The Sunday Times

The power that rules the nation

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NE of the biggest challenges facing any new president and administration will be how to deal with the political culture of crime where guns and goons and oodles of ill-gotten money buys or buries opponents and bedazzles the elec- torate with false claims, promises and empty meaningless rhetoric. Political violence like the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao has bedeviled the Republic since it’s founding. The culture of political crime and corruption pervades every political campaign with some notable exceptions to be admired and supported. It is not an electoral contest fought for different politi- cal values, goals with stated poli- cies and clear agendas. Few sign any detailed policy manifesto that they could be held accountable for by the public and the media. In reality, with inspiring and no-

ble exceptions among the non- senatorial marginalized candi- dates, high aspirations are replaced by a desire to win, divvy up the spoils, and consolidate power with their own family members, busi- ness interests and cronies. Self-in- terest and clan dominance is at the heart of almost all Philippine poli- tics. The greatest prize of all is the presidency; there lies the greatest power, influence and prestige. There is no question political power is an addicting drug, once tasted the de- sire for more is insatiable. History shows that at the heart of political power, where perhaps 200 vastly wealthy power hungry dynastic families and their billion- aire cronies rule the lives of 90- million impoverished Filipinos, its military and police power. While thousands of brave young officers and men have given their lives

and win their loyalty by giving some of them a generous slice of the military budget for themselves. In some unnamed administra-

FR. SHAY CULLEN

fighting, they died not knowing that they were defending - the vested interests of a ruling elite, not the Filipino people, the poor, the hungry and the landless. They fol- lowed orders without asking why they need to fight and die. Getting and keeping the mili- tary on side is essential for the continued rule of few wealthy family dynasties that make it to the top. The elite place their own relatives or friends in strategic po- sitions in the police and military

tions, a few really bad eggs might do the immoral and illegal bid- ding of the commander-in-chief and assassinate political rivals, dissidents, activists and journal- ists and be rewarded with politi- cal positions or plush civilian jobs when they retire before the president leaves office. Recent history gives several ex- amples to the king-making or breaking role of the military. They turned against President Estrada and he fell from power. Army of- ficers rebelled against President Marcos and when the people sup- ported the rebels, he fell from power. Some military officers have strategically positioned them- selves with statements pledging

Live each day as if it is your last

from the University of the Phil- ippines (UP) College of Law. She and her batch mates took a day off from their review classes for the bar examinations to go to graduation, then promptly went back to review classes on Mon- day. Proud dad Romy and I never attended our graduation from UP, a protest against the imposition of Martial Law. Romy and I were classmates at the UP School of Economics and we sat on the grass, watching our batch mates and friends who did go to the graduation exercise. Did our ab- sence make any difference? To us, it did. Sometimes, you just have to do what you feel is right, even if you know that your act is but a drop of water in an ocean. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Com-

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puters, delivered the commence- ment speech at Stanford in 2005. In a way, his advise to the gradu- ates reflected how I felt when I de- cided to boycott my own gradua- tion. Jobs said that a quote he had read at 17 made an impression on him: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” All his life, he

UR daughter, Romina, graduated last Saturday

son not to follow your heart. “Your time is limited, so don’t

AMINA RASUL

would look in the mirror every morning and asked himself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” Jobs noted, “Whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something”.

Jobs went on to say:

“Remembering that I’ll be dead

soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Be- cause almost everything - all exter- nal expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no rea-

waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Every- thing else is secondary.”

Like most of her batch mates,

Romina is an independent young person. I cannot remember when was the last time I had given her advice. Today, I will try by shar- ing Steve Jobs’ advice. As we enter the last week be- fore elections, I wonder how many of the candidates have ac- cepted their mortality and lived each day as if it were their last. It seems to me that they are acting like they will live forever. I think they look in the mirror and think: “This is my first day on earth. I have all the time to clean up af- ter.” Or act like they can take all their toys to heaven (or hell, as the case may be). Would each candidate or government official do what he/she was thinking of

A drama tour de force

NDAUNTED is a drama tour de force telling the story of the Lopez Group of Companies put together by the brothers Eugenio and Fernando Lopez. It is a two-act bio-musical and is a seamless blend of a modern play—a Broadway musical and play within a play. The play was supposed to be presented to cel- ebrate the 80th anniversary of the of the Lopez conglomerate in 2008 but was cancelled in the face of a major assault on the crown jewel of the family—The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco). The company started out sim- ply as a partnership of Eugenio and Fernando Lopez with the two haciendas they inherited as the nucleus of the business. They went into media—newspapers, radio and television and trans- portation—land, sea and air. They also went into real estate and buildings on Session Road in Baguio City. To most people, they were simply Eñing and Nanding. Eugenio had five children, Eugenio, Jr. (“Geny”), Oscar (Osky, later OML), Presentacion (Precy), Manuel (“Manolo”) and Roberto. Fernando went into politics and Eugenio tended the business. And Undaunted sang the story of the business. Eñing, Geny and Osky are the main characters of Undaunted. Oscar is now the patriarch of the family. He welcomed the audi- ence invited to celebrate his birthday. He said the musical

U

BENJAMIN G. DEFENSOR

was to have been presented two years ago on the 80th anniver- sary of the Lopez Group of Companies. But at the time, the company was facing some bad weather and so the play is be- ing presented instead on Osky’s own 80th birthday. The play opens on the eve of the 47th annual stockholders meeting two years ago of the First Philippine Holdings Corp., the latest incarnation of the Lopez Group of Companies, and the play follows immediately as Osky leaves the stage and the stage Osky makes his entry. Osky, played by Audie Gemora, is preparing his speech for the stockholders meeting and he is helped by his wife, Connie Rufino (Mayen Cadd). Like Tom, in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, Osky, gives the back- ground of the presentation. He promptly sets the tone of the play by not being daunted by the problems faced by the company (at that time the Meralco was un- der attack) saying that he must have to give up something to sur- vive and fight another day. Which

sums up the story of the phoenix- like epic of the Lopez family. After a blaze of graphic pres- entations of the Lopez family tree, the stage is transformed into spectacle that seem like a scene from Les Miserables and sounds from Miss Saigon. But this is something different altogether. The story starts with the fu- neral of the late Eugenio Lopez Sr., announced by a tarpaulin of the newspaper headline. Osky who narrates the story also moves in and out of the play proper to play his own part and to continue his narration of the story. The highlights of the Lopez story are dramatized on the stage in dance and song with movable screens as a backdrop where pro- jected images help move the nar- rative forward.

More than just the story of a business empire, Undaunted is also a story of Osky and Connie Lopez, their eight children, 27 grandchil- dren and a great grandchild. In one of the songs of the

play, Eñing (in my time with the then Manila Chronicle, we always referred to him as the “old man”) has a song in the play: “The prosperity of the com- pany/Must go hand in hand with that of our labor/For a company that’s prosperous/ While labor wallows in misery/ Does not have a right to exist.” Around the mid-1960s, with

five children, I found myself un- able to pay the P60 monthly rental for my People’s Homesite

Housing Corp. (PHHC) unit. I had accumulated P3,000 in back rentals and the PHHC had given me a deadline to settle or be evicted. In desperation, I went down to the second floor office of Mr. Eugenio Lopez Sr. from the Chronicle offices on the third floor of the Chronicle building on Aduana.

Miss Guadalupe (Upeng) Barreiro, Mr. Lopez’s secretary, asked me to wait while she an- nounced me. Mr. Lopez himself went out to ask me what I wanted. I told him I was going to be thrown out of my house and showed him the PHHC letter. He just nodded and said,

“Okay.” Then turning to Miss Barreiro, he said, “ Upeng, please make a check for Mr. Defensor.” She asked me how much I needed and I showed her the dunning letter. I said I could have P50 a month deducted from my pay of P300. She typed the check, went inside to have it signed and gave it to me. The check was on the account of Eugenio and Fernando Lopez. The house has been renovated twice on loans first from the So- cial Security System on my name and then from the Government Service Insurance System on my wife’s name. All my seven chil- dren and 11 grandchildren grew up in that house at least until their parents left to found a home of their own.

opinion@manilatimes.net

doing if each looked into the mir- ror every morning and asked, “If today was my last day on earth, should I do what I am thinking of doing?”

But then Jobs presumed that we

all have a moral compass tucked away somewhere that would serve as a guide to the inner voice. What if there was none, in spite of pub- lic displays of religiosity and faith? What would the inner voice say? Would you besmirch the reputa- tion of another to get votes? Would you buy votes? Would you fiddle with the automated voting mecha- nism? Would you use the power and authority entrusted to you by law to subvert the will of the peo- ple? Would you fuel peoples’ fears of the unknown to gain votes, even if it stops the peace process? Still, it is a question worth ask- ing ourselves. We will all die, some- day. We cannot take our toys to heaven or hell. So, if today were your last day on earth, would you do what you are thinking of doing? I can only reach out to my chil- dren, Mini, Peppy, Ibba and Grace: “Live each day as if it was your last. Follow your heart and intuition.”

aminarasul@yahoo.com

loyalty to the constitution, and incidentally in-grating themselves to the incoming president-elect. There are honorable and hon- est military and police officers who will not play the corruption game. Some in recent years rebelled against the government and the corrupt system. They were jailed and charged. Others were cleared and now run for political office. Private armies and militias are mostly government-paid. None of the presidential candidates have any genuine commitment to dismantle them. They need them to subdue social unrest and the armed rebels. These government- paid militias help keep down re- bellion and keep the government in power. They are also used to massacre political rivals as we saw in Maguindanao.

The next president has the

task of saving the millions of homeless, landless, suffering Filipinos from illiteracy, unem- ployment, sickness and hunger and must bring about a com- passionate and just nation. That means dismantling the armed militias and implement- ing the strict rule of law. The new president will have to be a charismatic revolutionary, ready to transform society and go against his own privileged class, their members’ vested interests. Ready to challenge the corporate giants and the interests of foreign powers, take on the landlords, implement land reform and.... well, be a president for the 90 million people mired in hope- lessness and there is no such per- son - we are not yet Bolivia.

preda@info.com.ph

ANALY TICAL FEATURE

189 countries have pavilions in Shanghai’s World Expo

BY D’ARCY DORAN

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

SHANGHAI: Hundreds of thousands of people flooded into Shanghai’s World Expo Saturday at the start of a six-month showcase of culture and technology seen as the latest sign of China’s growing economic might. Organizers have said all 500,000

tickets are sold out for opening day at the massive Expo park along the Huangpu river, where visitors will wander through the exhibits of 189 nations, as well as dozens of companies and organizations. “Everything is very colorful,” Cui

Yan, a 23-year-old Chinese university student, said outside the Mexican pavilion. “The architecture is amazing.” “There are so many highlights —

I’m worried I can’t see all of them on this trip,” said Cui, who traveled from Ningbo, in neighboring Zhejiang province, to be one of the first to catch a glimpse of the eye- catching Expo pavilions. A sea of people waited to visit

China’s red inverted pyramid — the centerpiece of this city’s Expo park — but queues were long at all pavilions. Signs outside the US and French venues said people faced a wait of four hours. Eager visitors used umbrellas to shield themselves from the blistering Shanghai sun as they waited patiently, the long queues doing nothing to dampen their enthusiasm. “I want to see the Canada

pavilion first. So many of my relatives have emigrated to Canada and I want to get an idea of what kind of life they’re living,” retiree Huang Huifang, 58, said as she ran towards the building. Shanghai kicked off the Expo on

Friday night with a star-studded music and fireworks extravaganza, signaling it would be bigger and brighter than the more low-key World’s Fairs in recent years. Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli,

Hong Kong action film star Jackie Chan and Chinese pianist Lang Lang performed for thousands of guests including Chinese President Hu Jintao and about 20 other world leaders. A record number of countries are

participating in the event, which is expected to attract at least 70 million visitors — the vast majority of them Chinese, many of whom have never travelled outside the country. Li Huahe, a 47-year-old telecoms company employee from Urumqi in

Global view

every human being’s right to know

serve a minute of silence: To re- member those whom it is too late to help; to honor the jour- nalists who paid with their lives for our right to know. But today let us also acknowl- edge the significant advances that have been made.

More and more countries around the world are adopting freedom of information legisla- tion. This makes it easier to scru-

tinize government actions, and it reinforces public accountability. Meanwhile faster and cheaper technology means that more peo- ple in the world have ready ac- cess to information from outside their immediate environment than ever before. Now is the time for us to capitalize on these advances, by strengthening institutions, by providing the necessary train-

ing for information profes- sionals, by fostering greater openness within our public sectors and greater awareness among the public. I call on governments, civil so-

ciety, the news media and individu- als everywhere to join forces with Unesco in promoting Freedom of Information all over the world.

IRINI BOKOVA,

UNESCO DIRECTOR GENERAL

far-western Xinjiang — at the opposite end of the country from Shanghai — said he bought his ticket months ago but could only stay a few hours before heading home. “I woke up at 5 a.m. and I have a

2 p.m. flight. I’m worried about the crowds. I want to see at least one pavilion today,” Li said outside the Swiss pavilion, which boasts a chairlift that soars over a three- story-high meadow. Nations with an eye on China’s

consumer market of 1.3 billion people are pulling out all the stops to attract the attention of Expo visitors. “I really hope people will discover

the attitude of the Netherlands. We want to have friendly relations with China,” Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told Agence France-Presse as he surveyed the grounds from the top of the “Happy Street” pavilion, which aims to capture the feel and creativity of Amsterdam. Denmark has made a splash by bringing its “Little Mermaid” statue out of Copenhagen for the first time, France has Impressionist paintings and India is bringing in a cast of Bollywood stars. The hamburger and ice cream

cone debuted at past Expos and food is once again playing a major role in attracting Chinese visitors to pavilions. Belgium was promoting fries

with mayonnaise, Australia was serving meat pies and France featured champagne tasting. “This is the first time I’ve eaten

foreign specialty food, I will try more,” visitor Yang Wei said, sampling Uruguayan barbecued beef. In Shanghai, the spotlight will be on the cutting-edge design of the national pavilions, all embracing the theme of “Better City, Better Life”. Highlights include Britain’s stunning dandelion-like “Seed Cathedral”, Spain’s “Big Basket” made of 8,500 wicker panels, and Switzerland’s pastoral pavilion. Du Yuping, a 52-year-old steel

company employee from Shanghai, came prepared for the long queues — with a blue folding stool. He said he came to Expo park last

week on a trial opening day and ended up waiting up to three hours to see one pavilion, but was pleased to see that operations were running more smoothly on Saturday. “I want to visit Expo at least six

times,” Du said, sitting on his chair in the queue outside the Norwegian pavilion. “I’m focusing on European

pavilions today.”

SUNDAY

May 2, 2010

A 5

opinion

ONE MAN’S MEAT

DURIAN

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