This Henares column was dated 1988. It was the prelude to the 1992 election. Kulas Platypus was the then US Ambassador to the Philippines, Nicholas Platt, the father of the actor Oliver Platt. Unknown to many, the nickname of Fidel Ramos is Eddie. The US was active in Philippine affairs as the military bases agreement was to expire in 1991 and any agreement made by the Executive, had to be ratified by the Senate.
Psst Kaplan, was the then CIA station chief, Philip Kaplan, who replaced Norbert Garrett. The CIA had its own compound within the sprawling Seafront Residential Compound where the US Embassy’s American employees were housed along the Pasay side of Roxas Boulevard. The CIA operatives out of the US Embassy made it a point to hobnob with the oligarchs in their social gatherings in an effort to find out the latest goings on among the powers that be and also to find dirt which could be used later on for blackmail, if need be.
The Americans would be pissed with Cory later on for her inability to get the new bases agreement ratified by the Senate. It was rejected by some of the Yellowtards closest to her like Rene Saguisag. It was made moot by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo which left Clark and Subic covered with ashfall and lahar. The Americans were out of the Philippines in a month’s time, a lot shorter than what they said it would take had Pinatubo not erupted. That was the end of American military bases in the Philippines.
Hoy Kulas, think Eddie is an Amboy? THE scuttlebutt is that if Cory does not run in 1992, the presidential elections will be contested at least by three sets of candidates: Ramon Mitra Jr. for President and Oscar Orbos for Vice (LDP); Jovy Salonga and Eva Estrada Kalaw for a revitalized Liberal Party; Fidel “Eddie” Ramos and Miriam Defensor Santiago in a newly created coalition by the CIA. This is bingo! for Pangasinan, for each set of candidates has a real Pangalatok, a member of a vanishing tribe even in Pangasinan itself: Rep. Oscar Orbos from Bani, ex-Sen. Eva Kalaw from Calasiao, and Sec. Eddie Ramos from Asingan. Pangalatoks are always in the thick of things, in the army, department of education and the bureau of internal revenue, and so humble they rarely boast about their origins. Considered real Pangalatoks are most of the Marcos Cabinet, Jose Aspiras, Jake Clave, Condring Estrella, Carlos P. Romulo, Juan Manuel, Greg Cendaña; more than its share of Senate seats, Letty Ramos Shahani, Bert Romulo, and by marriage, my favorite cousin Rene Saguisag; the best looking movie stars, the Rosa del Rosario of old, Fernando Poe senior and junior, Gloria Romero, Barbara Perez; composer Ryan Cayabyab, poet Nina Puyat, writer Andres Cristobal Cruz, editor Luis Mauricio, publisher Mariano Quimson; lawyer Peps Bengzon, nationalist Ding Lichauco (from Tayug), Supreme Court Justices Teddy Padilla and Andres Narvasa; Benedictine fathers Bobby Perez and Manuel Maramba, Jesuit fathers Jimmy Bulatao and Lambino; and suspected Ninoy murderers AVSECOM’s Filomeno Miranda and Rogelio Moreno. Of all the presidential candidates, West Pointer Eddie Ramos is easily the front-runner, at this time even more popular than President Cory Aquino (as per the Ateneo Weather Station survey financed by the Asia Foundation). Last April Eddie was invited to the USA, to be looked over by the kingmakers in Washington. Robin Broad and John Cavanaugh who were there tell me that Eddie was guest of honor in several private meetings with different organizations, and was introduced by State functionaries as probably the next president of the the Philippines. In one such meeting, former number two in the US Embassy Philip Pssst Kaplan, Allen Weinstein of Center of Democracy allegedly the CIA conduit to the NAMFREL, and Emmanuelle Pelaez, pro-American Philippine Ambassador to the USA, were seated on the same table. Pssst Kaplan was recounting how I wrote about him so often and so insultingly that he could not operate normally and had to cut short his stint in the Philippines, and thereby put a crimp on his career. For the past year he was denigrated to being a desk-man, with no assignment in sight. Otherwise he enjoyed the power and influence he exercised here and hopes to be reassigned to the Philippines in time to help Eddie Ramos become president.
The Americans liked what they saw, and it is generally assumed that it is all systems go to get Eddie’s candidacy launched. What it meant was that in the subsequent Manglapus-Shultz bases agreement, the item for military assistance was increased by 700 percent from $25 million to $200 million to enable Eddie to deal successfully with the insurgency. The Americans and Ambassador Hoy Kulas Platypus really think that Eddie Ramos is an Amboy, very much in their pocket. But is he really? The Americans thought President Magsaysay was, but he disappointed them by not dismantling Import Controls, instead reallocated the dollars to speed up industrialization. In the administration of Magsaysay, the Laurel Langley Agreement was signed, the Retail Trade Nationalization Law was passed, and the title to the base lands given to the Philippines. Don’t count on Eddie, Kulas. It is the irony of power that being elected to the highest position, a president may act contrary to what he stood for in order to achieve national unity. Anti-communist hawks Nixon and Reagan achieved detente and glasnost with Russia and China; Peaceniks Kennedy and Johnson were ready to go to war in Cuba, Berlin Wall and Vietnam — with their nation solidly behind them, and the support of their political enemies. The reason Cory cannot achieve national reconciliation and get rid of the bases, is because she is a proven liberal and humanist, and must prove she is not soft on Communism. Otherwise she risks civil war. Eddie Ramos does not have to prove he is anti-communist, so he is in the best position, like Nixon and Reagan, to make peace with the Communists and throw out the American bases, with the entire nation behind him. The joke will be on you, Kulas Platypus.
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