Francisco Nemenzo
Former President and Professor Emeritus University of the Philippines
If the attachments to the subpoena are all the evidence they can produce, the NBI and CIDG are wasting the time of the state prosecutors by including me in the rebellion case [NBI and CIDG vs. MGen. Renato Miranda, et al. IS No. 2006-1003].
They did such a sloppy job that they could not even get my name right. In the subpoena I am listed as "Prudencio Dodong Nemenzo." Everyone in UP knows my real name. A call to Diliman or a visit to UP Manila (the NBI's next door neighbor) would have spared them from this embarrassing error. I could have taken advantage of their carelessness to deny that I am one of the accused. But I do not want to get off the hook through technicality. I welcome this charge – no matter how silly and malicious – as an opportunity to reiterate the views that the Arroyo government seeks to suppress.
I choose to speak in my own voice instead of speaking through my lawyers to show that the oppositioncannot be cowed. The mass movement will not be intimidated. We shall continue to call for the ouster of an illegitimate, corrupt, incompetent, and repressive regime that has inflicted so much damage to our country. It is our patriotic duty to defend the area of freedom that people's power had carved out in the struggle against the Marcos dictatorship.
The best way to defend freedom is to exercise it. Responsible citizens cannot watch in silence as the minions of Mrs. Arroyo make a mockery of our democratic rights.
Bases for the allegations
Before I go further, let me answer the specific charges. In some 150 pages of documentation, I am mentioned only twice: in the affidavits of Lt. Lawrence San Juan and Lt. Patricio Bumidang. My name does not appear in the letter of transmittal, the Lopez report, or the affidavits and transcripts of oral testimonies.
San Juan claims that I met a group of junior officers to discuss the Blueprint for a Viable Philippines. This I do not deny. What is wrong with discussing with soldiers the problems of our country and the policy options available? They, too, are citizens who are worried about our country's plunge to disaster.
I should emphasize, however, that I met San Juan before he escaped, before he became a fugitive. There was therefore nothing conspiratorial about the meeting. We also discussed the Blueprint with colleagues in academe, with journalists, religious communities, mass organizations, and even with Makati business executives.
This document is published and widely circulated. In fact, it is posted in the Internet and can be downloaded by anybody who cares about the future of this country.
In a separate affidavit Bumidang alleges that I visited him and other fugitives in the house of Renato Constantino, Jr. It is not unusual for me to visit RC Constantino because we are old friends. I have been to his house countless times; but never did I find soldiers among his guests.
Mr. Bumidang's story is inaccurate. In truth, I first saw Mr. Bumidang's face on television, when he and companions were paraded for public humiliation after their capture.
I hold no rancor toward San Juan and Bumidang. They have been kept in isolation and probably subjected to physical and mental torture. Having experienced solitary confinement myself, I know how vulnerable they are to intrigues and disinformation. It is not improbable that their tormentors put words into their mouths.
For this investigation to becredible to the intelligent public, I challenge Gen. Esperon to allow media, in the presence of bishops and other religious leaders, to interview San Juan and Bumidang. Release them from isolation and let them answer questions about their affidavits outside the intimidating atmosphere of an interrogation chamber. If indeed they are telling the truth, there is no reason to shield them from public grilling.
The legitimacy crisis
When citizens perceive the government as legitimate, they will obey even if they disagree with its policies; otherwise, they have to be forced to obey. The current political instability is rooted in this widespread perception that the president is a usurper who uses foul means to keep herself in power. All opinion surveys show that most people doubt the legitimacy of her accession in 2001 and her reelection in 2004.
When those who are supposed to protect her government and enforce her orders doubt her legitimacy as well, her position is precarious indeed. She is lucky that the protest movement has yet to reach the stage of rebellion. Rebellion properly so called involves the use of arms. A peaceful demonstration, no matter how massive, does not constitute a rebellion. Wishing for a coup is not rebellion. But Mrs. Arroyo's minions, by accusing us of what we have not done, provoke the angry multitude who may be less temperate to turn the fabricated scenario into a grim reality.
Dictators panic when they hear voices of dissent because when people gain the courage to defy, the effectiveness of state coercion is diminished. But a democratic government, confident of its own legitimacy, responds to such voices with equanimity.
I was never convinced of the legitimacy of Mrs. Arroyo's accession to power. Yet, as head of a state institution (as President of the University ofthe Philippines) I urged my constituents to accept her presidency as an accomplished fact and give her the benefit of the doubt. That was because I was painfully aware that a breakdown of civic order would prevent UP from catching up with the other premier universities in Asia.
It became increasingly clear, however, that Mrs. Arroyo does not deserve our qualified and tentative support. She continues to pursue the neo-liberal policies that have devastated the lives of the working people. She has incurred more public debts than her three predecessors put together. While waving the banner of a "strong republic," her government could not enforce the laws on influential malefactors. She blames external circumstances for our economic woes, but it is her policies that make the country vulnerable to the vagaries of the global market. In a sense, she is the No. 1 destabilizer.
She had a chance to legitimize her illegitimate regime by a convincing victory in the 2004 elections. But she squandered the chance. The indecent haste in her proclamation in the wee hours of the morning, and the stubborn refusal to open for scrutiny the certificates of canvass in contested provinces reinforced the suspicion of massive cheating. This worsened when her rabid supporters in the Lower House aborted the impeachment process, invoking flimsy arguments that could only persuade the blind and the brainless.
By depriving the Senate of the opportunity to evaluate and pass judgment on the authenticity and implications of the Garci tapes, they closed the last possibility of removing her through constitutional means. This prompted people, out of frustration, to explore of the extra-constitutional channels. As doubts of her legitimacy mount, Mrs. Arroyo and her minions are now resorting to systematic intimidation.
Since the much ballyhooed "all out war" miserably failed to crush the underground opposition, her minions have started running after the above ground opposition. The special target of the latest drive is the open mass movement. Peaceful rallies are violently dispersed. Some 800 grassroots activists have perished in extra-judicial executions. Lately they are threatening to replace elected opposition mayors withdocile partisans. Unrest in the armed services
This campaign of intimidation is the context of this and similar cases recently filed. Without being asked, I take up the cudgels for the active and retired military and police officers who are similarly accused, but who cannot speak freely because they are either detained or forced into hiding by a fabulous reward for their capture, dead or alive. Among them are the finest officers in the AFP and PNP.
These are not the stereotype soldiers who blindly follow orders from the chain of command. These are intelligent officers who dare to ask if the regime deserves the risk to their lives and the lives of the men under their command. With RSBS sponged dry, they also worry about the survival of the families they might leave behind. In a brazen display of hypocrisy, their star-spangled superiors invoke the doctrine of "political neutrality" to whip them into line.
But these soldiers have come to realize that "political neutrality" is a fiction. Many times in Philippine history, the AFP and PNP played a political role. They have been used to protect the elite from the outraged masses. They have also been used to thwart the people's will in fraudulent elections. These soldiers who now stand accused for violating "political neutrality" are in fact trying to redeem their profession from ignominy, by aligning themselves with the people. They seek to transform the armed services from a tool of elite rule and an instrument of deceitful politicians into a force for genuine democracy and social reforms.
Extrapolating from survey results, a coup to evict GMA would be the most popular coup in Philippine history. But there was no danger of that last February 24th. It is evident in the Lopez report and the affidavits and testimonies appended to the complaint against us that Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and Col. Ariel Querubin did not plan to stage a coup. They just wanted to march with their troops to the EDSA shrine and join a civilian crowd in calling for withdrawal of support from an illegitimate and corrupt government. Real coup plotters do not ask permission from their superior officers, much less invite them to heed the clamor from below.
As a political science professor who specialized in the study of unconventional forms of political action, I have been a keen observer of military affairs. I therefore understand and sympathize with these disgruntledsoldiers, but I vehemently disclaim the charge that we conspired against the Filipino people.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Thursday, November 09, 2006
STATEMENT OF THE U.P. FACULTY REGENT ON THE REBELLION RAPS AGAINST FORMER U.P. PRESIDENT FRANCISCO "DODONG" NEMENZO, ET AL
Press Statement
8 November 2006
I join the U.P. academic community in expressing solidarity and support to our faculty colleague and former University of the Philippines President Francisco "Dodong" Nemenzo, Jr., who is being charged with "rebellion"and "obstruction of justice". The charges are reminiscent of th 1950s when U.P. faculty members who were known to have progressive and nationalist views were witchhunted by the Congressional Committee on "Un-Filipino activities" and accused of being Communists and conspirators. Those hysterical and red-baiting hearings only exposed the intolerance of the Philippine oligarchy and their counterpart American Cold Warriors in the U.S. Embassy, towards peasant and worker unrest which had found sympathetic allies in the academe, especially among our faculty ranks.
The charges against our colleague Dodong Nemenzo only manifest the desperation of the illegal occupant in Malacanang who is now retaliating against leaders of the broad opposition. Dodong Nemenzo is the President of the Laban ng Masa, a coalition of NGOs and people's organizations, which has been actively questionning the legitimacy of the despot in Malacanang in the aftermath of the fraudulent 2004 Presidential elections. Even opposition mayors like Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati are being charged with all kinds of allegations, even while corrupt pro-administration politicians are being acquitted or protected.
The charges of rebellion against our U.P. colleague Nemenzo and 40 others are an attempt to crack down on dissent and to silence the legal opposition. I call on all our colleagues in the U.P. Academic Community to support the ideals and principles which our former University president stands for. Let us resist the violent attacks and harassments from despots who will soon be properly consigned to the dustbin of history.
Roland G. Simbulan
Professor and Faculty Regent
U.P. System
8 November 2006
I join the U.P. academic community in expressing solidarity and support to our faculty colleague and former University of the Philippines President Francisco "Dodong" Nemenzo, Jr., who is being charged with "rebellion"and "obstruction of justice". The charges are reminiscent of th 1950s when U.P. faculty members who were known to have progressive and nationalist views were witchhunted by the Congressional Committee on "Un-Filipino activities" and accused of being Communists and conspirators. Those hysterical and red-baiting hearings only exposed the intolerance of the Philippine oligarchy and their counterpart American Cold Warriors in the U.S. Embassy, towards peasant and worker unrest which had found sympathetic allies in the academe, especially among our faculty ranks.
The charges against our colleague Dodong Nemenzo only manifest the desperation of the illegal occupant in Malacanang who is now retaliating against leaders of the broad opposition. Dodong Nemenzo is the President of the Laban ng Masa, a coalition of NGOs and people's organizations, which has been actively questionning the legitimacy of the despot in Malacanang in the aftermath of the fraudulent 2004 Presidential elections. Even opposition mayors like Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati are being charged with all kinds of allegations, even while corrupt pro-administration politicians are being acquitted or protected.
The charges of rebellion against our U.P. colleague Nemenzo and 40 others are an attempt to crack down on dissent and to silence the legal opposition. I call on all our colleagues in the U.P. Academic Community to support the ideals and principles which our former University president stands for. Let us resist the violent attacks and harassments from despots who will soon be properly consigned to the dustbin of history.
Roland G. Simbulan
Professor and Faculty Regent
U.P. System
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Ermita’s Assistant Secretary is Among Suspected Bombers?
This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Bad Eggs and Right Conduct
by: Giovanni A. Tapang, Ph.D.
gtapang@nip. upd.edu.ph
National Institute of Physics
http://www.nip. upd.edu.ph/ ipl
University of the Philippines Diliman
It is so easy to throw back barbs at the activists who threw eggs at Esperon in the form of condemnation and outright indignation, as one's sense of academic decorum is disturbed by the very vivid and graphic activity.
However, the condemnation can dangerously morph into uncalled-for anti-communist hysteria and McCarthyist red-baiting, as is being done byAlex Magno and his friends in the seats of power in Malacanang. In his intolerant column supposedly written in defense of free speech and intellectual tolerance in the university, he equates the incident to fascism and “communist terrorism”. Unfortunately, this only parrots and tows the military's dangerous – and fallacious-- reasoning that unarmed activists are no different from their NPA targets.
Equally dangerous is the opinion that activists must have deserved bein gtargets as they behave “badly”. This is not a case of fighting fire with fire. The AFP has guns. Students have only eggs and words. Esperon and his men have outrightly taken part in electoral fraud and have blatantly tolerated the abduction, torture and killings of unarmed civilians.
Nothing can be more shameful than simply letting go of such iniquity.
The activist students certainly put that difference in power in a graphic light with the pelting that happened.
This is the same General Esperon, mentioned a few times in the Hello Garci tapes, which is the reason he is also called a Hello Garci General. He is one among a few generals who helped in the cheating for Gloria in the 2004 elections. You can verify that by studying the contents of the Hello Garci tapes. There was a new book launched last Monday at the UP College of Law called FRAUD which documents the cheating in the 2004 elections.
This is the same General Esperon, who has made public in several instances his total absence for respect for the peace process. Did he not welcome with open arms "President" Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo' s declaration of "all-out war" against the Left, and the accompany inggrant of an additional P1-billion budget for state forces to use in the counter-"insurgency " campaign?
The "all-out-war" declared by Arroyo, by the way, is not specifically against the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People's Army, and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) -- which as organizations are engaged in armed struggle with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) even as it strives to talk peace with its foe. It is against the Left -- a broad term which can be taken to include legal cause-oriented organizations like the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and progressive party-list groups like Bayan Muna or even progressive individuals that earned the ire of the leading clique in power. There is no distinction between guerrillas and unarmed activists then.
This is the same General Esperon who continues to hide the Mayuga report. Is he scared that the Mayuga report will expose his role in Arroyo's massive cheating, and that he got his job not because of merit, but because of patronage? Yet he is being fast tracked in promotion overmore senior staff in the AFP.
This is the General Esperon, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief-of- Staff who said at the Melo Commissin that the military and Palparan are not the ones who committed the more than 750 extra judicial killings of activists and civilians. Instead he was saying that the Left themselves are killing their members. He did not lift even a single finger to touch Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, Jr. while the latter was calling Karen and Sherlyn members of the NPA.
With that, he has dismissed the charge that the two UP lady students, Karen Empeño and Sheylyn Calapan, (abducted by the military in Hagonoy,Bulacan 2 months ago and still missing) and effectively saying that they were really not abducted by the military. Some of those students who attended that forum were friends of Karen and Sherylyn and you can very well imagine how they felt about it.
Yet, despite these, the students have had decorum enough to throw only eggs.###--
gtapang@nip. upd.edu.ph
National Institute of Physics
http://www.nip. upd.edu.ph/ ipl
University of the Philippines Diliman
It is so easy to throw back barbs at the activists who threw eggs at Esperon in the form of condemnation and outright indignation, as one's sense of academic decorum is disturbed by the very vivid and graphic activity.
However, the condemnation can dangerously morph into uncalled-for anti-communist hysteria and McCarthyist red-baiting, as is being done byAlex Magno and his friends in the seats of power in Malacanang. In his intolerant column supposedly written in defense of free speech and intellectual tolerance in the university, he equates the incident to fascism and “communist terrorism”. Unfortunately, this only parrots and tows the military's dangerous – and fallacious-- reasoning that unarmed activists are no different from their NPA targets.
Equally dangerous is the opinion that activists must have deserved bein gtargets as they behave “badly”. This is not a case of fighting fire with fire. The AFP has guns. Students have only eggs and words. Esperon and his men have outrightly taken part in electoral fraud and have blatantly tolerated the abduction, torture and killings of unarmed civilians.
Nothing can be more shameful than simply letting go of such iniquity.
The activist students certainly put that difference in power in a graphic light with the pelting that happened.
This is the same General Esperon, mentioned a few times in the Hello Garci tapes, which is the reason he is also called a Hello Garci General. He is one among a few generals who helped in the cheating for Gloria in the 2004 elections. You can verify that by studying the contents of the Hello Garci tapes. There was a new book launched last Monday at the UP College of Law called FRAUD which documents the cheating in the 2004 elections.
This is the same General Esperon, who has made public in several instances his total absence for respect for the peace process. Did he not welcome with open arms "President" Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo' s declaration of "all-out war" against the Left, and the accompany inggrant of an additional P1-billion budget for state forces to use in the counter-"insurgency " campaign?
The "all-out-war" declared by Arroyo, by the way, is not specifically against the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People's Army, and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) -- which as organizations are engaged in armed struggle with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) even as it strives to talk peace with its foe. It is against the Left -- a broad term which can be taken to include legal cause-oriented organizations like the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and progressive party-list groups like Bayan Muna or even progressive individuals that earned the ire of the leading clique in power. There is no distinction between guerrillas and unarmed activists then.
This is the same General Esperon who continues to hide the Mayuga report. Is he scared that the Mayuga report will expose his role in Arroyo's massive cheating, and that he got his job not because of merit, but because of patronage? Yet he is being fast tracked in promotion overmore senior staff in the AFP.
This is the General Esperon, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief-of- Staff who said at the Melo Commissin that the military and Palparan are not the ones who committed the more than 750 extra judicial killings of activists and civilians. Instead he was saying that the Left themselves are killing their members. He did not lift even a single finger to touch Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, Jr. while the latter was calling Karen and Sherlyn members of the NPA.
With that, he has dismissed the charge that the two UP lady students, Karen Empeño and Sheylyn Calapan, (abducted by the military in Hagonoy,Bulacan 2 months ago and still missing) and effectively saying that they were really not abducted by the military. Some of those students who attended that forum were friends of Karen and Sherylyn and you can very well imagine how they felt about it.
Yet, despite these, the students have had decorum enough to throw only eggs.###--
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Digging Deeper Into The Leakage
Streetwise
By: Carol Pagaduan-Araullo
Business World
8-9 September 2006
As a medical student learns early on, signs and symptoms are mere indicators of an underlying illness; real cure comes from diagnosing and treating the disease, not just mitigating its manifestations. The concept is not difficult for even the layman to understand since it is grounded on the truism that problem solving requires digging deep at the root causes if a genuine solution is to be found.
Why then the seeming inability, or perhaps unwillingness, of government to see beyond the current scandal of the nursing board exam leakage? Is this just another case of unscrupulous government officials colluding with profiteering owners of nursing schools and review centers to allow unqualified examinees to cheat their way to their licenses? Or is there something more here than meets the eye?
The magnitude of the problem is laid bare by the following: the filing of charges against two examiners from the Board of Nursing (BON) of theProfessional Regulation Commission (PRC); the forced resignation of the President and Vice-President of the Philippine Nurses Association implicated in the leakage and its cover-up; and the alleged involvement of scores of nursing schools and review centers in disseminating the leaked exam questions to their students.
There are worrisome signs that cheating has become systematized and a criminal syndicate in cahoots with government officials is on the loose.
Worse, the PRC, relying on the BON findings instead of creating an independent investigative body, initially denied any possibility of a leakage with the assertion that the examination system "has been so streamlined that leakages are now a thing of the past." When it could no longer sweep the problem under the rug it admitted the leakage and pinpointed responsibility to just two of its examiners.
Now the PRC appears to have taken the unprincipled tack of minimizing the impact of the leakage on the integrity of the examinations. ThePRC cited some statistical manipulations that they claim "solved" the problem and hastily administered the nursing oath to those they certified to have passed (until a court restraining order stopped the oath taking). They stood pat on the position that there was no need for a retake of the examinations by any of the examinees, includingthose who reviewed with the R.A.Gapuz Review Center (RAGRC), a center that witnesses claim distributed answers to exam questions the night before the June 11 board examinations. Not surprisingly, RAGRC now boasts of having bagged the 3rd to 10th place in the exams.
From news reports, the PRC even brought in supposedly well-placed labor recruiters who assured the examinees that they would still be eligible for placement in US hospitals despite the controversy surrounding their licensure exams. It appeared to be a calculated move to counter reports that local as well as foreign hospitals had indicated they would refuse to hire nurses from batch 2006.
Meanwhile Malacañang has chosen to uphold the PRC position hook, line and sinker. While vowing to go after those responsible for the leakage, it immediately exonerated the PRC itself of any responsibility and peremptorily declared that the nursing leakage was more of an exception rather than the rule. Mrs. Arroyo even praised PRC Chair Leonor Rosero, her personal dentist whose husband is a close friend and fellow Rotarian of the First Gentleman, for doing a great job. She also took the "no retake" position popular with the examinees in what seemed to be a classic GMA trick of pandering to the crowd when no major personal or political stakes are involved.
There is no indication that the Arroyo administration sees the current brouhaha as a reason, or even an occasion, to seriously study what ails the nursing sector. Consider that nurses (as well as doctors-turned- nurses) continue to be one of our top exports as a labor exporting country .
The alarm has been raised by the World Health Organization that the Philippines faces the prospect of a major crisis in its health care system with the exodus of health personnel for more lucrative jobs abroad.
Is it so difficult to see that the scandalous extent and circumstances of the recent board exam leakage is in direct proportion to the degree of commercialization of nursing education as exemplified by the proliferation of sub-standard nursing schools churning out unqualified, if not incompetent, graduates? Shall we be content with merely calling for better regulation by the PRC and by the Commission on Higher Education?
Shall we not examine what fuels this soaring demand for a nursing diploma and license to practice the nursing profession that provides fertile ground for all sorts of corrupt scams victimizing students, their parents and future patients at that?
Certainly it is not a sudden surge of humanitarianism, of people wanting to care for the sick and infirm. On purely economic terms, the demand is fed by the desire to go abroad and earn a decent income that can provide a comfortable life and a secure future for one's family.
Such a modest, middle class dream is no longer possible for the vast majority in the Philippine setting. What everybody seems to know is that the passport out of the Philippine Rut into the American Dream is indeed that nursing license.
Rather than address the endemic problem of unemployment and underemployment, successive governments from Marcos to the present have pursued a short-sighted policy of exporting labor. From a stop-gap measure, the export of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) has evolved to become the major dollar-earner and life-saver of a chronically floundering economy with roughly eight million OFWs, a tenth of the population, remitting US $10 Billion last year.
Thus the demand for nurses in the US and UK has become the main driving force shaping the development of nursing education and the profession today. Not the needs and requirements of a highly underserved people in the throes of hunger, malnutrition and preventable diseases.
When government cannot see beyond dollar remittances and will do anything and everything to keep them coming, it will turn a blind eye to the deepening crisis of the Philippine health care system; it will paper over the festering problems in nursing education and the nursing profession that the recent leakage scandal has so glaringly exposed.
With provincial and even major urban hospitals scrambling to stay open despite the steady loss of its doctors and nurses, the future is bleak while government policies remaining unchanged.
Needless to say, the long and short of it is that the majority of our people end up, once more, on the losing end.#
Please email comments to carol_araullo@ yahoo.com.
By: Carol Pagaduan-Araullo
Business World
8-9 September 2006
As a medical student learns early on, signs and symptoms are mere indicators of an underlying illness; real cure comes from diagnosing and treating the disease, not just mitigating its manifestations. The concept is not difficult for even the layman to understand since it is grounded on the truism that problem solving requires digging deep at the root causes if a genuine solution is to be found.
Why then the seeming inability, or perhaps unwillingness, of government to see beyond the current scandal of the nursing board exam leakage? Is this just another case of unscrupulous government officials colluding with profiteering owners of nursing schools and review centers to allow unqualified examinees to cheat their way to their licenses? Or is there something more here than meets the eye?
The magnitude of the problem is laid bare by the following: the filing of charges against two examiners from the Board of Nursing (BON) of theProfessional Regulation Commission (PRC); the forced resignation of the President and Vice-President of the Philippine Nurses Association implicated in the leakage and its cover-up; and the alleged involvement of scores of nursing schools and review centers in disseminating the leaked exam questions to their students.
There are worrisome signs that cheating has become systematized and a criminal syndicate in cahoots with government officials is on the loose.
Worse, the PRC, relying on the BON findings instead of creating an independent investigative body, initially denied any possibility of a leakage with the assertion that the examination system "has been so streamlined that leakages are now a thing of the past." When it could no longer sweep the problem under the rug it admitted the leakage and pinpointed responsibility to just two of its examiners.
Now the PRC appears to have taken the unprincipled tack of minimizing the impact of the leakage on the integrity of the examinations. ThePRC cited some statistical manipulations that they claim "solved" the problem and hastily administered the nursing oath to those they certified to have passed (until a court restraining order stopped the oath taking). They stood pat on the position that there was no need for a retake of the examinations by any of the examinees, includingthose who reviewed with the R.A.Gapuz Review Center (RAGRC), a center that witnesses claim distributed answers to exam questions the night before the June 11 board examinations. Not surprisingly, RAGRC now boasts of having bagged the 3rd to 10th place in the exams.
From news reports, the PRC even brought in supposedly well-placed labor recruiters who assured the examinees that they would still be eligible for placement in US hospitals despite the controversy surrounding their licensure exams. It appeared to be a calculated move to counter reports that local as well as foreign hospitals had indicated they would refuse to hire nurses from batch 2006.
Meanwhile Malacañang has chosen to uphold the PRC position hook, line and sinker. While vowing to go after those responsible for the leakage, it immediately exonerated the PRC itself of any responsibility and peremptorily declared that the nursing leakage was more of an exception rather than the rule. Mrs. Arroyo even praised PRC Chair Leonor Rosero, her personal dentist whose husband is a close friend and fellow Rotarian of the First Gentleman, for doing a great job. She also took the "no retake" position popular with the examinees in what seemed to be a classic GMA trick of pandering to the crowd when no major personal or political stakes are involved.
There is no indication that the Arroyo administration sees the current brouhaha as a reason, or even an occasion, to seriously study what ails the nursing sector. Consider that nurses (as well as doctors-turned- nurses) continue to be one of our top exports as a labor exporting country .
The alarm has been raised by the World Health Organization that the Philippines faces the prospect of a major crisis in its health care system with the exodus of health personnel for more lucrative jobs abroad.
Is it so difficult to see that the scandalous extent and circumstances of the recent board exam leakage is in direct proportion to the degree of commercialization of nursing education as exemplified by the proliferation of sub-standard nursing schools churning out unqualified, if not incompetent, graduates? Shall we be content with merely calling for better regulation by the PRC and by the Commission on Higher Education?
Shall we not examine what fuels this soaring demand for a nursing diploma and license to practice the nursing profession that provides fertile ground for all sorts of corrupt scams victimizing students, their parents and future patients at that?
Certainly it is not a sudden surge of humanitarianism, of people wanting to care for the sick and infirm. On purely economic terms, the demand is fed by the desire to go abroad and earn a decent income that can provide a comfortable life and a secure future for one's family.
Such a modest, middle class dream is no longer possible for the vast majority in the Philippine setting. What everybody seems to know is that the passport out of the Philippine Rut into the American Dream is indeed that nursing license.
Rather than address the endemic problem of unemployment and underemployment, successive governments from Marcos to the present have pursued a short-sighted policy of exporting labor. From a stop-gap measure, the export of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) has evolved to become the major dollar-earner and life-saver of a chronically floundering economy with roughly eight million OFWs, a tenth of the population, remitting US $10 Billion last year.
Thus the demand for nurses in the US and UK has become the main driving force shaping the development of nursing education and the profession today. Not the needs and requirements of a highly underserved people in the throes of hunger, malnutrition and preventable diseases.
When government cannot see beyond dollar remittances and will do anything and everything to keep them coming, it will turn a blind eye to the deepening crisis of the Philippine health care system; it will paper over the festering problems in nursing education and the nursing profession that the recent leakage scandal has so glaringly exposed.
With provincial and even major urban hospitals scrambling to stay open despite the steady loss of its doctors and nurses, the future is bleak while government policies remaining unchanged.
Needless to say, the long and short of it is that the majority of our people end up, once more, on the losing end.#
Please email comments to carol_araullo@ yahoo.com.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
The Silent Human Conscience: What should I tell my daughter when bombs fall and the great nations say nothing?
by Riad Kassis posted 07/24/2006 09:45 a.m.
Christianity Today
The following article is part of our ongoing effort to provide a variety of Christian perspectives on the Israel-Lebanon conflict.
How should I respond to my seven-year-old daughter when she is terrified by the news and images of destruction in my country? The bombing of bridges we recently traveled upon, the demolition of our only airport, where my daughter was happily running around just a few weeks ago. What should I say to her when a house was destroyed and 11 people in it killed in one air strike? What should I say to her when a two-year-old child was literally cut in half in a vicious air strike?
I was overwhelmingly silent! But I had to say something to my anxious daughter. I told her not to worry much, that the attacks will only last for a matter of days. As I talked to her, I was thinking of the upcoming meeting of U.N. Security Council. I was so optimistic that the council would put an end to this unequal and disproportionate conflict. I thought of the great nations that are members of the council, with their rich cultural heritages of human achievement and concern for humanity.
So I was completely shocked, greatly saddened, and disappointed when the Council took no stand! Not even a symbolic resolution to condemn the killing of innocents in Lebanon was contemplated. We were told that the council needed days to think the matter over! I wonder what kind of thinking is required when a power station is destroyed, when a civilian car is bombed on its way to a safe place, and when terrified infants and children cry all night as they listen to the bombing of the neighborhood. I wonder whether these members have experienced conflict in tragedies in the Balkans, Sudan, Rwanda, and elsewhere.
I am not much interested in politics, but I am perplexed by the silence of the human conscience. Yet I still hope that the human conscience will be awakened someday. I am encouraged by the ability of the worldwide Christian church to speak about peace and to run seminars on conflict resolution, but disappointed with its ineffectiveness to work for a real and just peace, particularly in the case of the Arab-Israeli conflict. At the same time, I am encouraged to know that many Christian sisters and brothers are concerned for our situation in Lebanon. They are praying and encouraging us, in spite of their helplessness to influence their governments.
We live in West Bekaa, Lebanon, and for the last 16 years we have been involved in peace and tolerance education as we work with hundreds of students and families who belong to various religious backgrounds. Now we experience again the meaning of hatred and war. As I write these words, I hear Israeli jet fighters bombing a nearby bridge and several roads, killing several civilians who happened to be nearby. We are nearly isolated, as roads to other cities and towns are destroyed. Our fear is that in just a few days, food, fuel, medicines, and other needed items will become scarce as the situation worsens and the sea, land, and air blockade continues.
What should I say to my daughter? "My daughter let us keep praying not just for peace, but for the awakening of the human conscience." Would you please join me in such a prayer?
Riad Kassis is executive director of the Johann Ludwig Schneller School in West Bekaa, Lebanon. He is also a scholar with Langham Partnership International (known as John Stott Ministries in the U.S.).
Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today.
Christianity Today
The following article is part of our ongoing effort to provide a variety of Christian perspectives on the Israel-Lebanon conflict.
How should I respond to my seven-year-old daughter when she is terrified by the news and images of destruction in my country? The bombing of bridges we recently traveled upon, the demolition of our only airport, where my daughter was happily running around just a few weeks ago. What should I say to her when a house was destroyed and 11 people in it killed in one air strike? What should I say to her when a two-year-old child was literally cut in half in a vicious air strike?
I was overwhelmingly silent! But I had to say something to my anxious daughter. I told her not to worry much, that the attacks will only last for a matter of days. As I talked to her, I was thinking of the upcoming meeting of U.N. Security Council. I was so optimistic that the council would put an end to this unequal and disproportionate conflict. I thought of the great nations that are members of the council, with their rich cultural heritages of human achievement and concern for humanity.
So I was completely shocked, greatly saddened, and disappointed when the Council took no stand! Not even a symbolic resolution to condemn the killing of innocents in Lebanon was contemplated. We were told that the council needed days to think the matter over! I wonder what kind of thinking is required when a power station is destroyed, when a civilian car is bombed on its way to a safe place, and when terrified infants and children cry all night as they listen to the bombing of the neighborhood. I wonder whether these members have experienced conflict in tragedies in the Balkans, Sudan, Rwanda, and elsewhere.
I am not much interested in politics, but I am perplexed by the silence of the human conscience. Yet I still hope that the human conscience will be awakened someday. I am encouraged by the ability of the worldwide Christian church to speak about peace and to run seminars on conflict resolution, but disappointed with its ineffectiveness to work for a real and just peace, particularly in the case of the Arab-Israeli conflict. At the same time, I am encouraged to know that many Christian sisters and brothers are concerned for our situation in Lebanon. They are praying and encouraging us, in spite of their helplessness to influence their governments.
We live in West Bekaa, Lebanon, and for the last 16 years we have been involved in peace and tolerance education as we work with hundreds of students and families who belong to various religious backgrounds. Now we experience again the meaning of hatred and war. As I write these words, I hear Israeli jet fighters bombing a nearby bridge and several roads, killing several civilians who happened to be nearby. We are nearly isolated, as roads to other cities and towns are destroyed. Our fear is that in just a few days, food, fuel, medicines, and other needed items will become scarce as the situation worsens and the sea, land, and air blockade continues.
What should I say to my daughter? "My daughter let us keep praying not just for peace, but for the awakening of the human conscience." Would you please join me in such a prayer?
Riad Kassis is executive director of the Johann Ludwig Schneller School in West Bekaa, Lebanon. He is also a scholar with Langham Partnership International (known as John Stott Ministries in the U.S.).
Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
PHILIPPINES: Carrying Out of President Macapagal Arroyo's Instructions on Investigations Into Extrajudicial Killings Will Take Over 14 years
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AS-184-2006
August 3, 2006
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
That the Philippines police task force (Usig) should resolve at least ten cases of alleged extrajudicial killings within ten weeks was the statement reported to have been made by President Gloria MacapagalArroyo.
Other reports quoting persons from the presidential palace could not clearly state whether this was an order or just a public relations statement. Even if it is taken as an order the carrying out of investigations into over 700 alleged cases of extrajudicial killings, excluding the three killings reported this week, will take the taskforce over 14 years. How many more extrajudicial killings will happen within that time frame is anyone's guess.
The Asian Human Rights Commission condemns this statement as it lacks the seriousness and the dignity that is required of a head of state attempting to resolve perhaps the greatest problem that the country is faced with. The president's statement is not inadequate enough to make the investigating authorities take all steps necessary to investigate each and every allegation of extrajudicial killings a spromptly as possible. The statement fails also to give a direct command to the military authorities to stop such killings altogether. The lack of such a direct command in the face of heavy accusations coming from many quarters, including church sources, will naturally be interpreted by the military as tacit approval for the on-going program.
When a university professor accused the government earlier this weekof maintaining a policy of causing extrajudicial killings the response given by the spokesman from the palace was that the government does not have such a policy but, what it does have is a policy of wiping out some elements from the villages. Whatever meaning the palace may give to the words, 'wiping out' in simple military jargon, what it means is elimination, which in turn implies killings, disappearances etc. However, the issue is not whether the government has an express policy on this matter but the fact that the government's failure to stop these extrajudicial killings amounts to what can be seen as tacit approval for them to continue. PresidentMacapagal Arroyo's statement about solving ten cases in ten weeks is in itself an indication of the government's unwillingness to take a clear and unequivocable position on this matter.
The indication of the existence of an on-going program of extrajudicial killings becomes manifest through the following factors:
The allowing of vehicles to move without number plates and tinted glass wind shields so that the drivers cannot be identified; in all countries where there have been programs of extrajudicial killings and disappearances the use of similar vehicles has been a common feature. If the driving of any such vehicle is stopped by proper legal means, and the movements of such vehicles are properly investigated, not only would the number of killings be reduced but the story of who is behind the killings could be revealed.
The lack of a high level of military inquiries into the alleged program of killings widely reported to be carried out by military leaders such as Major General Jovito Palparan. If the allegations are true, it would hardly be within the capability of a police task force to investigate such an operation. In all regular military forces there are units to investigate the alleged wrongs done by the military itself. The military high command and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, who is the President, have failed to initiate such high level inquiries into the alleged violations.
The police task force, reportedly working on a monthly budget ofPesos 300,000.00 (US 6,000.00) with limited personnel and resources, is not capable of investigating the vast number of allegations that are being made at the moment. This week alone there were reports of three further killings, with another person being seriously injured. If prompt inquiries are to be conducted the resource limitations need to be dealt with. However, there seems to be no indication that the government is taking any such action.
Statements from the police authorities show that the extrajudicial killings are seen as "part of a war". This means that a war mentality has set in and those who engage in such killings have been made to believe that they are indeed part of a war. Once such a mentality is in place, large scale extrajudicial killings of this nature are no surprise. Without returning to the language of law and order in place of war propaganda there can be no reduction of this type of killings. The elementary step needed to reduce the heat and the psychological ethos that is necessary for killing is to displace this war propaganda.
There is also no indication of preventive measures in order to stop further killings. Initiatives on the part of the government carried out through state media and other media to bring this situation to a halt is not taking place at all. The statements made under public pressure like the one regarding ten investigations in ten weeks only pass a contrary message.
Although there is intense local pressure and international pressure to stop extrajudicial killings the actions taken by the government so far does not indicate any form of resoluteness to bring such gross human rights abuses to an end. Both local pressure and international pressure, including that from UN agencies, different governments and also civil society movements should intensify, demanding a more serious and dignified response from the government of the Philippines in keeping with its obligations under its own Constitution as well as the international treaties to which it is a party. ###
AS-184-2006
August 3, 2006
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
That the Philippines police task force (Usig) should resolve at least ten cases of alleged extrajudicial killings within ten weeks was the statement reported to have been made by President Gloria MacapagalArroyo.
Other reports quoting persons from the presidential palace could not clearly state whether this was an order or just a public relations statement. Even if it is taken as an order the carrying out of investigations into over 700 alleged cases of extrajudicial killings, excluding the three killings reported this week, will take the taskforce over 14 years. How many more extrajudicial killings will happen within that time frame is anyone's guess.
The Asian Human Rights Commission condemns this statement as it lacks the seriousness and the dignity that is required of a head of state attempting to resolve perhaps the greatest problem that the country is faced with. The president's statement is not inadequate enough to make the investigating authorities take all steps necessary to investigate each and every allegation of extrajudicial killings a spromptly as possible. The statement fails also to give a direct command to the military authorities to stop such killings altogether. The lack of such a direct command in the face of heavy accusations coming from many quarters, including church sources, will naturally be interpreted by the military as tacit approval for the on-going program.
When a university professor accused the government earlier this weekof maintaining a policy of causing extrajudicial killings the response given by the spokesman from the palace was that the government does not have such a policy but, what it does have is a policy of wiping out some elements from the villages. Whatever meaning the palace may give to the words, 'wiping out' in simple military jargon, what it means is elimination, which in turn implies killings, disappearances etc. However, the issue is not whether the government has an express policy on this matter but the fact that the government's failure to stop these extrajudicial killings amounts to what can be seen as tacit approval for them to continue. PresidentMacapagal Arroyo's statement about solving ten cases in ten weeks is in itself an indication of the government's unwillingness to take a clear and unequivocable position on this matter.
The indication of the existence of an on-going program of extrajudicial killings becomes manifest through the following factors:
The allowing of vehicles to move without number plates and tinted glass wind shields so that the drivers cannot be identified; in all countries where there have been programs of extrajudicial killings and disappearances the use of similar vehicles has been a common feature. If the driving of any such vehicle is stopped by proper legal means, and the movements of such vehicles are properly investigated, not only would the number of killings be reduced but the story of who is behind the killings could be revealed.
The lack of a high level of military inquiries into the alleged program of killings widely reported to be carried out by military leaders such as Major General Jovito Palparan. If the allegations are true, it would hardly be within the capability of a police task force to investigate such an operation. In all regular military forces there are units to investigate the alleged wrongs done by the military itself. The military high command and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, who is the President, have failed to initiate such high level inquiries into the alleged violations.
The police task force, reportedly working on a monthly budget ofPesos 300,000.00 (US 6,000.00) with limited personnel and resources, is not capable of investigating the vast number of allegations that are being made at the moment. This week alone there were reports of three further killings, with another person being seriously injured. If prompt inquiries are to be conducted the resource limitations need to be dealt with. However, there seems to be no indication that the government is taking any such action.
Statements from the police authorities show that the extrajudicial killings are seen as "part of a war". This means that a war mentality has set in and those who engage in such killings have been made to believe that they are indeed part of a war. Once such a mentality is in place, large scale extrajudicial killings of this nature are no surprise. Without returning to the language of law and order in place of war propaganda there can be no reduction of this type of killings. The elementary step needed to reduce the heat and the psychological ethos that is necessary for killing is to displace this war propaganda.
There is also no indication of preventive measures in order to stop further killings. Initiatives on the part of the government carried out through state media and other media to bring this situation to a halt is not taking place at all. The statements made under public pressure like the one regarding ten investigations in ten weeks only pass a contrary message.
Although there is intense local pressure and international pressure to stop extrajudicial killings the actions taken by the government so far does not indicate any form of resoluteness to bring such gross human rights abuses to an end. Both local pressure and international pressure, including that from UN agencies, different governments and also civil society movements should intensify, demanding a more serious and dignified response from the government of the Philippines in keeping with its obligations under its own Constitution as well as the international treaties to which it is a party. ###
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
