Philippines Roundup - Corrupt Dictators for Democracy Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit jclancy@smartchat.net.au Wed May 17 18:55:56 2000 [Forgot to mention the reason why this particular president, Estrada, lost his popularity. Unlike Marcos and his immediate family which kept the US supporting billions for themselves, Estrada has finely tuned the idea of nepotism to encompass all relatives and friends and his bloodthirsty police and judges. Someone must have missed out, causing his popularity to slump from 60% to 5%. Such are the dreams of imperialism.--J Clancy] Guardian Weekly, London . April 20 - 26, 2000 PHILIPPINE LEADER'S RULE PLAGUED BY CORRUPTION Actor-turned-president sees his popularity slide from 60% to 5% By John Aglionby in Manila Christine Tan, who lives surrounded by children in a house in a Manila slum, is hardly the archetypal whistle-blower on presidential corruption. But the 69-year-old Catholic nun has generated such public outrage against the Philippines' film star-turned-president, Joseph Estrada, that many Filipinos are arguing over when, not if, a change of power will come. "In a sense it's worse than [Ferdinand] Marcos now," she said, referring to the dictator who ruled the country for 21 Years before being ousted in 1986. "It took Marcos a few years to become really corrupt. Estrada has taken only a few months!" A recent survey shows growing public opprobrium against the 62-year-old "People's champion", who acted in more than 70 films before moving into Politics. When Mr. Estrada took office in 1998 his approval rating was 60%. This month it was 5%. Nepotism and cronyism are proving his downfall. His seven wives (according to estimates), 10 children, and film-star pals have won dubious contracts. Enter Sister Christine, a veteran campaigner against injustice and corruption. Last month she was fired as a director of the Philippine charity sweepstake office. She went public, claiming she was sacked because she refused to approve the disbursement of millions of dollars to foundations controlled by Mr. Estrada, his first lady, his eldest son and other cronies. This furor came hard on the heels of a stock market scandal in which Mr. Estrada was accused of ordering the authorities to back off an insider-dealing investigation involving a company owned by one of his friends, and in which his relations -- and he himself according to many rumours -- had invested vast sums. "Filipinos understand nepotism and corruption, but their tolerance for perfidy only goes so far," said the respected newspaper columnist Conrad Dequiros. This month a number of groups launched the Exclamation Mark Movement, to "demonstrate to Mr. Estrada that he has to either shape up or ship out", Maria Olaguer, one of the conveners, said. Mr. Estrada has not taken the storm lying down. At a meeting of American businesspeople this month he said: "Overall, our economic performance is superior to that of the past two administrations. And yet, in the face of this record, some of my headline-grabbing opponents are asking me to resign!" Hello! The president still controls congress and has the loyalty of his vice president, opposition leader Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Despite rumours of a coup, most people believe the army has been sufficiently depoliticised to make a takeover unlikely. But the situation is changing. "Six months ago I thought there was no possibility of violent transition," Mr. Dequiros said. "Now I just don't know." ********** Sydney Morning Herald . May 8, 2000 PHILIPPINES: Insurgency spirals out of control By Agence France-Presse Manila: A Muslim insurgency has taken a turn for the worse in the southern Philippines after suspected saboteurs blacked out the country's second-largest island, three towns fell under rebel control and civilian captives were threatened with beheading. Government engineers marched off under heavy military escort yesterday to the Mindanao island hinterlands to track the cause of a massive outage which left 16 million people -- a fifth of the national population -- without electricity for several hours on Tuesday Three towns in the area are held by the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). On nearby Basilan island, government negotiators wrestled with a three-week-old hostage crisis ahead of this morning's deadline set by the Abru Sayyaf Muslim extremists who threatened to behead a Catholic priest and other male captives. The state power utility, the National Power Corporation, said sabotage was not being ruled out in the tripping of a transmission line which triggered the Mindanao power failure. The suspected trouble lay in a no-man's land where there has been heavy fighting between the military and the MILF in recent weeks. "The mayors of these municipalities went away" over the past six months, said Lieutenant General Diomedio Villanueva, the military commander of Mindanao, citing the towns of Munai, Matungao and Baloi as having fallen into rebel hands. He said the Philippine flag was still flying outside the town halls, but local civilian authority had evaporated. MILF ranks have grown to about 15,000 fighters over the past year, military officials say. The MILF has made tactical alliances with communist rebels on other areas of the island and has recruited heavily from disaffected former members of a rival separatist faction, the Moro National Liberation Front, which signed a peace treaty with Manila in 1996. A third of the armed forces, about 35,000 soldiers, were deployed in Mindanao and satellite islands to contain the rebellion as President Joseph Estrada tried to keep peace talks alive, said the military chief of staff, General Angelo Reyes. The 21-year-old rebellion spans the western half of Mindanao. ************** Sydney Morning Herald . May 8, 2000 THE PHILIPPINES: Rebels and captives flee bombardment by The Telegraph in London Jolo--Mortar shells slammed into the defence lines of Islamic rebels holding 21 mostly foreign hostages in the southern Philippines yesterday, and the Government said it would consider a rescue raid if the crisis dragged on. One rebel was wounded in the shelling on Jolo island but the hostages were safe, a photographer, who asked not to be named, said after leaving the rebels' hideout. "There were more than five rounds. They fell at a distance of about 500 metres to a kilometre from where the hostages were the cameraman said. It was not clear who had fired the shells. The hostages were abducted from a Malaysian diving resort on April 23 and taken to Jolo, 960 kilometres south of Manila. About 3,000 Muslim fighters from a regional militia began arriving yesterday to join a 2,000-strong military force surrounding the rebels' jungle fair. The cameraman said the Abu Sayyaf guerillas hastily moved their captives deeper into the jungle near Talipao town after the mortar attack started. The cameraman and another journalist said they found the hostages - nine Malaysians, three Germans, two French, two South Africans, two Finns and two Filipinos and a Lebanese "haggard but scared" when they arrived at the rebels' camp during the night A German woman lay on a makeshift stretcher. Talks between government emissaries and rebels broke down last week after troops and guerillas clashed. Officials said they would seek to negotiate the safe release of the hostages if they were treated well but would consider a rescue raid if the crisis dragged on too long. The chief of staff of the armed forces, General Angelo Reyes, said the hostage-takers had not spelled out demands. But the television crew who went to the rebels' hideout said yesterday that the guerillas demanded a new negotiating panel including ambassadors of the hostages, Countries and a representative of the US television network CNN to witness the negotiations. The armed forces and police are facing a surge in violence linked to Muslim separatist militants in the south of the archipelago where the Abu Sayyaf and another, larger group -- the Moro Islamic Liberation Front -- operate. Sixteen people including 13 soldiers were killed yesterday -hen troops clashed with Abu Sayyaf rebels holding mostly Filipino child hostages on Basilan island near Jolo, the military said. At least six Filipino hostages among 29 captured by the Abu Sayyaf two months ago were killed recently on Basilan. Troops found two headless corpses on Saturday, thought to belong to hostages killed by rebels just before soldiers attacked their Basilan base last month. The Abu Sayyaf labels itself a fundamentalist Islamic group seeking to establish a Muslim state in the south of the mostly Catholic Philippines. But analysts say the 1,000-strong group has drifted from its ideological goals since its leader was killed two years ago, and is operating as an armed criminal gang. The group is led by Galib Andang, part international terrorist, part Rambo and full-time amphetamine addict. He is known as "Commander Robot", a nom de guerre thought to have been inspired by the Robocop films. Roy Ramos, a journalist in Zamboanga City, said: "it is impossible to read the mind of someone like Commander Robot. All I can say is that he is very, very dangerous." A military spokesman said: "He is nothing but a bandit and a drug user. They are into extortion and Protection rackets and kidnap, sometimes for big pay days." In the Past few years Galib and his men have kidnapped several times. A government doctor who refused to negotiate found the head of his kidnapped son dumped in a sack at a Petrol station. A bank clerk and an accountant seized two months ago are still unaccounted for. Other ransoms have been paid with minimum publicity. ************** Sydney Morning Herald . May 4, 2000 THE PHILIPPINES: Four hostages die in rescue bid by Reuters Manila--In a wave of violence in the southern Philippines yesterday four Filipino hostages were killed and five others, including children, were wounded in a military operation to rescue a group held captive by Islamic rebels. The Philippine Defence Secretary, Mr. Orlando Mercado, said 10 Filipino hostages, including seven children, from a group of at least 27 were rescued unhurt after clashes between their captors and troops on the island of Basilan. At least four hostages were killed and five, including three children, were wounded, he said, denying earlier reports that 10 hostages may have been killed. "The troops are still looking for the other hostages," Mr. Mercado said. He had no details of any rebel or military casualties in the clash near the town of Lantawan, about 900 kilometres south of Manila. He said earlier he did not know whether the children had been rescued or released. The children were among scores of people abducted by Abu Sayyaf rebels in raids on two high schools on Basilan on March 20. Some were later released but at least 29 hostages, including 22 children, were held captive in a rebel camp on a Basilan hilltop for more than a month. The military attacked the camp about 11 days ago when the Abu Sayyaf said they had executed two male adult hostages. Yesterday's reports came amid a wave of violence in the southern Philippines, with Islamic rebels seizing 100 hostages and launching grenades at an airport, while bombs in a port city killed at least four people. On Jolo Island, at least two men among 21 mostly foreign hostages snatched by Abu Sayyaf rebels from a Malaysian diving resort on Easter Sunday were wounded during a five-hour gun battle with troops on Tuesday night, the chief negotiator seeking their release said. A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf (Father of the Sword) militia had earlier told radio and TV stations that a male Caucasian hostage had been killed by a stray bullet and a Caucasian woman had died of a heart attack. But a government official said all 21 hostages were alive. Mr. Nur Misuari, a former rebel chief designated by Manila to negotiate the release of the people abducted from Malaysia, told reporters two hostages had been wounded during Tuesday's gun battle, but both were alive. Mr. Misuari said an emissasy of his was in the rebel camp discussing the guerillas' demands when the gun battle started. "He escaped unscathed and he said that this was the best he could say -- when he left, two were wounded," Mr Misuari said. Their identities were not known. Two groups -- the Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front -- are fighting for Muslim self-rule in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines. Moro guerillas hit the airport and a military camp near the city of Cotabato, 900 kilometres southwest of Manila, with grenades yesterday, but caused no serious damage or casualties, Major-General Gregorio Camiling, the senior officer in the area, said. Rebel units also took over large stretches of a highway near Cotabato and were holding 100 people from vehicles they had seized, radio reports said, But a Moro spokesman said the group did not intend to hold the hostages. The mayor of General Santos, Mr. Adelbert Antonino, said that four people had been killed and about 30 wounded in four blasts in the largely Christian City. The explosions occurred within minutes of each other around lunchtime at the city hall, a public market and the nearby port. ************ Jolo--A multinational hostage crisis entered its second week yesterday with the chief government negotiator threatening to walk out as extremist Muslim guerillas repeated their threat to behead the 21 people seized from a Malaysian island resort. At the same time Philippine troops who stormed the rebel group's base on another Philippine island, Basilan, were unable to find a separate group of 27 hostages, including many children, who have been held for six weeks. On Sulu Island, the kidnappers, members of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group, presented a fist of demands for the release of the 21 hostages, almost half of whom are foreign tourists. They demanded a return of barter trading to the southern Philippines, a ban on large fishing boats to protect local fishermen, and full implementation of a 1976 agreement that provided for a 13- province Muslim autonomous region, a go-between said. Mr. Nur Misuari, a former Muslim rebel leader who has been appointed by President Joseph Estrada to negotiate for the hostages' release, said the kidnappers appeared to be split over whether to accept him as a negotiator. "There should be unanimity in their leadership to accept my mission," he said in nearby Zamboanga City, "or else I will not proceed with the negotiations." A rebel spokesman had said on Friday that the group did not want to deal with Mr. Misuari, and threatened to behead some of its foreign captives if he was not replaced with government representatives of the foreign hostages. Malaysia sent medicine, and France, Germany and Finland were arranging to supply food, medicine and clothing to their citizens held captive in dire conditions in the hinterlands of the southern Philippine island. The hostage group also includes nationals from South Africa, Lebanon and the Philippines. The tourists and resort workers were snatched from the Malaysia, diving resort of Sipadan on Easter Sunday by the Abu Sayyaf, who brought them across the border. The small rebel group is waging a campaign to set up a separate state in the southern Philippines. An Abu Sayyaf spokesman had told a radio station that the group would begin beheading the captives within a few days unless the military lifted the siege of the kidnappers on Basilan, 80 kilometres northeast of Sulu. The Government rejected the demand. After Government troops on Basilan seized control of the Abu Sayyaf base they found no sign of the 27 hostages. Officials said the captives were probably being held in two outlying bunkers in the densely forested camp. The military overran most of the camp on Friday, with 10 soldiers killed and 59 wounded in the weeklong battle. The rebels said they had escaped into the jungle with all their captives. In Jolo, a Filipino journalist taken by the kidnappers to their other camp said the hostages were hungry, dehydrated and "too weak to move". Meanwhile, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the larger of the two Muslim groups fighting for an Islamic state in the south, yesterday suspended peace talks indefinitely with the Government because of what it said were military assaults on rebel camps, including its headquarters. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytpac-05.18.00-12:55:18-8802