Manuel “Jun” Urbano is 2023 Gawad Plaridel Awardee of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communications.

In reviving the prestigious award post-pandemic, UP-CMC couldn’t have honored a better media man. Urbano mastered three fields. He produced films “Juan Tamad and Mr. Shooli” and “M.O.N.A.Y.” He directed ads, like San Miguel Beer’s notable “Isang Platitong Manê.” He starred on television as Mr. Shooli of “Mongolian Barbecue,” parodies of hot issues.

Urbano sent Mr. Shooli to read his acceptance speech Oct. 11th. The latter left the draft in the taxi and so extemporized.

Mr. Shooli recounted copping a student exchange program to Manila in the early ’50s. He enrolled at Ateneo De La Salle where he met Erap: “Grade 1 pa lang kami may bigote na siya. May wristband din para raw malaman kung ano ang kaliwa at kanang kamay niya.” Once, Teacher asked Shooli to spell “success.” He whispered to Erap if there’s one or two s’s at the end. Erap advised him to put in three, “para sigurado.”

Shooli observed Filipinos: “Masayahin, matatag. Bagyo, lindol, baha, Pilipino tatawa lang.

“Mapagbigay. Kung may bisita sa bahay, gawa paraan para maligaya. Sa master’s bedroom pinapatulog.

“Matulungin sa kapwa – nagbabayanihan.

“Pilipino mahal ang Diyos, the only Christian country in southeast Asia.

“Pilipino very respectful. Sa wika niyo may ‘opo’ at ‘oho’ to address elders. Applaud yourselves.”

In 1946 right after the War, Shooli recalled, the Philippine economy was second only to Japan’s. It had a national airline. Indonesians, Malaysians, Vietnamese who wanted to become doctors studied at UST. For agriculture and animal husbandry they went to IRRI and UP.

At the end of the exchange program, Shooli returned to indigence in the northlands. He heard that Erap was kicked out of 2nd year high school. Still, Erap became president: “Nasipa uli nu’ng 2nd year na pangulo siya.”

Mr. Shooli returned to Manila on classmates’ invitation with compli plane fare to a reunion. He was excited to see the beautiful country he so admired. He imagined Filipinos to have progressed by leaps and bounds during his 70-year absence.

Unable to sleep, Shooli kept asking the flight steward where they were flying over: Alaska, Arabia, etc. Hours later his seatmate stuck a hand out the porthole and said they must be in Manila. How did he know? His wristwatch got snatched.

“Sa airport inspeksyon ng Customs apat maleta ko. Paglabas ko sa airport, isa na lang maleta ko,” Mr. Shooli sighed. “Sakay ako taksi, sobra trapik! Nakita ko sign: ‘Bawal magtapon ng basura.’ Pero sa paligid dami basura. Meron isa pa: ‘Bawal umihi dito.’ Pero mga lalaki ipinipirma pa ihi nila sa pader. Overtake kami sa motorcycle, riding in tandem. Binaril nila sa ulo yung tao.

“Am I in Philippines? This is not Philippines I know! Hindi ganito Pilipino.

“Tapos sa TV news panood ko raid sa shabu den. ‘Hoy, mga shabu pusher, suko na kayo, mga pulis ito.’ Sagot ng ni-raid nila, ‘Hindi kami susuko, mga pulis din kami.’

“Noong araw, Pilipinas no. 1 exporter ng sugar. Ngayon world’s no. 1 importer of rice. Pati gulay, onion, galunggong import. Pilipinas puro isla paligid ng dagat, pero bakit import ng isda, pati asin? Pilipino naghihirap. Pero may kumikita sa paghihirap nila.

“May export ang Pilipino. Export niyo si nanay, export niyo si tatay, export niyo si ate at kuya – OFW. Ang kanila kinikita pampalutang sa economy. Tawag sa kanila ‘mga bagong bayani.’ But at what sacrifice? Minsan bagong bayani niyo umuuwi sa Pilipinas nasa kabaong; pinatay ng employer. Minsan umuuwi sila sa sirang pamilya. Kasi walang hanapbuhay sa Philippines.

“Pulitika niyo no. 1 pinakawalanghiya. Nu’ng araw democracy: government of the people, for the people, by the people. Ngayon government of a few people, for a few people, by a few people.

“There are 110 million Filipinos. Senators niyo 24 lang. Dalawa pares magkapatid, isang pares mag-ina. Merong ex-convict, meron plunderer, meron involved sa extrajudicial killings. Nu’ng araw mga politiko niyo sina Manglapuz, Pelaez, Osias, Rodrigo, mga kagalang-galang. Ngayon mga politiko niyo kagulang-gulang.

“Ano nangyari? ‘Di ba kayo pumipili sa kanila? What happened to you?

“Alam niyo ba kaibahan ng ordinary thief at political thief? Ordinary thief pumipili sino nanakawan niya. Political thief kayo ang pumipili kung sino nananakaw sa inyo.

“Eighty-percent Christian daw Pilipino. Pero may pulitiko diyan sabi, ‘who is this stupid God?’ He called your God stupid, wala kayo imik. OK lang?

“Tao ngayon wala nang sense of value. Parang ‘yung dalawang naglalakad sa bukid. Nakita nila carabao dung; tinikman nila; natiyak nila na carabao dung; buti na lang daw hindi nila naapakan.

“Politiko main problem niyo. Hindi sila public service, self-service na. Pagkatapos mag-presidente tatakbo pa mayor, ayaw mawalan ng puwesto. Si Congressman Manhik-Manaog termed out na, kaya tatakbo governor. Tanong ko sa kanya kung lalabanan niya misis niya na governor ngayon. Sabi niya, ‘Hindi, misis ko takbo senador.’

“Eh sino takbo congressman pamalit sa yo? Sagot niya, ‘Yung anak kong panganay na mayor.’

“Sino tatakbo mayor? Sabi niya, ‘Yung bunso namin na konsehal.’

“Sabi ko sa kanya, galing-galing niyo, politika hanapbahay ng pamilya niyo. ‘Yong aso mo na lang walang pwesto ah.’ Sagot niya, ‘Hoy wag mo malitiin aso namin, barangay chairman ‘yan.’”

Mr. Shooli concluded: “I remember what one of your National Artists Manuel Conde told me about Filipinos. If you want your patient to get well but he refuses to take the bitter pill, patawanin mo. Pagbukas ng bibig niya isubo mo ang gamot sa kanya.” Thus did Mr. Shooli satirize today’s Filipino.

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AFP won’t leave but instead intensify patrols at West Philippine Sea – PNA photo

The Armed Forces of the Philippines is to mount joint allied resupply missions for Marines stationed in Ayungin Shoal. Troop rotations-reprovisions (RORE) no longer will be done by civilian bancas but by warships.

BRP Sierra Madre, which the Navy beached on Ayungin (Second Thomas) in 1999, will be refurbished once and for all. Joint allied patrols will also dot in the entire West Philippine Sea.

Those are Manila’s calibrated responses to China’s ramming Sunday of two Filipino seacraft near the shoal that Beijing aims to annex. Manila will hold fast to the sea feature instead of deserting it as Beijing wants.

A China Coast Guard gunboat 110 meters long, about four basketball courts, bumped a small wooden outrigger loaded with food for the nine Marines at Ayungin. Then, a Chinese maritime militia steel trawler scraped a Philippine Coast Guard craft. Five other CCG gunboats tried to prevent the RORE while People’s Liberation Army-Navy warships lingered nearby.

Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said the AFP is proposing joint resupply missions with allied navies. “We are studying it. That’s another option,” he told the Kapihan sa Manila Bay media forum Wednesday, Oct. 25th.

“But what we need is regularity [of joint patrols],” he added. “We don’t want to be dependent on which [allied] ships will arrive [for joint patrols].”

Brawner said the Navy can also resume using its armed vessels for ROREs. But this can be tricky because Ayungin surrounding waters are shallow.

Navy rigid-hulled rubber boats used to conduct monthly ROREs in the 2000s, but Chinese combat helicopters harassed and endangered Filipino sailors. Twice US fighter jets flew overhead to avert Chinese provocations.

The Philippine Navy shifted to contracting private bancas, backed by the civilian Coast Guard. Still, China countered with military grey zone operations, using its coastguards and maritime militia that report to the Chinese Communist Party-Military Commission.

Brawner said the Philippines is well within its rights to repair the rusting World War II-vintage BRP Sierra Madre. It remains a commissioned Navy ship although deliberately grounded on Ayungin to prevent Chinese occupation after the latter grabbed nearby Panganiban (Mischief) Reef in 1995, Brawner recalled.

“BRP Sierra Madre is in Ayungin Shoal,” he said. “We did not interfere when they militarized the artificial islands. Now they’re being rattled when they’re called out. That’s a huge imbalance.”

The AFP chief anticipates China to  escalate menacing of Filipino vessels in the WPS. “We fear that in the future, their ships will deliberately hit our vessels,” he said.

He noted: “We are the ones always trying to avoid any collision. We stop our ships each time they conduct these dangerous maneuvers, crossing the path of a vessel that was moving forward. That’s very dangerous and should not be done. It’s not allowed under maritime rules.”

Defense Sec. Gilberto Teodoro announced on government television Wednesday the increase of Navy and Coast Guard patrols in the WPS. Alongside those will be joint freedom of navigation operations (FONOPS) with the US, Japan, Canada and Australia.

Navies of Singapore, Malaysia, India and France previously had expressed interest in FONOPS in the WPS, which comprises the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone. As well, FONOPS in the high seas, or portions of the South China Sea which do not fall within any state’s EEZ but baselessly, illegally claimed by China as its own.

The Philippine Navy has new patrol vessels, including two frigates procured from Korea, a Korean-donated corvette, four Indonesian-made support craft and two large US Coast Guard cutters repurposed as navy warships.

Japan added 10 new craft to the fleet of the PCG, which is procuring 40 more from a maker in Cebu.

Aside from naval options, international maritime lawyer Jay Batongbacal, PhD, suggests that Malacañang file for damages sustained by Filipino boatmen and their craft due to Chinese ramming. He cited similar cases won by victims at the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea.

He proposes that Malacañang also convince other countries to shun Chinese seafood poached in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. PLA-equipped and -escorted Chinese trawlers invade fish-rich waters of Palau, Ecuador, Senegal, Gambia and Guinea Bissau.

In claiming the entire SCS, Beijing has authorized the CCG to arrest, board and fire at vessels in its illegally claimed portions. Yet it allows its fishermen to engage in IUU (illegal, unreported, unregulated) fishing.

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AFP and PCG drone videos of Chinese ramming, Oct. 22, 2023

Beijing wants Manila to abandon Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal.

Its ramming of two Filipino resupply boats on Sunday was the latest of graduated pressures to make Ayungin’s marine sentries leave.

In the past, Chinese Coast Guard gunboats perilously, illegally cut across Filipino civilian outriggers approaching Ayungin. CCG demanded that Filipinos leave China’s imagined “territorial waters.”

In February 2023 CCG escalated to firing military-grade laser weapons at Filipino coastguards escorting the resupply bancas. In August it hazardously drew 40 yards too near to water cannon Filipino coast guards onboard a craft half its size.

Five to six CCG gunboats participated in each of those monthly provocations. Chinese maritime militia steel trawlers aided the dangerous maritime maneuvers. People’s Liberation Army-Navy warships hovered nearby.

Beijing’s next attempts to foil marine rotation and re-provisioning will be scarier. Bloodshed can result; lives, limbs, equipment may be lost. China’s communist rulers want Filipino soldiers and civilians to believe that Ayungin is just a reef, and that tide will soon wash away Navy vessel BRP Sierra Madre grounded there. The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting, said the philosopher Sun Tzu.

That will depend on Filipino resolve. Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo, AFP chief Romeo Brawner and Philippine Coast Guard chief Ronnie Gavan expressed the termination to defend the WPS against foreign annexation.

In the wake of the ramming, the AFP, which had hired the civilian outriggers, scrambled its Western Command planes and ships. The PCG compiled all videos. The National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea alerted the public.

The DFA protested the ramming and summoned the Chinese ambassador to accept it. When the latter hid in his office, DFA demanded that his deputy show up.

AFP, PCG, NTF-WPS, DFA regrouped on Monday to brief the press. Malacañang convened a defense-security command conference.

Beijing’s application of Sun Tzu flopped. Even Mao Zedong’s dictum failed it: “The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.” Manila harassed, attacked, pursued; Beijing retreated.

China’s embassy was reduced to issuing two statements. The first lied that the puny Filipino wooden outrigger crossed the path of the 110-meter long steel CCG gunboat. That didn’t wash with archipelagic Filipinos, of course. They’re used to sailing small craft, which they know must steer clear of steel ferries or even their wakes.

The embassy added that the Filipino boats had trespassed Chinese territory. “Nǐ hǎo shǎ” Filipino media chorused. Under international law, only a permanently surfaced sea feature can be deemed territory and thus warrant 12-mile surrounding territorial water. Not Ayungin, which surfaces only in low tide.

Still, Ayungin is within Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone (the WPS) and 700 miles away from China’s closest island, Hainan. Therefore it cannot be Chinese territory.

Lastly the embassy claimed that the CCG and Chinese maritime trawler had exercised caution and restraint. Videos show the opposite.

The second statement dwelt on Beijing’s concoctions of four supposed Manila promises to stop sea provocations, making dangerous moves, slandering China and tow away BRP Sierra Madre. Yet it cannot name which Filipino traitor, if any, vowed those.

A good communist must be a propagandist, Mao commanded. The Chinese embassy’s propaganda is stale. Even its agents in Philippine business, government, academe, media cringed to mouth its line.

The ramming highlighted China’s notoriety. Japan, followed by South Korea and France, instantly denounced China’s incursion in Philippine maritime jurisdiction. They warned it against breaching Freedom of Navigation.

America was sharper, calling Beijing’s actions “dangerous and unlawful” – “By conducting dangerous maneuvers that caused collisions with Philippine resupply and Coast Guard ships, the People’s Republic of China Coast Guard and maritime militia violated international law by intentionally interfering with the Philippine vessels’ exercise of high seas freedom of navigation.

“China’s conduct jeopardized Filipino crew members’ safety and impeded critically needed supplies from reaching service members stationed at the BRP Sierra Madre. Obstructing supply lines to this long-standing outpost and interfering with lawful Philippine maritime operations undermines regional stability.”

Previous Chinese harassments of Ayungin resupplies drew rebukes from Great Britain, Canada, Australia, India, Germany and the European Union. China’s aggression has scared small countries from trusting Beijing’s communist overlords.

Beijing cut its nose to spite its face. It broke Sun Tzu’s tenet to “know the enemy and know yourself in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.”

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            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Video of  Duterte’s admission of killings posted by Trillanes

Ex-president Rody Duterte’s admission of wanton killings during his Davao City mayoralty dented his daughter VP Sara’s political stature.

The father’s televised self-incrimination not only reassociated Sara with the Davao Death Squad. It also weakened her justifications for P650-million confidential funds as VP and Education Secretary.

In the end, Sara retreated from her feud with Congress. She ignored daddy’s public counsels as well.

Dispute over confidential-intelligence funds (CIF) recently pulled down Sara’s ratings. Congress scrapped for 2024 the no-audit P500-million CIF as VP and P150 million as education chief that she got for 2023.

The elder Duterte advised Sara Oct. 10th to use confidential funds to slay detracting “communists in Congress.” “Patay kayong mga komunista diyan. Prangkahin mo na ‘yan si France,” he blurted on Sonshine Media Network Inc., apparently referring to Sara’s legal left critic Rep. France Castro, of Alliance of Concerned Teachers Party-list.

Duterte admitted using intelligence funds as mayor to hire assassins of communists: “My intelligence funds, I used it to buy. I had all of them killed. That’s why Davao is like that. Your companions, I really had them killed. That’s the truth.”

SMNI took down the video Oct. 12th. But staunch Duterte censurer ex-senator Antonio Trillanes IV circulated it online, then submitted it to the International Criminal Court.

Duterte faces charges before the ICC for extrajudicial killings during part of his term, November 2011-June 2016. A bloody drug war marked his presidency, July 2016-June 2022.

Duterte alternated with Sara as mayor and vice mayor. Councilors granted them confidential, not intelligence funds, differing but complementing.

Main witness at the ICC is retired Senior Police Officer-3 Arthur Lascañas. The self-confessed Davao Death Squad boss detailed some of more than a hundred alleged assassinations of drug suspects and political foes.

Five DDS henchmen corroborated Lascañas’ avowals: militiaman Edgar Matobato, SPO1 Vivencio Jumawan Jr., barangay chief Fulgencio Pavo and aliases Jose Basilio and Crispin Salazar.

City hall paid them huge amounts even when Sara was mayor, 2010-2013, Lascañas alleged. He received at least P68,000 a month by collecting in behalf of ten to 12 ghost employees.

The Commission on Audit in 2012 observed that Mayor Sara’s admin paid P678 million for 11,000 contractual workers without requisite accomplishment reports. COA also reported that Sara as mayor drew confidential fund of:

• P144 million in 2016;

• P294 million, 2017;

• P420 million, 2018;

• P460 million, 2019;

• P460 million, 2020;

• P460 million, 2021;

• P460 million, 2022.

Newly resigned Finance undersecretary and UP economics professor Cielo Magno noted that Sara’s confidential funds were larger than her yearly budgets for education, nutrition, health, labor and employment, housing and community development, social services and welfare, or culture and sports.

That same period, COA noted, president Duterte received confidential, intelligence, extraordinary and miscellaneous funds of:

• P517 million, 2016;

• P2.5 billion, 2017;

• P2.5 billion, 2018;

• P2.5 billion, 2019;

• P4.5 billion, 2020;

• P4.5 billion, 2021;

• P4.5 billion, 2022.

Sara got flak recently from House of Representatives leaders since her requested P650-million confidential fund for 2024 is higher than those of the Coast Guard, Navy and Air Force that defend the West Philippine Sea against Chinese aggression. Hardly funded too are the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, PNP Maritime Command and National Mapping and Resource Information Authority.

Congressmen denounced Sara’s demand of a 450-man brigade-size security from the defense department. As well, her receipt from Malacañang of P221-million extra funds in her first six months as VP, July-December 2022.

Of that amount, P125 million was confidential fund which Sara spent in 11 days in December. That was despite the OVP having no such unaudited fund for 2022 because former VP Leni Robredo didn’t ask for any during budget hearings in late 2021.

Rody Duterte blamed attacks on his daughter on Speaker Martin Romualdez, with whom she supposedly will compete for the presidency in 2028. In a subsequent SMNI telecast he called Congress, where he sat in 1998-2001, as the dirtiest branch of government.

He advised Sara on air to use DepEd’s confidential fund to revive the Reserve Officer Training Corps. But that won’t wash, for two reasons:

• The Senate’s version of ROTC restoration is in the first two years of college. Meaning, it will be under the Commission on Higher Education, not Sara’s DepEd.

• Reviving ROTC in the last two years of high school, as the House version states, will contravene the UN Convention Against Child Soldiers, since military service will be trained at minor ages of 16-17, not 18-above.

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Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.