CRISPIN BELTRAN: MOST OUTSTANDING LEGISLATOR

CenPEG ISSUE ANALYSIS No. 8
May 23, 2008
Series of 2008

In session, Beltran stood tall and dignified among many, untainted by the corruption that soiled many multimillionaire- congressmen' s seats.

As the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) prepares its assessment of the first 10 years of the Party-list system this year, we deemed it apt to devote this issue analysis to the life and struggles of Crispin Bertiz Beltran, first nominee of the Party-list group Anakpawis. Beltran, a charismatic labor leader who died in a fatal accident last May 20 in Bulacan, was a central figure in the Party-list system - defending it from subversion by the powers-that- be yet tirelessly asserting the people's right to democratic representation in governance.

Crispin Beltran is an exemplary product of his times. Trained in genuine unionism, steeled in the parliament of the streets, and more defiant after Marcos imprisonment, he brought new politics in Congress. Through it all he remained at the forefront of the workers' struggle – and that struggle has produced a hero.

Beltran, known to many Filipinos as Ka (short for kasama or comrade) Bel, was adjudged Most Consistent Outstanding Congressman from 2002-2005 and was elevated to the Congressional Hall of Fame by the Congress Magazine in 2006. He filed the most number of bills in the 13th Congress among the Party-list representatives and would have achieved the same record in the present one had he not met a fatal accident on May 20. The Philippine press and the whole nation – ruled by a government seen as one of the most corrupt in the world - were astounded to find that he died a poor man and had maintained an even frugal life.

But why was Beltran tagged and imprisoned as an "enemy of the state" by two Presidents – Ferdinand Marcos in the 1980s and, for a year-and-a-half, by Gloria M. Arroyo? What kind of politics did he wage that provoked state authorities to believe that by neutralizing him – either by arrest or physical harm (he had faced countless attempts on his life) – they would put an end to his ideology as well?

Humble beginnings

Born of humble beginnings in Bikol in 1933, Beltran's life had been etched by struggles whether as a young guerilla courier fighting the Japanese imperial occupation or as a farm worker, office sweeper, gasoline attendant, messenger, bus driver and later, as a cab driver to support his education. His legacy as one of the country's outstanding labor leaders traces its roots to when, at age 20, he joined fellow drivers in a strike. From thereon, there was no looking back. He either helped organize or served as leader of pioneering labor organizations, the last as chair of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) in 1987 following the abduction and brutal murder of Rolando Olalia and his driver by military operatives. Three years earlier, he escaped Marcos torture and imprisonment and went to the countryside to organize workers and farm laborers.

For Beltran, working alongside the country's proletariat did not only mean going on strikes for bread and butter or facing company executives in tough wage negotiations. The years spent in labor leadership also produced hard-fought lessons in ideological skirmishes with "yellow" or compromising trade unionism and also linking up with organizations of farmers, youth-students, urban poor and other sectors in a nationwide cause-oriented movement. It meant taking up the cudgels of the poor through peaceful but militant engagement with state authorities in denouncing oppressive policies while advocating for genuine social, economic and political reform. He knew that any picket or street protest would be met by police truncheons, water cannons, or even bullets but Beltran never for a second vacillated in the frontline of the struggle, as colleagues in the street parliament would narrate.

Known for his solid pro-people leadership in the labor movement, Beltran was invited to join the senatorial slate of the Partido ng Bayan (PnB or people's party) in the 1987 elections – the first to be held after 14 years of Marcos dictatorship. Reminiscent of the fate suffered by the Democratic Alliance (DA) whose six representatives elected in the 1946 elections were unseated for opposing onerous economic and military agreements with the United States, the PnB came out badly bruised from the polls with many of its volunteers killed and most of its candidates for Congress and local positions victims of fraud.

Beltran and the Party-list organizations that he represented (Bayan Muna and, later, Anakpawis) garnered significant seats in elections for the House, with BM topping both the 2001 and 2004 polls. House records show that the labor leader championed the issues of the poor in privilege speeches as well as by filing bills and resolutions on their behalf. The speeches, bills and resolutions penned by Beltran, among others, called for investigations of violations of the rights of workers, farm laborers, urban poor, migrant workers, consumers, GSIS members as well as public employees and victims of human rights violations. He was most vehement in opposing the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), Arroyo's support to the U.S. war on terror and the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Vindictive Arroyo

These initiatives inevitably antagonized government agencies, big industrial and agricultural corporations, energy companies, and military authorities. Consequently, the congressman earned the vindictive ire of Mrs. Arroyo as she watched her centerpiece policies and bills sponsored subjected to condemnation one after the other by the labor leader - together with Party mates and other legislators - inside and outside the halls of Congress. Co-authoring three impeachment initiatives and denunciations against scams linking the Arroyo couple also cost Beltran's office access to the countrywide development fund, among others.

The denial of CDF funds became part of what the progressive Party-list bloc denounced as a systematic campaign to unseat them from the House through demonization, election fraud, and the use of physical violence. The campaign was integral to a national security doctrine that seeks to neutralize the underground Left's alleged political infrastructures resulting in a series of summary executions and forced disappearances. Beltran was picked up and jailed by Arroyo authorities in February 2006 in a crackdown mounted by the President's attack dogs against the progressive bloc. After nearly two years in detention, he was set free by the Supreme Court which dismissed the trumped-up charges. By then, however, Beltran had physically weakened - a result of harassment, threats, and stress he suffered under a government that considered him "a threat to national security" and only because, as workers in the labor movement said, he stood by his principles and refused to be cowed by Malacanang through bribery and other pressures.

The last public performance that he did was when as a minority member of the House energy committee he spoke against attempts by the President to place Meralco in the hands of her business cronies in the guise of state nationalization. Before that, he filed a bill calling for a genuine agrarian reform program in place of CARP which for two decades he had denounced as a hoax. Just like the P125 legislated wage increase that Beltran and the militant labor groups had been asking for nearly 10 years, the genuine agrarian reform measure that the progressive legislator filed will be shot down by Congress' dominant conservative members and Arroyo allies. Ever a leading figure in major rallies even while he was already in Congress, Beltran delivered what turned out to be his valedictory – wearing a white T-shirt and a red cap together with co-workers at the May 1 rally in Liwasang Bonifacio, Manila.

Tributes

In a tribute to the fallen labor leader, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said Beltran is probably among the few members of Congress deserving of the title "Honorable." People who visited him while in detention to lend moral support left being inspired instead, a fellow activist leader recalls. Down with ailment, he still took pains serving food or coffee, a former KMU public information writer also says. "Don't deprive me of my wanting to serve you – no matter how small it is - if that's the only way I'll be of service," Beltran told him, quoting Golda Meir.

There are at least two lessons that can be drawn from the legacy left by Beltran. One is that his participation in the Party-list system led to the infusion of new politics in an elite-dominated Congress and with it a sterling record of legislative work for social and economic reform for the poor. A member of the legislature once noted that the entry of the progressive Party-list bloc into Congress gave the body the meaningful role that it never had. In session, Beltran stood tall and dignified among many, untainted by the corruption that soiled many multimillionaire- congressmen' s seats. But the political repression that Beltran and his colleagues endured – and continues to endure – all the more unmasks not only the state's subversion of the Party-list program that aims to represent the poor in policy making but also the continuing dominance of elitist politics that denies the poor a role in governance participation.

Beltran is vindicated for devoting his life to labor militancy alongside other marginalized classes – building power from the bowels of poverty and injustice – from where people's governance will rise. The labor and legislative record of Beltran proves that the breed of people's leaders is bound to increase – as it now appears - and that elitist rule will be a thing of the past. And that is the second lesson.

Reference:

Bobby Tuazon
Director, Policy Study, Publication and Advocacy (PSPA)
Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG)
TelFax +63-2 9299526; mobile phone: 0915-6418055
E-mail: cenpeg.info@gmail.com; info@cenpeg. org
http://www.cenpeg. org

Ka Bel’s Legacy

The accolades coming the way of Anakpawis Representative Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran, in his untimely death, salute his honesty and self-sacrifice, his courageous resistance against all forms of political repression, his unwavering commitment and service to the cause of the working class, his example of humility, good cheer and sincere concern for the lowly and downtrodden and, not the least, his being a loving and responsible family man who found time to rear ten children in the midst of his life-long struggle against exploitation and oppression.

by: CAROL PAGADUAN-ARAULLO
Streetwise
Business World

The accolades coming the way of Anakpawis Representative Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran, in his untimely death, salute his honesty and self-sacrifice, his courageous resistance against all forms of political repression, his unwavering commitment and service to the cause of the working class, his example of humility, good cheer and sincere concern for the lowly and downtrodden and, not the least, his being a loving and responsible family man who found time to rear ten children in the midst of his life-long struggle against exploitation and oppression.

It is not difficult to imagine what sorts of blandishments, bribes and outright persecutory schemes were thrown at Ka Bel by his foes who were, as far as we know, all political and ideological and not personal, adversaries. The most outrageous recent ones have been chronicled in the mass media: an attempted bribe of P2 million pesos for him to support a flawed-and-programmed-to-fail impeachment complaint against de facto President Gloria Arroyo and his 15-month detention on rebellion charges that were dismissed by the Supreme Court as baseless and a gross violation of his right to due process.

As a grizzled icon of the trade union movement in the country, the opportunities to grow rich by compromising the interests of workers were always present. As chairperson of the multisectoral alliance, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, a volte face in his leftist viewpoint and politics on many a burning issue would have been a boon to ruling regimes and the elite class interests they protect and promote.

As a bone fide member of the House of Representatives (he didn’t use public funds, military generals and corrupt members of the Commission on Elections to get elected) he acted in true form – a radical oppositionist in a reactionary institution. He spoke on and filed countless bills and resolutions addressing the urgent and most basic problems of the nation from the P125 legislated minimum wage increase to genuine agrarian reform to making the US-backed Arroyo regime accountable for its grievous crimes against the people.

But never for a moment did Ka Bel forsake the Parliament of the Streets where his familiar smiling face, firm handshake and steady stride inspired both demonstrators and onlookers alike.

Ka Bel had traveled to many places around the world but not to the United States of America. Succeeding administrations, whether Republican or Democratic, had continued to blacklist him as an unwanted alien long after the downfall of his jailer, the Dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and even when he had already attained the title of “Honorable” as an elected representative to Congress. His staunch anti-imperialist stance and his identification with progressive causes and leadership role in the International League for Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) have earned him the ire of rabid pro-imperialists while endearing him to struggling peoples and their movements worldwide.
Next to having devoted his entire life to the struggle for national and social emancipation, the most remarkable thing about Ka Bel is how he remained simple and humble despite his fame and stature. He is the best, if not the only person we know who could get away with wearing a dressy suit or barong tagalong without losing his “masang-masa” aura.

Now the secret is out, ironically revealed by his accidental death. Ka Bel looked like a man of the masses, not only because he always took up the cudgels for them and was with them in their day-to-day as well as historic struggles, but because, in truth, he lived and died a man of very modest means. His wife of more than 50 years, Ka Osang, recounted between sobs, how he had been recently occupying himself with repairs on their house, clearing a space in their cramped residence to park an old van he had been using but was badly in need of repair and sweetly promising that he would help her pull the weeds from the garden in the coming weeks so that their vegetables would grow well and help feed the hungry.

His comrades, co-workers and subordinates and even some on the opposite side of the fence in many a bruising political battle, can attest to Ka Bel’s good-heartedness and humility. He never threw his weight around in meetings nor did he demand special treatment wherever he went. He was always willing to give his time and energy to undertake risky, strenuous and even unglamorous roles so long as these were needed. He was concerned about the welfare of "kasamas", the ordinary people and his growing brood of grandchildren.

Ka Bel was never intentionally mean to anyone (of course he would get angry at oppressors and exploiters and would have willingly engaged his persecutors in the Department of Justice in a street brawl). He was generous, some say to a fault, in giving even the policemen standing ready to violently disperse demonstrators, the option to disobey unlawful orders from their superiors by addressing them as “kababayan” (countrymen) and asking them to open their eyes to what was happening in the country.

Those in the Arroyo regime who contributed in no small measure to Ka Bel’s deteriorated health condition, his economic difficulties and his unabated political persecution would now want to act as if they had, all along, only the highest regard for Ka Bel despite their disagreements with his ideology and politics. They send flowers and make sympathetic noises now that he’s dead and even wish to let it appear that as far as they are concerned, bygones are bygones.

Let us in the democratic mass movement express ourselves clearly and emphatically. Ka Bel was an uncompromising, untiring fighter for freedom, justice and fundamental reforms. He has left us a legacy that serves as an inspiration to generations of activists and the toiling, struggling masses he so loved and whom he served to his last breath.

We celebrate his life by affirming the progressive, nay revolutionary, principles and national democratic program he fought for. As the marchers who accompanied his hearse to the Iglesia Filipina Independiente Cathedral shouted resolutely, “Ka Bel, tuloy ang laban!”

Apat na Kahilingan, Tuloy na Ipaglaban! Diskriminasyon sa Unibersidad Tutulan, Labanan

Ulat sa Tugon ng President’s Advisory Council sa Apat na Kahilingan ng
ALL-UP WORKERS UNION AT ALL-UP ACADEMIC EMPLOYEES UNION

Halos walang ibinigay ang administrasyong Roman sa kahilingang inihapag natin sa President’s Advisory Council meeting ng Mayo 21, 2008.

Ganito ang ibinihagi ni UP Vice President for Administration Arlene Samaniego sa mga kawani, REPS at guro na matyagang nag-antay hanggang alas dose ng tanghali:

1. Pag-aaralan pa ang hinihingi nating P20,000 centennial bonus
2. Ibibigay ang P1,500 para sa bigas pagkatapos ng BOR meeting sa May 30, 2008.
3. Sick leave para sa mga kawani at REPS. Meron na raw nito ang mga kawani at REPS
4. 50-50 na hatian sa merit promotion. Pag-aaralan pa rin daw ito. Ayon kay VP Samaniego may mga report na hindi daw naubos ang alokasyon para sa merit promotion ng mga kawani at REPS noong 2005!!

P20,000 Centennial Bonus:

Sa Hunyo 18, 2008 na ang isang daang taon ng UP at sa Mayo 30, 2008 ay ang pulong ng Board of Regents na pusibleng mag-uusap kaugnay ng mga benepisyong matatanggap natin para sa mahalagang okasyong ito. Noon pang Enero 8, 2008, inumpisahan ang opisyal na selebrasyon ng sentenaryo ng UP. Marami nang pinaggastusan ang UP kaugnay ng sentenaryo: mga fireworks, mga centennial lectures, mga centennial professorial chairs. Pero hanggang ngayon, pag-aaralan pa nila kung ano ang maaaring tanggapin nating mga karaniwang kawani, REPS at guro para sa sentenaryo. Ano ba yan?

P1,700 para sa rice subsidy

Ang rice subsidy ay dati nang natatanggap natin. Mula P1,000 bawat sako hiniling nating gawing P1,700 bawat sako dahil P34 bawat kilo na ang relatibong maayos ayos na kalidad ng bigas. Sa P1,500 na ibibigay ng Administrasyong Roman, hindi aabot sa 50 kilong bigas ang makukuha natin bilang rice subsidy!!!

Sick leave para sa mga kawani at REPS

“Meron na raw nito ang mga kawani at REPS”. Ano ba yan? Noon pang Nobyembre 2008 ay sumulat na ang dalawang unyon natin na nagpapaliwanag kung bakit tayo humihiling ng sick leave para sa mga kawani at REPS

Ang esensya ng kahilingan natin ay ang pagbibigay suporta ng Administrasyong Roman sa mga kawani at REPS na mayroon o magkakaroon ng malalang sakit tulad ng suportang ibinibigay sa faculty na siyang pinagmulan ng extended sick leave. Ang pagsagot na meron ng leave credits ang mga kawani at REPS ay hindi tumuturol sa esensya ng usapin at nagpapakita na bingi ang Administrasyong Roman sa pangangailangan ng tulong ng mga kawani at REPS na may malalang sakit.

Bakit hindi saklawin ang mga kawani at REPS ng probisyong katulad sa ibinigay sa mga regular, full time faculty members na may naipong leave credits bunga ng paging administrador. Sa naturang probisyon, ang mga faculty na may naipong leave credits na magkakaroon ng malalang sakit ay magkakaroon ng sick leave with pay sa ilalim ng ganitong patakaran hanggang sa maksimum (10 araw sa bawat taon ng panunungkulan) bago nila gamitin ang naipong leave credits.

50-50 na Alokasyon para sa Merit Promotion ngayong 2008

Nakakainsulto ang tinuran ni VP Samaniego na “may report na hindi naubos ang alokasyon para sa mga kawani at REPS sa hatiang 80-20 noong 2005”. Alam ba ni VP Samaniego at ng mga kagawad ng PAC na sa guidelines noong 2005 promotion, isang step lamang ang pwedeng maitaas ng isang kawani o REPS sa saklaw ng limang taon (1999-2005) ? Kaya kahit na kwalipikado ang marami rami na lampas sa isang step na promotion, ay hindi nila nakuha ito. Ngayon naman, sa guidelines for promotion, kailangang OUTSTANDING ang kawani o REPS habang satisfactory ang minimum na hinihiling para sa faculty teaching. Mga kagalang-galang na mga panginoon sa Quezon Hall. Ang one step o two step promotion ng mga kawani ay magkakahalaga lamang sa karaniwan ng dagdag na P150 o P300 bawat buwan!!! At sa marami-raming opisina, nagmulti-tasking na ang mga kawani dahil sa patuloy na atrisyon sa hanay nila. At wala pang overtime pay para sa kanila!!!

Hindi namin lubos maisip kung paanong nakatutulog nang mahimbing ang mga administrador ng unibersidad gayung nagpapatupad sila ng hindi makatarungan at hindi makataong mga patakaran. Paano nila nagagawang magpatupad ng mga patakarang nagpapalaganap ng elitismo at indibidwalismo sa hanay ng iisang sektor sa halip na pagbuklurin ang lahat ng sektor.

Lahat ng kawani ng unibersidad -- administratibo, REPS o guro man -- ay may mahalagang papel, batay sa kanilang posisyon, sa pagpapaunlad at pagpapayabong ng dantaon nang unibersidad. Nakapagtataka kung bakit hindi makatarungan ang pamantayan sa pagbibigay ng merit awards. Hindi nga ba't ang pagtingin ay "to the extend that his/her position will permit"? Nangangahulugan ito na lahat ng kawani ng unibersidad ay esensyal na miyembro ng tumatakbong institusyon.

Hindi maglulubay ang All UP Workers Union at All UP Academic Employees Union sa paggigiit ng benepisyo para sa mga kawani, REPS at guro batay sa prinsipyo ng social justice at equity. Hindi maglulubay ang ating dalawang unyon sa paglantad sa parami-rami at tumitinding diskriminasyon sa pagtrato sa mga kawani at REPS sa ilalim ng Administrasyong Roman.

Apat na kahilingan, tuloy na ipaglaban!!

Diskriminasyon sa Unibersidad, tutulan, labanan!!

Environment: A major source of corruption

Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG)
ISSUE ANALYSIS No. 7
April 29, 2008
Series of 2008

The higher the level of corruption in a country, the greater the destruction of the environment.

The higher the level of corruption in a country, the greater the destruction of the environment; likewise, the lower the level of environmental sustainability. This correlation comes not from an NGO or an anti-corruption watchdog but from the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Davos annual meeting of political and corporate leaders from all over the world.

The linkage between environment and corruption is ringing alarm bells not only in the WEF but in other multilateral organizations as well. This may not necessarily out of their concern for the environment, however, but because the funds granted many developing countries including the Philippines to combat corruption have yielded no promising results, worse, are embezzled through corruption itself.

There is another correlation: Developing countries that are highly dependent on extractive industries, such as mining, logging, and the export of resources, show the highest levels of corruption. The WEF, along with Transparency International (TI), Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC), and other institutions see the Philippines as the second most corrupt country in the world and the first in Asia today.

Previously ranked as one of a few countries with the most diverse ecosystems, the Philippines is now facing an environment crisis. Only 17 percent of its forest cover is left and 50 of its 421 major river systems are biologically dead. Mining and other extractive industries threaten farm life, coastal and marine resources, access to water, and spawn epidemics and pollution of all types. Foreign mining firms have, since the 1970s, plundered as much as $30 billion worth of mineral resources from the Philippines. Moreover, some $2 billion is lost to environmental degradation every year.

The environment sector is a major source of corruption as well as political patronage. The plunder of natural wealth has been the material base of oligarchic politics that promotes and practices corruption. It is where the most coveted resources are, and it is where the money is. The mineral wealth alone that remains untapped is worth $840 billion; the first phase of the Arroyo administration' s minerals policy was expected to generate $10 billion in investments.

Teeming with corruption

The large-scale exploitation and extraction of the country's natural wealth especially timber and mineral resources teems with corruption involving bureaucrats, powerful politicians and their cronies, on the one hand, and transnational corporations and their local partners, on the other. The maze and levels of corruption begin with the TNCs themselves – in their ¬countries business gives legitimacy to bribery.

In the United States, for instance, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) does not prohibit bribing foreign officials through facilitating or expediting payment "the purpose of which is to expedite or secure the performance of a routine governmental action." On the other hand, the OECD's 1997 Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions ("OECD Convention") makes acceptable "grease payments," "speed money," "facilitating payments," or "expediting payments" that are made to ensure the timely delivery of goods and services, such as permits and licenses.

In Canada, the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act makes even more explicit about "grease" payments as legal if these are made to expedite or secure the performance by a foreign public official of any routine act that is part of the foreign public official's duties or functions, including the issuance of a permit, license, visas, and work permits.

As a result, foreign firms including mining TNCs offer bribes and allot revenues for grease money sometimes bigger than the normal 22 percent that Filipino business firms normally earmark to get government projects approved. Many TNCs whose mining operations have been banned or restricted in other countries because of pollution are willing to shell out bribe money in the Philippines allowing them to invest in mining exploration, extraction, and exportation while evading tight environment evaluation, monitoring, or even litigation. Awash with trillions of dollars in surplus capital, China's corporations including ZTE-NBN are willing to offer as much as one-third of their investment capital to corner mining, telecommunications, road development and other major projects. These projects damage the environment, demolish communities, and make the people bear more tax burdens to compensate for losses in enterprises that do not benefit them at all.

The profit objectives of business in extracting billions worth of environment resources are facilitated through the enactment of laws and onerous treaties, the issuance of policies, transactions, permits, designation of areas for operation, sham environment assessments, and other papers. This bureaucratic and policy-making process involves all layers of government including the chief executive, Congress, and even members of the judiciary.

Legal mechanisms

Thus legal mechanisms are used to legitimize and process the plunder of natural resources. But it is the invisible hand of corruption wielded by the powers-that- be which makes this development aggression more expeditious. It is this same hand that protects profitable ventures, beneficiaries of corruption, and the wanton destruction of the environment at the expense of communities, their livelihood and property, and their future. Corruption makes environment laws unenforceable and violators to get away with their crimes. It also makes accountability toothless.

A case in point: When the Supreme Court ruled in December 2004 that the Mining Act was unconstitutional, the bureaucracy' s top honchos flexed their muscle to support the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines' and the TNCs' lobby to have the ruling reversed. Millions of dollars were reportedly spent for this campaign. In less than a month, the high court did an about face. A jubilant House Speaker Jose de Venecia boasted before international mining investors in London in June 2005: "We mounted a strong campaign to get the Supreme Court to reverse itself. It was a difficult task to get 15 proud men and women of the Supreme Court to reverse themselves. But we succeeded."
Corruption is the secret agency that makes environmental destruction possible topped by civilian deaths, epidemics, and calamities. It has led to the depletion of the country's natural resources ranging from deforestation, slope destabilization, soil erosion, desertification, water resource degradation, defertilization, crop damages, siltation, alteration of terrain and sea-bottom topography, increased water turbidity and air pollution. It continues to threaten the country's food security.
Given the current propensity to reward corrupt officials while whistleblowers along with anti-corruption watchdogs are intimidated, corruption in the environment sector is here to stay and is sure to worsen. Horrifying will be day when the whole country degrades into a desert and the only life remaining is the social cockroaches – the corrupt oligarchs and crony capitalists.

Corruption breeds in a government dominated by oligarchs who craft development policies motivated by private gain and corporate greed. And yet environment constitutes public wealth and it is just for the people to make an assertion of this basic principle. In the short term, pending legislative bills that uphold transparency in government transactions such as the right to public information should be supported. Independent and impartial investigations of corruption cases and environmental plunder should take their course. In the long term, the campaign for environment conservation and the defense of patrimony should be linked to the overall struggle for land, against corruption, and toward democratic governance.

Reference:

Bobby Tuazon
Director, Policy Study, Publication and Advocacy (PSPA)
Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG)
TelFax +63-2 9299526; mobile phone: 0915-6418055
E-mail: cenpeg.info@ gmail.com; info@cenpeg. org
http://www.cenpeg. org

JPEPA Highlights Gov’t Insensitivity to Nurses

Apologists for the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) continue to claim that the treaty’s ratification will mean more employment and foreign remittances for Filipinos. But JPEPA highlights the Philippine government’s insensitivity to nurses and caregivers.

BY IBON FOUNDATION
Posted by Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 12, April 27-May 3, 2008

IBON research head Sonny Africa says that government is trying to portray that the JPEPA is a clear-cut benefit for a few hundred of the country’s health professionals. “In reality government is using them as fodder to cover up for its severe failure in generating jobs for Filipinos,” he said.

The Japanese government is facing the challenge of dealing with its aging population, and it is now state policy to reduce the costs of nursing and caregiving, said Africa. This situation has resulted in low wages and poor working conditions that even Japanese health professionals find intolerable.

The average annual income of nurses in Japan was just US$40,000 in 2004 compared for instance to US$54,000 in the United States. Caregivers’ annual income in Japan is much lower at US$25,200 for females and US$40,000 for males.

In May 2007, a survey conducted by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry found that 40 percent of Japanese nursing care license holders have turned down work in the industry because of low wages and poor working conditions. An earlier survey in 2006 found that 70 percent of Japanese nurses feel that they could quit their jobs at anytime due to chronic fatigue and professional disappointment.

The JPEPA and other similar deals lets Japan hire nurses and caregivers, for instance, from the Philippines and Indonesia, even more cheaply. After six months of language training, applicants can already have on-the-job training for up to 3-4 years while they try to pass the relevant national exams. Although they are already working during this time they will be receiving pay only as non-licensed workers or trainees or candidates-- or as nurse’s aides and caregiver’s assistants.

This goes far in terms of cheapening the cost of Japan’s health care, but at the clear expense of Filipino and other trained health professionals, said Africa.

“Using the so-called gains for nurses and caregivers to make acceptable a patently unequal deal like the JPEPA only shows an uncaring government that treats its labor force as mere commodities for export,” he said. IBON Foundation/posted by Bulatlat

HEAD Slams DOH Doublespeak on Kidney Transplants and Medical Tourism

Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD

2/F Doña Anita Bldg, 284 E. Rodriguez Ave., Quezon City Telefax: (02) 725 4760 Email: headphil@gmail.com

Media Release

07 April 2008

Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) today condemned the doublespeak of the Department of Health, which declared in its recent administrative order that "kidney transplantation is not part of medical tourism".

HEAD warned that such statements are meant to mislead the public and belie government's sincerity in putting an end to the illegal trade of kidneys and other human organs.

"Declaring that kidney transplantation is not part of medical tourism does not mean that the gov't will not partake of this very lucrative practice. It does not mean that gov't will stop promoting this or stop bringing in foreign medical tourists for kidney transplants." according to Dr. Gene Alzona Nisperos, HEAD secretary-general.

"This kind of duplicity has made the proliferation of the illegal kidney trade almost synonymous with the boom in kidney transplantation in the country. Once again, gov't is saying something but is doing the exact opposite."

HEAD notes that some measures being adopted by the DOH on kidney transplantation involving foreigners have been previously articulated by Health Undersecretary Jade del Mundo as recommendations made by groups that are actually bringing in foreigner medical tourists.

This includes the proposal where a foreign medical tourist who wants to undergo kidney transplant here will have to subsidize the transplant of an indigent Filipino. Another proposal is the increase in the cap of kidney transplantations allocated to foreigners, from 10% to 20%. Not surprisingly, Usec. del Mundo is the health department's lead promoter of medical tourism.

HEAD also questioned the central role of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) in the promotion of medical tourism. NKTI accounts for around 50% of all kidney transplantations in the country, which has made it one of the most profitable state-run hospitals in the last few years.

In the grand launch of Philippine medical tourism at the Philippine International Convention Center last November 2006, NKTI was a sponsor. "If kidney transplantation is really outside the purview of medical tourism, then why is NKTI playing a very active and prominent role in medical tourism?" asked Dr. Nisperos. Gov't already earned some $350M from medical tourism, meriting it the moniker of "the country's quiet moneymaker", and hopes to get at least $1B in the next 5 years.

There has been a marked rise in kidney transplantations done in the country, from 307 in 2002 to 470 in 2004 and to 690 in 2006 (data from the Philippine Renal Disease Registry). There has also been a steady rise in living, non-related donors (LNRDs), from 12% in 2002 to 68% in 2006, with a concomitant rise in foreign recipients. This has been going on under the nose of the DOH amid the various exposés of outright kidney sales.

Now, because of growing national and international condemnation of the thriving illegal kidney trade in the country, the DOH hopes to distance kidney transplantation from medical tourism. Dr. Nisperos calls this "official gov't schizophrenia" that is "characteristic of the Arroyo administration".

"The Arroyo gov't will always remain tentative as to how it will solve or stop the illegal trafficking of kidneys and other organs, even as it involves public, state-run hospitals like NKTI, in medical tourism. Its overarching health policy is to make health care a profitable business venture, at the expense of basic health services for ordinary Filipinos."

"The DOH will not do anything that will contradict this policy. So for as long as kidney transplantation is in demand and very lucrative, it will be offered to foreign medical tourist, officially or unofficially." ####

REFERENCES:

Dr. Gene Alzona Nisperos

Secretary-General, 0916 214 5724

Dr. Geneve E. Rivera

Deputy Secretary-General, 0920 460 3712

NERI: A DISHONOR TO THE UNIVERSITY

Statement of Concerned UP Faculty, REPS, Staff and Students 

March 27, 2008

The controversial and narrow decision of the Supreme Court to block
the Senate from arresting and demanding Romulo Neri to disclose details
on the President's involvement in the anomalous National Broadband Network (NBN)
deal is a massive blow against the people's clamor for truth and justice.

This decision is nothing but a blanket license from the Supreme Court itself
to cover up a crime against the people. It is nothing if not a license for
the unscrupulous, corrupt and dishonest to blatantly obstruct
the wheels of justice.

The strong objections of the six justices and the 120-page dissenting opinion
of Chief Justice Reynato Puno himself against the nine who voted to uphold
Neri's right to invoke executive privilege  shows just how contentious
and illegitimate this decision is. All the signs once again show the hand
of Malacanang in ensuring that the majority of justices it had appointed
would produce a decision favorable to it.

This has not been the first time that Malacanang has exerted its utmost
to prevent the truth from seeing the light of day. It sends out its
death squads to assassinate,make disappear and imprison those who speak
the truth while it coddles barefaced liars and accomplices like Neri.

This decision, far from being a vindication of Romulo Neri, is but
a further blot on his miserable and execrable record as one of the nation's
most mistrusted public "disservants." Neri lacks all moral high-ground
and does not possess even the barest minimum of personal integrity
necessary to lead an institution such as
the University of the Philippines.

We support and reiterate the call of the UP Diliman University Council
for Neri to resign as Chair of the Board of Regents (BOR) of
the University of the Philippines .

NERI RESIGN NOW!