From clowns to fangs?

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‘Today, the current Russian incursion into Ukraine was preceded by the ongoing Myanmar Civil War, the brutal contest between Ethiopia’s Amhara forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front… melees along the Sino-Indian border, and dangerous Chinese maneuvers in the West Philippine Sea, among others.’

THANKS to the lumpenproletariat, the marriage of the vulgar variant of pseudo-Bonapartism to the reanimated corpse of quasi-fascism looks sparkly. Yet unbeknownst to the raggedy knaves, the Fuehrer looks down on them: “The slums are responsible for nine-tenths, alcohol for one-tenth of all human depravity.” [George Sylvester Viereck’s interview with Adolf Hitler, Liberty magazine, 09 July 1932]

Be that as it may, this riffraff is transmogrified into an actual army as soon as the Hitlerites grab hold of the machinery of State. From strike-breakers into storm-troopers, this lumpen-militariat were the war criminals responsible for the Bataan Death March, Lipa Massacre and Rape of Manila, among others.

The rampaging fascists, one must remind the TikTok toddlers, killed the highest-ranking Filipino official on Philippine soil in the same week that the fortress of Corregidor fell. The Japanese Army in the Philippines murdered Jose Abad Santos (Supreme Court Chief Justice, Acting Secretary of Finance, Agriculture, and Commerce, and the virtual head of the Commonwealth Government in the Philippines) on 02 May 1942 and then dismembered his body for burial in an unmarked grave in Mindanao (Malabang, Lanao). The fascist Nipponese had charged Abad Santos with being a member of Quezon’s war cabinet and for the printing of emergency currency notes in the southern Philippines; “President Quezon’s impression was that Abad Santos was killed because he refused to undertake pro-Japanese propaganda.” [https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/about/gov/judiciary/sc/cj/jose-abad-santos/the-execution-of-jose-abad-santos/]

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This dastardly deed, according to a Chief Executive, “turned out to be the gravest political blunder that the enemy committed in the Philippines during the last war. It made a national hero and a martyr of a gentle jurist, a soft-spoken patriot who had never harmed anybody.

It created a rallying point for the resistance leaders to propagate among the people the fierce spirit of liberty that would expel the invaders from Philippine shores.” [Address of Diosdado Macapagal, President of the Philippines, Before the Jose Abad Santos Memorial Society, May 2, 1962] A different Commander-in-Chief intoned that Abad Santos’ “martyrdom will remain forever as an inspiring symbol of the purest ideals of the Filipino people.” [Ferdinand E. Marcos, Proclamation No. 551, s. 1969, Declaring Friday, May 2, 1969, As Abad Santos Day And A Special Public Holiday In Pampanga And Angeles City; https://mirror.officialgazette.gov.ph/1969/04/28/proclamation-no-551-s-1969/]

Today, it is hard to see that sort of inspiration given the quality of many of the aspirants for national office. “Demand For ‘darak’ has increased considerably.”

[https://philippinediaryproject.com/1942/05/01/may-1-1942/] They are a far cry from the troopers who held the Rock against overwhelming odds. The unhinged fans and trolls of today, squirming on the Good Earth sans civility and dignity, are tagrag and bobtail compared to the crusaders on Corregidor.

In the face of this mediocrity, we choose to salute the guerrillas, honor the Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor and acknowledge the hard choices: “Wainwright’s surrender orders became a favorite topic of private discussions among officers at Malolos POW Camp. To the question, if you were Col. Nakar, and you received the written order, will you surrender? I am happy to note that after heated private discussions, all Philippine Military Academy graduates were unanimous in disobeying the order.”

“As a lasting tribute to the courageous gunners who manned those big guns at Corregidor and also to immortalize the names of the 20 batteries that fought valiantly against the enemy for 26 continuous days and nights since the Fall of Bataan, here they are in alphabetical order: Batteries Chenny; Crockett; Cushing; Geary; Gruggs; Hamilton; Hanna; Hearn; James; Kysor; Monja; Maxwell; Morrison; Ramsay; Rock Point; Smith; Stockade; Sunset; Way; and Wheeler.” [Diary of Ramon A. Alcaraz, May 10,1942]

We appreciate the sacrifices: “Corregidor has fallen! America’s last stronghold in the P.I. Islands has had to surrender due to exhaustion of food and ammunition supplies and a complete blockade by Jap forces.” [Diary of Elizabeth Vaughan, May 7, 1942] We read the testimonies that Corregidor was supposed to be the last line of organized resistance and it fell eight decades ago to the godless: “Today I went out in the main tunnel just before the surrender…the Japs are everywhere and are horrible, ugly creatures. I avoid them as I would the plague.” [Diary of Denny Williams, May 6, 1942]

Such a harsh view. Warranted? “On Corregidor, at the surrender, a group of Philippinos were captured by the Japanese at Monkey Point. They were tied to trees, bayoneted to death, each penis cut off and jammed into the owner’s mouth and left tied there for all who passed to see.” [https://www.corregidor.org/chs_starr/starr_03.htm] “Such brutalities as these indicate the illiteracy, ignorance and barbaric nature of the Japanese soldiers. One did not hate them, but a loathing developed against regimented troops, so devoid of culture, civilized learning, and sense of honor. They had consistently grossly violated principles of international law in their treatment of prisoners of war.” [“My Years with the Military” by Capt. Warren A. Starr]

This particular descent into savagery did not happen overnight. Before the local and regional and national armed conflicts amalgamated into the Second World War: “all the world over people had got used to reading day by day of thousands of killed and wounded; sensibilities had been blunted, people had lost the capacity to feel for the individual victim. That resulted in a general callousness.” [Peter and Irma Petroff. The Secret of Hitler’s Victory. London: Hogarth Press, 1934]

Today, the current Russian incursion into Ukraine was preceded by the ongoing Myanmar Civil War, the brutal contest between Ethiopia’s Amhara forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan, new jihadist fronts in Africa, Second Libyan Civil War, melees along the Sino-Indian border, and dangerous Chinese maneuvers in the West Philippine Sea, among others. [“DFA protests China’s ‘belligerent actions’ vs. PCG,” https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1138838]

You don’t care? The Nazis began to gain power with no more than 37% of the votes in the 1932 elections.

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