2006 P5,000.00 na Additional Incentive at P1,000.00 na Christmas Grocery Allowance Naaprobahan ng BOR dahil sa Sama-samang Pagkilos
Malaking tagumpay ang miting ng Pambansang Konseho (National Council) ng All U.P. Workers Union na ginanap mula ika-21 hanggang ika-23 ng Nobyembre 2006 sa Guest House ng U.P. Tacloban. Ito ay dinaluhan ng lahat na mga kasapi ng National Executive Board (NEB), at mga Presidente at BisePresidente ng mga chapter sa iba't-ibang campus ng U.P. sa buong bansa at ng limang (5) kasapi ng konseho na inihalal sa General Assembly. Sa mga nakatakdang dumalo, ang kinatawan ng U.P. Mindanao at Open University ang hindi nakarating dahil sa problema ng kanilang eskedyul sa trabaho.
Matatandaang ang orihinal na eskedyul ng miting ng konseho ay sa ika-29 ng Nobyembre hanggang ika 1 ng Disyembre 2006 pa sa U.P. Los Baños, subalit dahil sa walang katiyakang sagot ng Management Panel sa miting ng Union-Management Consultative Board (UMCB) noong Oktubre ay naipasya ng NEB na sundan ang miting ng U.P. Board of Regents (BOR) sa Palo, Leyte noong ika-24 ng Nobyembre 2006.
Sa miting ng konseho, naitakda ang mga gawain ng unyon sa taong 2007 kung saan matatapos na ang bisa ng ating Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA) at panahon na rin ng General Assembly at paghalal ng panibagong mga chapter at pambansang opisyales. Naitakda rin ang ating pagtutol sa mga hindi makatarungang probisyon ng panukalang Government Classification and Compensation Act of 2006 o mas kilala sa tawag na SSL III.
Kaugnay sa CNA, ang unyon ay maghahain ng panibagong teksto para sa panibagong pag-uusap sa U.P. Management bago lumipas ang bisa ng kasalukuyang CNA - mayroon man o walang hamon ng panibagong Certification Election mula sa kabilang unyon. Ayon sa tradisyon, itinakda ang Pangkalahatang Asembleya sa unang linggo ng Disyembre 2007, ito ay gaganapin sa U.P. Los Baños. Magdaraos naman ang unyon ng kampanya laban sa SSL III at sasama sa mga pagkilos ng All G.E. Coalition kaugnay dito sa susunod na mga araw. Ang All G.E. Coalition at binubuo ng mga unyon sa ilalim ng Alliance of Concerned Teachers, COURAGE, Alliance of Health Workers at iba pang mga unyong tunay na kumakatawan ng mga kawaning rank-and-file sa gobyerno.
Sa miting ng BOR (ika-24 ng Nobyembre 2006) , sama-samang kumilos ang mga kawani ng U.P. Tacloban sa pangunguna ng All U.P. Workers Union at mga estudyante ng U.P. Tacloban at School of Health Sciences sa Palo, Leyte sa harap ng Mac Arthur Park Resort Hotel sa Palo. Ang kawni ay upang ipaglaban ang P5,000.00 na additional incentive at P1,000.00 na Christmas Grocery Allowance. Ang sa mga estudyante naman ay upang tutulan ang P250% na panukala ng U.P. Administration na pagtaas ng tuition fee. Iisang boses na sinang-ayunan ng BOR ang hiling ng mga kawani samantalang hindi pa pinag-usapan ang tuition fee increase.
Anim (6) ang mga delegado na nanggaling sa U.P. Manila. Ito ay sina: Elesio Estropigan - Pambansang Ingat-yaman; Belinda Jubilo Santos at Ernesto Ragudos - NC Members-at-large; Jossel Ebesate - Pambansang P.R.O. at Presidente ng Manila Chapter; Jesusa Besido - Bise-Presidente ng Chapter; at, Freddie Waje - Chapter Council Member.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Getting Real on the UP Tuition Hike - A Rejoinder from USC
We would like to make a public clarification and rebuttal on Mrs. Solita Monsod's "Get Real" column published in the Inquirer on Nov. 25, entitled 'Trapo'-like spins on UP tuition hikes. This is not the first time she has written a column to defend the tuition and other fees increase (TOFI) proposal in the University of the Philippines, and her continued publicity of the UP administration' s twisted truths and false argumentations only reveals the real "trapo" there could be.
First, she purposefully underestimated the crowd that joined the boycott of classes last Nov. 23 in UP to number only "from 200 to 400 people." Anyone who passed by the demonstration program last Thursday noon could easily disprove her. We also wonder where she got her "information from all colleges on campus" that "none were cancelled for lack of attendance." Majority of the colleges in UP Diliman were present at the rally and even carried banners of their college's unity against the proposed TOFI, not to mention that boycott and protest programs were also successful at the other UP units nationwide.
Monsod also attempted to give malice to the participants of the rally by questioning if "they were all from the UP community" or "were all UP students." Indeed they were not, for the protest against TOFI has been actively participated by many other sectors from the UP community including her colleagues in the faculty who know better, and has been supported by other groups outside UP who oppose the commercialization of education.
Clearly, Monsod and her cohorts can only delude themselves by trying to undermine the collective efforts of the growing opposition to TOFI in UP.
Monsod furthermore defends the UP admin by proclaiming that "in the spirit of academic freedom and freedom of speech, they (rallies) are allowed, defended, and even encouraged by UP authorities. " We can hardly recall the last time that the UP admin allowed us to rally, and she must not forget the admin's harsh dispersal of the UP community's picket in protest of the massive lay-off of janitors in the campus only a few months ago. Even our premier student publication, the Philippine Collegian, has not withstood such granting of "freedom" and has been shut down for three months now.
Monsod then proceeds to echo the UP admin's basic pro-TOFI reasonings. She says that one reason that students may have been "indifferent" is because the TOFI will only be imposed on incoming students. This is precisely the pacifying logic the admin uses to promote indifference among students in order to proceed more easily with their schemes. The admin also uses this argument to avoid consultation with the present students and members of UP community. Such argument only fools us for it is as if we have already escaped the present crisis of education we are in by not directly enduring the TOFI, and that the present and future generation of students do not have the same objective interests for more accessible and quality education.
Monsod then champions the concept of the STFAP or the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program to supposedly group students to how much one should pay depending on his income. But Monsod (on purpose) failed to mention that under the current STFAP, three out of the nine income groupings are given full subsidy for tuition, and with the current proposal, only the first of the five new income groupings will be fully freed from the tuition, which the UP admin targets to be no more than 10 percent of the students. We know very well that the STFAP was actually created to implement tuition increases and make it seemingly palatable. As what happened in 1989 when the STFAP was first implemented, UP tuition skyrocketed from P45 to P300 per unit, and now, 90 percent of students fall under the highest STFAP grouping which pay that full cost of tuition.
If we really look at the social strata that is unfamiliar to the STFAP and to the economics specialist who is Monsod, 60 percent of our youth could not enter college anymore mainly because of unaffordability, and 90 percent could not finish their college degrees. UP being a state university, in case Monsod and company have totally forgotten, should not even entertain bracketing of tuition payments because there should be no tuition fee at all in a supposed state-funded educational institution. Given the crisis in the youth's education that we face, it is still hard to imagine the concept of free education nowadays (which is actually implemented in some countries, from primary to tertiary education), thanks to the likes of Monsod who makes things appear to be not so bad at all.
If bannering and clamoring to uphold that education, as a right, should be more accessible to our youth and should serve the interests of the people displeases the likes of Monsod, our students will not hesitate to partake for more.
Juan Paolo Alfonso
Chairperson
UP Diliman University Student Council
Room 204, 2nd floor
Vinzons Hall
UP Diliman, Quezon City
First, she purposefully underestimated the crowd that joined the boycott of classes last Nov. 23 in UP to number only "from 200 to 400 people." Anyone who passed by the demonstration program last Thursday noon could easily disprove her. We also wonder where she got her "information from all colleges on campus" that "none were cancelled for lack of attendance." Majority of the colleges in UP Diliman were present at the rally and even carried banners of their college's unity against the proposed TOFI, not to mention that boycott and protest programs were also successful at the other UP units nationwide.
Monsod also attempted to give malice to the participants of the rally by questioning if "they were all from the UP community" or "were all UP students." Indeed they were not, for the protest against TOFI has been actively participated by many other sectors from the UP community including her colleagues in the faculty who know better, and has been supported by other groups outside UP who oppose the commercialization of education.
Clearly, Monsod and her cohorts can only delude themselves by trying to undermine the collective efforts of the growing opposition to TOFI in UP.
Monsod furthermore defends the UP admin by proclaiming that "in the spirit of academic freedom and freedom of speech, they (rallies) are allowed, defended, and even encouraged by UP authorities. " We can hardly recall the last time that the UP admin allowed us to rally, and she must not forget the admin's harsh dispersal of the UP community's picket in protest of the massive lay-off of janitors in the campus only a few months ago. Even our premier student publication, the Philippine Collegian, has not withstood such granting of "freedom" and has been shut down for three months now.
Monsod then proceeds to echo the UP admin's basic pro-TOFI reasonings. She says that one reason that students may have been "indifferent" is because the TOFI will only be imposed on incoming students. This is precisely the pacifying logic the admin uses to promote indifference among students in order to proceed more easily with their schemes. The admin also uses this argument to avoid consultation with the present students and members of UP community. Such argument only fools us for it is as if we have already escaped the present crisis of education we are in by not directly enduring the TOFI, and that the present and future generation of students do not have the same objective interests for more accessible and quality education.
Monsod then champions the concept of the STFAP or the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program to supposedly group students to how much one should pay depending on his income. But Monsod (on purpose) failed to mention that under the current STFAP, three out of the nine income groupings are given full subsidy for tuition, and with the current proposal, only the first of the five new income groupings will be fully freed from the tuition, which the UP admin targets to be no more than 10 percent of the students. We know very well that the STFAP was actually created to implement tuition increases and make it seemingly palatable. As what happened in 1989 when the STFAP was first implemented, UP tuition skyrocketed from P45 to P300 per unit, and now, 90 percent of students fall under the highest STFAP grouping which pay that full cost of tuition.
If we really look at the social strata that is unfamiliar to the STFAP and to the economics specialist who is Monsod, 60 percent of our youth could not enter college anymore mainly because of unaffordability, and 90 percent could not finish their college degrees. UP being a state university, in case Monsod and company have totally forgotten, should not even entertain bracketing of tuition payments because there should be no tuition fee at all in a supposed state-funded educational institution. Given the crisis in the youth's education that we face, it is still hard to imagine the concept of free education nowadays (which is actually implemented in some countries, from primary to tertiary education), thanks to the likes of Monsod who makes things appear to be not so bad at all.
If bannering and clamoring to uphold that education, as a right, should be more accessible to our youth and should serve the interests of the people displeases the likes of Monsod, our students will not hesitate to partake for more.
Juan Paolo Alfonso
Chairperson
UP Diliman University Student Council
Room 204, 2nd floor
Vinzons Hall
UP Diliman, Quezon City
Monday, November 13, 2006
Statement on the Charge of Rebellion
Francisco Nemenzo
Former President and Professor Emeritus University of the Philippines
If the attachments to the subpoena are all the evidence they can produce, the NBI and CIDG are wasting the time of the state prosecutors by including me in the rebellion case [NBI and CIDG vs. MGen. Renato Miranda, et al. IS No. 2006-1003].
They did such a sloppy job that they could not even get my name right. In the subpoena I am listed as "Prudencio Dodong Nemenzo." Everyone in UP knows my real name. A call to Diliman or a visit to UP Manila (the NBI's next door neighbor) would have spared them from this embarrassing error. I could have taken advantage of their carelessness to deny that I am one of the accused. But I do not want to get off the hook through technicality. I welcome this charge – no matter how silly and malicious – as an opportunity to reiterate the views that the Arroyo government seeks to suppress.
I choose to speak in my own voice instead of speaking through my lawyers to show that the oppositioncannot be cowed. The mass movement will not be intimidated. We shall continue to call for the ouster of an illegitimate, corrupt, incompetent, and repressive regime that has inflicted so much damage to our country. It is our patriotic duty to defend the area of freedom that people's power had carved out in the struggle against the Marcos dictatorship.
The best way to defend freedom is to exercise it. Responsible citizens cannot watch in silence as the minions of Mrs. Arroyo make a mockery of our democratic rights.
Bases for the allegations
Before I go further, let me answer the specific charges. In some 150 pages of documentation, I am mentioned only twice: in the affidavits of Lt. Lawrence San Juan and Lt. Patricio Bumidang. My name does not appear in the letter of transmittal, the Lopez report, or the affidavits and transcripts of oral testimonies.
San Juan claims that I met a group of junior officers to discuss the Blueprint for a Viable Philippines. This I do not deny. What is wrong with discussing with soldiers the problems of our country and the policy options available? They, too, are citizens who are worried about our country's plunge to disaster.
I should emphasize, however, that I met San Juan before he escaped, before he became a fugitive. There was therefore nothing conspiratorial about the meeting. We also discussed the Blueprint with colleagues in academe, with journalists, religious communities, mass organizations, and even with Makati business executives.
This document is published and widely circulated. In fact, it is posted in the Internet and can be downloaded by anybody who cares about the future of this country.
In a separate affidavit Bumidang alleges that I visited him and other fugitives in the house of Renato Constantino, Jr. It is not unusual for me to visit RC Constantino because we are old friends. I have been to his house countless times; but never did I find soldiers among his guests.
Mr. Bumidang's story is inaccurate. In truth, I first saw Mr. Bumidang's face on television, when he and companions were paraded for public humiliation after their capture.
I hold no rancor toward San Juan and Bumidang. They have been kept in isolation and probably subjected to physical and mental torture. Having experienced solitary confinement myself, I know how vulnerable they are to intrigues and disinformation. It is not improbable that their tormentors put words into their mouths.
For this investigation to becredible to the intelligent public, I challenge Gen. Esperon to allow media, in the presence of bishops and other religious leaders, to interview San Juan and Bumidang. Release them from isolation and let them answer questions about their affidavits outside the intimidating atmosphere of an interrogation chamber. If indeed they are telling the truth, there is no reason to shield them from public grilling.
The legitimacy crisis
When citizens perceive the government as legitimate, they will obey even if they disagree with its policies; otherwise, they have to be forced to obey. The current political instability is rooted in this widespread perception that the president is a usurper who uses foul means to keep herself in power. All opinion surveys show that most people doubt the legitimacy of her accession in 2001 and her reelection in 2004.
When those who are supposed to protect her government and enforce her orders doubt her legitimacy as well, her position is precarious indeed. She is lucky that the protest movement has yet to reach the stage of rebellion. Rebellion properly so called involves the use of arms. A peaceful demonstration, no matter how massive, does not constitute a rebellion. Wishing for a coup is not rebellion. But Mrs. Arroyo's minions, by accusing us of what we have not done, provoke the angry multitude who may be less temperate to turn the fabricated scenario into a grim reality.
Dictators panic when they hear voices of dissent because when people gain the courage to defy, the effectiveness of state coercion is diminished. But a democratic government, confident of its own legitimacy, responds to such voices with equanimity.
I was never convinced of the legitimacy of Mrs. Arroyo's accession to power. Yet, as head of a state institution (as President of the University ofthe Philippines) I urged my constituents to accept her presidency as an accomplished fact and give her the benefit of the doubt. That was because I was painfully aware that a breakdown of civic order would prevent UP from catching up with the other premier universities in Asia.
It became increasingly clear, however, that Mrs. Arroyo does not deserve our qualified and tentative support. She continues to pursue the neo-liberal policies that have devastated the lives of the working people. She has incurred more public debts than her three predecessors put together. While waving the banner of a "strong republic," her government could not enforce the laws on influential malefactors. She blames external circumstances for our economic woes, but it is her policies that make the country vulnerable to the vagaries of the global market. In a sense, she is the No. 1 destabilizer.
She had a chance to legitimize her illegitimate regime by a convincing victory in the 2004 elections. But she squandered the chance. The indecent haste in her proclamation in the wee hours of the morning, and the stubborn refusal to open for scrutiny the certificates of canvass in contested provinces reinforced the suspicion of massive cheating. This worsened when her rabid supporters in the Lower House aborted the impeachment process, invoking flimsy arguments that could only persuade the blind and the brainless.
By depriving the Senate of the opportunity to evaluate and pass judgment on the authenticity and implications of the Garci tapes, they closed the last possibility of removing her through constitutional means. This prompted people, out of frustration, to explore of the extra-constitutional channels. As doubts of her legitimacy mount, Mrs. Arroyo and her minions are now resorting to systematic intimidation.
Since the much ballyhooed "all out war" miserably failed to crush the underground opposition, her minions have started running after the above ground opposition. The special target of the latest drive is the open mass movement. Peaceful rallies are violently dispersed. Some 800 grassroots activists have perished in extra-judicial executions. Lately they are threatening to replace elected opposition mayors withdocile partisans. Unrest in the armed services
This campaign of intimidation is the context of this and similar cases recently filed. Without being asked, I take up the cudgels for the active and retired military and police officers who are similarly accused, but who cannot speak freely because they are either detained or forced into hiding by a fabulous reward for their capture, dead or alive. Among them are the finest officers in the AFP and PNP.
These are not the stereotype soldiers who blindly follow orders from the chain of command. These are intelligent officers who dare to ask if the regime deserves the risk to their lives and the lives of the men under their command. With RSBS sponged dry, they also worry about the survival of the families they might leave behind. In a brazen display of hypocrisy, their star-spangled superiors invoke the doctrine of "political neutrality" to whip them into line.
But these soldiers have come to realize that "political neutrality" is a fiction. Many times in Philippine history, the AFP and PNP played a political role. They have been used to protect the elite from the outraged masses. They have also been used to thwart the people's will in fraudulent elections. These soldiers who now stand accused for violating "political neutrality" are in fact trying to redeem their profession from ignominy, by aligning themselves with the people. They seek to transform the armed services from a tool of elite rule and an instrument of deceitful politicians into a force for genuine democracy and social reforms.
Extrapolating from survey results, a coup to evict GMA would be the most popular coup in Philippine history. But there was no danger of that last February 24th. It is evident in the Lopez report and the affidavits and testimonies appended to the complaint against us that Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and Col. Ariel Querubin did not plan to stage a coup. They just wanted to march with their troops to the EDSA shrine and join a civilian crowd in calling for withdrawal of support from an illegitimate and corrupt government. Real coup plotters do not ask permission from their superior officers, much less invite them to heed the clamor from below.
As a political science professor who specialized in the study of unconventional forms of political action, I have been a keen observer of military affairs. I therefore understand and sympathize with these disgruntledsoldiers, but I vehemently disclaim the charge that we conspired against the Filipino people.
Former President and Professor Emeritus University of the Philippines
If the attachments to the subpoena are all the evidence they can produce, the NBI and CIDG are wasting the time of the state prosecutors by including me in the rebellion case [NBI and CIDG vs. MGen. Renato Miranda, et al. IS No. 2006-1003].
They did such a sloppy job that they could not even get my name right. In the subpoena I am listed as "Prudencio Dodong Nemenzo." Everyone in UP knows my real name. A call to Diliman or a visit to UP Manila (the NBI's next door neighbor) would have spared them from this embarrassing error. I could have taken advantage of their carelessness to deny that I am one of the accused. But I do not want to get off the hook through technicality. I welcome this charge – no matter how silly and malicious – as an opportunity to reiterate the views that the Arroyo government seeks to suppress.
I choose to speak in my own voice instead of speaking through my lawyers to show that the oppositioncannot be cowed. The mass movement will not be intimidated. We shall continue to call for the ouster of an illegitimate, corrupt, incompetent, and repressive regime that has inflicted so much damage to our country. It is our patriotic duty to defend the area of freedom that people's power had carved out in the struggle against the Marcos dictatorship.
The best way to defend freedom is to exercise it. Responsible citizens cannot watch in silence as the minions of Mrs. Arroyo make a mockery of our democratic rights.
Bases for the allegations
Before I go further, let me answer the specific charges. In some 150 pages of documentation, I am mentioned only twice: in the affidavits of Lt. Lawrence San Juan and Lt. Patricio Bumidang. My name does not appear in the letter of transmittal, the Lopez report, or the affidavits and transcripts of oral testimonies.
San Juan claims that I met a group of junior officers to discuss the Blueprint for a Viable Philippines. This I do not deny. What is wrong with discussing with soldiers the problems of our country and the policy options available? They, too, are citizens who are worried about our country's plunge to disaster.
I should emphasize, however, that I met San Juan before he escaped, before he became a fugitive. There was therefore nothing conspiratorial about the meeting. We also discussed the Blueprint with colleagues in academe, with journalists, religious communities, mass organizations, and even with Makati business executives.
This document is published and widely circulated. In fact, it is posted in the Internet and can be downloaded by anybody who cares about the future of this country.
In a separate affidavit Bumidang alleges that I visited him and other fugitives in the house of Renato Constantino, Jr. It is not unusual for me to visit RC Constantino because we are old friends. I have been to his house countless times; but never did I find soldiers among his guests.
Mr. Bumidang's story is inaccurate. In truth, I first saw Mr. Bumidang's face on television, when he and companions were paraded for public humiliation after their capture.
I hold no rancor toward San Juan and Bumidang. They have been kept in isolation and probably subjected to physical and mental torture. Having experienced solitary confinement myself, I know how vulnerable they are to intrigues and disinformation. It is not improbable that their tormentors put words into their mouths.
For this investigation to becredible to the intelligent public, I challenge Gen. Esperon to allow media, in the presence of bishops and other religious leaders, to interview San Juan and Bumidang. Release them from isolation and let them answer questions about their affidavits outside the intimidating atmosphere of an interrogation chamber. If indeed they are telling the truth, there is no reason to shield them from public grilling.
The legitimacy crisis
When citizens perceive the government as legitimate, they will obey even if they disagree with its policies; otherwise, they have to be forced to obey. The current political instability is rooted in this widespread perception that the president is a usurper who uses foul means to keep herself in power. All opinion surveys show that most people doubt the legitimacy of her accession in 2001 and her reelection in 2004.
When those who are supposed to protect her government and enforce her orders doubt her legitimacy as well, her position is precarious indeed. She is lucky that the protest movement has yet to reach the stage of rebellion. Rebellion properly so called involves the use of arms. A peaceful demonstration, no matter how massive, does not constitute a rebellion. Wishing for a coup is not rebellion. But Mrs. Arroyo's minions, by accusing us of what we have not done, provoke the angry multitude who may be less temperate to turn the fabricated scenario into a grim reality.
Dictators panic when they hear voices of dissent because when people gain the courage to defy, the effectiveness of state coercion is diminished. But a democratic government, confident of its own legitimacy, responds to such voices with equanimity.
I was never convinced of the legitimacy of Mrs. Arroyo's accession to power. Yet, as head of a state institution (as President of the University ofthe Philippines) I urged my constituents to accept her presidency as an accomplished fact and give her the benefit of the doubt. That was because I was painfully aware that a breakdown of civic order would prevent UP from catching up with the other premier universities in Asia.
It became increasingly clear, however, that Mrs. Arroyo does not deserve our qualified and tentative support. She continues to pursue the neo-liberal policies that have devastated the lives of the working people. She has incurred more public debts than her three predecessors put together. While waving the banner of a "strong republic," her government could not enforce the laws on influential malefactors. She blames external circumstances for our economic woes, but it is her policies that make the country vulnerable to the vagaries of the global market. In a sense, she is the No. 1 destabilizer.
She had a chance to legitimize her illegitimate regime by a convincing victory in the 2004 elections. But she squandered the chance. The indecent haste in her proclamation in the wee hours of the morning, and the stubborn refusal to open for scrutiny the certificates of canvass in contested provinces reinforced the suspicion of massive cheating. This worsened when her rabid supporters in the Lower House aborted the impeachment process, invoking flimsy arguments that could only persuade the blind and the brainless.
By depriving the Senate of the opportunity to evaluate and pass judgment on the authenticity and implications of the Garci tapes, they closed the last possibility of removing her through constitutional means. This prompted people, out of frustration, to explore of the extra-constitutional channels. As doubts of her legitimacy mount, Mrs. Arroyo and her minions are now resorting to systematic intimidation.
Since the much ballyhooed "all out war" miserably failed to crush the underground opposition, her minions have started running after the above ground opposition. The special target of the latest drive is the open mass movement. Peaceful rallies are violently dispersed. Some 800 grassroots activists have perished in extra-judicial executions. Lately they are threatening to replace elected opposition mayors withdocile partisans. Unrest in the armed services
This campaign of intimidation is the context of this and similar cases recently filed. Without being asked, I take up the cudgels for the active and retired military and police officers who are similarly accused, but who cannot speak freely because they are either detained or forced into hiding by a fabulous reward for their capture, dead or alive. Among them are the finest officers in the AFP and PNP.
These are not the stereotype soldiers who blindly follow orders from the chain of command. These are intelligent officers who dare to ask if the regime deserves the risk to their lives and the lives of the men under their command. With RSBS sponged dry, they also worry about the survival of the families they might leave behind. In a brazen display of hypocrisy, their star-spangled superiors invoke the doctrine of "political neutrality" to whip them into line.
But these soldiers have come to realize that "political neutrality" is a fiction. Many times in Philippine history, the AFP and PNP played a political role. They have been used to protect the elite from the outraged masses. They have also been used to thwart the people's will in fraudulent elections. These soldiers who now stand accused for violating "political neutrality" are in fact trying to redeem their profession from ignominy, by aligning themselves with the people. They seek to transform the armed services from a tool of elite rule and an instrument of deceitful politicians into a force for genuine democracy and social reforms.
Extrapolating from survey results, a coup to evict GMA would be the most popular coup in Philippine history. But there was no danger of that last February 24th. It is evident in the Lopez report and the affidavits and testimonies appended to the complaint against us that Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and Col. Ariel Querubin did not plan to stage a coup. They just wanted to march with their troops to the EDSA shrine and join a civilian crowd in calling for withdrawal of support from an illegitimate and corrupt government. Real coup plotters do not ask permission from their superior officers, much less invite them to heed the clamor from below.
As a political science professor who specialized in the study of unconventional forms of political action, I have been a keen observer of military affairs. I therefore understand and sympathize with these disgruntledsoldiers, but I vehemently disclaim the charge that we conspired against the Filipino people.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
STATEMENT OF THE U.P. FACULTY REGENT ON THE REBELLION RAPS AGAINST FORMER U.P. PRESIDENT FRANCISCO "DODONG" NEMENZO, ET AL
Press Statement
8 November 2006
I join the U.P. academic community in expressing solidarity and support to our faculty colleague and former University of the Philippines President Francisco "Dodong" Nemenzo, Jr., who is being charged with "rebellion"and "obstruction of justice". The charges are reminiscent of th 1950s when U.P. faculty members who were known to have progressive and nationalist views were witchhunted by the Congressional Committee on "Un-Filipino activities" and accused of being Communists and conspirators. Those hysterical and red-baiting hearings only exposed the intolerance of the Philippine oligarchy and their counterpart American Cold Warriors in the U.S. Embassy, towards peasant and worker unrest which had found sympathetic allies in the academe, especially among our faculty ranks.
The charges against our colleague Dodong Nemenzo only manifest the desperation of the illegal occupant in Malacanang who is now retaliating against leaders of the broad opposition. Dodong Nemenzo is the President of the Laban ng Masa, a coalition of NGOs and people's organizations, which has been actively questionning the legitimacy of the despot in Malacanang in the aftermath of the fraudulent 2004 Presidential elections. Even opposition mayors like Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati are being charged with all kinds of allegations, even while corrupt pro-administration politicians are being acquitted or protected.
The charges of rebellion against our U.P. colleague Nemenzo and 40 others are an attempt to crack down on dissent and to silence the legal opposition. I call on all our colleagues in the U.P. Academic Community to support the ideals and principles which our former University president stands for. Let us resist the violent attacks and harassments from despots who will soon be properly consigned to the dustbin of history.
Roland G. Simbulan
Professor and Faculty Regent
U.P. System
8 November 2006
I join the U.P. academic community in expressing solidarity and support to our faculty colleague and former University of the Philippines President Francisco "Dodong" Nemenzo, Jr., who is being charged with "rebellion"and "obstruction of justice". The charges are reminiscent of th 1950s when U.P. faculty members who were known to have progressive and nationalist views were witchhunted by the Congressional Committee on "Un-Filipino activities" and accused of being Communists and conspirators. Those hysterical and red-baiting hearings only exposed the intolerance of the Philippine oligarchy and their counterpart American Cold Warriors in the U.S. Embassy, towards peasant and worker unrest which had found sympathetic allies in the academe, especially among our faculty ranks.
The charges against our colleague Dodong Nemenzo only manifest the desperation of the illegal occupant in Malacanang who is now retaliating against leaders of the broad opposition. Dodong Nemenzo is the President of the Laban ng Masa, a coalition of NGOs and people's organizations, which has been actively questionning the legitimacy of the despot in Malacanang in the aftermath of the fraudulent 2004 Presidential elections. Even opposition mayors like Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati are being charged with all kinds of allegations, even while corrupt pro-administration politicians are being acquitted or protected.
The charges of rebellion against our U.P. colleague Nemenzo and 40 others are an attempt to crack down on dissent and to silence the legal opposition. I call on all our colleagues in the U.P. Academic Community to support the ideals and principles which our former University president stands for. Let us resist the violent attacks and harassments from despots who will soon be properly consigned to the dustbin of history.
Roland G. Simbulan
Professor and Faculty Regent
U.P. System
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Ermita’s Assistant Secretary is Among Suspected Bombers?
This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Bad Eggs and Right Conduct
by: Giovanni A. Tapang, Ph.D.
gtapang@nip. upd.edu.ph
National Institute of Physics
http://www.nip. upd.edu.ph/ ipl
University of the Philippines Diliman
It is so easy to throw back barbs at the activists who threw eggs at Esperon in the form of condemnation and outright indignation, as one's sense of academic decorum is disturbed by the very vivid and graphic activity.
However, the condemnation can dangerously morph into uncalled-for anti-communist hysteria and McCarthyist red-baiting, as is being done byAlex Magno and his friends in the seats of power in Malacanang. In his intolerant column supposedly written in defense of free speech and intellectual tolerance in the university, he equates the incident to fascism and “communist terrorism”. Unfortunately, this only parrots and tows the military's dangerous – and fallacious-- reasoning that unarmed activists are no different from their NPA targets.
Equally dangerous is the opinion that activists must have deserved bein gtargets as they behave “badly”. This is not a case of fighting fire with fire. The AFP has guns. Students have only eggs and words. Esperon and his men have outrightly taken part in electoral fraud and have blatantly tolerated the abduction, torture and killings of unarmed civilians.
Nothing can be more shameful than simply letting go of such iniquity.
The activist students certainly put that difference in power in a graphic light with the pelting that happened.
This is the same General Esperon, mentioned a few times in the Hello Garci tapes, which is the reason he is also called a Hello Garci General. He is one among a few generals who helped in the cheating for Gloria in the 2004 elections. You can verify that by studying the contents of the Hello Garci tapes. There was a new book launched last Monday at the UP College of Law called FRAUD which documents the cheating in the 2004 elections.
This is the same General Esperon, who has made public in several instances his total absence for respect for the peace process. Did he not welcome with open arms "President" Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo' s declaration of "all-out war" against the Left, and the accompany inggrant of an additional P1-billion budget for state forces to use in the counter-"insurgency " campaign?
The "all-out-war" declared by Arroyo, by the way, is not specifically against the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People's Army, and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) -- which as organizations are engaged in armed struggle with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) even as it strives to talk peace with its foe. It is against the Left -- a broad term which can be taken to include legal cause-oriented organizations like the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and progressive party-list groups like Bayan Muna or even progressive individuals that earned the ire of the leading clique in power. There is no distinction between guerrillas and unarmed activists then.
This is the same General Esperon who continues to hide the Mayuga report. Is he scared that the Mayuga report will expose his role in Arroyo's massive cheating, and that he got his job not because of merit, but because of patronage? Yet he is being fast tracked in promotion overmore senior staff in the AFP.
This is the General Esperon, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief-of- Staff who said at the Melo Commissin that the military and Palparan are not the ones who committed the more than 750 extra judicial killings of activists and civilians. Instead he was saying that the Left themselves are killing their members. He did not lift even a single finger to touch Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, Jr. while the latter was calling Karen and Sherlyn members of the NPA.
With that, he has dismissed the charge that the two UP lady students, Karen Empeño and Sheylyn Calapan, (abducted by the military in Hagonoy,Bulacan 2 months ago and still missing) and effectively saying that they were really not abducted by the military. Some of those students who attended that forum were friends of Karen and Sherylyn and you can very well imagine how they felt about it.
Yet, despite these, the students have had decorum enough to throw only eggs.###--
gtapang@nip. upd.edu.ph
National Institute of Physics
http://www.nip. upd.edu.ph/ ipl
University of the Philippines Diliman
It is so easy to throw back barbs at the activists who threw eggs at Esperon in the form of condemnation and outright indignation, as one's sense of academic decorum is disturbed by the very vivid and graphic activity.
However, the condemnation can dangerously morph into uncalled-for anti-communist hysteria and McCarthyist red-baiting, as is being done byAlex Magno and his friends in the seats of power in Malacanang. In his intolerant column supposedly written in defense of free speech and intellectual tolerance in the university, he equates the incident to fascism and “communist terrorism”. Unfortunately, this only parrots and tows the military's dangerous – and fallacious-- reasoning that unarmed activists are no different from their NPA targets.
Equally dangerous is the opinion that activists must have deserved bein gtargets as they behave “badly”. This is not a case of fighting fire with fire. The AFP has guns. Students have only eggs and words. Esperon and his men have outrightly taken part in electoral fraud and have blatantly tolerated the abduction, torture and killings of unarmed civilians.
Nothing can be more shameful than simply letting go of such iniquity.
The activist students certainly put that difference in power in a graphic light with the pelting that happened.
This is the same General Esperon, mentioned a few times in the Hello Garci tapes, which is the reason he is also called a Hello Garci General. He is one among a few generals who helped in the cheating for Gloria in the 2004 elections. You can verify that by studying the contents of the Hello Garci tapes. There was a new book launched last Monday at the UP College of Law called FRAUD which documents the cheating in the 2004 elections.
This is the same General Esperon, who has made public in several instances his total absence for respect for the peace process. Did he not welcome with open arms "President" Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo' s declaration of "all-out war" against the Left, and the accompany inggrant of an additional P1-billion budget for state forces to use in the counter-"insurgency " campaign?
The "all-out-war" declared by Arroyo, by the way, is not specifically against the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People's Army, and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) -- which as organizations are engaged in armed struggle with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) even as it strives to talk peace with its foe. It is against the Left -- a broad term which can be taken to include legal cause-oriented organizations like the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and progressive party-list groups like Bayan Muna or even progressive individuals that earned the ire of the leading clique in power. There is no distinction between guerrillas and unarmed activists then.
This is the same General Esperon who continues to hide the Mayuga report. Is he scared that the Mayuga report will expose his role in Arroyo's massive cheating, and that he got his job not because of merit, but because of patronage? Yet he is being fast tracked in promotion overmore senior staff in the AFP.
This is the General Esperon, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief-of- Staff who said at the Melo Commissin that the military and Palparan are not the ones who committed the more than 750 extra judicial killings of activists and civilians. Instead he was saying that the Left themselves are killing their members. He did not lift even a single finger to touch Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, Jr. while the latter was calling Karen and Sherlyn members of the NPA.
With that, he has dismissed the charge that the two UP lady students, Karen Empeño and Sheylyn Calapan, (abducted by the military in Hagonoy,Bulacan 2 months ago and still missing) and effectively saying that they were really not abducted by the military. Some of those students who attended that forum were friends of Karen and Sherylyn and you can very well imagine how they felt about it.
Yet, despite these, the students have had decorum enough to throw only eggs.###--
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Digging Deeper Into The Leakage
Streetwise
By: Carol Pagaduan-Araullo
Business World
8-9 September 2006
As a medical student learns early on, signs and symptoms are mere indicators of an underlying illness; real cure comes from diagnosing and treating the disease, not just mitigating its manifestations. The concept is not difficult for even the layman to understand since it is grounded on the truism that problem solving requires digging deep at the root causes if a genuine solution is to be found.
Why then the seeming inability, or perhaps unwillingness, of government to see beyond the current scandal of the nursing board exam leakage? Is this just another case of unscrupulous government officials colluding with profiteering owners of nursing schools and review centers to allow unqualified examinees to cheat their way to their licenses? Or is there something more here than meets the eye?
The magnitude of the problem is laid bare by the following: the filing of charges against two examiners from the Board of Nursing (BON) of theProfessional Regulation Commission (PRC); the forced resignation of the President and Vice-President of the Philippine Nurses Association implicated in the leakage and its cover-up; and the alleged involvement of scores of nursing schools and review centers in disseminating the leaked exam questions to their students.
There are worrisome signs that cheating has become systematized and a criminal syndicate in cahoots with government officials is on the loose.
Worse, the PRC, relying on the BON findings instead of creating an independent investigative body, initially denied any possibility of a leakage with the assertion that the examination system "has been so streamlined that leakages are now a thing of the past." When it could no longer sweep the problem under the rug it admitted the leakage and pinpointed responsibility to just two of its examiners.
Now the PRC appears to have taken the unprincipled tack of minimizing the impact of the leakage on the integrity of the examinations. ThePRC cited some statistical manipulations that they claim "solved" the problem and hastily administered the nursing oath to those they certified to have passed (until a court restraining order stopped the oath taking). They stood pat on the position that there was no need for a retake of the examinations by any of the examinees, includingthose who reviewed with the R.A.Gapuz Review Center (RAGRC), a center that witnesses claim distributed answers to exam questions the night before the June 11 board examinations. Not surprisingly, RAGRC now boasts of having bagged the 3rd to 10th place in the exams.
From news reports, the PRC even brought in supposedly well-placed labor recruiters who assured the examinees that they would still be eligible for placement in US hospitals despite the controversy surrounding their licensure exams. It appeared to be a calculated move to counter reports that local as well as foreign hospitals had indicated they would refuse to hire nurses from batch 2006.
Meanwhile Malacañang has chosen to uphold the PRC position hook, line and sinker. While vowing to go after those responsible for the leakage, it immediately exonerated the PRC itself of any responsibility and peremptorily declared that the nursing leakage was more of an exception rather than the rule. Mrs. Arroyo even praised PRC Chair Leonor Rosero, her personal dentist whose husband is a close friend and fellow Rotarian of the First Gentleman, for doing a great job. She also took the "no retake" position popular with the examinees in what seemed to be a classic GMA trick of pandering to the crowd when no major personal or political stakes are involved.
There is no indication that the Arroyo administration sees the current brouhaha as a reason, or even an occasion, to seriously study what ails the nursing sector. Consider that nurses (as well as doctors-turned- nurses) continue to be one of our top exports as a labor exporting country .
The alarm has been raised by the World Health Organization that the Philippines faces the prospect of a major crisis in its health care system with the exodus of health personnel for more lucrative jobs abroad.
Is it so difficult to see that the scandalous extent and circumstances of the recent board exam leakage is in direct proportion to the degree of commercialization of nursing education as exemplified by the proliferation of sub-standard nursing schools churning out unqualified, if not incompetent, graduates? Shall we be content with merely calling for better regulation by the PRC and by the Commission on Higher Education?
Shall we not examine what fuels this soaring demand for a nursing diploma and license to practice the nursing profession that provides fertile ground for all sorts of corrupt scams victimizing students, their parents and future patients at that?
Certainly it is not a sudden surge of humanitarianism, of people wanting to care for the sick and infirm. On purely economic terms, the demand is fed by the desire to go abroad and earn a decent income that can provide a comfortable life and a secure future for one's family.
Such a modest, middle class dream is no longer possible for the vast majority in the Philippine setting. What everybody seems to know is that the passport out of the Philippine Rut into the American Dream is indeed that nursing license.
Rather than address the endemic problem of unemployment and underemployment, successive governments from Marcos to the present have pursued a short-sighted policy of exporting labor. From a stop-gap measure, the export of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) has evolved to become the major dollar-earner and life-saver of a chronically floundering economy with roughly eight million OFWs, a tenth of the population, remitting US $10 Billion last year.
Thus the demand for nurses in the US and UK has become the main driving force shaping the development of nursing education and the profession today. Not the needs and requirements of a highly underserved people in the throes of hunger, malnutrition and preventable diseases.
When government cannot see beyond dollar remittances and will do anything and everything to keep them coming, it will turn a blind eye to the deepening crisis of the Philippine health care system; it will paper over the festering problems in nursing education and the nursing profession that the recent leakage scandal has so glaringly exposed.
With provincial and even major urban hospitals scrambling to stay open despite the steady loss of its doctors and nurses, the future is bleak while government policies remaining unchanged.
Needless to say, the long and short of it is that the majority of our people end up, once more, on the losing end.#
Please email comments to carol_araullo@ yahoo.com.
By: Carol Pagaduan-Araullo
Business World
8-9 September 2006
As a medical student learns early on, signs and symptoms are mere indicators of an underlying illness; real cure comes from diagnosing and treating the disease, not just mitigating its manifestations. The concept is not difficult for even the layman to understand since it is grounded on the truism that problem solving requires digging deep at the root causes if a genuine solution is to be found.
Why then the seeming inability, or perhaps unwillingness, of government to see beyond the current scandal of the nursing board exam leakage? Is this just another case of unscrupulous government officials colluding with profiteering owners of nursing schools and review centers to allow unqualified examinees to cheat their way to their licenses? Or is there something more here than meets the eye?
The magnitude of the problem is laid bare by the following: the filing of charges against two examiners from the Board of Nursing (BON) of theProfessional Regulation Commission (PRC); the forced resignation of the President and Vice-President of the Philippine Nurses Association implicated in the leakage and its cover-up; and the alleged involvement of scores of nursing schools and review centers in disseminating the leaked exam questions to their students.
There are worrisome signs that cheating has become systematized and a criminal syndicate in cahoots with government officials is on the loose.
Worse, the PRC, relying on the BON findings instead of creating an independent investigative body, initially denied any possibility of a leakage with the assertion that the examination system "has been so streamlined that leakages are now a thing of the past." When it could no longer sweep the problem under the rug it admitted the leakage and pinpointed responsibility to just two of its examiners.
Now the PRC appears to have taken the unprincipled tack of minimizing the impact of the leakage on the integrity of the examinations. ThePRC cited some statistical manipulations that they claim "solved" the problem and hastily administered the nursing oath to those they certified to have passed (until a court restraining order stopped the oath taking). They stood pat on the position that there was no need for a retake of the examinations by any of the examinees, includingthose who reviewed with the R.A.Gapuz Review Center (RAGRC), a center that witnesses claim distributed answers to exam questions the night before the June 11 board examinations. Not surprisingly, RAGRC now boasts of having bagged the 3rd to 10th place in the exams.
From news reports, the PRC even brought in supposedly well-placed labor recruiters who assured the examinees that they would still be eligible for placement in US hospitals despite the controversy surrounding their licensure exams. It appeared to be a calculated move to counter reports that local as well as foreign hospitals had indicated they would refuse to hire nurses from batch 2006.
Meanwhile Malacañang has chosen to uphold the PRC position hook, line and sinker. While vowing to go after those responsible for the leakage, it immediately exonerated the PRC itself of any responsibility and peremptorily declared that the nursing leakage was more of an exception rather than the rule. Mrs. Arroyo even praised PRC Chair Leonor Rosero, her personal dentist whose husband is a close friend and fellow Rotarian of the First Gentleman, for doing a great job. She also took the "no retake" position popular with the examinees in what seemed to be a classic GMA trick of pandering to the crowd when no major personal or political stakes are involved.
There is no indication that the Arroyo administration sees the current brouhaha as a reason, or even an occasion, to seriously study what ails the nursing sector. Consider that nurses (as well as doctors-turned- nurses) continue to be one of our top exports as a labor exporting country .
The alarm has been raised by the World Health Organization that the Philippines faces the prospect of a major crisis in its health care system with the exodus of health personnel for more lucrative jobs abroad.
Is it so difficult to see that the scandalous extent and circumstances of the recent board exam leakage is in direct proportion to the degree of commercialization of nursing education as exemplified by the proliferation of sub-standard nursing schools churning out unqualified, if not incompetent, graduates? Shall we be content with merely calling for better regulation by the PRC and by the Commission on Higher Education?
Shall we not examine what fuels this soaring demand for a nursing diploma and license to practice the nursing profession that provides fertile ground for all sorts of corrupt scams victimizing students, their parents and future patients at that?
Certainly it is not a sudden surge of humanitarianism, of people wanting to care for the sick and infirm. On purely economic terms, the demand is fed by the desire to go abroad and earn a decent income that can provide a comfortable life and a secure future for one's family.
Such a modest, middle class dream is no longer possible for the vast majority in the Philippine setting. What everybody seems to know is that the passport out of the Philippine Rut into the American Dream is indeed that nursing license.
Rather than address the endemic problem of unemployment and underemployment, successive governments from Marcos to the present have pursued a short-sighted policy of exporting labor. From a stop-gap measure, the export of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) has evolved to become the major dollar-earner and life-saver of a chronically floundering economy with roughly eight million OFWs, a tenth of the population, remitting US $10 Billion last year.
Thus the demand for nurses in the US and UK has become the main driving force shaping the development of nursing education and the profession today. Not the needs and requirements of a highly underserved people in the throes of hunger, malnutrition and preventable diseases.
When government cannot see beyond dollar remittances and will do anything and everything to keep them coming, it will turn a blind eye to the deepening crisis of the Philippine health care system; it will paper over the festering problems in nursing education and the nursing profession that the recent leakage scandal has so glaringly exposed.
With provincial and even major urban hospitals scrambling to stay open despite the steady loss of its doctors and nurses, the future is bleak while government policies remaining unchanged.
Needless to say, the long and short of it is that the majority of our people end up, once more, on the losing end.#
Please email comments to carol_araullo@ yahoo.com.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
The Silent Human Conscience: What should I tell my daughter when bombs fall and the great nations say nothing?
by Riad Kassis posted 07/24/2006 09:45 a.m.
Christianity Today
The following article is part of our ongoing effort to provide a variety of Christian perspectives on the Israel-Lebanon conflict.
How should I respond to my seven-year-old daughter when she is terrified by the news and images of destruction in my country? The bombing of bridges we recently traveled upon, the demolition of our only airport, where my daughter was happily running around just a few weeks ago. What should I say to her when a house was destroyed and 11 people in it killed in one air strike? What should I say to her when a two-year-old child was literally cut in half in a vicious air strike?
I was overwhelmingly silent! But I had to say something to my anxious daughter. I told her not to worry much, that the attacks will only last for a matter of days. As I talked to her, I was thinking of the upcoming meeting of U.N. Security Council. I was so optimistic that the council would put an end to this unequal and disproportionate conflict. I thought of the great nations that are members of the council, with their rich cultural heritages of human achievement and concern for humanity.
So I was completely shocked, greatly saddened, and disappointed when the Council took no stand! Not even a symbolic resolution to condemn the killing of innocents in Lebanon was contemplated. We were told that the council needed days to think the matter over! I wonder what kind of thinking is required when a power station is destroyed, when a civilian car is bombed on its way to a safe place, and when terrified infants and children cry all night as they listen to the bombing of the neighborhood. I wonder whether these members have experienced conflict in tragedies in the Balkans, Sudan, Rwanda, and elsewhere.
I am not much interested in politics, but I am perplexed by the silence of the human conscience. Yet I still hope that the human conscience will be awakened someday. I am encouraged by the ability of the worldwide Christian church to speak about peace and to run seminars on conflict resolution, but disappointed with its ineffectiveness to work for a real and just peace, particularly in the case of the Arab-Israeli conflict. At the same time, I am encouraged to know that many Christian sisters and brothers are concerned for our situation in Lebanon. They are praying and encouraging us, in spite of their helplessness to influence their governments.
We live in West Bekaa, Lebanon, and for the last 16 years we have been involved in peace and tolerance education as we work with hundreds of students and families who belong to various religious backgrounds. Now we experience again the meaning of hatred and war. As I write these words, I hear Israeli jet fighters bombing a nearby bridge and several roads, killing several civilians who happened to be nearby. We are nearly isolated, as roads to other cities and towns are destroyed. Our fear is that in just a few days, food, fuel, medicines, and other needed items will become scarce as the situation worsens and the sea, land, and air blockade continues.
What should I say to my daughter? "My daughter let us keep praying not just for peace, but for the awakening of the human conscience." Would you please join me in such a prayer?
Riad Kassis is executive director of the Johann Ludwig Schneller School in West Bekaa, Lebanon. He is also a scholar with Langham Partnership International (known as John Stott Ministries in the U.S.).
Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today.
Christianity Today
The following article is part of our ongoing effort to provide a variety of Christian perspectives on the Israel-Lebanon conflict.
How should I respond to my seven-year-old daughter when she is terrified by the news and images of destruction in my country? The bombing of bridges we recently traveled upon, the demolition of our only airport, where my daughter was happily running around just a few weeks ago. What should I say to her when a house was destroyed and 11 people in it killed in one air strike? What should I say to her when a two-year-old child was literally cut in half in a vicious air strike?
I was overwhelmingly silent! But I had to say something to my anxious daughter. I told her not to worry much, that the attacks will only last for a matter of days. As I talked to her, I was thinking of the upcoming meeting of U.N. Security Council. I was so optimistic that the council would put an end to this unequal and disproportionate conflict. I thought of the great nations that are members of the council, with their rich cultural heritages of human achievement and concern for humanity.
So I was completely shocked, greatly saddened, and disappointed when the Council took no stand! Not even a symbolic resolution to condemn the killing of innocents in Lebanon was contemplated. We were told that the council needed days to think the matter over! I wonder what kind of thinking is required when a power station is destroyed, when a civilian car is bombed on its way to a safe place, and when terrified infants and children cry all night as they listen to the bombing of the neighborhood. I wonder whether these members have experienced conflict in tragedies in the Balkans, Sudan, Rwanda, and elsewhere.
I am not much interested in politics, but I am perplexed by the silence of the human conscience. Yet I still hope that the human conscience will be awakened someday. I am encouraged by the ability of the worldwide Christian church to speak about peace and to run seminars on conflict resolution, but disappointed with its ineffectiveness to work for a real and just peace, particularly in the case of the Arab-Israeli conflict. At the same time, I am encouraged to know that many Christian sisters and brothers are concerned for our situation in Lebanon. They are praying and encouraging us, in spite of their helplessness to influence their governments.
We live in West Bekaa, Lebanon, and for the last 16 years we have been involved in peace and tolerance education as we work with hundreds of students and families who belong to various religious backgrounds. Now we experience again the meaning of hatred and war. As I write these words, I hear Israeli jet fighters bombing a nearby bridge and several roads, killing several civilians who happened to be nearby. We are nearly isolated, as roads to other cities and towns are destroyed. Our fear is that in just a few days, food, fuel, medicines, and other needed items will become scarce as the situation worsens and the sea, land, and air blockade continues.
What should I say to my daughter? "My daughter let us keep praying not just for peace, but for the awakening of the human conscience." Would you please join me in such a prayer?
Riad Kassis is executive director of the Johann Ludwig Schneller School in West Bekaa, Lebanon. He is also a scholar with Langham Partnership International (known as John Stott Ministries in the U.S.).
Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
PHILIPPINES: Carrying Out of President Macapagal Arroyo's Instructions on Investigations Into Extrajudicial Killings Will Take Over 14 years
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AS-184-2006
August 3, 2006
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
That the Philippines police task force (Usig) should resolve at least ten cases of alleged extrajudicial killings within ten weeks was the statement reported to have been made by President Gloria MacapagalArroyo.
Other reports quoting persons from the presidential palace could not clearly state whether this was an order or just a public relations statement. Even if it is taken as an order the carrying out of investigations into over 700 alleged cases of extrajudicial killings, excluding the three killings reported this week, will take the taskforce over 14 years. How many more extrajudicial killings will happen within that time frame is anyone's guess.
The Asian Human Rights Commission condemns this statement as it lacks the seriousness and the dignity that is required of a head of state attempting to resolve perhaps the greatest problem that the country is faced with. The president's statement is not inadequate enough to make the investigating authorities take all steps necessary to investigate each and every allegation of extrajudicial killings a spromptly as possible. The statement fails also to give a direct command to the military authorities to stop such killings altogether. The lack of such a direct command in the face of heavy accusations coming from many quarters, including church sources, will naturally be interpreted by the military as tacit approval for the on-going program.
When a university professor accused the government earlier this weekof maintaining a policy of causing extrajudicial killings the response given by the spokesman from the palace was that the government does not have such a policy but, what it does have is a policy of wiping out some elements from the villages. Whatever meaning the palace may give to the words, 'wiping out' in simple military jargon, what it means is elimination, which in turn implies killings, disappearances etc. However, the issue is not whether the government has an express policy on this matter but the fact that the government's failure to stop these extrajudicial killings amounts to what can be seen as tacit approval for them to continue. PresidentMacapagal Arroyo's statement about solving ten cases in ten weeks is in itself an indication of the government's unwillingness to take a clear and unequivocable position on this matter.
The indication of the existence of an on-going program of extrajudicial killings becomes manifest through the following factors:
The allowing of vehicles to move without number plates and tinted glass wind shields so that the drivers cannot be identified; in all countries where there have been programs of extrajudicial killings and disappearances the use of similar vehicles has been a common feature. If the driving of any such vehicle is stopped by proper legal means, and the movements of such vehicles are properly investigated, not only would the number of killings be reduced but the story of who is behind the killings could be revealed.
The lack of a high level of military inquiries into the alleged program of killings widely reported to be carried out by military leaders such as Major General Jovito Palparan. If the allegations are true, it would hardly be within the capability of a police task force to investigate such an operation. In all regular military forces there are units to investigate the alleged wrongs done by the military itself. The military high command and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, who is the President, have failed to initiate such high level inquiries into the alleged violations.
The police task force, reportedly working on a monthly budget ofPesos 300,000.00 (US 6,000.00) with limited personnel and resources, is not capable of investigating the vast number of allegations that are being made at the moment. This week alone there were reports of three further killings, with another person being seriously injured. If prompt inquiries are to be conducted the resource limitations need to be dealt with. However, there seems to be no indication that the government is taking any such action.
Statements from the police authorities show that the extrajudicial killings are seen as "part of a war". This means that a war mentality has set in and those who engage in such killings have been made to believe that they are indeed part of a war. Once such a mentality is in place, large scale extrajudicial killings of this nature are no surprise. Without returning to the language of law and order in place of war propaganda there can be no reduction of this type of killings. The elementary step needed to reduce the heat and the psychological ethos that is necessary for killing is to displace this war propaganda.
There is also no indication of preventive measures in order to stop further killings. Initiatives on the part of the government carried out through state media and other media to bring this situation to a halt is not taking place at all. The statements made under public pressure like the one regarding ten investigations in ten weeks only pass a contrary message.
Although there is intense local pressure and international pressure to stop extrajudicial killings the actions taken by the government so far does not indicate any form of resoluteness to bring such gross human rights abuses to an end. Both local pressure and international pressure, including that from UN agencies, different governments and also civil society movements should intensify, demanding a more serious and dignified response from the government of the Philippines in keeping with its obligations under its own Constitution as well as the international treaties to which it is a party. ###
AS-184-2006
August 3, 2006
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
That the Philippines police task force (Usig) should resolve at least ten cases of alleged extrajudicial killings within ten weeks was the statement reported to have been made by President Gloria MacapagalArroyo.
Other reports quoting persons from the presidential palace could not clearly state whether this was an order or just a public relations statement. Even if it is taken as an order the carrying out of investigations into over 700 alleged cases of extrajudicial killings, excluding the three killings reported this week, will take the taskforce over 14 years. How many more extrajudicial killings will happen within that time frame is anyone's guess.
The Asian Human Rights Commission condemns this statement as it lacks the seriousness and the dignity that is required of a head of state attempting to resolve perhaps the greatest problem that the country is faced with. The president's statement is not inadequate enough to make the investigating authorities take all steps necessary to investigate each and every allegation of extrajudicial killings a spromptly as possible. The statement fails also to give a direct command to the military authorities to stop such killings altogether. The lack of such a direct command in the face of heavy accusations coming from many quarters, including church sources, will naturally be interpreted by the military as tacit approval for the on-going program.
When a university professor accused the government earlier this weekof maintaining a policy of causing extrajudicial killings the response given by the spokesman from the palace was that the government does not have such a policy but, what it does have is a policy of wiping out some elements from the villages. Whatever meaning the palace may give to the words, 'wiping out' in simple military jargon, what it means is elimination, which in turn implies killings, disappearances etc. However, the issue is not whether the government has an express policy on this matter but the fact that the government's failure to stop these extrajudicial killings amounts to what can be seen as tacit approval for them to continue. PresidentMacapagal Arroyo's statement about solving ten cases in ten weeks is in itself an indication of the government's unwillingness to take a clear and unequivocable position on this matter.
The indication of the existence of an on-going program of extrajudicial killings becomes manifest through the following factors:
The allowing of vehicles to move without number plates and tinted glass wind shields so that the drivers cannot be identified; in all countries where there have been programs of extrajudicial killings and disappearances the use of similar vehicles has been a common feature. If the driving of any such vehicle is stopped by proper legal means, and the movements of such vehicles are properly investigated, not only would the number of killings be reduced but the story of who is behind the killings could be revealed.
The lack of a high level of military inquiries into the alleged program of killings widely reported to be carried out by military leaders such as Major General Jovito Palparan. If the allegations are true, it would hardly be within the capability of a police task force to investigate such an operation. In all regular military forces there are units to investigate the alleged wrongs done by the military itself. The military high command and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, who is the President, have failed to initiate such high level inquiries into the alleged violations.
The police task force, reportedly working on a monthly budget ofPesos 300,000.00 (US 6,000.00) with limited personnel and resources, is not capable of investigating the vast number of allegations that are being made at the moment. This week alone there were reports of three further killings, with another person being seriously injured. If prompt inquiries are to be conducted the resource limitations need to be dealt with. However, there seems to be no indication that the government is taking any such action.
Statements from the police authorities show that the extrajudicial killings are seen as "part of a war". This means that a war mentality has set in and those who engage in such killings have been made to believe that they are indeed part of a war. Once such a mentality is in place, large scale extrajudicial killings of this nature are no surprise. Without returning to the language of law and order in place of war propaganda there can be no reduction of this type of killings. The elementary step needed to reduce the heat and the psychological ethos that is necessary for killing is to displace this war propaganda.
There is also no indication of preventive measures in order to stop further killings. Initiatives on the part of the government carried out through state media and other media to bring this situation to a halt is not taking place at all. The statements made under public pressure like the one regarding ten investigations in ten weeks only pass a contrary message.
Although there is intense local pressure and international pressure to stop extrajudicial killings the actions taken by the government so far does not indicate any form of resoluteness to bring such gross human rights abuses to an end. Both local pressure and international pressure, including that from UN agencies, different governments and also civil society movements should intensify, demanding a more serious and dignified response from the government of the Philippines in keeping with its obligations under its own Constitution as well as the international treaties to which it is a party. ###
Sunday, July 30, 2006
TB Spreads Because of Poverty: Health Services Becoming More Inaccessible
Commercialization of health services, the lack in budget, facilities, and personnel of government hospitals, and poverty combine to make health services more inaccessible. This explains the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) even as the cure for it has been discovered as early as 1952 and has been available locally since the 70s.
BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
The former livelihood center is jam-packed with children running barefoot around a wet, mud-spattered floor while male adults play billiards in one corner. Some of the women do the laundry while others gather in front of a sari-sari (small consumer store) store for a small talk. Inside this center are around 50 houses made of bamboo and nylon sacks. The two-by-four square meter dwellings inside the evacuation center serve as temporary housing for more than 100 families whose houses were burned in December last year.
Outside the evacuation center, children – some naked, some clothed – play around dark muck. Some women peel garlic, teenage boys collect plastic bottles and steel scraps; young men repair furniture or tinker with vehicles while the rest of the neighborhood play card games in a wake.
This is Barangay (village) 105 Happy Land, a community in Tondo, Manila with a total population of 3,496. A survey conducted by the Canossa Health and Social Center (CHSC) in 2004 shows that 67.8 percent of the residents here peel garlic for a living. The same survey shows 99 percent of the community’s population earn less than the minimum wage of P350 ($6.78 at an exchange rate of $1=P51.56).
In the same survey, 55.1 percent were diagnosed to have upper respiratory tract infections, 15 percent had diarrhea while eight percent had skin diseases. The rest of the 21.9 percent had fever at the time of the survey.
An index of poverty
Marilyn Miane, 26, her husband Melchor, 27, and children Melvin, 3, and Marichu, 2, live in the evacuation center in Happy Land.
While Marilyn takes care of the kids and does household chores, Melchor drives a pedicab from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. He gives P60 ($1.16) of his earnings to the pedicab’s owner and takes home around P50 ($0.97) to P80 ($1.55) a day for their family’s needs.
In February this year, Marilyn was diagnosed by the CHSC to have tuberculosis (TB). In an interview, Marilyn said she had cough and colds three weeks before she decided to have herself checked up.
Since the CHSC promotes an anti-TB program, the rest of Marilyn’s family underwent TB diagnostic tests. Results showed Marilyn’s two children had also acquired primary complex or pediatric tuberculosis. The three are now under the CHSC program receiving free medication everyday for six months (the allotted period for TB medication).
Edna Masangya, CHSC TB Program Senior Coordinator, said the local government unit provides medicines for adults while the center’s German benefactors provide those for children. The center also has a feeding program for its patients.
However, Masangya said TB treatment does not depend on medicines alone. “Patients need proper nutrition and good environment,” she said.
TB, an airborne disease, is usually transmitted to family members just like what happened to Marilyn and her children. “Ang mga pasyente namin pami-pamilya, hawa-hawa sila,” (We have whole families as patients as they tend to contaminate each other.) Masangya said the spread of TB within and among families is mainly due to congested houses and poor diet.
TB is known as a sensitive index of a nation’s poverty. In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) named the Philippines as having the highest rate of TB occurrence in the Western Pacific with 36 percent of 82 million Filipinos infected. The same report says 75 Filipinos die of TB daily while 100,000 contract the disease yearly.
This is despite the fact that the cure for TB was discovered as early as 1952 and has been available in the Philippines since the early 1970s.
Inaccessible services
Masangya said the budget for one TB patient is a minimum of P6,000 ($116.37) for six months using generic drugs. She said most if not all of their patients in CHSC have gone through self-medication before going to the center for proper diagnosis.
“Karinawan ay umiinom sila ng gamot na bigay lang ng kapitbahay kasi hindi naubos. Madalas tuloy mali o hindi sapat ang gamot na iniinum nila,” (They usually take medicines which have been given to them by their neighbors. Oftentimes they have either been taking the wrong medicine or have been taking insufficient dosages.) she said.
Dra. Geneve Rivera, the lone resident doctor of the CHSC, said in an interview that most if not all her patients reach the center “kung malala na.” (when they are in a worse state)
This, she said, is a common practice nationwide due to the inaccessibility of health services. “Pag tinatanung ko yung pasyente kung bakit ngayon lang sila nagpa-check-up, ang sagot nila ay kasi wala silang pambayad sa doctor,” (Whenever I ask patients why it took them time before having a check-up, their usual response is that they do not have money to pay a doctor.) she said.
The inaccessibility can be due to, first, the commercialization of health services.
She said the consultation fee of private clinics ranges from P150 ($2.91) to P350 ($6.79) per visit. This does not include expenses for medicines and laboratory fees.
Even public hospitals such as the Jose Reyes Medical Hospital in Manila asks for P50 ($0.97) as consultation fee for out-patients, Rivera said.
Although the CHSC offers free consultation, not all patients can be accommodated by one center alone, Rivera added.
Lack of budget
Hospital and laboratory fees are unaffordable to patients even in cases of emergency or severe illnesses.
Emma Manuel, radiological technologist of the Tondo Medical Center (TMC) and chairperson of the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW), said public hospitals are now expected to augment their budget.
For 2006, the national government only allocated P10.4 billion ($201,706,749) for health services or 25 centavos ($0.0048) per Filipino. TMC, a tertiary hospital, was given a P124 million ($2,404,965) budget for 2006 where P24 million ($465,477) goes to maintenance, operating, and other expenses (MOOE) while P100 million ($1,939,487) goes to personnel services.
Manuel said the budget for MOOE is not even enough to pay for water and electricity for one year. Their water and electricity bills amount to a maximum of P25 million ($484,877) a year.
This is why public hospitals are forced to charge laboratory and other fees, Manuel said.
Manuel said in the late 1970s, they only ask for a P5 ($0.09) donation for x-ray. Today, the lowest fee for chest x-ray (the most common due to the prevalence of TB) is P120 ($2.33) for adults and P240 ($4.65) for children.
Furthermore, Manuel said patients in the Emergency Room are made to buy practically everything. (see table)
Fees of Materials to be Bought by Patients of the TMC Emergency Room
Plaster - P5.75/ruler
Cotton - P.25/ball
Gauze - P7/pack
Dextrose - P61/1000ml bottle
Gloves - P5/piece
Oxygen - P473/tank
Rivera said inaccessibility can also be due to the urbanization of health services. This means a high percentage of health institutions are concentrated in Metro Manila and other urban centers in the country like Baguio in Northern Luzon, Cebu and Davao in Central and Southern Philippines, respectively.
Far-flung provinces, meanwhile, depend on provincial or regional hospitals that lack facilities and health personnel, she added. (link to Aubrey’s article on health devolution)
The greatest manifestation of the inaccessibility of health services, Rivera said, is the health seeking behavior of patients.
“Kanino ba pumupunta ang mga tao pag may nararamdaman sila? Di ba sa mga albularyo o hilot o yung tinatawag na traditional health workers?” (Where do people go if they are sick? They usually go to quack doctors or traditional health workers.) she said.
She said this practice is prevalent even in urban centers.
Working with limited resources
Dr. Gerry Ymson, Assistant Municipal Health Officer of the Manila Health Department (MHD), said in an interview that the Department of Health (DoH) has no definite commitment to local government units with regards the health budget.
“Hindi namin inaasahan ang budget na manggagaling sa DoH kasi if we do we will fail with our programs,” (We do not rely on the DoH for our budget otherwise our programs will fail.) he said.
Although the devolution of health services started in the early 1990s, the Manila City government has been working with its own budget since 1940, Ymson said. This was the same time the MHD was established.
The MHD has programs on TB and other communicable diseases, leprosy, venereal disease, childhood illnesses and dengue. The budget that comes from the DoH is given to the MHD in the form of medicines, Ymson added.
The MHD also boasts of a feeding program for children under five years old who are enrolled in day care centers.
Ymson also said that since TB ranks fourth among the 10 leading illnesses in the city, one of its thrust programs is towards containing TB. A big chunk of medicines for TB comes from the DoH.
Despite this, in March this year, 33-year old Arlene Hernandez has again been diagnosed with tuberculosis. She was first diagnosed with the same disease in 2001. Today, she is already considered a Category II patient which means she has to undergo re-treatment for eight months.
But Arlene’s misery has tripled today. Her two children, John, 5, and Jerryson, 11 months, have also been diagnosed with primary complex.
Arlene’s husband, Julioto, 36, is, at present, jobless.
They also live in one of those two-by-four square meter dwellings in a community they call Happy Land.
© 2006 Bulatlat ■ Alipato Media Center
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
The former livelihood center is jam-packed with children running barefoot around a wet, mud-spattered floor while male adults play billiards in one corner. Some of the women do the laundry while others gather in front of a sari-sari (small consumer store) store for a small talk. Inside this center are around 50 houses made of bamboo and nylon sacks. The two-by-four square meter dwellings inside the evacuation center serve as temporary housing for more than 100 families whose houses were burned in December last year.
Outside the evacuation center, children – some naked, some clothed – play around dark muck. Some women peel garlic, teenage boys collect plastic bottles and steel scraps; young men repair furniture or tinker with vehicles while the rest of the neighborhood play card games in a wake.
This is Barangay (village) 105 Happy Land, a community in Tondo, Manila with a total population of 3,496. A survey conducted by the Canossa Health and Social Center (CHSC) in 2004 shows that 67.8 percent of the residents here peel garlic for a living. The same survey shows 99 percent of the community’s population earn less than the minimum wage of P350 ($6.78 at an exchange rate of $1=P51.56).
In the same survey, 55.1 percent were diagnosed to have upper respiratory tract infections, 15 percent had diarrhea while eight percent had skin diseases. The rest of the 21.9 percent had fever at the time of the survey.
An index of poverty
Marilyn Miane, 26, her husband Melchor, 27, and children Melvin, 3, and Marichu, 2, live in the evacuation center in Happy Land.
While Marilyn takes care of the kids and does household chores, Melchor drives a pedicab from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. He gives P60 ($1.16) of his earnings to the pedicab’s owner and takes home around P50 ($0.97) to P80 ($1.55) a day for their family’s needs.
In February this year, Marilyn was diagnosed by the CHSC to have tuberculosis (TB). In an interview, Marilyn said she had cough and colds three weeks before she decided to have herself checked up.
Since the CHSC promotes an anti-TB program, the rest of Marilyn’s family underwent TB diagnostic tests. Results showed Marilyn’s two children had also acquired primary complex or pediatric tuberculosis. The three are now under the CHSC program receiving free medication everyday for six months (the allotted period for TB medication).
Edna Masangya, CHSC TB Program Senior Coordinator, said the local government unit provides medicines for adults while the center’s German benefactors provide those for children. The center also has a feeding program for its patients.
However, Masangya said TB treatment does not depend on medicines alone. “Patients need proper nutrition and good environment,” she said.
TB, an airborne disease, is usually transmitted to family members just like what happened to Marilyn and her children. “Ang mga pasyente namin pami-pamilya, hawa-hawa sila,” (We have whole families as patients as they tend to contaminate each other.) Masangya said the spread of TB within and among families is mainly due to congested houses and poor diet.
TB is known as a sensitive index of a nation’s poverty. In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) named the Philippines as having the highest rate of TB occurrence in the Western Pacific with 36 percent of 82 million Filipinos infected. The same report says 75 Filipinos die of TB daily while 100,000 contract the disease yearly.
This is despite the fact that the cure for TB was discovered as early as 1952 and has been available in the Philippines since the early 1970s.
Inaccessible services
Masangya said the budget for one TB patient is a minimum of P6,000 ($116.37) for six months using generic drugs. She said most if not all of their patients in CHSC have gone through self-medication before going to the center for proper diagnosis.
“Karinawan ay umiinom sila ng gamot na bigay lang ng kapitbahay kasi hindi naubos. Madalas tuloy mali o hindi sapat ang gamot na iniinum nila,” (They usually take medicines which have been given to them by their neighbors. Oftentimes they have either been taking the wrong medicine or have been taking insufficient dosages.) she said.
Dra. Geneve Rivera, the lone resident doctor of the CHSC, said in an interview that most if not all her patients reach the center “kung malala na.” (when they are in a worse state)
This, she said, is a common practice nationwide due to the inaccessibility of health services. “Pag tinatanung ko yung pasyente kung bakit ngayon lang sila nagpa-check-up, ang sagot nila ay kasi wala silang pambayad sa doctor,” (Whenever I ask patients why it took them time before having a check-up, their usual response is that they do not have money to pay a doctor.) she said.
The inaccessibility can be due to, first, the commercialization of health services.
She said the consultation fee of private clinics ranges from P150 ($2.91) to P350 ($6.79) per visit. This does not include expenses for medicines and laboratory fees.
Even public hospitals such as the Jose Reyes Medical Hospital in Manila asks for P50 ($0.97) as consultation fee for out-patients, Rivera said.
Although the CHSC offers free consultation, not all patients can be accommodated by one center alone, Rivera added.
Lack of budget
Hospital and laboratory fees are unaffordable to patients even in cases of emergency or severe illnesses.
Emma Manuel, radiological technologist of the Tondo Medical Center (TMC) and chairperson of the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW), said public hospitals are now expected to augment their budget.
For 2006, the national government only allocated P10.4 billion ($201,706,749) for health services or 25 centavos ($0.0048) per Filipino. TMC, a tertiary hospital, was given a P124 million ($2,404,965) budget for 2006 where P24 million ($465,477) goes to maintenance, operating, and other expenses (MOOE) while P100 million ($1,939,487) goes to personnel services.
Manuel said the budget for MOOE is not even enough to pay for water and electricity for one year. Their water and electricity bills amount to a maximum of P25 million ($484,877) a year.
This is why public hospitals are forced to charge laboratory and other fees, Manuel said.
Manuel said in the late 1970s, they only ask for a P5 ($0.09) donation for x-ray. Today, the lowest fee for chest x-ray (the most common due to the prevalence of TB) is P120 ($2.33) for adults and P240 ($4.65) for children.
Furthermore, Manuel said patients in the Emergency Room are made to buy practically everything. (see table)
Fees of Materials to be Bought by Patients of the TMC Emergency Room
Plaster - P5.75/ruler
Cotton - P.25/ball
Gauze - P7/pack
Dextrose - P61/1000ml bottle
Gloves - P5/piece
Oxygen - P473/tank
Rivera said inaccessibility can also be due to the urbanization of health services. This means a high percentage of health institutions are concentrated in Metro Manila and other urban centers in the country like Baguio in Northern Luzon, Cebu and Davao in Central and Southern Philippines, respectively.
Far-flung provinces, meanwhile, depend on provincial or regional hospitals that lack facilities and health personnel, she added. (link to Aubrey’s article on health devolution)
The greatest manifestation of the inaccessibility of health services, Rivera said, is the health seeking behavior of patients.
“Kanino ba pumupunta ang mga tao pag may nararamdaman sila? Di ba sa mga albularyo o hilot o yung tinatawag na traditional health workers?” (Where do people go if they are sick? They usually go to quack doctors or traditional health workers.) she said.
She said this practice is prevalent even in urban centers.
Working with limited resources
Dr. Gerry Ymson, Assistant Municipal Health Officer of the Manila Health Department (MHD), said in an interview that the Department of Health (DoH) has no definite commitment to local government units with regards the health budget.
“Hindi namin inaasahan ang budget na manggagaling sa DoH kasi if we do we will fail with our programs,” (We do not rely on the DoH for our budget otherwise our programs will fail.) he said.
Although the devolution of health services started in the early 1990s, the Manila City government has been working with its own budget since 1940, Ymson said. This was the same time the MHD was established.
The MHD has programs on TB and other communicable diseases, leprosy, venereal disease, childhood illnesses and dengue. The budget that comes from the DoH is given to the MHD in the form of medicines, Ymson added.
The MHD also boasts of a feeding program for children under five years old who are enrolled in day care centers.
Ymson also said that since TB ranks fourth among the 10 leading illnesses in the city, one of its thrust programs is towards containing TB. A big chunk of medicines for TB comes from the DoH.
Despite this, in March this year, 33-year old Arlene Hernandez has again been diagnosed with tuberculosis. She was first diagnosed with the same disease in 2001. Today, she is already considered a Category II patient which means she has to undergo re-treatment for eight months.
But Arlene’s misery has tripled today. Her two children, John, 5, and Jerryson, 11 months, have also been diagnosed with primary complex.
Arlene’s husband, Julioto, 36, is, at present, jobless.
They also live in one of those two-by-four square meter dwellings in a community they call Happy Land.
© 2006 Bulatlat ■ Alipato Media Center
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Evacuation Mess Turning ala "P700M Fertilizer Scam"
News Release
July 28, 2006
The Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) Labor Center is worried that the evacuation funds for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) in Lebanon is turning like the infamous "P700M Fertilizer Scam", wherein the money never reach the supposed beneficiary.
"The developing story behind evacuation mess is very smelly and similar to the "P700M Fertilizer Scam" but on a more grandiose scale, involving P8 billions of OFWs' money. We will not be surprised if the name of Gloria Arroyo will be implicated in this mess based on her track record of corruption," said Nenita "Ka Nitz" Gonzaga, Secretary of the KMU Women's Department.
The infamous P700M Fertilizer Funds were supposedly for farm inputs but it never reached the hands of our farmers but was used instead as grease money for House of Representative members to kill the impeachment bid against Arroyo. The veteran labor leader also supported the moves by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada to dig deeper in the evacuation mess.
"We think both houses should investigate because this P8.1B is not government money but came from the blood and sweat of our toiling workers abroad and to make proper accounting of this hard-earned money is the least they can do, "opined Gonzaga .
"The earlier the better so as to locate where the stench is coming from and whose pockets are involved."
"While our countrymen are being shelled everyday in Lebanon, the finger-pointing between OWWA officials and Philippine Embassy in Lebanon continues. OWWA officials argue that there is money, while those in Lebanon state another story. If there is no problem with funds, show us the money," stated Gonzaga.
Gonzaga also criticized the government for being too stingy when it comes to the safety of our OFW's. "The OWWA has P 8.1B funds available but we are wondering why only a measly P150 million are made available. There are more than 30,000 Filipinos needed to be evacuated and P150M is far from enough." According to estimates the P150M is enough to cover only 3,000 or almost 10% of the total Filipinos in Lebanon. ###
-- Visit us at www.kilusangmayouno.org
July 28, 2006
The Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) Labor Center is worried that the evacuation funds for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) in Lebanon is turning like the infamous "P700M Fertilizer Scam", wherein the money never reach the supposed beneficiary.
"The developing story behind evacuation mess is very smelly and similar to the "P700M Fertilizer Scam" but on a more grandiose scale, involving P8 billions of OFWs' money. We will not be surprised if the name of Gloria Arroyo will be implicated in this mess based on her track record of corruption," said Nenita "Ka Nitz" Gonzaga, Secretary of the KMU Women's Department.
The infamous P700M Fertilizer Funds were supposedly for farm inputs but it never reached the hands of our farmers but was used instead as grease money for House of Representative members to kill the impeachment bid against Arroyo. The veteran labor leader also supported the moves by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada to dig deeper in the evacuation mess.
"We think both houses should investigate because this P8.1B is not government money but came from the blood and sweat of our toiling workers abroad and to make proper accounting of this hard-earned money is the least they can do, "opined Gonzaga .
"The earlier the better so as to locate where the stench is coming from and whose pockets are involved."
"While our countrymen are being shelled everyday in Lebanon, the finger-pointing between OWWA officials and Philippine Embassy in Lebanon continues. OWWA officials argue that there is money, while those in Lebanon state another story. If there is no problem with funds, show us the money," stated Gonzaga.
Gonzaga also criticized the government for being too stingy when it comes to the safety of our OFW's. "The OWWA has P 8.1B funds available but we are wondering why only a measly P150 million are made available. There are more than 30,000 Filipinos needed to be evacuated and P150M is far from enough." According to estimates the P150M is enough to cover only 3,000 or almost 10% of the total Filipinos in Lebanon. ###
-- Visit us at www.kilusangmayouno.org
Monday, July 24, 2006
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Our Very Own Dirty War
By Walden Bello*
(This article appeared in Business World, July 17, 2006.)
In Argentina, during the “Dirty War” in the mid-seventies, the military used to load tortured university students into helicopters and push them into the stormy South Atlantic.
We have not yet come to that, thank god. But the statistics are mounting, as almost every week now, activists and journalists are murdered or abducted. The dirty war is a grim reality that is unfolding, especially in the countryside.
Like many institutions, the University of the Philippines as a community has been slow in reacting to the spread of the dirty war. But when its very own were swept up in the dragnet, it finally reacted. Sherlyn Cadapan, an outstanding athlete, is with the College of Human Kinetics. Karen Empeno is a student at my unit, the Department of Sociology of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. Both were picked up by masked men with long firearms at 2 am in Hagonoy, Bulacan, along with a male companion from the same area.
In a letter to Ronaldo Puno, Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government, UP President Emerlinda Roman requested the assistance of government authorities in locating the two students. In the letter the president reminded Puno: “We know that you share with us a commitment to the spirit of the UN General Assembly’s ‘Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance… We also know that the acts done by masked armed men are criminally punishable under our laws.”
Ten days after President Roman’s letter, with still no word from the military or any other government agency on the whereabouts of the two students, the University Council approved with no negative votes a resolution reiterating her request for information and asking the government to “provide [the students] with medical and legal assistance and release them to the care of the University as soon as possible.” The July 13 resolution added: “We consider the continuing silence of the authorities in this matter of life and death to be inexcusable and a betrayal of the public trust.”
The university community’s reaction, along with the recent Catholic Bishops Conference Pastoral Statement of July 11, which condemned the spate of killings, was an important step in the awakening of civic consciousness over the grave danger to the liberal democratic regime posed by the rampant assassinations and abductions.
But the protests from these two institutions are far from turning the black tide of state and paramilitary terrorism.
In contrast to the waning years of the Marcos regime and the early years of the Aquino presidency, there has yet been no mass outrage at the systematic assassination of activists and media people. It could be that people have become cynical about the ability of the justice system to bring the perpetrators of such deeds to justice. This is understandable since none of the perpetrators of the killings of high-profile figures—Benigno Aquino, the student leader Lean Alejandro, labor leader Rolando Olalia—have been brought to justice, much less identified. This cynicism about the justice system is part of the general disillusionment with the institutions of the unraveling EDSA liberal democratic state that replaced the Marcos regime.
Lack of faith in mass actions, profound skepticism that the vote can change anything, a withdrawal into the private sphere, general dispiritedness—these are the elements of the miserable political context in which the killings are taking place.
The systematic assassinations and abductions are part of an anti-communist campaign that has run out of control. They are being perpetrated by elements of the security and defense establishment, along with private landed armies, and these forces are encouraged by the unwillingness of civilian authorities to check them. For the civilian authorities—in this case, Malacanang—are not only weak; they depend for their survival on the support of the military. This symbiosis between a corrupt and weak civilian regime and a strong and reckless military is what is stripping the EDSA state of its last liberal features.
For all intents and purposes, we are living in a repressive, post-liberal, post-democratic state.
It is estimated that at least 15,000 young people were assassinated in the dirty war in Argentina. It will never get that bad here, some say. Well, let me tell these people that this is no longer a far-fetched scenario, and the only thing that will prevent it from transpiring is a mobilized civil society that says enough, and is angry enough to bring back the rule of law.
Can we turn the tide? Yes, but that will take a lot of determination and a lot of courage.
*Walden Bello is professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines.
(This article appeared in Business World, July 17, 2006.)
In Argentina, during the “Dirty War” in the mid-seventies, the military used to load tortured university students into helicopters and push them into the stormy South Atlantic.
We have not yet come to that, thank god. But the statistics are mounting, as almost every week now, activists and journalists are murdered or abducted. The dirty war is a grim reality that is unfolding, especially in the countryside.
Like many institutions, the University of the Philippines as a community has been slow in reacting to the spread of the dirty war. But when its very own were swept up in the dragnet, it finally reacted. Sherlyn Cadapan, an outstanding athlete, is with the College of Human Kinetics. Karen Empeno is a student at my unit, the Department of Sociology of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. Both were picked up by masked men with long firearms at 2 am in Hagonoy, Bulacan, along with a male companion from the same area.
In a letter to Ronaldo Puno, Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government, UP President Emerlinda Roman requested the assistance of government authorities in locating the two students. In the letter the president reminded Puno: “We know that you share with us a commitment to the spirit of the UN General Assembly’s ‘Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance… We also know that the acts done by masked armed men are criminally punishable under our laws.”
Ten days after President Roman’s letter, with still no word from the military or any other government agency on the whereabouts of the two students, the University Council approved with no negative votes a resolution reiterating her request for information and asking the government to “provide [the students] with medical and legal assistance and release them to the care of the University as soon as possible.” The July 13 resolution added: “We consider the continuing silence of the authorities in this matter of life and death to be inexcusable and a betrayal of the public trust.”
The university community’s reaction, along with the recent Catholic Bishops Conference Pastoral Statement of July 11, which condemned the spate of killings, was an important step in the awakening of civic consciousness over the grave danger to the liberal democratic regime posed by the rampant assassinations and abductions.
But the protests from these two institutions are far from turning the black tide of state and paramilitary terrorism.
In contrast to the waning years of the Marcos regime and the early years of the Aquino presidency, there has yet been no mass outrage at the systematic assassination of activists and media people. It could be that people have become cynical about the ability of the justice system to bring the perpetrators of such deeds to justice. This is understandable since none of the perpetrators of the killings of high-profile figures—Benigno Aquino, the student leader Lean Alejandro, labor leader Rolando Olalia—have been brought to justice, much less identified. This cynicism about the justice system is part of the general disillusionment with the institutions of the unraveling EDSA liberal democratic state that replaced the Marcos regime.
Lack of faith in mass actions, profound skepticism that the vote can change anything, a withdrawal into the private sphere, general dispiritedness—these are the elements of the miserable political context in which the killings are taking place.
The systematic assassinations and abductions are part of an anti-communist campaign that has run out of control. They are being perpetrated by elements of the security and defense establishment, along with private landed armies, and these forces are encouraged by the unwillingness of civilian authorities to check them. For the civilian authorities—in this case, Malacanang—are not only weak; they depend for their survival on the support of the military. This symbiosis between a corrupt and weak civilian regime and a strong and reckless military is what is stripping the EDSA state of its last liberal features.
For all intents and purposes, we are living in a repressive, post-liberal, post-democratic state.
It is estimated that at least 15,000 young people were assassinated in the dirty war in Argentina. It will never get that bad here, some say. Well, let me tell these people that this is no longer a far-fetched scenario, and the only thing that will prevent it from transpiring is a mobilized civil society that says enough, and is angry enough to bring back the rule of law.
Can we turn the tide? Yes, but that will take a lot of determination and a lot of courage.
*Walden Bello is professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Update on Rice Subsidy and Other Matters
On June 2, 2006, the All U.P. Workers's Union Manila have a dialogue with the UP Manila Chancellor, Dr. Ramon Arcadio. The agenda include: benefits under the Magna carta of Public Health Workers (RA 7305) and the early release of the first sack of rice.
The Chancellor agreed and suported the early release of the 1st sack of rice after consultation with PGH Director, Dr. Carmelo Alfiler (PGH constitute about 76% of the 3,400 administrative personnel of UP Manila). He also agreed to help convince the other chancellors, considering that UP Manila constitutes the bulk of the 8,000 administrative personnel of UP.
The Chancellor further agreed to form a committee to study the financial and other aspects of the benefits yet to be implemented under the Magna Carta such as the Longevity and Overtime Pay, free treatment and hospitalization and housing facility and/or allowance. To date, the seven (7) member committee headed by the Vice Chancellor, Dr. Orlino Talens had already met once, and have an imposed dealine to submit its recommendation to the Chancellor on/or before September 30, 2006
This dialogue was also adopted by the AUPWU's National Executive Committee so that before the meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) on June 21, the Chancellors of UP Diliman and Los Baños were already on board to support the early release of the rice subsidy (1st sack of the two (2) sack per year subsidy). UP's campuses in Manila, Diliman and Los Baños are considered "the big three" (heavyweights) of the seven (7) constituent units of the UP System.
Tomorrow, June 30, 2006, the UP's Board of Regents are expected to affirm the PAC's recommendation for the early release of the 1st sack of rice. However, we still need to lobby it during its meeting at UP Open University in Los Baños tomorrow at 9:00 AM. We therefore call on everybody to go to UPOU tomorrow starting at 8:00 AM.
Upon approval by the BOR, we expect each of us to received our one (1) sack rice starting on the last week of July 2006.
On the other hand, the case of our National Treasurer, Mr. Ely Estropigan has been partially resolved on our favor. Mr Estropigan was collared by the PSG and WPD operatives on June 15, 2006 during the turnover rite of the Sentro Oftalmologico Jose Rizal when Mrs. Arroyo visited the PGH. He was out on P100.00 bail on the charge of "breach of peace" in violation of a Revised City Ordinance. The charge by the police of inciting to sedition was recommended "for further investigation" instead of being dismissed outright by the inquest fiscal. We in the union however believed that the action of the PSG and WPD operatives were way out of bounds considering that the peaceful protest action was done in a public place and in UP grounds at that. The Memorandum of Agreement between UP and the AFP/PNP specifically prohibits the AFP and PNP personnel to intervene on any peaceful concerted activities done within the campus by UP constituents. The Union was therefore mulling also to file administrative charges against the PSG and WPD operatives who arrested Mr. Estropigan and the two students at PGH. We finally believed that this harassment suit filed against Mr. Estropigan will be dismissed in due time.
The Chancellor agreed and suported the early release of the 1st sack of rice after consultation with PGH Director, Dr. Carmelo Alfiler (PGH constitute about 76% of the 3,400 administrative personnel of UP Manila). He also agreed to help convince the other chancellors, considering that UP Manila constitutes the bulk of the 8,000 administrative personnel of UP.
The Chancellor further agreed to form a committee to study the financial and other aspects of the benefits yet to be implemented under the Magna Carta such as the Longevity and Overtime Pay, free treatment and hospitalization and housing facility and/or allowance. To date, the seven (7) member committee headed by the Vice Chancellor, Dr. Orlino Talens had already met once, and have an imposed dealine to submit its recommendation to the Chancellor on/or before September 30, 2006
This dialogue was also adopted by the AUPWU's National Executive Committee so that before the meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) on June 21, the Chancellors of UP Diliman and Los Baños were already on board to support the early release of the rice subsidy (1st sack of the two (2) sack per year subsidy). UP's campuses in Manila, Diliman and Los Baños are considered "the big three" (heavyweights) of the seven (7) constituent units of the UP System.
Tomorrow, June 30, 2006, the UP's Board of Regents are expected to affirm the PAC's recommendation for the early release of the 1st sack of rice. However, we still need to lobby it during its meeting at UP Open University in Los Baños tomorrow at 9:00 AM. We therefore call on everybody to go to UPOU tomorrow starting at 8:00 AM.
Upon approval by the BOR, we expect each of us to received our one (1) sack rice starting on the last week of July 2006.
On the other hand, the case of our National Treasurer, Mr. Ely Estropigan has been partially resolved on our favor. Mr Estropigan was collared by the PSG and WPD operatives on June 15, 2006 during the turnover rite of the Sentro Oftalmologico Jose Rizal when Mrs. Arroyo visited the PGH. He was out on P100.00 bail on the charge of "breach of peace" in violation of a Revised City Ordinance. The charge by the police of inciting to sedition was recommended "for further investigation" instead of being dismissed outright by the inquest fiscal. We in the union however believed that the action of the PSG and WPD operatives were way out of bounds considering that the peaceful protest action was done in a public place and in UP grounds at that. The Memorandum of Agreement between UP and the AFP/PNP specifically prohibits the AFP and PNP personnel to intervene on any peaceful concerted activities done within the campus by UP constituents. The Union was therefore mulling also to file administrative charges against the PSG and WPD operatives who arrested Mr. Estropigan and the two students at PGH. We finally believed that this harassment suit filed against Mr. Estropigan will be dismissed in due time.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Channel P1billion AFP Fund to Schools, Medicines, and Peace Talks, Ka Bel Challenges GMA
NEWS RELEASE
June 22, 2006
From the Office of Anakpawis Rep. Crispin B. Beltran
Lisa C. Ito, Public Information Officer (+63)927.796.7006
"Socio-economic development' component of AFP's all-out war is only a deodorizer for bloodbath."
Anakpawis Congressman Crispin Beltran today challenged the Palace and the AFP "to prove their sincerity in achieving a just and lasting peace by rechannelling the controversial P1 billion counter-insurgency fund to basic social services, such as education and health, and to the peace talks with the CPP-NPA".
"The government should be channeling such funds to augmenting grossly inadequate basic social services, instead of funding murderous counter-insurgency campaigns in the countryside. The Arroyo administration should be castigated by all societal sectors for splurging on the military allotments while chronically neglecting and scrimping on the budget for health and education. This shows that the President is only interested in protecting herself rather than the nation's interest and welfare," Beltran said while confined at the Philippine Heart Center.
"The people's money would be better spent on laying the groundwork for the resumption of peace talks with the CPP-NPA rather than an all-out counter-insurgency bid. Yet the Arroyo administration seems to favor wielding the bloody sword of war over going back to the negotiating table," Beltran said.
Beltran also criticized AFP Chief Generoso Senga's claim that criticisms of the counter-insurgency fund were "unfair".
"Senga should quit denying the obvious and call a spade a spade. He is evading well-founded and historical observations that the military counter-insurgency fund will only increase the number of civilians killed, tortured, and harassed and the extra-judicial killings of activists who are operating well within the law. He is lamely and illogically trying to justify a bloodbath by saying that the AFP will be having all these small livelihood projects anyway," Beltran said.
"The 'socio-economic development' component of this counter-insurgency campaign is only a deodorizer for the stench of blood and tears that is sure to come if the military war dogs go on such a killing spree in the provinces. These small-scale projects will not fundamentally alter the causes of widespread poverty, and can never compensate for the human rights violations by the military," Beltran said.
Beltran said he was wary of such "socio-economic development projects, especially those bearing the seal of approval from the Palace".
"Frankly speaking, we have witnessed how the Arroyo administration has only used such Palace-approved allotments as a convenient piggybank for Pres. Arroyo's campaigns at shameless self-promotion. The 2007 elections are nearing, and President Arroyo will be needing subtle and not-so-subtle ways to promote herself, her allies and her cohorts in their bid to extend their abominable presence in governance," Beltran said.
"This socio-economic development component of the P1 bilion military allocation might only end up as another Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) fertilizer fund scam or another OWWA Philhealth fund anomaly," Beltran said. ###
June 22, 2006
From the Office of Anakpawis Rep. Crispin B. Beltran
Lisa C. Ito, Public Information Officer (+63)927.796.7006
"Socio-economic development' component of AFP's all-out war is only a deodorizer for bloodbath."
Anakpawis Congressman Crispin Beltran today challenged the Palace and the AFP "to prove their sincerity in achieving a just and lasting peace by rechannelling the controversial P1 billion counter-insurgency fund to basic social services, such as education and health, and to the peace talks with the CPP-NPA".
"The government should be channeling such funds to augmenting grossly inadequate basic social services, instead of funding murderous counter-insurgency campaigns in the countryside. The Arroyo administration should be castigated by all societal sectors for splurging on the military allotments while chronically neglecting and scrimping on the budget for health and education. This shows that the President is only interested in protecting herself rather than the nation's interest and welfare," Beltran said while confined at the Philippine Heart Center.
"The people's money would be better spent on laying the groundwork for the resumption of peace talks with the CPP-NPA rather than an all-out counter-insurgency bid. Yet the Arroyo administration seems to favor wielding the bloody sword of war over going back to the negotiating table," Beltran said.
Beltran also criticized AFP Chief Generoso Senga's claim that criticisms of the counter-insurgency fund were "unfair".
"Senga should quit denying the obvious and call a spade a spade. He is evading well-founded and historical observations that the military counter-insurgency fund will only increase the number of civilians killed, tortured, and harassed and the extra-judicial killings of activists who are operating well within the law. He is lamely and illogically trying to justify a bloodbath by saying that the AFP will be having all these small livelihood projects anyway," Beltran said.
"The 'socio-economic development' component of this counter-insurgency campaign is only a deodorizer for the stench of blood and tears that is sure to come if the military war dogs go on such a killing spree in the provinces. These small-scale projects will not fundamentally alter the causes of widespread poverty, and can never compensate for the human rights violations by the military," Beltran said.
Beltran said he was wary of such "socio-economic development projects, especially those bearing the seal of approval from the Palace".
"Frankly speaking, we have witnessed how the Arroyo administration has only used such Palace-approved allotments as a convenient piggybank for Pres. Arroyo's campaigns at shameless self-promotion. The 2007 elections are nearing, and President Arroyo will be needing subtle and not-so-subtle ways to promote herself, her allies and her cohorts in their bid to extend their abominable presence in governance," Beltran said.
"This socio-economic development component of the P1 bilion military allocation might only end up as another Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) fertilizer fund scam or another OWWA Philhealth fund anomaly," Beltran said. ###
Itchy Trigger Fingers or Itchy Palms?
Editorial
People's Independent Media
THURSDAY JUNE 22, 2006
'The police need not raise the Red bogey to ensure each member has a sidearm. Just waive the 10 percent "SOP," please.'
The Philippine National Police is itching to get its licks in at the communist rebels following Gloria Arroyo's declaration of "all-outwar."
"We want an active role, like conducting offensives," PNP spokesman Sr. Supt. Samuel Pagdilao said.
According to Pagdilao, the PNP has always been on a "defensive mode" toward the communist rebels. The police can act only when attacked. As a result, they have been relatively easy targets for raids which usually result in firearms being carted off by the rebels.
The zeal of the PNP is commendable. But why can't it devote its attention to maintenance of peace and order first?
Criminality is rampant. The PNP admits as much by saying it could not perform its job well because it is undermanned and inadequately equipped. The PNP has 118,000 members securing 80 million people, for a policeman-to-population ratio of around 1:700, well below the 1:500minimum.
The PNP even lacks basic firearms, let alone prowl cars, ships and planes to carry out its mission. Of hand guns, the PNP has 100,500 in its inventory, leaving 14 percent of its men without this basic equipment.
So why should the police look for a new fight when it cannot even lick the enemy at hand?
Perhaps, it's not a case of itchy trigger fingers, but of itchy palms?
This is probably unfair to the PNP leadership but, let's face it, themilitary and the police have not exactly been known for, ah, scrupulous financial accounting.
Gloria has ordered the release of P1 billion to bankroll her all-out war against the communist rebels. A total of P400 million is earmarked for the Armed Forces, P300 million for the PNP and P300 million for unspecified "developmental" projects.
We are not begrudging the PNP for seeking a fair share of the P1billion funding. It certainly needs the money. Let's go back to the handgun shortage. Let's place the shortage at an even 18,000. AtP30,000 a piece, the price the PNP is paying for it latest negotiated purchase, 18,000 guns already cost P540 million. (Of long firearms, the PNP has 60,000, including those on the pipeline. That's a shortage of 58,000. But Gloria says 100,500 handguns plus 60,000 long firearms gives a total 160,000 firearms. There is, therefore, no shortage by Gloria's kind of arithmetic.)
Our suggestion to the PNP is to use all P300 million to buy 10,000 hand guns. That still leaves an 8,000 shortage. But it has to start somewhere. The police need not raise the Red bogey to ensure eachmember has a sidearm. Just waive the 10 percent "SOP," please.
COPYRIGHT 2004 (c) People's Independent Media Inc.
People's Independent Media
THURSDAY JUNE 22, 2006
'The police need not raise the Red bogey to ensure each member has a sidearm. Just waive the 10 percent "SOP," please.'
The Philippine National Police is itching to get its licks in at the communist rebels following Gloria Arroyo's declaration of "all-outwar."
"We want an active role, like conducting offensives," PNP spokesman Sr. Supt. Samuel Pagdilao said.
According to Pagdilao, the PNP has always been on a "defensive mode" toward the communist rebels. The police can act only when attacked. As a result, they have been relatively easy targets for raids which usually result in firearms being carted off by the rebels.
The zeal of the PNP is commendable. But why can't it devote its attention to maintenance of peace and order first?
Criminality is rampant. The PNP admits as much by saying it could not perform its job well because it is undermanned and inadequately equipped. The PNP has 118,000 members securing 80 million people, for a policeman-to-population ratio of around 1:700, well below the 1:500minimum.
The PNP even lacks basic firearms, let alone prowl cars, ships and planes to carry out its mission. Of hand guns, the PNP has 100,500 in its inventory, leaving 14 percent of its men without this basic equipment.
So why should the police look for a new fight when it cannot even lick the enemy at hand?
Perhaps, it's not a case of itchy trigger fingers, but of itchy palms?
This is probably unfair to the PNP leadership but, let's face it, themilitary and the police have not exactly been known for, ah, scrupulous financial accounting.
Gloria has ordered the release of P1 billion to bankroll her all-out war against the communist rebels. A total of P400 million is earmarked for the Armed Forces, P300 million for the PNP and P300 million for unspecified "developmental" projects.
We are not begrudging the PNP for seeking a fair share of the P1billion funding. It certainly needs the money. Let's go back to the handgun shortage. Let's place the shortage at an even 18,000. AtP30,000 a piece, the price the PNP is paying for it latest negotiated purchase, 18,000 guns already cost P540 million. (Of long firearms, the PNP has 60,000, including those on the pipeline. That's a shortage of 58,000. But Gloria says 100,500 handguns plus 60,000 long firearms gives a total 160,000 firearms. There is, therefore, no shortage by Gloria's kind of arithmetic.)
Our suggestion to the PNP is to use all P300 million to buy 10,000 hand guns. That still leaves an 8,000 shortage. But it has to start somewhere. The police need not raise the Red bogey to ensure eachmember has a sidearm. Just waive the 10 percent "SOP," please.
COPYRIGHT 2004 (c) People's Independent Media Inc.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
'Low-level' Bombings
Editorial
People's Independent Media
SATURDAY JUNE 17, 2006
Palace officials have denied any plan to impose martial law. The denials, however, have come from congenital liars…'
The recent spate of "low-level" bombings, which has been owned by the newly emerged group Tabak (Taong Bayan at Kawal), has so far been purely for show. The bombers appear to have no intention of harming people and destroying property. But how long will this state of affairs last?
The military and the police said they have already identified the people behind the attacks. They said the perpetrators do not belong to the political opposition. They have also not tagged the usual suspects, the communist rebels. So by a process of elimination, that leaves rightist groups seeking to overthrow the Arroyo administration as the suspects.
If indeed the rightists are behind the attacks, the speculation is that these bombings are an exercise meant to expose the government's vulnerability. These are also likely meant as a subtle warning to the AFP and the PNP that two can play the game, that they are open to retaliation over the crackdown on rightist groups and their leaders.
The PNP and the AFP have said they have launched a manhunt against the perpetrators. Let's see how this new war conducted in the shadows plays out.
The fear is that if the PNP and the AFP succeed in taking out the bombers, those who succeed in evading arrest will launch a wave of attacks that will be for real this time around.
The alternative scenario is that agents of the Arroyo administration are themselves responsible for the bombing wave to justify the declaration of a state of national emergency or even martial law.
There has been credible information coming from friends of the Palace that the hawks who now surround Gloria Arroyo are seriously entertaining the possibility of martial law. The administration's recent efforts to suppress dissent – the calibrated preemptive response to protest rallies, Executive Order 464 and Proclamation 1017– have all been thwarted by the Supreme Court's striking down of their repressive provisions.
The administration, in effect, has shot all its arrows, save for the declaration of martial law.
Palace officials have denied any plan to impose martial law. The denials, however, have come from congenital liars like national security adviser Norberto Gonzales. They are, thus, less than reassuring.
Maj. Gen. Jose Angel Honrado, spokesman of the AFP, has also scoffed at the reported plan to impose martial law. He said there is no anarchy in the streets as was the case in the months leading to the imposition of martial law in 1972. Right on cue after Honrado's statement, the bombs started exploding.
Coincidence or design? It's probably the latter given this administration's desperation to stay in power.
COPYRIGHT 2004 (c) People's Independent Media Inc.
People's Independent Media
SATURDAY JUNE 17, 2006
Palace officials have denied any plan to impose martial law. The denials, however, have come from congenital liars…'
The recent spate of "low-level" bombings, which has been owned by the newly emerged group Tabak (Taong Bayan at Kawal), has so far been purely for show. The bombers appear to have no intention of harming people and destroying property. But how long will this state of affairs last?
The military and the police said they have already identified the people behind the attacks. They said the perpetrators do not belong to the political opposition. They have also not tagged the usual suspects, the communist rebels. So by a process of elimination, that leaves rightist groups seeking to overthrow the Arroyo administration as the suspects.
If indeed the rightists are behind the attacks, the speculation is that these bombings are an exercise meant to expose the government's vulnerability. These are also likely meant as a subtle warning to the AFP and the PNP that two can play the game, that they are open to retaliation over the crackdown on rightist groups and their leaders.
The PNP and the AFP have said they have launched a manhunt against the perpetrators. Let's see how this new war conducted in the shadows plays out.
The fear is that if the PNP and the AFP succeed in taking out the bombers, those who succeed in evading arrest will launch a wave of attacks that will be for real this time around.
The alternative scenario is that agents of the Arroyo administration are themselves responsible for the bombing wave to justify the declaration of a state of national emergency or even martial law.
There has been credible information coming from friends of the Palace that the hawks who now surround Gloria Arroyo are seriously entertaining the possibility of martial law. The administration's recent efforts to suppress dissent – the calibrated preemptive response to protest rallies, Executive Order 464 and Proclamation 1017– have all been thwarted by the Supreme Court's striking down of their repressive provisions.
The administration, in effect, has shot all its arrows, save for the declaration of martial law.
Palace officials have denied any plan to impose martial law. The denials, however, have come from congenital liars like national security adviser Norberto Gonzales. They are, thus, less than reassuring.
Maj. Gen. Jose Angel Honrado, spokesman of the AFP, has also scoffed at the reported plan to impose martial law. He said there is no anarchy in the streets as was the case in the months leading to the imposition of martial law in 1972. Right on cue after Honrado's statement, the bombs started exploding.
Coincidence or design? It's probably the latter given this administration's desperation to stay in power.
COPYRIGHT 2004 (c) People's Independent Media Inc.
Friday, June 16, 2006
PALAYAIN SINA ELY ESTROPIGAN AT DALAWANG ESTUDYANTE: MARIING TUTULAN ANG LUMALALANG PAGYURAK SA KARAPATAN NG MAMAMAYAN NG ADMINISTRASYONG ARROYO
Pahayag ng All-UP Workers Union at
All-UP Academic Employees Union
Hunyo 16, 2006
Mariing kinokondena ng All-UP Workers Union at All-UP Academic Employees Union, ang mga unyon ng mga kawani, faculty at REPS ng UP System, ang pag-aresto at pagkulong kay Ely Estropigan, Pambansang Ingat-Yaman at kagawad ng National Executive Board ng All-UP Workers Union at mga kabataang – estudyante na sina Oyo Agustin at Mark Singuenza. Ang tatlo ay bahagi ng mga estudyante, kawani at mga guro na nagdaos ng protesta laban kay Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sa bakuran ng UP Philippine General Hospital kahapon, Hunyo 15, 2006.
Inihayag ng mga nagprotesta ang pagtutol sa mga patakaran ng administrasyong Arroyo kaugnay sa patuloy na pagbabawas sa badyet para sa kalusugan at edukasyon, ang pagtaas ng tuition sa UP College of Medicine. Iginiit din ang matagal nang panawagan ng All-UP Workers Union at All-UP Academic Employees Union sa P3,000 across-the-board salary increase at pagbayad sa back-Cola sa mga kawani ng pamahalaan.
Marahas na binuwag ng mga pulis at Presidential Security Guard ang kilos protesta at inaresto ang tatlo. Ayon sa mga pahayag ng pulis, kakasuhan ng “sedition” ang mga hinuli! Kailan pa naging krimen ang mapayapang pagprotesta laban sa mga anti-mamamayan, anti-kawani at anti-estudyante na mga patakaran ng pamahalaan? Matagal na tradisyon na sa UP ang palabang tindig sa mga pambansa at lokal na mga isyu bilang pagsabuhay ng papel ng pamantasan na ”kritik ng lipunan”.
Sa bahagi ng All-UP Workers Union at All-UP Academic Employees Union, naninindigan ito sa unyonismo na militante, progresibo at makabayan bilang katiyakan sa paggigiit sa pang-ekonomiyang kagalingan at demokratikong karapatan ng mga kawani sa UP. Ang naging partisipasyon ni Ely Estropigan at iba pang kasapi ng unyon sa UP Manila sa kilos protesta kahapon ay pagsasabuhay sa ganitong tindig ng unyon at sa balangkas ng paggigiit sa mga demokratikong karapatan ng mamamayan.
Ang pagbuwag sa kilos protesta sa UP PGH at pag-aresto sa tatlo sa mga kalahok dito ay pinakahuling ebidensya ng patuloy na panunupil ng administrasyong Arroyo sa mga demokratikong karapatan ng mamamayan. Hindi masarhan-sarhan ang usapin ng pagiging lehitimo niyang halal na Pangulo bunga ng ”Hello Garci” tapes at patuloy ang oposisyon sa kanya at sa kanyang mga patakaran mula sa iba’t ibang sektor ng lipunan kabilang na ang mga obispo at iba pang taong simbahan. Patuloy ang panawagan ng mamamayan na bumaba na siya sa pwesto. Sa ganitong kalagayan, walang pakundangan ang paglabag sa ating mga karapatang sibil kabilang na ang karapatan sa mapayapang pagtitipon at pamamahayag na ginagarantiya ng Konstitusyon na nais ng administrasyong baguhin. Dumaan na tayo sa 14 na taong diktadurya at hindi tutugot ang All-UP Workers Union at All-UP Academic Employees Union sa walang pakundangang pagyurak sa ating mga demokratikong karapatan.
Palayain sina Ely Estropigan, Oyo Agustin at Mark Singuenza!Ipaglaban ang P3,000 across the board salary increase at ang ating back-COLA!
Ipaglaban ang mas mataas na badyet sa edukasyon at kalusugan!
Mariing tutulan ang pagyurak ng administrasyon Arroyo sa ating mga demokratikong karapatan!
Gloria, bumaba ka na!
All-UP Academic Employees Union
Hunyo 16, 2006
Mariing kinokondena ng All-UP Workers Union at All-UP Academic Employees Union, ang mga unyon ng mga kawani, faculty at REPS ng UP System, ang pag-aresto at pagkulong kay Ely Estropigan, Pambansang Ingat-Yaman at kagawad ng National Executive Board ng All-UP Workers Union at mga kabataang – estudyante na sina Oyo Agustin at Mark Singuenza. Ang tatlo ay bahagi ng mga estudyante, kawani at mga guro na nagdaos ng protesta laban kay Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sa bakuran ng UP Philippine General Hospital kahapon, Hunyo 15, 2006.
Inihayag ng mga nagprotesta ang pagtutol sa mga patakaran ng administrasyong Arroyo kaugnay sa patuloy na pagbabawas sa badyet para sa kalusugan at edukasyon, ang pagtaas ng tuition sa UP College of Medicine. Iginiit din ang matagal nang panawagan ng All-UP Workers Union at All-UP Academic Employees Union sa P3,000 across-the-board salary increase at pagbayad sa back-Cola sa mga kawani ng pamahalaan.
Marahas na binuwag ng mga pulis at Presidential Security Guard ang kilos protesta at inaresto ang tatlo. Ayon sa mga pahayag ng pulis, kakasuhan ng “sedition” ang mga hinuli! Kailan pa naging krimen ang mapayapang pagprotesta laban sa mga anti-mamamayan, anti-kawani at anti-estudyante na mga patakaran ng pamahalaan? Matagal na tradisyon na sa UP ang palabang tindig sa mga pambansa at lokal na mga isyu bilang pagsabuhay ng papel ng pamantasan na ”kritik ng lipunan”.
Sa bahagi ng All-UP Workers Union at All-UP Academic Employees Union, naninindigan ito sa unyonismo na militante, progresibo at makabayan bilang katiyakan sa paggigiit sa pang-ekonomiyang kagalingan at demokratikong karapatan ng mga kawani sa UP. Ang naging partisipasyon ni Ely Estropigan at iba pang kasapi ng unyon sa UP Manila sa kilos protesta kahapon ay pagsasabuhay sa ganitong tindig ng unyon at sa balangkas ng paggigiit sa mga demokratikong karapatan ng mamamayan.
Ang pagbuwag sa kilos protesta sa UP PGH at pag-aresto sa tatlo sa mga kalahok dito ay pinakahuling ebidensya ng patuloy na panunupil ng administrasyong Arroyo sa mga demokratikong karapatan ng mamamayan. Hindi masarhan-sarhan ang usapin ng pagiging lehitimo niyang halal na Pangulo bunga ng ”Hello Garci” tapes at patuloy ang oposisyon sa kanya at sa kanyang mga patakaran mula sa iba’t ibang sektor ng lipunan kabilang na ang mga obispo at iba pang taong simbahan. Patuloy ang panawagan ng mamamayan na bumaba na siya sa pwesto. Sa ganitong kalagayan, walang pakundangan ang paglabag sa ating mga karapatang sibil kabilang na ang karapatan sa mapayapang pagtitipon at pamamahayag na ginagarantiya ng Konstitusyon na nais ng administrasyong baguhin. Dumaan na tayo sa 14 na taong diktadurya at hindi tutugot ang All-UP Workers Union at All-UP Academic Employees Union sa walang pakundangang pagyurak sa ating mga demokratikong karapatan.
Palayain sina Ely Estropigan, Oyo Agustin at Mark Singuenza!Ipaglaban ang P3,000 across the board salary increase at ang ating back-COLA!
Ipaglaban ang mas mataas na badyet sa edukasyon at kalusugan!
Mariing tutulan ang pagyurak ng administrasyon Arroyo sa ating mga demokratikong karapatan!
Gloria, bumaba ka na!
PRESS STATEMENT
June 16, 2006
Hunyo 15, 2006 ay isang makasaysayang araw para sa komunidad ng UP-PGH. Sa araw na ito nasaksihan kung paano supilin ang karapatan ng mga mamamayan na magpahayag ng kanilang saloobin. Isang opisyal ng All-UP Workers Union, si Ely Estropigan at 2 estudyante ang biglang hinuli ng mga naka-sibilyang PSG. Ang mapayapang pagkilos ay ginanap pagkatapos ng ekslusibong seremonya ng turn over ng Sentro Oftalmologico sa PGH at sa labas ng gusaling ito. Sila ay sinaktan, sinalya sa rehas, tinadyakan at dinampot papuntang WPD HQ at agad ikinulong. Ang ginawang pag-aresto na ito ay nagpapatunay ng kawalang respeto ng administrasyong Arroyo sa demokratikong karapatan ng mga manggagawang pangkalusugan, kawani, at estudyante ng UP Manila, kung saan dapat ay malakas ang academic freedom.
MARIING KONOKONDENA NG ALL U.P. WORKERS UNION MANILA ANG HINDI MAKATARUNGANG PAGHULI KAY ELY AT DALAWANG ESTUDYANTE AT ANG TAHASANG PANUNUPIL NG BATAYANG KARAPATANG PANTAO!
Naniniwala ang AUPWU Manila na legal at lehitimo ang mga isyung inihayag sa pagkilos na ito, tulad paggiit sa P 3,000.00 across-the-board salary increase at ang pagtaas ng badyet ng UP at PGH, gayundin ang pagtutol sa pakanang Charter Change. Ang kasong inciting to sedition ay malinaw na walang basihan. Ito ay paninindak sa mamamayan upang patahimikin at pigilan ang paggiit ng mga lehitimong karapatan.
References:
JOSSEL EBESATE, President, AUPWU Manila 09189276381
AMOND OLIVAR, Secretary, AUPWU Manila 09155735312BENJIE SANTOS, PRO, AUPWU Manila 09275584221
June 16, 2006
Hunyo 15, 2006 ay isang makasaysayang araw para sa komunidad ng UP-PGH. Sa araw na ito nasaksihan kung paano supilin ang karapatan ng mga mamamayan na magpahayag ng kanilang saloobin. Isang opisyal ng All-UP Workers Union, si Ely Estropigan at 2 estudyante ang biglang hinuli ng mga naka-sibilyang PSG. Ang mapayapang pagkilos ay ginanap pagkatapos ng ekslusibong seremonya ng turn over ng Sentro Oftalmologico sa PGH at sa labas ng gusaling ito. Sila ay sinaktan, sinalya sa rehas, tinadyakan at dinampot papuntang WPD HQ at agad ikinulong. Ang ginawang pag-aresto na ito ay nagpapatunay ng kawalang respeto ng administrasyong Arroyo sa demokratikong karapatan ng mga manggagawang pangkalusugan, kawani, at estudyante ng UP Manila, kung saan dapat ay malakas ang academic freedom.
MARIING KONOKONDENA NG ALL U.P. WORKERS UNION MANILA ANG HINDI MAKATARUNGANG PAGHULI KAY ELY AT DALAWANG ESTUDYANTE AT ANG TAHASANG PANUNUPIL NG BATAYANG KARAPATANG PANTAO!
Naniniwala ang AUPWU Manila na legal at lehitimo ang mga isyung inihayag sa pagkilos na ito, tulad paggiit sa P 3,000.00 across-the-board salary increase at ang pagtaas ng badyet ng UP at PGH, gayundin ang pagtutol sa pakanang Charter Change. Ang kasong inciting to sedition ay malinaw na walang basihan. Ito ay paninindak sa mamamayan upang patahimikin at pigilan ang paggiit ng mga lehitimong karapatan.
References:
JOSSEL EBESATE, President, AUPWU Manila 09189276381
AMOND OLIVAR, Secretary, AUPWU Manila 09155735312BENJIE SANTOS, PRO, AUPWU Manila 09275584221
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Filipino Advocates Now an Endangered Species
by: Roland G. Simbulan
Professor and Faculty Regent
May 30, 2006
State Terrorism is now a fact of life in our country. Since Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assumed power in 2001, no less than 224 Filipino advocates journalists, and activists have been assassinated by motorcycle-riding death squads in various parts of the country. The pattern of the killings is starkly clear: critics of the government who are lawyers, journalists, priests and ministers, labor leaders, peasant organizers, teachers and student leaders are being liquidated by professional hitmen. All the victims are legal opposition personalities who have been branded or tagged as "leftists" or members of what certain government, the military and police officials call "legal fronts of the CPP/NPA".
The pattern of killings is remarkably similar to "Operation Phoenix", launched by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in South Vietnam in the late 60s. Lists of suspected Communists or Communist sympathizers were given by the CIA to professional hit men, thugs and even criminals serving sentences who were released to do the dirty jobs for the military and police. As many as 40,000 suspected members or sympathizers of the South Vietnam National Liberation Front (SV-NLF) were abducted and assassinated in an attempt to physically wipe out the "political infrastructure" of the Vietnamese "insurgency".
Similar patterns of counter-insurgency and "anti-terror" tactics were also replicated in Latin America in the 60s and 70s by the CIA. The murderous rampage in Vietnam by the CIA and its local puppets was one of the most violent episodes of the Vietnam War. But it failed to accomplish its objectives. In 1975, the Vietnamese people finally defeated the U.S. military aggressors and their South Vietnamese puppets and finally liberated South Vietnam to establish the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Given the closer covert and overt coordination and cooperation of the U.S. special operations forces and Philippine military and police agencies in the "anti-terror" campaign as never seen before, it is impossible for them not to have a hand in this. The manner and pattern of killings today are even worse than the vigilante killings in the country that occurred in the late 80s against members and leaders of people's organizations and NGOs. They are meant to silence legal critics and the open opposition to the creeping dictatorship and the "Cha-Cha "locomotive train". The killings are a threat to the very existence of democracy which should guarantee freedom of speech, assembly and the right to freely organize for grievances and social change. Political killings of legal personalities will not only permanently sabotage the peace process, but well further fuel the armed insurgency as the legal option diminishes.
Advocates and social reformers are now an endangered species in this country. If the government is not really a party to this state of terror as it claims, then it should put a stop to these killings and assassinations of its citizens. The government must enforce law and order and provide protection to all its citizens, including its staunchest critics and those in the opposition. Government has no right to exist if it is inutile in carrying out the most basic duties of a state.
Professor and Faculty Regent
May 30, 2006
State Terrorism is now a fact of life in our country. Since Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assumed power in 2001, no less than 224 Filipino advocates journalists, and activists have been assassinated by motorcycle-riding death squads in various parts of the country. The pattern of the killings is starkly clear: critics of the government who are lawyers, journalists, priests and ministers, labor leaders, peasant organizers, teachers and student leaders are being liquidated by professional hitmen. All the victims are legal opposition personalities who have been branded or tagged as "leftists" or members of what certain government, the military and police officials call "legal fronts of the CPP/NPA".
The pattern of killings is remarkably similar to "Operation Phoenix", launched by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in South Vietnam in the late 60s. Lists of suspected Communists or Communist sympathizers were given by the CIA to professional hit men, thugs and even criminals serving sentences who were released to do the dirty jobs for the military and police. As many as 40,000 suspected members or sympathizers of the South Vietnam National Liberation Front (SV-NLF) were abducted and assassinated in an attempt to physically wipe out the "political infrastructure" of the Vietnamese "insurgency".
Similar patterns of counter-insurgency and "anti-terror" tactics were also replicated in Latin America in the 60s and 70s by the CIA. The murderous rampage in Vietnam by the CIA and its local puppets was one of the most violent episodes of the Vietnam War. But it failed to accomplish its objectives. In 1975, the Vietnamese people finally defeated the U.S. military aggressors and their South Vietnamese puppets and finally liberated South Vietnam to establish the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Given the closer covert and overt coordination and cooperation of the U.S. special operations forces and Philippine military and police agencies in the "anti-terror" campaign as never seen before, it is impossible for them not to have a hand in this. The manner and pattern of killings today are even worse than the vigilante killings in the country that occurred in the late 80s against members and leaders of people's organizations and NGOs. They are meant to silence legal critics and the open opposition to the creeping dictatorship and the "Cha-Cha "locomotive train". The killings are a threat to the very existence of democracy which should guarantee freedom of speech, assembly and the right to freely organize for grievances and social change. Political killings of legal personalities will not only permanently sabotage the peace process, but well further fuel the armed insurgency as the legal option diminishes.
Advocates and social reformers are now an endangered species in this country. If the government is not really a party to this state of terror as it claims, then it should put a stop to these killings and assassinations of its citizens. The government must enforce law and order and provide protection to all its citizens, including its staunchest critics and those in the opposition. Government has no right to exist if it is inutile in carrying out the most basic duties of a state.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Rep. Beltran to Sto. Tomas: Resign Now and Good Riddance
NEWS RELEASE
May 30, 2006
From the Office of Anakpawis Representative Crispin B. Beltran
For Reference: Rep. Crispin Beltran/Lisa C. Ito
Public Information Officer (+63)927.796.7006Tel. # (+632) 931-6615
Email: crispinbeltran@gmail.com URL: http://www.geocities.com/ap_news
"If she think she's stressed out, we can only imagine the state of health, mind and welfare of the workers whose rights she has violated by signing all those various memoranda, department orders and case decisions. How many workers have lost not only their jobs but their very lives because of her?"
This was the reaction of activist legislator Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran to reports that labor and employment secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas is mulling over resignation for health reasons.
"She should resign now, and good riddance," said Beltran. "Under her administration, the labor department has become even more anti-worker and anti-poor. She shouldn't expect any compassion from the workers, neither is there anyone willing to step forward and stop her from resigning. To leave the public service would be Sto. Tomas' gift to the hundreds of thousands of workers she helped employers and capitalists abuse, exploit, and kick out of employment."
"Actually, her exit is long overdue. Government employees, labor unions, and private sector workers have long been appealing for her resignation and the rejection of her appointment," Beltran said.
"Pat Sto. Tomas will not be missed even if she leaves the DOLE. How can one miss a labor Secretary who herself has been accused of committing unfair labor practice, violating the Constitutional rights of government employees to self-organization by directly intervening in the affairs of DOLE employees, union-busting, and grave abuse of authority?" Beltran said.
Though still incarcerated, Beltran said that he still closely monitors the developments in the labor front. "The situation of our workers is deplorable. And things keep getting worse. Sto. Tomas has done essentially nothing to help improve the lives and welfare of Filipino workers. Because of her, human rights violations against workers have shot clear through the roof, and the country's unemployment rate has remained at alarming levels. The brutal massacre of the workers and farmworkers of Hacienda Luisita is also something she remains and will always remain partly responsible for," he insisted.
Still, Beltran said that Sto. Tomas' impending resignation would not absolve her of her injustices against Filipino workers. "Sto. Tomas will still be held accountable for the various labor rights violations committed under her term, particularly the Hacienda Luisita massacre," Beltran said.
###
May 30, 2006
From the Office of Anakpawis Representative Crispin B. Beltran
For Reference: Rep. Crispin Beltran/Lisa C. Ito
Public Information Officer (+63)927.796.7006Tel. # (+632) 931-6615
Email: crispinbeltran@gmail.com URL: http://www.geocities.com/ap_news
"If she think she's stressed out, we can only imagine the state of health, mind and welfare of the workers whose rights she has violated by signing all those various memoranda, department orders and case decisions. How many workers have lost not only their jobs but their very lives because of her?"
This was the reaction of activist legislator Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran to reports that labor and employment secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas is mulling over resignation for health reasons.
"She should resign now, and good riddance," said Beltran. "Under her administration, the labor department has become even more anti-worker and anti-poor. She shouldn't expect any compassion from the workers, neither is there anyone willing to step forward and stop her from resigning. To leave the public service would be Sto. Tomas' gift to the hundreds of thousands of workers she helped employers and capitalists abuse, exploit, and kick out of employment."
"Actually, her exit is long overdue. Government employees, labor unions, and private sector workers have long been appealing for her resignation and the rejection of her appointment," Beltran said.
"Pat Sto. Tomas will not be missed even if she leaves the DOLE. How can one miss a labor Secretary who herself has been accused of committing unfair labor practice, violating the Constitutional rights of government employees to self-organization by directly intervening in the affairs of DOLE employees, union-busting, and grave abuse of authority?" Beltran said.
Though still incarcerated, Beltran said that he still closely monitors the developments in the labor front. "The situation of our workers is deplorable. And things keep getting worse. Sto. Tomas has done essentially nothing to help improve the lives and welfare of Filipino workers. Because of her, human rights violations against workers have shot clear through the roof, and the country's unemployment rate has remained at alarming levels. The brutal massacre of the workers and farmworkers of Hacienda Luisita is also something she remains and will always remain partly responsible for," he insisted.
Still, Beltran said that Sto. Tomas' impending resignation would not absolve her of her injustices against Filipino workers. "Sto. Tomas will still be held accountable for the various labor rights violations committed under her term, particularly the Hacienda Luisita massacre," Beltran said.
###
Friday, May 26, 2006
Numb and Numb-er
By Raul Pangalangan
First posted 01:37am (Mla time) May 26, 2006
Inquirer
BOTH Amnesty International and Commission on Human Rights Chair Purificacion Quisumbing are correct. It is not enough for the Philippine government to just say: No, our guys didn’t kill all those communists, journalists and oppositionists. It is not enough for them to say: Go ahead, punk, prove it in court. How can the victims’ families run after the suspects, unless the police find and arrest them first?
Malacañang’s arguments actually resemble the typical defense resorted to by dictatorships of two decades ago against “enforced disappearances” -- what Latin Americans called the “desaparecidos.” Anti-government activists would be abducted and tortured, and the evidence forever erased by the simple cruel expedient of executing the prisoner and hiding the corpse (hence, the Filipino term, “salvaging” -- I suppose, referring to the macabre task of unearthing the corpses).
The activists “were disappeared,” to use jargon, precisely so that the government -- when the accusing finger points its way—can simply shrug its shoulders. Indeed, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez’s quip -- “You have to be sure what is the reason -- a drinking spree or because of a woman…” -- was already a stock response by many governments even then.
Yet, in 1989, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights actually held Honduras responsible for the disappearance of a student activist, Manfredo Velasquez Rodriguez, at the National Autonomous University of Honduras. The court relied on exactly the same logic used by Amnesty and Quisumbing: that the abduction (in Honduras) -- and the killings (in the Philippines) -- fit a historical pattern.
The Court’s language was uncanny. “Those disappearances followed a similar pattern, beginning with the kidnapping of the victims by force, often in broad daylight and in public places, by armed men in civilian clothes and disguises, who acted with apparent impunity … It was public and notorious knowledge … that the kidnappings were carried out by military personnel or the police, or persons acting under their orders....The disappearances were carried out in a systematic manner [especially considering that the] victims were usually persons whom Honduran officials considered dangerous to State security.”
The court said that the state’s obligation under the human rights covenants is not just “to respect” human rights but “to ensure [these rights] to all individuals within its territory….” That creates the duty “to organize the governmental apparatus … so that they are capable of juridically ensuring the free and full enjoyment of human rights.”
Significantly, the court contrasted the evidentiary threshold in state responsibility versus that in individual liability. “[T]he violation can be established even if the identity of the individual perpetrator is unknown. What is decisive is whether a [human rights] violation … has occurred with the support or the acquiescence of the government, or whether the State has allowed the act to take place without taking measures to prevent it or to punish those responsible.”
Stated plainly, the charge was not that the government killed Manfredo but that it failed to give him justice. The blame thus cast, the “Who, me?” defense suddenly collapses.
What bothers me about the cold-blooded murder of Fernando “Dong” Batul, fierce critic of local politicos, radio broadcaster and former Puerto Princesa City vice mayor, is the privatization of terror and the localization of fear.
Today, even political slaughter has been devolved to private hit men and decentralized to provincial goons. Let the loyal warlords in the provinces do what they must, and find the hoodlums who meet their price. This dovetails Malacañang’s style of deciding policy on the basis of the latest behest by either a “padrino,” or political patron, or which momentary need, if answered, will sway the poll surveys.
But what bothers me even more is the lack of outrage, of indignation. Filipinos were up in arms over the spoon-and-fork incident at a Canadian school. (I saw a film clip of that boy -- he had his thumb close to the base of his spoon, an absolute no-no if you ask the Filipino etiquette police!) Many Filipino Catholics were furious at “The Da Vinci Code.” (I haven’t read the book or seen the movie, but because of you, zealous objectors, I now promise to do both!) We love to speak of the human rights revolution that was Edsa People Power I, yet we remain unmoved by grieving mothers, wives and children we see almost regularly in the headlines.
So it has worked, the strategy of decimating the Philippine Left. Isolate them, remind people of their links to armed strife and of their own killing fields. Cut them down one by one, push them back underground, and then accuse them of having turned their back on peace.
So it has worked, the strategy of going after individual critics, politically significant to attract media attention and project fear, but not too high up, like Ninoy Aquino, lest it spark the next conflagration. It’s “kill one, scare 1,000.”
So it has worked, the strategy of detaching politics from life. They who are in power tell us to avoid all talk about power: Leave it to us, and just stick to workaday concerns. This triggers a cycle: politics is drained of substance and is taken over by “trapos” [traditional politicians]. In their hands, communal politics is then robbed of its soul, we all shun it even more, and the trapos have the field all to themselves.
Clever. Far too clever. Heartless schemers, their sharp minds bereft of conscience. To defeat them, we must be shrewd before we can be compassionate. That is our curse: that to win, we risk becoming like the enemy.
* * *
Comments to passionforreason@gmail.com
©2006 www.inq7.net all rights reserved
First posted 01:37am (Mla time) May 26, 2006
Inquirer
BOTH Amnesty International and Commission on Human Rights Chair Purificacion Quisumbing are correct. It is not enough for the Philippine government to just say: No, our guys didn’t kill all those communists, journalists and oppositionists. It is not enough for them to say: Go ahead, punk, prove it in court. How can the victims’ families run after the suspects, unless the police find and arrest them first?
Malacañang’s arguments actually resemble the typical defense resorted to by dictatorships of two decades ago against “enforced disappearances” -- what Latin Americans called the “desaparecidos.” Anti-government activists would be abducted and tortured, and the evidence forever erased by the simple cruel expedient of executing the prisoner and hiding the corpse (hence, the Filipino term, “salvaging” -- I suppose, referring to the macabre task of unearthing the corpses).
The activists “were disappeared,” to use jargon, precisely so that the government -- when the accusing finger points its way—can simply shrug its shoulders. Indeed, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez’s quip -- “You have to be sure what is the reason -- a drinking spree or because of a woman…” -- was already a stock response by many governments even then.
Yet, in 1989, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights actually held Honduras responsible for the disappearance of a student activist, Manfredo Velasquez Rodriguez, at the National Autonomous University of Honduras. The court relied on exactly the same logic used by Amnesty and Quisumbing: that the abduction (in Honduras) -- and the killings (in the Philippines) -- fit a historical pattern.
The Court’s language was uncanny. “Those disappearances followed a similar pattern, beginning with the kidnapping of the victims by force, often in broad daylight and in public places, by armed men in civilian clothes and disguises, who acted with apparent impunity … It was public and notorious knowledge … that the kidnappings were carried out by military personnel or the police, or persons acting under their orders....The disappearances were carried out in a systematic manner [especially considering that the] victims were usually persons whom Honduran officials considered dangerous to State security.”
The court said that the state’s obligation under the human rights covenants is not just “to respect” human rights but “to ensure [these rights] to all individuals within its territory….” That creates the duty “to organize the governmental apparatus … so that they are capable of juridically ensuring the free and full enjoyment of human rights.”
Significantly, the court contrasted the evidentiary threshold in state responsibility versus that in individual liability. “[T]he violation can be established even if the identity of the individual perpetrator is unknown. What is decisive is whether a [human rights] violation … has occurred with the support or the acquiescence of the government, or whether the State has allowed the act to take place without taking measures to prevent it or to punish those responsible.”
Stated plainly, the charge was not that the government killed Manfredo but that it failed to give him justice. The blame thus cast, the “Who, me?” defense suddenly collapses.
What bothers me about the cold-blooded murder of Fernando “Dong” Batul, fierce critic of local politicos, radio broadcaster and former Puerto Princesa City vice mayor, is the privatization of terror and the localization of fear.
Today, even political slaughter has been devolved to private hit men and decentralized to provincial goons. Let the loyal warlords in the provinces do what they must, and find the hoodlums who meet their price. This dovetails Malacañang’s style of deciding policy on the basis of the latest behest by either a “padrino,” or political patron, or which momentary need, if answered, will sway the poll surveys.
But what bothers me even more is the lack of outrage, of indignation. Filipinos were up in arms over the spoon-and-fork incident at a Canadian school. (I saw a film clip of that boy -- he had his thumb close to the base of his spoon, an absolute no-no if you ask the Filipino etiquette police!) Many Filipino Catholics were furious at “The Da Vinci Code.” (I haven’t read the book or seen the movie, but because of you, zealous objectors, I now promise to do both!) We love to speak of the human rights revolution that was Edsa People Power I, yet we remain unmoved by grieving mothers, wives and children we see almost regularly in the headlines.
So it has worked, the strategy of decimating the Philippine Left. Isolate them, remind people of their links to armed strife and of their own killing fields. Cut them down one by one, push them back underground, and then accuse them of having turned their back on peace.
So it has worked, the strategy of going after individual critics, politically significant to attract media attention and project fear, but not too high up, like Ninoy Aquino, lest it spark the next conflagration. It’s “kill one, scare 1,000.”
So it has worked, the strategy of detaching politics from life. They who are in power tell us to avoid all talk about power: Leave it to us, and just stick to workaday concerns. This triggers a cycle: politics is drained of substance and is taken over by “trapos” [traditional politicians]. In their hands, communal politics is then robbed of its soul, we all shun it even more, and the trapos have the field all to themselves.
Clever. Far too clever. Heartless schemers, their sharp minds bereft of conscience. To defeat them, we must be shrewd before we can be compassionate. That is our curse: that to win, we risk becoming like the enemy.
* * *
Comments to passionforreason@gmail.com
©2006 www.inq7.net all rights reserved
Monday, March 06, 2006
Red Herring
by Sarah Raymundo
Presidential Proclamation 1017 was lifted by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo exactly a week after it was imposed. Along with her few rabid supporters like Mike Defensor, Norberto Gonzalez and Raul Gonzalez, GMA projected the peaceful demonstrations held on the 20th anniversary of the People Power as a conspiracy between the rebelling faction of the military and the CPP-NPA-NDF. This conspiracy, in GMA’s tall tale is designed to end in a scenario of catastrophic magnitude. Thus, Proclamation 1017 was justified on grounds of an ominous conspiracy. This, of course, was just GMA’s way of supplementing her lack of control over a situation that she herself set off. Her attempt to cling to power is palpably desperate and despicable.
What was really at stake in Proclamation 1017 is the fabrication of a state of emergency to counter the urgent demand of the Filipino people for Macapagal-Arroyo to step down from a fraudulent presidency. It was therefore imperative for the Arroyo administration to throw its weight around by displaying acts of human rights violation as when it violently dispersed the peaceful rallies at the EDSA Shrine, EDSA-Santolan and Ayala. The arrest of Representative Crispin Beltran, Professor Randy David, the House-bound party list representatives Teddy Casino, Liza Maza, Rafael Mariano, Satur Ocampo and Joel Virador, and the threat to capture forty six others are concrete instances intended to inflict imperious pressure. She wanted to convince everyone that the stakes are so high that it is no longer possible for her to be constrained by the law. Does she perhaps live in a spectral space that is sheltered from the law?
Macapagal-Arroyo’s acts are far from whimsical. Thus, some remarks on the political and ethical dimension of her action are in order. Proclamation 1017 unduly empowered the police and the military in a way that was quite vague. It is precisely this vagueness that lent an omnipotent ring to Proclamation 1017. Mrs. Arroyo meant to be vague and forceful at the same time. The efficacy of force, after all, lies in the suspension of questioning and not in the gaining of consent. As usual, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo feigned composure as she ignored the overwhelming protests coming from various sectors including the Senate. Without the slightest training in the performing arts, Mrs. Arroyo made a fool of herself on national TV, as always. Her failure in acting out her pretend act is a slippage that must not escape analysis.
Mrs. Arroyo’s failed pretend act is revealed by her iron-fisted proclamation, on the one hand, and her paranoid attitude towards the activists and her critics on the other. Furthermore, this failure is a symptom of Arroyo’s over-identification with that entity called the State. She neither has the intellectual nor the politico-ethical acumen to tell the difference between her own dubious interests and the appropriate function of the various institutions that comprise the State. No wonder she dismisses the efforts of the mass movement to bring about progressive change by challenging existing institutional dysfunctions as an anarchic challenge to the government. She is too ill-equipped to understand that the mass movement’s clamor for her ouster is part of its genuine efforts to reform and transform existing institutions like the government to make it function for the interest of the majority. Whenever the people decry electoral fraud, corruption and foreign plunder, they actually want to save our institutions from people like Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. But Arroyo’s over-identification with the State can only make her label hopeful citizens as “Enemies of the State” whose actions deserve her suspension of the ethical dimension of leadership. No doubt, Arroyo’s over-identification with the State has turned her into the personification of the system’s excess that threatens the system itself.
Meanwhile, the imposition of Proclamation 1017 and its subsequent lifting bears within itself an ideological lie: that a cold-blooded leader like Macapagal-Arroyo had to do the dirty job of suspending our civil liberties for a moment in order to preserve it for a lifetime.
The lie does not stop there. What are we to make of Arroyo’s crackdown on suspected communists? What is new in this operation is that the Arroyo regime is now more open about its plan for its communist suspects. What Zizek asks of the conduct of the U.S.War on Terror, specifically its less hypocritical behavior towards terrorist suspects, must be asked of GMA’s modified behavior towards her communists suspects. If Gloria Macapagal Arroyo means only to conduct a crackdown on the left, why is she telling us so? Why doesn’t she go on arresting and even killing her suspects as she has been doing? Zizek explains that “what is proper to human speech is the gap between the enunciated content and its act of enunciation. Imagine a couple who have a tacit agreement that they can have discreet extramarital affairs; if, all of a sudden, the husband openly tells the wife about an affair, she would have good reason to wonder why he was telling her. The act of publicly revealing something is not neutral; it affects the reported content itself.”
But what is really at stake in GMA’s publicized anti-communist crackdown? Are we perhaps witnessing a change in the post-national constellation of the political forces in contemporary society? Is the triumphalist claim that the socialist project failed and that the only possible world is one that is structured by the capitalist mode of production is fast becoming obsolete? This seems to be what Macapagal-Arroyo implies in her frantic communist witch-hunt.
What is there in the statement of a crackdown on suspected communists that made the Arroyo regime enunciate it publicly? The problem is not so much the content of the statement. After all, killings of trade union leaders and activists have been conducted way before proclamation 1017.
The problem with Mrs. Arroyo is that she makes threatening statements for all of us to hear in thecontext of a democratic republic. Isn’t this lamentable? In a democracy, nobody is supposed to beincriminated by virtue of his/her political beliefs, may this be an adherence to religious fundamentalism, liberalism or even communism. The exercise of free thought and action is vital in the continued functioning of a democratic society.
The real wager in Arroyo’s game is the construction of a bogey, an’ other’ to which a particular identity like her administration may turn every time it fails. The usefulness of the communist crackdown for the Arroyo regime lies not in it’s a actual accomplishment but in its mere public announcement. It seems to say that if “covert communist activities” cannot escape the panoptic gaze of Mrs. Arroyo, then non-communists who criticize her openly are automatically an open target for state repression and violence. Interestingly, the Arroyo regime has come up with a comprehensive propaganda that documents the alleged alliance between the “renegade” officers of the military and the CPP-NPA-NDF. In the light of the aborted withdrawal of the majority of the military, it is easy to understand why Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo resorts to a preposterous narrative such as this. In identifying the defiant members of the military with the CPP-NPA-NDF she is able to construct a singularity that otherwise does not exist considering the contrasting principles that those involved adhere to. Arroyo’s emphasis on the “singularity of evil” is a tactical move for her to deny the fact that the discontent with her administration is now diffused and widespread.
What makes Arroyo’s measure even more detrimental to the construction of a genuine democracy is its patent dualistic spin on the forces that constitute the present situation: the good/her friends and evil/”enemies of the state.” This postulation is dangerous because “the justification of oppression,” as Hodge suitably puts it, “depends on the view that people can be measured on a scale of good and evil.” People like Arroyo who seem convinced that she can measure other people “on the scale of good and evil assume that the measurement can be done objectively and that it is justifiable to place restriction to those judged to be less good or more evil than themselves. After all, evil is something we would be better off without. So too for the people judged as more evil. In extreme cases, they should be killed; in other instances, they should at least be controlled and their power of rights reduced. The objective result is oppression of the people consistently so viewed and treated, although to the oppressors this result is nothing more than the furtherance of good through the suppression of evil. Without the framework of dualism, these justifications have no moral foundation on which to rest (1992:104).”
It is the duty of every responsible citizen to protect the ethical and political standards that guide our engagement in social life. And it is only through the urgent call for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to step down that we can raise our political and ethical standards which plummeted upon her acts of terror. Only when these standards are properly laid down can we, as a people, construct concrete steps towards the elimination of poverty and the practice of genuine freedom and social justice.
Presidential Proclamation 1017 was lifted by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo exactly a week after it was imposed. Along with her few rabid supporters like Mike Defensor, Norberto Gonzalez and Raul Gonzalez, GMA projected the peaceful demonstrations held on the 20th anniversary of the People Power as a conspiracy between the rebelling faction of the military and the CPP-NPA-NDF. This conspiracy, in GMA’s tall tale is designed to end in a scenario of catastrophic magnitude. Thus, Proclamation 1017 was justified on grounds of an ominous conspiracy. This, of course, was just GMA’s way of supplementing her lack of control over a situation that she herself set off. Her attempt to cling to power is palpably desperate and despicable.
What was really at stake in Proclamation 1017 is the fabrication of a state of emergency to counter the urgent demand of the Filipino people for Macapagal-Arroyo to step down from a fraudulent presidency. It was therefore imperative for the Arroyo administration to throw its weight around by displaying acts of human rights violation as when it violently dispersed the peaceful rallies at the EDSA Shrine, EDSA-Santolan and Ayala. The arrest of Representative Crispin Beltran, Professor Randy David, the House-bound party list representatives Teddy Casino, Liza Maza, Rafael Mariano, Satur Ocampo and Joel Virador, and the threat to capture forty six others are concrete instances intended to inflict imperious pressure. She wanted to convince everyone that the stakes are so high that it is no longer possible for her to be constrained by the law. Does she perhaps live in a spectral space that is sheltered from the law?
Macapagal-Arroyo’s acts are far from whimsical. Thus, some remarks on the political and ethical dimension of her action are in order. Proclamation 1017 unduly empowered the police and the military in a way that was quite vague. It is precisely this vagueness that lent an omnipotent ring to Proclamation 1017. Mrs. Arroyo meant to be vague and forceful at the same time. The efficacy of force, after all, lies in the suspension of questioning and not in the gaining of consent. As usual, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo feigned composure as she ignored the overwhelming protests coming from various sectors including the Senate. Without the slightest training in the performing arts, Mrs. Arroyo made a fool of herself on national TV, as always. Her failure in acting out her pretend act is a slippage that must not escape analysis.
Mrs. Arroyo’s failed pretend act is revealed by her iron-fisted proclamation, on the one hand, and her paranoid attitude towards the activists and her critics on the other. Furthermore, this failure is a symptom of Arroyo’s over-identification with that entity called the State. She neither has the intellectual nor the politico-ethical acumen to tell the difference between her own dubious interests and the appropriate function of the various institutions that comprise the State. No wonder she dismisses the efforts of the mass movement to bring about progressive change by challenging existing institutional dysfunctions as an anarchic challenge to the government. She is too ill-equipped to understand that the mass movement’s clamor for her ouster is part of its genuine efforts to reform and transform existing institutions like the government to make it function for the interest of the majority. Whenever the people decry electoral fraud, corruption and foreign plunder, they actually want to save our institutions from people like Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. But Arroyo’s over-identification with the State can only make her label hopeful citizens as “Enemies of the State” whose actions deserve her suspension of the ethical dimension of leadership. No doubt, Arroyo’s over-identification with the State has turned her into the personification of the system’s excess that threatens the system itself.
Meanwhile, the imposition of Proclamation 1017 and its subsequent lifting bears within itself an ideological lie: that a cold-blooded leader like Macapagal-Arroyo had to do the dirty job of suspending our civil liberties for a moment in order to preserve it for a lifetime.
The lie does not stop there. What are we to make of Arroyo’s crackdown on suspected communists? What is new in this operation is that the Arroyo regime is now more open about its plan for its communist suspects. What Zizek asks of the conduct of the U.S.War on Terror, specifically its less hypocritical behavior towards terrorist suspects, must be asked of GMA’s modified behavior towards her communists suspects. If Gloria Macapagal Arroyo means only to conduct a crackdown on the left, why is she telling us so? Why doesn’t she go on arresting and even killing her suspects as she has been doing? Zizek explains that “what is proper to human speech is the gap between the enunciated content and its act of enunciation. Imagine a couple who have a tacit agreement that they can have discreet extramarital affairs; if, all of a sudden, the husband openly tells the wife about an affair, she would have good reason to wonder why he was telling her. The act of publicly revealing something is not neutral; it affects the reported content itself.”
But what is really at stake in GMA’s publicized anti-communist crackdown? Are we perhaps witnessing a change in the post-national constellation of the political forces in contemporary society? Is the triumphalist claim that the socialist project failed and that the only possible world is one that is structured by the capitalist mode of production is fast becoming obsolete? This seems to be what Macapagal-Arroyo implies in her frantic communist witch-hunt.
What is there in the statement of a crackdown on suspected communists that made the Arroyo regime enunciate it publicly? The problem is not so much the content of the statement. After all, killings of trade union leaders and activists have been conducted way before proclamation 1017.
The problem with Mrs. Arroyo is that she makes threatening statements for all of us to hear in thecontext of a democratic republic. Isn’t this lamentable? In a democracy, nobody is supposed to beincriminated by virtue of his/her political beliefs, may this be an adherence to religious fundamentalism, liberalism or even communism. The exercise of free thought and action is vital in the continued functioning of a democratic society.
The real wager in Arroyo’s game is the construction of a bogey, an’ other’ to which a particular identity like her administration may turn every time it fails. The usefulness of the communist crackdown for the Arroyo regime lies not in it’s a actual accomplishment but in its mere public announcement. It seems to say that if “covert communist activities” cannot escape the panoptic gaze of Mrs. Arroyo, then non-communists who criticize her openly are automatically an open target for state repression and violence. Interestingly, the Arroyo regime has come up with a comprehensive propaganda that documents the alleged alliance between the “renegade” officers of the military and the CPP-NPA-NDF. In the light of the aborted withdrawal of the majority of the military, it is easy to understand why Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo resorts to a preposterous narrative such as this. In identifying the defiant members of the military with the CPP-NPA-NDF she is able to construct a singularity that otherwise does not exist considering the contrasting principles that those involved adhere to. Arroyo’s emphasis on the “singularity of evil” is a tactical move for her to deny the fact that the discontent with her administration is now diffused and widespread.
What makes Arroyo’s measure even more detrimental to the construction of a genuine democracy is its patent dualistic spin on the forces that constitute the present situation: the good/her friends and evil/”enemies of the state.” This postulation is dangerous because “the justification of oppression,” as Hodge suitably puts it, “depends on the view that people can be measured on a scale of good and evil.” People like Arroyo who seem convinced that she can measure other people “on the scale of good and evil assume that the measurement can be done objectively and that it is justifiable to place restriction to those judged to be less good or more evil than themselves. After all, evil is something we would be better off without. So too for the people judged as more evil. In extreme cases, they should be killed; in other instances, they should at least be controlled and their power of rights reduced. The objective result is oppression of the people consistently so viewed and treated, although to the oppressors this result is nothing more than the furtherance of good through the suppression of evil. Without the framework of dualism, these justifications have no moral foundation on which to rest (1992:104).”
It is the duty of every responsible citizen to protect the ethical and political standards that guide our engagement in social life. And it is only through the urgent call for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to step down that we can raise our political and ethical standards which plummeted upon her acts of terror. Only when these standards are properly laid down can we, as a people, construct concrete steps towards the elimination of poverty and the practice of genuine freedom and social justice.
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