Rogue Generals: A Different Post-EDSA Uno Philippines TL

Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Dragon and the Wolf

CHINA'S NATIONAL PEOPLE'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES THE ONGOING ACT OF PIRACY IN BOTH THE SOUTH CHINA SEA AND THE STRAITS OF MALACCA
South China Morning Post
July 24, 2001

(Beijing) - The main topic of piracy and terrorism was discussed in the yearly session in the National People's Congress, as Chairman Bo Xilai presided over a heated debate on the possible solution to the ongoing hijackings and bombings of merchant ships and luxury ferries that are operating under the Chinese flag. Long time Communist Party official and former Acting Premier Wang Dongxing had declared that the Vietnamese and Filipino criminal regimes were not only responsible for the acts of piracy, but that they also had a hand in sending Uyghur separatists to Central Asia, in order to reach the training camps operated by the East Turkestan Party, which the Chinese Communist Party has declared a terrorist organization. In addition, while there is also an ongoing military buildup in the Philippines, it is for certain that the Kemp regime in the United States has provided military aid to the fascist Tadiar regime. Moreover, the same fascist regime has also been responsible for subsequent attacks on the Nansha Islands, in a series of seaborne raids while using torpedo boats to engage in a maritime kind of partisan warfare.

"The so-called international community has covered up for the fascists and neo-reactionaries in the Philippines constantly, and it is not helping us at all. Moreover, Vietnam's pretensions at past national glory has resulted in one of the most heinous kind of human rights violations committed against the Cambodian minority within southwestern Vietnam, and continues its illegal occupation of parts of Cambodian territory," says Wang, during one of the sessions in the NPC where he was given a turn to speak. "The Philippines has never been a kind of proper Asian nation that knew its place in the social hierarchy of the Sinocentric tributary system, as its exposure to the culture and civilization of Europe has allowed it to develop a kind of hero worship for their colonizers, making Pan-Asian cooperation impossible."

Some of the more outspoken generals within the People's Liberation Army had advocated for the resumption of conflict against the Philippines, with the sole intention of fully annexing the entire country for national security reasons. Even as Comrade Wang had stressed the difficulty of subduing the nation under a fascist regime, policy makers within the government of Comrade Chairman Bo Xilai had developed a kind of policy that will later be called the Bo Doctrine, which would highlight what China's ultimate goal of preserving its national security and interest. Comrade Chairman Bo himself had placed a heavy emphasis on developing China's economy, though not by relying on the millionaires and billionaires that have emerged in the economic reforms proposed by the late Comrade Deng Xiaoping, but by gradually phasing out the Central Bank of the People's Republic of China, and allowing the Chinese Communist Party to assume control over the circulation of the Renminbi. In addition, the recovery of Hong Kong and Macau had also given China access to the various economic developments that took place, prior to the handover. Inside Hong Kong, numerous financial banks were competing with one another to obtain lucrative loans to the Chinese government, while Macau's casino industry has allowed Chinese citizens to partake in an activity that is normally illegal on Chinese soil that is under the direct authority of the Chinese Communist Party.

"The influx of excited citizens of the mainland would create a huge demand for more casino services, which we will gladly give to them, provided that we collaborate with the government of the mainland on how we'll be able to accomplish this task," says Hong Kong-Macau billionaire Stanley Ho, when asked about the potential economic boom in Macau. "Moreover, the multilingual tradition of Macau will also attract international visitors to the area, provided that certain appropriate accomodations are also met as well."

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JAPAN'S CONSTRUCTION BOOM CONTINUES TO RISE AMIDST PREPARATION FOR 2002 FIFA WORLD CUP
Japan Times
August 5, 2001

(Tokyo) - Recent reports have been released by the Japanese government that reveals at how much attention was given to the infrastructure being constructed throughout the host cities that will participate in the 2002 FIFA World Cup. As a result of FIFA's disapproval of the idea of co-hosting, Japan gained the right to host the FIFA World Cup without having to rely on neighboring South Korea for support. The cities that were selected to host various FIFA World Cup matches were as follows: Tokyo (the Ajinomoto and National Stadiums), Saitama, Niigata, Yokohama, Osaka, Miyagi, Kashima, Kobe, Sapporo, Shizuoka, Naha City (Okinawa Athletic Park Stadium was also chosen to host a few matches, as well as the official training ground of the Kazakhstan national football team), and Fukuoka. New hotels and training facilities were built in all of those host cities, while Niigata Airport is currently undergoing a massive renovation project to meet the future demands of international travelers who will visit the city for the tournament. Niigata is also chosen as the training ground of the East Slavic Federation national football team, due to its position as the gateway for traffic between Russia and Japan.

"It is expected that the major investments in the projects that are ongoing will benefit us in the long run, as tourists are far too used to visiting Tokyo and Kyoto, when there are other Japanese cities that are starved for visitors," says Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, when asked about the status of the projects. "Sapporo and all of Hokkaido are also earmarked for major investments to ensure that they're not neglected."

Sapporo had received special attention for its massive infrastructure expansion, due to the increased intake of Filipino migrant workers who have temporarily resided in the city, thanks to the Open Door Treaty that the Japanese government signed with the Tadiar regime in the Philippines. Indeed, much of the workers involved in the expansion of Sapporo's infrastructure are Filipino in origin, leading to resentments from local Japanese residents of Sapporo, who felt threatened by the increased influx of Filipinos in their cities. At the same time however, there are also expansion projects in real estate housing, as the needs of hungry house seekers have increased rapidly, and Prime Minister Mori's financial incentive for the residents of Tokyo to relocate to sparsely populated areas of Japan, especially in the Tohoku region. The town of Fukushima is also earmarked for urban expansion, as the local mayor there has announced that it is closing down most of its nuclear reactors due to the questionable standards that were currently in place. Replacing the nuclear reactors was a major challenge for the local Fukushima government, due to its primary reliance on nuclear energy to meet its energy needs, but several proposals for Waste to Energy incineration plants have been put forward.

"Our position in the Ring of Fire makes the nuclear power plants vulnerable to damages sustained from earthquakes, which is why we're pushing forward the proposals for not only Waste to Energy incineration plants, but also the expansion of geothermal energy for daily usage," says newly appointed Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Koichi Haguida. "A nuclear explosion in our reactor would be far more devastating than the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

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ALMATY UNDER SIEGE AS AL-QAEDA FIGHTERS PROMISE A FIGHT TO THE DEATH FOR ADVANCING ESF, KAZAKH ARMIES
Moscow Times
August 31, 2001

(Almaty, KAZAKHSTAN) - Approximately 5,000 Al-Qaeda fighters that survived the earlier offensives by the East Slavic Federation military forces have converged on one of the few major strongholds in Kazakhstan still under Al-Qaeda's control, as they promised a fight to the death for the advancing troops that are poised to lay siege to the city. Days before the expected siege were to begin, the ESF Combined Aerospace Force dropped leaflets all over the city, persuading its inhabitants to hide within their homes while the fighting rages on, and not to stay upstairs in their homes where they'll be more likely to get killed by an airstrike. The offensive comes at a time when other ESF military forces have made considerable gains throughout Kazakhstan, and have captured the crucial KPP Karkyra-Avtodorozhnyy border crossing that guards the border between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. In addition, the Kazakh Army soon began to receive small amounts of military equipment from the ESF in the form of additional weapons and ammunition, but former Warsaw Pact member states have started to donate some of their old weapons to the Kazakh military as they intend to sell off much of their old equipment and to purchase better ones. In particular, Hungary and Poland donated some of their old T-72 battle tanks as they intend to replace their old Soviet-made tanks with ones made in Western Europe as they're transitioning to a NATO standard military.

"The aid received from former Warsaw Pact nations are a gift to us as we attempt to liberate our country from the grip of Al-Qaeda," says Kazakh General Saken Zhasuzakov, during a ceremony in liberated Karagandy, while addressing the troops that are being prepared to deploy to the front lines. "In addition, our prospects of a post-occupation recovery increase every day with the passing minute, as more of our territory is being cleansed of terrorists.:

In addition, the Chinese PLA Special Forces that were deployed to Eastern Kazakhstan have played a role in the crucial victory over retreating Al-Qaeda forces that had attempted to hold their ground in Penzhim, just hours after the fall of Horgos. Much of the PLAAF bombers have also targeted terrorist training camps in the borderlands between China and Kyrgyzstan, while news from Iran broke out that the Iranian government will send additional troops to Turkmenistan to bolster the Turkmen government's fight against other Al-Qaeda forces there. However, the biggest news to come out of Central Asia was the sudden invasion of southern Uzbekistan by the miniscule Afghan Northern Alliance under the command of Ahmad Shah Massoud, as his fighters are attempting to cut off Al-Qaeda's supply route between southern Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.

"Our brothers are suffering from the tyranny of the takbirs who have come to Uzbekistan with the sole aim of destabilizing it, in the same way they have destabilized Afghanistan," says Uzbek warlord Abdul Malik Pahlawan, as he led a group of fighters across the Amu Darya River. "Soon, we will eliminate the takbirs who desecrate the teachings of Islam and bring peace and order to this entire region."

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Portions from the Interview with Benigno Simeon Aquino
60 Minutes Interview, February 18, 2016

Discussing the Prelude to the Attempted Coups Against Tadiar

Interviewer: By the end of 1999, until a good part of 2001, you've described those years as the era where Artemio Tadiar had opted to keep a low profile. Indeed, his decision to focus on the continued development of the Philippines has resulted in a somewhat impressive economic recovery, despite the controversy surrounding the abolition of the Central Bank of the Philippines. What was your opinion on the radical experiment that Tadiar made regarding the Philippine economy?

Aquino: Well, to his credit, Tadiar not only solved the food crisis that plagued the Philippines between 1999 and 2001, but he also managed to obtain new crop seeds from Japan and Indonesia for rice cultivation. It was extremely controversial in the Japanese press, since there was a law that banned the export of Japanese rice to foreign nations, meaning that say, a sushi that was made with the so-called sushi rice, was actually rice cultivated in the former South Korea. Indonesia on the other hand, was happy with shipping some of its foodstuffs to the Philippines, as the Indonesian agro-industries there thrived at the growing domestic and foreign demand for their goods.

Interviewer: That's correct. Now. (pauses) In addition to the solving of the food shortages, what was the other thing that the Tadiar regime did regarding acts of piracy in the West Philippine Sea?

Aquino: To be honest, Tadiar's decision to scale back on the raids on the Chinese merchant ships was influenced by the tough decision made by Chairman Bo Xilai to reroute the merchant ships towards the Java Sea, which incidentally made the trip a bit longer, but it also allowed the local economy in Indonesia to grow, as much of the Chinese goods were being traded there, before some of them were allowed to continue towards Australia. However, it was the Singaporean government's decision to sign a military alliance with China that backed Tadiar off.

Interviewer: In what way?

Aquino: The Singaporean Navy offered to escort the Chinese merchant ships through the Straits of Malacca, and if either nation's vessels came under attack, it would be seen as an act of war. Tadiar realized that his continued acts of piracy would eventually come back to hurt him, so he switched to staging seaborne raids on Chinese military installations in the disputed Spratlys, and even helped plan a bold military mission that resulted in the recovery of Scarborough Shoal. The continued raids on the Chinese posts in the Spratlys was also helped by the continued development of the formerly aborted Santa Barbara project, which the Kemp administration had been interested in.

Interviewer: Some say that the Santa Barbara Project, which was the brainchild of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, had been completed back in 1999, but you disagreed on the year it was actually completed.

Aquino: That's right. It was completed in early 2002, and Gerald Bull also expressed interest in improving its capability. There were two prototypes that were completed: one was the default Santa Barbara Project, which eventually became the Aswang-1. The Aswang-1 was a missile launcher mounted on the truck, so it was a miniature version of the S-300. The second one was basically what we call Santa Barbara on a Walker Bulldog chassis, and it was this kind of weapon that terrified the PLAAF.

Interviewer: How were they scared of such a weapon?

Aquino: The Tikbalang-100P anti-air missile had 27 rocket tubes, nine in a single sub-tube. It was also given protection by a machine gun on the top of the Tikbalang-100P. Since it was a prototype, it was given the P designation. Once it's marked for mass production, it loses the P designation. Ultimately, they reduced the rocket tubes to 18, and installed gatling guns for both anti-personnel and anti-air combat.

Interviewer: But the credit for the development of these weapons belonged to the US government, correct?

Aquino: Yes, and Tadiar also received credit due to his contribution as well. Moreover, the Tikbalang-100 regular version used the recycled chassis of the decommissioned M41 Walker Bulldog, while the Tikbalang-100MT, with the MT standing for multi-terrain as it can fight on the jungle and on the mountains. The Tadiar regime received the first 50 batches of these weapons, and obtained the license to build them.

Interviewer: All right, so weapons development was also something that the Tadiar regime had to focus on, as well as the procurement of several old vessels that were purchased from either the US Navy, or the Spanish Navy. Of these, three Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates were donated to the Philippine Navy, while the Spanish Navy would not donate one of their submarines to the Philippine Navy until 2007, a year after Tadiar ended the diplomatic isolation that he imposed on the Philippines in the S61 Delfin. What was the significance of the increased naval procurement during the Tadiar regime?

Aquino: It was obvious that the naval procurement was meant for acts of piracy, which was conveniently covered up by the Kemp administration, as they were mainly shipping out a few extra weapons to the Tadiar regime in order to help them continue the chaos in the West Philippine Sea. Three ships that used to serve the Royal Navy in Hong Kong, the HMS Peacock, HMS Plover, and HMS Starling, were originally going to be donated to the Philippine Navy, until the Chinese ambassador to the UK lodged a formal complaint about it, resulting in the cancellation of the transfers. Instead, the HMS Peacock, HMS Plover, and KMS Starling were donated to the Royal Thai Navy, as a gesture of good faith. Moreover, the Australian Navy had donated the HMAS Swan and the HMAS Torrens to the Philippines in 2004 after being advised by the Kemp administration to hold off on sinking them, as they needed to boost the Philippine naval capabilities. To compensate for the failed transfer of those three Peacock-class ships, the Tadiar regime would receive 4 Fremantle-class patrol boats as a reward for its participation in the Second Korean War.

Interviewer: And what of the Air Force?

Aquino: All of the F-5s that were used during the Spratlys conflict were shot down, meaning that Tadiar didn't have any fighter aircraft that can defend Philippine airspace. It was the difficult process of procuring the aircraft needed that eventually led to what we now call the Sangley Point Mutiny, when famed war hero Danilo Atienza would lead a group of Philippine Air Force pilots, as well as disaffected troops of the Philippine Army, into a rebellion against the Tadiar regime. That was one of the several coups that nearly broke the Tadiar regime, until the Kemp administration threatened to intervene that Tadiar would send his own troops to crush the mutiny, and place Atienza and eight other ringleaders on trial, before executing them in the middle of the Philippine Sea by means of machine gunning them.

Interviewer: Goodness gracious! That was terrible to say the least.

Aquino: Yes, and while Tadiar was furious with Atienza's mutiny, it was the other gesture that would eventually result in the Philippines resurfacing into the headlines of the world press, when several UP students, furious with the diplomatic isolation and the incident involving a Chinese-Filipino student, unfolded a banner that literally says Manila, Philippines SAR, People's Republic of China. That led to the Diliman round ups and the attention was given to the Diliman Thirteen, who staged a hunger strike over Tadiar's continued human rights abuses.

Interviewer: And what prompted Tadiar to suddenly participate in the 2002-2004 Second Korean War?

Aquino: Just as China threatened to wage war against the Philippines once again over a Chinese merchant ship being detonated over the Spratly Islands, Tadiar announced to the world that he had somehow obtained the chemical weapons acquired from former Iraqi Ba'athist officers, and had ordered his scientists and engineers to developed an improved version of those chemical weapons and threatened to launch them at Macau and Hong Kong. President Kemp actually offered to recover those chemical weapons in exchange for giving Tadiar the authority to create one of the dreaded military units that served in Korea in 2003, and financial aid as well.

Interviewer: You are of course, referring to the Berdugo Brigade, correct?

Aquino: Yes, and it was actually named in honor of the aspiring officer who made a name for himself with the merciless treatment of captured NPA fighters who were impaled with a bamboo stick, and had a penchant for ordering his soldiers to literally kill their prisoners with butcher knives. There is a reason why the Berdugo Brigade was nicknamed the Filipino Dirlewanger Brigade, because that was the unit that consisted of hardened criminals that were taken from local jail cells in the Philippines. However, the Kemp administration also allowed active members of various gangs that were affiliated to the Nuestra Familia prison gangs, the Crips, Bloods, the Mafia, and even Neo-Nazi outfits whose members fought in the former Soviet Union, to serve in the Redemption Brigade as well. Of course, we cannot forget the Bato Brigade, which was another penal brigade that was led by Bato de al Rosa. All of the penal brigades were given the license to do whatever they wanted, as long as it took place within the former North Korea only. The only catch is that if they were captured, the US and Philippine governments will deny their existence, so it was essentially a mixture of a penal battalion and a mercenary outfit. They were given the same training as the US Marine Corps, and they were also outfitted with heavy weaponry as well. It was the presence of these penal brigades that were responsible for 88% of various war crimes that were committed in the former North Korea that resulted in the Republican Party facing a near collapse, because the crimes of the Kemp administration had now been synonymous with the Republican Party. Even so, the Republicans were still strong in California and Texas due to the continued support given to them by the local Filipinos there, but once the 28th Amendment was passed due to the 2004 US Presidential Election being the first to have a no clear winner, with the growth of the Social Progressives and a small growth of James Traficant's National Revival Party, the US would now have two elections: One on the last Tuesday of October, where they will determine which candidates will advance to the runoff, and the second is of course, the main election where they will decide the Presidency.

Interviewer: Going back to the mutinies against Tadiar, did he addressed the issues that Atienza brought up?

Aquino: Of course. If he didn't, then the Philippines would certainly not have received different fighter aircraft that the Philippine Air Force can experiment on, that totalled around $35 million US dollars. By then, the Philippine economy was becoming strong enough to expand its own manufacturing sector, which naturally expanded to the defense industry. At that time, Loren Legarda was working for the Philippine Air Force as a consultant for technical research, before her political career took off. It was she who would be the brains behind the attempt to build the first indigenous Filipino fighter plane, which was a painful process with the tools they had, but they pulled it off. In 2019, well into her own presidency.

Interviewer: What of the other issue Tadiar had to address?

Aquino: At some point, Tadiar realized that his diplomatic isolation would not serve him well in the long run, so he took steps to gradually end it by establishing diplomatic relations with Argentina, India, New Zealand, and even the East Slavic Federation, as well as Thailand and Burma. His strong support for Thailand until the Patani War was the motivation behind the attempt to revive SEATO, but once the Thais rejected the Kozlowka Agreement that blackmailed them into giving more powers to the Patani region and give them autonomy, and the Burmese condemning it, Tadiar would also condemn the agreement as a form of diplomatic extortion. It was this symbolic gesture of support for Thailand, despite his earlier anger at PM Shinawatra's refusal to give autonomy to the Patani region, that later sowed the seeds for his own political collapse.

I may end up retconning that part, but IOTL, those three frigates were given to the Philippine Navy. I think this time around they would have end up with either Thailand or India.

The worst case scenario when they were involved in the acts of piracy would have been to kill all the crew aboard the ship, after they secure it. If the goods aboard are valuable, they'd tow it back to the Philippines. If there are no goods aboard, then they'd probably lay booby traps in it. I will get to the part where an act of mercy on part of a Philippine Marine would also contribute to the trial of Artemio Tadiar and others.

Funny you mentioned the post-Thatcher era, since I was thinking of doing a UK centric update where there might be a certain kind of political party that may want to get chummy with Tadiar.

Another problem with sinking the ships is that the country that it came from might assume that something went wrong if it didn't arrive at their intended destination on time. So for example, Tadiar's Marines attack a merchant ship that belongs to say, Qatar. The Qatari authorities will immediately sense that something went wrong on the trip when their ship was supposed to arrive in Hong Kong. I could also cover this in another update when they actually try to pull off a trojan horse style terror attack.

Also, any description as to how that indigenous Filipino jet fighter look like?

This is great. Thanks.

The funny thing is that, only Dole and Kemp are actual Republicans. The rest are Democrats.