minor.
Lani Misalucha is indeed a singer for all the seasons – kundiman, Broadway,
modern pop, opera – not only for the discriminating hifalutin, but also the baduy crowd
of the hoi-poloi, not only for the Filipinos but for the foreigners as well. She is probably
the most sought after singer in the concert circuit, filling up the rafters of the Hard Rock
Café, the Greenbelt On Stage, the Tent at Fort Bonifacio, the Aliw Theater at the Star
City, Discovery Suite and the Araneta Coliseum, as well as SRO performances in Cebu,
Bacolod, Davao, Pampanga and everywhere in the country.
Then there are her concerts in New York, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco,
Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Reno, San Diego, Atlantic City and Hawaii. In other countries
too, in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and this year in the Middle East. Also
performances before King of Malaysia, Sultan of Brunei, President S. R. Nathan of
Singapore and Presidents Erap Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
According to her manager Ronnie Henares of Prime Line Inc., Lani above all is
focused on the Lord and her family – her husband Noli, unassuming, supportive and very
wise; her two children who are ever protected by a veil of privacy; her parents and her
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siblings. She belongs to a musical family: her mother and elder sister, May, sing songs;
her father plays the piano; her youngest sister, Karlyn, plays the violin – while Lani
Misalucha reigns supreme as Asia’s Nightingale, a world-class universal singer.
July 21- 23, 2003, DWBR-fm
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HEALTH AND THE AMENITIES
What is your real name?

The Chinese in the Philippines have two names, one Chinese and the other
Filipino. The Chinese name is originally written in Chinese characters, and pronounced
according to the Fokien dialect. His Filipino name is either inherited, or given upon
baptism, or through the judicial process, or assumed as an alias.
The legal name of every Filipino is assumed to be given upon baptism. It is not
so. The name is automatically conferred on a baby with the issuance of the Certificate of
Live Birth. The only trouble is that the application is more often than not filled in by
nurses and/or midwives, often illiterate, who cannot spell right.
Even more of a problem, the parents are so traumatized by the recent birth of the
baby that they could not decide what name the baby should have until the day of Baptism
a few months later. And often the baby’s name on the Certificate of Live Birth and
on the Baptismal Certificate are not the same. Worse still, especially if the parents
live in the boondocks, they simply forget to have their baby registered.
One of the sisters of Regine Velazquez for instance doesn’t have a valid
Certificate of Live Birth – and had to go through hell just to get a passport. Also Liza
Barcelona, an employee of my daughter had a Birth Certificate with her name misspelled.
The Department of Foreign Affairs no longer issues a passport without a Birth Certificate
validated by the Bureau of Statistics.
My own daughter Rosanna was born and was baptized with a name given in
honor of her grandmother – Rosario Anna. But her nickname Rosanna was so nice and
popular, she used it throughout her student years in Assumption, San Agustin and UP.
Know what? She has to go through all the trouble of changing all her school records, just
to set the record straight that Rosanna and Rosario Anna were the same person.
The same happened with my grandchildren Quark and Cristalle Henares whose
mother Vicky Belo, sole daughter (adopted) of ex-Congressman Enrique Belo, decided to
perpetuated her father’s name by inserting a hyphen between their middle name Belo and
their father’s name Henares. For all their student years their official; name was Belo-
Henares, and they were alphabetically listed under the letter B. When they moved to
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Ateneo, they were forced to reconstitute their school records and student lists in
Montessori and Assumption, before they can be registered.
My secretary Flory Suaverdez delivered fraternal twin boys on May 13, 1971.
Upon Baptism she named them Samuel and Sandro, with nicknamed Sammy and Sonny.
However, the Certificate of Live Birth, filled in by the midwife, indicated only the
nicknames, Sommy (misspelled) and Sonny. You’d be appalled to find what problems
this mistake caused 30 years later. In school and at work, they used their formal names
Samuel and Sandro, but much later they found that they could not get their passports or
get their professional licenses as an engineers unless they changed their names to Sommy
and Sonny. Finally their mother Flory, who brought the twins into the world without
their consent and at her own pleasure, finally decided to go to court to change their names
back to the original ones she choose. It took her a year to do it
My bookkeeper Analie Espi could not take her CPA exams because her
Certificate had two versions, one issued by the Local Registrar spelled incorrectly as
“Analle” and another from National Statistics spelled correctly as “Analie.”
January 13, 2003
Shaving the beardless baby face

This is addressed to my grandson Quark Henares, Palanca Literary Awardee, and
famous movie director, who is so young, he is only starting to shave his face hair, and has
been observed complaining to his mother Vicki Belo that he has been nicking his face
with the razor blade. He uses the Gillette triple bladed safety razor and a foamy shaving
cream, yet he cuts his skin too often to be ignored.
Quark is not the first human being to use a keen edged cutting instrument for
shaving or cutting hair of course. Prehistoric cave drawings show that clam shells,
shark's teeth, and sharpened flints were used as shaving implements by our early
ancestors. Solid gold and copper razors have been found in Egyptian tombs of 4,000
years before Christ. According to the Roman historian Livy, the razor was introduced in
Rome in the 6th century BC by Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, legendary king of Rome; but
shaving did not become customary until the 5th century BC.
Steel razors with individually honed hollow-ground straight edged blades were
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crafted in Sheffield, England, with hard crucible steel in the 18th and 19th centuries. The
forerunner of the modern safety razor, a steel blade with a guard along one edge, was
made in Sheffield in 1828.
In 1903 an American named King Camp Gillette wanted to make “something that
is used and then thrown away, to keep the customers coming back.” So he invented a
disposable “thin double-edged steel blade placed between two plates and held in place by
a T handle” – which enjoyed great popularity as a safety razor till the last quarter of the
20th century.
Then the Gillette company developed the sensational twin-blade embedded in a
disposable plastic, which gave a closer shave by pulling the hair from its roots with the
first blade before cutting it with the second. By the time the millennium began, Gillette
extended the principle to make the triple-bladed safety razor – which my grandson Quark
Henares uses today with erratic results.
Well, what is the use of being a grandfather, if I could not pass on my knowledge
and experience to my grandchild? Not to worry, Quarkie, every teenager nicks his face
often while he shaves. And the reason for it lies in the condition of the blade and the
manner and placement of the blade as it is dragged across the face.
First, you must realize that a fresh new blade is very very sharp and will wound
your face practically upon contact. So never never change the blade until you have used
it for at least two months. A new blade is not only expensive, it is lethal, and will only
begin to be really safe after a week’s continuous use.
Second, always drag the blade perpendicular to your skin, never in a sideway
motion which actually slices your skin. This habit you acquire only after long practice.
An inexperienced teenager might slide the blade sideways without thinking.
Third, please be aware of the difference between the standard twin-blade and the
newfangled triple blade. The twin blade is made like the original safety razor, like a
garden hoe or rake which cuts the hair like a scythe. The triple-blade is laid back and is
used like a lawnmower cutting grass. Use the twin-blade, it is more manageable.
Fourth, do not use a foamy shaving cream. I use soap instead so that I can see and
feel what I am shaving. The hairs do not grow straight up, they lean at an angle in all
directions. The trick is to direct the razor blade against the acute angle of the hair, not the
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obtuse angle. This means feeling over the skin with your fingers to determine the best
direction from which to cut the hair. You cannot do that with the damn shaving cream
obstructing your view and your feel.
This is a rite of passage you need to survive, Quarkie. And you will.
July 29, 2003
Durian tastes like heaven, smells like hell

You cannot bring it into the airplane or in any hotel or any public place, you
cannot eat it in any restaurant. It is easy to assume it is really what God forbade Adam
and Eve to eat in paradise.
It is Durian, truly the most forbidden fruit in the world. You may eat it only in the
toilet, because though it tastes like heaven, it smells like shit. Its smell permeates walls
and elevator shafts.
My cousin, who is an aficionado of durian, once brought one durian fruit into his
room on the 10th floor of the Sheraton Hotel in Hong Kong. As his wife and child
entered the elevator on the ground floor, a foreigner with them wailed “Oh my God, I
smell shit!”
In the jungles of Mindanao, native tribes used to go to war and kill each other for
possession of areas where durian trees grow. One does not pluck the durian fruit from
the tree, one waits for the fruit to fall to the ground when it ripens. The durian fruit is
bigger than a suha, and its hide is hard and filled with spikes. During the fruiting season,
about September to November, you better not be under the tree when the fruits fall,
because if one hits you in the head, you will surely die. It resembles the spiked ball and
chain used by gladiators to split their opponents’ skulls.
There are many kinds of durian, the meatiest of which with the smallest seeds is
called the Golden Pillow, originally from Thailand. Then there is the Chanie, also called
the Monkey, with a slightly bitter taste of coffee mixed with sweet liqueur. Then there is
the orange colored Long Stem, not as meaty as Golden Pillow, but very sweet. Then
there is the Davao Malaysian type, very sweet and rather sticky in texture. Generally
durian fruits taste different from any fruit you have ever tasted, best described as almond
cream with a slight trace of Creme de Cacao or Crème de Mint, or Cointreau.
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There used to be durian festivals in Davao, in Thailand, and other places, where
durian is offered free to friends and visitors. No longer. Because the Japanese acquired a
taste for this exotic fruit, it has become expensive. There was a time you can buy durian
at P1.50 to P2.00 per kilo. Today you have to pay as much as P400 per fruit, or P60 to
P80 per kilo. Most are exported to Japan, where the Japanese pay top price.
I was having lunch with my aunt Tita Nuning and cousin Tony Oppen in the old
house in Calle Roberts, dining on a piece of steak bigger than a plate, when suddenly at
the end of the meal, they brought out a large Tupperware container full of frozen durian.
“Have you ever tasted durian?” they asked. “No,” I said, “I understand it smells awful.”
Well, said Tony, “Taste it. The first time you will like it. The second time you
will love it. The third time you will become incurably addicted to it.”
Well, I had a slight cold and an impaired sense of smell, so I was able to endure
having to eat durian. Besides I had an appointment with some Indians from New Delhi,
and I figured this is as a good way as any to get back at them for eating Garam Masala, a
combination of pepper, pumin, pumeric, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and curry, that
ferments in their stomach and gets under their skin, then escapes out of their sweat pores,
and makes them smell like an unwashed goat. Anyone who ever sat beside an Indian
during a long airplane ride, will know what I mean. Maybe durian will even up the score.
Durian is served with its seed, and separating the meat from the seed is an art.
With a spoon and fork, you slightly wound the seed, break the cover and peel off the
meat. Nothing like it in the world, it tastes like nectar from the Gods, ambrosia from
heaven. One spoonful and I was addicted for life. The first time I ate 4 pods, the second
time, 8 pods, the third time 12 pods. It is the nearest thing to nirvana and heaven.
December 12, 2003, DWBR-fm
How to survive a heart attack alone

What to do if you have a heart attack while you are alone? If you've already
received this article by Mended Hearts, Inc. in the Internet, it means people care about
you. The Johnson City Medical Center staff actually discovered this and did an in-depth
study on it in our ICU. The two individuals that discovered this then did an article on it,
had it published and have even had it incorporated into ACLS and CPR classes.
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Let's say it's 6:15 p.m. and you're driving home (alone of course), after an
unusually hard day on the job. You're really tired, upset and frustrated. Suddenly you
start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to radiate out into your arm and up
into your jaw. You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home.
Unfortunately you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far. What can you do?
You've been trained in CPR but the guy that taught the course did not tell you how to
perform it on yourself.
How do you survive a heart attack when you are alone? Many people are alone
when they suffer a heart attack. Without help, the person whose heart is beating properly
and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.
However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously.
A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and
prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. A breath and a cough
must be repeated about every two seconds without let- up until help arrives, or until the
heart is felt to be beating normally again. Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and
coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing
pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims
can get to a hospital. Tell as many other people as possible about this, it could save their
lives!
Another important way to cope with a sudden heart attack is to have a packet of
nitroglycerine tablets with you all the time. When you feel a sudden chest pain, what is
called “angina pectoris,” just put one tablet under your tongue. Your blood vessel will
dilate to allow your blood to flow efficiently. The trouble with nitro tablets is that they
expire fast and have to be replaced every three months. A better substitute is an “Isoket”
spray which you spray into your mouth in case of angina pectoris attack. It has a life of
two years, instead of only 3 months. Keep it with you at all times, especially at late night
or early morning when you are apt to have a heart attack. I strap it into my belt inside a
leather pouch intended for a big Swiss knife, or have one specially made by Shoe Care of
Pasong Tamo, Makai.
But the best way to survive a treacherous heart attack is to prevent it by living a
good lifestyle: no smoking, no drinking, no eating too much (specially of cholesterol
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laden animal fat); no gambling (it raises your blood pressure when you lose), no
fornication (too much nagging from your wife will kill surely you); no stresses and
worries or losing your temper. However legitimate sex without guilt feelings is good
exercise for the heart. Avoid accompanying your wife on her shopping spree. That is
absolutely calculated to push you six feet under, pushing up daisies, and to give your wife
the chance to cash in your insurance. Beware.
January 11, 2003
Filipinos love Non Verbal Communication

I believe of all the people in the world, the Filipinos are most unique in many
ways, especially in the field of non-verbal communication. For instance, when passing
between two people having a conversation, a Filipino, instead of saying “Excuse me, may
I pass?” would extend her hand and with a karate chop, cut the space between the two
people as if to carve a space through which she may pass. Also when asked the location
of any object, instead of pointing with a finger and saying “There on the floor!” she is
more liable to point with a pout of the mouth, or even with her toe.
Usually when my wife wants to be made love to at night, she wakes me up with a
kalabit, that is with a flick of the middle finger on my skin between a caress and a
scratch. It is hard to describe because there is absolutely no equivalent of kalabit in the
English language. I believe we are the Filipino is the only member of the human race
who ever makes kalabit. And he uses it mainly to call attention surreptitiously and
lovingly to some secret enjoyable act.
You make a move to kiss a woman, and instead of saying Stop or I’ll scream! She
would utter ah ah ah ah ah in rapid succession.
Tell her she is beautiful, and she will make the sound Mmmmmmm, and what she
means is “Flatterer, you’re pulling my leg!”
Hey Angga, I hear you want to be a bomba star! Hahahaha, and that means
“Don’t make me laugh!”
A Filipino often resorts to euphemisms, as Americans do when they say, Gee
Whiz or Jimminy Krautz instead of the usual standard Jesus Christ, which is an assault
against the First Commandment “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in
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vain.” An American says sanamagun or sonapeter instead of the more meaningful Son of
a Bitch. Well a Filipino is far more inventive, instead of calling your mother a whore, he
will say “Putong Ama mo,” –your father is a rice cake, or Anak ng Tapa – your mother is
a beaten meat. In Pangasinan, they say Anak na Lasi, or son of Lightning. In
Pangasinan instead of greeting you with Magandang Gabi or Maayong Gab-i, they are
more imaginative and religious, they say Masantos ya Labi ed sicayo – May you evening
be full of saints!
The Cebuanos, instead of insulting your mother, just say “Pesteng yawa
(pestilence and curses!) or Gibuti ang lagay mo, a pun on the Tagalog “Mabuti ang lagay
mo,” but means something different, “May your testicles be afflicted with smallpox.”
To a Filipino, the act of love and sex is euphemistically called “Luto ng Dios,” or
Food served by the Gods. The act of defecating or making Tae, is called Sarap na walang
sala, Ecstacy without Sin.
“Naku walang may gusto sa akin, and she would answer: Ooooooooo, I don’t
believe you. “Talagang bigatin ako, ano?” And she would react thus: “Yuks… ang
yabang mo.” “Inday, tumabi ka sa akin,” and she would react thus: “Ngu, ano ka
sinusuerte?”
But the most unique in the world is the Filipino dirty finger, which simulates the
male organ and refers to the act of procreation. The universal dirty finger points up with
the expression “Up Your Ass” and is intended to be a proctologist tool. It is intended for
a different hole, the exit point of your manure.
January 24, 2003
Stress Management
1 Studies have determined that vigorous exercise (60%-80% of your maximum
heart rate for 30 minutes) can reduce anxiety. New research now indicates that moderate
exercise will reduce anxiety even more quickly. Next time you feel stressed, take a break
and walk around the bloc.
2 Find time for yourself each day even if it is only five minutes. Close your eyes,
relax your shoulders and breathe deeply. Stress is brought on by feeling that you don’t
have control over your situation. Remind yourself that you are the master of your fate.
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Picture yourself in a peaceful place. When you return to the tasks at hand, you’ll feel
more relaxed.
3 Simplify your life. Take some time to ponder what is important to you and
what you can do without. Once you have identified what is important, you can start
eliminating the rest. This not only applies to clutter in your home or office, but activities
you no longer enjoy, or even relationships that you have outgrown.
4 Plan a day at the spa in your own home. Hire a massage therapist for an hour.
Workout to your favorite exercise videos. Plan a healthy easy menu for the day. Finish
the day with a great soak in the tub complete with bubbles and soft music.
5 Enjoy the little things that happen in daily life. Life truly is a journey, not a
destination. Unfortunately too many of us spend each day striving toward some far off
goal and not paying much attention to daily events. Take some time each day to simply
admire a sunset, watch the birds in the garden, the dog in your yard, a flower garden.
Remember, in life there is no reset button.
6 Give yourself time to make the transition from the working world to home life.
Some people live far enough away from their jobs that they have time to unwind on the
commute home. Instead of arriving at the house and moving directly to eating dinner,
take five minutes just to unwind. Talk with your children, play with your cat or dog,
open the mail, read the newspaper, pour a cup of coffee. Do something enjoyable to
rejuvenate your spirit. Then you’ll be ready to take on the tasks of the evening.
7 Get a hobby you enjoy and you’ll wonder where the time went! Gardening,
needlework, hiking, building models or anything that interests you. There is a great sense
of accomplishment and self-worth when you see your finished projects.
8 Learn to say “no”. Many times in our desire to be liked we are unable to say no
to the requests of others. We find ourselves spread too thin and trying to be everything to
everyone. If you cannot say no, try “I would love to, but I don’t have the time right now”
or if it is an invitation, you can say “I would like to, but I have other plans.”
9 Support your life, not your lifestyle. A great deal of stress comes from
financial worries. Being debt-free can be a wonderful feeling. Keep one credit card for
emergencies and get rid of the rest. Create a plan to pay off any credit card balances.
You’ll sleep easier knowing you have a plan.
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10 Vacations are a time to rejuvenate your spirit. Use your vacation time for a
much needed vacation. Plan ahead for next year by opening a bank account, and each
week depositing a budgeted amount of money. Next year you’ll be able to take that
vacation you’ve been hoping for and not be paying for it six months later!
11 Keep a basket by your door to hold things like car keys, outgoing mail and
sunglasses. You won’t have to stop and hunt for them when it’s time to go for work.
12 Learn to delegate tasks. This not only applies to you at work, but for chores at
home. If you have children, let them help with tasks appropriate for their age such as
setting the table. Sharing chores helps people feel needed, frees them up too.
13 Try to do some things just for the fun of it such as flying a kite or another
activity you did as a child. Being an adult doesn’t mean you have to be serious always.
14 Take a cat nap! Research shows that a short nap can be refreshing and
relaxing. When you give up sleep at night to finish a project at home or at work a quick
daytime nap may be in order to rejuvenate you.
15 Sit down with your kids and get out the crayons and coloring books. Coloring
is very relaxing, even for grown ups! Have quality time with the children.
16 Set bed times for each of your children and stick to them. Eventually the bed
times will become habit and the private evening time you gain for yourself, you can use
to simply relax or organize for tomorrow.
17 When Mom becomes the chauffeur for the children, keeping the schedules
straight can be challenging. Take a few minutes during dessert each night at the dinner
table and review tomorrow. You’ll be up to date and have a moment to catch up on each
other’s activities.
18 Get back to nature for a day! The sound of background noise if you live in an
urban or suburban environment can be aggravating. Set aside a day with a picnic lunch
and drive into the country beyond the sound of cars, sirens and people. Sit quietly and
enjoy the sights and sounds of nature. You’ll come back rested and ready to go!
19 Studies show that most people need eight hours of sleep to perform at their
best and most people today are sleep deprived. Try to set one night aside during the week
to get your full eight hours. You’ll wake up relaxed and energized!
20 Does it seem you end a long day at work with a headache? Get an eye
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examination. Eye strain can cause headaches and is an indicator that if you wear glasses,
you may need a new lens prescription or if you don’t wear glasses, you may need to.
21 It may be an obvious tip, but if you’re stressed, cut down on the caffeine.
That not only means coffee, but tea, chocolate and certain soft drinks as well. Don’t have
any caffeine in the evening after dinner so you can sleep at night.
22 When you find yourself in a situation where emotions are running high, take a
step back. Remove the emotion from the situation and look at the facts. Review the
situation with logic and try to reason through it. What is the worse result that can happen
from the situation? Many times it is not as bad as your emotions would have you believe.
23 Take a break from watching so much news. Watching news before you go to
work, again in the early evening and before you go to bed, you will think the world is
overwrought with violence and multiple horrors. Limit yourself to one informative news
program per day that also reports on some positive aspects of your living area.
24 Find a friend who will act as a sounding board for you. Ask their advice on
the problem that’s been bothering you. Sometimes the answer is right in front of you, but
you’re too close to see it. If you still don’t have a solution, you’ll at least feel better after
venting it to someone who will listen.
25 If during your commute home you find yourself stuck in traffic, don't despair.
Getting angry will not get you home any faster. Put on your favorite tape or CD and sing
along. If you have a book on tape, it’s a great way to pass the time. Make a mental list
of what you need to do when you get home. Take deep breaths to remain relaxed yet
alert.
July 31 to August 1, 2003, DWBR-fm
THE LORD’S PRAYER
1. Our Father Who Art In Heaven

We Catholics say our prayers every day, the Hail Mary ten times more than the
Our Father, because Hail Mary is much shorter and we feel closer to our mother than to
our father. Protestants do not pray as much because Hail Mary is not in their list of
prayers. All Christians pray the Lord’s Prayer, mostly automatically without feeling or
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understanding. Someone by the name of Ruth Carter Bourdon posted in the Internet, an
imaginative tale of what happens if the Lord does respond to a Christian’s Prayer. Listen
and enjoy this.
WOMAN: In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. 'Our Father
who art in heaven'…
GOD: Yes?
WOMAN: Don’t interrupt me. I’m praying.
GOD: But you called me.
WOMAN: Called you? I didn't call you. I’m praying. “Our Father who art in
heaven...”
GOD: There you did it again.
WOMAN: Did what?
GOD: Called me. You said, “Our Father who art in heaven.” Here I am. What’s
on your mind?
WOMAN: But I didn't mean anything by it. I was, you know, just saying my
prayers for the day. I always say the Lord’s Prayer. It makes me feel good, kind of like
getting a duty done.
GOD: All right. Go on.
WOMAN: “Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name...”
GOD: Hold it. What do you mean by that?
WOMAN: By what?
GOD: By “hallowed be thy name”?
WOMAN: It means... it means... Good grief, I don’t know what it means. How
should I know? It’s just a part of the prayer. By the way, what does it mean?
GOD: It means honored, holy, wonderful.
WOMAN: Hey, that makes sense. I never thought about what “hallowed” meant
before. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
GOD: Do you really mean that?
WOMAN: Sure, why not?
GOD: What are you doing about it?
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WOMAN: Doing? Nothing, I guess. I just think it would be kind of neat if you
got control of everything down here like you have up there.
GOD: Have I got control of you?
WOMAN: Well, I go to church.
GOD: That isn’t what I asked you. What about your bad temper? You’ve really
got a problem there, you know. And then there’s the way you spend your money -- all on
yourself. And what about the kind of books you read?
WOMAN: Stop picking on me! I'm just as good as some of the rest of those
people at the church.
GOD: Excuse me. I thought you were praying for my will to be done. If that is
to happen, it will have to start with the ones who are praying for it. Like you, for
example.
2. Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

Suppose God really does answer our prayers, as we intone them without feeling
and understanding? Since yesterday, we quoted Ruth Carter Bourdon speculating on how
God reacted to the Lord’s Prayer. We continue.
GOD: Excuse me. I thought you were praying for my will to be done. If that is
to happen, it will have to start with the ones who are praying for it. Like you, for
example.
WOMAN: Oh, all right. I guess I do have some hang-ups. Now that you
mention it, I could probably name some other hang-ups.
GOD: So could I.
WOMAN: I haven’t thought about it very much until now, but I really would like
to cut out some of those things. I would like to, you know, be really free.
GOD: Good. Now we're getting somewhere. We'll work together, you and I.
Some victories can truly be won. I’m proud of you.
WOMAN: Look, Lord, I need to finish up here. This is taking a lot longer than
it usually does. “Give us this day, our daily bread.”
GOD: You need to cut out the bread. You're overweight as it is.
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WOMAN: Hey, wait a minute! What is this, “Criticize me day”? Here I was
doing my religious duty, and all of a sudden you break in and remind me of all my hang-
ups.
GOD: Praying is a dangerous thing. You could wind up changed, you know.
That’s what I’m trying to get across to you. You called me, and here I am. It’s too late to
stop now. Keep praying, I’m interested in the next part of your prayer...(pause).
GOD: Well, go on.
WOMAN: I’m scared to.
GOD: Scared? Of what?
WOMAN: I know what you’ll say.
GOD: Try me and see.
WOMAN: “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”
GOD: What about Ann?
WOMAN: See? I knew it! I knew you would bring her up! Why, Lord, she’s
told lies about me, spread stories about my family. She never paid back the debt she
owes me. I’ve sworn to get even with her!
GOD: But your prayer? What about your prayer?
WOMAN: I didn’t mean it.
GOD: Well, at least you”re admitting it. But it's not much fun carrying that load
of bitterness around inside, is it?
WOMAN: No. But I’ll feel better as soon as I get even. Boy, have I got some
plans for that neighbor. She’ll wish she had never moved into this neighborhood.
GOD: You won’t feel any better. You’ll feel worse. Revenge isn’t sweet.
Think of how unhappy you already are. But I can change all that.
WOMAN: You can? How?
GOD: Forgive Ann. Then I’ll forgive you. Then the hate and sin will be Ann’s
problem and not yours. You will have settled your heart.
WOMAN: Oh, you're right. You always are. And more than I want to get
revenge on Ann, I want to be right with you....(pause)...(sigh). All right. All right. I
forgive her. Help her to find the right road in life, Lord.
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3. Deliver Us From Evil

Suppose God really does answer our prayers, as we intone them without feeling
and understanding? Yesterday God was able to convince the girl who prayed to really
forgive her enemies. We conclude our series on the Lord’s Prayer.
GOD: There now! Wonderful! How do you feel after forgiving your enemies?
WOMAN: Hmmm. Well, not bad. Not bad at all. In fact, I feel pretty great!
You know, I don’t think I’ll have to go to bed uptight tonight for the first time since I can
remember. Maybe I won’t be so tired from now on because I’m not getting enough rest.
GOD: You’re not through with your prayer. Go on.
WOMAN: Oh, all right. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil.”
GOD: Good! Good! I’ll do that. Just don’t put yourself in a place where you
can be tempted.
WOMAN: What do you mean by that?
GOD: Don’t turn on the TV when you know the laundry needs to be done and
the house needs to be cleaned. Also, about the time you spend coffeeing with your
friends, if you can’'t influence the conversation to positive things, perhaps you should
rethink the value of those friendships. Another thing, your neighbors and friends
shouldn’t be your standard for “keeping up. “ And please don’t use me for an escape
hatch.
WOMAN: I don't understand the last part.
GOD: Sure you do. You’ve done it a lot of times. You get caught in a bad
situation. You get into trouble and then you come running to me, “Lord, help me out of
this mess and I promise you I’ll never do it again.” You remember some of those
bargains you tried to make with me?
WOMAN: Yes, and I’m ashamed, Lord. I really am.
GOD: Which bargain you are ashamed of are you remembering?
WOMAN: Well, there was the night that Bill was gone and the children and I
were home alone. The wind was blowing so hard I thought the roof would go any minute
and typhoon warnings were out. I remember praying, “Oh, God, if you spare us, I’ll
never skip my devotions again.”
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GOD: did you?

WOMAN: No, I did not. I’m sorry, Lord, I really am. Up until now I thought
that if I just prayed the Lord’s Prayer every day, then I could do what I liked. I didn’t
expect anything to happen like it did.
GOD: Go ahead and finish your prayer.
WOMAN: “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.”
Amen.
GOD: Do you know what would bring me glory? What would really make me
happy?
WOMAN: No, but I’d like to know. I want now to please you. I can see what a
mess I’ve made of my life. And I can see how great it would be to really be one of your
followers.
GOD: You just answered the question.
WOMAN: I did?
GOD: Yes. The thing that would bring me glory is to have people like you truly
love me. And I see that happening between us. Now that some of these old sins are
exposed and out of the way, well, there is no telling what we can do together.
WOMAN: Indeed, my Lord, there’s no telling what we can do together. Now
about the politicians who plague us in the coming election, why don’t we just line them
up against the wall and…..
February 11-13, 2004, DWBR-fm
Endless are the ways of worship

ENDLESS are the ways that man worships, ranging from the horrible to the
sublime to the ridiculous -- proof that whatever else he may be, Man is a religious being -
- the only creature, according anthropologist William Howells, “who comprehends things
he cannot see and believes in things he cannot comprehend.” Most living religions
assume that they come directly from the hand of God, unique like the biblical
Melchisedec, “without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning
of days, nor end of life.”
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But that is not so. The Dead Sea Scrolls show that some ideas and rites of the
New Testament are similar to those of the Qumran sect that existed a century before
Christ. The 4,000 year old Babylonian epic of Gilamesh finds striking parallels in the
Genesis story of Noah's ark.
The Greek pantheon of gods and goddesses were captured and renamed by the
Romans. Buddhism grew of Hinduism. Mohammedanism grew out of Christianity and
Judaism, as Christianity itself grew out of Judaism.
We tend to mock the unfamiliar in other faiths, by labeling them idolatry or
superstition. We hurl such words at others, rarely at ourselves. Yet every man
commands respect in the moment he bows his head before his god. At that moment of
prayer every man is at his best, and if we are wise, we shall try to understand and
appreciate his faith.
Buddhism is not one but three: Hinaya, Mahayana, the Lamaism of Tibet.
Judaism is also three: Orthodox, Reform and Conservative. Islam is two: Sunni and
Shiite. Christianity is Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and hundreds of Protestant
sects. Hinduism consists of the mysticism of the sadhus, the profound speculations of
Hindu philosophers, and the animism of the unlettered millions.
Historian Arnold Toynbee sees the religions of the East as basically introverted,
and those of the West as extroverted. This is restating the familiar distinction between
Buddhism and Hinduism as life-denying, and Islam, Judaism and Christianity as life-
affirming faiths.
We caution against such generalizations. Buddhism which seeks to deliver man
from the pain of life and the ceaseless turning of the Wheel of Rebirth, also points the
way to Nirvana.
Hinduism which is indifferent to passions and sorrows of this life, at its best
shows concern here and now for the unfortunate. Confucianism, a philosophy of life,
concentrates on the search for the most satisfying way of life, in every sense life-
affirming. Christianity on the other hand had been accused of being a “pie in the sky”
religion.
Arnold Toynbee repeats the increasingly familiar refrain that all religions are but
different paths to the same God, and hopes for a synthesis, a “syncretism” of all faiths:
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“The four higher religions are four variations on the same theme. If all the four
components of this heavenly music of the spheres could be audible on Earth
simultaneously, and with equal clarity, to one pair of human ears, the happy hearer would
find himself listening, not to a discord, but to a harmony.''
In their religions, men do not really differ. They seek the favor of their gods,
protection from danger, community with their fellows, courage in the hour of conflict,
comfort in the hour of grief, guidance in their daily concerns, and some hope for
immortality.
Today the march of science makes it imperative that Man be saved from that most
demonic of all idolatries -- arrogant Self-Worship that leads ultimately to self-destruction.
Salvation comes only when, in the words of the prophet Micah, our faith inspires
us “to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.”
February 26, 2004, DWBR-fm
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PERSONALITIES
Maytime for May Sison

There is a SISON for everything under the sun, says the Bible. And it is
especially true if her name is MAY SISON, Dra. May Ortiz-Sison, endocrinologist, who
is the sugar mammy in my blood, the glucophage of my life, who takes care of my
diabetes, and who together with Dr. Lynn Rivera, keeps me alive and healthy.
If life really begins at the age of forty, then the golden age begins at the age of
fifty — especially for a woman.
I remember when my wife Cecilia reached the age of fifty. It was the sunlit
upland of her life. She was happily married to an industrialist and a cabinet member; she
was a highly successful manufacturer in her own right with enough money to last her ten
lifetimes, and she toured the world several times over.
She was trim, slim, healthy, sexy and well-dressed. She had six wonderful
children, the eldest ones already finishing college and starting careers of their own. She
herself had ended her child-bearing years and made love with such frequency, energy and
abandon that her husband was often bodily tossed out of their bed down to the floor.
There is no reason to doubt that the same is true about MAY SISON who
celebrated her 50th birthday today, with a formal dinner at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel
tonight.
I use to invite her to my talk show, but she frequently was too shy to accept, and
when she did, too shy to talk.
But tonight she was a revelation. She wore a backless gown, and simply bubbled
with enthusiasm, happiness and love, all kinds of love, as the Greeks defined it – eros for
her husband, phileo for her siblings, storge for her family, agape for God and all the rest
of us – all of whom are invited to the occasion – her husband Jorge and three sons in
charge of the festivities, her siblings in attendance from as far away as Canada and
Sweden, and all the friends/colleagues who have ever touched her life and changed it
beyond recall.
It is said that MAY SISON never invites to a free dinner. Her guests are always
called upon to sing and dance for their supper.
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Tonight was no exception. I danced boogie for her and fall flat on my butt: “Keep
the video of this,” I told her, “I want you to remember how I fell for you!”
Earlier we heard the men in her life serenading her with Constantly, followed by
all her fellow doctors from Makati Med singing Magandang Gabi Sa Inyong Lahat.
Then her classmates from high school came to present a dance number of Tango
and Lacombia.
Her neighbors from Loyola Heights, her abode for 10 years, came to sing What
the World Needs Now Is Love.
And by golly, there was MAY SISON sparkling with wit and humor in the midst
of all, singing and dancing with them con todo amor y entusiasmo.
Only then did we learn that May used to haunt amateur contests, singing among
others, My Wooden Heart. She met her husband-to-be, Jorge, when he taught her group
how to sing Dahil Sa Isang Bulaklak for a contest. They won and he was paid an
honorarium. Imagine, he got paid to find the love of his life!
Tonight he sang for her the songs of their youth, and in his heart echoed with an
old familiar tune sung by Nelson Eddy long before May was even born:
Ah love is so sweet in the springtime, When blossoms are fragrant in MAY,
No years that are coming can bring time To make me forget, dear, this day.
I’ll love you in life’s gray December, The same as I love you today,
Ah my heart, ever young, will remember The thrill that’s new, this day in MAY,
Sweetheart, sweetheart, sweetheart, Will you love me ever?
Will you remember this day When we were happy in MAY, my dearest one,
Sweetheart, sweetheart, sweetheart, Though our paths may sever,
Through life’s last faint ember, Will you remember?
Springtime, Love time, MAY!
Ah Love in Maytime!
I wonder how many times Jorge has been tossed out of their bed.
May 17, 2003
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Faustino Lichauco, the rich and the famous by Atom Henares

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry just celebrated its 100th
anniversary recently and honored an ancestor of mine as the first President of the
Chamber.
The Lichauco family of today originated from a Chinese immigrant from Fokien
with pigtails named Tomas Ly-Chau-Co who married a Chinese mestiza Cornelia, and
died early. His widow, known as Lola Grande, was the matriarch from whose business
acumen (buri mat making, gold and sugar trading, real estate and farming) came most of
the wealth of the Lichauco clan.
Among his more famous descendants are
(1) Doña Nuning Oppen and her children budding First Lady Gretchen Cojuangco
and businessman Antonio Oppen;
(2) the Lichaucos of Tayug (Pangasinan), Luis and his sons and nephews,
nationalist Alejandro, Eduardo and Esto Lichauco and businessman Meneleo
Carlos Jr. of Plastics, Inc.; the Lichaucos of Alaminos (Pangasinan), Manolo
of Hundred Islands, Mariano of the Rotary and Rene Lichauco;
(3) the Lichaucos of Pasay City, German, Victoria, Ramon, Mila L. Brandner of
Austria;
(4) the Arevalos of Manila, Renato, Jesuit Catalino, and their nephew, Mon Gana;
(5) entrepreneur Wopsy Zamora and Lady Headfort (Virginia Nable) of Great
Britain;
(6) and the family of my great grandfather Faustino Lichauco.
There are many branches of this clan today, but it is my great grandfather
Faustino Lichauco who is being honored today.
Lola Grande's grandson Faustino, grandfather of my mother Cecilia, married a
Spanish mestiza, Luisa Fernandez, and proceeded to build a family and a fortune. He had
six children: Cornelia who died early; Natividad, mother of the Pampanga de Leons;
Tomas, my grandfather; Dolores Sollee; Faustino; and Marcial Lichauco, the ambassador
to the Court of St. James.
Faustino was implicated in the 1898 Revolution against the Spain and left
hurriedly for Hong Kong where he was part of Revolutionary Junta of Aguinaldo, and
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accompanied Mariano Ponce to Tokyo to represent the Philippine Republic.

After the Philippine American War, coming back from Europe, he engaged more
actively in business, with a fleet of tugboats to unload passengers and cargo from ocean-
going vessels, and built a huge mansion furnished from Paris, in front of Malacañang,
known to be the most luxurious in the Philippines where he entertained Gov. Gen. Luke
Wright, American senators and congressmen.
As a businessman, Faustino Lichauco helped found and was elected the first
president of the Camara de Comercio de Filipinas, the Chamber of Commerce of the
Philippines, which exists to this day as the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, of which my grandfather H. G. Henares and my father Larry were also
presidents.
Later Faustino became known as the Cattle King, importing carabaos from Saigon
for the sugarlands of Negros (my own great grand-uncle Esteban Henares was his dealer)
and cattle from Australia for the slaughterhouses of Manila.
He would bring his family to Baguio in a government-owned Stanley Steamer (a
car powered by a steam engine) and spent summers there since 1910, bringing horses and
a milk cow for the children. He had one of the first cars in the Philippines, a two-cylinder
Renault.
In 1911, he sent his entire family, complete with servants, to Europe to seek
medical attention for one of the children. From there, the family -- his wife, six children,
and three servants including a French-Swiss maid -- went to America and settled in
Boston where the children were schooled.
Everywhere the family went, they attracted much attention because only very rich
people could afford to travel around the world in those days. On their last trip in 1928,
Faustino and his family went to Lausanne (Switzerland), Bad-Nauhein (Germany), Paris,
Lourdes, Nice, tarrying for weeks at a time, in Rome where they had an audience with the
Pope, Naples, Sevilla (Spain), Madrid, Barcelona, in Spain for 6 months, New York,
Washington, Los Angeles for two months, Yokohama, Hong Kong and finally Manila on
October 29, 1929, after a trip of nearly a year and a half.
The next year on June 15, 1930, Faustino Lichauco died. Among the surviving
direct descendants of Faustino Lichauco are:
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(1) through his daughter Cornelia, none;

(2) through his daughter Natividad, the de Leons of Pampanga, the more
prominent of whom are Dentist and art patron Salvador de Leon, Insurance
executive Benny de Leon, businessmen Ernest and Mike Escaler,
photographer Pancho Escaler;
(3) through his son Tomas, Helen Small, Sharon S. Nightingale, Sister Marissa
Lichauco, businessman Ronnie Henares, entrepreneur Atom Henares, Palanca
Awardee and movie director Quark Belo Henares, sportsman Danby Henares,
dermatologist Dra. Elvira L. H. Esguerra, broadcast executive Juno H.
Chuidian, mass communication practitioner Rosanna H. Angeles;
(4) through his daughter Dolores, fencing coach Eric Sollee, Rita S. Stanton;
(5) through his son Faustino, Richard Rothchild Lichauco;
(6) through his son Marcial, Nelly L. Fung of Hong Kong, Loretta L. Baquiran;
Sylvia Lichauco, JayJay Lichauco, businessman Marcialito Lichauco, Dr.
Tomas Lichauco, lawyer and engineer Tinoy Lichauco.
Bless him, he is the great grandfather of my sisters Elvira, Juno and Rosanna; my
brothers Ronnie and Danby, and myself, Atom Henares.
To Mariano and Cynthia de Castillo on their 25th Wedding Anniversary

The very first time I attended a silver wedding anniversary was when my parents
celebrated their own in 1948. It was a grand affair attended by Manila’s 400, and by a
friend of mine from France. He was confused by the proceedings, “What are your
parents celebrating?” he asked. And I answered, “Well they are celebrating the fact that
they have been living together for 25 years, happily and fruitfully, for out of their union
came forth three children!” Oh, I see, said the Frenchman, “and now after living together
for 25 years, they finally decided to get married, ha?” Well now, come to think of it, I
was not around when my parents first got married, so I don’t really know if they were
living together in sin. I tell this story because I was not around either to witness the first
marriage of Mar and Cynthia 25 years ago, but of course it is safe to assume that they are
truly married the second time around, no longer living in sin.
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It is also safe to assume that the marriage between Mar and Cynthia has assumed
the proportions of an Edsa-type revolution. I say this because they married in February at
the same time of the year as Edsa I and II.
Secondly, because by marrying Mar, Cynthia actually accomplished a revolution
of sorts. Mar del Castillo was all set to become a priest of the Opus Dei, but Cynthia
Roxas was able to perform a miracle, she saved Mar from a fate worse than death, by
marrying him. To compound the miracle, they even asked Father Joe Cremades to marry
them. With a sigh, Cremades asked to be excused.
Thirdly, it was an Edsa type revolution because like Cory and Gloria 30 years
later, Cynthia became the actual CEO of the Mar Castillo family, because while Mar
brought prestige to the family, it was Cynthia who brought home the bacon by being a
successful practicing lawyer. Nowhere is this more evident than when Mar showed
Cynthia two paintings on his office wall, “These illustrate a woman’s role in the home –
in the bedroom making babies and in the kitchen cooking meals,” he said. Cynthia,
valedictorian of her law class, gave her classmate Mar a withering look and never went to
his office again.
Fourthly like the Edsa revolution, the marriage of Mar and Cynthia has spawned a
boisterous kind of democracy peopled by two children who cannot be told what to do,
and who threaten to mutiny all the time.
Fifth, the marriage is, like Edsa, a matriarchy – and Mar Castillo is a henpecked
husband, just like I was. Mar and I are proud to be henpecked husbands, for we
command legions of men, and we can afford of let our wives dominate us. Only the man
who gets kicked around in the office all day long, comes home at night to beat up his
wife out of sheer frustration.
Mar and I are also alike in another respect, like Ferdinand Marcos and Uncle Bob,
we are both members of the Lucky Seven Club. One day several years ago, a friend of
mine invited me to go with him to the races. It was July 7th, the 7th day of the 7th month,
and it was Saturday the 7th day of the week. To get there, we rode on a taxi with license
plate number 7777. When we go to the race track, the 7th race was going on, and there
were 7 horses on the track, so I bet P777 on horse number 7, and my horse came in 7th
place.
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Kulelat! What I found out later was that on the same day, July 7, 1977, at exactly
7 PM, Mar del Castillo first proposed marriage to Cynthia Roxas, and the answer was a
NO. Almost two years passed before they were finally married on February 3, 1979 – we
don’t really know that because the only witness, their best man, Supreme Court Justice
Rene Corona is still confused about the actual date – he sometimes thinks it happened a
years before, on December 8, 1977, the day of the Immaculate Conception. Of course
Cynthia was a virgin at the time, but her name was not Mary. Well, for Mar, Mary and
Cynthia, I’d like to propose a toast to the newlyweds of today: May the golden sun
crown your brow, and flowers bloom at your feet. May good fortune dog your heels, and
fair winds be ever at your back. And may you stay in heaven for a long time before the
devil finds out you’ve been gone.
February 28, 2004, Shangri-La Hotel, Makati
GEORGY BUSH
1. Resume of George W. Bush

The President of the United States, George W. Bush is one of those congenital
assholes that the Americans occasionally elect into office. The other asshole was Richard
Nixon. Running for re-election, his Resume of Georgy Bush was posted in the Internet.
It is a terrible record he had, but he got re-elected anyway, by religious freaks of the
Bible Belt, by the rednecks and white trash south of the Mason-Dixon Line, by the
hillbillies, the oil monopolists, war mongers and greedy big businessmen. Shit on him.
The following is his Resume.
PAST WORK EXPERIENCE
I ran for congress and lost. I produced a Hollywood slasher B movie. I bought an
oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas; company went bankrupt shortly after I
sold all my stock. I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that
took land using taxpayer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago
White Sox. With my father's help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
I changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most
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polluted state in the Union. I overturned fourteen of the last sixteen major EPA laws that
have been established since the early 1970s, all of them relating to the quality of air and
water, and most of them were nullified solely for the purpose for acquiring new energy
resources. I replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog ridden city in
America. Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in
borrowed money. Set record for most executions by any Governor in American history. I
became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of my
fathers appointments to the Supreme Court.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT:
I attacked and took over two countries. I spent the surplus and bankrupted the
treasury. I shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history. I set economic record
for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period. I set all-time record for
biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
I am the first president in decades to execute a federal prisoner. I am the first
president in US history to enter office with a criminal record. In my first year in office
set the all-time record for most days on vacation. After taking the entire month of August
off for vacation, I presided over the worst security failure in US history.
I set the record for most campaign fundraising trips than any other president in US
history. In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job. I cut
unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US
history. I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period. I appointed
more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.
I set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since
the advent of television. I signed more laws and executive orders amending the
Constitution than any president in US history. I presided over the biggest energy crises in
US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed. I presided over the
highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past
presidents have.
I cut health care benefits for war veterans. I set the all-time record for most
people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million
people),shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind). I
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dissolved more international treaties than any President in US History. My presidency is

the most secretive and unaccountable of any in US history. Members of my cabinet are
the richest of any administration in US history. (The 'poorest' multi millionaire,
Condoleeza Rice has a Chevron oil tanker named after her).
I am the first president in US history to have all 50 states of the Union in serious
financial trouble. I presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market
in any country in the history of the world. I am the first president in US history to order a
US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation, and I did so against the will of
the United Nations and the world community.
I created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the
United States. I set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases,
more than any president in US history. I am the first president in US history to have the
United Nations remove the US from the human rights commission. I am the first
president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the elections
monitoring board.
I removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional
oversight of any presidential administration in US history. I withdrew from the World
Court of Law. I refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default
no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions. I am the first president in US history to
refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US elections). I rendered the
United Nations effectively irrelevant.
I am the all-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign
donations. My biggest lifetime campaign contributor, who is also one of my best friends,
presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth
Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation). I spent more money on polls and focus groups
than any president in US history. I am the first president to run and hide when the US
came under attack (and then lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1). I am the
first US president to establish a secret shadow government. I pledged and then failed to
fulfill my pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive'.
I failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country
at the United States Capitol building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects.
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In the 18 months following the 911 attacks I have successfully prevented any public
investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States. I
removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US
history. In a little over two years I created the most divided country in decades, possibly
the most divided the US has ever been since the civil war.
I entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two
years turned every single economic category heading straight down. I took the biggest
world sympathy for the US after 9/11, and in less than a year made the US the most
resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world
history). I, with a policy of 'disengagement' created the most Hostile Israeli-Palestine
relations in at least 30 years. I am the first US president in history to have a majority of
the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and
stability.
I am the first US president in history to have the people of South Korea feel more
threatened by the US than their immediate neighbor, North Korea. I changed US policy
to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts. I set all-time record
for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling huge
investments in corporations bidding for government contracts.
RECORDS AND REFERENCES:
I have at least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record
has been erased and is not available). I was AWOL from National Guard and deserted
the military during a time of war. I refuse to take drug test or even answer any questions
about drug use. All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away
to my fathers library, sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view. All records of
any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in
secrecy and unavailable for public view. All minutes of meetings for any public
corporation that I served on the board of are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public
view. Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public
energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.
For personal references please speak to my daddy or uncle James Baker (They
can be reached at their offices of the Carlyle Group for war-profiteering.) In view of my
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record, and all things herein are totally verifiable for anyone who wants to take the time
to do the research, I fully intend to become your next president, simply because I can. In
fact, I am already ahead of the game; I know I can continue to count on the apathy of the
American people, their determined ignorance, and their unfailing gullibility to get myself
re-elected. George Bush, president
July 17-18, 2003
2. The Madness Of King George by Harley Sorensen

Folks, our God-fearing president, George W. Bush, who claims to start every
morning on his knees praying, now says that he gets his orders from God Himself. I kid
you not. I refer you to June 24 article by Arnon Regular in Ha’aretz, an Israeli
newspaper.
In the last paragraph of that article there’s a Bush quote as related by Palestinian
Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Here, according to Abbas and Ha’aretz, is what Bush
said: “God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to
strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the
Middle East. If you can help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will
have to focus on them.”
Over the years I’ve met a handful of people who regularly talk with God, but they
usually do so only when they’re off their medications. Those who get instructions
directly from the Almighty are twice blessed: They get their orders from the Highest
Authority, and the orders are always to do what they would have done anyway. Getting
direct orders from God makes a president’s life simpler. If God has spoken, the president
doesn’t have to observe the niceties with which presidents usually contend, things like
getting congressional approval or United Nations agreement.
OK, I’ve been hesitant to come right out and say what I think, but I’'m becoming
convinced that our president, the man with his finger on the nuclear trigger, is a bona fide
nutcase. I really do. For him to say God told him to strike al-Qaida is just nutso. For
him to say God told him to strike at Saddam, ditto. To me, Bush's sanity has been
suspect for a long time.
Bush does so many things that defy logic, like his infamous tax cuts, approved by
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a thoroughly cowed Congress. It doesn’t make sense to reduce your income while
increasing your spending and plunging into massive debt. His blithe attitude toward the
public debt he is creating indicates a failure to grasp reality. His cavalier entry into two
wars within two years, in total disregard of world opinion on the second one, indicates a
man who just doesn’t care what anyone thinks. Now that his ill-planned schemes in
Afghanistan and Iraq are coming apart, I sense panic in him.
Bush knew what everyone knew, that our armies could conquer. But he had no
idea whether they, or anyone, could maintain a peace in nations as splintered as
Afghanistan and Iraq. They can’t. They’re not trained for that. That’s not their mission.
Bush is a good salesman, which is almost certainly why his father’s friends chose
him to be the front man for the Republican Party. He’s a charmer, no doubt of that.
Because of his sales ability, he was able to convince most Americans that war with Iraq
was a necessity. But America needs more than a slick salesman to lead the world. We
need, at the very least, a man with mental stability. We don’t have that with Bush.
His rapid rise to power, without truly earning it as most presidents before him
have done, has gone to his head. So what we have in the White House today is a
megalomaniac with a messianic complex, a man who believes that he and he alone can
resolve the world’s problems. I don’t expect many people to agree with my armchair
psychoanalysis of a man I’ve never met. We don’t like to admit that important people are
crazy, or even that our relatives are crazy. Typically, we overlook their bizarre behavior
until it gets so bizarre we can’t ignore it anymore.
So, all I ask is that you pay attention. A man who claims to get orders from God,
and who creates world-shaking events on the basis of those “orders,” needs watching.
BELGIAN ASSHOLE
1. The Belgian Ambassador does not pay his debts

For 20 years the Government of Belgium occupied as its Embassy a beautiful
mansion located at 1265 Acasia St., Dasmariñas Village, Makati. The contract was
renewed every two years during all that time with the rent paid a year in advance every
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December. The present lease agreement was signed last year and has still a year to run,
by the terms of which the Embassy is to pay the owner a year’s rent in advance last
December 2002, and occupy the premises till December of 2003. Every Belgian
ambassador assigned to the Philippines has honored this contract in the past.
Unfortunately a new ambassador, Christiane Tanghe, also known as Gul Tanghe, has
arrived to take up his post.
This Belgian Ambassador Gul Tanghe all of a sudden, without notice, suddenly
refused to pay his obligations under the valid contract because he feels the rent is too
high. During these bad times, when rents have been going down, he feels he has the right
to repudiate his legitimate obligations, and bully his way around. There are good times
and there are bad times, there are times when the rent is high, and there are times when
the rent is low. Honest men honor their contractual obligations through the good times
and the bad times. But not Belgian Ambassador Gul Tanghe who chooses to be a
balasubas, a welsher, and to be rude, boorish and obnoxious about it.
The property was originally owned by Eduardo Santiago who actually built it for
rent to the Belgian embassy which occupied it for the last twenty years. Unfortunately
Mr. Santiago died, and his heirs decided to sell the property to Grundy Holdings, owned
by my son Atom and his family. The price of the property included consideration of the
contract lease with only a year more to run. On September 10, 2002, the deed of absolute
sale was signed. On September 17, the Santiago heirs advised the Belgian Ambassador
Tanghe of the sale, and on October 25 personally introduced the new owner to the
ambassador. On December 4 Ambassador Tanghe met with my son and family in the
presence of real estate broker Paz Martelino. In that meeting, he arrogantly informed my
son that he wants to terminate the lease because the rent is too high, and demanded a
drastic reduction of the rent. Atom my son politely refused to have the contract
terminated or to reduce the rent, because he paid a premium price for the house and lot,
along with consideration of the year’s lease. Besides, the contract was valid and iron-
clad. Whereupon, Ambassador Tanghe presented my son with a House Inspection
Report, and my son, the new owner, asked Tanghe to write him of any repairs he wants
done on the property, and he promised to do so in two weeks. Instead, in a week on
December 12, Belgian Ambassador Tanghe, wrote to the previous owner, the heirs of
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Eduardo Santiago not my son, demanding minor repairs on the property. It was an
obvious move to break the lease, for Gul Tanghe wrote to the wrong person, the previous
owner who informed him that at the request of the previous ambassador Van Remoortele,
major repairs were already done to the property from January to March in 2002 last year.
On December 19 Atom made his first demand for the rental payment, on January
20, made his second demand for rental payment that was due early in December. On
January 27, Tanghe’s lawyer advised Atom of the Ambassador’s intention to break the
lease contract as of December 2002. without notice and without a valid reason. More
about Gul Tanghe and the Belgians tomorrow.
2. The Belgian Ambassador is arrogant

There is something about Belgians that makes them arrogant and insulting to Filipinos.
Personally we have known only two good Belgians in our life – Hercule Poirot, the
famous little detective with pomade plastered on his hair; and a Belgian explorer who
brought Tarzan back to civilization. But both are fictional characters, born in the brain of
novelists Agatha Christie and Edgar Rice Burroughs. In reality, the real-life Belgians we
Filipinos have contact with are arrogant, insulting, welshers and balasubas who do not
pay their debts like the present Belgian Ambassador Gul Tanghe, or boorish bastards like
another Belgian Ambassador named Alain Rens.
This is not the first time these boorish Belgians have gotten out of their way to
insult and degrade us Filipinos. In 1987, Belgian Ambassador Alain Rens who had a
reputation for being loud-mouthed and ill-tempered in Senegal where he once served,
fired every Filipino employee within range of his tantrums, calling them and all of us
Filipinos thieves and idiots. When his employees complained about his bizarre behavior,
colonial idiots in the Foreign Affairs including Secretary Doy Laurel ignored them and
said Rens is acting within his rights and has diplomatic immunity. That left only us in the
media to demand that Rens be sent home as persona non-grata. Fortunately Ren’s boss
the Belgian Foreign Minister was here on an official visit. By the time we were through
with Rens, he was recalled to Brussels for an unscheduled vacation, and never again did
any Belgian Ambassador insult us in our own country, until the present Belgian
Ambassador Gul Tanghe came to be assigned here, and started to break valid contracts
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and welsh out of his debts.

There is something very disturbing about the name of the Ambassador, Gul
Tanghe. In English Gul is spelled GHOUL, which means someone who robs graves and
preys on the dead. Which is what Gul Tanghe really looks like. The Belgian
Ambassador Gul Tanghe looks like an alien, to be exact, he looks like Yoda of the Star
Wars, with a head too big for his body and ears too big for his head. He is a dead ringer
for Yoda, that is if Yoda were stretched out to 5 feet ten inches with Hitler’s mustache.
He looks like Yoda, if Yoda were three days dead and badly embalmed. And the Belgian
Ambassadors last name Tanghe is a Filipino slang for the word tanga, which means idiot,
gago, loco-loco, batty in the brain. This is a dishonest man who does not pay his debts
and tries to welsh on a valid contract. Other Belgians are just as bad.
In 1991, my neighbors and relatives. Dr. and Mrs. Emilio Abello Jr. flew to
Brussels via the Sabena Airlines, and as Filipinos were made to stand apart from the other
passengers, and were detained like criminals among some manacled blacks for more than
an hour, while Ambassador Bobby Romulo tried to help them through the ordeal. No
diplomatic protest was ever filed on their behalf.
On September 20, 2001. thirty Filipinos residing in Belgium including women
and children were detained and interrogated by the Belgian police in dawn raids, as
reported by Migrante International chairman Leo Legaspi. As expected the DFA
spokesperson Victoriano Lecaros defended the Belgians saying that the Belgian police
are only doing their job of checking out aliens in the light of threats of global terrorism.
Lecaros should be fired for exhibiting a colonial mentality.
3. Belgium is the doormat of Europe

Many employees in the Foreign Affairs department feel that every white man is
Tarzan of the Apes with an inherent right to keep Filipinos in their place as inferior
beings. For the benefit of those who do not read books and are ignorant of world history,
I would like to enlighten fellow Filipinos on this itsy bitsy country of Ambassador Gul
Tanghe, Belgium, with one tenth of our land area and one eighth of our population, where
we are treated as if we were the black Africans they have exploited for centuries.
Belgium is the doormat of Europe. Every conqueror including Napoleon, the Kaiser and
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Hitler, wipes his feet on Belgium on the way to other countries worth conquering. And
no Belgian ever fought back to defend his country. Belgium has no heroes , except a
little boy, who the tourist guide tells us, climbed a tree and made pee-pee on Napoleon as
he rode by on his horse.
Today we see this national hero of the Belgians, called the Manekin Pis, in a
Brussels park, absolutely naked and uncircumcized, and urinating ceaselessly. It has
become a tourist attraction and an official functionary. Every June 12th, our Philippine
Day, our Ambassador to Belgium in an official ceremony dresses up the Manekin in
pants, barong and salakot, with his fly open of course, and making pee-pee. Only
tourists believe the story of the urinating hero. It is fiction according to the historians
Belgians prefer to believe the legend of the lost son of the Duke of Brabant during
the time of the Crusades. Only recently, the Belgians who have nothing better to do,
have set up a new statue called Jennikin Pis, this time a little girl, with her unsightly twat
in full view, also taking a leak. My God, these are the people worshipped by such as
DFA spokesman Victoriano Lecaros as superior human beings with license to insult us.
Belgium, once part of Gaul, was conquered by Julius Caesar 57 BC; overrun by
the Franks in the 5th century; became part of the Charlemagne's empire in 8th century; in
the 9th, absorbed into Lotharingia, then into the Duchy of Lorraine; in the 12th,
partitioned into Brabant, Luxemburg, Liege and Flanders; in the 16th, passed to the
Duchy of Burgundy, thence to the Hapburg Empire; in 1555, to Spain; in 1713, to
Austria; in 1800s annexed to France, then to Netherlands. Only in 1830 did Belgium win
its independence.
This itsy bitsy country has only 10 million people, one eighth that of ours, and
occupies only 11,780 square miles, less than one tenth that of ours (115,830). By God, it
is even smaller than Mindanao. Belgium is the doormat of Europe. Since Napoleon, no
one invader even found it worth his while to conquer Belgium. Most of them just breeze
through, wipe their feet on the Belgians and move on.
There is only one real Belgian in Belgium and he is King Baudouin. The rest are
either Dutch-speaking Flemish, or French-speaking Walloons, and the two rarely talk to
each other. In 1972, on a little matter of 6 small hamlets being transferred from Flemish
to Walloon administration, a civil war almost occurred and the government fell. The
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rivalry between the two ethnic groups is so delicately balanced that the position of prime
minister is passed from Flemish to Walloons and vice versa after every electoral term.
Since the previous Belgian Ambassador Van Remoortele is obviously a Dutch-
speaking Flemish, one can assume the present Belgian Ambassador Gul Tanghe, who
does not pay his debts, is a Walloon chevalier d’industrie. Tange, tuso, balasubas, switic,
hindi nag babayad ng utang.
4. The Belgian Congo was cruelly exploited by Belgians

The only colony Belgium ever had was the Belgian Congo, and it was not even
administered by the government of Belgium. The Congo was the personal property(!) of
the Belgian King, through treaties negotiated by Henry Stanley, an American who went
into Congo searching for the missing Dr. Livingston (``Dr. Livingston, I presume?'' was
the famous quote uttered by Spencer Tracy in the movie).
Belgian Congo was cruelly exploited by the firm Union Miniere, personally
owned by the King, so cruel as a matter of fact then they came under severe criticism
from the international community. Only recently in 1960 under President Patrice
Lumumba did the colony achieve independence as the Republic of Congo. This was
followed by widespread violence, and United Nations Security Council demanded that
Belgium withdraw its troops, and sent in its own contingent. Lumumba was murdered
and Moise Tshombe became president, and the UN withdrew in 1965. A war ensued and
Belgian paratroopers were dropped by US transport planes.
Joseph Mobuto became president and the country’s name was changed to Zaire.
It was in Zaire, where Mohammed Ali knocked out George Foreman by roping the dope.
Today the country is in shambles and is now known as the Democratic Republic of
Congo, or Congo-Kinshasa, as contrasted with Congo-Brazzavile, known as Republic of
Congo. These Belgians poison everything they touch with their corrosive fingers.
The trouble with us Filipinos, especially those in the Department of Foreign
Affairs, is that we regard every white man like we do the Americans about whom we
have an incurable colonial mentality. And we tend to humble ourselves before the
Belgians and accept their insults in humility and humiliation.
When on September 20, 30 Filipinos residing in Belgium including women and
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children were detained and interrogated by the Belgian police in dawn raids, as reported
by Migrante International chairman Leo Legaspi, the DFA spokesperson Victoriano
Lecaros defended the Belgians saying that the Belgian police are only doing their job of
checking out aliens in the light of threats of global terrorism, in the same way Doy Laurel
defended the Belgian Ambassador Alain Rens in 1987 when he called us thieves and
idiots, the same way the DFA did nothing in 1991, when Jun and Jean Abello were
treated like common criminals in the Brussels Airport. To hell with them all.
But most especially we condemn as anti-Filipino and persona non grata the new
Belgian Ambassador Gul Tanghe whose first name translates to a Ghoul who robs graves
and preys on the dead, and whose last name in Filipino means a village idiot, brainless
and batty, with bats in his belfry.
The Belgian Ambassador Gul Tanghe looks like an alien. To be exact he looks
like Yoda of the Star Wars, with a head too big for his body and ears too big for his head.
He is a dead ringer for Yoda, that is if Yoda were stretched out to 5 feet ten inches and
had a Hitler’s mustache. He looks like Yoda, really, that is if Yoda were three days dead
and badly embalmed.
He wanted to get out of his lease contract by saying that no repairs were made
despite his repeated requests – but he never wrote the owner any request. He cancelled
his contract retroactively without due notice after he was refused a drastic reduction in
rent. He arrogantly and insultingly treated his Filipino landlord who happens to be my
son, with contempt, refusing to pay his legitimate obligations under a valid contract. Gul
Tanghe is a balasubas, a welsher, a Belgian.
March 3-6, 2003
HUBERT WEBB
1. The most perfect love is Webb’s love for Hubert

The late Sen. Estanislao Fernandez once told me what is the most perfect love in
the world. Not the love between man and woman because such a love involves sex,
fragile and ephemeral. Not the love between daughter and father, or between son and
mother, which are strained by a subconscious Electra and Oedipus Complex. Not the
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love between daughter and mother, which involves Freudian competition for the father’s
love.
The most perfect love, according to Taning Fernandez, is a father’s love for his
son who bears his name and hopes for the future. Through his son, a father achieves
immortality and his love knows no jealousy, no envy, no reservations, no need for
reciprocity -- the most perfect love in the world.
And Taning, one of the Marcos lawyers in the Nalundasan murder trial, cited the
pathetic attempts of Don Mariano Marcos to take the blame for the crime of his son,
Ferdinand E. Marcos, then accused of having murdered Congressman-elect Nalundasan.
For the same reason Senator Freddie Webb takes up the cudgels for his son
Hubert, accused of having committed rape and murder on three members of the Vizconde
family on June 30, 1991. So frantic, so hysterical, so desperate, so pathetic indeed are his
attempts to get his son off the hook. We are sure Freddie would even prefer to stand trial
in place of his son, if push came to shove, and the nitty-gritty came to the rocky bottom.
Even from the very beginning, most people are aware that Freddie Webb stood on
shaky ground. Passports and passport entries can be forged, by God, we are the best
forgers in the world. Ninoy himself came back to the Philippines with a false passport,
and 80 percent of those who become immigrants to the US and other countries, have false
papers, according to official sources.
Gifted with a name like Webb, Freddie may assume that all Americans are
truthful and lily white, but that is not necessarily true. Americans have been known to
commit perjury for a little consideration (for money mostly), as many Filipinos would for
friendship and loyalty.
The check of $150 earned by Hubert for one month’s work in the USA,
considering that there are four 40-hour work weeks in a month, means that Hubert was
working for less than a dollar per hour, way below minimum wage of $4.25 per hour,
where the lowest domestic servant and baby-sitter work for $5 an hour.
And all that jazz about Americans certifying to the truth of Hubert’s stay in the
USA, is not worth a pitcher of warm piss, if those same people, including the FBI, are not
willing to be cross examined in our local court where the case will be tried.
Not even a perfect love can extricate Hubert from this mess.
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2. Caught in the Webb of lies

“Shut up,” said a judge to Senator Freddie Webb, “If the documents you offer in
defense of Hubert prove spurious, you might be charged in court as accessory to the fact.
Just shut up and leave the case to the courts.”
But Freddie Webb won’t be silenced, and neither would his wife. Hubert himself
went on TV in silhouette in Dong Puno’s show and in disembodied voice in Firing Line.
Radio commentator Noli de Castro was heard to have said that Hubert looked emaciated
with scaly skin, as if he was, well, you know what.
Friends also came to Hubert’s rescue. An old friend of mine, Jack Rodriguez, and
his wife Sonia say that they left the Philippines for Los Angeles on June 28, 1991, and
saw Hubert in a party in L.A. two days later, June 30, the very day the murder took place.
Sonia told me at the wake of Doña Trining Roxas, the ex-President’s widow, “Hubert
stayed at our house in Orlando, Florida, for a whole year. I wouldn’t have him under the
same roof as my daughters if I even suspected he is a rapist and a drug addict. He is so
quiet and well-behaved.”
But I haven’t read about Jack and Sonia making their allegations under oath.
There are too many people who saw Hubert here in the Philippines at the time of
the murders -- three maids, a neighbor, a fellow passenger, and two ex-classmates, all
testifying under oath -- to place Hubert’s presence here beyond doubt. But that does not
prove Hubert and his friends were involved in the murders. Only Jessica Alfaro said so,
and it is her word against Hubert’s, whose insistence on having been abroad already puts
his credibility in question.
The NBI needs only one corroborative witness. It rejected Gerardo Biong
because he is not a credible witness and he demands too many concessions, considering
that he being accused of mauling a man to death inside a police station, and that he is
guilty of yet another serious crime, burning vital evidence. He is absolutely no good.
And he may have to tell the truth anyway to avoid being put to jail.
The NBI hopes to get a corroborative witness among the five boys who were
outside the Vizconde residence as look-outs, while the murders were being committed.
The web is tightening around Hubert Webb, he is being caught in a Webb of lies, those of
his own father.
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3. One is presumed innocent till defended by Saguisag

There are three boys actually involved in the killing -- Hubert Webb, Tonyboy
Lejano and Bong Ventura -- and all the rest of the boys, five of them, and Jessica were
outside acting as look-outs. All were charged with conspiracy to rape and murder, which
means that in the eyes of the law all are equally guilty. Those who acted as look-outs are
probably resentful that not having committed the crime, they be made to suffer the same
punishment. One of them may turn state’s witness.
What the NBI needs to clinch the case is one corroborative witness, one witness
who can confirm Jessica’s testimony. For this one the NBI is willing to give immunity
from prosecution and punishment as well as witness protection.
This is the reason for the unrelenting trial by publicity. The NBI wants to
convince one of the five boys that their collective goose is already cooked -- boiled,
broiled, baked and braised -- and the first one who offers to be the corroborative witness
will be given immunity and escape unscathed. Senator Webb and his family is
desperately trying to convince the boys that together they can weather this, but
separately, they will hang.
This brings us to Hubert’s lawyer, the former senator Rene Saguisag, who is a
man of true genius and sterling character. He is married to my first cousin Dulce and is
loved and respected by the family. The family business had him on retainer as our
lawyer, but when our opponent is poor, he begs off and lets his partner handle the case,
“Cuya Larry, my heart in not in this case if it is against the poor and defenseless.” He
really is for the poor, the wretched, the cheated, the beaten and the helpless. He was on
his way to be a well-paid lawyer of Ayala Corporation, when he encountered a
demonstration against Marcos. He joined the protest and never looked back.
He and I have arguments about capital punishment. He is totally against it
because he feels the penal system should rehabilitate the prisoner and make him fit to
rejoin society. I used to think the same way, but after the series of rapes and murders
born of cruelty and madness, I now believe that the victims have a right to ultimate
justice, a just punishment to fit the crime.
Perhaps the death penalty is no deterrent to heinous crimes, but I don’t give a shit
164
for deterrence or rehabilitation. I want the son of a bitch to pay for crimes that cry to
heaven for vengeance, I want his blood, I want to nail him to the wall, to twist the knife
in his belly, to make him suffer as he made his victims suffer.
St. Rene will give the worst criminal his due process, even if he has to defend
Ruffa Gutierrez for the awards cheating, Mayor Sanchez in his tax case, and now Hubert
Webb. He is the last defense in the losing battle, waving his tattered flag in defense of
the indefensible -- which leads the family to quip, unfairly but in a humorous vein,
“Everyone is presumed innocent until defended by Rene Saguisag!”
4. Utter the Curse of the Undead

Now that the NBI is at last building up its Vizconde case against Hubert Webb,
everybody seems assured that justice will finally be served. But will it really? Ask the
Crusade Against Violence, an organization of the families and survivors of violent and
heinous crimes: Dante Jimenez, its president who lost a brother; Grace Maguan whose
brother was shot by Rolito Go; Alice Vinculado who lost a son, and her Levi who lost a
twin brother; Vivian Hultmann who lost a daughter.
Not by a long shot, all of them said.
Justice they say has five pillars: Enforcement, Prosecution, Judgment,
Imprisonment, and the support of the Community. It took four years to bring the
Vizconde case to court, and the case is only on second stage, and has still a long way to
go.
What could happen to stop the wheels of justice? The principal accused may be
able to escape to another country. The judge could be bribed into rendering a judgment
of Not Guilty, and the accused will be forever free, and free to rape and kill again.
Witnesses can be made to retract, to disappear, to utter perjury. Prosecutors may
botch the case against the accused. The guilty may be given light sentences by a judge
who “does not believe” in punishment to fit the crime.
The accused, if finally convicted and imprisoned, may live a life of ease and
luxury under the eyes of warden and guards disposed to be lenient. They may be allowed
unauthorized vacations out of prison, or even allowed to escape. Or by God, the accused
may be elected to a high government post by the electorate.
165
If the NBI can prove that Hubert was in the country instead of in the USA as
claimed by Senator Webb, then the senator will resign from the senate. Really now.
Proof to whose satisfaction? Freddie Webb himself? I just asked Malacañang lawyer
Tony Carpio if he was willing to testify as the Webb family suggested. He said, “What I
know is that Freddie Webb told me his son was in the USA. That is hearsay, and is not
admissible in court.”
It will take more than three years before this case is adjudicated. By that time,
Webb’s resignation is moot, his senate term will have expired, and I doubt if he will run
and win again. No, Webb’s offer to resign means nothing.
Goddamn the perpetrators of heinous crimes, may they rot in hell. In the
meantime, till justice is finally served, wait for the next full moon, when witches and
werewolves roam the labyrinths of blackness... when vampires lurk in shadows and
ghosts haunt the dead of night... as the clock strikes twelve and Dracula rises from his
coffin... and bats at their belfrys, corpses in their graves, gnomes at the burrows, warlocks
and zombies and dreaded creatures take over the bowels of darkness --
Take out your dolls, murmur incantations, stick pins into them, utter the curse of
the undead, weave the devil’s spell on these bastards, these sons of bitches --
And cast them out screaming in terror from the face of the earth!
July 3, 5, 6, 7, 1995, ISYU
5. The Vizconde case revisited

The rather angry reaction of ex-Senator Freddie Webb to one of our broadcasts on
the Vizconde case wherein his son Hubert and others were accused of perpetrating the
crime of rape and murder of a mother and her two daughters, has led us to give him and
his family equal time. “If your son Ronnie were accused of a terrible crime, wouldn’t
you have done what I did? Defend him to the limits of your resources?” Freddie asked
me. And I answered Yes.
Actually the point of our broadcast was to criticize the Supreme Court for wasting
one whole year deferring decision on a very minor issue of whether to send a court
official to the United States to get the disposition of witness who claimed Hubert was
there during the time of the crime. Justice delayed is justice denied, we exclaimed.
166
Freddie Webb agreed. “I feel that my son is being disadvantaged because he has
been in jail for almost 4 years, and any delay in the case keeps him there unnecessarily.”
But he feels that the deposition of the US immigration authorities is important to his
son’s case. On the other hand, the lawyers of Lauro Vizconde and the government feel
that there is an unavoidable expense on their part to have to travel abroad just to cross-
examine the Americans who testified that Hubert was actually in the United States when
the crime was committed.
Actually the Webbs have already presented some 40 witnesses who swear they
had Hubert in their house or have seen him in Los Angeles and Orlando at the time
indicated. The witnesses included known and respected personalities and businessmen
Jack Rodriguez and his wife Sonia, as well as show biz whiz Salvador Vaca.
The Webbs debunk the contention of the prosecution that it was the brother Jason,
not Hubert who was using Hubert’s passport in entering the USA, because he did not
have a US visa. They said that Jason has his own passport with multiple entry and
indefinite validation, as most congressmen’s families are so accorded by the US
Consulate. There was no reason for him to use someone else’s passport and visa. Also
as a basketball player, Jason was publicly acknowledged by the newspapers to be in Iloilo
at the time he was alleged to be in the USA in place of Hubert.
Freddie also cited the testimony of then NBI Alfredo Lim who called attention to
a forced entry through the roof that contradicted state witness Jessica Alfaro’s story that
Hubert and company were admitted through the front door.
Yet despite this preponderance of evidence of his son’s innocence, Hubert’s case
is in jeopardy because the public mostly believes he is guilty. Any attempt on the part of
the judge to exonerate him will be fatal to the judge’s career. He will be hounded by the
press and the media for having been probably bribed, and for not knowing his law. Any
promotion to the higher courts will be hampered by the media and the commission on
appointments.
Freddie Webb points out that in criminal cases, the defendant’s guilt must be
proven beyond reasonable doubt. He feels this guilt has not been so proven.
167
6. Hubert’s Web of preponderant evidence

According to Freddie Webb, he has been able to present 40 witnesses and 350
documents to prove that his son Hubert Webb was in the United States when the
Vizconde mother and daughters were raped and murdered in their own house, a crime
that has been called the mother of all heinous crimes, and antedated the Hultmann case
and others that shocked the nation. On the other hand, according to Freddie Webb, the
prosecution has presented only one witness, Jessica Alfaro to prove Hubert’s guilt. He
claims that with 40 witnesses and 350 documents testifying for Hubert, there is
preponderance of evidence to prove Hubert’s innocence.
This brings to mind the case of O. J. Simpson who was accused of killing kissing
wife. In the criminal case he was exonerated because the court did not find him guilty
beyond reasonable doubt. Yet when a civil case was filed against him charging that he
was responsible for the death of his wife, the court found him guilty as charged, because
the preponderance of evidence was against him. How come O. J. Simpson was found
innocent in the criminal case and guilty in the civil case.
Actually the Law makes a clear distinction between Civil Cases and Criminal
Cases. In a civil case, the judge or jury can make a verdict after hearing both sides of the
case, basing it merely on preponderance of evidence. Not so in criminal cases, especially
in the case of capital crimes like murder, voluntary homicide, rape, etc. In a criminal
case, the judge or jury can only convict once all evidence has been presented and the
accused is found guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Mere preponderance of evidence, no
matter how much evidence is presented, can never be ground for convicting an accused
person, so long as there is any doubt about his guilt or innocence. Guilt must be proven
beyond any reasonable doubt.
There is an aphorism in law that Alibi is the weakest defense. The word alibi
comes from two Latin words: Alius, meaning “another” and ubi, meaning “where.”
Alibi means “being in another place.” It is the easiest evidence to falsify – getting a
witness to say that so-and-so was in that particular place at the specific time the crime
was being committed. It is therefore considered a weak defense and is only
circumstantial. It cannot be the only basis of a defense lawyer. On the other hand, if
there is no direct evidence of the guilt of the accused, such as a credible eyewitness, then
168
there is no case to speak of. Is Jessica Alfaro, the only witness, a credible witness? Is
she to be believed when she says the she actually saw the crime being committed by
Hubert? Only the judge will decide. The burden of proof is on the part of the
prosecution who has to show that there was guilt beyond reasonable doubt. If Hubert is
found guilty by the Regional Court, he can appeal to the higher courts, and ultimately to
the Supreme Court. If he is found innocent, by the principle of double jeopardy, prevents
him from being prosecuted for the same crime.
Perhaps the public is simply hungering for an end to this case, that they need
someone to blame and punish for this heinous crime, and Hubert seems to be the only one
available though another two sets of suspects were investigated for the crime before
Hubert was charged.
June 7, 8, 1999, DWBR-fm, Sun Star
7. Vizconde murder trial, judgment by a mountain climber

What a decision on the Vizconde case!! A humdinger, a whopper, a wallop –
well, what can you expect from a judge who is a battleaxe, a virgin spinster and a
mountain climber to boot, perhaps even a spelunker, and an absolutely incorruptible
public servant.
Never mind the legal aspect, that is for lawyers to argue about, fruitlessly as
usual. Let’s argue from the public perception of what happened in the courtroom.
First, I don’t believe Judge Amelita Tolentino had any choice in rendering her
verdict of guilty. Even allowing for a shadow of doubt, there seems to have been a
preponderance of evidence to conclude Hubert Web is guilty. But although
preponderance of evidence is enough to decide a civil case, it may not enough to convict
in a criminal case. That is the reason why OJ Simpson was not convicted of killing his
wife Nicole, and why he was convicted in a civil case for having caused her death. If
Tolentino exonerated Webb, the public outcry would have been so intense, her career
would have ended in disgrace, hounded by the press and the pulpit, and the public would
have been morally certain she accepted a bribe. Once exonerated Hubert Webb would
have been completely free, contrary to almost hysterical public expectation. She just
couldn’t get away with it. But the Supreme Court, the court of last resort, may get away
169
with a verdict exonerating Webb. And so the buck was passed to the Justices for good or
ill. Their court has been accused several times of making bad decisions, but never
enough to impeach them.
Second, although the judge went out of her way to give credit to the testimony of
Jessica Alfaro (thrice inconsistent but collaborated in many ways by independent
witnesses), she also had to discredit witnesses trying to prove Hubert was in the USA at
the time of the crime. This is probably because to get a conviction, she must see to it that
the guilt is proven “beyond reasonable doubt.” But people will be surprised if the verdict
is reversed by the court. My heart really bled for my friend Freddy Webb as he stood
obviously in great pain as a boorish TV reporter kept pestering him. Let him take
consolation from the possibility that the Supreme Court may reverse the decision, or that
President Estrada may commute the sentence or even pardon Hubert. There is still hope,
Freddy and Elizabeth, father and mother of Hubert.
Third, Freddy should take heart from the fact that respected journalists Teodoro
Benigno and Ramon Tulfo, as well as his friends Jack and Sonia Rodriguez, are
unshakeable in their belief that Hubert is innocent. If not guilty, then who are? At this
juncture it is hard to believe that two other sets of suspects, poor and indigent, tortured,
and forced into confessing the crimes by the NBI, and subsequently exonerated by the
court and public opinion, were probably guilty. Who then is guilty?
Fourth, the crimes committed against the mother Estrellita Vizconde and two
daughters, Carmela (18 years, repeatedly raped, 17 stab wounds) and Jennifer (9 years,
19 stab wounds) were so horrible and horrifying that nothing less than a verdict of guilty
would have satisfied the public demand for justice. In an ABS-CBN poll, there were
6,000 respondents for guilty and only 900 for exoneration.
It was a courageous decision by Judge Amelita Tolentino, a decision which puts
her in line to the Court of Appeals. When the time comes, I will be the first to
recommend her to the position.
January 20, 2000, Philippine Post
END OF BOOK

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i

About the book “Pretty Ugly”:

BOOK 23: PRETTY UGLY

Foreword by Juan L. Manuel, Secretary of Education………………………... vi

CLARO M. RECTO…………………………………………………………..… 001

THE SPEECHES OF DON CLARO M. RECTO…………………………...… 014

HISTORY AND ECONOMICS………………………………………………… 054

ENTERTAINMENT AND THE ARTS………………………………………... 094

HEALTH AND THE AMENITIES……………………………………………. 125

How to survive a heart attack alone………………………………………….. 129

END OF BOOK………………………………………………………………….. 169

Part I. Recto: a titan walked amongst us

present and the future.

Part III. Recto changed our history and our lives

Advisers, and “Export oriented Agriculture,” he who first demanded a Nationalist

fraternity, and eventually member of the Filipino CIA Rat Patrol.

Part IV. Recto’s speeches -- a perfect wedding of logic and eloquence

Part V. Recto and Constitutional Suicide

Write out the words that spell out our destinies,

The dogfight of the top dogs

THE SPEECHES OF DON CLARO M. RECTO

I. OUR MENDICANT FOREIGN POLICY

informed of the appalling consequences of having stockpiles of ballistic missiles and

II. NATIONALISM, MY UNCONQUERABLE FAITH AND BURNING HOPE!

III. OUR FUTURE UNDER THE CONSTITUTION

toda bienandanza, haz de Filipinas un pueblo en el que reinas.”

IV. OUR CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

discard them now. And if these amendments, proposed by a subservient National

HISTORY AND ECONOMICS

Who Said That?

The Force Of Falsity

by Portuguese explorers. History indeed owes a lot to the force of falsity.

Buying a new car.

THE LONG MARCH

1, The Long March, greater than Xenophon’s retreat

2. Good Manners and Right Conduct in warfare

3. Self-sacrifice becomes a theatrical gesture

2. When the enemy halts and encamps, we trouble him.

laid new planks on the bridge.

4, The Grand Illusion

1. Gold, gold, gold!

2. The Americans cheated everyone by going off the gold standard

3. Our word for money, Pera, originally meant Puta

1. Debunking Historical Myths: The Spanish Armada.

2. Debunking Historical Myths: The Battle of Agincourt

3. Debunking Historical Myths: The Battle of Agincourt.(continued)

4. Debunking Historical Myths: The Charge of the Light Brigade

5. Debunking Historical Myths: Custer’s Last Stand

1. Supreme Court asked to clean up air pollution

2. Supreme Court of India shows the way

THE BRIGHTEST STAR

1. All life and matter are subject to cycles of change

Vibrations-per-second is also termed cycles-per-second, and is scientifically

2. George Gilder’s Brightest Star in all the Universe

3. Internet, light of infinite dimensions, according to Gilder

computer, the computer could not do very much work.

1. The car is the worst place to be when you have enemies.

Philippines as the eighth country to be the site of their manufacturing operations.

2. For protection, armor plate your car

3. Rich men deserve to be protected from kidnappers and armed robbers.

4. IAC protects vulnerable spots and keeps the original appearance

5. IAC protects gas tanks and uses ballistic glass laminates

ENTERTAINMENT AND THE ARTS