My Cousin Rolly dies, as US colonialism returns to the Philippines

Pardon my reticence to date on this grand occasion of the Philippines’ capitulation…er, the new bases agreement with my country, the United States.

On the day it happened, I got word that my first cousin Rolly died. For me, Rolly was the Philippines.

He was the family member my mother first showed me when I was growing up as a small boy in San Francisco. You know, those sepia photographs from the Philippines on that hard cardboard type paper. It was Mom’s proof that since her immigration, there was real life and hope still in the ancestral home she left.

“What do you think, we’re savages in huts?” she would say to me.

But look, here was Rolly, and his brother Rene, about my age, in Cub Scout uniforms and short pants. And here was my beautiful Ate Nida in what looked like a prom pose.

My three first cousins. Filipino-side.

Just like me in America. Only they weren’t. They were in the Philippines were life was very, very different.

Nida eventually became an overseas worker who went to Germany as a domestic and  died mysteriously.

Rene died a few years ago.

Rolly, or as we called him, “Hapon,” died this week.

I only met Rolly once, when I covered the funeral of Benigno Aquino in 1983 and found myself in the Philippines. I needed a driver. Rolly knew how to drive.

He took us everywhere with great skill. Manila to Quezon City still took two hours.

But he also took me to see my Uncle Pacito, his dad, in Antipolo.

And all my cousins in Tondo and San Juan. Everywhere. We spent a lot of time in the rented Hyundai.  But Rolly could get around.

I paid him, of course. But one of the things he relished most was the hotel room I was able to get him in the Inter-Continental. Air-con. A real shower. A bed with linens.

They were all “luxuries.”

He saw me as Cousin Newsman, and wanted me to get the word out. And he did a great job. I saw the country for what it was, and what it hoped to be.

I’ll never forget the million-plus people who marched in the Aquino funeral procession, and how Rolly  got us through the crowds.

The last time I saw Rolly, we said goodbye, and he disappeared into a crowded sidewalk full of buildings with people busting out of every opening. Manila. Don’t get hit by traffic.

OBAMA’S VISIT

I couldn’t help but think of Rolly as I saw the show roll out this week. And make no mistake. It was quite a show.

The Philippines gets a visit from President Obama, and the world was concerned about ….the Ukraine.

Or at the Malaysia Media Conference prior to landing in Manila, the talk was all about …. Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

Nothing like putting the Philippines in its place.

But maybe it was intentional. Does anyone really want to cheer the matter of the bases agreement being renewed?

It seems we have come full circle.

When I began covering the Philippines during the Marcos period, the U.S. and the Philippines were partners in crime. But it was merely the modernization of a colonial past that began with the Spanish American War.

I remember the anti-authoritarian fervor in the U.S. against Marcos and the willingness in letting the Philippines be was so strong in the ‘80s. It was the fuel that eventually brought on the EDSA revolution, and Peoples’ Power.

But an important part wasn’t just Marcos. It was the kicking out of the last symbol of American colonialism—the military bases.

More than 30 years later, a generation says, come back.

I found it astonishing.

The bases agreement virtually renewed for a ten-year period? It’s an acknowledgment that the Philippines can’t do it alone. Can’t stand up on its two feet. Can’t put on democracy’s  “big boy/girl pants.”

For the Philippines, it’s an embarrassment.

But for the U.S., it’s an opportunity—not just for not-so-faux colonialism, but for real militarism.

In the U.S, Joseph Gerson of the American Friends Service Committee in New England, and an Asia specialist issued this statement:

“Today, the U.S. is deepening and expanding military alliances and building new military bases to encircle China with a ‘great wall in reverse,’ to ‘manage’ China’s rise. New military bases are being established in South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Australia, while the U.S. hopes to retain bases in Afghanistan. The U.S. is increasing access to military installations and increasing military cooperation with Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand and India. With this increasing militarization come arms races and the growing dangers of miscalculations and war.”

Oddly, protestors in Manila were few, and were described in the press as “militants.” Members of the Bayan group see the US not as protectors but as merely replacing China as the Philippines’ “bully.”

“Militants”?

They were harmless compared to the diplomats on parade and their militarism.

The Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) is surely a far cry from EDSA.

If the interest of the U.S. is to defend the Philippines, what happens when the U.S. (with $8-9 billion in investments in China) must go against a Chinese incursion in the Philippines?

Philippine legislators are right to ask if America would risk all that for Filipinos? This is where we as Filipinos in America, and throughout the world, are rightfully split.

China is a daunting foe for the Philippines. Realistically, having the security of Uncle Sam may help some sleep at night. But whose interests are ultimately protected?

Meanwhile, the psychological damage to the Philippines is great.

The triumph of kicking out the bases had been a hopeful sign of the country maturing as a democracy.

But this new deal is like a step backward back to colonialism.

No wonder, the deal got shrouded somewhat by the Ukraine. Or by the bigotry of the basketball owner Donald Sterling.

It’s embarrassing for all involved.

And it casts a different light on folks who were considered heroes a generation ago.

The “militants”?

These were the same freedom fighters who were hailed as People Power champions.

But now we know where People Power has led the Philippines—back  to the paternal comforts of old.

And my cousin Rolly won’t be around to experience it. That’s too bad. But he’s already lived through the colonial past, and martial law.

He’s in a better place now.

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