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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Apr 18, 2021 6:27:04 GMT
Just a look at the OTL current skyline of Manila and Cebu would give one an idea it would no longer like this timeline's version. Because of the Chinese bombing, there would be no skyscrapers, high-rise condos, and megamalls. No megamalls is right, no skyways as well (the Skyway project would have been discouraged, due to potential earthquake related hazards as well). However, what we might see here would be a massive campaign for better urban organization in most of the major cities of the Philippines ITTL. Kabankalan especially, would be given priority treatment. We would see medium or small scale malls ITTL, as evident by how Japan's mall chains are interested in expanding their operations in the Philippines. Technically, Japan might become a major winner in that they would become the dominant economic power in the Philippines, and as we may have seen, that might translate to a larger anti-Japanese sentiment.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Apr 18, 2021 7:09:41 GMT
Chapter Fifty-Four: From a Different ViewpointExcerpts from "An American Family in Tadiar's Philippines" by: Kimberly and Beatrice Ramsey* Published by University of California Los Angeles Printing Press, 2017
Chapter Two: Towards a New Reality (Beatrice's Entry)T he scenery around Manila was terrible. Kimberly and I saw God knows how many starving civilians had been walking around, and even with the better portions of food that we received, thanks to our father's work, we gave it to some of the people who needed it more than we do. In fact, our father wanted to share some of his food with the poor, because he had a sense of compassion for them. Our mother, Patsy Ramsey, worked as a volunteer in one of the refugee centers, along with our older stepsister, Elizabeth, whom we called her 'Lizzy'. Every day when they arrive at the refugee centers, they saw streams of orphaned children walk into the tents, with some families choosing to leave their children there, because they did not have any food to feed them. Luckily, some of the humanitarian aid started to arrive in the Philippines, allowing the volunteers to start giving medical attention to some of the injured refugees. We noticed that most of the volunteers who worked at the refugee centers came from Japan, although there were a few people from America that we did not recognize. However, one day, Elizabeth came by our house with a stunned look on her face. Kim and I wanted to know what happened to her, and to our relief, our parents came home right away.
"Kim, Bea, come over here for a bit," our mother called us to the living room. Dad closed the door and looked around, before allowing Mom to speak. "Liz had a hard time today at the refugee center. Apparently, the volunteers from California had gone insane."
"What happened?" Kimberly asked Lizzy.
"There was that weird fellow by the name of Koresh. He tried to bring in the orphans into his tent, claiming that there would be some volunteers who are willing to adopt them. I stopped him when I found out that they were going to be trafficked," Lizzy said in disgust.
Dad's face turned dark after he heard what Lizzy told us. "General Tadiar is doing his best to help his people, but I agree that there are some shady characters working as volunteers here. In fact, I caught several volunteers attempting to grab children for such....less savoury purposes."
"Great. Just what we need, more pedophiles working in the refugee camps," Lizzy said angrily. She turned to us and our baby brother Harold, who was just sitting down. "Didn't General Tadiar vet the volunteers more closely?"
"He has his people looking out for those kinds of volunteers. If they were ever found out, they would be shot," Dad replied back. He thought of the time when one of the volunteers was caught propositioning to a little girl by several guards, and he was arrested and tortured, before he was shot by a firing squad.
"In the meanwhile, you two will have to attend a special boarding school being set up by one of General Tadiar's followers. I think his name is Nicanor Faeldon, and he will explain to you two about what will happen there." Kim and I were curious about the boarding school that we never knew about, until now. However, we were familiar with the name, mainly because we often went to those ‘patriotic rallies’ that our father made us go, and frankly speaking, they looked more like a political gathering mixed in with those Nazi-style torchlight parades. Luckily for us, there were no displays of fascist salutes, so far.
The journey to our boarding school took hours, until we arrived at what appeared to be a building undergoing some major repairs. We knew this location as the site of the former Manila branch of Brent International School, until the Chinese bombing had destroyed such a building. Now that the owners of the building had chosen to sell this to the Tadiar government, it was given to Nicanor Faeldon to transform it into the first public boarding school in the Philippines. However, upon taking a closer look, the boarding school looked more like one of those military schools in the US for troubled kids, but in addition, it looked a bit impressive. We were taken to the admissions office, where to no one’s surprise, a military officer worked as a clerk, waiting for us to arrive. He looked professional in the military uniform, but it was not one of those Philippine military uniforms. Rather, it was a custom uniform that could only be worn at this mystery boarding school.
“Ah, Mr. Ramsey. I was expecting you a bit later, but all the same, thank you for coming.” The admissions officer shook hands with Dad. He handed the papers to the admissions officer, who looked at it and nodded. He looked at me and Kim, and we felt nervous. “You two are the first possible students at the school who are lucky to have a parent file an application for your admittance. Many of the students here are recently orphaned children whose parents died in the bombing. Here at Goyo Academy, we help develop the students here into model citizens of the nation. However, as you two are American nationals, it might be tough, but given your father’s position and his connection to Brigadier General Tadiar himself, I think you two will fit in here. However, you two will be treated like every other student here, so I expect to see you two perform well. Is that understood?”
Kim and I nodded, but Dad cleared his throat, waiting for us to respond properly. “Yes, sir.”
“That’s good. In addition to academics, you two will also learn military drills, physical education, and sports as well. Language lessons will also be important as well, since Goyo Academy offers Spanish and Japanese language courses here too. Our staff are former military officers from our armed forces, as well as the Chilean military as well. Give them their due respect, and they will show you two the same courtesy.” Dad beckoned for us to wait outside, alongside Mom and Liz, who hugged us.
“Just be careful when you’re inside the school. Make friends in here, but focus on your studies, all right?” Mom told us, to which we nodded. “That’s good.”--- Portions from the Interview with Benigno Simeon Aquino 60 Minutes Interview, February 16, 2016
Discussing the Role of the Philippine Government-in-ExileInterviewer: Several years ago, you were interviewed by a Canadian reporter on your family’s fate after Artemio Tadiar seized power and were sent into exile. Since then, a government-in-exile was formed between 1995 and 1996, with the intention to represent the continuity of the Fifth Philippine Republic. However, the Tadiar regime had pushed itself into a radical political reform that transformed its legislature to a tricameral one. How was that different from the government-in-exile, based in Whistler, British Columbia, which maintained a bicameral legislature?
Aquino: In a way, the government-in-exile that my late mother had led kept all the administrative systems that existed, prior to Tadiar’s 1998 political reform. In the maps kept by us, we still had the provinces and the regions, but if you go to any Philippine Consulate or Embassy anywhere in the world, they did not have any maps, until 2006, when Tadiar had began to gently push the Philippines out of its diplomatic isolation that ambassadors were issued the new map of the Philippines, with the Prefectures and the newly reformed entities as well. Moreover, the Prefectural Assembly had been given more power than the old House of Representatives.
Interviewer: One of Tadiar’s junior officers, a promising former journalist who became a military officer within the Philippine Air Force named Loren Legarda, had also emerged as one of Tadiar’s biggest critics. Yet, she was not purged from power like any other officers that were purged by the Tadiar regime. How did she managed to survive?
Aquino: Well, I would normally say that Legarda kept her head down, but in reality, she started to forge alliances with junior officers who feared that the Philippines would become unstable should Tadiar die. In addition, as a woman, Legarda had commanded a certain amount of respect from her peers, which she used to her advantage. For instance, she campaigned for the increased opportunities for women to enlist in the military, and that she also promoted women's welfare as well. She also worked with Nicanor Faeldon in establishing the network of military-themed schools for kids, which they called Goyo Academy, named after Gregorio Del Pilar, a former Philippine general who fought against the Americans.
Interviewer: As I recall, the formation of those academies throughout the Philippines was controversial, even within Tadiar's inner circle, as the state is burdened with the welfare of the orphaned children. Yet, as the children grow older, they started to develop into well behaved teenagers, and then grow into young adults. Some say that Goyo Academy has succeeded in not only keeping the orphans fed, but educated and sheltered as well. Unfortunately, the cost of keeping these orphans well cared is that they were subjected to militarist propaganda campaigns, and constant brainwashing as well. Did your mother receive reports of what was happening within those schools?
Aquino: She did, but she got it from defectors who worked in those academies, and in one of those reports, my mother read an incident report where a student had expressed some left-wing comment, which led to accusations thrown at him of communist sympathies, before being severely beaten. Not only did the staff showed disinterest in giving sympathy to the beaten kid, but they encouraged the red-baiting abuse.
Interviewer: That's horrifying! So Goyo Academy has fostered the habit of subjecting students who hold left-wing opinions to such abuse? I'm surprised that none of the kids had committed suicide.
Aquino: Well, if there was someone who attempted suicide and failed, that attemptor would have been punished. To me, that is just as bad as re-education in labor camps that we often hear about.
Interviewer: All right. Let's move on. Judging by how the government-in-exile had functioned as a semi-independent entity, what was the biggest challenge to it?
Aquino: We had to compete with the Tadiar regime for recognition. Even within the ECA, there were member states who wanted to establish economic partnerships with the Tadiar regime, while a few of the ECA member states had formed a diplomatic partnership with us. Germany was one of those member states, and the Holy See was another.
Interviewer: The Holy See is not an ECA member, if I recall, right? (Aquino nods) Yet they were also instrumental in persuading the Tadiar regime to hold its first free elections, despite the lack of diplomatic presence in the Philippines on the Pope's part. How did that happen?
Aquino: Well, the formerly unrecognized Philippine Independent Traditionalist Catholic Church, as sponsored by the Tadiar regime, entered into a communion through the Union of Acapulco. The Union of Acapulco broke away fro the Union of Utrecht, due to theological differences, as well as what they see as increasing modernization of the Old Catholic Churches, although it was more along the lines of the Sedevacantists and other members of Opus Dei that have taken control of the Mexican Catholic Church there. However, to gain official recognition as an actual church, the PITCC had to formally announce its debut to the Vatican, officially giving notice of the break of communion with the Bishop of Rome. It went awkward, but the Vatican reluctantly gave in.
Interviewer: The government-in-exile has denounced the PITCC as a tool in the hands of the Tadiar regime, and in fact, your mother's successor Aquilino Pimentel Jr. has declared the members of the PITCC as 'Tadiaristas' and 'Faeldonistas' because of the majority of its parishioners belonging to the PITCC. In fact, one of the government-in-exile's goals was the reincorporation of the PITCC into the main Roman Catholic Church, once they regain their power from the Tadiar regime. What was the role of the exiled Catholic clergy in this affair?
Aquino: Antonio Tagle, one of the figureheads in the exiled community, had declared the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines as the official religious body of the government in exile. It was he who took up the religious struggle against the PITCC, and his main role was to convince Filipinos in the diaspora to support the government-in-exile. He lived in Vancouver, for most of his life in exile. To be honest, we owe our gratitude to Antonio Tagle for keeping the government-in-exile together, and if it wasn't for him, most of the Filipinos who were nominal supporters of the government-in-exile would have either abandoned the struggle altogether, or defect to the Tadiar regime.
--- "Shortly before the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, several of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party officials had negotiated the sale of the chemical weapon stockpile that they had in their arsenal to their counterparts in the Philippines. Although the Tadiar regime paid for the chemical weapons with the leftover money they stole from the exiled Filipino Chinese businessmen, much of the transportation of those weapons were handled by the CIA Corsairs. Prominent senior Corsair, and former US Navy engineer John Bennett Ramsey was posted in the Philippines, and he was there even before the fall of Ferdinand Marcos, and emerged as one of the most notorious figures within the Corsair faction. John Bennett Ramsey also became the leader of the CIA Corsairs after the arrest of Oliver North in 2008, while simultaneously taking over the CIA itself as Chief Director during the presidency of Carol Moseley-Braun. His children had been educated in the Philippines, including the future North American Professional Baseball player, Outfielder Harold Ramsey, who was the 2nd round, 66th draft pick chosen by the San Diego Padres. Mr. Ramsey became more powerful, as his connections to both Artemio Tadiar and Nicanor Faeldon had allowed him to join in the various political, diplomatic, and military discussions with them, and his experience as a former navy engineer had been valuable in helping the Philippines establish its first indigenous shipbuilding capability, leading to the first construction of the first Filipino-made cargo frieghter, which was bought by the Turkish logistics company, Karinca. The former US navy base in Subic Bay had been transformed into the first civilian shipyard, dedicated to the construction of more cargo frieghters, and several more shipyards would be built, most notably the Kabankalan Shipyard, which was owned by the Philippine government, as it was commissioned to build oil tankers and LNG carriers. The Corsairs also established sleeper agents within the US Navy, for the purpose of finding out which warships would be decommissioned, so that they could convince the US naval officers to persuade the US government to sell those potential decommissioned ships to the Philippines.
John Bennett Ramsey was also instrumental in one of the biggest political scandals since Tadiargate 3.0, with a shocking revelation that James Baker was implicated in the infamous Bakergate Scandal of 2006, when it was revealed that he gave sensitive information about Jack Kemp's increased dealings with prominent members of the globalist Council of Foreign Relations, and he even passed information regarding a planned destabilization mission aimed at Russia to a Russian agent posted in Tokyo, Japan, during the annual APEC Summit in 2006, when Japan hosted it. The Russian collusion, as the media called it, had been a huge bombshell that people who were connected to James Baker had their political careers affected by it. Jack Kemp became the first US president to be successfully impeached, on charges of abuse of power, when he authorized John Bennett Ramsey to pass sensitive economic and diplomatic information to the Tadiar regime, and colluded with the former South Korean government in manipulating the former North Korean regime to start the Second Korean War, which also allowed him to sign the notorious "Social Redemption Act" back in 2002, months before Carol Moseley-Braun became President, allowing criminals who are serving a life sentence in maximum security prison to enlist in the US military's Redemption Brigades, created solely for the purpose of using hardened criminals as cannon fodder. The modern-day Dirlewanger Brigade, as the Redemption Brigade was called, would acquire a notorious reputation for the various war crimes committed by its members while under US military uniform. Again, it was Ramsey and several other agents who also played a role in the creation of the Redemption Brigades, emptying jails in the Philippines by sending their criminals to enlist in either the US military-controlled Redemption Brigades, or the Filipino counterpart in the Special Security Detachment regiments. It is not surprising that John Bennett Ramsey remains the only US citizen left to be tried in the Hague, as part of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Republic of the Philippines, alongside his benefactor, Artemio Tadiar." Linda Tripp, from the Documentary "From Naval Engineer to Collaborator: The Rise and Fall of John Bennett Ramsey".--- MEGAWATI SUKARNOPUTRI WINS INDONESIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, SUBIANTO FORMALLY CONGRATULATES VICTOR OF ELECTION Jakarta Post September 29, 1996President-elect Megawati Sukarnoputri addresses her supporters after her victory in the 1996 Indonesian Presidential Election over Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.(Jakarta) - Outgoing President Prabowo Subianto today, had congratulated his eventual successor and victor of the 1996 Indonesian Presidential Election, Megawati Sukarnoputri. Sukarnoputri has made history as the first female Indonesian head of state, she rode her way to victory on the platform of promising massive economic reforms, as well as moderating some of the hardline anti-communist policies that resulted in Indonesia's failure to commit itself to freedom of expression, as the international community also condemned Indonesia's complicity in helping the Philippines evade the UN economic sanctions imposed on its dictatorship. In addition, Ms. Sukarnoputri also promised to separate the military from the civilian-led government, mainly through the introduction of several provisions to the Indonesian constitution that bans active military personnel from running for political positions, unless they are vying for the position of Defense Minister. The smooth transition of power from Prabowo Subianto to Ms. Sukarnoputri is a sign that Indonesia's commitment to democracy is growing stronger.
"The Indonesian people have spoken, and they want to remain committed to the ideals of Pancasila. They also wanted a new era without military leaders making the final decisions, and to rebuild this great nation from the Suharto dictatorship!" Ms. Sukarnoputri addresses her supporters after receiving a congratulatory message from her opponent, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. "We will continue to heal as a nation, and it starts today!"
Supporters of the defeated candidate have gathered in a different area of Jakarta to commiserate their candidate's stunning defeat at the hands of Ms. Sukarnoputri, with plans for a next presidential campaign to take place in 2002. Surprisingly, there were no post-election riots, as armed police and deployed troops were on the streets, to make sure that no such incidents, like the infamous 1986 anti-Chinese riots, would occur, although said riots played a vital role in the fall of former dictator Suharto. In addition, Ms. Sukarnoputri's first planned foreign visit will be to Japan, followed by a tour of Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and finally, the Netherlands, where she will pay a visit to the Dutch royal family. For domestic policy, Ms. Sukarnoputri had campaigned for improvement in workers' rights, as well as promoting additional trade unions in various industries, while also maintaining outgoing President Subianto's approach to the crisis in East Timor. Before her presidential campaign, Ms. Sukarnoputri held a position as Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs with the Subianto administration, overseeing much of the property confiscated from Suharto's sons after they were imprisoned on corruption charges related to the Pertamina Scandal.
--- * Kimberly and Beatrice Ramsey, along with Harold Ramsey, are the ATL children of John Bennett Ramsey and Patricia 'Patsy' Ramsey, who IOTL were known as the parents of OTL children, Burke and JonBenet Ramsey. JonBenet Ramsey was a former child beauty pageant whose murder remains unsolved to this day.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Apr 18, 2021 20:18:45 GMT
Well while Ramsey senior deserves everything he might get I hope his daughters can recover from effectively being sold into bondage. It sounds like he's an actual nutter rather than just an immoral terrorist. His daughters wouldn’t exactly be sold into bondage, but they might be subjected to the same brainwashing as those orphaned kids. Keep in mind that he and his wife (second wife, that is) are going to become a pair of unusual figures in that they’re the only Americans who have witnessed the Tadiar dictatorship up close. Hell, we might even see TTL’s version of Tim Tebow being another one of those Americans who lived in Tadiar’s Philippines. (IOTL, Tim Tebow and his family were in the Philippines doing missionary work during his early childhood, and because he was born in Makati, he is qualified to play for the Philippine National baseball team despite his status as an NFL player) For those of you who don’t know John Bennett Ramsey, as explained in the earlier update, he and his wife were the OTL parents of JonBenet Ramsey. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_JonBenét_RamseyWhat are they fucking thinking anyways? As genials as Philippine soldiers and officers could be, I tell you, they are largely unrepentant in their darker sides and dealings. Legarda though, I know that with her and her cabal, the country is in good hands and is well on the way to become quite in a developed state. Tadiar and his ilk would have eventually spooked the world too much with his militaristic sensibilities, no matter how pragmatic or even beneficial they could prove to be, not when they could order ships just as easily from South Korea. Anyways though, what the fuck? Whose Korean administration thought that restarting the war could have been a good idea, it'll pretty much blow Seoul to smithereens! As we will see, even South Korea does have its share of the Deep State, and unlike the other Deep States that we saw ITTL, the South Korean Deep State only has one goal: reunification, and they will achieve it by any means necessary, even if they get help from the US. IOTL, there was an incident that occurred around the same time as the OTL 3rd place match between South Korea and Turkey in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, in a place called the Northern Limit Line. We will see something like this happen ITTL as well, but a hell lot nastier.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Apr 18, 2021 20:24:14 GMT
Americans discovering a boarding school of horrors. BTW, why not use their OTL children instead of ATL children? Maybe they are not born or have different lives here? And did the US military once allowed juvenile delinquents to enlist in the military as an alternative to imprisonment? In this TL, even those who are on death row might be pardoned on the condition of serving the Redemption Brigades. Butterflies had flapped long enough to have different kinds of children, just like butterflies have flapped that result in having Jake Pempengco instead of Charice Pempengco. Also the spectacle of the former Unabomber, provided he was caught, or Timothy McVeigh and the OTL alt-right people chucked to jail becoming the members of the Redemption Brigades or at least its highest enlisted officer is disturbing. Because the Waco Siege never happened, Timothy McVeigh doesn’t carry out his bombing attacks in the US. He would however, end up in the Philippines a lot sooner, and even become friends with Koresh and Ramsey as well.
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