What to watch for

Although the issue that was talked about in social media was about Vice President Leni Robredo’s picture at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, my attention was drawn more to the sponsors of her trip to Germany – the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. Many Filipinos do not know that this foundation is behind the push for the Liberal International Movement in the Asian Region with the Philippines at its center. 

The picture is one thing, easily dispensed with a shrug, but the Liberal program in the Philippines is another and for me the more important one. It is a continuing political assault to ruin our institutions in the name of “liberalism,” their brand of liberalism which means claims to our natural resources and worse, how we run our government. No wonder President Digong is anathema to them. He has his own mind and he wants his country to have its own too.

It is important that we continue to focus on this continuing interference in our politics. It began in 2010 when the Hyatt 10 tried to wrest government from GMA and to put up Noynoy Aquino who had no idea what being president of the Philippines was. The strategy was simple, merely to replicate the drama of 1986 when his mother, Corazon Aquino, using the sympathy for the death of her husband and the thousands who went to his funeral procession. It was political necrophilia at its best. Being emotional we could no see beyond the drama of how to use death as a political instrument.

That would give as a better understanding of politics today with western nations particularly the US on how to put down Duterte. Robredo’s widow was the candidate to whip up the frenzy.

When Noynoy Aquino became president (devised through whatever means in 2010) the Liberal Party International immediately organized offices here in Manila as the center of their political activities in the region.

We should  be aware of the historical background and connect the dots from that period to today. 

As far as I know, the Liberal Political Party of the Philippines is supported and helped by the The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (German: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung) to make Noynoy Aquino president, a weakling who would be used against the real rival China.

The foundation employs several hundred employees in their offices in Bonn and Berlin, as well as in 14 regional offices and an academy within Germany and in over 100 foreign agencies.

 This is not the first time the Chinese accuses the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. It was behind the Tibetan protests that have embarrassed China’s Olympic relay around the world. The foundation is active in the Philippines and is said to support  the Liberal Party Drilon wing.

A Canadian journalist Doug Sanders wrote a story in Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper on how “Three Canadians Upstaged Beijing.” It was compiled from “conference reports and research.” He revealed that the foreign policy organization played a big role in preparing for the anti-Chinese Tibet campaign, for more than a year.

The report said the anti-Chinese Tibet campaign was orchestrated from its Washington-based headquarters but that it had been planned as far back as May 2007 in Brussels. A conference organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNSt) “gave the impetus to the current anti-Chinese Tibet campaign that forced the interruption of the Olympian Torch Relay in Paris recently.”

Rolf Berndt, a member of the FNSt’s executive council in Brussels, declared that the Olympic Games ‘are an excellent opportunity’ to publicly promote the cause of the Tibet Movement.

Paula Dobriansky, the Undersecretary of State in the US State Department and special coordinator for Tibet questions, also attended the conference according to the report.

Friedrich Naumann Foundation has an office in Makati. In general, it promotes “liberalism and democracy in Asia” and has chosen the Liberal Party of the Philippines Drilon Wing as its chosen vehicle for its advocacy.

On one occasion former Senate President Sen. Drilon was cited and feted by the foundation for having led the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats. Drilon was chairman while Dr. Neric Acosta was secretary-general of the group.

Former representative Dina Abad spoke on the same occasion of Dr. Acosta’s “ability to bridge cultural gaps and bring political leaders from different backgrounds together.” Siegfried Herzog, FNF resident representative, pointed out the significant role that Sen. Drilon and Dr. Acosta had played in bringing Philippine and Asian liberal concerns to a wider audience.

The event highlighted the Liberal Party’s debut in international networking with like-minded people around the world. This according to Herzog was the work of Drilon and Dr. Acosta.

“The time and effort they have devoted to international work has raised the standing of Filipino liberals and of the Philippines as a democratic nation,” said Herzog. “They have enriched the political debate, and they have enabled other Filipino liberals to share in this exchange of ideas and experiences,” he added. “The LP can be proud to have such leaders.”

It is about covert activities that we should be wary about and be cautious. But then if we do not know what they are about then we can hardly be expected to be cautious. The link between the Tibetan protests and what it sought to do to the Olympic relay is a good example of a less than laudable activity that should give us a warning of what it can do here in the Philippines.

It was in Greece that events first unfolded when the Olympic flame was lighted and the ceremonies disrupted. It was reported that the protest was about Tibet. Three protesters were arrested, but immediately released. Little was made of the fact that none of the three were Tibetan. Indeed, all three were French.

US State Department Special Envoy Otto Reich is a trustee of the Center. He was also the lawyer for the Bacardi liquor dynasty that was kicked out of Cuba, along with the hated dictator Fulgencio Batista. The president of the Center is Frank Calzón, a former leader of the terrorist organization Cuban American National Foundation.

It is reported that about 38 percent of the US government’s nonmilitary China-related programs are allocated through the NED.

According to the NED’s website, other recipients of its China funds include the Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet, the Tibetan Women’s Association and the Longsho Youth Movement of Tibet.

It is increasingly being asked why in the disruption of the Olympic torch lighting in Greece that the commentators quoted most frequently in the US media were not Tibetans but Americans speaking for Tibetans.

As for the Australian nun it is not something new either. Liberation theology through which enlisted the religious came through our backdoors at about the same time of the prelude to EDSA’s peaceful revolution. 

More to come with the announcement that Vice President Leni Robredo and several lawmakers belonging to Partido Liberal are going to Germany for a series of discussions on “poverty alleviation.”