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.

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.

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. ###

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.

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

Arroyo Redefines Economic Indicators to Hide Crisis

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.