THEIR IGNORANCE IS CULPRIT

By Philip M. Lustre

Obviously , the digoons (I will use the lower case to refer to the rabid, fanatic supporters of the sick old man of the South) were outsmarted by Time. I don't think Time intended it. It was more of a function - or consequence - of the digoons' ignorance. 

Time has a global market to meet. The Philippines is a small market for them. They know and understand that Filipinos are not a reading people. Their revenues (sales of printed copies and advertising income) in the Philippines have been not that high compared to bigger markets like North America and Europe.

The digoons' problem stems (I prefer to use the present tense) from their ignorance of the operations and dynamics of the newspaper business. They may have generated some savvy in nontraditional media, particularly social media, because of their ability to produce troll accounts and engage in bot operations to reflect am inordinate quantitative interest on their troll operations. 

But traditional media is different.Very, very different indeed.

Now let me engage into some lectures. In journalism school, I use to tell students that there's such thing as newsroom management. Those news accounts and feature stories that normally appear on the pages of print media materials like newspapers, newsmagazines, and magazines usually undergo some processes. 

The publishing processes are different from the social media processes. They are more rigorous. They are products of centuries of traditions. They do not appear as whimsical as one could imagine as in other media platforms like social media. 

Traditional media like print media have sets of professionals, who work in news publishing: the writers, the editors, who function as gatekeepers too, and the logistic officers, who provide the resources necessary for smooth news gathering, news writing, news editing, and news publishing. They comprise the editorial arm, or half of the print media business.

The other half is the business arm. They are distinct and different from the editorial arm. This is comprised of the revenue guys. The advertising people bring as much as advertising revenues for the publications. They go out and solicit ads from industries, governments, civil society, and other entities that would place advertisements of the publication's pages and pay. 

The circulation people sell the printed copies and bring in revenues. Hence, the business side ensures revenues and income that could propel the business operations of a publication.

As a rule, the editorial and business arms of any publication operate as separate republics. One does not dictate on the other. But they talk and coordinate. 

The business arm could tell the editorial side what the market want. The editorial side could inform the business arm on the thrust of the editorial contents of the publication. The editorial side does not have to seek the permission of the business side when it comes its editorial judgment. Neither do the editorial side interferes in the business judgments of the other side. 

These are the dynamics in the print media. Such dynamics are products of centuries of traditions.

Little did the digoons understand that the polls called by Time were not initiated by its editorial department. It came mainly from the business people, whose intention was to create a hype on its project on 100 most influential people in the world. 

The polls were launched to create some hype to boost sales of printed copies and generate advertising revenues. The polls were a marketing ploy, which the digoons took hook, line, and sinker without understanding their ramifications, implications, and complications. 

They wrongly thought that by joining the polls and making the sick old man from the south the first in the polls, their idol would land on the cover of Time magazine. Wrong. Their limited mind hardly understands the dynamics in print media. They are grossly ignorant of its operations and dynamics.

As a rule, Time's editorial department does not hold such kind of polls, which are unscientific and crude by all means. If ever it does, it would likely commission a credible polling institution to do an equally credible opinion poll. 

Editorial people do not resort to popularity contests. On the contrary, they abhor those things, knowing that they could yield unfavorable results. 

Hence, the digoons were surprised to find that the sick old man was just one of the 100. He was not on the cover page. The devastating fact for them was that Sen. Leila De Lima, their idol's nemesis, was listed as another influential leader - and in a different category: Icons. 

They could not believe it. They were mad. Now, they are calling for a boycott of Time. Who have the last laugh? Your guess is as good as mine.

What had happened to the Time's polls. Actually, they were no polls by standards of social research. They were just inquiries.. The hard copies of their results most likely ended in the filing cabinet for future use or whatever. The polls could have been hyped, but they were of very little use. In hindsight, which is always 20/20, the digoons were used.

WRONG JOURNALISM

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

This is an experience I’ve almost forgotten. I was about to consign it to oblivion, when I felt that the current situation required me to narrate it once more, if only for its latent wisdom.

Nearly five months ago, I attended a media forum and workshop, where participants were some journalism students from a downtown university, while the rest were a mixture of working journalists. The moderator, a seasoned journalist, who had worked in local dailies and now a journalism teacher in one of the better universities, opened the workshop by asking participants, particularly the students, their assessment of the current state of Philippine media.

A student in his early 20s immediately responded by declaring his frustration over what he described as the nature of new coverage. It’s too one-sided, he declared, but not to favor the current administration, which, at that time, was gaining international notoriety and condemnation for the growing spate of extrajudicial killings (EJKs).

We were mostly inclined to accept his diatribes because it was his right to express his mind. But what surprised us was his sweeping generalization that the perceived lack of fairness to favor the government was caused by the machinations of what he termed as “dilawan,” or “yellow forces” in local mass media. He did not offer any proof. It was just one sweeping statement to reflect the thinking of many people, who support the incumbent president and his violent antidrug war, which is now being perceived as a war against the poor, or those people "with a pair of dirty feet."  

Not a few quizzical brows went up by such daring, sweeping generalization. It did not escape my attention either. As a journalist and teacher, I had to do my share to disabuse what I considered the student’s poisoned mind.  I did my share to explain. I spoke out of my commitment to truth.

Journalism has three basic tenets, I said. These are truth, balance, and objectivity, or fairness. Every journalism student should understand those basic tenets because everything revolves on these tenets, I said.

Truth is the journalist’s fundamental commodity, as he goes out and competes in the marketplace of ideas, I said. Of course, I express my indignation at the sweeping generalization that if the news reports did not conform to his mindset, it was yellow and should be condemned.

Then, I went to explain media’s role as society’s watchdog. Mass media’s role is to report the truth. It works without an agenda. If ever it works to favor certain parties, then it becomes a propaganda machine, I said. It was my way to inculcate into the young man’s mind that mass media should not be a propaganda machine of the party in power.

As I explained mass media’s role, I could not help but take a dig on the kind of journalism education he was getting from the downtown university, the owners of which are known supporters of the incumbent president, and, of course, his teachers. Then, I summed p my discussions by telling him that mass media functions basically "to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted."

I could not help but frame my statement with the clarifying premise, saying “I don’t know what your teachers taught you in school and I don’t have any personal knowledge, but if I were your teacher, I would tell you … blah … blah … blah.”

Actually, I viewed the poor student as victim of prevalent mind-conditioning - or even mind-poisoning - that emanates from a growing culture of populism, where every issue should be settled by taking a short cut instead of engaging in the circuitous route premised on the twin principles of rule of law and due process.

The student hardly spoke as I explained the rudiments of journalism, which his teachers apparently deprived him in journalism school. I did not have to engage in any sophisticated discussions of the issue. I just stuck to the fundamentals.

Incidentally, it has been a habit among the president's rabid supporters to blame everything to the "yellow forces," which, at this point, have become some sort of a phantom enemy. 

If they were referring to the Liberal Party (LP), they should at the very least know that the LP has been emasculated by mass defections to the ruling PDP-Laban and the "Super Majority" in Congress.

Blaming everything to the Yellows is easy. It is the product of a lazy mind. Engaging in that sweeping accusation is a function of monumental ignorance and stupidity. 

'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN’ COUP PLOT

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

After the historic 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, the fundamental question: Should the reform movement in the Armed Forces continue or should it cease its existence?

Two schools of thought dominated the military establishment. The military leadership under then Gen. Fidel Ramos, the AFP chief of staff after deposed Gen. Fabian Ver, wanted an end not just to the reform movement, but also to other fraternity organizations within the AFP. 

But the younger officers wanted a continuation of the reform movement. They even believed that Ramos should head it, although the latter politely rejected their overtures.

A commission, which President Cory Aquino formed in 1990 to study the series of military coups and rebels under her government, said that many officers belonging to the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) believed that RAM should be dismantled because its objectives had been achieved after the EDSA Revolution.

But the commission headed by Hilarion Davide Jr., who later became the Supreme Court chief justice, also found out a faction of reformist solders, led by Col. Gregorio Honasan, wanted to continue the movement, giving rise to the RAM-Honasan faction.

The policy differences between Cory Aquino and defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile became public. Enrile kept on criticizing the Aquino government’s initiatives to start peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political arm of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Enrile also assailed publicly what he perceived as kid glove treatment to communist rebels.

In what appeared to be her way to appease a subordinate, Cory Aquino even had a dialog with Enrile at the house of a common friend, University of the Philippines president Edgardo Angara, at Dasmarinas Village, which happens to be a stone’s throw away from Enrile’s.

The dialog, which was widely chronicled by journalists and scholars, resulted in JPE’s enumeration of what looked like the grievances of his faction and their demands: a hardline counterinsurgency policy; dismissal of alleged left-wing members of the Aquino Cabinet, including Joker Arroyo and his faction composed of Augusto Sanchez, Teodoro Locsin Jr., Rene Saguisag, among others; the termination of the “Freedom Constitution” that governed the Aquino’s “revolutionary government” and the drafting of a new constitution to replace the 1973 Constitution; and the dismissal of “incompetent” nd "undeserving" officers-in-charge (OICs), who replaced local officials under the Ferdinand Marcos regime.

Although Cory Aquino took recognition of those demands, it took her several months before she acted on them. The long wait took its toll on the reformist bloc, which, at that time, was being transformed into a putchist faction. It joined Enrile, becoming his virtual military arm, or private army, depending on which point of view.

The series of 1986 meetings among leaders of the reformist bloc, reputedly led by Enrile’s security men at the Ministry of National Defense, culminated on the crystallization of a military putsch, codenamed “God Save the Queen,” a reputed “surgical operation” to cleanse the Aquino government of what they considered left-leaning elements.

Enrile was reportedly among its leaders. Maj. General Rodolfo Canieso reported to the Davide Commission that no less than Enrile told him that something had to happen “to take back the power of the presidency the military gave her.” This was the Enrile's "monster attitude," which was widely criticized even within the military establishment.

But what was unique about the God Save the Queen coup was that the leaders treated it casually. Even Enrile announced that it would be launched on Nov. 11, 1986 in a manner as if he was announcing the next twinbill PBA basketball games at Ultra Gym, or a beauty contest in a barangay.

A week before its launch, Enrile met several military generals, including the heads of the four major commands, and sweet talked them to join the coup plot, but the generals merely said they would stay neutral. It was their way to rebuff him. 

It was also learned that the Enrile faction had forged a tactical alliance with the military faction identified with Marcos and Ver, raising speculations that the two factions would raise joint attacks against major government installations and media outfits.

Although Enrile failed to get their support, his faction continued to float that the coup was rescheduled to take place on Nov. 23. As casual as that, raising criticisms even from other military leaders like Philippine Military Academy superintendent Brig. Gen. Rodolfo Biazon that such “surgical operations” would lead the country to nowhere but to heightened fratricidal war among Filipinos.

Despite the widespread public perception that the Enrile military faction were up for something big, Cory Aquino continued her trip to Japan, a four-day state visit which was earlier planned to fix the Philippine-Japan bilateral relations adversely affected by the Marcos dictatorial rule. She left Manila on Nov. 10, 1986 but with the statement that she would deal with any “military action by the misguided elements.”

I was a young reporter, who had rejoined the local media after the EDSA Revolution. I joined the Cory Aquino state visit as part of her media party. I covered her state visit for the ill-fated Philippine Tribune, which was set up jointly in March, 1986 by Pat Gonzales, who used to work in the Bulletin Today of Gen. Hans Menzi, and Neal Cruz, who worked in the Roberto Benedicto-owned Daily Express.

It was a successful trip as Cory Aquino succeeded in the rescheduling of the repayment of the country's overdue foreign debts with Japan and their eventual restructuring. Also, she succeeded to get new loan packages and bilateral assistance in what appeared to be Tokyo's way to establish rapport with her new government.

While in Tokyo, the media team could feel the coup jitters, although Cory Aquino’s media handlers kept on advising us on a daily basis that the situation in Manila was under control, as the President kept in touch on a daily basis with her Cabinet. We returned home on Nov. 15 without any untoward incident.

Days after her return from Tokyo, the country was shocked when it learned that the lifeless body of leftwing labor leader Rolando Olalia was dumped in Antipolo. Initial suspects were certain RAM members. It was later alleged that Olalia was a victim of torture and summary execution. His death was part of the perceived destabilization plan of the Enrile military faction, which did not like Mrs. Aquino’s initiatives.

It was on the night of Nov. 22, 1986 that the God Save the Queen plot was about to reach its climax. The military leadership under Gen. Ramos had monitored what it described as unauthorized troop movements from some parts of Luzon, prompting the military leaders to meet to take last-minute steps to defuse the tension.

The first group that was neutralized was the Guardian Brotherhood, Inc., a military fraternity organization that was reportedly involved in the earlier but comical Manila Hotel occupation. Ramos sought Enrile but he was unreachable on that night, prompting him to send PC-INP chief Lt. Gen. Renato de Villa to seek out for Col. Gregorio Honasan and his alleged co-conspirators for a dialog.

But when de Villa sensed, in his meeting on the early morning of Nov. 23 with Navy Captain Felix Turingan and Major Noe Wong, the RAM-Marcos loyalist factions would proceed with the planned God Save the Queen plot, Ramos took his ace in his sleeve and send the pivotal radio message that forever changed the complexity of the military establishment. Shortly before 2 am, which was supposed to be jumpoff point, Ramos said:

“The New AFP stands behind the present government of President Aquino having been elected and installed by the people and whose government is recognized by the international community. The Joint Staff and four Major Service Commanders and INP are together with General Ramos in this undertaking. We must not betray our country and people. Inform your governors and local executives to help maintain calm and stability in your [area of responsibility]. Disregard any orders from MND or Col. Honasan and MND staff.”

Ramos’s directive broke the impasse. Up to the last minute, Enrile was hoping Ramos and the military commanders would join him and his faction in the planned God Save the Queen plot. Ramos, on the other hand, was hoping that Enrile and his group would change their mind and rejoin the coalition. But up to the last minute, the two main players in the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution did not know they would soon part ways.

Ramos effectively shackled the coup plotters, as those military leaders, who were supposed to join the coup, failed to leave their camps to implement their plans. In brief, the military units, which were to join the coup, did not arrive, leaving Honasan and his group with no military units to deploy.

By 3 am, the military units returned to their barracks. As a result of this plot, Cory Aquino fired Enrile as defense chief and replaced him with Rafael Ileto, a veteran soldier who created the elite Scout Rangers unit of the Philippine Army. Ileto later dissolved the MND security unit and transferred its leaders to various parts of the country.

But it was a temporary victory for the Aquino government. With Enrile and Ramos out of the picture, the coup plotters had to recast their plan. It was a totally different ball game for the next series of military coups against the fledgling Aquino government.

A POST-DUTERTE AGENDA

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

Now, the question: What is the post-Duterte era agenda?

President Rodrigo Duterte himself has cultivated discussions of what has to be done in the event he is no longer the president. This issue has assumed importance, when he had admitted publicly that he was afflicted with certain illnesses and that he could probably die and fail to complete his six-year term of office.

Talks of his failing health were somehow exacerbated by public admission that he was taking Fentanyl, a powerful drug administered to cancer patients to ease physical pain. Moreover, he was pointing to either Vice President Leni Robredo or former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as replacement.

Moreover, his failure to engage in any public appearance for the first week of 2017 had reinforced further widespread beliefs that he could be sick or suffering from an ailment that has prevented him to go public. Moreover, he was reported to have quietly sought treatment in an anti-cancer hospital in Guanzhou, China, triggering further discussions on the state of his health..

Let’s discuss the premises before going to the subject matter.

Succession mechanism

Article 6, Section 8 of the 1987 Constitution provides the succession mechanism:

“In case of death, permanent disability, removal from office, or resignation of the President, the Vice-President shall become the President to serve the unexpired term. In case of death, permanent disability, removal from office, or resignation of both the President and Vice-President, the President of the Senate or, in case of his inability, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, shall then act as President until the President or Vice-President shall have been elected and qualified.”

Although the 1987 Constitution clearly says the vice president takes if ever the president dies or suffers permanent disability, this constitutional provision has many gray areas too. It does not specify ways to declare the president’s permanent disability. It does not say which person or institution could declare him as permanently disabled.

Ecuadorean experience

But the country could be guided by precedents in other nations, particularly Ecuador, a medium-sized nation of 15 million people in South America.

On February 6, 1997, its Congress did the unprecedented by declaring Abdala Bucaram Ortiz as “mentally unfit,” replacing him with the vice president, and forcing him to seek asylum in Panama. The congressional initiative was swift and decisive as Bucaram, son of Lebanese immigrants, was president for only seven months. He was popularly elected in 1996, winning 21 of Ecuador’s 22 provinces.

Although the economic issues that bedeviled his presidency were factors for his dismissal, his series of comedic acts led the Ecuadorean Congress to dismiss him. Bucaram was perceived a mad man; he branded himself as “el loco” (crazy guy). In fact, when the Ecuadorean economy plummeted, Bucaram diverted the Ecuadoreans’ attention and did what he thought was best – by being himself.

He did not just cultivate his public image of an iconoclast, who challenged authorities and traditions, but overplayed it to become comic, who sought to entertain the Ecuadoreans, who, at that time, felt the economic pressures and were becoming dismayed by his lack of leadership. Amid the scandals and corruption charges, Bucaram released CD copies of his music entitled “A Crazy Man Who Loves” (“El Loco Que Ama” in Spanish). He shaved off his trademark moustache on live TV and later adopted the clipped moustache of Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler.

Bucaram invited for lunch Lorena Bobbitt, the Ecuadorian American who gained notoriety for castrating her husband. He attended the World Banana Queen contest in Quito, grabbed the microphone and sang, as he was surrounded by scantily clad contestants. Bucaram mocked an ex-president by comparing him to a donkey. When asked for a public apology, Bucaram obliged but he did it to the donkeys.

The air of negativity and hatred that pervaded his presidency culminated in his dismissal, triggering a precedent that has become a new model for the rest of the world. Despite his tragic political fate, Bucaram managed to give the quote of all time: “They call me ‘Crazy Abdalá’, but madmen speak from the heart and see with their soul.”

It is inconceivable how the Philippine Congress would react just in case the President’s health declines to the point of permanent disability, rendering him incapable to discharge his functions as chief executive. In the absence of any enabling law on the constitutional provision on succession, it is likely that any act of Congress to declare him as permanently disabled could be challenged before the Supreme Court.

Extra-constitutional means

The emerging democracy movement could trigger new political upheavals, as democratic forces go to the streets anew to counter the authoritarian tendencies and the political forces that represent them. In its view, the current political leadership, as represented by Duterte and the PDP-Laban, is in alliance with political forces and families that represent and pursue an authoritarian agenda – the Arroyos and the Marcoses.

Depending on the political alliances and strength it could muster and its ability to address the burning issues, including the unabated extra judicial killings (EJKs), the democracy movement, as represented by various political forces that adhere to the restored democracy, could pose the biggest challenge to the Duterte government. It could trigger political upheavals that could lead to his removal from office.

This year could be a watershed year for Philippine democracy. Aside from impending death or permanent disability, at least three major political events, or their combination, have been identified as trigger mechanisms for a change of political leadership. These are: resignations of key Cabinet members; declaration of permanent disability by Congress; and withdrawal of support by the Armed Forces.

Coupled by the rising tide of political activism to be led by the pro-democracy movement composed mostly of millennials and the emergence of Vice President Leni Robredo as the new icon of democracy, the initiatives from the Executive Department, Congress, and the Armed Forces could lead to a political crisis of unimaginable proportions. It could later lead to the collapse of the government and its replacement by a new one.

New democratic agenda

The new democratic agenda in a post-Duterte era could mean the pursuit of the following:

1.      Creation of a new commission to investigate the spate of extrajudicial killings, identify the responsible people, and recommend their criminal prosecution and other moves to prevent their escape from the bar of justice;

2.    Redirection of the country’s foreign policy to acknowledge, adhere, and implement those international and bilateral agreements, of which the Philippines is a signatory, and other binding decisions by international bodies;

3.    Redirection of the anti-drug war to complete adherence to the rule of law and due process, complete rejection of EJKs and other means regarded as fascistic, and reeducation of all law enforcement agencies on democratic ideals; and

4.    Reeducation of the Filipino people on the contending ideals and values the forces of democracy and authoritarianism represent.

The new post-Duterte era government could also work on the following objectives:

1.      A new offensive on economic diplomacy to regain the economic losses, which include foreign entities that have withheld their participation and entry into the Philippine market;

2.    Reinstitution of the anti-corruption campaign of the Aquino administration and re-imposition of the anti-corruption values and ideals that have been sidelined by the unrestrained focus on the anti-drug war;

3.    Reorganization of the entire government to erase all vestiges of authoritarianism and the values its represents;

4.    Pursuit of a foreign relations offensive to regain support of major allies like the United States and European Union without prejudice to moves to strength of ties with China and Russia;

5.     Pursuit of a new campaign to “demarcosify” Philippine society by explaining to the Filipino people the Marcos legacy, which includes massive human rights violations, crony capitalism, and massive plunder of the national coffers.

INTRODUCING JOSE MANUEL I. DIOKNO, LAWYER OF SEN. LEILA DE LIMA

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

Jose Manuel Diokno, lawyer of embattled Sen. Leila de Lelima,  was thirteen years old when he started joining his father Jose, the illustrious lawmaker, human rights advocate, and nationalist, in court hearings of the latter’s clients, mostly political activists and poor citizens.

Jose Manuel, or Chel, sat at the back of his father, watching the courtroom drama and listening to vigorous exchanges of arguments among litigating lawyers, or absorbing depressing testimonies from respondents.

Chel Diokno did not see the world winking at him as a pubescent kid. On the contrary, he saw a world of oppression and destitution. This education in his formative years proved pivotal in his career choice.

It did not take long for Chel Diokno to help his father in the latter’s law practice, mainly for pro bono clients.

Soon, the pubescent paralegal visited various jails, conducted interviews with jailed clients and witnesses, prepared and wrote their testimonies as background materials, and helped his father in building up cases for them.

Even his father was surprised on his extraordinary enthusiasm.

No, the former senator never thought Chel would become a lawyer someday. Neither did he encourage the kid to take up law. Nor did he give any financial reward for his self starting kid.

This happened at the height of the repressive martial law, or soon after the dictator Ferdinand Marcos released his father from nearly two years of imprisonment.

That was the time, when the nation was silenced into submission by the spate of arrests and detention of the dictator’s political enemies, whom the autocrat collectively labelled as “enemies of the State.”

After completing his undergraduate course at the University of the Philippines, Chel Diokno entered the UP College of Law with the resolve to follow his father’s footsteps to become not just an ordinary lawyer, but a human rights lawyer too.

He was already in law school, when the 1983 assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. shook the world for its noontime drama and naked display of power.

Apprehensive that his son would be involved in the unmitigated political dynamics of those days, Ka Pepe sent Chel to the United States to finish his law degree there.

He did it at the Northern Illinois University. Soon, he passed the U.S. Bar examinations. He returned to the country after the fateful 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution that toppled the oppressive Marcos dictatorship.

Chel Diokno passed the Bar examinations here and attended to his father, whose health was already failing during those days.

Despite completing his law degree in the U.S., Chel said he passed the local Bar examinations because the two countries have basically the same legal principles.

After his father’s death in 1987, Chel took over his father’s law office and did litigation works, mostly human rights cases.

While Chel appears low key compared to his outspoken father, who never hesitated to speak out his mind on every burning issue of the day, he does not lack the intensity or the passion to push for his human rights agenda.

Soon, he is deep into human rights, an advocacy which he feels proud to inherit from his father.

De La Salle University, of which Ka Pepe was one of its outstanding alumni, offered Chel Diokno to become the founding dean of its law school in 2010.

According to Chel, the De La Salle brothers urged him to form a law school with a strong foundation on human rights. It was an offer which was difficult to refuse.

Under his leadership as its founding law dean, the law school has come out with a curriculum that seeks to develop the litigation skills of prospective lawyers.

Veering away from the other law schools’ emphasis on book knowledge, the new law school seeks to develop legal writing skills among their students.

Also, their students, upon reaching third year, have to provide mandatory legal aid services to poor litigants. This is part of their on-the-job training, Chel said.

DLSU is the first law school to do it. Moreover, DLSU law students can choose to major in any of the three areas: human rights law, corporation law; and environmental law.

Chel Diokno said he accepted the post of a law dean, when the DLSU brothers had assured him a free hand to develop its law curriculum.

In fact, they told him they wanted a law school deeply oriented in human rights. He said he has specific instructions to develop a law school with a strong sense of values and ethics.

It has been a challenge, which, like a typical passionate yet compassionate Chel Diokno, would never run away.

POSTSCRIPT TO EDSA REVOLUTION: MILITARY UPRISING BREEDS POWERFUL REFORMIST BLOC, HISTORICAL REVISIONS

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

(N. B. I wrote this article exactly three years ago mainly to present a perspective on the aftermath of the historic 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. Actually, attempts to revise our history is not new. It has been a secret cottage industry in our country. Please read.) 

THE transition to constitutional democracy from dictatorship, which Ferdinand Marcos euphemistically called “constitutional authoritarianism,” did not happen smoothly.

The reformist faction in the Armed Forces of the Philippines had developed into a bloc that put obstacles for a smooth transition.

Because of its role in the historic and bloodless uprising that dismantled the Marcos dictatorship, the reformist bloc, or the Reform the Armed Forces, or RAM, had emerged to exercise veto power in the new Cory Aquino – Doy Laurel power bloc.

It became a bloc within a bloc in the power structure.

Amid the public euphoria that followed the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, which has become a template for nonviolent, bloodless uprisings to topple dictatorships, reformist military leaders became celebrities.

Within the power structure, reformist leaders provided opinions to form part of the inputs in decision-making.

The reformist bloc, once a secret group of soldiers engaged in surreptitious coup plots, emerged powerful. Its offices at the back of the Ministry of National Defense building in Camp Aguinaldo became the seat and symbol of its power and influence.

But the reformist bloc had developed what could be described a “monster attitude," believing that since it was instrumental in putting Mrs. Aquino to power, it had the “right” to take it back.

In the ensuing incessant squabbling and power struggle, Cory Aquino had to argue that it was the people, who put her in power, not the reformist bloc.

She had to clarify countless times that her power - or mandate - did not come from the results of the inconclusive Feb. 7 “snap” presidential elections or the reformist-led but ill-fated anti-Marcos, RAM-led coup d’etat, which did not push through, but from the nonviolent, people-backed military uprising (not the reformist bloc’s alone), or the EDSA People Power Revolution.

The people shouted her name, not just Juan Ponce Enrile's and Fidel Ramos’s. They did not object when she took her oath of office as president towards the end of the fateful four-day EDSA Revolution.

Even Enrile and Ramos admitted that Cory Aquino was the legitimate winner in the “snap” polls. It was the reason their faction committed to support her presidency.

Even Enrile admitted that before he and Ramos attended Cory Aquino’s oathtaking at Club Filipino, he had to refuse the last minute but desperate efforts by Marcos to strike a deal to create a military-backed junta.

Instead he worked to facilitate instead Cory Aquino’s ascendancy to power. “She is the legitimate president,” he said.

In short, Cory Aquino’s assumption to power was not a product of negotiations by self proclaimed power brokers. Neither did she become president because something fluke happened.

She had to assert every now and then that it was a mandate given her by the sovereign people in a bloodless military uprising which, until now, continues to fascinate not just a few nations, but the whole world as well.

It has been a cause for extreme annoyance that certain quarters have been coming out lately with revisions of the EDSA Revolution.

Although their exact motives remain unclear, they have been trying to inject details that distort the EDSA Revolution, as if it did not exactly mean to empower Cory Aquino.

Why they keep on spewing those unverifiable details late in the day, when major political players are either dead or senile, is a matter of conjecture.

By the way, the sources of those loose talks remain hidden from the public view.

One of the recent revisions – or outright distortion – came from a newspaper columnist, who alleged that it was agreed in a meeting between the Cory and her group and Enrile and Ramos on day three of the EDSA Revolution that she would be president for a maximum of two years, after which she would give way to a new government and constitution.

As told by some revisionists, Cory Aquino, as transition president for two years, would just oversee the dismantling of the dictatorial structures, after which she would give way to a restored democracy to be headed by a new president.

As if to give some importance to a not-so-important figure, the revisionists peddled the line that everything changed when Cory Aquino listened to Peping Cojuangco.

It was a subtle way to promote the discredited line that Cory was naive to listen to brother Peping, who was never reputed to possess political brilliance.

Because Cory listened to Peping, she stayed in power for the next six years, so the thinking goes. This is an outright lie.

As a journalist, I covered the political beat for quite a while. But I did not hear that canard that she would be a transition president for two years.

Had those political players reached an agreement for a transition president with a fixed two-year term limit, I would assume they would put that agreement into writing with all the parties affixing their signatures to the veracity and authenticity of that accord.

But after all those years, I have yet to see any written pact – fake or genuine. The fact that it has come out too late in the day gives the impression that it was more an afterthought, or a wish, but never a fact, or a historical reality.

Had the political players reached that accord, I would candidly say that the reformist bloc would not lead or take active part in the series of bloody military coups that followed the EDSA Revolution.

Instead, their leaders would just wait for the alleged two-year transition period to end and cast its luck in the next elections.

I do not see any reason for the military reformers to alter unnecessarily the political equation and gamble away the lives of their leaders, members, and valuable resources.

Moreover, I did not hear Enrile or any of those reformers invoking this two-year transition presidency during or even after Cory Aquino’s six-year tenure of office. Enrile, noted for his ferocity in public debates, would surely invoke the two-year transition.

But he never did it for the simple reason that it never existed at all. The reformist bloc, in a display of its newfound power, opted to launch a series of debilitating coups, plunging the country into instability.

Historical revisionism is a bane that affects not just third world countries like ours but even established democracies. Until now, Germany has its band of historical revisionists, who mock historical realities and instead present historical distortions or misinterpretations as alternatives.

The Holocaust, which killed nearly six million Jews, for instance, is a case in point. For those revisionists, the Holocaust did not happen at all. 

Adolf Hitler was not a rabid anti-Semitic dictator, but a saint, according to those revisionists. They have been aptly rejected. Even Germans take them as crackpots.

How shall we treat those revisionists? It’s simple. All we have to do is to ignore them completely and treat them as if they do not exist. Let them grow tired. Let them dissipate their resources.

When ignored, they would just leave us alone. No buts, ifs, and whys... or even why nots...

THE GENIUS OF CARDINAL SIN

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

When ranged against those dime-a-dozen Catholic and non-Catholic prelates and ministers dabbling in Philippine politics, the late Jaime Cardinal Sin casts an incomparable shadow to the extent that not one of them would approximate his greatness.

These current-day religious leaders are many times inferior to Sin, who showed to the world how a religious leader could influence a poor, deeply polarized society.

Sin was a genius; although a religious leader, Sin knew his politics. He was at the right place at the right time, as he spoke with unmatchable firmness that even dictator Ferdinand Marcos could not ignore.

He was not as theologically brilliant as his contemporaries like Popes Francis, Benedict XVI, or John Paul II, but he proved to be the biggest thorn of the Marcos dictatorship, which the Catholic prelate viewed with disdain.

Sin’s unparalleled contributions, specifically the country’s return to democracy from dictatorship, had stemmed from two factors: the policy of “critical collaboration,” which he pursued without letup during his prelature at the Archdiocese of Manila, the biggest in the country, and his unquestionable integrity.

When he became the Archbishop of Manila in 1974, Sin laid out his policy of critical collaboration, where he expressed his desire for the Church to peacefully coexist with the Marcos dictatorship but reserve its right to criticize the many issues like wanton human rights violations and its perpetuation in power without any semblance of legitimacy.

Sin’s critical collaboration policy was carefully couched along euphemistic and pragmatic terms. But, as history show, his policy was largely criticism than collaboration.

Although it was not new and since he borrowed it from his colleagues in South America, who had troubles with dictatorial regimes there, Sin effectively used this policy. Marcos was never comfortable with him and the Church policy.

The dictator used every means to co-opt Sin to his side, but the Manila prelate never gave him the satisfaction to support his dictatorship. It was a tantalizing success, as shown by the dictator’s dramatic ouster in the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution.

I once covered a meeting of the Rotary Club of Manila, where Sin spoke as its guest speaker. Before those businessmen, Sin uttered a pronouncement that shook Marcos.

“It is the Church, which would sound the bell for their doom,” Sin in what was his way to denounce the dictatorship. That was in 1983, or weeks after the August 21, 1983 assassination of martyred Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr.

Sin was also credited for brokering the Cory Aquino – Doy Laurel ticket that gave Marcos the political nightmare in 1986.

Without Sin working on the background for the Cory-Doy ticket, Marcos could have won handily in 1986 “snap” presidential elections, as Doy Laurel was bent to run as the third presidential candidate to weaken Cory’s chances as the opposition candidate to face Marcos.

Sin’s sense of perfect timing, or the ability to discern when to speak the right things at the right time, was tested during the nascent stage of the EDSA Revolution in 1986.

Without Sin’s urgent call for the Filipino people to go and support the rebel forces led by Johnny Enrile and Fidel Ramos, it would be inconceivable if the world would ever witness the near bloodless EDSA People Power Revolution. Most likely, Marcos could have obliterated the rebel forces holed in Camps Aguinaldo and Crame.

Without Sin’s frantic call for the people to express their solidarity with the rebel forces, the military uprising at EDSA could have been a mere footnote in history.

Sin’s call was decisive to allow the people to participate in what could be described as the biggest political upheaval in the country’s modern history.

Sin’s attraction as a political player deeply respected by every political leader stemmed deeply from his unquestioned sense of integrity.

No, he never kowtowed to Marcos in exchange for some pieces of gold or silver. No, he was never sweet with Imelda, who represented the other half of the conjugal dictatorship. Sin was never part of the dictatorship, but instead chose to fight it.

He was far different from those noisy bishops, who practically sold their souls to the devil in exchange for Mitsubishi vehicles. Sin did his way quietly, but effectively.