There was intense debate over the renewal of the US military bases agreement beginning in 1990. The Yellowidiots do not mention that it was Ferdinand Marcos Sr. who shortened it from 99 years to 25 years which meant it would expire in 1991.
The anti-bases bloc in the Senate adopted a hardline stance. Even with money, they would still vote not to renew the agreement. Among the US “allies,” the Philippines received the least compensation from America when it came to the use of the bases in the country compared to other countries. There were only two opposition members in the Senate who survived the “landslide” of the 1987 election; Juan Ponce Enrile and Joseph Estrada. All the other Senators were Cory’s but not all of them were in favor of renewing the bases agreement, including then Senate President Jovito Salonga.
Cory was in a bind because the Americans came to her aid at the height of the 1989 coup attempt where her government was almost toppled by the combined RAM-Marcos Loyalist forces in the AFP.
Dick Gordon was the Mayor of Olongapo City then and he led the pro-bases coalition. Filipinos were still enamored of Uncle Sam then. There was staunch opposition in the city’s which hosted the US military in the country.
As you will note, there is a lot of difference in how columnists wrote their op-ed pieces compared to the present. Back then, the public had a choice. They were left to decide on their own unlike now when the propaganda is laid thick and there are only “investigative” articles against political enemies.
Obeisance invites arrogance and contempt THIS is not meant to be sexist, but there is a difference between need and desire as there is between a woman and a man. A woman needs a man; a man wants a woman. A woman must dream and wait till the right man comes along; a man ranges far and wide to seek, sample and select. A woman if she is to be honorable, must have a one and only love; a man if he is to be honored, must boast of many loves. A woman wants to serve; a man tends to rule. A woman gives; a man takes. And when the time comes for tearful parting, it is usually the woman who is left holding the bag. How feminine are those who need the bases! Manny Pelaez, Jesse James Estanislao, Joey Cuisia the Son of Sun, with a limp and sissified reasoning, act like teenage girls with a crush, they dream of uncircumcized Americans as knights in shining armor coming to rescue them from spinsterhood. Destined to be dependent and desperately looking for a meal-ticket, they look upon the USA as the answer to all our ills, the source of wealth and wisdom, the patron saint of all economic and social progress, to whom homage require the unholy sacrifice of our heritage and patrimony. Those who oppose the base treaty, like Erap Estrada, Johnny Enrile, Jovy Salonga, Rene Saguisag, Butz Aquino, Tito Guingona and others, are more masculine in their attitude. They are not necessarily against foreign bases; after all Japan and South Korea PAY $2 billion and $600 million a year for the maintenance of US bases in their territories, without being treated like prostitutes by Americans of low IQ, without being subjected to IMF conditionalities, without being buried under an avalanche of the kind of bullshit every lying playboy promises the girl he wants to seduce. They want to seek, sample and select partners other than the USA — and let them all compete for our attention and friendship: the Europeans especially France and Germany, the ASEAN nations especially Indonesia and Malaysia, even the Socialist Bloc. Frankenstein Wisner, Satan Schrager and Tomcat Mercer act like male chauvinist pigs toward our effeminate national leaders who surrender their virtue and honor without benefit of marriage, for vague promises of trinkets and small change. Parang tayo’y puta na hindi binabayaran. Jesse James Estanislao will probably never know this because he has forsworn the love of all women, but loverboys Adrian Cristobal and Frank Chavez know from manly experience that a lover’s appetite is whetted by the knowledge of being wanted, but not sorely needed. Any woman who in desperate need and cloying obeisance, throws herself at the feet of her lover, especially redneck white-trash from Tobacco Road and the Embassy’s political section, invites annoyance to the point of impotence.
That is what Olongapo Mayor Dick Gordon found out after almost a lifetime of kowtowing to low-class American sailors, and providing them access to the cesspools of his city. When during the Pinatubo disaster, he asked permission for innocent passage through the base for his people, that asshole Admiral Thomas Mercer arrogantly refused. What does Dick expect? In the eyes of Mercer he is nothing but a half-breed “facilitator” of every sailor’s freudian desire, like the Engineer in the play, “Miss Saigon,” and his constituents are nothing but pimps and prostitutes who demonstrate in the streets to keep American bases here. When will Dick and his people learn that abject bowing and obeisance invite arrogance and contempt? Of course, Tomcat Mercer came to Dick’s office, to arrogantly explain but not to humbly apologize, ever reminded of his conversation with the CIA Station Chief Stevedore Perry, “What is wrong with you, Tomcat? Don’t you realize Machinegun-mouth Gordon is on OUR side? Be nice to him till the treaty gets ratified. After that, you and the US Navy may continue sodomizing the Filipino people, and infecting them with AIDS.” Toshio Goto, Japanese envoy to the Philippines, added his voice to the base supporters, saying that we will get more aid from Japan if the treaty is ratified. What did you expect from a nation of bow-legged sadists who massacred two million Filipinos in the last war? This bastard Goto who would have been thrown out as persona non grata for interfering with the internal affairs of any other nation except the Philippines, was probably talked into shooting his foul mouth off by effete Filipino traitors and American CIA agents. “Anyway, Filipinos love to be treated like dogs in their own country.” If the treaty is ratified, we Filipinos shall have cause to weep. And we shall weep with the anathema of history on our heads, as told in the words of Ayesha, mother of weeping Boabdil, exiled king of Granada, when she said: “Weep like a woman for the loss of the kingdom you did not defend like a man!
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