"What I have chronicled here is familiar to us by now: the Machiavellian
manipulation of technicalities to justify just about anything and to
maneuver events to get precisely the desired result. It is a mindset, a
way of life, that I identify with the Arroyo administration, and I am
saddened when I see it practiced in a university that has become a part
of my life since I entered as a freshman 36 years ago".
- Former UP Law Dean Pangalangan on the PGH Directorship Scandal
Unceremonious unseating of UP PGH director - INQUIRER.net
Friday, March 05, 2010
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Edsa myths (Part II)
Streetwise*
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo
Was Edsa I a failure? Ferdinand Marcos Jr., heir to the Dictator Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth and discredited political legacy, says so. According to him, there has been no change: poverty only worsened, there are no basic services for the people and subsequent governments were not able to clean up the bureaucracy.
Senator Noynoy Aquino reminisces about his parents’ (and his own) sacrifices in fighting Marcos. He asserts that his mother, President Corazon Aquino, successfully restored democracy and defended it by putting down several coup attempts.
Both, not surprisingly, are resorting to half-truths to peddle lies from each one’s self-serving perspective.
Mr. Marcos Jr. cites the impoverished, miserable and repressed state that Filipinos are in to argue that things were better back in his father’s heyday. Marcos Sr. told the people that they had to give up their political and civil liberties in exchange for economic and social welfare; in the end, he gave the people neither. If indeed things are in many ways worse now than under the Marcos dictatorship it is because its warped legacy pervades today’s restored “democracy”.
Noynoy, for his part, tries to reprise the good-versus-evil analogy that worked well for his mother when she ran for president against the strongman Marcos. He paints a Camelot-like reign: apart from restoring so-called democracy, she allegedly also banished the evils of corruption, abuse of power and moral turpitude. Since to many Filipinos, the regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the embodiment of evil, Noynoy wants us to believe that he, by pedigree, is the antithesis of Mrs. Arroyo.
Too bad for Noynoy, not even the outpouring of grief during his mother’s wake and burial can erase the truth about what happened after Edsa I, how its promise of giving back power to the people and of bringing about long-sought after reforms was dashed not long after Cory assumed power.
What has been obscured in the furor over whether EDSA 1 was a failure or not is the fact that while martial law was declared by Marcos in 1972 to perpetuate his hold on power, he still had to preserve the reactionary rule of the big landowners, the business partners of the multinational companies and banks, and the entrenched bureaucrat capitalists from whence he himself came.
While the other factions of the elite were lorded over by the Marcos clique, it was the people who bore the brunt of the suffering under the same old exploitative and oppressive ruling system made worse by fascist tyranny. Consequently, while the overthrow of the dictatorship was the immediate common goal of the Edsa I participants, there were as many medium-term and long-term objectives as there were class interests among the participants.
The small but influential and moneyed minority to whom Cory and Ninoy Aquino belonged was interested only in restoring the formal trappings of democracy - e.g. elections, Congress, the judiciary and ostensibly, civilian over military rule - but were averse to instituting genuine land reform or national industrialization. The larger majority wanted nothing less than “food and freedom, jobs and justice”.
The more politically mature and seasoned, those who had been at the forefront of the anti-dictatorship struggle from the outset, harbored no illusions that overthrowing the dictatorship would solve the fundamental problems of Philippine society. They had more realistic, if limited, objectives for a people’s uprising and thus would be the last to judge EDSA I as a failure.
Edsa I had its inherent limitations. It brought back to power a different faction of the ruling elite, one that had the advantage of having been part of the anti-dictatorship struggle and was therefore clothed with the rhetoric of “reform” and “change” and the mystique of “people power” which it, however, used to preserve the status quo.
This explains why the Cory regime undermined land reform by letting a landlord-dominated Congress legislate the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Under CARP, her family’s landholdings, notably the Cojuangco’s Hacienda Luisita, were exempted from distribution. Four administrations and more than two decades later, landlessness and rural poverty - in short, social injustice - has worsened; avowed democratic gains have been rendered meaningless for more than seventy per cent of the people.
Edsa I did not end the perennial economic crisis plaguing the country. Nothing changed as far as economic policies are concerned. The same IMF-World Bank and later, WTO-imposed, policy framework that the Marcos regime implemented was carried out by all subsequent regimes from Aquino to Arroyo. When Cory addressed the US Congress, the most applauded part of her speech was her declaration that her government will not renege on its foreign financial obligations, i.e. the Marcos-incurred foreign debt.
Consequently, the backward, feudal-agricultural and unindustrialized character of the economy has remained the same. Good quality jobs and income-earning opportunities are so scarce that daily, more than 3000 Filipinos seek work abroad. Those who remain compete for low-paying, insecure jobs in a tiny manufacturing sector or the few relatively higher-paying jobs in call centers; become odd jobbers in the informal sector; but more likely end up among the tens of millions of unemployed facing a bleak future.
Edsa I did not empower the people. Politics and government continue to be dominated by the economic and political elite, traceable to the principalia class from which the Spanish, then the American, colonizers handpicked those who would rule in their name, and later in the name of “democracy”. In electoral exercises reinstated after Edsa I, they take turns holding the reins of power.
This is the reason why the US backed the Cory regime and its successors. The “persuasion flights” of US F4 phantom jets at a crucial point of the 1989 coup attempt demonstrated beyond doubt the decisive role played by US imperialism in Philippine politics. It also explains why every post-Marcos regime has had to pander to and spoil the military and police to retain their loyalty. Every time the people howl in protest, there are always the US-trained and equipped state security forces, the pliant courts and prosecutors, and the shadowy “death squads” to deal with them.
What Edsa I, the first unarmed people’s uprising, succeeded in doing, is the overthrow of the Marcos fascist dictatorship. The restoration of the formal trappings of democracy reopened avenues for expressing the muffled voice and asserting the suppressed will of the people.
The lesson has been learned. The people will no longer be content with merely overthrowing one regime only for it to be replaced by another without any basic changes. If there is any reason why the Arroyo regime has not been overthrown by people power, it is not because “people are tired of people power”, much less that people are content with Mrs. Arroyo, but because people still have to build a consensus on what kind of regime should take its place. ###
*Published in The Business World
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo
Was Edsa I a failure? Ferdinand Marcos Jr., heir to the Dictator Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth and discredited political legacy, says so. According to him, there has been no change: poverty only worsened, there are no basic services for the people and subsequent governments were not able to clean up the bureaucracy.
Senator Noynoy Aquino reminisces about his parents’ (and his own) sacrifices in fighting Marcos. He asserts that his mother, President Corazon Aquino, successfully restored democracy and defended it by putting down several coup attempts.
Both, not surprisingly, are resorting to half-truths to peddle lies from each one’s self-serving perspective.
Mr. Marcos Jr. cites the impoverished, miserable and repressed state that Filipinos are in to argue that things were better back in his father’s heyday. Marcos Sr. told the people that they had to give up their political and civil liberties in exchange for economic and social welfare; in the end, he gave the people neither. If indeed things are in many ways worse now than under the Marcos dictatorship it is because its warped legacy pervades today’s restored “democracy”.
Noynoy, for his part, tries to reprise the good-versus-evil analogy that worked well for his mother when she ran for president against the strongman Marcos. He paints a Camelot-like reign: apart from restoring so-called democracy, she allegedly also banished the evils of corruption, abuse of power and moral turpitude. Since to many Filipinos, the regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the embodiment of evil, Noynoy wants us to believe that he, by pedigree, is the antithesis of Mrs. Arroyo.
Too bad for Noynoy, not even the outpouring of grief during his mother’s wake and burial can erase the truth about what happened after Edsa I, how its promise of giving back power to the people and of bringing about long-sought after reforms was dashed not long after Cory assumed power.
What has been obscured in the furor over whether EDSA 1 was a failure or not is the fact that while martial law was declared by Marcos in 1972 to perpetuate his hold on power, he still had to preserve the reactionary rule of the big landowners, the business partners of the multinational companies and banks, and the entrenched bureaucrat capitalists from whence he himself came.
While the other factions of the elite were lorded over by the Marcos clique, it was the people who bore the brunt of the suffering under the same old exploitative and oppressive ruling system made worse by fascist tyranny. Consequently, while the overthrow of the dictatorship was the immediate common goal of the Edsa I participants, there were as many medium-term and long-term objectives as there were class interests among the participants.
The small but influential and moneyed minority to whom Cory and Ninoy Aquino belonged was interested only in restoring the formal trappings of democracy - e.g. elections, Congress, the judiciary and ostensibly, civilian over military rule - but were averse to instituting genuine land reform or national industrialization. The larger majority wanted nothing less than “food and freedom, jobs and justice”.
The more politically mature and seasoned, those who had been at the forefront of the anti-dictatorship struggle from the outset, harbored no illusions that overthrowing the dictatorship would solve the fundamental problems of Philippine society. They had more realistic, if limited, objectives for a people’s uprising and thus would be the last to judge EDSA I as a failure.
Edsa I had its inherent limitations. It brought back to power a different faction of the ruling elite, one that had the advantage of having been part of the anti-dictatorship struggle and was therefore clothed with the rhetoric of “reform” and “change” and the mystique of “people power” which it, however, used to preserve the status quo.
This explains why the Cory regime undermined land reform by letting a landlord-dominated Congress legislate the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Under CARP, her family’s landholdings, notably the Cojuangco’s Hacienda Luisita, were exempted from distribution. Four administrations and more than two decades later, landlessness and rural poverty - in short, social injustice - has worsened; avowed democratic gains have been rendered meaningless for more than seventy per cent of the people.
Edsa I did not end the perennial economic crisis plaguing the country. Nothing changed as far as economic policies are concerned. The same IMF-World Bank and later, WTO-imposed, policy framework that the Marcos regime implemented was carried out by all subsequent regimes from Aquino to Arroyo. When Cory addressed the US Congress, the most applauded part of her speech was her declaration that her government will not renege on its foreign financial obligations, i.e. the Marcos-incurred foreign debt.
Consequently, the backward, feudal-agricultural and unindustrialized character of the economy has remained the same. Good quality jobs and income-earning opportunities are so scarce that daily, more than 3000 Filipinos seek work abroad. Those who remain compete for low-paying, insecure jobs in a tiny manufacturing sector or the few relatively higher-paying jobs in call centers; become odd jobbers in the informal sector; but more likely end up among the tens of millions of unemployed facing a bleak future.
Edsa I did not empower the people. Politics and government continue to be dominated by the economic and political elite, traceable to the principalia class from which the Spanish, then the American, colonizers handpicked those who would rule in their name, and later in the name of “democracy”. In electoral exercises reinstated after Edsa I, they take turns holding the reins of power.
This is the reason why the US backed the Cory regime and its successors. The “persuasion flights” of US F4 phantom jets at a crucial point of the 1989 coup attempt demonstrated beyond doubt the decisive role played by US imperialism in Philippine politics. It also explains why every post-Marcos regime has had to pander to and spoil the military and police to retain their loyalty. Every time the people howl in protest, there are always the US-trained and equipped state security forces, the pliant courts and prosecutors, and the shadowy “death squads” to deal with them.
What Edsa I, the first unarmed people’s uprising, succeeded in doing, is the overthrow of the Marcos fascist dictatorship. The restoration of the formal trappings of democracy reopened avenues for expressing the muffled voice and asserting the suppressed will of the people.
The lesson has been learned. The people will no longer be content with merely overthrowing one regime only for it to be replaced by another without any basic changes. If there is any reason why the Arroyo regime has not been overthrown by people power, it is not because “people are tired of people power”, much less that people are content with Mrs. Arroyo, but because people still have to build a consensus on what kind of regime should take its place. ###
*Published in The Business World
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Monday, March 01, 2010
Pahayag ng All-UP Workers Alliance sa Nangyari sa Pulong ng Board of Regents nitong Pebrero 25, 2010
Matinding Tutulan ang Tiraniya ng Pekeng Mayorya sa BOR!
Presidente Roman, tama na ang tiwaling pamamalakad!
Igalang ang tunay na mga demokratikong proseso!
Marso 1, 2010
Makasaysasayan ang pulong ng Board of Regents (BOR) nitong Pebrero 25, 2010. Anu’t anupaman, lumabas ang tunay na kulay ni Presidente Roman at ang kanyang pekeng mayorya sa BOR.
Sa unang pagkakataon, pinatalsik ang isang rehenete, ang Rehente ng mga Mag-aaral, sa teknikal na dahilang nahuli siya sa pag-file ngresidency. Bagamat may nakasalang siyang apila para sa residency sa Administrasyon ng UP Los Banos at bagamat may ebidensyang iniharap na may estudyante ng UPLB na binigyan ng residency nito lang Pebero 16, 2010, ipinatupad pa rin ang desisyon ng BOR noong Enero 29, 2010 na tanggalin siya bilang rehente.
Sa unang pagkakataon sa kasaysayan ng Unibersidad, binawi ang pagtatalaga ng isang opisyal ng Unibersidad. Si Dr. Jose Gonzales, hinirang ng BOR noong Disyembre 18, 2009 bilang direktor ng Philippine General Hospital at nanumpang direktor noong Enero 7, 2010 para sa tatlong-taong termino, ay pinagbotohang tanggalin pagkatapos pumasa ang motion na muling balikan ang naunang botohan sa PGH Director.
Sa unang pagkakakataon, ang tatlong hirang ng Malacanang na myembro ng BOR nananatiling nakakapaghari kahit na paso na ang bisa ng kanilang acting appointments. Bilang acting regents ang itinalagang appointment ni Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo sa tatlong Rehente. Si Regent Chua, Regent Gonzales at Regent Sarmiento ay may appointments na mga petsang Enero 1, 2008, Marso 18, 2008 at Setyembre 29, 2008 ayon sa pagkakasunud-sunod.
Batay sa Section 16 at 17 ng Chapter 5, Title I, Book III ng Administrative Code of 1987 (EO 292), may kapangyarihan ang pangulo na magpalabas ng “temporary designation.” Pero hindi dapat lumampas sa isang taon ang temporaryong pagtatalagang ito. (“In no case shall a temporary designation exceed one (1) year.”)
Nananatiling nasa krisis ang Unibersidad sa ilalim ni Presidente Roman at ang kanyang pekeng mayorya sa BOR. May matinding krisis sa demokratikong pamamahala dahil ipinagpipilitan ni Presidente Roman ang kanyang gusto kahit hindi ito matwid. Ninuyurakan ni Presidente Roman ang tradisyon ng demokratikong proseso sa UP, isang layon na itinalaga sa mismong UP Charter na kanyang itinituring na tagumpay ng kanyang administrasyon.
Ang tanging kahihinatnan ng tiwaling pamamalakad ni Presidente Roman ay ang impunity na namamana na rin ng kanyang mga Chancellors. Ang Chancellor sa UP Los Banos Luis Rey Velasco ay trinatrato bilang kampo ng militar ang kampus niya. Kontra-estudyante sa kaliwa’t kanan ng pagkakaso sa mga estudyante, kasama ang pagpigil sa UP Fair doon, walang kinilos para ihinto ang vilification drive laban sa kanyang mga progresibong faculty at mag-aaral, at nagtataguyod sa large class size para sa lahat ng RGEP, foundation at legislated courses ng kampus.
Ibinoto rin ng “mayorya” ng BOR ang muling pagtalaga kay Dr. Gilda Rivero bilang Chancellor ng UP Mindanao sa harap ng malawak na pagtutol ng mga estudyante, kaguruan at istap at nang hindi pa resolbadong paglilinaw sa COA sa mahigit P200,000 na bahagi ng halos P700,000 ginasta ni Dr. Rivero sa kanyang investiture noong 2007 samantalang mga P370,000 lamang ang inaprubahang budget para dito.
Hindi na bago ang pamimili ni Presidente Roman ng opisyal ng unibersidad batay sa ipinakitang loyalty ng mga ito sa kanyang adminsitrasyon. Sa pamimili ng Dekano ng UP Tacloban, pinanigan ni Presidente Roman ang isang nominado na walang doktorado at gumamit pa ng Ph.D. candidate sa kanyang “curriculum vitae” samantalang malinaw na paso na ang kanyang kandidatura bunga ng maximum residency rule.
Noong Sentenaryo ng UP, ang tagline ng administrasyong Roman ay “UP ang galing mo” na siyang dinagdagan ng mga iskolar ng bayan, “UP ang galing mo, ialay sa bayan.” Tunay na nananatiling makabuluhan ang panawagan ito, lalo na kay mismong Presidente Roman at sa natitirang bahagi ng kanyang termino. Bakit niya minamadali ang pagtaguyod ng kanyang mga alyado, pati na ang pagrekomenda sa Malacanang sa kasalukuyang tatlong rehente gayong malapit na matapos ang termino ni Macapagal-Arroyo? Lumilitaw tuloy na mukhang may katotohanan ang kumakalat na balita na may plano pa si Presidente Roman na muling tumakbo bilang presidente ng Unibersidad. Kung totoo ito, ngayon pa lamang mariin namin itong tinututulan.
Ipagtanggol ang ating Student Regent! Igiit ang pag-upo bilang regular na miyembro ng BOR ni Student Regent Charisse Banez!
Tutulan ang pulitikal na represyon sa UP Los Banos.
Labanan ang di-makatarungan at ilegal na pagtalaga ng bagong Direktor ng PGH habang may nakaupong kwalipikadong Direktor na may termino na tatlong taon.
Tutulan ang muling-paghirang kay Dr. Gilda Rivero bilang Tsanselor ng UP Mindanao sa gitna ng malawakang disgusto ng mga guro, kawani at estudyante!
Tutulan ang tiraniya ng pekeng mayorya sa BOR at ng Administrasyong Roman!!
Itaguyod ang tunay na demokratikong pamamahala sa U.P.!
Presidente Roman, tama na ang tiwaling pamamalakad!
Igalang ang tunay na mga demokratikong proseso!
Marso 1, 2010
Makasaysasayan ang pulong ng Board of Regents (BOR) nitong Pebrero 25, 2010. Anu’t anupaman, lumabas ang tunay na kulay ni Presidente Roman at ang kanyang pekeng mayorya sa BOR.
Sa unang pagkakataon, pinatalsik ang isang rehenete, ang Rehente ng mga Mag-aaral, sa teknikal na dahilang nahuli siya sa pag-file ngresidency. Bagamat may nakasalang siyang apila para sa residency sa Administrasyon ng UP Los Banos at bagamat may ebidensyang iniharap na may estudyante ng UPLB na binigyan ng residency nito lang Pebero 16, 2010, ipinatupad pa rin ang desisyon ng BOR noong Enero 29, 2010 na tanggalin siya bilang rehente.
Sa unang pagkakataon sa kasaysayan ng Unibersidad, binawi ang pagtatalaga ng isang opisyal ng Unibersidad. Si Dr. Jose Gonzales, hinirang ng BOR noong Disyembre 18, 2009 bilang direktor ng Philippine General Hospital at nanumpang direktor noong Enero 7, 2010 para sa tatlong-taong termino, ay pinagbotohang tanggalin pagkatapos pumasa ang motion na muling balikan ang naunang botohan sa PGH Director.
Sa unang pagkakakataon, ang tatlong hirang ng Malacanang na myembro ng BOR nananatiling nakakapaghari kahit na paso na ang bisa ng kanilang acting appointments. Bilang acting regents ang itinalagang appointment ni Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo sa tatlong Rehente. Si Regent Chua, Regent Gonzales at Regent Sarmiento ay may appointments na mga petsang Enero 1, 2008, Marso 18, 2008 at Setyembre 29, 2008 ayon sa pagkakasunud-sunod.
Batay sa Section 16 at 17 ng Chapter 5, Title I, Book III ng Administrative Code of 1987 (EO 292), may kapangyarihan ang pangulo na magpalabas ng “temporary designation.” Pero hindi dapat lumampas sa isang taon ang temporaryong pagtatalagang ito. (“In no case shall a temporary designation exceed one (1) year.”)
Nananatiling nasa krisis ang Unibersidad sa ilalim ni Presidente Roman at ang kanyang pekeng mayorya sa BOR. May matinding krisis sa demokratikong pamamahala dahil ipinagpipilitan ni Presidente Roman ang kanyang gusto kahit hindi ito matwid. Ninuyurakan ni Presidente Roman ang tradisyon ng demokratikong proseso sa UP, isang layon na itinalaga sa mismong UP Charter na kanyang itinituring na tagumpay ng kanyang administrasyon.
Ang tanging kahihinatnan ng tiwaling pamamalakad ni Presidente Roman ay ang impunity na namamana na rin ng kanyang mga Chancellors. Ang Chancellor sa UP Los Banos Luis Rey Velasco ay trinatrato bilang kampo ng militar ang kampus niya. Kontra-estudyante sa kaliwa’t kanan ng pagkakaso sa mga estudyante, kasama ang pagpigil sa UP Fair doon, walang kinilos para ihinto ang vilification drive laban sa kanyang mga progresibong faculty at mag-aaral, at nagtataguyod sa large class size para sa lahat ng RGEP, foundation at legislated courses ng kampus.
Ibinoto rin ng “mayorya” ng BOR ang muling pagtalaga kay Dr. Gilda Rivero bilang Chancellor ng UP Mindanao sa harap ng malawak na pagtutol ng mga estudyante, kaguruan at istap at nang hindi pa resolbadong paglilinaw sa COA sa mahigit P200,000 na bahagi ng halos P700,000 ginasta ni Dr. Rivero sa kanyang investiture noong 2007 samantalang mga P370,000 lamang ang inaprubahang budget para dito.
Hindi na bago ang pamimili ni Presidente Roman ng opisyal ng unibersidad batay sa ipinakitang loyalty ng mga ito sa kanyang adminsitrasyon. Sa pamimili ng Dekano ng UP Tacloban, pinanigan ni Presidente Roman ang isang nominado na walang doktorado at gumamit pa ng Ph.D. candidate sa kanyang “curriculum vitae” samantalang malinaw na paso na ang kanyang kandidatura bunga ng maximum residency rule.
Noong Sentenaryo ng UP, ang tagline ng administrasyong Roman ay “UP ang galing mo” na siyang dinagdagan ng mga iskolar ng bayan, “UP ang galing mo, ialay sa bayan.” Tunay na nananatiling makabuluhan ang panawagan ito, lalo na kay mismong Presidente Roman at sa natitirang bahagi ng kanyang termino. Bakit niya minamadali ang pagtaguyod ng kanyang mga alyado, pati na ang pagrekomenda sa Malacanang sa kasalukuyang tatlong rehente gayong malapit na matapos ang termino ni Macapagal-Arroyo? Lumilitaw tuloy na mukhang may katotohanan ang kumakalat na balita na may plano pa si Presidente Roman na muling tumakbo bilang presidente ng Unibersidad. Kung totoo ito, ngayon pa lamang mariin namin itong tinututulan.
Ipagtanggol ang ating Student Regent! Igiit ang pag-upo bilang regular na miyembro ng BOR ni Student Regent Charisse Banez!
Tutulan ang pulitikal na represyon sa UP Los Banos.
Labanan ang di-makatarungan at ilegal na pagtalaga ng bagong Direktor ng PGH habang may nakaupong kwalipikadong Direktor na may termino na tatlong taon.
Tutulan ang muling-paghirang kay Dr. Gilda Rivero bilang Tsanselor ng UP Mindanao sa gitna ng malawakang disgusto ng mga guro, kawani at estudyante!
Tutulan ang tiraniya ng pekeng mayorya sa BOR at ng Administrasyong Roman!!
Itaguyod ang tunay na demokratikong pamamahala sa U.P.!
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