Taglay niya ang pagkaseryoso na bihira kong makita sa mga kaedad ko at ang hangaring bumuo ng bagong Pilipinas na bumabalik sa akin habang iniisip kung paano tayo bubuo ng bagong Estados Unidos sa gitna ng kasalukuyang krisis. Hayag siya tungkol sa mga pinsalang hatid ng Estados Unidos sa Pilipinas, at itinuro niya ang mga katotohanang hindi ko alam. Ngunit nakita rin niya ang potensiyal ng bagong ugnayan at hinangaan ko ang kaniyang pagpaparaya, ang kaniyang pusong mapagpatawad, at ang kaniyang imahinasyon.

Bilang iskolar ng araling Asyano, nalaman ko ang kahalagahan ng Pilipinas sa kalakalan at ugnayang panlabas sa Timog-silangang Asya, Tsina, Hapon, India, at sa Kanluran noong sinaunang panahon, at sa kapana-panabik na panahon bago ang pagtataksil ng kolonyalismong Espanyol, Amerikano, at Hapon.

Higit sa lahat, nalaman kong itinaguyod ng Pilipinas ang higit na makabuluhang intelektuwal at artistikong interaksiyon sa lahat ng bansa sa Asya—at nagpapatuloy ito ngayon.

Nalaman ko sa aking mga pag-aaral kung paano buong pusong tinanggap ng Pilipinas sa mga lumikas dito nang gumuho ang kanilang mga imperyo, kung paano ninyo kinupkop ang mga alipin at sundalong tumakas sa mga imperyong Espanyol at Olandes at bumuo ng bagong buhay sa magagandang isla ng Pilipinas.

Nalaman ko kung ano ang mahalagang papel ng Pilipinas noon sa pagkakaisa ng Asya, at nalaman ko kung gaano kahusay ang Pilipinas sa pag-organisa at pagmobilisa para sa kabutihan ng nakararami. Naghahain ng malaking potensiyal ang Pilipinaus sa Asya, at sa buong mundo. 

Ngunit nakita ko rin ang napakalaking mga panganib na hinaharap ng Pilipinas ngayon at nangangako akong gagawin ko ang lahat para protektahan ang mga karaniwang Pilipino. Nasaksihan ko noong bumisita ako kung paano dagitin ng mga tuso at walang prinsipyong dayuhang negosyante ang Pilipinas, kamkamin ang mga mineral sa ilalim ng lupa, lumikha ng mga patapong materyal, lasunin ang mahalagang katubigan ng Pilipinas, at pagsamantalahan ang mararangal na Pilipino sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay ng trabahong naglalayo sa kanila sa kanilang mga pamilya at sumisira ng kanilang kalusugan.

Magwawakas ang mga ito sa ilalim ng aking pamamahala.

Nangangako akong una ang mga Pilipino at ang kanilang malaon nang mga tradisyon.

Wawakasan ko ang lockdown sa Pilipinas bunsod ng COVID-19 at ipanunumbalik ang pananaig ng batas. Wawakasan na ang kontrol sa pamahalaan ng iilang makapangyarihang hindi nakikita o nakakausap. Muling magkakaroon ng transparensiya ang Pilipinas at sustenableng pamumuhay ang mga mamamayan.

Napakarami ng matututuhan namin sa Pilipinas. May matututuhan ang Amerika sa inyong pilosopiya, sa inyong payak at malalim na pag-unawa sa sustenableng pangingisda at kalakalan sa mga isla, ang inyong mga tradisyon sa pamamahala na nagpapahalaga sa pantay na palitan sa mga bansa sa Asya noong sinaunang panahon.

May dalawang kritikal na panahon sa kasaysayan ng Estados Unidos na tutugunan agad ng aking administrasyon.

Una rito ang trahedya ng Himagsikang Pilipino na pinangunahan ng Katipunan noong 1896.

Nang sa wakas ay iproklama ni Emilio Aguinaldo ang Rebolusyonaryong Pamahalaan ng Pilipinas noong Hunyo 23, 1899, hindi ibinigay ng Estados Unidos ang suportang karapat-dapat ibigay rito, ang suportang ipinangako sa Pilipinas.

Sa kasamaang palad, maraming Amerikano sa Washington D.C. ang nainggit sa pandaigdigang imperyo ng Britanya at naakit sa ideya ng kolonya. Pinangibabawan nila ang mga nagtataguyod sa tradisyon ng kalayaan ng ating Deklarasyon ng Kalayaan. Sa halip, nagpasiya si Pangulong McKinley na ituloy ang “pananakop” imbes na suportahan ang himagsikan. Ang kapasiyahang ito ay nagdulot ng malungkot at marahas na panahon ng tunggalian at pasakit na pormal na ihihingi ng tawad ng aking administrasyon upang mabuo ang bagong alyansa ng ating mga bansa.

Ang isa pang trahedya ay ang kabiguan ng Estados Unidos na balikan ang ganap na potensiyal ng Hulyo 30, 1934 Kumbensiyong Konstitusyonal ng Pilipinas matapos ang Ikalawang Digmaang Pandaigdig. Bagaman nagkaroon ng maraming positibong kooperasyon sa pagitan ng Estados Unidos at Pilipinas matapos ang 1945, laganap din ang korupsiyon at di-pagkakapantay-pantay na tumabing sa alyansa sanang nakabatay sa konstitusyon at deklarasyon ng kalayaan, hindi sa pandaigdigang pananalapi at bentahan ng mga armas.

Ngunit naghahanda kami ng Kumbensiyong Konstitusyonal sa Estados Unidos ngayong taon at hinihikayat namin ang Pilipinas na balikan ang ganap na potensiyal ng Hulyo 30, 1934 Kumbensiyong Konstitusyonal at bumuo ng bayan ng tao, para sa tao, at binubuo ng mga tao na nagpapahalaga sa kabutihan ng inyong sariling kultura.

Umaasa kaming matuto nang lubos mula sa inyong mayamang tradisyon at lagi naming igagalang ang inyong bansa. Magkakampi tayo para sa kapayapaan at sa mga karapatan ng mga karaniwang tao, magkakampi laban sa masamang imperyo ng pandaigdigang pananalapi, magkakampi laban sa pasismong may iba’t ibang nakamamatay na anyo sa buong mundo.

Pormal akong hihingi ng tawad para sa aming mga pagkakamali, at nangangakong magtataguyod ng kooperasyon ng ating mga mamamayan, hindi ng mga sangay ng mga korporasyong multinasyonal. Magkakaroon tayo ng tunay na alyansa, isang tapat na alyansa, para sa mga tao.   

Ipinahayag ko ang intensiyon kong tumakbo sa pagkapangulo noong Pebrero (2020). Humarap ako sa mga talumpati, nakisalamuha sa mga kapwa Amerikano, lalo na sa mga naghihirap dahil sa pagkabulok ng moralidad sa bansa. Sa pamamagitan ng kanilang mungkahi at tulong, sinimulan kong magmapa ng positibong direksiyon para sa Estados Unidos, isang hinaharap na malayo sa mga panganib ng kultura ng pagkonsumo, pagsira ng kalikasan, at walang katapusang digmaan na nagbibigay ng sakit sa bansa na parang nakakikilabot na virus na pinalala ng mga mapanganib na parasito.

Iilan lamang sa mga nagtapos sa Yale at Harvard na minsan kong nakasama, ang mga kasabayan ko nang magsimula ako sa karerang ito, ang may lakas ng loob na magtanong kung karapat-dapat maging pangulo ang ibang mga “kandidato,” o kung ang halalang ito, tulad ng nakaraan na may malawakang manipulasyon ng mga boto at mapanlinlang na pag-uulat tungkol sa mga isyu, ay karapat-dapat ba talagang matawag na halalan. Binalewala nila ang pagsisikap ko.

Ngunit nauunawaan ng mga manggagawang nakasalamuha at nakatrabaho ko ang mga sinasabi ko. Alam nilang wala akong trabaho simula Enero, sapilitang pinaalis sa aking tahanan, at nagkaroon ng malubhang karamdaman ang asawa ko dahil sa mga trauma na dulot ng pagsisikap na panatilihing buo ang aming pamilya. Alam ko ang mga pinagdaraanan nila dahil naranasan ko ang mga ito.

Kung wala tayong halalan na maaaring kumandidato ang tulad ko at bibigyan ng pagkakataong maitampok sa media, hindi tayo magsasagawa ng halalan, kundi maglulubid ng isang napakalaking kasinungalingan.

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Introduksiyon kay Emanuel Pastreich

Umangat si Emanuel Pastreich sa nakaraang dalawang dekada bilang nangungunang tinig para sa makatuwirang polisiya ng Amerika sa diplomasya at seguridad na may tuon sa pagbabago ng klima at pagkasira ng biodibersidad, sa malawakang epekto ng bagong teknolohiya sa sangkatauhan, sa labis-labis na pagkamal ng kayamanan, at sa pandaigdigang labanan ng mga militar.

Iginigiit niya na dapat ibalik ang ilang trilyong salaping ibinigay sa mga korporasyon noong nakaraang taon, na patakbuhin ang mga conglomerate tulad ng Amazon at Facebook bilang reguladong mga kooperatiba, na agad bawiin ang mga asset ng mga korporasyon ng fossil fuel at kasuhan ang mga may-ari at administrador ng mga korporasyon para sa krimen ng paghaharap ng mga mapanlinlang na impormasyon sa pamahalaan at sa publiko tungkol sa pagbabago ng klima.

Dalubhasang matatas sa mga wikang Koreano, Hapon, at Tsino, sinimulan ni Pastreich ang kaniyang karera bilang propesor sa University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign noong 1998. Kasalukuyan siyang nagsisilbing pangulo ng Asia Institute, isang institusyong nakatutok sa diplomasya, seguridad, at teknolohiya na nakabase sa Washington D.C., Seoul, Tokyo, at Hanoi.

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When I think about the coming political revolution in the United States, Asia is first in my mind because I am most worried about the effort of certain cynical groups in the United States to demonize Asia, starting with China but not limited to China. That pernicious anti-
Asian campaign offends me as an American committed to a future with Asia as the center for our efforts to create a fairer and more human society. Those forces are holding the United States back with their efforts to find Asian threats, and their short-sighted strategy could easily turn the United States into yet another backwards, insular dying empire.

The relationship with the Philippines will be absolutely central for our political revolution in the United States because the United States relationship with the Philippines is the deepest, and the most problematic one. To transform our relationship with the Philippines into one based on trust and a deep commitment to equality, to transparency and to the truth, will transform our relationship with all of Asia. Our new relationship with your honored nation will be the critical step to achieving a transformation of the sprawling overextended American empire into something that will contribute to the future of the Earth, rather than degenerating into a horrific monster that lashes out in a destructive manner as it slowly sinks.

I had several close friends in high school from the Philippines even before I started my study of Chinese in college. Among them, Xavier remains in my mind quite vividly even though I have not seen him for many years. He had a seriousness about him I rarely saw in people my age and a deep sense of commitment to building a new Philippines that comes back to me as I think about how we can build a new United States in the midst of the current crisis. He was honest about the damage that the United States had done in the Philippines, and he taught be truths that I did not know about. But he also saw the potential of a new relationship and he inspired me with his tolerance, his forgiving heart and his imagination.

As a scholar of Asian studies, I later learned of the tremendous importance of the Philippines in trade and international relations with Southeast Asia, China, Japan, India and the West in ancient times, and in the exciting period before the betrayal of Spanish, American and Japanese colonialism.

It was above all the Philippines that supported deeper intellectual and artistic interactions with all the nations of Asia—and that still does.

I learned in my studies how the Philippines showed tremendous tolerance to those who fled there when their empires collapsed, how you welcomed the slaves and drafted soldiers who fled the Spanish and Dutch empires and sought refuge in the beautiful islands of the Philippines.

I learned about how Philippines had played such a critical role in the past in bringing together Asia as one in the past, and I learned just how effective Philippines can be at organizing and mobilizing for a common cause. Philippines offers such potential to Asia, and to the world.

But I also saw the tremendous dangers that Philippines faces today and I promise I will do everything I can do to help protect ordinary Philippines. I witnessed when I visited how slick and unscrupulous international businessmen swoop down in Philippines to exploit the minerals beneath the ground and to create tremendous waste, to poison the precious water, of Philippines, and to employ the honorable people of the Philippines in degrading jobs that separate them from their families and damage their health.

This will end under my administration.

I pledge that the people of Philippines come first, and its time-honored traditions.

I will end the lockdown of Philippines for “covid19” and restore the rule of law. No more control of the government by hidden powers that no one can see, or talk to. Philippines will have transparency again and sustainable life again.

We have so much to learn from Philippines. America can learn from your philosophy, your simple and deep understanding of sustainability and honest fishing and trade between islands that are self-sufficient, your traditions of governance that encouraged equal exchanges between the nations of Asia in ancient times.

There are two critical moments in the history of the United States that will be addressed formally by my administration immediately

The first is the tragedy of the Philippine Revolution undertaken by the Katipunan in 1896.

When Emilio Aguinaldo was at last able to proclaim a Revolutionary Government of the Philippines on June 23, 1899, the United States government did not give him the support he deserved, the support he had been promised.

Sadly, there were many Americans in Washington D.C. who envied the global empire of Britain and were seduced by the idea of a colony. They overwhelmed those committed to the tradition of freedom of our Declaration of Independence. Instead, President McKinley made the fatal decision to pursue “annexation” rather than backing revolution. That decisions lead to a sad period of conflict and suffering that my administration will apologize formally for as we build our new alliance between our nations.

The other tragic moment was the failure of the United States to return to the full potential of the Philippine Constitutional Convention of July 30, 1934 after the end of World War Two. Granted that there has been much positive cooperation between the United States and the Philippines after 1945, there was also equal corruption and inequity that has cast a shadow over what could have been an alliance based on the constitution and the declaration of independence, not based on global finance and the sale of weapons.

But we are preparing for a Constitutional Convention in the United States this year and we encourage the Philippines to return to the full potential of the Constitutional Convention of July 30, 1934 and to establish a nation of the people, for the people and by the people that values the best of your own culture.

We hope to learn much from your rich tradition and we will adopt, always, a respectful attitude towards your nation. We are allies for peace and the rights of the common man, allies in the battle against the evil empire of global finance, allies against fascism in the various cancerous forms in which it emerges around the world.

I will offer formal apologies for our mistakes, and pledge close cooperation between our citizens, not between branches of multinational corporations. We will have a true alliance, an honest alliance, for the people.  

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I announced my intention to run for President in February (2020). I gave speeches, met with fellow Americans, especially those who are suffering the consequences of the profound moral rot in our country. With their input, with their help, I started to map out a positive direction for the United States, a future in which we move away from the dangerous culture of consumption, extraction and endless war that has infected the nation like a horrific virus and that has been amplified by dangerous parasites.

Few indeed among Yale and Harvard graduates I once associated with, the people who were my peers when I started his career, are willing to even ask whether those other “candidates” are qualified to be president, or whether this election, or the last one, granted the extensive manipulation of the vote and misleading reporting about the issues, deserve to be called an election at all. They just dismissed my effort.

But the working people with whom I meet, with whom I work, understand what I am talking about. They know that I was unemployed from January, forced out of my home, and that my wife became gravely ill because of the traumas resulting from trying to keep our family together. I know what they are talking about because I experienced it.
 
If we do not have an election in which someone like me can be a candidate, can have a chance to be covered in the media, then we are not holding elections, but rather holding an impressive sham.

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Introduction to Emanuel Pastreich

Emanuel Pastreich has emerged over the last two decades as the leading voice for a rational American policy in diplomacy and security with a laser focus on climate and biodiversity collapse, the catastrophic impact of new technology on human society, the exponential concentration of wealth, and the global arms race.

He demands that the trillions given to corporations over the last year be returned, that conglomerates like Amazon and Facebook be run as regulated cooperatives, and that the assets of fossil fuel corporations be seized immediately and their owners and administrators charged for the criminal action of presenting fraudulent information to the government and the people about climate change.

An Asia expert fluent in Korean, Japanese and Chinese, Pastreich started his career as a professor at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1998. He currently serves as president of the Asia Institute, a think tank focused on diplomacy, security and technology located in Washington D.C., Seoul, Tokyo and Hanoi.