Another union leader nabbed in Laguna

By Maricar Cinco
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:43:00 11/15/2008

SAN PEDRO, LAGUNA – A labor leader was arrested Thursday noon in front of the Calamba City hall in Laguna, a labor group reported.

Herme Marasigan, of the Organized Labor Association in Line Industries and Agriculture (Olalia) Federation, identified the labor leader as Emmanuel Dioneda, 42, executive director of the Labor Education Advocacy Development Response Services (Leaders), an institution working for labor rights.

Dioneda was arrested with his girlfriend Sailani Catindig at around 12:30 p.m., Marasigan said.

He said the last contact with Dioneda was at around 10 a.m., before joint forces from the Calamba City Police Office (CCPO) and the regional intelligence arrested the two.

“They took his wallet and cell phone,” Marasigan added.

He said the two were first taken to the Canlubang jail for interrogation and were later detained at Camp Vicente Lim at around 4:43 p.m.

Catindig was released at about 5 p.m.

Marasigan described Dioneda’s left leg as smaller than the other due to polio and therefore, was unlikely to participate in an ambush as charged against him.

Dioneda is the sixth among the 72 activists facing multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder charges, wherein three policemen were killed in an alleged New People’s Army ambush in Calapan City in Oriental Mindoro.

A press release sent by the Laguna Provincial Police Office said Dioneda was arrested by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by Judge Tomas C. Leynes of the Regional Trial Court Branch XC (40) in Calapan City for multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder with no bail recommended.

Supt. Christopher Tambungan, chief of the CCPO, confirmed the arrest in a brief phone interview with the Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).

“There is an arrest warrant issued for multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder,” he said.

Tambungan said Dioneda would be transferred to the Calapan provincial jail, where the warrant originated.

At around 7 a.m. Friday, members of the police and the regional intelligence left Camp Vicente Lim to take Dioneda to Calapan City, said Marasigan.

=========

My Take:

Why is it that it is easy for them to catch a union leader, and not the drug lords, the corrupt public officials, the gambling lords and even the perpetrators of extra-judicil killings?

Journalists hit media ‘profiling’ by AFP

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:45:00 11/15/2008

ZAMBOANGA CITY – Several media groups have slammed the military’s attempt at media profiling here.

The Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) has earlier asked journalists to fill up bio-data forms so they could be accredited.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) called on local and national journalists to reject the imposition and for the military to withdraw such requirement.

“We, the NUJP, are incensed at the sudden requirement imposed by Maj. Eugene Batara, spokesperson of the Western Mindanao Command, for journalists to fill up (a) bio-data form before they can be accredited for coverage,” said the statement.

NUJP secretary general Sonny Fernandez said the NUJP considers it not only an invasion of privacy but also “a subtle repression of press freedom.”

“It would give the Westmincom information office blanket authority to decide on who it will or will not consider a journalist, an authority it does not have the competence or legal right to possess,” Fernandez said.

Marlon Simbajon, regional coordinator of the Peace and Conflict Journalism Network (Pecojon) in Western Mindanao, said the Westmincom’s move was uncalled for.

“It must be properly evaluated before it is imposed. A dialogue with the media is helpful to resolve this matter,” he said.

However, Simbajon said he believed that Westmincom’s purpose was only to have “basis/reference in identifying the journalists covering the military beat and issue them an identification card from the command.”

But Fernandez said the information that journalists were required to write down in the form include facts that have nothing to do with their profession.

Among these are hair color, color of eyes, moles or markings and social security and income tax numbers.

Darwin Wee, chairperson of the NUJP in the Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi areas, said there was no need for them to fill up an information sheet anymore.

“Our press cards are enough. We don’t need press cards from the military to cover their activities,” he said.

Al Jacinto, editor in chief of the Mindanao Examiner, said five years ago, the former Southern Command also required journalists to fill up data sheets, that asked for details such as their bank account numbers.

Batara said the new requirement was meant to update the Westmincom’s defense corps.

“We saw the need to update the DPC records by calling on all active members to fill up an updated bio-data. It was also noted that some have changed outfits and others were no longer active or assigned to different beats or areas,” he said.

In Davao City, an official of the Philippine Information Agency called the WestMincom’s move as “stupid.”

“It’s a stupid idea of accrediting private media because there is no need (for it),” Efren Elbanbuena, PIA director for Southern Mindanao, said.

He said if Westmincom was interested in knowing who the legitimate journalists were in its area of jurisdiction, it could have simply coordinated with the PIA office in Western Mindanao. Julie Alipala with a report from Joselle R. Badilla, Inquirer Mindanao

(Editorial Cartoon) Ceasefire (2)

The devil calls for peace wahahahahaha!

Dela Paz takes blame for Moscow mess

PNP exec admits irregularity in release of funds

By Abigail Kwok, Maila Ager
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 11:27:00 11/15/2008

MANILA, Philippines — (UPDATE 2) Retired police comptroller Eliseo Dela Paz admitted Saturday sole responsibility for the alleged unauthorized release of the P6.9 million from the Philippine National Police (PNP) intelligence fund.

But Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago refused to believe Dela Paz’s claim, which she called “heroic.”

“Your own office, Mr. Dela Paz, is saying that you are guilty of violating applicable laws when you ordered, and verbally at that, the release of P7 million. Do you agree or not?” Santiago said.

“I agree your honor,” Dela Paz said.

Santiago was citing the results of the PNP initial investigation into the Moscow incident, which stated that “The only basis for the release of P7 million from the confidential intelligence fund from the PNP was the verbal instruction of Police Director Dela Paz. Therefore it could not be denied that irregularity attended the use of government funds.”

“Do you agree that your superior official, such as the PNP chief [Director General Jesus Verzosa] and the DILG [Department of Interior and Local Government] secretary [Ronaldo Puno] should be absolved, and instead, all blame and guilt should be pinned on you? Do you agree with this situation? Because in effect that is the consequence of this statement in the PNP report” Santiago asked.

“The release of the P10 million for the travel expenses for the supposedly contingency fund is based on my instructions,” Dela Paz said.

“That’s very heroic. You are assuming all guilt. But I have to tell you as a lawyer and a formal trial judge that you are facing a regular sentence of 20 years or more than that. Are you ready to do that? Go to jail 20 years, leave your wife your child, your vision impaired child, just so other people can be free? Because I refuse to believe, Mr. Dela Paz, that you are the sole perpetrator of the crime or offenses stated in these two reports. I believe you are part of a bigger conspiracy and that…you are willing to assume responsibility for others. That seems for me to be the most humanitarian view of the situation,” Santiago said.

Despite of this, Dela Paz still insisted that the release of the P6.9 million was “on my own behalf.”

To which Santiago answered, “Let me just say this for the record as chair of this committee [Committee on Foreign Relations]…very often we find cases where a middle-level official tries to cover up for his superiors. That is the problem of corruption in this country and that is the reason why the culture of corruption is endemic and seems to be permanent in our country because only the little fish go to jail and the big fish never, in fact they continue and prosper.”

Later on in the hearing, Superintendent Samuel Rodriguez, disbursing officer for directorate for intelligence, admitted that it was “unusual” that the retired comptroller requested around P10 million from the PNP intelligence funds to be used for the PNP delegation to the Interpol conference.

Rodriguez told Senators that he was told by Senior Superintendent Tomas Rentoy, chief of the budget division of the directorate for comptrollership, to “reserve” P10 million for the use of the PNP delegation.

But Rodriguez said he was unaware of the 105,000 euros carried by Dela Paz when he and his wife were accosted by Russian customs officials.

“With regards to the 105,000 euros, sir, I do not have any knowledge sir. But I was only told to reserve P10 million for the delegation, which I immediately informed my immediate officer, [Chief Superintendent Orlando Pestaño, chief of the PNP finance services],” Rodriguez said.

“Initially sir, with the request of directorate for comptrollership, through Rentoy, told me to have the money, I immediately informed my immediate officer Pestaño that Rentoy is requesting for the P10 million fund to be sourced from the intelligence and confidential fund,” he added.

Admitting that there was something “unusual” with the request, Rodriguez said he wrote a letter to both Pestaño and Dela Paz.

“Before I complied sir, I immediately told my superior [Pestaño] that the amount of P10 million was being requested by the directorate for comptrollership. I made a notification addressed to my immediate officer that there will be a violation of some auditing rules so I made it a point to notify him through a memo and then I also made a memo and I submitted to Rentoy informing Dela Paz that there’s a violation with regards to release of funds from the intelligence fund,” Rodriguez said.

A copy of the memo, read by Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., cited Presidential Decree 1445 (Government Auditing Code of the Philippines) Section 106, which read, “No accountable officer shall be relieved from liability by reason of his having acted under the direction of a superior officer in paying out, applying, or disposing of the funds or property with which he is chargeable, unless prior to that act, he notified the superior officer in writing of the illegality of the payment, application, or disposition. The officer directing any illegal payment or disposition of the funds or property shall be primarily liable for the loss, while the accountable officer who fails to serve the required notice shall be secondarily liable.”

The memo also said that the money requested by Dela Paz through Rentoy was supposedly allocated for the directorate for intelligence to “support their approved projects in carrying out their intelligence/confidential activities for the month of September.”

Answering questions of Senator Rodolfo Biazon, Dela Paz said he requested and approved the release of about P10 million in contingent fund for the PNP delegates to the 77th Interpol general assembly held in Moscow last month and should therefore be held responsible for it.

“There’s no scapegoat dito (here), our honor,” he said, “May pangangailangan po yung magta-travel so being the comptroller kelangang hanapan ng solution yung pangangailangan na yan. Dun na nakita na may pondo sa intelligence fund (There’s a need for those who are traveling so being the comptroller I had to find a solution for that need. That’s when the intelligence fund was noticed),” he said.

He said the money was used for plane tickets, hotels, and other expenses.

But Biazon noted that the money was seized by airport authorities in Moscow while the delegation was returning to the country.

The senator could not understand why the money was still intact when it was supposed to have been used by the delegates.

Sometime during the hearing, Dela Paz repeatedly invoked his right against incrimination when asked why he did not declare the euros he was carrying.

Dela Paz first invoked this right when asked by Senator Loren Legarda if he was aware of a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas circular stating that a person carrying more than $10,000 should declare the money when going in and out of the country.

“Your honor, I would like to invoke my privilege against self-incrimination,” he told senators investigating the issue.

“My question, Mr. Dela Paz, is very simple whether you actually knew that v there was a BSP circular or whether you just refused to comply. Napaka simple po. I’m not here to try to pin you down. I’m here simply to seek out the truth,” Legarda said.

When pressed, the retired officer, after consulting his lawyers, corrected himself and said he was aware of the circular.

“If I may correct myself your honor, na alam ko yung (I know about the) more than 10,000,” Dela Paz said.

But he again invoked n his right b against self-incrimination when the senator asked why he did not declare the money he was carrying in Moscow.

“Your honor, as I said earlier, I would like to invoke my privilege (against) self-incrimination as advised by my counsel,” he said.

“Your question, if answered, will incriminate me,” he said, pointing out that the subject matter was already part of the Ombudsman’s own investigation on the same issue.

(Running Account) Senate Investigation on Euro Generals

In Senator Roxs’ questioning, De la Paz denied knowing about the “Disembarkation Form” in Russia.  Roxas was puzzled about the “hiram” reason.

Roxas pointed out that the amount in question is therefore a simple “petty cash”.  Roxas asks what will happen to the money since they are not authorized to attend the activity in Moscow.  De la Paz pointed out then that as a payment, the PNP can get the equivalent amount from their benifits as retirees..

——-

Biazon pointed that capital outaly even of intel money has a bidding too.  De la Paz agreed.

——-

Roxas asked PNP Chief Versoza if what will the PNP do in the midst of the Euro General scam.  Versoza said that… 1. they suspended any foerign trip, 2. created foreign tech group para pag-aralan ang mga foreign travel issues, 3.tckling the transformation program particularly in the Comptrollership side, 4. re-lign bidding process to straighten up the PNP.

Roxas reminded the PNP not to just wash hands, but to be a partner, an active partner to combat corruption inside their institution.

(Running Account) Senate Investigation on Euro Generals

With Senator Aquino questioning, De la Paz admitted tht in his experience, there has been a purchase that has not undergone the usual legal process.  De la Paz likewise said that di naman lahat ng pera ay gagamitin sana for the purchase of a prototype equipment.  Aquino lbeled it as “impulse purchsing.”  De la Paz said hindi naman po.

It’s de la paz!  He is the DC, and he handles the finance depts of the PNP.  In essence, he ordered Pestano to release the money.  It is according to Pestano’s story.  Pestano added that de la paz said that siya na ang bahala sa Directorate for Intel na magpapaliwanag.

Biazon extracted an answer from Pestano saying in essence that De la Paz is not doing it under order from somebody.

(Running Account) Senate Investigation on Euro Generals

Rodriguez finds something fishy because:

1. P10,000,000 request is very unusual.  Specially because the Diroctorate for Comptrollership is requesting for the Intel Fund, not the Directorate for Intelligence.

(Running Account) Senate Investigation on Euro General

De la Paz made a memorandum of reciept for himself.  He signed it for himself.  Pimentel called it “self-executed” memorandum of reciept.

De la Paz recieved the money (in pesos) in Rentoy’s office at around 9 and 10am (he said afternoon first).

Its in P1,000 bills.

Pimentel asked why it is not in a form of cheque?  Why cash?

De la Paz said that Rentoy can not issue a cheque.  Pimentel suggested that maybe because to erase a paper trail.  De la Paz disagreed.

Pimentel asked why did not convert the euro into check? why cash?

———

Arejola and de la paz know each other for 8 yrs. Arejola is in construction, mining and trade, according to de la paz.

———–

The Intel Fund Disbursing Officer stated that he sensed a problem when Rentoy asked him to release to him(Rentoy) the money amounting to P10M.  Rodriguez said that he issued a memo to his immediate officer and to Rentoy also, telling them that a violation is about to happen if the money would ever be released.  The Senate scored a point here.

(Running Account) Senate Investigation on Euro Generals)

BSP: It is unusual na ang isang money changer ay may ganung kalaking halaga para i-accomodate ang transaksyon with dela Paz group.  And its difficult to trace where these money comes from.

(Running Account) Senate Investigation on Euro Generals

A Cayetano: Mali pala yung paggamit mo (dlp) ng intel fund to supposedly buy an equipment.

Dela Paz: Yes.

A. C: So why even propose it and bring it kung alam mo na di pwede?  Mangyayari ba ay palulusutin mo kung di ito nalaman?

Delapaz argued in vain that maliit lang na amount ang magagamit sana dahil one protoype lang.  He then went on admitting this error and said that he is  ready to accept any consequence for it.

(Running Account) Senate Investigation on Euro Generals

Defensor-Santiago: Bakit naging SDO si dela Paz after ma-release ang pondo?  Therefore, you are appointed as Sdo just for the purpose of carrying this money.

She then leaves because of a very bad cold.  Turned over the table to the Foreign Affairs co-Chair and Blue Ribbon Chair.

(Running Account) Senate Investigation on Euro Generals

Senator Roxas: Ang certification ay resulta na lang ng “pakiusapan”.

Senator Gordon: Ang certification ay lumabas dahil nahuli na ng Russia ang pera.  Parang nililinis nyo lang ang rekord.

Defensor-Santiago: Nakakaduda rin ang pagtingi-tingi ni Tyrone Ng Arejola ng pagbili ng “euro”.  Dahil sa regulasyon ng Central Bank na pag umabot sa maximum na $10,000 ang transaksyon sa Money Changer ay kailangan itong ireport sa Central Bank.

Versoza asked for Executive session dahil ipapaliwanag daw niya na ang pera ay pambili daw pala ng military equipment.

Pero may agreement tayo with US na makakabili lang tayo ng military equipment kung hindi manggagalaing ang mga gamit sa US! (She side-commented na sbra pala ang pagkakatali natin sa US)

Bottom Question: Is it really a contingency fund o pambili ng militarye quipments?

dela Paz: Part of it is emergency fund.  And part of it is possibly pambili ng prototype arms.

Defensor-Santiago: O e bakit ito magiging emerency fund samantalang kinuha pala ito sa Intelligence Fund?

Biazon to PNP: Kung galing sa intel ang fund, bakit walang intel officer ang delegasyon?

(Running Account) Senate Investigation on Euro Generals

Nadiskubre ni Senador Defensor-Santiago na ang certification ng opisina ni Rentoy, ang nagrelease ng pera kay dela Paz, at ang Feliza sa Kanluran Money Changer ay may iisang notaryo publiko.

Her conclusion, dinoktor ang transaksyon, dinktor ang “kuwento” para ituwid si dela Paz.

(Editorial Cartoon) Ceasefire

Buhay si James Balao

Cye Reyes / Nordis Weekly

BAGUIO CITY—Nakatanggap ang Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) ng impormasyon mula sa isang source na nagsasabing buhay at nakadetine sa isa sa mga pasilidad ng Estado ang nawawalang aktibistang si James Balao.

Ayon kay Beverly Longid, tagapangulo ng CPA, nagmula sa “mapagkakatiwalaan at kredibleng” impormante na isang ahente mismo ng Estado ang impormasyon.

Sinabi pa ni Longid na kumukuha pa ng karagdagang impormasyon ang CPA kung ano ang eksaktong pasilidad na kulungan na ito para iprayoritisa sa inspeksiyon ng kanilang grupo at ng pamilya Balao.

“Ngayong alam naming buhay si James at nasa kustodiya ng mga ahenteng panseguridad ng estado, kailangang agarang ilabas (ng korte) ang writ of amparo para payagan ang pamilya at ang CPA na masusing inspeksiyunin ang mga kampo ng militar at pulisya kabilang na ang mga safe house na matutukoy namin,” ani Longid.

Natagalan umano ang CPA para iberipika ang katangian ng tip na natanggap nito. Hindi pa rin umano maaaring ihayag kung anong partikular na yunit ang pinagmulan o kung sino ang nasabing impormante.

“Kahit alam na naming ang pagdukot kay James ay kolaborasyon ng iba’t ibang ahenteng panseguridad ng Estado, sa puntong iyo ay hindi namin matukoy ang eksaktong yunit na sangkot. Pero naniniwala kaming ang paniniktik kay James bago siya dinukot ay isinagawa ng Intelligence Service Unit (ISU) ng Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) at konektado sa Philippine Army,” sabi pa ni Longid.

Sa kabila ng magandang balita, muling iginiit ng pamilya Balao at ng CPA ang apela nito sa publiko na ipagpatuloy ang suporta at pagtulong para mailutang si Balao.

“Napakahalaga ng oras ngayon para masalba ang buhay niya,” dagdag ni Longid.

Samantala, pinabulaanan ni Longid ang teorya ng Task Force Balao ng Philippine National Police (PNP) na resulta ng sigalot sa pagitan ng mga tribong Balao at Oclupan o kagagawan ng CPA ang pagkawala ni Balao.

“Hindi lang ito katawa-tawa kundi malinaw na hakbang ng gobyerno para ilayo ang anumang lead na mayroon sila na nagtuturo sa totoong maysala at pagtakpan ang tunay na motibo sa pagkawala ni James,” paliwanag pa ni Longid.

Sinabi pa ng lider ng CPA na may padron na ang kasong ito, dahil kadalasang tinatarget at hinaharas ng mga ahente ng gobyerno ang gma miyembro ng CPA.

The Sour Taste of Pineapple

International Labor Rights Forum

http://www.laborrights.org/creating-a-sweatfree-world/resources/1758

SINCE the 1960s, pineapple production has quadrupled and export has tripled worldwide. While profits for some have tremendously expanded under such development, this report demonstrates how pineapple workers, their families and communities, and the environment in the largest pineapple producing nations have not enjoyed the benefits of such growth.

ILRF’s partner labor advocacy NGOs in Costa Rica, ASEPROLA, and in the Philippines, the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (Eiler), have found abundant evidence that labor rights abuses, inhumane working conditions, and environmental degradation have plagued the industry around the world. These groups conducted field research on pineapple plantations and processing facilities.

Increased corporate control in export supply chains has prevented small farmers and workers in pineapple producing countries from sharing in the products’ growing revenue. Dole and Del Monte, through their subsidiaries, compete as the largest global suppliers of both fresh and processed pineapple as both operate plantations, distribution centers, and processing facilities all over the world. Dole and Del Monte have also been expanding their operations through the purchasing and leasing of new land for pineapple production. Dole’s subsidiary, Dole Philippines dominates the pineapple industry in the Philippines, while Fresh Del Monte’s subsidiary, PINDECO, dominates Costa Rican fresh pineapple production.

The major labor and environmental abuses documented in the report are as follows:

• Pineapple plantation and processing workers work long hours. On average they work 10-12 hours a day, six days a week, often in the hot sun. Both in Costa Rica and the Philippines, unrealistically high production quotas and low piece rate wages have led to long workdays. Work without overtime pay compels workers to work longer in order to make a meager living. Costa Rican workers earn between $1-2 an hour while workers in the Philippines earn even less. The instability and seasonal nature of the work forces workers to maximize their income when the work is available, thus putting their safety at risk. Pineapple workers have not seen their incomes rise as living costs rise. This perpetuates the reality that pineapple workers, like other agricultural workers, live below the poverty line.

• Freedom of association and right to collective bargaining, recognized by the International Labor Organization (ILO) as core labor rights, have been blatantly violated in both Costa Rica and the Philippines according to ILO reports. Union leaders have been systematically fired and laid off to obliterate any union presence in pineapple production. This is particularly true in Costa Rica, where companies install “Permanent Committees,” or company selected worker representatives to replace union leaders. Union representation has also been significantly reduced in the Philippines, due to a widespread increase in contract labor. Less than 2% of workers in Costa Rica are currently unionized and as a result major anti-union actions have been carried out by companies while governments remain complicit.

• Dole Philippines has been able to evade its responsibilities to its workers by replacing the majority of its regular workforce with contract labor from “labor cooperatives.” Approximately 77% of workers producing pineapple supplied to Dole are contract laborers and cannot be in the union representing regular workers. Contract workers systematically earn less than directly employed, regular workers as a result of production quota systems or piece-rate based remuneration and the lack of ability to engage in collective bargaining. They are denied most of the basic labor rights and social benefits granted to regular workers. Subcontracting labor, which also prevails in Costa Rica, undermines unions, as temporary/contract workers are legally stripped of their rights to organize into unions and bargain collectively. Most women working in the industry are contract workers.

• Workers are frequently exposed to toxic chemicals through pesticides and fertilizers such as endosulfan in the Philippines, and diuron in Costa Rica. Companies do not always provide proper protective gear and family members or workers are frequently exposed to the chemicals when laundry is done at home. Numerous reports have shown that chemical application in the pineapple fields is more harmful and bothersome to workers than in other agricultural sectors. Side effects range from allergies, nausea and skin rashes to more serious, long term conditions. On average, pineapple plantation workers only have a work life of four years.

• Pineapple industry expansion has threatened communities and the natural environment in areas of cultivation and processing. Agrochemicals have contaminated the water supplies in pineapple growing regions of Costa Rica and the Philippines. Community groups in Costa Rica claim that small farmers have lost many of their cattle to pests attracted to the pineapple crop. Deforestation and monoculture have altered the biodiversity of the region.

The labor and environmental issues associated with the industry stem from a number of factors. Rapid expansion of the industry has been met with an inability and unwillingness of producing countries to impose regulations, partly as a result of corporate pressure. Trade agreements such as the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership, soon to become the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), have not sufficiently encouraged the enforcement of labor and environmental standards.

The abuses can also be attributed to more systematic factors surrounding the international agricultural supply chains. Multinational companies that buy and distribute pineapples are pressured into reducing costs to be able to compete for a place on the supermarket shelf. Since input costs such as fertilizers and gas are often fixed or rising, supplier companies such as Dole and Del Monte will often seek to maximize profits by minimizing their labor costs. Labor costs only account for a small percentage of the total selling price of the pineapples. Nevertheless, these companies consistently take advantage of high unemployment, migrant workers and weak labor standards in impoverished regions like Central America and Southeast Asia.

ILRF recommends that companies in the pineapple supply chain follow all national and international labor laws; take a positive, public position in support of legal restrictions on the abuse of short term contract labor and dispatched labor schemes; respect workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining; introduce fair production quotas and fair wages; provide protective equipment to guard against agrochemicals and reduce chemical use.

We recommend that the US government push both the Costa Rican and Filipino governments, as trading partners, to strengthen, rather than weaken, their labor laws. These governments should grant equal rights to temporary, contingent, or contract workers in regards to remuneration, workday, rights to join a union and receive social benefits, and any other rights granted to regular workers. Finally, we ask that US consumers advocate for pineapple workers through government and corporate pressure.

Dole is currently seeking to increase its investment in the Philippines by expanding production, and is requesting special trade benefits from the U.S. government to help fund the expansion. ILRF has testified that before any additional special benefits are granted to fuel Dole’s expansion, U.S. government officials must require that Dole take measures to ensure that pineapple workers enjoy their internationally recognized rights and decent working conditions.

Sa selda ng inuusig na tagapagtanggol

Beth Pagtalunan

ALA-UNA ng madaling-araw nang marating namin ang pantalan ng Calapan, Oriental Mindoro. Ilang kilometro ang layo bago makarating sa Calapan Provincial Jail kung saan dinala si Atty. Remigio Saladero Jr., abogadong maka-manggagawa at maka-karapatang pantao at kolumnista ng Pinoy Weekly.

Alas-otso rin ng umagang iyon, pinuntahan namin ng kanyang asawa na si Maricel ang kulungang pinagdalhan sa kanya. Escort ng isang jailguard, lumapit sa kinauupuan namin ang pawisang si Atty. Saladero. Kinamayan at kinumusta namin ang kanyang kalagayan sa loob ng selda.

Bakas sa kanyang mga mata ang lungkot at pagod. Parang hindi siya nakakatulog, ang sagot niya sa aming pagtatanong. Tulad ng inaasahan, nahihiga siya sa malamig na semento, walang anumang kagamitan sa pagtulog. May nagmagandang-loob lamang na nagbigay ng banig para isapin sa kanyang hinihigaan. Mainit ang kuwarto dahil kulang sa bentilasyon at marahil sa dami na rin ng detainee na kasama nyang umookupa sa Selda 1.

P21 ang badyet sa pagkain para sa isang preso bawat araw. Mula sa gripo ang kanilang inumin. Pinapa-iskuwat sila pag umaga pero di siya makasabay dahil mahina na ang katawan bukod pa sa sakit na diabetes at high blood kaya medyo hirap at di makasunod.

Sa narinig na pahayag ng asawang nakakulong, nakita namin ang pamumuo ng luha sa mata ni Maricel. Nag-alala siya sa kasalukuyang kalagayan ng asawa na nagmamantini pa ng gamot para sa karamdaman nito.

Sa manggagawang katulad ko, iilan lamang marahil ang di nakakakilala kay Atty. Saladero. “Sa dami ng taong lumapit at natulungan ng asawa ko na walang pambayad upang kumuha ng abogado wala siyang hiningi o hinintay na kapalit,” sabi ng asawa niyang si Maricel.

Kung ang isip at talino ay ginamit sa pansariling interes, marahil isa na si Atty. Saladero sa mayamang abogado. Pero pinili niyang pumanig at tulungan ang mga manggagawa.

Nakakalungkot makita na ang isang magaling, respetado, tagapagtanggol ng karapatang-pantao at maka-manggagawang abogado ay ikulong at akusahan ng gobyernong ito ng gawa-gawang kaso.

Sa sandaling nag-uusap si Atty. Saladero at ang kanyang asawa, nagkaroon kami ng pagkakataon na makausap ang iba pang detainee na nasa aming likuran. Ikinuwento nila sa amin ang pagdating doon ni Atty. Saladero. Nakaposas ito habang nakapalibot at todo bantay ng anim na PNP na armado ng armalite rifle. Sa unang tingin, di sila makapaniwala na kayang gawin ng taong ito ang multiple murder at multiple frustrated murder na ibinibintang at ikinaso sa abugado. Sa ilang araw na nakasama nila ito sa kulungan, nakilala nila bilang tahimik,walang kibo, magalang makitungo at makipag-usap ang abogado.

Marami nga raw at halos tuwing umaga nakapila sila para ikonsulta at humingi ng legal advice sa kanya. Nagbiro pa nga kami na bawat konsulta magpabayad siya ng P10 para makadagdag sa pambili niya ng pagkain kasi nga di lahat ng rasyon ay puwede niyang kainin.

Dahil diabetic, madalas na hindi siya gaano makakain. Pero simpleng ngiti ang isinagot niya sa amin at sinabing di siya naghihintay ng anumang kapalit ng tulong na nagagawa para sa mga preso at masaya na sa simpleng paraan ay nakakatulong siya.

Dambong sa karagatan

Ilang-Ilang D. Quijano

Tabing-dagat sa sa Brgy. Tajao, Pinamungahan, Cebu (Ilang-Ilang Quijano)

ISANG araw noong Mayo 2005, dumating na lamang ang isang malaking barko sa Tañon Strait na matatagpuan sa pagitan ng mga isla ng Cebu at Negros. Isa ang kipot (strait) sa pinakamayamang mga palaisdaan sa Pilipinas at sentro ng marine biodiversity sa mundo.

Dalawang buwang umikot ang M/S Veritas Searcher na may kinakaladkad na 3.5 kilometrong kable sa ilalim ng dagat. Sunud-sunod na pagsabog, na may pagitan lamang na 5 hanggang 20 segundo, ang tanging narinig ng mga mangingisda sa loob ng 24 oras.

Ito ang seismic survey na isinagawa ng Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. Ltd. (Japex) para maghanap ng nakadepositong langis at natural gas. Walang kaalam-alam ang mga mangingisda hinggil sa mga plano ng dayuhang kompanya. Ang alam lang nila, matapos ang sarbey, hindi na nagbalik sa dati ang kanilang buhay.

“Dati rati, nakakahuli kami ng 10-20 kilo ng isda kada araw. Ngayon, 1-2 kilo na lamang,” sabi ni Adriano Agato, 60, tagapangulo ng lokal na grupo ng mangingisda sa Brgy. Tajao, Pinamungahan, Cebu.

Tinatayang 200,000 mangingisda sa mga probinsiya ng Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental, at Negros Occidental ang apektado ng mahigit tatlong taon nang eksplorasyon ng langis ng Japex sa Tañon Strait at NorAsia Energy Ltd. naman sa Cebu-Bohol Strait.

Kamakailan, iniutos ni Gob. Gwendolyn Garcia ang pagtigil ng eksplorasyon ng langis sa Cebu. Pero ayon sa mga makakalikasan at mangingisda, dapat may managot sa malawak nang pinsala, bukod pa sa dapat permanente, di lamang pansamantala, ang nasabing ban.

Kontrata sa DOE

Idineklarang protected seascape ni dating pangulong Fidel V. Ramos ang Tañon Strait na may mayamang konsentrasyon ng lamang-damat. Tahanan ito ng 14 sa 27 uri ng cetacean o pamilya ng mga balyena, dolphin, at porpoise na matatagpuan sa Pilipinas.

Pero tila binasbasan ng gobyernong Arroyo ang simula ng pagkasira ng yamang-dagat sa Tañon Strait at ng kabuhayan ng maliliit na mangingisdang nakadepende rito.

Sa ilalim ng Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan para maabot ang “pagsasarili sa enerhiya” (energy independence), pinirmahan ni Kal. Angelo Reyes ng Department of Energy (DOE) ang 36 service contracts sa iba’t ibang kompanya ng eksplorasyon sa langis at natural gas.

Kabilang dito ang Service Contract 46 sa Japex-Philippines, 100% subsidyaryo ng kompanyang nakabase sa Japan, na pinirmahan noong Disyembre 21, 2004. Saklaw ng kontrata ang 2,850 metro kuwadrado ng Tañon Strait.

May isang bilyong bariles ng potensiyal na reserbang langis sa Tañon Strait at 100 milyong bariles dito ang maaaring marekober, ayon kay Usec. Guillermo Balce ng DOE.

Wala pa mang Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) mula sa Department of Environment and Local Resources (DENR) at pagsang-ayon ng mga lokal na yunit ng gobyerno o local government unit (LGU), sinimulan ng Japex ang seismic survey.

Sa sarbey, lumilikha ng ingay ang mga pagsabog (sonic boom) na makapagbibigay ng impormasyon hinggil sa depositong langis at natural gas na maaaring nasa ilalim ng dagat.

May tunog ang sonic boom na 255 decibels, lampas sa hangganan ng tao na 80 db at lalo ng mga hayop na mas mababa pa. Nakasisira ito ng mga organismong dagat at nakakaapekto sa kanilang pagkilos, ayon sa iba’t ibang pananaliksik.

Sa 10-taong siyentipikong pag-aaral ni Dr. Lemuel Aragones, propesor ng Institute of Environment Science and Meteorology sa University of the Philippines, napag-alamang naapektuhan ng seismic survey ng Japex ang pagkilos at pagdami ng mga balyena at dolphin sa Tañon Strait. Dati-rati, halos 300 ang nakikita kada araw. Ngayon ay iilan na lamang.

“Bukod-tangi ang Tañon Strait bilang isang body of water. Napaka-iresponsable para sa gobyerno na payagan ang oil exploration dito. Hindi nila alam kung ano ang masisira,” ani Aragones.

Samantala, noong Hulyo 8, 2005 ipinagkaloob ng DOE sa NorAsia Energy Ltd., isang kompanyang Australyano, ang Service Contract 51 na sumasaklaw sa 4,420 metro kuwadrado ng Cebu-Bohol Strait.

Naghihiwalay sa Cebu at Bohol, isa ang nasabing kipot sa pinakahitik sa mga bakawan (mangrove) at bahura (coral reefs) sa rehiyon. Malapit ito sa Danajon Double Barrier Reef, ang tanging double barrier reef sa Pilipinas at isa sa anim lamang sa buong mundo.

Sa class suit na inihain sa Korte Suprema noong Disyembre 12, 2007, kinuwestiyon ng Central Visayas Fisherfolks Development Center Inc. (Fidec) at ilang mga kinatawan ng mangingisda ang legalidad ng Service Contract 46.

Wala umanong kapangyarihan ang DOE na pirmahan ang nasabing kontrata na hindi saklaw ng anumang batas. Kung ituturing na kasunduang ehekutibo (executive agreement), dapat pirmado ito ng Pangulo at isinumite muna sa Kongreso para aprubahan.

Labag din ito sa National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act, na nagbabawal ng eksploytasyon at paggamit ng likas-yaman sa protektadong mga erya maliban kung may ipinasang batas ang Kongreso, ayon sa Fidec.

‘Krisis sa isda’

Dulot ng pagkasira ng yamang-dagat sa rehiyon, nagugutom ngayon ang mga mangingisda sa rehiyon. Simula 2005, kinumpirma ng iba’t ibang pag-aaral at Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) ang pagbagsak sa huli ng isda dahil sa operasyon ng Japex at NorAsia.

Sa Tañon Strait, bumagsak sa tatlo hanggang limang kilo mula 15-20 kilo ang huli ng mga mangingisdang may bangkang de-motor, at walang isang kilo hanggang dalawa mula sa apat hanggang anim na kilo ang huli ng mga mangingisdang may bangkang walang motor.

Ito’y ayon sa FFM sa Toledo City, Pinamungahan, at Aloguinsan sa Cebu na pinangunahan ng Fidec at mga grupong mangingisda na Panaghiusa sa Gagmay’ng Mangingisda sa Sugbo (Pamana-Sugbo) at Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya sa Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) noong Setyembre 2005.

Sa Guihulngan City at Vallehermoso sa Negros Oriental at San Carlos City at Calatrava sa Negros Occidental, bumagsak ang huli ng isda sa dalawa hanggang tatlong kilo mula 10-15 kilo, ayon naman sa FFM ng Pamalakaya- Negros noong Nobyembre 2007.

Nasagasaan din ng barko ng Japex ang 136 “payao” o artificial reef ng mga mangingisda roon. Gawa sa Styrofoam, inilalagay ito sa estratehikong mga lugar para dumami ang huli ng isda. Binayaran ang ilang nasirang payao, pero walang natanggap na kompensasyon ang karamihan sa mga may-ari.

Samantala, bumagsak nang 70 hanggang 80 porsiyento ang huli ng isda at kita ng mga mangingisda sa Cebu-Bohol Strait matapos ang seismic survey ng NorAsia noong 2007, ayon sa pag-aaral ng Fidec sa Argao at Sibonga, Cebu.

Tinataya ng Pamalakaya na isang “krisis sa isda” ang nakaamba. Umano’y babagsak ang lokal na produksiyon ng isda nang 600,000 metro tonelada kada taon sa susunod na pito hanggang 10 taon dahil sa eksplorasyon ng langis at natural gas sa Central Visayas.

Mababawasan ang konsumo ng mga Pilipino sa isda nang 20 porsiyento, ayon pa sa grupo.

Fishing ban

Mula Nobyembre 2007 hanggang Pebrero 2008, ipinagbawalan ng Japex ang mga mangingisda sa Pinamungahan at Aloguinsan na lumapit nang pitong kilometro sa Hakoryu V, Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit na kanilang ipinalaot sa gitna ng Tañon Strait.

Panakot nila, mamahalin ang kanilang kagamitan at babayaran ng sinumang makakasira nito. May armadong mga tauhan ding nagbantay sa itinakdang hangganan.

Dahil hindi makapalaot, naglabada, nangahoy, at nagkarpintero na lamang ang mga mangingisda. Tumigil sa pag-aaral ang kanilang mga anak. “Para sa apat na buwang iyon, binigyan lamang kami ng lokal na gobyerno ng tig-isang sako ng bigas,” himutok ni Agato.

Labag sa 1987 Konstitusyon at Philippine Fisheries Code ang fishing ban dahil isinasantabi nito ang karapatan ng maliliit na mangingisda sa komunal na mga palaisdaan sa teritoryo ng bansa, ayon sa Fidec.

Sa offshore drilling, nagbubutas ng balon sa ilalim ng dagat gamit ang mga tubong bakal. Kapag walang natagpuang langis o natural gas, tatakpan ito ng semento bago muling magbutas.

Ang isang binutas na balon ay nagtatapon ng tinatayang 25,000 tonelada ng nakalalasong basura (toxic waste) na may mga kemikal na cadmium, lead, at benzene.

Kinumpirma ng mga residente na iniahon ng Japex ang tone-toneladang toxic waste mula sa dagat at itinatambak sa bakanteng loteng pagmamay-ari ng isang nakatataas na opisyal ng LGU.

“Masangsang ang amoy tuwing inililipat ang basura. Kontaminado ang aming deep well, naging mapait ang tubig. Nagkaroon din kami ng mga sakit sa balat,” sabi ni Alfreda Alcoz, 67, taga-Brgy. Poblacion, Aloguinsan.

Sa kalagitnaan ng taon, nilisan ng mga barko ng Japex ang Tañon Strait. Pahayag ng kompanya sa website nito noong Mayo 13, wala itong natuklasang komersiyal na langis at natural gas.

Pero hanggang ngayon, hindi pa rin bumabalik sa dati ang huli ng isda sa kipot. Maraming lamang-dagat ang biglaang nawala, gaya ng “lumiagan” (isang uri ng pusit) at “baga” (isang uri ng isda).

Samantala, nakaamba ang NorAsia na magsagawa ng offshore drilling sa Cebu-Bohol Strait. Noong Agosto at Setyembre, nagpataw rin ang kompanya ng dalawang linggong fishing ban bilang paghahanda.

“Siguro kapag nagsimula na ang drilling, wala na talaga kaming makakain. Ngayon pa nga lang, kahit pang-ulam, wala,” sabi ni Lucena Sarahena, 41, taga-Brgy. Langtad, Argao.

Bogus na ECC at konsultasyon

Mabuti na lamang na noong Setyembre 22, inilabas ni Garcia ang Executive Order No. 9. Pansamantalang ipinatitigil ang eksplorasyon ng langis at natural gas sa Argao at Sibongan hanggang hindi dumadaan sa masusing konsultasyon.

Ayon sa EO No. 9, nilabag ang nakasaad sa Local Government Code na dapat konsultado ang mga LGU, non-governmental at people’s organizations, at iba pang apektadong sektor ng komunidad bago ipatupad ng gobyerno ang isang proyekto.

Sa Cebu, tanging mga lokal na konseho ng Pinamungahan at Aloguinsan ang nag-apruba sa mga aktibidad ng dayuhang kompanya. Hindi na ito dumaan pa sa LGU sa ibang mga siyudad at probinsiya gaya ng Argao.

“Inilapit sa amin ng NorAsia ‘yung proyekto noong 2005. Pero bago pa namin mapag-aralan, sinimulan na nila ang sarbey. Inulit nila ito (noong 2007). Mga Philippine Coast Guard pa ang eskort nila sa dagat. Talagang sinagasaan ‘yung kapangyarihan namin, siguro, may malakas na backer,” ani Atty. Boyd Arnold Teczon, konsehal at executive director ng Argao Clean and Green Commission, sa isang panayam.

Noong nakaraang buwan, kuwento ni Teczon, dumating ang mga opisyal ng DOE at isang heneral mula sa Maynila para kumbinsihin silang ikauunlad ng munisipyo ang pagmimina sa dagat.

Sa ilalim ng Service Contract System, matatanggap ng gobyerno bilang service fee ang 40 porsiyento ng kita ng kompanyang may kontrata rito.

Nangako rin ang mga opisyal ng NorAsia na bababa ang presyo ng langis at batayang mga bilihin kapag naging matagumpay ang eksplorasyon sa langis at natural gas.

Pero hindi kumbinsido ang mga mangingisda ng Brgy. Langtad. “Ano naman ang pakinabang ng mababang presyo ng mga bilihin kung wala kaming pambili?” sabi ni Felisa Albandonido, 60. “‘Yung kita ng munisipyo, hindi naman talaga mapupunta sa amin,” aniya pa.

Noong nakaraang taon, bumisita ang mga opisyal ng DOE at Japex sa opisina sa Siliman University ni Dr. Angel Alcala, kilalang marine biologist at direktor ng Angelo King Center for Research and Environmental Management, para iprisentang ligtas ang off-shore mining.

Pero nang aralin ni Alcala ang ECC na ipinagkaloob ng DENR- Region VII sa Japex noong Marso 6, 2007, natuklasan niyang “mali” ang pinagbatayan nitong impormasyon. Ang Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) na isinumite ng Japex, luma at kulang ang datos.

Ayon pa sa Fidec, hindi lang dapat nakabatay sa IEE ang ECC ng isang proyektong may kritikal na epekto sa kalikasan, kundi sa Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Masinsing konsultasyon at pagsusuri ang daraanan bago makapasa sa EIA.

Malakas na pagtutol

Hinala ng Save Tañon Strait Citizens Movement (STSCM), hindi layon ng E.O. No. 9 na permanenteng pipigilan ang proyekto. Umano’y naghahanda lamang ang NorAsia sa EIA para hindi makasuhan gaya ng Japex.

Noong nakaraang taon binuo ang STSCM, rehiyunal na alyansa ng mga mangingisda, makakalikasan, estudyante, siyentista, abogado at iba pang propesyunal kontra sa off-shore mining. Gaya ng E.O. No. 9, umano’y isa ito sa mga tagumpay ng malakas na pagtutol ng mga mamamayan sa pagdambong sa kanilang karagatan.

Itinutulak ng alyansa ang isang on-site congressional investigation o imbestigasyon ng Kongreso sa erya. Naghain ng mga resolusyon para rito sina Sen. Jamby Madrigal, Sen. Loren Legarda, at 11 kongresista na pinangunahan ni Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño.

Samantala, kaliwa’t kanan ang pagsulpot ng lokal na mga grupo ng mangingisda sa mga barangay na saklaw ng Tañon Strait at Cebu-Bohol Strait. Nagsasagawa ang mga ito ng pag-oorganisa, dayalogo sa LGU, pampublikong porum, piket, at malakihang kilos-protesta.

Noong Oktubre 19, World Food Day, mahigit 300 mangingisda ang lumahok sa fluvial protest o protesta sa Tanon Strait na pinangunahan ng Pamana-Sugbo at Pamalakaya.

Lumahok rin sa laban ang internasyunal na komunidad, na nananawagan ng pagpreserba sa marine biodiversity at pagbawas sa pagiging pala-asa sa langis.

Pahayag pa ng International FFM ng People’s Coalition for Food Sovereignty (PCFS) at Pesticide Action Network Asia noong nakaraang buwan, labag sa “karapatang sosyal, pang-ekonomiya, at pangkultura” ng mga mamamayan ang eksplorasyon ng langis at natural gas.

“Nakakabahala na pursigido ang gobyerno ng Pilipinas na ipatupad ang tinatawag na energy development projects sa kabila ng malawakang pagtutol, lalo ng maliliit na mangingisdang pinaka-apektado,” sabi ni Gilbert Sape ng PCFS.

Dagdag pa niya, “Sa Asya at iba pang bahagi ng daigdig, nakikinabang lamang dito ang mga kompanya at tiwaling opisyal ng gobyerno. Hindi yumayaman ang taumbayan sa langis.”

Sa kabaligtaran, lalong naghirap ang mga taga-Central Visayas simula nang malaman nilang may madadambong palang yaman sa ilalim ng dagat, tatlong taon na ang nakakaraan.

(Pasintabi) Nakawan ng pribadong pag-aari at gitnang uri

UMUWI ako ng hatinggabi kamakailan lang. Sa di ko maipaliwanag, hindi ko kaagad mabuksan ang maliit na gate. Wala ring ilaw sa bukanang pinto ng bahay. Nakarinig ako ng tunog ng chime kahit walang hangin. At ang galasgas ng tila hayop sa halaman, inakala kong pusang nakapasok sa loob ng bahay.

Tulad ng mga gabi, uminom ako ng dalawang kutsarang VCO (virgin coconut oil) at dalawang kapsula ng Vitamin C, at tumungo na ako sa kwarto sa itaas. Tulad ng mga gabi, mabilis kong sinara ang pinto, handa ng maghilamos at magpalit ng pantulog. Pero di tulad ng gabi, natagpuan ko ang ilang gamit sa loob ng kwarto na magulo ang ayos. Nawawala ang ilang laman ng container sa may TV, at paling ang mga painting sa ibabaw ng kinalalagyan.

Hindi ko na natiis, hiniyaw ko ang pangalan ng katiwala. Kundi man nakaligtaang magligpit, may hindi awtorisadong paghahalungkat sa kwarto. Imumustra ko na ang kaguluhan ng ilang gamit nang biglang may sumulpot sa ilalim ng kama. Napasukan kami sa loob ng bahay.

Napatakbo palabas ng kwarto ang kasambahay. Natagpuan ko ang sarili kong nakikipagtitigan sa taong nakahubad, nakatitig rin sa akin. Sa labas ng kwarto ay inutusan ko ang katiwala na kunin ang yantok sa kanyang kwarto, pati na rin kutsilyo. Sa pagkaripas ko sa hagdan, tumawag ako ng numero ng guardhouse. Madali kong pinakiusapan ang nakausap na tumungo kaagad sa bahay.

Ilang minuto pa ay nakapasok na ang gwardya. Sinabihan kong nasa tagiliran ng sahig ng kama ang magnanakaw. Bigla na lang nabuo sa isipan ko ang akmang identidad ng tao sa sahig. Ilang saglit pa ay binababa na nila ang lalake, nakasuot na ng tshirt at tila emo ang buhok. Sinabihan ako ng gwardya na antabayanan ko na lang ang sasakyan ng baranggay.

Umakyat kami ng katiwala, tinignan kung ano ang nangawala. Bukod sa mga ilang lalagyan na naglaho ang lamang abibot—rosaryong galing sa Vatican, medalyon, napigtas na beads, isang asul na antigong necklage mula sa Ifugao, at iba pang bracelets na bigay—wala akong natagpuang tunay na mahalagang nawala.

Sa baranggay ay kinuha ang mga pangalan namin, kasama ang guard na nakahuli. Sinabihan kaming dalawa na bumalik kinabukasan para sa inquest. At kinulong ang magnanakaw sa selda, sabay upak ng isang detenido.

Hindi ako nakatulog kaagad. Tinignan ko muna ang bawat sulok ng bahay na maaring pagtaguan pa ng tao: ilalim ng hagdan, ilalim ng kama, shower area ng banyo, sulok ng mga mwebles, at iba pa. Pasilip-silip akong muli sa ilalim ng kama, at sa bintana ng kwartong nakadungaw sa bubong ng kusina, ang pinagpasukan ng magnanakaw.

Kinaumagahan ay sinundo ko ang off-duty na guard at tumungo kami sa presinto. Pinatignan sa amin ang statement. Kinorek namin ang spelling ng aming pangalan. Dahil raw wala namang halaga ang nakuha, “attempted robbery” lang daw ang pwede. Sabi ko ay mayroon namang halaga, at pinasabi sa pulis ang mga item at kanilang halaga. Naging “robbery” ang kaso.

Parang kalahating oras kami ng guard na nag-aantay. Mabagal mag-computer ang pulis, mas mabagal ang dot-matrix na printer. Nang matapos ay tumungo kami sa selda. Pinosasan ang magnanakaw, kasama ng isa pang may kaso ng cellphone snatching. Magkakasama kami ng pulis, akusado, guard at ang nanakawan ng cellphone na nagsisiksikan sa kotse ko para tumungo sa City Hall.

Nakipagkwentuhan ako sa babaeng nanakawan ng cellphone ng alas-tres ng umagang iyon. Call center agent pala siya. Nanlaban siya kaya nahuli ang bumutas sa kanyang shorts para dakmain ang cellphone. Pero hindi na gumagana ang cellphone niya. Malaki ang kanyang paghihinayang dahil siya raw ang gumastos rito.

Dumating kami sa City Hall, umibis sila habang ako ay naghanap pa ng parking. Sa fourth floor ng Hall of Justice, natagpuan ko ang sarili na kasunod ng pulis. Nagpaxerox ito, bumili ng kendi at ako ang pinagbayad. Yung mga nakaposas—wala pa ring tsinelas man lang ang magnanakaw sa bahay—ay pinasunod sa inquest. Sa fiskal, isa-isang mabilis na dininig ang mga kaso.

Pag dating sa akin, tinanong kami ng magnanakaw kung magkakilala ba kami. Tinanong din kami kung magkarelasyon ba kami. Bakla ang lalaking natagpuan sa sahig sa kama sa kwarto ko. Nauna pa ang lalake na tumanggi sa sinabi ng fiskal. Tig-100,000 piso ang bail para sa robbery at cellphone snatching. Labinglimang araw pa ang unang hearing daw. Mabubulok ang mga inaresto sa isang kwartong kasing laki lang ng opisina ko, magkakasama ang mga 20 pang detenido.

Sa paghatid sa mga inaresto at pulis pabalik sa presinto, naalaala ko ang tanong ng fiskal sa inaakusahang nagnakaw ng cellphone, “Binugbog ka ba?” Bago makasagot ang nakaposas ay sinalo na kaagad ng pulis, “Nagkagulo lang po.” Maraming tuyong dugo ang nakaposas, “Sinaksak po ako niya,” sabay turo sa babae. Pero hindi na ito pinahalagahan.

Ibinaba ko ang babae sa kanto ng Congressional at Mindanao. Bumalik kami ang natira sa presinto. Mahaba ang gabi at umaga ng eksena ng nakawan. Pareho kami ng sentimiento ng call center agent. Paglabag ito sa aming pinaghirapang pag-aari. At habang pabalik ako sa akin talagang pupuntahan, naisip kong ang aming asersyon ng pagiging gitnang uri ang siyang yumuyurak sa mas mababa sa amin.

Na kahit walang kalatoy-latoy ang proseso, at ang infrastruktura ng katarungan, maging ang pulisya, sa amin pa rin pala ito nakakiling. At mas lalo akong nalungkot sa kinasadlakan ko, lampas pa sa eksena sa horror film nang matagpuan ko ang katawan ng lalakeng nakapasok sa loob ng kwarto ko.

Ang kwarto ko, ang buhay ko, ang predikamento ko, metapisikal ang pagkakulong sa gitnang uri. Ang mga inarestong tao, naging magnanakaw na, nakakulong na. Hindi pinagsalita, at kahit magsalita, ayaw rin namang pakinggan. Kasing lagkit ng putik sa kotseng nabasa ng mabilisang ulan at dumaan sa makikitid na kalsada ng kapuranggot na lugar sa syudad ang pakiramdam ko.

(Editorial Cartoon)

FERTILIZER FUND PROBE Bolante clears Arroyo

Fund disbursement ‘not a scam’

By Maila Ager
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 05:59:00 11/13/2008

MANILA, Philippines — (UPDATE 14) Former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante has cleared President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of any involvement in the P728 million fertilizer fund scam.

At the same time, Bolante denied the disbursement of the money, which he is accused of diverting to Arroyo’s 2004 campaign kitty, was a scam.

Bolante was grilled for almost eight hours during the hearing, which ended a little past 7 p.m. and showed little signs of flagging, prompting Senator Panfilo Lacson to comment that the former agriculture official “is not sick.”

“As far as I know, the P728-million farm input and implement program funding of the Department of Agriculture was not a scam,” but a legal, valid and proper use of government money, Bolante said in response to questioning from Senator Loren Legarda.

“Your Honor, President Arroyo was not involved in this particular project of the Department of Agriculture. The implementation of the P728 million farm input-farm implement program was approved by the DBM [Department of Budget and Management] without the approval of President Arroyo,” Bolante said in response to a question by Senator Manuel “Mar” Roxas at the start of the Senate investigation into the scandal Thursday.

But Roxas countered that Bolante’s answer was hard to believe.

“That’s hard to believe, Mr. Bolante because we know the President as a micromanager, she dips her hands into everything in government. For you to say that she did not approve this is hard to believe,” Roxas said in Filipino.

Pressed by Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, Bolante reiterated that the President had nothing to do with the release of the fertilizer fund.

“Wala po [Nothing],” he said. “We did not have to [get the President’s approval because it’s a regular activity of the Department of Agriculture.”

“It’s part of the budget of the Department of Agriculture. The source of the fund is the regular budget of the Department of Agriculture,” he added.

“It was legal, valid and proper funding,” he told Legarda.

Bolante said there are records to prove this, including a memorandum of agreement indicating the recipients of the money and how it was used.

He also cited a report to the Commission on Audit that 91 percent of the fund had been liquidated.

Bolante said the project had been approved by the DA and did not require the approval of the President.

He also admitted that it was his office that prepared the list of project proponents of the fertilizer fund.

“The list was prepared by my office, tasked by the DA to put together all pending request from different units,” he said.

At the same time, Bolante described as “very unfair” and “railroaded” the Senate’s move to arrest him.

“In all honesty, I really feel that the decision to cite me for contempt and the consequent warrant of arrest was very unfair and railroaded,” he said.

He said the Senate, during the 13th Congress, had indicted him and branded him as the “architect” of the fertilizer fund scam.

Bolante said, “No,” when asked by Estrada whether the money was meant for administration candidates in the 2004 elections.

He said the records of the DA would show that most of these projects were implemented in June and July 2004 or long after the election.

Before this, Bolante has said that he has nothing to hide and apologized to the Senate for “whatever inconvenience” his absence has caused in the course of its investigation into the multimillion-peso fertilizer fund scam.

“I would like to apologize for whatever inconveniences my non-appearance to this august body has caused… I assure you, it’s not out of respect [to the Senate as a whole]” … nor I have something to hide,” said Bolante.

Bolante faced the upper chamber for the first time since he was implicated in the controversy in which he has been tagged as the alleged mastermind.

“It’s not our duty here to prove your guilt but to find the truth,” said Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, chairman of the blue ribbon committee that is presiding over the case.

At the same time, Cayetano said that while Bolante was “fit” to testify, the Senate medical doctor informed him that the former government official was suffering from chronic ulcer and therefore, should be allowed periodic snacks.

Bolante arrived at the Senate Thursday more than an hour before the hearing that started at 9:51 a.m.

Students from the Pasay North High School carried white and red roses for the senators as they sat at the gallery of the session hall to listen to the hearing.

Bolante has been accused of being the brains behind the alleged transfer of P728 million in fertilizer funds to the campaign kitty of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for the 2004 election.

He has not issued a statement since his arrival from the United States where he fled shortly after the expose and tried but failed to seek political asylum.

Bolante arrived in the country last October 27 but before an arrest order could be served by the Senate was brought immediately to the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City where he stayed for more than two weeks until this Thursday.

(PDI Editorial) Secret raids

THAT A SECRET memo authorizing special US military operations in foreign countries was leaked to the media this week comes as no surprise; we can expect more sources inside the Bush administration to unburden themselves of more secrets as the administration’s awful term ends. That the United States conducts secret military interventions isn’t much of a surprise either; enterprise journalism has reported on such military strikes before, and civil society organizations have sounded the alarm many times.

But the existence of a 2004 memo, signed by Donald Rumsfeld, then the US secretary of defense, with the approval of President George W. Bush, offers concrete proof, if more proof was needed, of the reckless unilateralism that marks, and explains the failure of, the US war on terror.

A cloud of illegitimacy hung over the US invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq from the very start. It did not have the sanction of the United Nations or, indeed, of the Bush White House’s preferred international alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. (In stark contrast, Nato was a major partner in the prosecution of the Afghanistan war.) Despite all the White House bluster, Bush recognized the legitimacy issue, which is why the US took great pains to cobble together a so-called coalition of the willing. But despite the active participation of British and Australian troops, the war launched against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was very much an American undertaking. Legitimacy, in other words, could not be finessed.

We all know what happened since: no weapons of mass destruction were found, and the al-Qaida terror network, once non-existent in Iraq, flourished instead. The neighboring state of Iran gained geopolitical strength, while American neglect of the Afghan war gave the Taliban new life (and complicated US relations with Pakistan).

In 2004, sensing the continuing strength of the al-Qaida network, Rumsfeld executed a new order simplifying the US government’s process for approving military excursions into areas not officially declared as war zones. “The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaida terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States,” The New York Times reported.

The memo may or may not give rise to war crimes charges in the US, but there is no question it violates the sovereignty of target countries, including that of close US ally Pakistan. Even if we set aside the issue of the US military acting outside the jurisdiction granted by Congress (in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars), there is still the issue of the illegitimacy of US action. Illegitimacy feeds Islamic militancy.

Again, the difference between Bush’s Iraq war and the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, or between the Iraq war and the first Gulf War in 1991 (masterfully engineered by Bush’s father), is instructive. The true lesson of 1991 and 2001 was that multi-lateral military action works. Unfortunately, the cowboys in the White House did not have the patience or the discipline to heed it.

It is only fair to consider the incoming US administration’s position on the issue. During the presidential debates, Barack Obama clearly stated that he would authorize US military strikes against terrorist targets even inside friendly countries. This does not seem too dissimilar from the current administration’s preemptive policy. Obama did lay down a consequential condition for launching such a strike—that the friendly government was either unable or unwilling to take action itself. But there is no question that he would determine which action to take according to the American national interest, not to some international consensus.

One difference does seem forthcoming: The Bush doctrine is essentially based, not on preemptive action, but on preventive war. Under such a doctrine, it is easy to see why a memo like Rumsfeld’s can come into being. As far as we can tell, Obama does not subscribe to the preventive war mindset. We will see if memos like the secret one of 2004 will have a place in his policy.

Seminary refectorian finds can of worms

By Dona Pazzibugan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:06:00 11/13/2008

MANILA, Philippines—Worms were found inside a popular canned meatloaf product that was supposed to be served for breakfast to priests at the San Carlos Seminary in Makati City last Wednesday.

Fr. Anton Pascual, executive director of Caritas Manila, said he saw for himself the can of spoiled Spam Lite Meatloaf.

“I saw it. They were small worms, all over the can. From the outside the can had no defect so you would not know there was something wrong,” he said in an interview.

Spam Lite Meatloaf is a product of Formel Food Corp. and locally distributed by Purefoods Corp.

Hormel Foods could not be reached for comment as of this posting. The Philippine Daily Inquirer tried a toll free number which played back a recorded message that office hours were from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.

Purefoods Corp. officials were also unavailable for comment at presstime.

According to a report made on Thursday by Church-run Radio Veritas, which Pascual confirmed in an interview, the seminary’s refectorian, Crispinana Pedragoza, bought eight 340-gram tins of Spam Lite Meatloaf from Puregold Price Clubhouse on Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong City, last November 4.

The radio report said Pedragoza screamed when she opened one of the cans. She intended to serve the meatloaf with eggs, according to Pascual.

The cans showed an expiry date of August 2011, added Pascual.

He said the spoiled can was brought to the Radio Veritas office while the other seven cans were kept in the seminary.

Radio Veritas said they called up the Bureau of Food and Drugs but were told by division chief Joyce Serunay that the matter fell under the jurisdiction of the National Meat Inspection Service under the Department of Agriculture.

NMIS lawyer Jane Bacayo could not be contacted, said the radio report.

Pascual, who was just one of the many priests staying at the seminary’s Bahay Pari, said authorities should immediately check out the product for the sake of public safety.

He said they would also make a formal complaint to the manufacturer and the distributor of Spam. He said these should make a “public apology” and explain why there were worms in the meatloaf.

“They should check their quality control because the public might buy these (spoiled) products,” he said. With a report from Elizabeth Lacson, Philippine Daily Inquirer

(Larga Vista) Pagdakip at pagpapahirap sa akin

Elizabeth Principe

HAYAAN muna ninyong pasalamatan ko ang Karapatan-Ilocos at Dinteg sa Baguio City sa suporta nila sa kaso kong rebelyon sa Condon City. Na-dismiss ang kaso ko doon noong ika-22 ng Oktubre 2008. Sa katunayan, nagulat akong nalaman na may kaso ako sa Condon City – Hindi pa nga ako nakatuntong ng Ilocos bago ang arraignment.

Nakagaan sa akin ang dismissal, nabawasan ang apat kong kaso. Natitira pa ang dalawang (2) kaso ng robbery with murder at isa pang rebellion. Binuntunan ako ng kriminal na mga kaso para hindi makapagpiyansa.

Nagsimula ang kalbaryo ko noong ika-28 ng Nobyembre, sa pagdukot sa akin ng Intelligence Security Group (ISG) sa ibaba ng Fern Laboratory sa Cubao, Quezon City. Katatapos ko lamang magpa-x-ray at magpa-ECG sa Fern Lab kung saan mura. Mga mula sa mababang uri at saray ang nakasabay ko sa check-up.

Mabuti nga na may kolum ako rito sa PW, para mailinaw na di sa Ali Mall ako dinukot. Galing sa AFP ang balitang nagmo-malling ako nang madukot. Paninira nila sa kilusan na ang mga kasapi nito ay sa mall o sa sabungan nadarakip gayung naghihirap ang mga mamamayang Pilipino.

Sumigaw muna ng “Pulis kami” saka pilit na isinakay ng dalawang matitipunong lalaki sa nakabara-sa-daan na van na may sakay pang mga lalaki. Piniringan, pinosasan ako kaagad; inagaw at kinalkal ang bag ko. Nang tinanong ko bakit ginawa nila iyon sa akin, tape sa bibig ko ang sagot nila. Hindi nila kilala si Miranda, manapa’y nilampaso si Miranda at ang kanyang mga karapatan.

Unang araw pa lamang, walong (8) beses akong ininteroga. Tuluy-tuloy ang piring, posas at pasak sa tainga nang 72 oras.

Sa interogasyon, napako kami sa pangalan pa lamang. Hindi ko inamin ang tunay kong pangalan sa dami ng nakasampang kasong kriminal at mabibigat sa nagngangalang Elizabeth Principe. Baka nga kapag nalaman nila na ako si EP ay tabunan nila ako ng isang trak ng basura o isimento nila sa dram saka ihulog sa dagat o ipasok sa loob ng patumpatong na goma saka sunugin. Di nga ba ang daming missing, pati ang mahal kong asawa, si Leo Velasco.

Modelo ko sa bahagi ng interogasyon ang isang kakilala ko na dalawang taong nakulong ngunit di inamin sa lahat ng interogasyon niya ang tunay niyang pangalan. Ayaw niyang ipaalam na ikalawang beses na niyang pagkadakip iyon. Tumimo sa akin nang husto ang tibay niyang pinanindigan ang pangalang Marcial, hindi ko na tuloy maalala ang tunay niyang pangalan.

Sa unang sandali pa lamang na naisakay ako sa van, alam ko nang nadukot ako at tinanggap ko ang kamatayan. Hindi ako natatakot mamatay, o tumagal at mabulok sa bilangguan, sinabi ko ito sa mga interogador. Sa dami ba naman ng na-missing at na-extra-judicial killing, hindi ko iniisip na maiiba ang aking istorya.

Ang mga tula ni Jose Ma. Sison sa loob ng bilangguan ang nagbigay ng lakas-loob sa akin. “Mas mahirap ang naging kalagayan niya pero nakaya niya, dapat ko ring kayanin ito,” kako. Dagdag pa ang kuwento ng may karanasan sa mga hulihan – na ang hindi natakot sa kamatayan at tortyur ang hindi bumigay sa interogasyon at hindi naipagkanulo ang mga mamamayan. Sa kabilang panig, kapag pinangangalagaan ang buhay, lalo itong nawawala pati ang dignidad.

Sa mga gabi, problema ko kung paano matulog sa kalagayang walang humpay ang tunog ng nakapasok sa aking tainga na MP3. Binabago ko ang posisyon ng pasak para mapahina ang tunog pero agad nalalaman ng aking dalawang 24-oras na guwardiya. Dito ko natantiyang may kamerang nakatutok sa akin. Iniangal ko sa guwardiya na tortyur ang walang tigil na tunog na nagpapasakit sa ulo ko. Mag-enjoy na lang kaya ako sa tunog, kako. Pumuwede rin ng ilang oras.

Minsan napagalit ko ang guwardiya nang binago ko ang puwesto ng earplug, lubha niyang hinigpitan ang piring ko. Maliban dito, hindi ako pisikal na sinaktan. Soft approach at pananakot ang ginamit sa akin ng militar.

Ikinakaila nila sa akin ang totoong oras. Ibinibigay ang gamot na panggabi kahit tanghali pa lamang. Sinabing tatlong araw na akong naroon gayung isang araw pa lamang. Buti na lamang may alaga silang tandang na manok, salamat sa tilaok nito. Nagbilang ako ng pagdaan ng mga eroplano sa bawat araw para maging alerto at aktibo ang isip ko.

Ika-1 ng Disyembre nang inakay ako ng mga guwardiya na maligo. Nagtaka ako dahil dati-rati’y ako ang nagsasabi kung anong oras ako maliligo. Pagkaligo, inalis ang tsinelas ko, ipinalit ang sandals ko. Isinakay ako sa kotseng mabango, may aircon at malambot ang upuan. Isip ko, kung ihuhukay o susunugin na ako, dapat karag-karag na lang na sasakyan at di na ako pinaligo. Wala pang limang minuto, huminto na kami at naghintay nang matagal. Tinantiya ko na ipiprisinta ako sa midya, narinig ko kasi sa radyo ng kotse ang pahayag ng opisyal-militar na nadakip na nila si EP. Pinag-isipan ko na kung ano ang isisigaw ko pagharap sa midya. Taranta naman ang dalawang babaing pulis kung paano nila tatakpan ang maraming pasa sa aking kamay at bibig.

Bakit ako inilitaw? Tantiya ko’y inilabas ako para ma-divert ang isyu at makaalpas ang AFP at PNP sa sangkaterba na puna ng mga mamamayan, lalo ng midya sa magaspang na pagresolba sa naganap sa Manila Peninsula noong Nobyembre 29. At kapwa siraan ang grupo ni Sen. Trillanes-Lim at ang CPP-NPA-NDF sa paratang na nagsabwatan ito sa naganap sa Manila Pen. Sinampal ako ng paratang na kasama raw ako sa nagplano. Ngi! Hindi ko nga alam na naganap iyon at hindi ko pa nakita sa buong buhay ko si Sen. Trillanes at mga kasamahan niya.

Matapos akong iprisinta sa midya, balik piring, posas at pasak sa tainga; at balik pinanggalingan. Waring gustong iparinig sa akin, may nagsabing “5^th ID pala ang nakahuli.” Nais akong linlangin ng mga ito, sabi ko sa sarili. Ang isa nama’y ibinulong sa aking ang “Kung makatakas ka o makalaya, ako ang papatay sa iyo.” Sinagot ko siya kaagad ng “Bakit ka nananakot?” Itong panakot na ito ang isang batayan ng pagsasampa ng petisyon para sa writ of amparo, na dinismis naman ng Special 8^th Division ng Court of Appeals (hep-hep, fast forward na ito).

Alas-dos ng hapon, inilipat ako sa CIDG. Doon ko nakita ang mahal kong mga anak, mga miyembro ng Karapatan, Desaparecidos, EMJP, mga galing ng Cagayan Valley, at mga biktima at kamag-anak ng mga biktima ng karahasang militar. Pinagpiyano ako, saka ibinalik ang handbag ko na kinumpiska ng mga dumukot sa akin. Nawalan ng P12,000 ang pera ko, nagdagdagan ng planted na Ang Bayan. Ipina-nota ko sa CIDG ang nawala at planted.

Ipina-medical ako – doon nanota ng doktor ang marami kong pasa sa dalawang kamay at bisig. Sa daan pa-medical, na-interbyu ako ng ABS-CBN pero hindi naman lumabas sa TV. Maraming pa noong kaso na nai-interbyu ako at mga anak ko noong may hearing sa Court of Appeals pero di lumalabas sa TV.

Sunod, inilagak na ako sa Custodial Center kung saan ako ikinulong. Kinuha lahat ng pulis doon ang mga gamot ko, baka ko raw inumin nang sabay-sabay. Hihingi raw ako sa kanila sa bawat pag-inom ko.

Isang linggo akong padlock, di puwedeng lumabas ng selda. Abogado lamang ang puwedeng bumisita, di puwede kahit kamag-anak. Kahit nga si Cong. Satur Ocampo ay di pinayagang makadalaw sa akin (Dami pa naman niyang dalang pagkain).

Binilinan ng mga opisyal ng Custodial na huwag makipag-usap sa akin ang ibang detainee, baka raw bigla ko lang karatehin sila at pilipilitin ang leeg. Isang buwan na wala akong kasama sa selda na ayon sa kuwento ay may multo; itinoka ako sa higaan ng taong nagpakamatay. Makaraan ang ilang panahon, tinanong ako ng ibang detainee kung bakit hindi ako natatakot sa mga multo at walang nagpakitang multo sa akin. Sagot ko’y “Mga kakosa ko kasi ang mga pinatay dito.”

Nagtataka ang mga naunang detainee bakit hindi ako umiyak noong mga unang araw ko at waring magaan pa ang dating ko sa kanila. Sabi ko’y “Ang isang paa ko’y nasa hukay nitong nakaraang ilang araw, pasalamat ako’t inalis doon at di naisama sa bilang ng mga nangawala at napatay.”

Nakatulong sa aking ang pag-iisip ng positibo para di lubhang ma-depress sa bagong mundo ko. Mula sa ekta-ektaryang luntian ang pinagpipiyestahan ng mga mata ko, naging 2-by-3 metro kuwadrado na lamang ang pinagtitiyagaan ng mata ko. Pero ang isip ko’y milya-milya, daan-daang milya, libu-libo, milyun-milyong milya sa ilang daang taon ang inilalarawan. Ang isip ko’t diwa ay di naikulong.

(Radical Pinoy) Pagdaig sa panghahati, pagtapos sa paghahari

Vencer Crisostomo

ANG MATAPANG na pahayag ng limang Katolikong obispo na nanawagan sa mga mamamayan na ”maghanda para sa isang bagong gobyerno,” gayundin ang muling pag-init ng kontrobersiya sa pagbabalik ni Joc-Joc Bolante, ay nagiging tuntungan ngayon ng malawak na kilusang anti-Arroyo upang muling magsama-sama at isikad ang kilusang masa para sa pagpapatalsik sa kinamumuhiang rehimen.

Batid ng marami na gagawin ni Arroyo ang lahat para manatili sa puwesto lagpas sa 2010 o kung hindi’y sisiguruhing ang hahalili sa kanya ay magtitiyak ng hindi niya pananagot sa mga kasalanan sa taumbayan. Inaasahan ang muling pag-init ng sitwasyong pampulitika sa mga susunod na buwan habang nakahanay na todong pakawalan ng rehimen ang mga pakanang pang-tiraniya: charter change, konsolidasyon ng kanyang partido at paninira sa oposisyon, kampanya ng pasistang paniniil sa mga progresibo at kilalang personaheng anti-Arroyo, hanggang sa lantarang pagpapataw ng emergency rule o batas militar.

Marapat lamang na tapatan ng higit na malakas at determinadong kilusan ng mga mamamayan ang mga maitim na balakin ng rehimen. Habang higit na nagiging desperado si Arroyo, higit namang umiinam ang sitwasyon para mapagkaisa at mapakilos ang mga mamamayan. Ngunit maraming dapat matutunan ang kilusang anti-Arroyo mula sa mga karanasan kung layon nitong dalhin sa isang bago at mas mataas na antas ang laban.

Matapos ang pagkilos sa Ayala noong Pebrero, hindi na muling nakapagtipon ng kasinglaking bilang sa lansangan — na umabot sa lagpas 80,000 — ang mga organisasyon at pwersang anti-Arroyo. Itinurong salarin ang pagpasok ng bakasyon ng mga estudyante na tintignang balon ng mga napapadalo sa mga pagkilos. Bagamat mahahalagang salik ito, may mga usaping dapat ding tignan hinggil sa naging mga kaganapan sa hanay ng prenteng anti-Arroyo.

Mabilis na nasamantala noon ng administrasyon ang mga sumingaw na negatibong reaksiyon ng ilang kampo hinggil sa pag-akyat ng mga pulitiko, partikular ni Estrada sa entablado ng rali. Bagamat maaaring sabihing may pinagmumulan ang kanilang pagkadismaya, at may mga dahilan kung bakit nila ito piniling ihayag sa publiko, binigyan ang kamaliang ito ng pagkakataon ang administrasyon na pulaan ang makasaysayang protesta bilang pamumulitika, ipakitang hati-hati ang kilusang anti-Arroyo, at maliitin ang tagumpay ng makaysayang pagtitipon.

Nasundan pa ito ng mga paninira at intrigang kumalat sa mga paaralan at mga organisasyon laban sa Kaliwa na pumigil sa higit sanang paglaki ng protesta sa mga sumunod na linggo. Mas malaki pa sana ang makakalahok sa pagkilos na pinangunahan ng mga grupo ng kabataan pagdating ng Marso kung hindi kumalat ang mga tsismis na pinasok ng mga terorista at pinangungunahan ng mga komunista ang mga pagkilos, at kung buong sumuporta ang iba’t iba pang mga grupo na sa panahong ito ay naging malamya ang pagtugon.

Hindi rin nakatulong na malabo ang naging mga posisyon at panawagang inilabas ng simbahan. Bagamat may ilang mga mas radikal na obispo at sa kalakhan anti-Arroyo ang mga pahayag nila, ang labnaw at kawalan ng kategorikal na mga pahayag ay nagamit ng administrasyon para hatiin ang mga Katoliko at lituhin ang publiko. Mararamdaman din ang paguurong-sulong at hindi buong pagkasa ng makinarya ng simbahan sa pagpapakilos.

Ang ilan pa sa mga mas konserbatibong seksiyon ng simbahan, bagamat pumoposturang anti-Arroyo at kumikilos sa balangkas ng ”katotohanan, katarungan at pagbabago,” ay nagdeklara ng pagtutol sa people power at panawagang talsik. Sa halip, nagpatihulog sila sa bitag ng rehimen na nagsasabing maghanda na lamang para sa 2010 kung kaya’t naunahan pa nila ang mga presidentiable sa pagtanaw sa eleksiyon at nailayo ang atensiyon ng marami sa kilusang masa.

Mahalaga ring banggitin na ang pagsusulong ng gobyerno ng Reproductive Health Bill na sumulpot matapos ang pagdedeklara ng ilang mga obispo laban sa Oil Deregulation Law noong nakaraang buwan, ay maaaring isang pakana para lituhin ang simbahan at ibaling ang atensiyon nito palayo sa kilusang masang anti-Arroyo. Kung gayun nga, ipinapakita ng pagpatol ng simbahan dito ang bulnerabilidad nito sa mga panghahati at panlilito.

Sa huli’t huli, kailangang maunawaan ng marami na ang magiging mapagpasya pa rin sa pagpapatalsik sa remihen ay ang pagpapalakas at pagpapalawak ng kilusang masa. Dapat palakasin ang kampanya at pagpapakilos lalo na ng mga pwersang progresibo sa mga komunidad, paaralan, pagawaan, at iba pa. Ang daang libong bilang na nagmamartsa sa kalsada ang makapangyarihang sandata na tatapos sa gobyernong ito. Kasabay nito kailangang puksain ang pesimismo ng ibang mga kampo at pag-asam sa mga milagro o di kaya’y sa aksiyong militar lamang.

Kailangang matuto ang mga organisasyon ng kabataan at mga mamamayan sa mga karanasan nito ng pagpapakilos nitong nakaraang taon at paghusayan ang mga porma ng aksiyon na magpapakilos sa mas maraming bilang ng mga mamamayan. Sa isang banda, ang pagtitiyak din nito ang magbibigay ng higit namang tatag at lakas ng loob sa iba’t ibang seksiyon ng malawak na prenteng anti-Arroyo at sasalag sa mga panghahati ng rehimen sa nagkakaisang pagkilos ng taumbayan.

Kailangan ding maunawaan ng mga nag-aambisyong kandidato para sa 2010 na higit sa paghahanda para sa pangangampanya, kailangan silang maging bahagi ng kilusang masa laban sa tiraniya. Sa hanay ng mga ito, bagamat alam nila na maraming ipapakana si Arroyo at maaaring pigilan o maniobrahin pa nito ang eleksiyon, namamayani ang pag-iisip na ”maghanda na rin sila kung sakali.” Pero natuto na ang publiko sa Edsa 2, at ayaw na ayaw na nila ng mga hitchhiker at mga mapagsamantala na aani lamang ng tagumpay na kilusang masa ang nagtanim.

(KONTEKSTO) Komplikasyon sa simpleng blotter

Danilo Araña Arao

NARINIG ko sa radyo kahapon (Nobyembre 6) ang balitang hindi na maaaring basahin ng midya’t publiko ang blotter sa anumang istasyon ng pulis kung walang pahintulot ng station commander o kautusan mula sa korte.

Ayon sa memorandum noong Oktubre 20 ni Philippine National Police (PNP) Director-General Jesus Versoza na may titulong “Decentralization of the Functions of the Public Information Office (PIO),” ang impormasyon hinggil sa isang kaso ay eksklusibong makukuha na lamang sa PIO o tagapagsalita ng isang istasyon. (Pero posible pa ring ang mismong hepe ng istasyon o ang kanyang kinatawan ang gagawa ng pagsasapubliko ng impormasyon.)

Sinabi ni PNP Spokesperson Nicanor Bartolome na kailangang gawin ng PNP ang pagbabawal sa pagbabasa ng blotter dahil gusto ng ilang biktima na huwag isapubliko ang kanilang mga reklamo. Layunin ding protektahan ang mga babae’t batang suspek sa isang kaso.

Sa unang tingin, walang masama sa alituntuning ito. Bukod sa pagbibigay ng karampatang proteksiyon sa mga sangkot sa isang kaso, madali naming maintindihan ang pangangailangang magkaroon ng organisadong paraan ng pagbibigay ng impormasyon. Kung may PIO o tagapagsalita sa isang istasyon, mas madali para sa midya’t publiko na kumuha ng kinakailangan nilang impormasyon.

Pero tila nakalimutan na ng pulisya ang dahilan ng pagkakaroon ng blotter sa isang istasyon: Ito ay para magkaroon ng rekord ng mga dumudulog sa istasyon at ang mahahalagang detalye hinggil sa reklamo nila. Kung masinop ang pagsusulat ng isang pulis dito, makikita sa blotter ang petsa’t oras ng pagdulog ng isang tao at kung ano ang ginawa ng pulis hinggil sa sumbong niya.

Kahit sino’y maaaring makabasa nito para malaman hindi lang ang mga reklamo kundi ang aksiyong ginawa ng mga pulis hinggil sa mga ito. Para sa mga peryodista, mahalaga ang blotter bilang pagkukunan ng ideya ng mga balitang ilalabas.

Maging malinaw po sana tayo sa terminong ginagamit. Ideya lamang po ang habol ng isang peryodista sa pagbabasa ng blotter, at hindi niya inaasahang lahat ng mga datos ay maaaring makuha mula rito.

Ang isang kaso ng pagnanakaw, halimbawa, ay maaari niyang mabasa roon, pero ang mga datos na malamang na makukuha lang niya ay ang petsa’t oras ng reklamo at ang pangalan at tirahan ng mga sangkot (i.e., mga nagreklamo at suspek).

Kung sa tingin niya’y kailangan niyang isulat ang balita, trabaho ng peryodistang kunin ang impormasyon hindi lang sa mga nag-iimbestiga ng kaso kundi sa lahat ng panig.

Bagama’t naiintindihan ang pahayag ng pulis na kailangang protektahan ang mga biktima sa mga sensitibong kaso ng panggagahasa, halimbawa, dapat ding maging malinaw na nasa etika sa pamamahayag ang tamang paraan ng pag-uulat sa mga kasong ito.

Kung sakaling may pang-aabuso sa bahagi ng midya sa pag-uulat, ang pulis o kahit na sino’y maaaring magreklamo sa mismong organisasyong pang-midya o anumang grupong kinabibilangan nito tulad ng Philippine Press Institute (PPI) at Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP). Ang anumang kamalian o pagkukulang ng ilang peryodista ay hindi nasosolusyunan ng pagkakait ng impormasyon sa lahat.

Nakakalungkot na sa bahagi ni Versoza, hindi niya lubusang naiintindihan ang kalakaran sa midya at ang pangangailangang maging bukas sa pagbibigay ng impormasyon. Hindi rin malinaw para sa kanya ang pagiging bukas sa publiko hinggil sa ginagawa ng mga pulis sa isang istasyon.

Ayaw kong isiping may gusto silang pagtakpan dahil sa sunud-sunod na balita hinggil sa pagnanakaw sa iba’t ibang establisimyento, gayundin ang kontrobersiyang kinakaharap ng ilang opisyal ng PNP dahil sa hindi maipaliwanag na milyun-milyong pisong dala nila sa isang komperensiya sa Rusya.

Pero isipin mong mabuti: Kung hindi nga naman mababasa ng mga peryodista ang blotter, baka maging mas kaunti na lang ang mga balita hinggil sa krimen at iba pang kaso dahil may mahahalagang pangyayaring hindi maiuulat. Sino ang makikinabang sa sitwasyong ang publiko ay hindi na makakabasa, makakapakinig o makakapanood ng mahahalagang kontrobersiya, lalo na’t sangkot ang mga nasa kapangyarihan?

Totoong simpleng blotter lang ang pinag-aawayan ngayon, pero may malaking implikasyon ito sa pagbabalita sa kalagayan ng kapayapaan sa ating lipunan.

Para makipag-ugnayan sa awtor, pumunta sa http://www.dannyarao.com.

Bagong taktika ng ‘panunupil’

Jeffrey Ocampo

Protesta ng mga aktibista ng Timog Katagalugan sa harap ng Department of Justice noong Nob. 5 laban sa umano’y panibagong bugso ng pampulitikang panunupil. (King Catoy)
TILA nagbabago na ng taktika ang gobyernong Arroyo sa pagsupil nito sa binabansagan nitong kaaway, ayon sa Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).

Samu’t saring kasong kriminal ang ngayo’y nakasampa laban sa mga lider-aktibista sa Timog Katagalugan. Sa kabuuan, 72 na indibiwal ang humaharap sa kasong multiple murder at multiple frutrated murder dahil umano sa ambush na naganap sa Mindoro Oriental. Higit sa 30 mula sa bilang na ito ay prominenteng mga lider ng makabayang mga organisasyon kagaya ng Bayan at mga samahan ng manggagawa at magsasaka sa Timog Katagalugan.

Liban dito, kinasuhan ng isang telecommunications company ng arson at iba pang mga kaso ang 27 na indibidwal (kabilang ang 17 na kasama na sa 72) dahil sa pagsabog ng cell site nito sa Batangas.

Ambush?

Ibinibintang sa 72 na mga taga-Timog Katagalugan ang ambush na di umano’y naganap sa Puerto Gallera, Mindoro Oriental noong Marso 3, 2006. Ang ipinagtataka ng sangkot na mga organisasyon ay kung bakit 72 ang sinampahan ng kaso samantalang sa salaysay ng saksi na iniharap ng Philippine National Police ay 15 lamang ang umatake.

Dahil sa sinasabing ambush, hinaharap ngayon ng mga respondent ang mga kasong frustrated murder at multiple frustrated murder. Sa mga arrest warrant ng mga akusado, malinaw na nakasulat na hindi maaaring piyansahan ang kanilang mga kaso. Kasalukuyang dinidinig sa Regional Trial Court ng lunsod ng Calapan ang mga kasong ito sa sala ni Atty. Tomas Leynes.

Nagsampa naman ng kasong arson, destruction of property at conspiracy to commit rebellion ang Globe Telecom sa pamamagitan ng kanilang security officer na si Marlo Timbreza kasama ang PNP. Kaugnay diumano ito sa pagpapasabog ng isang cell site ng nasabing telecommunications company sa Lemery, Batangas noong August 2, ngayong taon. Umabot ng 27 ang sinampahan ng kaso.

Sunud-sunod ang naganap na pag-aresto sa mga sinampahan ng mga kaso. Una na dito noong Oktubre 23 si Atty. Remigio Saldero, chief legal counsel ng Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) at kolumnista ng Pinoy Weekly na parehong dinadawit sa mga kaso sa Mindoro at Batangas.

Inaresto naman sa sumunod na araw sina Nestor San Jose ng Anakpawis at Crispin Zapanta ng Bayan Muna, mga residente ng Rizal. Inaresto rin noong Nobyembre 5 si Rogelio Galit ng Katipunan ng mga Magsasaka sa Kabite (Kamagsasa-Ka) na noo’y nakaratay na dahil sa sakit na diabetes. Pinakahuling inaresto si Arnaldo Seminiano ng Ilaw at Buklod ng Manggagawa-KMU noong Nobyembre 6.

Pero ito ang maanomalya sa mga pag-aresto: Inamin mismo ng provincial prosecutor ng Calapan RTC na si Josephine Caranzo-Olivar na walang preliminary investigation na naganap bago inilabas ang mga mandamyento de aresto.

Ibig sabihin, ang mga pag-aresto ay hindi produkto ng masusing imbestigasyon. Ano, kung gayon, ang motibo ng mga ito?

Dati nang ginagawa

Marami nang naganap na katulad na mga kaso ang nangyayari sa Timog Katagalugan, ayon kay Carol Araullo, pambansang tagapangulo ng Bayan.

Noong 2007, inaresto na at ibinilanggo ang limang lider-pesante na tinaguriang “Tagaytay 5” sa Cavite. Ganito rin ang estilo sa pagkawala at pagsampa ng kasong murder kay Pastor Berlin Guerrero ng United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP). Binanggit din ni Araullo ang nauna nang naganap na katulad na mga kaso sa Davao at Negros.

Ang pinagkaiba lamang ngayon ay ang “wholesale” na katangian ng pagsasampa ng mga aso.

Ayon sa Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), ang nasa likod ng atake sa Mindoro at Batangas, gayundin sa iba pang mga insidente, ang NPA (New People’s Army). Ibig sabihin, pinagbibintangan ng gobyerno ang mga militanteng sinampahan ng kaso bilang mga miyembro rin ng NPA.

Pero higit sa 30 mula sa kabuuang bilang ng mga akusado sa Mindoro ay lider ng makabayang mga organisasyon gaya nina Orly Marcellana ng Bayan, Helen Asdolo ng Gabriela at Pedro Santos Jr. ng Anakbayan.

Marami ring lider ng pangrehiyong mga organisasyon ng manggagawa at magsasaka ng Timog Katagalugan ang kasama sa listahan gaya nina Renato Alvarez ng Kamagsasa-Ka, Leng Jucutan ng Kongreso ng mga Magsasaka para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (Kopra)-Quezon at Agaton Bautista ng Samahan ng mga Magbubukid sa Batangas (Sambat).

Matagal na silang nakikita ng publiko sa iba’t ibang aktibidad, pagtitipon at kilos-protesta.

Sa mga sinapahan ng kaso na ngayo’y tinatawag na Southern Tagalog 72 at 27, lima na ang nauna nang inaresto at ngayo’y nakabilanggo habang ang iba naman ay patuloy na tinutugis ng pulis at militar.

Ibang taktika ng panunupil

Sa pagsusuri ng Bayan, piniplit ng pamahalaang Arroyo na kamtin ang layunin nitong “niyutralisahin ang Makaliwa at Komunistang mga grupo” gamit ang ibang taktika. Pagkatapos mamalas ng pamahalaan ang kabi-kabila at mariing mga batikos dahil sa mga kaso ng pamamaslang at pagdukot sa mga aktibista, nangailangan itong mag-isip ng bagong paraan upang likidahin ang kanyang masusugid na mga kritiko sa hanay ng makabayang mga organisasyon.

Ayon sa tala ng Karapatan, isang alyansang nagtataguyod ng karapatang pantao, aabot na sa 901 ang biktima ng pamamaslang na maiuugnay sa mga operasyon ng militar at may ayuda ng pamahalaang Arroyo. Dahil sa mga ito, hindi lamang sa loob ng bansa umani ng kritiko ang pamahalaan kundi pati na rin sa pandaigdigang komunidad.

Sa ulat ni Propesor Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary or Arbitrary executions, sinasabing kailangang managot ang pamahalaan at militar sa paglabag sa mga karapatang pantao sa bansa.

Ang “maramihang pagsasampa ng mga kaso” at “pagkrikriminalisa” sa mga kasapi, lalung higit sa mga lider, ng mga makabayang mga organisasyon ay naglalayong paralisahin ang pagkilos ng mga ito, ayon sa Bayan. Ito ang taktika na ginagamit ngayon ng pamahalaan.

“Ang hindi nagawa ng gubyernong Arroyo sa pamamagitan ng pagpaslang sa mga aktibista ay gagawin nila sa pamamagitan ng taktikang ito,” sabi ng Karapatan.

Kasangkapan dito ng pamahalaan ang Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (Ialag) na pinamumunuan ni National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales at ang Kalihim ng Department of Justice na si Raul Gonzalez. Binuo ang Ialag noon pang 2006 sa pamamagitan ng Executive Order 493. Ialag din ang responsable sa pagsampa ng kasong murder laban kay Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo at iba pang progresibong mga mambabatas.

Layunin ng Ialag na gamitin ang batas upang tuluyang ipagkait sa makabayang mga organisasyon at progresibong mga party-list ang “demokratikong espasyo” na mayroon kahit papaano sa kasalukuyang sistema. Katanuyan, ayon sa tala ng Bayan, ang pagbanggit mismo ni Gonzalez sa isang pulong ng Inter-Parliamentary Union na nagtagal ng siyam na buwan bago nila nabuo ang kaso laban kay Rep. Satur Ocampo at sa iba pa.

Mga elemento ng DOJ, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) at Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) ang napapatakbo sa Ialag.

Gayundin, ayon kay Gonzales, ang “legal na opensiba”, na pangunahing gawain ng Ialag, ay ang “magbibigay-wakas” sa insurhensiya na isinusulong ng Komunistang kilusan sa Pilipinas na “kinakatuwang” ang legal at makabayang mga organisasyon.

Mga ‘tagumpay’ ng Ialag

Ayon pa rin sa Bayan, itinuturing ng Ialag ang opisyal na pagtataguri sa Communist Part of the Philippnes-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) bilang mga teroristang mga organisasyon ang pinakaunang nagtagumpay sa mga tinakdang layunin ng ahensiya.

Kasunod nito ang kontra-insuhirensiyang kampanya laban sa “prenteng mga organisasyon” nito.

Tagumpay din nilang tinuturing ang mga pagsasampa ng mga kaso sa mga representante ng progresibong mga party-list. Matatandaang naging saksi ang mga nakaraang taon sa pagharap ng mga ito sa kabi-kabilang kasong kriminal.

Noong Pebrero 2006, inaresto si Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran dahil sa salang rebelyon. Parehong buwan ng sumunod na taon, sinampahan naman ng kasong multiple murder si Ocampo at inaresto matapos ang isang buwan. Samantala, Mayo ng nakaraan ding taon, kinasuhan naman si Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño ng obstruction of justice dahil umano sa pagpigil nito sa pag-aresto sa pinaghihinalaang kasapi ng NPA na si Vincent Borja.

Hinala rin ng progresibong mga party-list na ang Ialag ang nasa likod ng disqualification case laban sa kanila noong Enero 2007.

Sa isang banda, tagumpay ang pamahalaan sa tangka nitong paralisahin ang pagkilos ng mga lider ng makabayang mga organisasyon sa Timog Katagalugan.

Ngunit ayon kay Axel Pinpin, information officer ng Kamagsasaka-Ka, hindi permanente ang pagpaparalisang ito. Lalo lamang umanong paiigtingin nito ang galit ng mga mamamayan dahil sa kawalang-katwiran at dahas ng “larong pulitiko-militar” ng pamahalaan, ayon naman sa Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) na may mga kasapi ring sinampahan ng kaso.

Noong Pebrero 2007, inirekomenda ni Alston sa gobyernong Arroyo na buwagin ang ialag. Mungkahi ng naturang eksperto ng UN na ituon ng sistemang hustisya ng bansa sa pag-resolba sa mga kaso ng pagpatay at pagdukot sa mga aktibista at pagpapanagot sa nasa likod ng mga ito.

Sa balangkas ng Oplan Bantay Laya 2

Ayon kay Noriel Rocafort, pangkalahatang kalihim ng Bayan-Batangas, ang pagsasampa ng mga kaso, gayundin ang sunud-sunod na pag-aresto, ay “hudyat ng panibagong bugso ng pampulitikang panunupil at panunugis sa mga militanteng organisasyon sa rehiyon.”

Matatandaang ang Timog Katagalugan ay isa sa mga sinalanta ng kasagsagan ng anti-komunistang kampanya ng pamahalaang Arroyo dahil sa sigla ng legal at makabayang kilusan dito. Mismong ang nag-retirong heneral na si Jovito Palparan, na kilalang “berdugo” ng pangulo, ay tinalaga sa rehiyon upang paigtingin ang nasabing kampanya.

Ang Timog Katagalugan ay nagsisilbi ngayong “laboratoryo ng panibagong bugso ng panunupil” na naayon sa internal security plan ng pamahalaan na Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL) 2, dagdag ni Rocafort.

Batay sa mga dokumentong nakalap ng Karapatan, natapos na noong 2006 ang OBL na unang pinanatupad noong 2002. Kabilang sa mga taktika nito ang pamamaslang at pagdukot sa aktibistang pinagbibintangang mga komunista. Dahil hindi nagtagumpay ang OBL sa layunin nitong “lipulin” ang CPP-NPA-NDF, simulan muli ito bilang OBL 2.

Sa pagkakataong ito, hindi umano muli patatakot ang mga militante.

Nakahanda raw sila, sa pangunguna ng Bayan, at ang mga samahan ng manggagawa at magsasaka sa Timog Katagalugan na magsagawa ng iba’t ibang kilos-protesta upang kondenahin ang pampulitikang panunupil sa kanilang kasapian.

Diin ni Araullo, “Walang makahihigit sa pagiging mapagbantay ng nagkakaisang hanay ng mamamayan.”

Editrial Cartoon: (Bolante Case) Guarding Jocjoc

Bayan, Karapatan Raise Violations of Economic Rights and Threats to Human Rights Defenders Before UN Body

(GENEVA) The umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and the human rights group Karapatan today attended a briefing of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights a day before the scheduled review of the Philippine government’s compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights.

Among the issues raised were the plight of activist leaders from Southern Tagalog and Metro Manila, more than 30 of whom are now faced with arrest warrants or are being detained after being charged with multiple murders. Among those already arrested is Atty. Remigio Saladero who is also chief legal counsel for the labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno.

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) by its States parties. The Committee was established under ECOSOC Resolution 1985/17 of 28 May 1985 to carry out the monitoring functions assigned to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in Part IV of the Covenant.

All States parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the Committee on how the rights are being implemented. States must report initially within two years of accepting the Covenant and thereafter every five years. The Committee examines each report and addresses its concerns and recommendations to the State party in the form of “concluding observations”.

The Committee meets in Geneva and normally holds two sessions per year, consisting of a three-week plenary and a one-week pre-sessional working group.

The Philippine government will be presenting a report on November 11. The last time it did so was thirteen years ago in 1995.

Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr. highlighted the issues of landlessness as a major problem affecting the majority of Filipinos. The group underscored the failures of the present land reform program being implemented by the Arroyo administration. Karapatan Secretary General Marie Enriquez meanwhile called attention to the links between poverty and rampant human rights absues.

“We expect the Philippine government to paint a rosy picture of progress and development. This is in stark contrast to the harsh realities of massive poverty, landlessness, hunger, sub-human wages, displacement and environmental destruction. The Philippine government has not fulfilled its obligations in the ICESCR,” Reyes said.

“We hope that the committee would see that the so-called economic growth under the Arroyo government is shallow and does not reflect any meaningful distribution of wealth. The country and its poor are more vulnerable now to the global financial crisis gripping the world economy, “Reyes added.

When asked by a committee member if being a human rights defender was a dangerous job in the Philippines, Enriquez replied in the affirmative and cited the case of the more than 30 Southern Tagalog activists now facing arrest warrants for alleged multiple murders.

“Those that the government were not able to kill, they are now trying to put behind bars. This includes human rights defenders such as labor leaders, farmers, women activists, and even lawyers. We believe that the legal offensive in Southern Tagalog is being orchestrated by the Inter Agency Legal Action Group or IALAG, an agency UN rapporteur Philip Alston already recommended for abolition,” Enriquez said.

“Extrajudicial killings, while numerically on a decline, continue in some parts of the country. Just recently peasant leader Danny Qualbar was shot on his way home on November 6,” Enriquez said.

Aside from the Philippine government panel, Commission on Human Rights chair Leila de Lima is also scheduled to brief the committee as an independent National Human Rights Institution.

Philippines Accused of ‘Persecuting’ Human Rights Advocates Through ‘Legal Offensives’

Desperate Arroyo administration resume persecution of human rights defenders through renewed legal offensives

The human rights alliance Karapatan is outraged by the recent legal offensive of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration against the legal democratic organizations particularly in Southern Tagalog, including two of its officials namely Karapatan-Southern Tagalog Secretary General Doris Cuario and Karapatan-Batangas Coordinator Dina Capetillo among those falsely accused.

“The blanket charge of multiple murder and frustrated murder against known human rights defenders in Southern Tagalog is a desperate move of this bankrupt government to silence its critics,” decried Marie Hilao Enriquez, Secretary General of Karapatan.

As the GMA administration has to respond to the national and international clamor to address the worst human rights record after martial law it was forced to slow down on its killing and abduction rampage. It has however, through the Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (IALAG), continued to fabricate criminal cases against its most vocal opponents.

On August 12, 2008, volunteers of Karapatan-Batangas discovered a complaint filed by a certain Marlo Timbreza in behalf on Globe Telecom Inc., against 27 leaders and members of progressive organizations in the region in relation to the August 2 bombing and burning of a Globe cell site in Lemery, Batangas.

On October 23, 2008, Atty. Remigio Saladero, KMU legal counsel was illegally arrested by virtue of a defective warrant of arrest on another trumped-up case of multiple murder and frustrated murder filed against 72 individuals involving an alleged NPA ambush in Puerto Galera, Mindoro Oriental. Most of the personalities implicated in the Batangas case were also included in this case.

Enriquez condemned the blatant violation of the victims’ right to due process when in the court hearing of Atty. Saladero, the provincial prosecutor Josephine Caranzo-Olivar admitted that there was no preliminary investigation conducted as well as when the names of the 71 accused were included in the amended information.

Orly Marcellana and Arman Albarillo, whose loved ones were killed by state security forces in Mindoro under the command of Gen. Palparan, are also being charged along with the eight from the Tartaria 9, peasant activists who were abducted and tortured on August 31 in Brgy. Tartaria, Silang, Cavite.

“Under the Arroyo regime, the distorted priority of the criminal justice system is evident in its moves to prosecute human rights defenders rather than killers like Esperon and Palparan and thieves such as the ‘Euro generals’,” Enriquez said.

Karapatan likewise called the public’s attention to the recommendations made by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions Philip Alston to abolish the Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (IALAG) that is orchestrating the fabrication of criminal charges against activists and critics of the Arroyo regime.

The human rights group also called on the management of Globe Telecom not to allow itself to be used by IALAG and Malacañang in the bid to criminalise human rights defenders. It should now be clear to them that those they have charged are the wrong persons and they should waste no time in withdrawing their complaints.#

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(Unsolicited) Advice on Asia Policy for President-Elect Obama

By Ralph A. Cossa

Foreign policy bloggers and pundits are already gushing forth with advice for President-elect Obama. Allow me to add some of my own, at least as far as Asia policy is concerned.

The first bit of more general advice is to remember that the United States only has one president at a time and, like it or not, that president is George W. Bush until Jan 20, 2009. I start with this reminder since many experts are already talking about things that President-elect Obama should be doing now to hit the ground running. But the most important thing he can do between now and January 20 is to do nothing that undermines the incumbent president’s ability to conduct foreign policy.

One case in point is the suggestion by several no doubt well-intentioned security specialists that Obama immediately send a high-level emissary to North Korea to lay out his views on moving forward with Korean Peninsula denuclearization. Some have nominated former Defense Secretary William Perry for that task; others suggest a bipartisan team including Perry and either Henry Kissinger or Colin Powell, both former secretaries of state. IF sending an emissary was a good idea, any combination of the above three individuals would constitute a dream team. But, sending such an emissary now would be an extremely bad idea, as it would undercut the very important and sensitive efforts currently underway to get Pyongyang to agree in writing to the nuclear verification protocol that it has reportedly agreed upon in principle. It would instead give Pyongyang an excuse to do nothing for the next several months or longer, since it will no doubt take several months beyond inauguration day before Obama’s Asia team is fully in place and ready for negotiations.

Given this reality, sending a bipartisan delegation to Pyongyang shortly after his inauguration (as others have suggested) is probably a very good idea. But for now, what the president-elect really needs to do is voice his strong support for the current negotiating process while calling on North Korea both to spell out and sign the verification protocol and to outline and agree upon the next phase in the denuclearization process with the current negotiating team. Rightly or wrongly, Pyongyang feels “betrayed” by the perceived failure of South Korean President Lee Myung Bak to live up to the (in my view overly generous and unrealistic) promises of his predecessor once he took office this past February. As a result, it will likely need some signal of Obama’s commitment to the current negotiating process before it proceeds with talks.

The Koreans Obama most needs to talk to before his inauguration reside in the South, not the North. U.S.-South Korea policy vis-a-vis the North has been out of synch for much of the past decade. We went from the U.S. being too hard and ROK being too soft on the North to Washington now seeming more flexible than Seoul. The two allies need to get back on the same page in order to effectively deal with Pyongyang. Some common ground between the extremes of rejection and renegotiation also need to be found to rescue the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. Its passage would benefit both economies in troubled times; its failure will put significant strains on the overall ROK-U.S. relationship – Koreans are already agonizing this morning over the prospects of the U.S. reneging on the deal.

President-elect Obama also needs to send some early signals of reassurance to Japan. For reasons not entirely clear or logical, there is a widespread perception in Japan that Republicans like Japan more than Democrats do and growing concern that an Obama administration will continue the U.S. “tilt” toward China that many in Japan perceive (in my view wrongly) as already underway. Making sure a few well-known Japan-hands are in senior positions at the State Department and National Security Council will help in this regard, as will naming a prominent, well-respected former official as ambassador to Tokyo – names like former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Joseph Nye or even former (Republican) Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage come immediately to mind. Former Vice President (and Nobel Laureate) Al Gore would be a particularly inspired (but probably unrealistic) choice.

Ironically, China also worries about having a Democrat in the Oval Office, although more so due to trade and human rights policies than because of any impact on U.S.-Japan relations – a more powerful House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has to be Beijing’s greatest nightmare. Here President-elect Obama can send a very important signal just by repeating the “responsible stakeholder” phrase that has come to symbolize U.S.-China relations during President Bush’s second term. While Beijing was initially suspicious of the term, the concern centered around who got to define what constitutes “responsible” – it has now become widely accepted and symbolic of a mutually responsible and cooperative relationship. Using this time-tested phrase – rather than inventing a new one which will then be overanalyzed for months – would provide a welcome sign of continuity in U.S.-China relations that would be well-received not only in Beijing, but in Tokyo and elsewhere throughout Asia.

As President-elect Obama and his foreign policy advisors turn their attention to the truly daunting challenges that will face them domestically and in the Middle East and other regions of the world, a few well chosen words supporting the current six-party negotiating process and associated verification regime and providing reassurance to Tokyo and Beijing can go a long way toward setting the stage for an effective foreign policy in Northeast Asia in the years to come.

Ralph Cossa is president of the Pacific Forum CSIS (pacforum@hawaii.rr.com).


Applications are now being accepted for the 2008-2009 Pacific Forum Vasey Fellow position. Details, including an application form, can be found at the Pacific Forum web site [http://www.csis.org/experts/fellows/vasey/].

MILF Commits Anew to International Humanitarian Law on Landmines

The Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines (PCBL), affiliate of the 1997 Nobel Peace laureate International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), hereby announces the recent signing by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) of a new instrument developed by PCBL entitled “Rebel Group Declaration of Adherence to International Humanitarian Law on Landmines” – bring to four the number of signatory rebel groups in the Philippines, all in this year.

This declaration allows non-state armed groups (NSAGs) to adhere to, become accountable for, and generate assistance for compliance with the key norms, standards and undertakings of existing international humanitarian law (IHL) on landmines, not limited to those of the 1997 Ottawa Treaty totally banning victim-activated anti-personnel mines.

The MILF declaration was signed (not just initialed) by its representatives on 21 October 2008 and was received by PCBL on 10 November 2008. It was signed by two important MILF Central Committee members, namely Atty. Lanang S. Ali, who is Vice-Chairman of the Maglis Al Shoorah (the MILF legislative body), and Sammy Al Mansor, Chief of Staff of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF, the MILF army).

What is significant about this MILF declaration is its being signed while there are ongoing armed hostilities (since last August) in Central Mindanao between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and at least three base commands of the MILF/BIAF which had reacted violently to the aborted signing of a Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the MILF. Since last August, there have been a number of field reports, mainly from the AFP, regarding alleged landmine use by the MILF. But this has yet to be verified by independent, competent and credible entities.

PCBL hopes that the MILF declaration of adherence to IHL on landmines will help spur better respect for IHL as well as human rights not only by the MILF but also by the AFP and other armed forces/groups involved in the current hostilities. Any resolution of these hostilities as well as any resumption of the stalled peace negotiations will have to include measures for the respect of IHL and human rights. Those measures should include a more thorough investigation of the various reported violations, the effective imposition of sanctions against those found to be responsible for atrocities to obviate impunity for these, and the adequate provision of different forms of redress for the victims.

And in the particular case of whatever landmines and other unexploded ordnance (UXO) that may still remain on the ground and pose danger to life and limb even after the cessation of hostilities, these explosive remnants of war (ERW) will have to be cleared. All these measures from incident investigation to landmine/UXO clearance would be presumably easier now to get MILF cooperation for, as a result of its declaration of adherence to IHL on landmines. PCBL will do its part in these measures in cooperation with its partners in Mindanao and internationally.

The three earlier signatory Philippine rebel groups in separate but standard declarations are all communist breakaway factions with armed rural units: the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa ng Mindanao (RPM-M, Revolutionary Workers Party of Mindanao); the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa ng Pilipinas (RPM-P, Revolutionary Workers Party of the Philippines); and the Marxista-Leninistang Partido ng Pilipinas (MLPP, Marxist-Leninist Party of the Philippines). The first two groups, the RPM-M and RPM-P, are engaged in a peace process and ceasefire with the Philippine government. They signed their declarations through their respective chairmen Harry Tubongbanwa (RPM-M) on 10 February 2008 and Nilo de la Cruz (RPM-P) on 14 May 2008, both in the presence of PCBL which received them.

The third group, the MLPP, has no peace process and ceasefire but instead ongoing armed hostilities through its Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan (RHB, Revolutionary People’ Army) with Philippine government forces, so this is a real value added to this humanitarian effort. In addition, it had never made a previous commitment to a total ban on anti-personnel mines, unlike the MILF, RPM-P and RPM-M which had previously done so through the groundwork and efforts of PCBL in 2000-03. MLPP spokesperson Leon Guevarra and RHB spokesperson Red Olalia signed the declaration on 29 March 2008 “somewhere in Central Luzon” but, due to technical difficulties, was delivered to PCBL only on 30 July 2008.

The “Rebel Group Declaration” outlines the key applicable norms, standards and undertakings under four sources of IHL relevant to landmines: the 1997 Ottawa Treaty; the 1996 Amended Protocol II on Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW); the 2003 Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) of the CCW; and the customary IHL rules on landmines as set forth in the 2005 customary IHL study by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). As regards victim-activated anti-personnel mines, the Ottawa Treaty norms on a total ban hold sway under this declaration. As for other landmines which are not banned by IHL as weapons of war – command-detonated anti-personnel mines (like certain Claymore mines) and all types of anti-vehicle mines – it is mainly Amended Protocol II as well as customary IHL which apply. The allowable use of these other landmines are governed by rules aimed mainly at protecting civilians against indiscriminate effects both during and after armed hostilities. While Protocol V on ERW specifically excludes landmines from its scope, still its provisions on ERW clearance are relevant to mine clearance.

In zones of armed conflict, not only landmines but many types of explosive ordnance in warfare and all sorts of unexploded and abandoned ordnance remain after the armed hostilities. The “Rebel Group Declaration” is therefore more reflective of this reality on the ground than most existing declarations. It is hoped that this comprehensive, as opposed to segmented, approach in the case of NSAGs will also encourage a similar approach in the case of states, such as in their domestic implementing legislation (e.g. the bill for a “Philippine Comprehensive Law on Landmines”) and in developing possible inter-treaty regime interface mechanisms (e.g between/among the Ottawa Treaty, CCW and the coming Cluster Munitions Convention regimes).

In terms of accountability mechanisms, the “Rebel Group Declaration” points to the role not only of neutral, impartial and competent humanitarian organizations but also of the people in the group’s areas of control or operations, which is more compelling when the local, affected population comprises the group’s own constituency or mass base. The declaration also welcomes assistance that would help ensure compliance with and implementation of the IHL on landmines. Since the declaration is still new, its accountability and assistance mechanisms are expected to evolve further in the course of practice and with the help of the relevant networks and resources for this purpose. Finally, the declaration clarifies that it does not limit the group’s adherence vis-a-vis other norms and standards or the broad framework of IHL and human rights.

The “Rebel Group Declaration” can be a significant contribution and example on the part of adhering NSAGs. Though initially piloted in the Philippines, it can be replicated in appropriate localized versions elsewhere in the world. These will cumulatively encourage reciprocal adherences from states, and result in improvement in the human security situation for the people and communities in conflict-affected areas. These will also help build up the treaty norms to become customary norms of international law binding on all, not only to states-parties to treaties but also to non-party states and even non-state entities. In this way, we can achieve true universalization of the IHL on landmines.

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In the Philippines, Prosecution as Tool for Persecution

Political activists in the Philippines do not only have to contend with the seemingly never-ending assassinations of their colleagues. Lately, according to them, the Arroyo regime has resorted to filing criminal charges left and right against activists, in some cases bringing those arrested to areas in the country where political activism is weak or nonexistent, such as Oriental Mindoro, apparently so that they are deprived of crucial support from their family and colleagues.

According to Bayan, the country’s largest leftist group, 30 activists from the Southern Tagalog region alone already have warrants of arrests. They are specifically targeted because the regime considers the region a hotbed of the Communist insurgency.

Condemnations have been expressed (here, here, here, here and here) against what the activists consider as an intensification of the regime’s campaign against political dissent. (pinoypress.net)

Labor Migration in the Philippines: A Dangerous Doctrine

The more the economy is stagnant, the less its ability to create jobs, the more dependent government becomes on overseas labor deployment.

By the Policy Study, Publication and Advocacy (PSPA) Program  |  Center for People Empowerment in Governance (Cenpeg)

If the state policy making and legislative agenda do not change course, the whole nation will wake up one day to find that remittances accumulated through off-shore migration or labor exportation have become government’s No. 1 pillar of economic sustainability. Right now, foreign trade and investment – steered by neo-liberal globalization – and reliance on overseas development assistance are the first two pillars, followed by the export of Filipino labor. The state policy of globalization as specified by privatization, liberalization, deregulation, and labor-only contracting binds the three major pillars together.

Labor migration has become the safety valve to the country’s unemployment crisis and a major source of foreign exchange: It has surged way past the domestic job market as the remaining option for many Filipinos. In 2000 alone, more than 800,000 Filipinos were deployed abroad while only less than 200,000 were effectively added to the domestic labor market.(1) As unemployment has worsened under the Arroyo administration compared to the past 50 years some 3,000 Filipinos leave the country every day for overseas jobs – or a total of more than 1 million every year. With remittances growing by the year – 14.4 billion US dollars in 2007 constituting 10 percent of the country’s GDP – the government target is to increase labor migration to 2 million by 2010.(2) And the government is determined to meet the target: From January to April this year there were 516,466 migrant workers deployed thus raising the daily departure to 4,314 from last year’s 3,000.

In fact remittances sent by overseas Filipinos have outstripped both foreign direct investment (FDI) and overseas development assistance (ODA) which have declined in the past several years. FDI was 2.93 billion US dollars in 2007 but minus payments to loans the actual investment inflows fell by 69.3 percent to only 341 million US dollars. Last year’s 14.4 billion US dollars remittances is equal to 25 percent of the total ODA received by the Philippines – that is, in 20 years or from 1986-2006 (39.9 billion US dollars).

In general, last year global foreign remittances already totaled thrice the amount of aid given by donor countries to developing nations: 300 billion US dollars against 104 billion US dollars . No wonder labor migration is now being trumpeted by the United Nations and other multilateral organizations as a centerpiece program for developing economies.

For a government whose economic policy is subordinated to bitter policy prescriptions of the IMF and WB and adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Arroyo regime’s agenda to make labor migration as a major source of government income received a boost from no less than UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon. Speaking before the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) on Oct. 29 in Manila, Ban Ki-moon, who is also South Korea’s former foreign minister, hailed migration as “a tool to help lift us out the (current global) economic crisis …(where) countries can draw the greatest possible development benefits.”

A model for migration

Organizers of GFMD chose Manila as the forum venue on account of the Philippines’ being a role model for labor migration among developing countries and chiefly because of the remittances accruing from foreign employment. Of some 8.2 million Filipinos(3) living and working in more than 193 countries/territories around the world, 43 percent are permanent immigrants while the rest or 4.7 million are temporary or contract workers. The Philippines is one of the leading sources of migrant labor in the world market. But it tops in the deployment of caregivers and domestics, 90 percent of them women, as well as in nurses, seafarers (30 percent of the world supply), and other medical workers and professionals.

Hypocritically since the Marcos years, the government denies the existence of a labor export policy. What it cannot hide however is the existence of a government infrastructure developed since the Marcos years that gives prime attention to the export of Filipino workers and professionals. This infrastructure promotes and processes out-migration, exacts – extorts, if you will – various exorbitant fees from outgoing OFWs, accredits recruitment agencies, provides skills training and immigration lectures, and supposedly earmarks benefits for the migrant workers and their families. This bureaucracy, which is headed by the President, includes the labor department’s Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), Technical Education and Skills Authority (TESDA), and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) with its office of migrant affairs and various Philippine Labor Offices (POLOS) based in many countries.

The government also sends several high-level missions every year to market Filipino labor abroad while job fairs for overseas employment are constantly held at home. Before it hosted the GFMD, Arroyo officials joined the first annual Transatlantic Forum on Migration and Integration (TFMI) held last July in Germany. Last month, President Gloria M. Arroyo signed into law the controversial Japan Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) which increases the number of Filipino nurses and caregivers deployable to Japan in exchange for relaxing restrictions to the latter’s exports and investments in the country.

No domestic economy

The promotion of labor out-migration is driven by the fact that the country does not have a viable domestic economy to speak of – an economy that generates adequate jobs to its people. Despite government land reform, 70 percent of agricultural land remains in the hands of landlords leaving the country’s millions of farmers unproductive and without a stable income. Instead of basic industries, what the country has are globally-integrated assembly lines or repackaging plants that exploit labor with low wages and lack of job security because of government’s labor contracting policy.

Moreover, labor wages are frozen low in order to attract foreign investment. It is the same policy that government promotes abroad to market Filipino skills in the form of caregivers, construction workers, and other workers. Filipino seafarers are preferred by international shipping companies because the government tolerates the low wages paid them even if monthly benchmark salaries are higher.

Attribute all these to government’s adherence to neo-colonial and now neo-liberal policies which open the country’s weak economy to unrestricted foreign trade and investment threatening not only the productive livelihoods of many Filipinos but also resulting in the shutdown of small industries. Neo-liberal policies exacerbate poverty and unemployment and are generally counter-productive in terms of building a self-sustaining economy and giving jobs.

Epic proportions

With some 4 million jobless Filipinos and another 12 percent underemployed, unemployment under Arroyo has worsened – in epic proportions since the last 50 years. Thus out-migration is a safety valve to the unemployed, including thousands of professionals – the last exit from a country that is about to implode in a social unrest. Labor out-migration has also become a political tool of sorts used by the regime to arrest a growing restlessness – if not discontent – among the people against a corrupt and weak government for its inability to provide jobs and a better future for its people. Yet while its economic management increasingly relies on foreign remittances the government has not seriously taken steps to safeguard the rights of OFWs and improve their labor conditions. For instance, of 193 destination countries for Filipino workers the country has only a handful of bilateral labor agreements.

The more the economy is stagnant, the less its ability to create jobs, the more dependent government becomes on overseas labor deployment. What government cannot provide it sells in the world market to help sustain the economies of advanced countries – that bear constant crisis anyway – and the domestic needs of their ageing populations. But this is dangerous, and not only because even before the government would take this extreme option the whole economy would have collapsed. It will erode the urgency for drastic policy reform and new governance and it will calm the people into complacency and defeatism. Or it can be used by the government to evade comprehensive policy reform that would make the economy more responsive to the basic social and economic rights of the people.

But in the first place what can we expect from a government that persists in the doctrine established by previous regimes embedding economic policies to global, transnational business perspectives? Instructive at this point is a critique of the GFMD by the parallel International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR)(4) last week: The GFMD and the UN secretary general’s pro-migration declaration “arose in the midst of the worsening world economic crisis – where far more advanced…countries are fighting their way out of this crisis even as they retain their…control and power, while poverty, unemployment, and underdevelopment continue to aggravate the lives of peoples of Third World countries.”

__________________________________________

End notes

(1) S.P. Go, “Remittances and International Labor Migration: Impact on the Philippines,” Metropolis Inter-Conference Seminar on Immigration and Homeland, May 9-12, 2002, Dubrovnik.

(2) Migrant labor remittances do not include those brought home directly by vacationing Filipinos or by door-to-door transactions, thus the total remittances could be more. In 2007, it is estimated to be as much as $18 billion.

(3) According to the government Commission on Filipino Overseas (CFO, 2008). Other estimates put the number at 10 million in nearly 197 countries.

(4) Held also in Manila on Oct. 28-30, 2008, the IAMR was organized by Migrante International together with the International Migrants Alliance (IMA), IBON Foundation, and other groups.

Body of Lies

By Carlos H. Conde

Ever since the United States sent its troops to the Philippines in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, the Filipino people have been fed the line that the Americans are here either to help the people of Mindanao through humanitarian projects or to help train the Philippine military combat terrorism. The US troops have stayed in the country for so long now that not only have we lost count of exactly how many of them have remained – for all practical purposes, the Americans have set up camps in Mindanao. We know so little else about what they do here except some morsels of information contained in the occasional press release from the US embassy about medical missions and such.

Meanwhile, Filipino officials, particularly those belonging to the political opposition, have either lost interest in knowing exactly what the Americans are up to down south or they, too, had bought the line that all those undetermined number of troops, all those millions of dollars spent since 2002, are so the people of Basilan and Sulu can enjoy potable water or have their cleft lip fixed.

There had been assertions, of course, that there’s more to the presence of the US troops in Mindanao than meets the eye. Focus on the Global South, an international NGO, maintained, for instance, that the Americans have been engaged in an “offensive war” in Mindanao. Leftist groups, naturally, have been calling for the US troops’ pullout, particularly after the Americans suddenly sprouted everywhere — from Basilan, they moved to Sulu then to the Lanao provinces and God knows where else. And the usual line was, of course, they were on humanitarian or medical missions.

Perhaps the first real glimpse of the true nature of the US military’s presence in the south was the mission in 2002 that led to the rescue of Gracia Burnham, the American missionary, who, together with her husband Martin and several others, was kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf in 2001. The group has been linked to al Qaeda.

And today, The New York Times reported that the US military has used, since 2004, a “broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere.”

“These military raids typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States.”

The paper also reported about operations that reminded me of Body of Lies, the movie starring Russell Crowe and Leonardo diCaprio that was shown here recently. “In 2006, for example, a Navy Seal team raided a suspected militants’ compound in the Bajaur region of Pakistan, according to a former top official of the Central Intelligence Agency. Officials watched the entire mission — captured by the video camera of a remotely piloted Predator aircraft — in real time in the C.I.A.’s Counterterrorist Center at the agency’s headquarters in Virginia 7,000 miles away.”

The New York Times report tells us not to believe whatever the US and the Philippine governments have been telling us since this “war on terror” began. Although the Philippines was not mentioned in the report, it is not difficult to imagine that we are one of the “other countries” where the US had launched these secret attacks.

If anything, this should give politicians a reason to ascertain exactly what the US is doing in Mindanao. As this report indicates, a strong argument can be made that this American presence may have violated Philippine laws.

If the US military can have its way in countries that are less friendly to Washington – Pakistan, for instance – how much more in the Philippines where Americans are given far greater access, whose people bestow on them a tremendous amount of trust that they probably will not find elsewhere?

Carlos H. Conde is a journalist based in Manila.

Church also to blame for corruption

By Vincent Cabreza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:11:00 11/12/2008

BAGUIO CITY – A Protestant Church bishop said Catholic Church leaders should also be blamed for the Philippines’ reputation as among the most corrupt countries and must offer their resignation if they continue to insist that President Macapagal-Arroyo step down from office.

Bishop Pedro Maglaya of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines said some Catholic Church leaders have called for the resignation of Ms Arroyo but they have themselves to blame for failing to teach humility to their flock, who count her among them.

“I should not tell Gloria to resign. I should resign. I failed,” Maglaya said, in reaction to a recent news conference held by leaders of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

Maglaya discussed his views on Tuesday before an International Peace Conference organized here by supporters of the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon.

The peace conference, which was attended by various church ministries and local officials, shared conflict resolution techniques to help local leaders pursue their respective peace advocacies in the countryside.

Maglaya is vice president of the International Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace, which has formed a Philippine inter-faith council.

He said the nine major religions of the world must come together because of a United Nations report that placed religion as a key issue behind 80 to 85 percent of all world conflicts.

The bishop told conference participants that they must teach humility to end most conflicts and to “make the Philippines go back to her decency as a nation.”

Maglaya gave particular attention to the country’s standing in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index of the watchdog Transparency International.

In the 2007 report, the Philippines ranked 141st of the 180 countries surveyed.

Maglaya said he shared the frustration voiced by Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz in a recent meeting about the state of the country.

“Whose fault was this? Was it God’s fault? Is it the Church who failed?” he asked.

The bishop said most church hierarchies end with their respective clergymen, leaving a huge mass base of followers.

He said this means Church leaders are also accountable.

=========

My Take:

I think top Catholic leaders, specially the real leaders recognized the problem.  Maybe that’s the reason why 5 of them released a statement calling for “radical reforms”.

The Social Doctrine of the Church is a big tool in cleaning the Catholic hierarchy too.  Because the corruption frm inside the churches are now too visible to ignore.  Some priests receive a salary of P20,000 a month for doing, like, virtually nothing except saying mass and any liturgical practices.  They dont even build BECs in their respective parishes.

These priests must burn in hell.

Militants reel from gov’t lawsuits

By Nikko Dizon
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 06:56:00 11/11/2008

MANILA, Philippines—Militant organizations are reeling from the legal offensive allegedly employed by the Arroyo administration in place of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of political activists.

Lawyer Rachel Pastores, managing counsel of the Public Interest Law Center (PILC), said Monday that 72 activists and sectoral leaders were charged with the March 2006 ambush by the New People’s Army (NPA) of policemen in Oriental Mindoro.

Of the 72 accused, 35 were charged with murder and frustrated murder, Pastores said.

They include Remigio Saladero Jr., the chief legal counsel of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and a member of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), a voluntary organization of human rights lawyers in the country.

Saladero and four other political activists are detained at the Calapan City Jail and will be arraigned Wednesday.

Motions

Pastores said the PILC will file a Motion to Cancel Arraignment and Motion to Quash/Recall Warrants of Arrest and Motion to Dismiss the cases.

In addition to the 72, the human rights group Karapatan said 27 leaders and members of various progressive organizations in the Southern Tagalog region were implicated in the Aug. 2 bombing and burning of a cell site in Lemery, Batangas.

Two of the group’s officials, Southern Tagalog secretary general Doris Cuario and Batangas coordinator Dina Capetillo, were among the accused.

In a statement, Karapatan said it was “outraged by the recent legal offensive of the Arroyo administration against the legal democratic organizations particularly in Southern Tagalog.”

Blame

Karapatan blamed the government’s Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (IALAG), headed by National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, for the alleged fabricated charges.

Ironically, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions Philip Alston has recommended the abolition of the IALAG, Karapatan said.

Karapatan secretary general Marie Hilao-Enriquez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a recent interview that the bombardment of cases against militant organizations was aimed at crippling the groups.

Enriquez said having scores of militant leaders in jail is in effect “demobilizing” their organizations.

She said she has asked the Commission on Human Rights to look into the matter.

Editorial Cartoon: (Pacquiao Watch) Losing the First Round

Kakahiya naman to…

Cost of war: 550 students drop out of school in NorthCot

Malu Cadelina-Manar/MIndaNews

Sunday, 09 November 2008 06:50

var sburl4125 = window.location.href; var sbtitle4125 = document.title;var sbtitle4125=encodeURIComponent(“Cost of war: 550 students drop out of school in NorthCot”); var sburl4125=decodeURI(“http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5434”); sburl4125=sburl4125.replace(/amp;/g, “”);sburl4125=encodeURIComponent(sburl4125); st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/8 Nov) – Some 550 students in North Cotabato have dropped out of school since hostilities between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) resumed in early August, police said. st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } Chief Supt. Felicisimo Khu, head of the Task Force Palma-Pikit, said most of the dropouts are high school students, numbering 448; the rest are in elementary. Most affected is a public high school in the town of Carmen, where 33 students, all males and all Maguindanaons, stopped reporting back to school. The principal of Takepan National High School in Pikit town earlier said that 15 of her students failed to return to school when classes resumed. The police also noted student dropouts in Aleosan, Banisilan, Pikit, Carmen, Tulunan, M’lang, Midsayap, Alamada, Kabacan, and Matalam. Khu said that based on their initial findings, the students left school mainly because of fear that fighting might erupt again. He added that poverty also prevented the others from going back to school. “But we do not discount the possibility that some of these students might have been recruited by an armed group operating in North Cotabato,” said Khu, adding that they did receive “disturbing” reports of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) Commander Umbra Kato training children for warfare. Khu stressed that recruiting minors for war is a violation of local and international laws. The MILF, however, denied the reports, saying it was part of a government propaganda to discredit the rebel group. “Everybody is using Kato in whatever way possible. I don’t think some of these students who dropped out from school have gone training at one of our camps,” said Eid Kabalu, chief of civil-military relations of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces. (Malu Cadeliña Manar / MindaNews)

3 students drrown in flashflood

Williamor A. Magbanua and Malu Cadelina-Manar/MindaNews

Tuesday, 11 November 2008 06:42

var sburl8974 = window.location.href; var sbtitle8974 = document.title;var sbtitle8974=encodeURIComponent(“3 students drrown in flashflood”); var sburl8974=decodeURI(“http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5445”); sburl8974=sburl8974.replace(/amp;/g, “”);sburl8974=encodeURIComponent(sburl8974); st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/10 Nov) — Rescuers recovered the bodies of two teenagers who were swept by floodwaters Sunday afternoon while taking photographs beside the Saguing River here. st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } The city search and rescue team found the two cadavers in Barangay Libertad, Makilala, Cotabato, seven kilometers away from this city. Police identified the victims as Precion Taeza and Janely Antipuesto, both students of Saint Mary’s Academy here. The victims sustained wounds in the head and other parts of the body when retrieved near the riverbank of Libertad River. The body of another victim, Krisdan May Dela Cruz, 15, was found today, around 9 am, in Barangay Kalunasan, M’lang, a town next to Makilala. A team from the Cotabato Electric Cooperative led the search and retrieval operations, according to Marlon Ceballos, head of the 505 Search and Rescue Operations Group in the city. Dela Cruz’s father, who works at the Cotelco, led the retrieval operations, Ceballos said. On Sunday afternoon, a group of nine students went to the Landmark River Park to take photographs and celebrated the first anniversary of their friendship when a flashflood occurred. The students all fell into the floodwaters, but six of them were rescued by Landmark employees and some visitors. “We were there to celebrate.  We didn’t expect it would end this way,” said Charisse Jane Franco, one of the survivors, in a radio interview. Franco also swam the Saguing River and was swept by the raging waters.  But a still unidentified man saved her. “The guy saved my life. I am so grateful to him.  I wish I could thank him.   But until now, I have no idea who that guy is,” she said, adding they already decided to leave the place when one of her classmates again invited them to take a dip. She said they did not expect the waters at the Saguing River would reach as high as five to six feet because it did not rain. But Ceballos, in a radio interview, explained the Saguing River serves as a catch basin of many upstream rivers from Makilala and M’lang towns. Early that day, there was heavy downpour upstream. “At 3 p.m., the waters from the upper portion started to flow downstream. And around 5 p.m., the waters were already high at the Saguing River,” he said. The landmark is owned and operated by the city government as part of its local tourism promotion. The Saguing River would usually overflow during heavy downpour. Landmark River Park, a favorite hangout of many students during weekends, is located along the boundary between Kidapawan and Makilala. Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco has not issued a statement regarding the incident, although he called for a meeting in response to the incident. The mayor has ordered the setting up of early warning signs at the riverside. Ceballos has also suggested that the city government organize a response alert team composed of trained swimmers and rescuers. (Williamor A. Magbanua and Malu Cadelina Manar/MindaNews) ============== My Take: The City government must learn a lesson or two from this sad event. They must have a warning device there (such as bulletin boards and intercom-like device where a voice will repeatedly announce the warning) informing tourists, visitors and all, of a heavy downpour upstream that may cause considerable rise in the river’s water level.

300 families flee Bumbaran as soldiers and MILF clash

MindaNews

Tuesday, 11 November 2008 06:45

var sburl2163 = window.location.href; var sbtitle2163 = document.title;var sbtitle2163=encodeURIComponent(“300 families flee Bumbaran as soldiers and MILF clash”); var sburl2163=decodeURI(“http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5446”); sburl2163=sburl2163.replace(/amp;/g, “”);sburl2163=encodeURIComponent(sburl2163); CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/10 November) – At least 300 families from Bumbaran in Lanao del Sur fled to neighboring Wao town Monday morning following skirmishes between government forces and what the military spokesperson referred to as “a lawless faction” of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). OV-10 planes dropped bombs on areas where the MILF forces were reportedly seen. Two MG-520 choppers were also sent to provide support to the soldiers, Major Mitchel Anayron, public information officer of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division said. Anayron added that 105 mm howitzers were also fired at rebel positions in Barangay Sumogot, Bumbaran, near the village where 21 farmers were massacred by unidentified persons in 2000. He said the Army’s 23rd Infantry Battalion and 43rd division reconnaissance company are pursuing the rebels who are believed to be responsible for bombing the power line of the National Transmission Corporation in Maramag, Bukidnon last month. (MindaNews)

4 suspected NPA members freed

Malu Cadelina-Manar/MindaNews

Tuesday, 11 November 2008 06:48

var sburl6952 = window.location.href; var sbtitle6952 = document.title;var sbtitle6952=encodeURIComponent(“4 suspected NPA members freed”); var sburl6952=decodeURI(“http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5447”); sburl6952=sburl6952.replace(/amp;/g, “”);sburl6952=encodeURIComponent(sburl6952); st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/10 Nov) – The Army released over the weekend four suspected rebels whom they reportedly arrested and detained in a camp in Tulunan, North Cotabato. st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } “The villagers were turned over without any trace that they underwent torture or physical harm while they were under the custody of my men in Tulunan,“ Col. Milfredo Meligrito, commander of the 57th Infantry Battalion, said in a radio interview. Meligrito also denied reports his men abducted the villagers. “They were not forcibly taken by my men. They offered themselves to join the soldiers as they exited the area on Nov 3. What can we get if we kidnap or abduct them?  Nothing,” he said. He alleged Bacung residents were recruited into the NPA. “In fact, they were scheduled to undergo training last Saturday. They decided, however, to withdraw.” The official issued the statement almost a week after a local radio station and newspapers came out with news on the reported abduction. Earlier, 57th IB executive officer Maj. Leo Diaz vehemently denied they were keeping in their custody the four suspected NPA members. But a village councilor in Barangay Bacung, Tulunan told reporters here that she was certain the four had been detained in an Army camp in Tulunan since Nov 3. The suspects, identified as Reyno Odi, Albert Imba, and Moca brothers Alex, 18, and Richard, 15, were turned over last Saturday to Barangay Bacung chair Rogelio Gante. (Malu Cadelina-Manar/MindaNews)

12 armed men raid St. Scholastica

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:30:00 11/01/2008

MANILA, Philippines – Twelve men wearing Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) uniforms raided before dawn Friday a college in Malate, Manila and grabbed guns and communications equipment from stunned security guards.

The men, clad in camouflage pants and armed with high-powered guns, entered at around 1:25 a.m. the St. Scholastica’s College campus at the corner of P. Ocampo and Leon Guinto Streets.

Reports by the Manila Police District Mobile Patrol Unit (MPD-MPU) revealed that the raiders were aboard two vehicles: a black Toyota Revo (XKL-257) and another vehicle that was not identified.

Elvis Condez, security officer in charge, told police investigators they were surprised by the arrival of the “SWAT men” who quickly disarmed the guards on duty.

Condez said the men took two caliber .9 mm pistols, two caliber .38 revolvers, four cellular phones and a handheld radio, then left through Gate 4 on Estrada Street, headed in the direction of South Superhighway.

A ranking official of the MPD who requested anonymity told Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) that the group simply intended to take the firearms.

“The group could be stocking up on firearms for a future heist,” the official said. He said they could have targeted the school because they had anticipated little resistance from the security guards.

Members of the MPD are conducting follow-up operations and have alerted other police units to intercept the Toyota Revo.

The Inquirer tried to get the side of the school on the heist but calls made to St. Scholastica’s College were unanswered, except for a recorded voice message saying all line operators were busy. A television evening news report, however, said the school would make a statement after an investigation.

MPD Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (CIDU) head Chief Insp. Dominador Arevalo told Inquirer that his men at the theft and robbery section of Station 9 were not allowed to enter the school initially because of an ongoing meeting of officials.

Arevalo said theft and robbery section head Chief Insp. Benigno Macalindong went to the school to look into the robbery but was among those who were prevented from entering the building.

================

My Take:

I see another scenario-making here.

1. Dry run to copy NPA “agaw-armas actions” and label it in the future as the NPA’s handiwork.

2. Pure harassment-terrorism — Jun Lozada is being supported and shielded by the Nuns of St. Scholastica.  St. Scholastica Nuns are popularly known to be socially aware and is unhesitant to stand up for the good of the poor.

3. Maybe a future reference to any militarist plan to augment its forces in Metro Manila.

I hope Im wrong.

New Electronics and Communications Engineer (2008)

Roll of Successful Examinees in the ELECTRONICS ENGINEER LICENSURE EXAMINATION Held in OCTOBER 3 of 33 Released on OCTOBER 29, 2008

Roll of Successful Examinees in the ELECTRONICS ENGINEER LICENSURE EXAMINATION Held in OCTOBER 2008 Page: 3 of 33 Released on OCTOBER 29, 2008 Seq. No. N a m e 1 ABACAN, ALFRED LUIS SANTOS 2 ABAD, JONAH JOJO HEERLIJK ABARRA 3 ABAD, RALPH WILLIAM YBIERNAS 4 ABALOS, OSCAR JR ZAPANTA 5 ABANILLA, JULIE AIZA PADRIQUE 6 ABANTE, MARINELLE CARINGAL 7 ABARCA, NERISSA CARPIO 8 ABARINTOS, JULIUS LORENZO ABADIANO 9 ABAT, MARK DAVID GUIBONE 10 ABDON, REX JR LUMANOG 11 ABELENDE, JOEVEL SALMORIN 12 ABELLA, DANILO JR MERCURIO 13 ABELLA, KRISTINA MARIE SARDAN 14 ABELLA, MICHAEL ANTHONY MERCADER 15 ABIAD, MARICRIS BILON 16 ABIG, FRANCISCO JR LUCAS 17 ABLAO, MARCO POLO TABIRAO 18 ABLIDAS, MIKALE RIZTON MANUEL 19 ABRICO, KRIZ ALGIE DE LA TORRE 20 ABULENCIA, MARY ANNE LAPUZ 21 ACOB, THERESA VILLAGUAS 22 ACOSTA, BRENDA CASTILLO 23 ADAJAR, ARTHUR JAY BRILLO 24 ADOLFO, CID MATHEW SANTIAGO 25 AFRICA, JOHNSON REAZON 26 AFRICA, RALPH DENNIS SALCEDO 27 AFUANG, KRISANTHA MYCA TERANIA 28 AGGARAO, PABLO JR MATEO 29 AGRAVANTE, DON JOVEN RAVOY 30 AGRUDA, ALBERT RENIER SAET 31 AGTOTO, LIBERTY VIDOR 32 AGUAVIVA, HAZEL CAGAS 33 AGUILAR, ALEX MANIBOG 34 AGUILAR, ANNA MAY RAMOS 35 AGUILAR, JAMES FRANCIS BISMONTE 36 AGUILAR, JERRY YAGUEL 37 AGUILAR, LEMUEL SOLLANO 38 AGUILERA, RICHARD SABILLO 39 AGULLANA, JESSTER CRISOSTOMO 40 AGUM, LESTER JAMES UGSOD 41 AGUSTIN, ALFREDO JR SUMAOANG 42 AGUSTIN, ROWELITO DE JUAN 43 ALADA, MARK ERICKSON MORALES 44 ALAIR, MARY ROSE MAITEM 45 ALAMAG, ALEXIS AGQUIZ 46 ALBERTO, AARON SILVERIO 47 ALBERTO, JEROME PRUDENTE 48 ALCALEN, EDGAR JR RUBITE 49 ALCANTARA, MICHAEL VINCENT AGUILAR 50 ALCANTARA, ROY JEFFREY BUAN Roll of Successful Examinees in the ELECTRONICS ENGINEER LICENSURE EXAMINATION Held in OCTOBER 2008 Page: 4 of 33 Released on OCTOBER 29, 2008 Seq. No. N a m e 51 ALCAZAR, RONOSA SANCHEZ 52 ALCORDO, RONALD DOMINGO 53 ALEGADO, JASON MARC ALMIROL 54 ALEGRE, JONALD REFAMONTE 55 ALEJANDRIA, ANN MARGARETTE ANGELES 56 ALEJANDRINO, ARGEL MALLARI 57 ALEJO, ANTONIO III BENAVENTE 58 ALFARO, REYNOLD SORREDA 59 ALFECHE, ADRIAN RAY OBACH 60 ALINGAROG, EDGARDO JR CANLAS 61 ALIPIO, NOEL YURI RILLON 62 ALIPOPO, GEMALYN LORIAGA 63 ALIVIADO, EVEROSE ABABON 64 ALLAS, DIOSDADO JR SADIWA 65 ALMARIO, JESSICA CAAWAY 66 ALMELOR, GENESES CASTROVERDE 67 ALMENDRAS, CHAIRELL WINSTON CANANIA 68 ALMERON, MARIFE DELEN 69 ALONZO, LEANDRO OLAES 70 ALTEZ, ARCHIVAL HERNANDEZ 71 ALUNAN, LENDL ISRAEL MAKABENTA 72 ALVAREZ, ADRIAN AMBROSE DUMAPIAS 73 ALVAREZ, KATHLEEN FAYE BLAZA 74 ALVAREZ, LESTER IAN PAMPLONA 75 ALVAREZ, MILO TORREGROSA 76 AMACIO, MARYNETH VOCES 77 AMADOR, RALPH STEVEN CUADERNO 78 AMANTE, NESTEDUNE MALVATAAN 79 AMATOSA, LEVISLE BABON 80 AMBION, CHRISTIAN BENEDICT SERRANO 81 AMBOS, RENZ CHRISTOPHER LOPEZ 82 AMBOY, JEFRIL MANONGSONG 83 AMOLOZA, KEN GASGAS 84 ANACAN, ROMMEL MANALO 85 ANANIA, RICHARD BERNANTE 86 ANCAJAS, NORMAN BLASCO 87 ANCHETA, RALPH JASON VARGAS 88 ANDICO, REYNALD JOSEF TOLEDO 89 ANDRES, RONALD SUÑGA 90 ANGELES, JULIUS LUNTAYAO 91 ANGLO, ERICSON BINAG 92 ANGULO, MICHAEL BERN DEGAMO 93 ANIN, RIZA BOSE 94 ANINIPOT, FAYE JANELLE ANTONIO 95 ANTALAN, CHRISTIAN PERMOLAN 96 ANTE, RAIZA PAMELA MEDELLIN 97 ANTONE, DIANA MAKINANO 98 ANTONIO, CHESTER LEE CACAL 99 APALISOK, AISHA MARIA CAPIRIG 100 APOSTOL, JAY CASIL Roll of Successful Examinees in the ELECTRONICS ENGINEER LICENSURE EXAMINATION Held in OCTOBER 2008 Page: 5 of 33 Released on OCTOBER 29, 2008 Seq. No. N a m e 101 APRENTADO, GIANN CARLO STA ANA 102 APUHIN, ROMULO SUMAGAYSAY 103 AQUINO, AJUNALISA VENTO 104 AQUINO, ANGELINE PANADO 105 AQUINO, KRISTOPHER EDWARD AGONCILLO 106 AQUINO, MARVIN BOBADILLA 107 AQUINO, MICHAEL SCHERER UNDAY 108 ARANAS, RAISSA JIMENA 109 ARAÑEZ, OLIVER DE LEON 110 ARBOLEDA, ENRICO PAULO CALABINES 111 ARBOLEDA, MA LORICAR OBILLOS 112 ARCENAS, GRETCHEEN MAE PERIDA 113 ARCIAGA, ARNOLD CACATIAN 114 ARCILLA, DANILO JR TORRES 115 ARCILLA, OLIVER DULCE 116 ARCILLAS, JAYSON SANTOS 117 ARENAS, JOSE RAPHAEL CHING 118 ARGUELLES, KAREN ESCAÑO 119 ARGUELLES, LEA CLAVERIA 120 ARMONIO, ARIEL SERMONIA 121 AROBEL, MIKHAIL FUGUIAO 122 ARUTA, WINSTON CANONCE 123 ASI, JORIEL SULIT 124 ASOTIGUE, JUNE ANDREA SEVILLA 125 ASOY, JOHN DAVID VILLANUEVA 126 ASUNCION, MA KRISTA PAULA MANAHAN 127 ATENDIDO, DARWIN CLARK TORIBIO 128 ATIENZA, ALEX MALOLOS 129 AUNARIO, RINGO CRUZ 130 AUNGON, MARK EDISON GRANADA 131 AUSTRIA, MARK KHEVIN ZINAMPAN 132 AVELINO, ARNEL MAGNO 133 AZADA, ROMMEL BESA 134 AZAÑA, PRINCESS MADELEINE GECANA Click Here For More

Ang Pelikula bilang Pabaong Amerikano at Inobasyong Filipino

Ang kasaysayan ng pelikulang Filipino, dulot ng simulain at pabaong ng Amerikanong kolonialismo, ay kasaysayan ng politika at politikal na ideolohiya. Ang isa ring ginawa ng postwar na pamamayagpag at pagiging global na dominant ng Hollywood films ay dalawang bagay: una, panghinain ang lokal na industriya ng maraming bansa, kasama ang Pilipinas sa huling bahagi ng 1990s, at pag-takeover ng Hollywood hindi lang sa boxoffice kundi pati na rin ang mimicking ng lokal na pelikula sa narrative conventions ng Hollywood films; ikalawa, ang umiigting na softselling ng Hollywood sa ideolohiyang Amerikano na dati ay pumapabor sa Cold War na naging neoliberal rhetorics sa kasalukuyan, o ang pamamayagpag naman ng ideolohikal na cover ng Amerikanong pragmatikong ideolohiya sa kanyang global war on terror na nag-iwan sa bansang ito bilang natitirang global hegemon sa militar na usapin. Hindi kakatwa na matagal nang naging global hegemon ang pelikulang nito, ang Hollywood, bago pa man maabot ng US ang pagiging pinakamilitaristikong kapangyarihan sa mundo.

Ang huli kong nais tumbukin ay ang isa pang inobasyon ng lokal na industriya ng pelikula sa Hollywood—ang pagsasalin ng kolektibong ethos sa pribadong karakter at bida sa pelikula.

NI ROLAND TOLENTINO
KULTURANG POPULAR KULTURA
Bulatlat

Malinaw ang simulain at intensyon ng pagdala ng kolonialismong Amerikano ng pelikula. Kahit pa nauna nang pumasok ang pelikula sa Pilipinas sa kasagsagan ng paghahanda para sa digmaan laban sa mga Kastila noong 1895, ang taon din ng pagpasok ng unang planta ng kuryente sa bansa, at ilan pang pag-aangkat ng teknikal na inobasyon sa pagtangkilik matapos nito, taong 1898 na halos magkasabay na bumaba si Adminal George Dewey matapos ng matagumpay na maigsing Battle of Manila Bay, at ang cameraman nito para mag-record ng pang-araw-araw na buhay sa bagong Amerikanong kolonya.

Kikilalanin ang mga pelikula bilang bahagi ng paperprint collection na matatagpuan pa rin sa Library of Cognress, at may mga titulo ito, tulad ng Rout of the Filipinos; Capture of the Trenches in Candaba; Aguinaldo’s Navy; Battle of Mr. Ariat (sic); An Historic Feat; Pack Train, General Bell’s Expedition; 25th Infantry; Bridge Traffic, Manila; The Escalta (sic), Manila; A Filipino Cock Fight; Unloading Lighters, Manila; Water Buffalo, Manila; Troops Ships for the Philippines; at Filipino Scouts, Musical Drill, at St. Louis Exposition.

Ang “Philippine insurgency” ay magka-capture sa imahinasyon ng Amerika na magbabago ang global na demand mula sa dokumentaryong uri ng pelikula tungo sa maiikling naratibo. Ang mga “actuality films” ay shinoot sa likod-bahay ng imbentor na si Thomas Edison sa New Jersey, at ang mga aktor na gumaganap na Filipino, tulad nang depiksyon sa Amerikanong negro, ay pinintahan ng itim sa mukha at katawan. Ni-restage ang digmaan sa studio, at may mga titulo itong tulad ng U.S. Troops and Red Cross in the Trenches Before Caloocan (June 5, 1899), Advance of Kansas Volunteers at Caloocan (June 5, 1899), at The American Soldier in Love and War (July 9, 1903).

Hindi ito ang unang pagkakataon na gagamitin ng US ang pelikula para sa hayagang ideolohikal na proyekto nito. Sa panahon ng Cold War, tatampok ang relasyon ng US sa Pilipinas bilang mahalagang lunsaran ng anti-komunismo. Ayon sa US National Archives and Records Administration, “mayroong nakalistang 48 produksyon ang US Information Agency at USAID para o tungkol sa Pilipinas.” Kasama rito ang tig-isang pelikulang gawa ni Manuel Conde, Give Us This Day, at Lamberto Avellana, Huk sa Bagong Pamumuhay, dalawa sa pinakamahalagang direktor sa kasaysayan ng pelikula sa bansa. May account din na si Conde ay gumawa pa ng isang pelikula, Krus sa Kawayan (1956) na mayroong tatlong bersyon sa wikang Tagalog, Vietnamese at ingles.

Aangakatin din ng Pilipinas ang ilang modelo ng Amerikanong filmmaking: ang studio system bilang business model sa efisyenteng paggawa ng pelikula (na sa bansa ay magkakaroon ng kakatwang gendered na perspektiba sa paghawak ng matriaka sa mga studio, mula kay Dona Sisang ng LVN hanggang kay Mother Lily ng Regal Films, at mga Tsino at lokal na negosyante may ugnay sa mga politiko at ibang industriya sa bansa); ang star system na lumilikha ng di lamang ng ikonikong status ng bida kundi pati na rin ang sentralidad ng bida sa proseso ng produksyon; at mula rito—at malamang, higit sa lahat—ang pag-aartista bilang lehitimong aspirasyon ng panlipunang mobilidad ng kabataan: lalo na sa kasalukuyan, na ang pag-aartista ay rurok ng magiging pag-unlad ng katawang kapital (body/corporeal capital); kaya rito, ang kakatwang formasyon ng kasalukuyang studio bilang kabahagi ng media conglomerates na nagtitiyak ng patuloy na sirkulasyon ng pelikula bilang sentral sa multi-media na produksyon (glossy magazines, recording studio, television companies, events management, cable television, at talent management), at kung gayon, ang pananatili ng kabataang katawan bilang sentral sa pribadong pangangapital.

Hindi naman reaktibo ang pambansang industriya at pamahalaan sa pagpasok ng pabaon ng Amerikanong kolonialismo. May continuity itong reappropriation ng pelikula ng lokal na makinarya ng pelikula. Namayagpag na sa apat na golden age ng cinema, o ang mayayabong na yugto ng masining at mapanuring pelikula sa kasaysayan nito sa bansa: una, sa prewar period na umabot na sa 50 pelikula ang nalilikha kada taon, at tanging apat na pelikula na lamang ang may nananatiling extant mula sa panahong ito; ikalawa, ang 1950s na unang nagpakilala sa lokal na industriya sa global na pamilihan, tulad ng Genghis Khan, Anak Dalita, at Badjao; ikatlo, ang panahon ng Marcos dictatorship, mula 1970s hanggang 1980s na bookended ng mga pelikula ni Lino Brocka na Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag (1975) at Orapronobis (1989); at ang kasalukuyang pamamayagpag ng tinatawag na Philippine independent cinema, na gawa sa mas demokratikong teknolohiya ng digicam, mas maliit na budget at lahok ang mga karakter aktor.

Si Ferdinand Marcos ang unang epektibong gagamit sa pelikula bilang politikal na instrumento. Integral ang pelikulang Iginuhit ng Tadhana (1965) sa kanyang pagkahalal at ang Pinagbuklod ng Langit (1969) para sa kanyang reeleksyon. Ang nauna sa kanya, si Diosdado Macapagal ay gumamit ng The Macapagal Story (1963) at Ang Daigdig ng mga Api (1965), ang bio at campaign movie na ipinantapat sa biofilm ni Marcos, at idinirek nina Lamberto Avellana, Eddie Romero at Gerardo de Leon, mga importanteng figura na magiging National Artists sa hinaharap. Si Gerry de Leon din ang nagdirek ng kasabayang pelikula ni Marcos. Ang sinimulang produksyon ng biofilm sa panahong ito ay mamamayagpag sa susunod na mga pambansang eleksyon sa post-Marcos era, na may resultang hindi katagumpayan. Bawat mahahalagang politikong nagnais mahalal bilang senador at pangulo ay nagkaroon ng biofilm, tulad nina Ruben Torres at Alredo Lim. Ang pinakamatagumpay na gagamit ng pelikula para sa politika ay ang mga ikonikong artistang hinubog ng sarili nilang studio, sina Joseph Estrada at Fernando Poe, Jr. na ang substansya ay ang kolektibong identifikasyon sa inaaping masa. Kakatwa na mula sa pelikulang bakbakan nanggagaling ang kasalukuyang mga senador, kasama ang second-generation na action stars, tulad nina Lito Lapid, Bong Revilla, Jr., at Jinggoy Estrada.

Ang kasaysayan ng pelikulang Filipino, dulot ng simulain at pabaong ng Amerikanong kolonialismo, ay kasaysayan ng politika at politikal na ideolohiya. Ang isa ring ginawa ng postwar na pamamayagpag at pagiging global na dominant ng Hollywood films ay dalawang bagay: una, panghinain ang lokal na industriya ng maraming bansa, kasama ang Pilipinas sa huling bahagi ng 1990s, at pag-takeover ng Hollywood hindi lang sa boxoffice kundi pati na rin ang mimicking ng lokal na pelikula sa narrative conventions ng Hollywood films; ikalawa, ang umiigting na softselling ng Hollywood sa ideolohiyang Amerikano na dati ay pumapabor sa Cold War na naging neoliberal rhetorics sa kasalukuyan, o ang pamamayagpag naman ng ideolohikal na cover ng Amerikanong pragmatikong ideolohiya sa kanyang global war on terror na nag-iwan sa bansang ito bilang natitirang global hegemon sa militar na usapin. Hindi kakatwa na matagal nang naging global hegemon ang pelikulang nito, ang Hollywood, bago pa man maabot ng US ang pagiging pinakamilitaristikong kapangyarihan sa mundo.

Ang huli kong nais tumbukin ay ang isa pang inobasyon ng lokal na industriya ng pelikula sa Hollywood—ang pagsasalin ng kolektibong ethos sa pribadong karakter at bida sa pelikula. Sa pamamagitan ng melodrama na matatagpuan sa lahat ng genre ng pelikula—mula social melodrama hanggang aksyon na ang bida ay lalake, sa bomba film hanggang sa horror film—ang anxiedad ng kolektibo ay natutunghayan, mapapalawig pero sa katapusan ng pelikula, magkakaroon lamang ng rekurso, tulad sa panlipunang antas, sa indibidwal na resolusyon. Mabigat ang mga pelikulang Filipino—kung bomba, ito ay ukol sa gahasa at kahalayan ng babaeng bida; sa aksyon, ang pang-aabuso sa moral na lalake, at ang kanyang panunumbas at paghahanap ng katarungan—na sa kabigatan nito, o ang kapasidad na ilahok ang historikal sa indibidwal na problema, ay hindi kailanman lubos na natutumbasan ng pagwawakas ng pelikula.

At ito ang pelikulang pinapanood ng marami, kahit pa naging tunay na gitnang uring karanasan ang aktwal na panonood sa multiplex na sinehan. Sa kasalukuyang indie cinema at ang propensidad nitong itampok ang mga karakter na latak sa pinakalatak, ito ang governmentalidad o ang kalakaran ng kalakaran ng governance, o ng maigting nitong failure sa buhay ng mamamayan ng bansa sa pang-araw-araw na pagdanas ng kanilang buhay. Kung sa panahon ng golden age ni Marcos ay natutunghayan ang dialog sa diktadura—dahil wala namang hayag na bumatikos sa martial law nito—sa pamamagitan ng affect ng masisikip at claustrophobic na lugar at mga mabubuting taong lumulubog unti-unti sa kumunoy ng panlipunang kasadlakan, ang kasalukuyang pelikula ay nagdadala sa usapin ng mas matingkad na voyeurismo, dahil sa kasalukuyang dispensasyon ng kapangyarihan, sa imeldific legacy ni Imelda kay Bayani Fernando, halimbawa, nililikha ang naghihikahos na mamamayan bilang invisible. Ang melodrama sa pelikula ang nagpapakita na hindi ito lubos na nagaganap.(Bulatlat.com)

Sipi mula kay Jose B. Capino, “Prsethetic Hysteria: Staging the Cold War in Filipino/American Docudrama”

Why Soldiers Rape: Culture of Misogyny, Illegal Occupation Fuel Sexual Violence in Military

The view of women as sexual prey has always been present in military culture. Indeed, civilian women have been seen as sexual booty for conquering soldiers since the beginning of human history. So, it should come as no surprise that the sexual persecution of female soldiers has been going on in the armed forces for decades.

BY HELEN BENEDICT
In These Times http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3848/
INTERNATIONAL
Posted by Bulatlat

An alarming number of women soldiers are being sexually abused by their comrades-in-arms, both at war and at home. This fact has received a fair amount of attention lately from researchers and the press – and deservedly so.

But the attention always focuses on the women: where they were when assaulted, their relations with the assailant, the effects on their mental health and careers, whether they are being adequately helped, and so on. That discussion, as valuable as it is, misses a fundamental point. To understand military sexual assault, let alone know how to stop it, we must focus on the perpetrators. We need to ask: Why do soldiers rape?

Rape in civilian life is already unacceptably common. One in six women is raped or sexually assaulted in her lifetime, according to the National Institute of Justice, a number so high it should be considered an epidemic.

In the military, however, the situation is even worse. Rape is almost twice as frequent as it is among civilians, especially in wartime. Soldiers are taught to regard one another as family, so military rape resembles incest. And most of the soldiers who rape are older and of higher rank than their victims, so are taking advantage of their authority to attack the very people they are supposed to protect.

Department of Defense reports show that nearly 90 percent of rape victims in the Army are junior-ranking women, whose average age is 21, while most of the assailants are non-commissioned officers or junior men, whose average age is 28.

This sexual violence persists in spite of strict laws against rape in the military and a concerted Pentagon effort in 2005 to reform procedures for reporting the crime. Unfortunately, neither the press nor the many teams of psychologists and sociologists who study veterans ever seem to ask why.

The answer appears to lie in a confluence of military culture, the psychology of the assailants and the nature of war.

Two seminal studies have examined military culture and its attitudes toward women: one by Duke University Law Professor Madeline Morris in 1996, which was presented in the paper ‘By Force of Arms: Rape, War, and Military Culture’ and published in Duke Law Journal; and the other by University of California professor and folklorist Carol Burke in 2004 and explained in her book, Camp All-American, Hanoi Jane and the High-And- Tight: Gender, Folklore and Changing Military Culture (Beacon Press). Both authors found that military culture is more misogynistic than even many critics of the military would suspect. Sometimes this misogyny stems from competition and sometimes from resentment, but it lies at the root of why soldiers rape.

One recent Iraq War veteran reflected this misogyny when he described his Marine Corp training for a collection of soldiers’ works called Warrior Writers, published by Iraq Veterans Against the War in 2008:

The [Drill Instructor’s] nightly homiletic speeches, full of an unabashed hatred of women, were part of the second phase of boot camp: the process of rebuilding recruits into Marines.

Morris and Burke both show that military language reveals this ‘unabashed hatred of women’ all the time. Even with a force that is now 14 percent female, and with rules that prohibit drill instructors from using racial epithets and curses, those same instructors still routinely denigrate recruits by calling them ‘pussy,’ ‘girl,’ ‘bitch,’ ‘lady’ and ‘dyke.’ The everyday speech of soldiers is still riddled with sexist insults.

Soldiers still openly peruse pornography that humiliates women. (Pornography is officially banned in the military, but is easily available to soldiers through the mail and from civilian sources, and there is a significant correlation between pornography circulation and rape rates, according to Duke’s Morris.) And military men still sing the misogynist rhymes that have been around for decades. For example, Burke’s book cites this Naval Academy chant:

Who can take a chainsaw
Cut the bitch in two
Fuck the bottom half
And give the upper half to you?

The message in all these insults is that women have no business trying to be soldiers. In 2007, Sgt. Sarah Scully of the Army’s 8th Military Police Brigade wrote to me in an e-mail from Kuwait, where she was serving:

‘In the Army, any sign that you are a woman means you are automatically ridiculed and treated as inferior.’

Army Spc. Mickiela Montoya, who was in Iraq for 11 months from 2005-2006, put it another way:

‘There are only three things the guys let you be if you’re a girl in the military: a bitch, a hoor a dyke. One guy told me he thinks the military sends women over to give the guys eye candy to keep them sane. He told me in Vietnam they had prostitutes, but they don’t have those in
Iraq, so they have women soldiers instead.’

The view of women as sexual prey has always been present in military culture. Indeed, civilian women have been seen as sexual booty for conquering soldiers since the beginning of human history. So, it should come as no surprise that the sexual persecution of female soldiers has been going on in the armed forces for decades.

* A 2004 study of veterans from Vietnam and all wars since, conducted by psychotherapist Maureen Murdoch and published in the journal Military Medicine, found that 71 percent of the women said they were sexually assaulted or raped while serving.

* In 2003, a survey of female veterans from Vietnam through the first Gulf War by psychologist Anne Sadler and her colleagues, published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, found that 30 percent said they were raped in the military.

* And a 1995 study of female veterans of the Gulf and earlier wars, also conducted by Murdoch and published in Archives of Family Medicine, reported that 90 percent had been sexually harassed, which means anything from being pressured for sex to being relentlessly teased and stared at.

* A 2007 survey by the Department of Veterans Affairs found that homelessness among female veterans is rapidly increasing as women soldiers come back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Forty percent of these homeless female veterans say they were sexually abused while in the service.

Defense Department numbers are much lower. In Fiscal Year 2007, the Pentagon reported 2,085 sexual assaults among military women, which given that there are about 200,000 active-duty women in the armed forces, is a mere fraction of what the veterans studies indicate.

The discrepancy can be explained by the fact that the Pentagon counts only those rapes that soldiers have officially reported.

Having the courage to report a rape is hard enough for civilians, where unsympathetic police, victim-blaming myths, and the fear of reprisal prevent some 60 percent of rapes from being brought to light, according to a 2005 Department of Justice study.

But within the military, reporting is much riskier. Platoons are enclosed, hierarchical societies, riddled with gossip, so any woman who reports a sexual assault has little chance of remaining anonymous. She will probably have to face her assailant day after day and put up with resentment and blame from other soldiers who see her as a snitch. She risks being persecuted by her assailant if he is her superior, and punished by commanders who consider her a troublemaker. And because military culture demands that all soldiers keep their pain and distress to themselves, reporting an assault will make her look weak and cowardly.

For all these reasons, some 80 percent of military rapes are never reported, as the Pentagon itself acknowledges.

This widespread misogyny in the military actively encourages a rape culture. It sends the message to men that, no matter how they feel about women, they won’t fit in as soldiers unless they prove themselves a ‘brother’ by demeaning and persecuting women at every opportunity. So even though most soldiers are not rapists, and most men do not hate women, in the military even the nicest guys succumb to the pressure to act as if they do.

Of the 40 or so female veterans I have interviewed over the past two years, all but two said they were constantly sexually harassed by their comrades while they were serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, and many told me that the men were worse in groups than they were individually.

Air Force Sgt. Marti Ribeiro, for example, told me that she was relentlessly harassed for all eight years of her service, both in training and during her deployments in 2003 and 2006.

I ended up waging my own war against an enemy dressed in the same uniform as mine. I had a senior non- commissioned officer harass me on a regular basis. He would constantly quiz me about my sex life, show up at the barracks at odd hours of the night and ask personal questions that no supervisor has a right to ask. I had a colonel sexually harass me in ways I’m too embarrassed to explain. Once my sergeant sat with me at lunch in the chow hall, and he said, ‘I feel like I’m in a fish bowl, the way all the men’s eyes are boring into your back.’ I told him, ‘That’s what my life is like.’

Misogyny has always been at the root of sexual violence in the military, but two other factors contribute to it, as well: the type of man who chooses to enter the all-volunteer force and the nature of the Iraq War.

The economic reasons behind enlistment are well understood. The military is the primary path out of poverty and dead-end jobs for many of the poor in America. What is less discussed is that many soldiers enlist as teenagers to escape troubled or violent homes.

Two studies of Army and Marine recruits, one conducted in 1996 by psychologists L.N. Rosen and L. Martin, and the other in 2005 by Jessica Wolfe and her colleagues of the Boston Veterans Affairs Health Center, both of which were published in the journal Military Medicine, found that half the male enlistees had been physically abused in childhood, one-sixth had been sexually abused, and 11 percent had experienced both. This is significant because, as psychologists have long known, childhood abuse often turns men into abusers.

In the ’70s, when the women’s movement brought general awareness of rape to a peak, three men – criminologist Menachim Amir and psychologists Nicholas Groth and Gene Abel – conducted separate but groundbreaking studies of imprisoned rapists. They found that rapists are not motivated by out-of-control lust, as is widely thought, but by a mix of anger, sexual sadism and the need to dominate – urges that are usually formed in childhood. Therefore, the best way to understand a rapist is to think of him as a torturer who uses sex as a weapon to degrade and destroy his victims. This is just as true of a soldier rapist as it is of a civilian who rapes.

Nobody has yet proven that abusive men like this seek out the military – attracted by its violent culture – but several scholars suspect that this is so, including the aforementioned Morris and Rutgers University law professor Elizabeth L. Hillman, author of a forthcoming
paper on sexual violence in the military. Hillman writes, ‘There is the possibility that the
demographics of the all-volunteer force draw more rape- prone men into uniform as compared to civil society.’

Worse, according to the Defense Department’s own reports, the military has been exacerbating the problem by granting an increasing number of ‘moral waivers’ to its recruits since 9/11, which means enlisting men with records of domestic and sexual violence.

Furthermore, the military has an abysmal record when it comes to catching, prosecuting and punishing its rapists. The Pentagon’s 2007 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military found that 47 percent of the reported sexual assaults in 2007 were dismissed as unworthy of investigation, and only about eight percent of the cases went to court-martial, reflecting the difficulty female soldiers have in making themselves heard or believed when they report sexual assault within the military. The majority of assailants were given what the Pentagon calls ‘nonjudicial punishments, administrative actions and discharges.’ By contrast, in civilian life, 40 percent of those accused of sex crimes are prosecuted.

Which brings us to the question: Do the reasons soldiers rape have anything to do with the nature of the wars we are waging today, particularly in Iraq?

Robert Jay Lifton, a professor of psychiatry who studies war crimes, theorizes that soldiers are particularly prone to commit atrocities in a war of brutal occupation, where the enemy is civilian resistance, the command sanctions torture, and the war is justified by distorted reasoning and obvious lies.

Thus, many American troops in Iraq have deliberately shot children, raped civilian women and teenagers, tortured prisoners of war, and abused their own comrades because they see no moral justification for the war, and are reduced to nothing but self-loathing, anger, fear and hatred.

Although these explanations for why soldiers rape are dispiriting, they do at least suggest that the military could institute the following reforms:

* Promote and honor more women soldiers. The more respect women are shown by the command, the less abuse they will get from their comrades.

* Teach officers and enlistees that rape is torture and a war crime.

* Expel men from the military who attack their female comrades.

* Ban the consumption of pornography.

* Prohibit the use of sexist language by drill instructors.

* Educate officers to insist that women be treated with respect.

* Train military counselors to help male and female soldiers not only with war trauma, but also with childhood abuse and sexual assault.

* Cease admitting soldiers with backgrounds of domestic or sexual violence.

And last – but far from least – end the war in Iraq.

[Editor’s note: This article is adapted from The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq, to be published by Beacon Press in April 2009.]

Helen Benedict, a professor of journalism at Columbia University, is author of several books concerning social justice and women. Her writings on women soldiers won the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism in 2008.

Halloween 2008 – The Horror of Foreclosures

As Halloween neared in 2006, the looming mortgage crisis was already apparent and now two years later the horror of it all hasn’t gone away. It keeps getting worse. We’ve spent the last few months talking about the possibility that two million people might lose their homes by early next year. Now it turns out the total for this year and the next could turn out to be more than six million.

BY CARL BLOICE
BlackCommentator.com
INTERNATIONAL
Posted by Bulatlat

As Halloween neared in 2006, the looming mortgage crisis was already apparent and now two years later the horror of it all hasn’t gone away. It keeps getting worse. We’ve spent the last few months talking about the possibility that two million people might lose their homes by early next year. Now it turns out the total for this year and the next could turn out to be more than six million. August saw a record number of homeowners in distress, over 300,000 homes were at some stage of mortgage default and 91,000 families or individuals lost their homes, Further, about 12 million homeowners – one out of every six – are reported to have zero or negative equity in their homes.

An estimated 7,000 people are losing their homes every day.

The number are scary enough but it’s not hard to imagine the fear and anxiety that grips the individuals and families that have lost, or are about to lose, their living space and with it – for most – their financial resources built up over their working lives. Millions of people who have never missed a mortgage payment are threatened with the loss of the value of their homes. As economist Dean Baker recently noted, ‘A whole cohort of workers is now facing retirement with no wealth.’

‘The landscape looks like the Roman Empire after being attacked by Attila the Hun,’ Alan Mallach, a senior fellow at the National Housing Institute and former visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve of Philadelphia, told The Washington Independent earlier this month. ‘It’s really bad out there.’

It was Alan Greenspan, the former head of the Federal Reserve and someone who played a major role in getting us into this mess, who said increasing, home ownership was a way of giving people a stake in the economy and to secure their loyalty to it. Home possession has been touted as a key element in the Bush Administration’s supposed ‘ownership society.’ Today, many of those caught in the vise of the ‘credit crunch’ are feeling left out of the economy, abandoned as the powers-that- be scamper around trying to save the banking system.

And, it’s not just homeowners that are affected.

When the sheriff in Chicago recently announced he was suspending evictions of people being ordered out of their dwelling it was mostly renters he was concerned about, people living in apartment buildings that had been foreclosed upon. ‘You can decide who is right
or wrong here, but the fact is things are getting desperate out there for a lot of people,’
commented CNN anchor Campbell Brown, referring to the sheriff’s decision’ but ‘families are being literally kicked to the curb. And our national leaders, our politicians in Washington and our presidential candidates don’t seem at all close to figuring this out.’

Without question, everybody – homeowners, renters and the dispossessed –has a stake in the efforts to stave off a further deterioration in the country’s economy. Still, we must look on with dismay as official Washington turns a blind eye to this burgeoning foreclosure catastrophe. ‘Between the Fannie and Freddie rescue and the Paulson Plan,’ one official told me, ‘we probably own two-thirds of the mortgages in America,’ wrote Robert Kuttner, co-editor of the American Prospect magazine October 8. ‘But `we’ in this case is the Treasury Department, peopled by former officials of Goldman Sachs, who demonstrate far less concern for the distressed homeowners than for the bondholders.’

As the powers-that-be steadfastly fail to summon up the political will (courage) to effectively confront the foreclosure crisis, efforts are being stepped up to divert attention from its actual cause and direct blame away from those responsible. The most pernicious of these efforts is the assertion that working class people of color are responsible for the situation.

‘A funny thing has happened on the way to the forum,’ wrote Sasha Abramsky in the Guardian (UK) last week. ‘As the institutions of super-capitalism continue to implode, a number of conservative commentators have started to lay the blame for the mess on poor people. Now, that might seem strange given that poor people control approximately no major financial institutions. And it might seem unfair in light of the unprecedented redistribution of wealth away from the working and middle classes and toward the wealthy these past several years.’

‘It might even seem bizarre given the fact that millions of desperate men and women signed onto utterly manipulative, usurious, `creative’ mortgages during the sub-prime gold-rush years, and, as a result, ended up losing what little capital they had accumulated over lifetimes of hard work as well as losing the roofs over their heads. To stretch a point, one could even view such a suggestion as offensive, since so many banks got into trouble by bundling mortgage securities that only preserved their value and generated profits so long as enough poor people signed on for the ride and agreed to be screwed.’

But it’s even more pernicious than that. Every since I begin writing about mortgages and foreclosures two years ago, I have received warnings from readers that some people were trying to blame African Americans and other people of color for the mortgage mess. Over
time, the spread of that racist canard has picked up steam. In the final days of the Presidential campaign it has become standard fare in propaganda of the political rightwing and the Republican Party. Through some strange demented logic, some on the right have tried to blame the economic meltdown on immigrant workers.

Let’s be clear: working class African Americans, Latinos and Asians are not the source of this crisis; they are its victims. The perpetrators of the massive con game played with the nation’s economy at stake are the banks and mortgage companies and the agencies of
government that encouraged them in their nefarious activity. President Bush was only partly right; the country didn’t ‘build too many houses,’ it built more houses than people could afford and the only way to get people to purchase them was to entice or trick them
into credit arrangements that could not be sustained.

And make no mistake about it, black people were targeted for ’subprime’ mortgages. Even when they could afford better loan terms they were often directed toward the riskier variety because these were more profitable for the creditors and their agents. ‘Let’s get real here,’ wrote Abramsky. ‘People borrowed because they were presented with offers they couldn’t
refuse. They were told that home ownership was the path to prosperity, and, like everyone else, they wanted their chance to realize their dreams. When they held back from buying property, they found the decks stacked against them. The same people who urged deregulation of the mortgage industry also lobbied for an end to rent controls and curtailments of government-funded public housing.’

Did some people sign up for loans they had no intention of repaying? Yes. Did some people take out risky mortgages for on property they didn’t inhabit for speculative reasons (something that was also touted as a smart move)? Yes. Did some people say yes to the
wink and nod of the mortgage brokers who agreed to don’t- ask-don’t-tell transactions, which were laughingly called ‘liars’ loans’ by the people in the real estate offices? Yes, but they are a tiny portion of the people who, today, see their total personal wealth being foreclosed on. Blaming the millions of individual and families facing foreclosures for their own plight is obscene.

It has begun to dawn on some people that ironic as it may seem, coming to the aid of those facing foreclosures and evictions is a mandatory step in staving off any further collapse of the nation’s economy.

As economist Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, recently noted, ‘Falling house prices are driving the collapse of the financial system.’ But the recently passed bailout legislation ‘does little to avert the defaults and foreclosures that are pushing house values ever downward. Leaving these Americans out of the bailout bill is unwise and unfair, but neither Congress nor the Bush administration has ever shown anywhere near the sense of urgency to rescue homeowners at the bottom of the collapse as they have for the financiers at the top of it.’

‘If a quick consensus is required, why not include provisions to stop the source of bleeding, to aid the millions of Americans that are losing their homes?’ wrote economist Joseph Stiglitz October 1 in a TheNation.com article: ‘Here’s a Better Bailout Plan.’ ‘Why not spend as much on them as on Wall Street? Do they still believe in trickle-down economics, when for the past eight years money has been trickling up to the wizards of Wall Street? Why not enact bankruptcy reform, to help Americans write down the value of the mortgage on their overvalued home? No one benefits from these costly foreclosures.’

‘It’s unacceptable that lawmakers have yet to come out squarely in favor of bold homeowner relief in the bailout bill,’ The New York Times said editorially last month as the Department of the Treasury bailout bill was making it torturous way through Congress.
‘Secretary Henry Paulson, the biggest advocate of bailing out Wall Street, is also a big roadblock to helping hard-pressed borrowers. He wants to keep relying on the mortgage industry to voluntarily rework troubled loans, even though that approach has failed to
stem the foreclosure tide – and does a disservice to the taxpayers whose money he would put at risk in the bailout.’

‘Many of the assets that Mr. Paulson wants to buy with the $700 billion have gone sour because they are tied to mortgages that have defaulted or are at risk of default. Unless homeowners get some help – and it’s a pittance compared to what Mr. Paulson wants to give to bankers – the downward spiral of defaults, foreclosures and tumbling home prices will continue, which could push down the value of those assets even further.’

‘We could make a strong moral argument that the government has a greater responsibility to help homeowners than it does to bail out Wall Street. But we don’t have to. Basic economics argues for a robust plan to stanch foreclosures and thereby protect the taxpayers’ $700 billion investment.’

‘Millions of Americans are losing their homes.

(Already, some 3.6 million have done so since the subprime-mortgage crisis began.), notes economist, Joseph Stiglitz, in a very illuminating article in the November edition of Vanity Fair magazine. He goes on to write, ‘Financial markets produced loans and other products that were so complex and insidious that even their creators did not fully understand them; these products were so irresponsible that analysts called them `toxic.’ Yet financial markets failed to create products that would enable ordinary households to face the risks they confront and stay in their homes.’

And, ‘Throwing the poor out of their homes because they can’t pay their mortgages is not only tragic – it is pointless. All that happens is that the property deteriorates and the evicted people move somewhere else. The most coldhearted banker ought to understand
the basic economics: banks lose money when they foreclose – the vacant homes typically sell for far less than they would if they were lived in and cared for. If banks won’t renegotiate, we should have an expedited special bankruptcy procedure, akin to what
we do for corporations in Chapter 11, allowing people to keep their homes and re-structure their finances.’

Meanwhile, the worldwide economic meltdown continues.

As MIT Professor Noam Chomsky has observed, ‘The immediate origins of the current meltdown lie in the collapse of the housing bubble supervised by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, which sustained the struggling economy through the Bush years by debt-based consumer spending along with borrowing from abroad. But the roots are deeper. In part they lie in the triumph of financial liberalization in the past 30 years –
that is, freeing the markets as much as possible from government regulation.’

Halloween 2007 was the day the world stock markets peaked and it’s been more-or-less downhill every since.

At the start of September, John Authors, investment editor for the Financial Times, wrote, ‘Before Halloween closes the door on October, investors can be forgiven for thinking the horror show engulfing equities has yet to climax.’ (BlackCommentator.com/posted by (Bulatlat.com)

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member Carl Bloice is a writer in San Francisco, a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and formerly worked for a healthcare union. http://www.blackcommentator.com/295/295_lm_halloween_2008.html

New Electronic Engineers (2008)

Roll of Successful Examinees in the ELECTRONICS ENGINEER LICENSURE EXAMINATION Held in OCTOBER 2008 Page: 3 of 33 Released on OCTOBER 29, 2008 Seq. No. N a m e 1 ABACAN, ALFRED LUIS SANTOS 2 ABAD, JONAH JOJO HEERLIJK ABARRA 3 ABAD, RALPH WILLIAM YBIERNAS 4 ABALOS, OSCAR JR ZAPANTA 5 ABANILLA, JULIE AIZA PADRIQUE 6 ABANTE, MARINELLE CARINGAL 7 ABARCA, NERISSA CARPIO 8 ABARINTOS, JULIUS LORENZO ABADIANO 9 ABAT, MARK DAVID GUIBONE 10 ABDON, REX JR LUMANOG 11 ABELENDE, JOEVEL SALMORIN 12 ABELLA, DANILO JR MERCURIO 13 ABELLA, KRISTINA MARIE SARDAN 14 ABELLA, MICHAEL ANTHONY MERCADER 15 ABIAD, MARICRIS BILON 16 ABIG, FRANCISCO JR LUCAS 17 ABLAO, MARCO POLO TABIRAO 18 ABLIDAS, MIKALE RIZTON MANUEL 19 ABRICO, KRIZ ALGIE DE LA TORRE 20 ABULENCIA, MARY ANNE LAPUZ 21 ACOB, THERESA VILLAGUAS 22 ACOSTA, BRENDA CASTILLO 23 ADAJAR, ARTHUR JAY BRILLO 24 ADOLFO, CID MATHEW SANTIAGO 25 AFRICA, JOHNSON REAZON 26 AFRICA, RALPH DENNIS SALCEDO 27 AFUANG, KRISANTHA MYCA TERANIA 28 AGGARAO, PABLO JR MATEO 29 AGRAVANTE, DON JOVEN RAVOY 30 AGRUDA, ALBERT RENIER SAET 31 AGTOTO, LIBERTY VIDOR 32 AGUAVIVA, HAZEL CAGAS 33 AGUILAR, ALEX MANIBOG 34 AGUILAR, ANNA MAY RAMOS 35 AGUILAR, JAMES FRANCIS BISMONTE 36 AGUILAR, JERRY YAGUEL 37 AGUILAR, LEMUEL SOLLANO 38 AGUILERA, RICHARD SABILLO 39 AGULLANA, JESSTER CRISOSTOMO 40 AGUM, LESTER JAMES UGSOD 41 AGUSTIN, ALFREDO JR SUMAOANG 42 AGUSTIN, ROWELITO DE JUAN 43 ALADA, MARK ERICKSON MORALES 44 ALAIR, MARY ROSE MAITEM 45 ALAMAG, ALEXIS AGQUIZ 46 ALBERTO, AARON SILVERIO 47 ALBERTO, JEROME PRUDENTE 48 ALCALEN, EDGAR JR RUBITE 49 ALCANTARA, MICHAEL VINCENT AGUILAR 50 ALCANTARA, ROY JEFFREY BUAN Roll of Successful Examinees in the ELECTRONICS ENGINEER LICENSURE EXAMINATION Held in OCTOBER 2008 Page: 4 of 33 Released on OCTOBER 29, 2008 Seq. No. N a m e 51 ALCAZAR, RONOSA SANCHEZ 52 ALCORDO, RONALD DOMINGO 53 ALEGADO, JASON MARC ALMIROL 54 ALEGRE, JONALD REFAMONTE 55 ALEJANDRIA, ANN MARGARETTE ANGELES 56 ALEJANDRINO, ARGEL MALLARI 57 ALEJO, ANTONIO III BENAVENTE 58 ALFARO, REYNOLD SORREDA 59 ALFECHE, ADRIAN RAY OBACH 60 ALINGAROG, EDGARDO JR CANLAS 61 ALIPIO, NOEL YURI RILLON 62 ALIPOPO, GEMALYN LORIAGA 63 ALIVIADO, EVEROSE ABABON 64 ALLAS, DIOSDADO JR SADIWA 65 ALMARIO, JESSICA CAAWAY 66 ALMELOR, GENESES CASTROVERDE 67 ALMENDRAS, CHAIRELL WINSTON CANANIA 68 ALMERON, MARIFE DELEN 69 ALONZO, LEANDRO OLAES 70 ALTEZ, ARCHIVAL HERNANDEZ 71 ALUNAN, LENDL ISRAEL MAKABENTA 72 ALVAREZ, ADRIAN AMBROSE DUMAPIAS 73 ALVAREZ, KATHLEEN FAYE BLAZA 74 ALVAREZ, LESTER IAN PAMPLONA 75 ALVAREZ, MILO TORREGROSA 76 AMACIO, MARYNETH VOCES 77 AMADOR, RALPH STEVEN CUADERNO 78 AMANTE, NESTEDUNE MALVATAAN 79 AMATOSA, LEVISLE BABON 80 AMBION, CHRISTIAN BENEDICT SERRANO 81 AMBOS, RENZ CHRISTOPHER LOPEZ 82 AMBOY, JEFRIL MANONGSONG 83 AMOLOZA, KEN GASGAS 84 ANACAN, ROMMEL MANALO 85 ANANIA, RICHARD BERNANTE 86 ANCAJAS, NORMAN BLASCO 87 ANCHETA, RALPH JASON VARGAS 88 ANDICO, REYNALD JOSEF TOLEDO 89 ANDRES, RONALD SUÑGA 90 ANGELES, JULIUS LUNTAYAO 91 ANGLO, ERICSON BINAG 92 ANGULO, MICHAEL BERN DEGAMO 93 ANIN, RIZA BOSE 94 ANINIPOT, FAYE JANELLE ANTONIO 95 ANTALAN, CHRISTIAN PERMOLAN 96 ANTE, RAIZA PAMELA MEDELLIN 97 ANTONE, DIANA MAKINANO 98 ANTONIO, CHESTER LEE CACAL 99 APALISOK, AISHA MARIA CAPIRIG 100 APOSTOL, JAY CASIL Roll of Successful Examinees in the ELECTRONICS ENGINEER LICENSURE EXAMINATION Held in OCTOBER 2008 Page: 5 of 33 Released on OCTOBER 29, 2008 Seq. No. N a m e 101 APRENTADO, GIANN CARLO STA ANA 102 APUHIN, ROMULO SUMAGAYSAY 103 AQUINO, AJUNALISA VENTO 104 AQUINO, ANGELINE PANADO 105 AQUINO, KRISTOPHER EDWARD AGONCILLO 106 AQUINO, MARVIN BOBADILLA 107 AQUINO, MICHAEL SCHERER UNDAY 108 ARANAS, RAISSA JIMENA 109 ARAÑEZ, OLIVER DE LEON 110 ARBOLEDA, ENRICO PAULO CALABINES 111 ARBOLEDA, MA LORICAR OBILLOS 112 ARCENAS, GRETCHEEN MAE PERIDA 113 ARCIAGA, ARNOLD CACATIAN 114 ARCILLA, DANILO JR TORRES 115 ARCILLA, OLIVER DULCE 116 ARCILLAS, JAYSON SANTOS 117 ARENAS, JOSE RAPHAEL CHING 118 ARGUELLES, KAREN ESCAÑO 119 ARGUELLES, LEA CLAVERIA 120 ARMONIO, ARIEL SERMONIA 121 AROBEL, MIKHAIL FUGUIAO 122 ARUTA, WINSTON CANONCE 123 ASI, JORIEL SULIT 124 ASOTIGUE, JUNE ANDREA SEVILLA 125 ASOY, JOHN DAVID VILLANUEVA 126 ASUNCION, MA KRISTA PAULA MANAHAN 127 ATENDIDO, DARWIN CLARK TORIBIO 128 ATIENZA, ALEX MALOLOS 129 AUNARIO, RINGO CRUZ 130 AUNGON, MARK EDISON GRANADA 131 AUSTRIA, MARK KHEVIN ZINAMPAN 132 AVELINO, ARNEL MAGNO 133 AZADA, ROMMEL BESA 134 AZAÑA, PRINCESS MADELEINE GECANA Click here for more.

Mike Arroyo at St. Luke’s Hospital But not for Bolante, he says

By Thea Alberto
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 10:53:00 10/30/2008

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MANILA, Philippines — (UPDATE 2) First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo dropped by the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon but not to visit former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante who is also confined there.

The First Gentleman said he was at the hospital for his regular physical therapy session, following an angioplasty operation last year. He said his sessions were usually Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“We’re friends but we have not yet talked. We haven’t seen each other yet,” he said in Filipino, when asked whether he would visit Bolante, the alleged mastermind in the transfer of P728 million in fertilizer funds to the campaign kitty of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the 2004 elections.

Arroyo, who was seen at about 7:30 a.m., left three hours later.

Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Jose Balajadia Jr. also confirmed that the First Gentleman did not visit Bolante,

Balajadia was reacting to text messages which circulated Thursday soon after the President’s spouse went to St. Luke’s for his regular physical therapy session following a delicate angioplasty operation in 2007.

At a press conference, Balajadia said Senate personnel guarding Bolante round the clock had a logbook to track his guests.

So far, the names of the First Couple, or even Cabinet members such as Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, did not appear, he said.

“We have a log,” said Balajadia, disclosing that visitors of Bolante were “mostly relatives.”

The Senate will send its own doctors to conduct separate tests on Bolante, according to Balajadia.

But he could not say when, since Senate President Manuel Villar has been allowing Bolante to undergo all the tests that he wanted to avail of there.

“I’m not a doctor. It depends on the doctors,” he said, when asked if Bolante would be discharged from the hospital anytime soon.

“What SP [Senate President] said is we will give him a few more days (in the hospital),” he said, pointing out that the timeframe for medical tests would be the call of attending physicians.

However, Balajadia said it was absurd for the hospital to first get clearance from him before releasing any medical bulletin.

“Why would they ask for my approval? I’m only the security officer,” he said.

On Thursday afternoon, the SLMC finally issued a bulleting saying Bolante is stable but needs more to undergo more tests.

Bolante was brought to the SLMC Tuesday night, immediately after his arrival from the United States where he was deported following a failed bid for political asylum.

With a report from Nancy Carvajal, Michael Lim Ubac, Inquirer