Smoke and Mirrors

Streetwise
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo

“Pnoy the Magician” in bright yellow. This was how activists depicted President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino in effigy in last Monday’s annual State-of-the-Nation street demonstration. They were proven prescient in more ways than one as soon as Mr. Aquino started delivering his SONA that turned out to be vintage smoke-and-mirrors demagoguery.

Rather than lead the people to an understanding of the true state of the nation, his seemingly straightforward rhetoric was used instead to conjure illusions and deceive not unlike the way a magician uses optical illusions to create believability while actually performing tricks.

The main trick is to continue to appear as the harbinger of the “change that people can believe in” that worked well enough to get Mr. Aquino elected.

However, despite the effort to make the Aquino regime appear poised to undertake far-reaching reforms in government, in the economy, in resolving armed conflicts and even in turning around public sentiment from pessimism to hopefulness, cynicism to unity and cooperation, Mr. Aquino’s SONA only confirms that there is nothing new, innovative, not to mention any attempt at a radical break from the past, in his prescriptions.

Rather, what we heard are more of the same policies and programs of old dressed up to dazzle and give false hopes.

Once more corruption is presented as the overarching problem. Mr. Aquino’s speech used simple and folksy language to whip up the public’s hatred for corrupt politicians and other government officials by laying out more horror stories from the previous regime: Mrs. Arroyo’s pampering her province with government funds to boost her congressional bid; the over-procurement of imported rice at the cost of billions of pesos which was then left to rot in government warehouses; MWSS top officials wallowing in pelf and privilege while the country suffers a water crisis.

Salacious new details these but nothing surprising. Why not tell us the progress in case build-up on the biggest corruption scandals that plagued the Arroyo administration? Why is the Truth Commission still nowhere in sight, much less near to having Mrs. Arroyo and her partners in crime brought to the bar of justice?

Mr. Aquino stated categorically that his administration would not tolerate murderers and plunderers. He crowed about solving “50% of the cases of extralegal killings” that occurred soon after his assuming office or three out of six reported cases with the identification of suspects.

Assuming this to be true, however, his complete silence on government’s current counterinsurgency or COIN program as the underlying cause of most of the killings as pointed out by independent international human rights bodies places in serious doubt Mr. Aquino’s earnestness in putting a stop to and solving these murders by state security forces.

More specifically, the lack of immediate action to disband the legalized private armies called “civilian volunteer organizations” that the military uses to augment its COIN operations, renders Mr. Aquino’s boast inconsequential in ending criminal impunity. Such a reign of impunity gave rise to the still unresolved Maguindanao massacre on top of the more than a thousand unsolved extrajudicial killings in almost a decade of Oplan Bantay Laya.

It is not surprising that Mr. Aquino’s take on the peace talks reveals his apparently shallow and short-sighted view about armed conflicts and how to resolve them. His insistence on a permanent ceasefire as a precondition to the resumption of the talks with the CPP/NPA/NDF and his insinuation that the NDF has not made any worthwhile proposal on the matter indicates either ignorance of what has previously transpired or a dangerously militarist mindset intent on throwing a monkey wrench on the talks rather than in undertaking the fundamental reforms needed to attain a just and lasting peace.

Stopping corrupt practices, judicious use of government resources, and so-called private-public partnership are touted as the strategy to lift up the economy and miraculously solve all other related problems such as massive unemployment and underemployment, the budget deficit, decrepit social services as well as crumbling public infrastructure.

Mr. Aquino completely and conveniently overlooks genuine land reform not just as a basic social justice measure but a question of breaking free from a backward, semi-feudal agricultural economy.

He is completely mum about neoliberal policies that destroyed whatever was left of manufacturing, further undermined agricultural development and food self-sufficiency and rendered the domestic economy more than ever vulnerable to the vagaries of the international market as shown in the recent regional and global financial crises.

We can safely presume that his macro-economic policy framework will not depart from those of all his predecessors including Mrs. Arroyo.

So much ado about how Mrs. Arroyo wasted public funds for narrow political ends leaving the Aquino government with little left to undertake vital programs and services. But he says not a word about the P300 billion pesos automatically set aside for debt payments considering many of these are onerous debts that date back to the Marcos dictatorship as well as to graft-ridden Arroyo regime.

Ibon Data Bank puts forward concrete doable measures to address the fiscal deficit but apparently Mr. Aquino does not countenance any of them.

These include implementing increases in tariffs and withdrawing huge incentives given to foreign investors. IBON estimates government losses of around P200 billion in potential revenues each year because of tariff reduction. Fiscal incentives to foreign investors have in turn led to huge tax losses estimated by the Finance Department to be around P43 billion.

Mr. Aquino has a fondness for using the metaphor of crossroads to describe his administration’s core values and trajectory. He likens a leader’s choice to taking the straight path of “good governance” or the crooked one so dishonorably exemplified by the Arroyo regime. What all this clever use of metaphors has been concealing all along is the truth that corruption is not the root cause of our nation's poverty and hardship.

It is the wanton exploitation and oppression of our people by foreign powers, mainly the US, with the collaboration of the local ruling elite. Together they appropriate the social wealth produced by our people's labor. Together they impose and implement socio-economic and political programs and policies that deliberately favor foreign capital and their local agents while relegating our economy -- our local industries and agriculture -- to backwardness and dependency.

All this magic may serve to deceive and even entertain our hungry and suffering masses. But they will not forever drive away the pangs of hunger, the homelessness and the scourge of disease. No matter how many SONAs repeat the same deceptive tricks and clever lies, more and more in the streets, in homes, factories, fields and mountains, will see the through the smoke and mirrors, see the truth and find the real path to freedom, democracy, progress and peace. #

HEAD to Noynoy: “What is your health agenda?”

Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD)
Telefax: (02) 725 4760 Email: headphil@gmail. com

Media Release
05 July 2010

References:
Dr. Geneve E. Rivera
Secretary-General, 0920 460 3712

Dr. Darby S. Santiago
Chair, 0927 473 7700

What message is President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III sending by his appointment of Dr. Enrique Ona as health secretary? Perhaps the wrong one.

This concern was raised by Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) as it continued to question the controversial appointment.

“Most of what Dr. Ona has pushed for as Director of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) are the same things he is articulating now as health secretary - the corporatization of government hospitals and medical tourism. Yet these are the exact opposite of what the Filipino people urgently need in terms of health care,” said Dr. Geneve Rivera, HEAD secretary-general.

According to Dr. Rivera, long-standing problems in health - the worsening state of public hospitals and health centers, the exodus of health professionals abroad, the lack of public funds for health services - are rooted in prevailing social inequities that are making the Filipino people suffer.

“Even Noynoy recognized this when he campaigned under a health agenda that included improved health infrastructure, benefits to government health personnel, and a national health budget that will be at least 5% of the national budget.”

“But what is Dr. Ona focusing on? The privatization of public hospitals and the opening up of the Philippine healthcare system to foreigners, even as this very healthcare system cannot even meet the most basic health needs of Filipinos.”

“The message now is: if you have money, we have health care for you; if not, sorry for you. Is this the kind of message that President Noynoy wants to deliver?”

The health group believes that the choice of health secretary, a socially sensitive post because of its direct effect on the lives of Filipinos, was not well thought-out by the Aquino administration.

“You do not have to choose the wrong if only to be different. This is the message we want to send to President Aquino,” concluded Dr. Rivera. “There is much to be done. We are hoping for change that will move forward, not backward, in terms of providing health for all.” ###

P-Noy is Committing Blunder by Appointing Dr. Ona - HEAD

Health Alliance for Democracy(HEAD)
Email: headphil@gmail.com Telefax: 632-7254760

Press Release
July 3, 2010

Reference: Dr. Geneve Rivera, Secretary General
Mobile: 0920-4603712

Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) said that the appointment of new DOH chief reveals that the direction of the Aquino’s policy agenda on health is towards privatization. Through privatization the government relinquishes its responsibility in providing for the health needs of the Filipino people.

The wariness of the appointment comes from the fact that Dr. Enrique T. Ona, the former director of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) is a staunch advocate of privatization and commercialization of public health services.

The group noted that Dr. Ona is a leading peddler of medical tourism program in which the organ transplant is its core program. The program caters to the needs of those who can afford while it disregards the poor. HEAD criticizes this program for being pro-rich and exploitative of the poor.

Dr. Ona is one of the chief architect of the integration of government owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) - specialty hospitals into a “mega hospital” including the Philippine Heart Center, NKTI, Lung Center of the Philippines, East Avenue Medical Center, and the Philippine Children Medical Center.

The integration is geared towards developing health facilities and equipment to generate huge profit out of health services but not to provide affordable services to the majority of Filipinos.

Dr. Ona is also known for his revenue enhancement programs, user fee schemes that disregards charity patients and favors pay patients.

“The people needs a DOH secretary who has strong sense of public service and not profit oriented,” Rivera said.

“We view that wrestling the woes of the country’s public health system and addressing the health needs of the poor would be dangerous to be left in the hands of a bureaucrat heavily biased on revenue enhancement rather than service and public accountability” said Rivera.

Earlier, President’s Aquino said his cabinet appointments will be entirely based with the appointees’ agreement with his general plans of action. If Dr. Ona is President Aquino’s person of choice to fill the health department, then this will be telling of how government’s health program will be like.

“Privatization is one of the main obstacles in the accessibility of the people’s right to health and addressing it should be an utmost concern of the Aquino administration, by appointing the likes of Dr. Ona only worsens the situation.” Dr. Rivera said. ###

The Aquino Presidency: Challenges and Prospects

ISSUE ANALYSIS No. 05 Series of 2010
By the Policy Study, Publication and Advocacy (PSPA)
Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG)
June 8, 2010

With a president whose hands will be tied to compromise deals and powerful pressure groups, it would be a long shot whether Aquino will lock horns with the systemic problem of corruption.

A TV campaign ad of the presidential candidate shows him leading a flock of people – actually mostly showbiz personalities – all bearing torches as they march up a hill. The scene is reminiscent of the biblical prophet Moses who parted the Red Sea with his cane allowing the Hebrew people to cross away from the pursuing chariot-riding army of the Egyptian Pharaoh.

The TV ad exudes a strong biblical affinity to Filipino voters. Unlike Moses, however, the 21st century candidate stops atop a hill to scan the horizon – probably to await a new dawn, a promise land.

Then, what?

That is what Benigno Aquino III just did – he got the votes for the presidency in an automated election marred by systemic failures and inaccuracies. Now, he must do the Moses act – to perform the deliverance that he promised.

For Aquino, time is of the essence. The right hand that he raises in taking his oath as the country's 15th president must now be used to plough the field, so to speak, that now begs for action. The economy is in bad shape, joblessness is at its worst since the past 50 years, corruption has become endemic with billions of pesos lost every year. There has been no effective governance, with the system of accountability and justice system rendered toothless and the dynasties-dominated Congress less equal than – and virtually a rubber stamp of – the president. The human rights situation is at its worst since martial law. The peace process with the armed Left and the Moro secessionist movement is grounded for years leaving the country in a state of siege.

Three issues

Three major issues will hound Aquino from Day 1 of his presidency:
Corruption, the economy, and the peace process.

Having run on an anti-corruption and clean government platform, he must now summon presidential power to ensure that outgoing President Gloria M. Arroyo is brought to court to face charges of alleged large-scale corruption as well as election fraud, and culpable violation of the constitution. This move, however, should be done along with initiating the colossal task of weeding out corruption that has become systemic to the state bureaucracy from the national down to the local levels.

Under Arroyo's watch, the economy went into a nosedive aggravated even further by the global recession. There are high expectations for the provision of immediate economic relief especially to the poor, a freeze on new taxes, a wage increase, and measures to arrest high unemployment. The next economic program must now review erroneous institutional policies that look at economic growth from the narrow perspective of promoting the hegemonic interests of foreign and local investors. Economic strategies should be reoriented toward addressing the roots of social inequality, advancing the social and economic rights of the people, and ensuring
mechanisms where the interest of those who are less in life is reflected
in policy making.

'Peace process'

The government policy of forcing the capitulation of revolutionary movements as the main track of the “peace process” and, hence, the use of military solution no longer holds. Clearly, this track has failed for the past 25 years of peace talks with both the Marxist revolutionary movement and the Moro rebellion. The new government should consider the peace process as a step in the roadmap of addressing the fundamental roots of war through a thoroughgoing social, economic, and political reform. The resumption of peace process can be signaled with a clear and unequivocal commitment by the incoming president to stop the political killings and,
with respect to both the armed Left and the MILF, to remove their labeling as “terrorist organizations.”

There are high expectations for Aquino to show a “reform agenda” and a presidency different from Arroyo's. Aside from leadership, the push for a “reform agenda” needs to be propelled by a strong, reform-oriented government. On these aspects, Aquino faces what may emerge to be an executive department shared by contending Liberal Party factions, and PDP-Laban headed by Jejomar Binay, the new vice president. Congress may remain under Arroyo's Lakas-Kampi- CMD coalition unless Aquino's LP is able to increase its seats from 44 through a party-switching by members of the coalition and thus become the majority party. A divided Congress will tie the new president's hands to exercising patronage politics through the pork barrel mechanism in order to ensure legislative support. A Congress, whose ability to function is generally dictated by pork barrel and other self-serving interests with the president acting as the key provider can never be an effective forum for reform.

Same economic agenda

As the new administration machinery takes shape, current indications show that Aquino will basically continue the same economic policies pursued by Arroyo. The cabinet faces who will lead the economic management had served under Arroyo and previous presidents whose pro-globalization and pro-business policies proved to be inimical not only to the economy but the people as a whole. Right now, foreign business groups led by the American Chamber of Commerce have offered a blueprint for the country's economic growth. The pro-corporate and pro-foreign capital agenda of both these cabinet officials and Aquino himself will make the electoral promise
of giving up Hacienda Luisita to its rightful owners highly remote.

In the middle of the election campaign, Aquino also said he would continue Arroyo's counter-insurgency program ignoring the fact that it is the same coercive campaign marked by extra-judicial killing of at least 1,000 unarmed activists that partly led to the political isolation of the outgoing president. This commitment only means Aquino will be unwilling to support the prosecution of Arroyo in human rights terms because doing so will also implicate the security and military officials whose support he cannot sacrifice as the new commander-in- chief. Backing the Armed Forces of the Philippines' (AFP) counter-insurgency paradigm is always a
guarantee to ensuring the loyalty of the military – a power broker by itself – to the president.

Failure of the Aquino administration to make Arroyo accountable for the gross and systematic violations of human rights will only show that a reconciliation is in the works. Reconciliation can only mean choosing the side of repression and a readiness to part ways with some church-based human rights advocates who had backed his candidacy. Does this also mean Aquino will also consider the 2004 Hacienda Luisita massacre as a closed case even if security men were involved, according to witnesses?

Visiting Forces Agreement

Aquino's pro-counter insurgency policy is tied to a pre-determined support to the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) subject, so he had said, to its review insofar as criminal jurisdiction of erring U.S. personnel is concerned. This also means he will continue a strong defense partnership with the U.S. in exchange for continued economic and military assistance which the new government will badly need. Recent history tells that where a president leads a strong counter-insurgency campaign and support for U.S. defense objectives the peace process has always been undermined.

With a president whose hands will be tied to compromise deals and powerful pressure groups, it would be a long shot whether Aquino will lock horns with the systemic problem of corruption. His inaugural speech will talk of an avowed mission to deal with corruption. But an institutional malady requires not just messianic words of deliverance in the style of Moses but radical institutional solutions that will have to deal with the structural roots of corruption from the presidency and its extensive bureaucracy, to Congress, the LGUs, and the judiciary.

The presidency is a powerful institution and its vast powers can be used in accordance with law to deal with corruption. However, this requires not just a political will but also constructive confrontation with the occupant's own allies and powerful political dynasties that encourage – actually benefit from - corruption.

The question really is, will he do it?

For reference:


Bobby Tuazon
Director for Policy Studies
Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG)
3/F CSWCD Bldg., UP Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
TelFax +9299526; Mobile Phone No. 0929 8007965

Email: info@cenpeg. org; cenpeg.info@gmail.com
www.cenpeg.org; www.eu-cenpeg. com

The Struggle continues for the Sentosa Nurses

PRESS RELEASE:
Migrante International
Reference: Garry Martinez
Chairperson
09393914418

Migrante slammed NLRC’s latest decison

The largest alliance of Filipino migrants’ organization slammed the latest decision of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) ruling in favor of the Sentosa Recruitment Agency (SRA) and dismissing the charges of the 31 health workers who accused Sentosa of contract substitution.

“The latest decision of the NLRC comes as a no surprise, as it only further proves what has been clear to us since the start of this case: that the Philippine government’s consistency in defending a labor/migrants’ rights violator rather than protecting the rights and welfare of migrant workers,” declared Garry Martinez, chairperson of Migrante International.

In 2006, 26 nurses and 1 physical therapist, known as the Sentosa 27++, quit their jobs in various nursing care facilities in protest of the various contract violations Sentosa has committed against them. They filed illegal recruitment charges and other labor complaints against Sentosa in the Philippines and a class action suit in New York against their employer, Sentosa Care Group, for breach of contract. In retaliation, Sentosa filed administrative and criminal charges such as patient endangerment against the healthworkers. US courts ruled in favor of the nurses. Meanwhile, with the NLRC decision, all the cases filed against SRA in the Philippines at the DOJ, at the POEA and at the DOLE have been decided in favor of SRA.

“It was clear the nurses will not get any justice from this government when no less than former POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz told the families of the nurses that the POEA ‘could not sacrifice the thousands of jobs in the pipeline’,” disclosed Martinez. “The bias for SRA was patently clear, even from the start.”

“Nakakapanlumo na sa sarili nating bayan ay walang makamit na katarungan ang mga nabiktima ng SRA,” continued Martinez. “Mga dayuhan pa ang nagbigay depensa sa sarili nating mga kababayan laban sa pagsasamantala sa kanila ng Sentosa. Mukhang ang hangganan ng kagarapalan ng gobiyernong ito ay walang katapusan!”

Martinez also related the NLRC decision to the plight of workers in the Philippines who will not get any pay wage hikes on this year’s commemoration of Labor Day.

“For us –this is GMA’s legacy—paparaming nabibiktima na OFWs na di nakakakuha ng katarungan, paparaming mga kababayan na kumakapit sa patalim sa ibang bansa dahil hindi na makaya ang napakatinding kahirapan sa ating bayan.”###

Diliman Diary: U.P. Philippine General Hospital contract with DMMC to privatize portions of PGH may be lopsided

The University of the Philippines (U.P.) Philippine General Hospital (PGH) may have entered into a grossly disadvantageous relationship resembling a kind of corporate neocolonialism where the numerous assets and resources of one entity (PGH) are hijacked by a smaller but more technologically advanced entity (Daniel Mercado Medical Center) to the gross disadvantage of PGH, and consequently the Filipino people.

Diliman Diary: U.P. Philippine General Hospital contract with DMMC to privatize portions of PGH may be lopsided

Health Group Deplores Double Standards

Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD)
Telefax: (02) 725 4760 Email: headphil@gmail.com

Media Release

22 April 2010

Health Alliance for Democracy deplored the double standards of the Philippine justice system in the handling of the Maguindanao massacre suspects. The group was reacting to the Department of Justice decision to drop multiple murder charges against two members of the Ampatuan clan involved in the heinous Maguindanao massacre.

“The DOJ virtually absolved the Ampatuans despite overwhelming evidence,” said Dr. Geneve Rivera, HEAD secretary-general, “Yet it allowed the inquest of the 43 health workers even without any legal counsel and the filing of criminal cases despite the questionable evidence.”

“The rights of the detained so freely being given to the Ampatuans are the very same right being denied the Morong 43.”

The health group noted that even behind bars, the Ampatuans enjoyed so much privileges because the Arroyo government was only too willing to bend over backwards to accommodate its political allies.

In contrast, the families and relatives of the Morong 43 have to go through a military gauntlet every day when they visit the 43 health workers in Camp Capinpin. Even the food and water that they bring are examined and sometimes, are rendered unusable.

“When the Morong 43 were brought to Camp Crame, the Philippine National Police refused to take them into custody, citing a lack of facilities. Yet when the Ampatuans were brought to Manila, the Arroyo government built facilities to house them.”

“Worse, officials of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology even allowed a press conference to be held by the Ampatuans even while in jail!” said Dr. Rivera. “Now, these BJMP officials are harking on human rights to justify their actions.”

Very differently, the Morong 43 are denied even light and water in their detention cells. They are now on their sixth day of fasting to demand their immediate release if not transfer to Camp Crame.”

“Are human rights now only the privilege of the powerful?”

“Baliktad na talaga ang mundo (The world has really turned upside-down),” added Dr. Rivera. “The DOJ, PNP, BJMP, and Armed Forces of the Philippines are all instruments of injustice, allowing criminals to go scot-free while punishing the innocent. They are tools of the fascist Arroyo regime that has enforced the worst forms of repression against the Filipino people in recent history.”###

References:

Dr. Geneve E. Rivera
Secretary-General, 0920 460 3712

Dr. Darby S. Santiago
Chair, 0927 473 7700