Mukha Mukasey; implications for the Philippines

The Democrats, because of attorney-general-nominee Mukasey's amiable face, are inclined to confirm him, except for this one fly in the ointment: Mukasey refuses to say whether waterboarding constitutes torture.
In a previous post, I pointed out that a senate Democrat mentioned the case of a US soldier who was prosecuted for using waterboarding on a Filipino insurgent. The effect of the method is to make the captive feel he is drowning. Now, if that is not torture, I don't know what is.
In his speech at the Heritage Foundation yesterday, George W. explained his tortured logic why Congress should just confirm the nominee immediately:

1. If the menu of methods in interrogation were to be published, suspected terrorists could adopt mitigation measures. How? By bringing scuba gear or snorkels all the time, during suicide missions, especially, I suppose. And Osama might send his trainees to explore the rich marine life in the Philippines in aid of proper certification as a torture-proof and dead terrorist. That makes sense and would be good for Philippine tourism. (How about this Ace Durano and GMA? Why don't you testify bravely against your idol?)
   
2. Mukasey has not been briefed on the method and could not possibly make a judgment. So brief him immediately then.
3. The whimpy Democrats, ever soft on national security, are just making political hay.
4. Finally leading to his pitch on the "war on terror", soi-disant, the US should employ all means to accomplish the ends of his foreign and phallic fallacy.
   

The New York Times explains Mukasey's refusal better: the administration does not want to open the door to prosecution of those who used the method before it came to public attention.
Does this debate have any implications for the Philippines? Are our definitions of torture rigorous? What are these?

Ruben Carranza Jr., formerly defense assistant secretary under Erap, recently reminded me that since EDSA 1, no one has been prosecuted successfully for torture. What a shame.

Erap in his own tortured words, days before the pardon

The Philippine Onion has this exclusive on the state of Erap's mind in the days prior to his release. Who are you to judge him?

Pardon me, madam, but I can't pardon you

Just less than thirty minutes ago, this man announced that former President Joseph Estrada, whose impeachment and subsequent extra-constitutional ouster I supported, was granted executive clemency, his civil and political rights restored.

While I feel sympathy and compassion for the former president, I believe the aspiration for justice and fairness for the population at large trumps these feelings.

I probably had sleepless nights after I 'stole' a few pesos from my mother's wallet to buy cigarets in childhood. My mother eventually pardoned me, but that was just between the two of us. I will never be charged and convicted of plunder, as I have no political ambitions, low or high, and thus will never have the chance to be pardoned.

Mrs. Arroyo, your purported act of compassion and reconciliation also shows how weak and cold you are, because the move cannot but be motivated by the preroragatives of political survival. If and when you are convicted of high crimes in the future, we will not pardon you.

Here's the transcript of the announcement, courtesy of but without permission from DJB:

Whereas this administration has a policy of releasing prisoners who have reached the age of 70,

Whereas Joseph Ejercito Estrada has been under detention for six and a half years,

Whereas Joseph Ejercito Estrada has publicly committed to no longer seek any elective position or public office,

In view hereof, and pursuant to the authority conferred upon me by the Constitution, I hereby grant executive clemency to Joseph Ejercito Estrada, convicted of plunder by the Sandiganbayan of plunder and imposed the penalty of reclusion perpetua.

He is hereby restored to his civil and political rights. The forfeitures imposed by the Sandiganbayan remain in force and in full, including all writs and processes issued by the Sandiganbayan in pursuance hereof, except for the bank accounts he owned before his tenure as President.

Upon acceptance of this pardon by Joseph Ejercito Estrada, this pardon shall take effect. Given under my hand, at the City of Manila, this 25th day of October, in the year of our Lord, 2007.

Signed,
Gloria M. Arroyo

Attested,
Ignacio R. Bunye,
Acting Executive Secretary.

Are you planning to pardon this guy too?

How a Filipino insurgent was tortured. Damn, I wish our confirmation process was like theirs

I've been following the confirmation hearings (on C-Span and the NYT) of Michael Mukasey, George W.'s nominee to replace the unlamented Alberto Gonzales, and wish that our processes were as rigorous.

Last night, Mukasey was grilled by senators (mostly Democrats, among them Stephen Whitehouse of Rhode Island)) about his views on executive privilege, non-disclosure agreements, and the public's right to information. His answers were diametrically opposed to those of his predecessor.

However, Mukasey failed to assuage fears in regard to the use of torture in extracting information from terrorism suspects. He hedged big time in regard to water-boarding, saying that if water-boarding is determined to be torture, then it would be unconstitutional. The senators could not extract any more information on his views on the matter, stopping short of physically and mentally torturing him on the matter any further.

What really caught my attention was the account recounted by one of the senators of how a US soldier was prosecuted for using water-boarding on a Filipino insurgent in 1901.

I wish I could get my hands on the transcripts of Raul Gonzales's confirmation hearings, though I understand that he has never been confirmed and that the Gloria just keeps re-appointing her sycophant on a temporary basis. What is the limit to the executive's power to reappoint? I don't know, but this clearly runs counter to what the Constitution intends.

I am tempted to make a bigotted remark about people with the surname Gonzales, but I know better because I have so many friends with that surname and I have no wish to inflict a tortured argument on you.

Los Ultimos de Filipinas: 'History from the Vanquished'

Premiered last night as part of the ongoing Spanish film festival in Manila was Los Ultimos de Filipinas, a cinematic account of the 'motherland's' stragglers in the Philippine-Spanish war. In terms of cinematic value, and considering technology in 1945, I would rate the movie excellent.

Before you write/right me off as harboring a colony of germs in my brain, hear this.

The executive director of Instituto Cervantos was more than ten minutes late, and apologized for the wrong thing, the absence of Spain's ambassador, who had to collect a parliamentary delegation from their country at the airport.

In April this year, there was a piano concert to commemorate the bombing of Guernica, the oil rendition of which was immortalized by Picasso in a painting which now greets the entrance of the United Nations Security Council. The Instituto's director was also late and tried to excuse himself with reference to heavy traffic. Because I was seated close to them, I heard the ambassador publicly berate the guy. "No excuses, por favor," the higher ranked diplomat reminded the lower.

Now back to the movie. It's one of the rare occasions when the victors get a view of how the 'vanquished' want to see themselves. In 1945, Jose Rodriguez explained, the Spanish government supported art partly to instill patriotism (often the refuge of scoundrels and torturers). One of the things which I find mysterious about Spaniards is why it has taken them such a long time to reflect on the rule of Franco. It has only been in recent years when the unmarked graves of the Republicans and resisters have been unearthed.

The Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm has a kinder view of Franco's rule, saying in so many words that there was a fine line between Nazism (with whom Franco was allied) and plain good old authoritarianism. Quesas.

One of the lesser known of George Orwell's works is Homage to Catalonia, where he recalls his sad tale as a volunteer in the Republican army while passing himself off as a 'journalist.' Here we see shades of Jack Reed of Ten Days fame. In his account he referred to the tardiness of his comrades as a racial trait. Some form of bigotry is woven into history and the popular imagination as a result of our humanity, I am wont to say.

September 23, 1972: incoherent memories

September 23, 1972

It was a Saturday and I took two jeepney rides from Lawaan, Talisay to the U.P. Cebu campus in Lahug. I was excited because I had been chosen as one of two editors for the high school paper Tambuli, old vernacular for horn shell. There really might be no English equivalent, as with many words outside of English. Picked as a co-editor was my classmate Rita Murillo. It was supposed to be our first editorial meeting to discuss the launch of the paper and the articles for the first issue. I cannot now recall who else were chosen to staff the paper except Ella Rose Cabiluna and Rosendo Estoye.

Fe Reyes, the paper’s adviser, met us near the oblation to say we should all just go home because ‘martial law’ had been declared. It was the first time ever I had heard that phrase. A year earlier I had heard of ‘writ of habeas corpus.’ But in September of 1972, I was just seven months into my first year as a teenager.

I did not go straight home but instead went to my aunt and uncle’s bookshop (Paul's bookstore was the first after WWII in Cebu) at the time one of the top three book stores in Cebu. My aunt Fidela did not really know what had happened or what was happening. So she allowed me to hang out and browse while waiting for word from home. I don’t even remember where I had lunch that day but I do remember buying ‘My Name is Asher Lev’ by Chaim Potok for my older sister Josephine, who turned 17 two days earlier and who had planned on inviting her college sophomore classmates to the house for a celebration that Saturday. There was a another bookshop near the jeepney terminal, and I spent some more time there because it was in a block we called ‘Lane’ and I recall having been home that night in time to see the official broadcast with the president who said he had declared a state of emergency to save the country from all sorts of trouble makers.

The remainder of the year and the following were eventful to say the least. The crisis in the Middle East, including the Munich hostage crisis and the Yom Kippur War. As a junior in high school I chose Yom Kippur as the subject of my English class baby thesis and it had to go through an oral defense when I was fourteen.

But before that I had had a lot to read, and many of the books I didn’t really understand (Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984, Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, ... I tried but at the time there really wasn’t much to do aside from brood and since I wasn’t ‘normal’ in terms of being a boy chasing girls, I was in the library often. And when I wasn’t in the library I was in the faculty room. I don’t know why my teachers allowed me in there to have coffee with and even smoke with them, even after the edicts on short hair, and the subsequent youth civic action program (YCAP) and citizens army training (CAT) had been imposed.

After graduation from high school, my values had pretty well been shaped. I was an atheist even before I called myself Marxist. I was first associated with the group of the Maoist party in Cebu before I joined the old communist party (PKP) in 1977 or 1978. In 1990 the PKP expelled me after I ahd spoken out at a forum challenging the scientific nature of historical and dialectical materialism.

Now after 35 years, I feel just slightly older than I was in 1972. Old comrades have moved on with their families and careers. They may have perfected the art of forgetting and surviving. I wake up and still ask myself the same questions, perhaps more calmly now, but still the adolescent I was on September 23 35 years ago.

A War Memoir

Diary of the War, WWII Memoirs of Lt. Col. Anastacio Campo, has just been released under the Mindanao Studies series of the Ateneo de Manila University Press, and is part of the press's ongoing anniversary sale (last 2 days!).

Recovered and annotated with historical notes and personal anecdotes by his granddaughter Maria Virginia Yap Morales, "Lt. Col. Anastacio Campo's diary is a revealing memoir of a Filipino officer stationed in Davao City at the outbreak of World War II. There are relatively few Filipino first-person accounts of the war and most of these are from Bataan or Manila. This account, set in Davao, opens a heretofore unknown vista for most Filipinos...it has an immediacy and personal flavor that are unique... An important addition to the Filipino memoirs of World War II, this book is a step toward making the Filipino war experience better understood as a truly nationwide experience" (from the back cover blurb by Professor Ricardo T. Jose of the UP Department of History).

The Mindanao Studies series, edited by Antonio de Castro, seeks to make available works on Mindanao, its peoples, languages, histories, and cultures. Featuring scholarly works based on primary and secondary research materials, and works that express the artistic sensibility and literary creativity of its peoples, the series serves as a multidisciplinary forum for communicating new information, new interpretations, and recent research concerning Mindanao (Inquiries at unipress@admu.edu.ph, attn: The Editor, Mindanao Studies series).

Other forthcoming titles in this series are: Manobo Dreams in Arakan: A People's Struggle to Keep Their Homeland, by Karl Gaspar, and Mindanao Ethnohistory Beyond Nations: Maguindanao, Sangir, and Bagobo Societies in East Maritime Southeast Asia, by Shinzo Hayase.


Come to the Ateneo Press anniversary booksale! June 19 to 30, 10 to 30 percent off

all titles. Bookshop sale hours 8 to 12, 1 to 6 pm (M-Thurs, up to 5 pm Fri). Coffee and cookies free with browsing :-)

Ateneo de Manila University Press
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