A media statement on
P-Noy’s recent anti-divorce but pro-remarriage pronouncement
By ELIZABETH ANGSIOCO
National Chairperson, Democratic Socialist Women of the
Philippines (DSWP)
August 26, 2010
Hearing the
President’s pronouncements on divorce made me cringe. When President
Benigno S. Aquino III stated that divorce in the Philippines is a
no-no, but in the same breath said that those who want to remarry may
just use legal separation, my initial reaction was – “Does he know
that legal separation does not allow remarriage?” The President
contradicted himself and his statement may be described as confused,
or perhaps, misguided. Unfortunately, Presidential pronouncements are
usually taken as the administration’s positions on issues and strongly
influence Congress decisions. In this case, the President’s message
is unclear.
His statement that
legal separation should be enough for couples who cannot stay together
and who want to remarry reveals wrong appreciation of existing laws.
Legal separation does not dissolve the marriage and only settles
separation of abode, and in some cases, of properties. Our work with
women from all over the country taught me that some marriages break
down, divorce or no divorce. Many times, women’s decision to get out
of relationships is due to abuse and violence they suffered for years
and could no longer bear. For these women, legal separation is not
enough even if they do not have plans of remarrying. Reports
consistently show that in this country, violence and other forms of
abuse against women are primarily committed by husbands and partners,
the very same people who vowed to love and protect them ‘till death do
they part’. We know of cases where even if legally separated, women
are unable to escape abuse from husbands because they remain “owned”
by them in marriage.
President Aquino also
said that the sanctity of marriage must be protected and I agree.
However, this should not be at the expense of women, particularly
those who are victims of abuse. Does the President really believe
that those abused should not be given another chance at life? Would
the President prefer women to suffer in silence for the sake of making
it appear that their marriages are intact even if in reality, they
have broken down? Mr. President, many women want to be free from
abusive relationships. The goal is to get their lives back. Whether
they will remarry or not is beside the point. The government, which
you lead, should make possible women’s freedom from abuse within
marriages. Legalizing divorce will help and we hope that you will side
with us on this urgent matter. We want to know if you are for or
against divorce.
Educating torture
'experts' is pointless
A Statement by the
Asian Human Rights Commission
August 24, 2010
The widely publicised
video of a police torture has drawn mixed reactions and opinions from
the public, including lawmakers, lawyers and human rights groups, who
have all joined in the chorus condemning such a barbaric and cruel
act. Most of them share the opinion that 'lack of education of the law
enforcers' is to blame for it happening but the Asian Human Rights
Commission (AHRC) strongly argues that this is not the case.
While educating law
enforcers about the content of the Anti-Torture Act of 2009 is
necessary the lack of education of this law cannot be used as an
excuse to justify the said incident. If there is anyone who are
'experts and well-educated' on the use of torture, it is the law
enforcement officers themselves. Torture is not something so new that
one has to be told that it is abhorrent and prohibited.
The enactment of the
Anti-Torture Act in December 2009 did not mean that the term 'torture'
just came into existence and was an alien concept to the law
enforcers. The term torture itself has been widely used and understood
to refer to violence and cruelty perpetrated against a person. Before
the right not to be tortured was included in the 1987 Constitution,
the police and the military had already been practicing it,
particularly during Martial law period against political dissenters.
Therefore, it would be too naďve to argue that the lack of education
amongst law enforcers is to blame as to why it continues to persist.
For any police officer who thinks with reason, torture is absolutely a
condemnable act undeserving of those who wear the uniform of the
Philippine National Police.
Some of the authors of
the Anti-Torture Law were victims of torture themselves during the
Martial Law regime. It is their experience, and that of countless
others, that made the enactment of this law possible. It was also
after the Marcos regime that the concept of the right against torture
was first introduced in the Philippine Constitution. The torture
victims, most of them in disbelief as to how cruel people of their own
nationality could become, felt the depth of what torture really is. It
meant being a witness of their own suffering long before this was
written into law. Those who 'survived' have to suffer and live with
the trauma of having been tortured for the rest of their lives.
Torture is not a
result of ignorance and lack of education by the law enforcers. It is
the absence of an effective mechanism that would hold them
accountable. It is also this absence that breeds and develops a
culture of violence amongst the law enforcers. When a law enforcer or
torturer cannot be held accountable for torture or any other form of
violence he would commit, this becomes an accepted norm which we know
to have been thriving in the police force for decades. This is what
happened in the
Philippines.
The policeman who tortured the suspected thief in the video did not
become a torturer overnight, but had learnt and developed his
expertise of using torture and the accompanying mindset to an extent
that has become acceptable to him because it is a commonplace
practice.
Filipino policemen
also do not become police officers overnight. The Philippine National
Police (PNP) and the National Police Commission (NAPOLCOM), two
agencies who are responsible in training and recruiting applicants
into the police force, require highly competitive academic
qualifications, accomplishments and intensive training before it
awards a policeman the rank of a police captain, the rank that the
policeman in the video held. They also undergo civil service
examinations, regular background checks and continuing education on
law enforcement.
Also, the Philippine
National Police Academy (PNPA), one of the highly competitive police
training academies, even conduct background checks of their recruits,
by way if interviewing their family and persons who know the
applicant, before admitting him for training to ensure that immoral
persons or those with psychological problems would not be allowed in
the academy. This is in addition to passing a lengthy qualifying
examination.
Apart from training in
the police academy, the
PNP and NAPOLCOM also absorb applicants with a bachelor's degree in
criminology and those who had already earned units from any social
sciences course but were unable to graduate. This is also after
passing a civil service examination. Thus, those who are absorbed into
the police force are either university graduates or have studied for
years in a university. They are educated people and need not be told
that torture is prohibited. They are have completed, at least the
rudimentary teaching on logic, ethics, philosophy and the morals in
the universities. They are certainly not uneducated.
When the policeman
tortured the victim in the video, he did it consciously. It was not
indiscriminate or an isolated case, as earlier mentioned by the police
establishment. It reflects the tip of the iceberg as to the state of
policing in country. The emergence of further complaints on torture as
reported in the media, after the video had been exposed, only
demonstrates the ugly reality of the country's policing the surface of
which has yet to be scratched. It is a matter that most of the people
knew and had live with. Any further complaints must therefore be
seriously acted upon under the law.
Legislative activism
By Fr. ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
August
23, 2010
FORMS of activism have
definitely multiplied in trickier, more sinister ways these past
years. The original form is obviously when a person just acts without
much thinking. Even common sense is neglected, and the result can only
be trouble.
Such attitude,
unfortunately, can be infectious, taking advantage of people’s
weaknesses, ignorance and confusion, and thus can be so generalized as
to become part of a society’s culture, with structures to perpetuate
it.
And thus, we can have
such anomalies as workaholism or professionalitis, where action, work
and profession become the be-all and end-all of life. They set aside
time for prayer, family life and our other responsibilities.
But the root cause of
activism is when we detach ourselves from our objective source of
wisdom and truth, and this is nothing other than God. This sadly is
becoming prevalent because of the increasingly secularized environment
we are having these days.
Instead we depend on
our own ideas, mesmerized by their borrowed brilliance and buoyed by
our own pride and vanity. In short, we make ourselves our own God.
This irregularity is reinforced by a badly understood doctrine of the
separation of Church and state that many of us are suffering.
According to this
understanding, the Church cannot say anything on state affairs. In a
worse case, religion or anything that has to do with faith is
automatically banned from making any influence on a country’s
political life. And yet all sorts of ideologies are made to hold sway
over the people.
With this frame of
mind, we start to create a bubble, we start to live in a cocoon.
Reality becomes man-made. We follow a logic that while accompanied by
reason, is ultimately based on hot air. This is where we can talk
about an activism that is driven by ideologies founded on reason alone
without God.
Its allure derives
from the immediate practicality it gives, the instant, short-term
advantages and benefits it produces. But it’s notoriously shallow and
short-sighted, and worse, it tends to be dressed in deceptive devices
to attract attention.
Thus, in the recent
past, we had this disturbing phenomenon of street rallies, where noise
replaced thinking, slogans substituted arguments, and ideologies
attacked faith and our faith-derived culture.
Its falsehood and
inherent infirmity obviously cannot keep the craze long. In time, all
the shouting and marching petered out. It had no genuine soul. It
cannot go far in its dream.
And so, other forms of
activism had been resorted. Lately, we had been “regaled” for a while
by the news that an American judge did what was tantamount to a
judicial activism. That’s when he overturned the results of a
plebiscite that banned same-sex marriage in California.
In his view, there was
no sufficient reason to ban gay unions. He had the pluck to insinuate
that there was more than enough reason homosexual marriages were ok,
were constitutional, if not were moral and natural.
It’s good that a court
stopped his decision, at least for a while, from being implemented. We
have to be ready for this kind of activism that tries to usurp the
right of the majority of the people to be heard in their beliefs.
In our own country, we
have another disturbing phenomenon that is emerging. We can call it
legislative activism, because it involves lawmakers, our congressmen
and congresswomen, who now want to redefine marriage according to
ideological lines.
This time, they want
marriage not to be a lifelong commitment but a renewable affair after
every few years. This is really a wild idea that only shows what’s
inside their mind and heart.
Marriage, by
definition, is a lifelong commitment, because it involves everything
of the parties concerned. We, as persons and especially if we are
aware that we receive grace from God through the sacrament of
marriage, are capable of such commitment.
I’m sure the
proponents want to solve some screaming marital and family problems,
but the proposed solution can open a Pandora’s box of many other worse
problems. With such attitude, where the nature and sanctity of
marriage are eroded, people would have more reason not to take it
seriously.
Besides, the proposal
to legalize “renewable” marriage goes with another on divorce.
Actually these two are twin bastard children of a man-made
understanding of marriage.
We have to
understand that the nature of marriage is given to us by God, written
in nature, and for us to find, discover and live. It’s not for us to
fabricate nor to revise. We need to go back to this basic truth about
marriage.
SP Committee Hearings
reveal lapses in the AIP/Budget Preparation
By EMY C. BONIFACIO, Samar
News.com
August
22, 2010
The 2010 Annual Budget
of the Provincial Government of Samar is presently being subjected to
a keen scrutiny from members of the two committees. A series of
marathon hearings jointly held by the Committee on Finance and
Appropriations and the Committee on Laws and Legal Matters have called
on the different agencies and the Local Finance Committee to defend
the appropriations/items incorporated in the proposed budget.
Based on my personal
accounts on the hearings conducted, the Committees have already noted
major procedural lapses in the budget preparation. First, it was only
last July 22, 2010 that the budget was calendared for deliberation.
Secondly, it has questioned in particular, the absence of an Annual
Investment Plan that was duly approved by the Provincial Development
Council prior to the submission of the Annual Budget. Furthermore, it
was observed that the plans and programs contained in the AIP did not
pass the consultative process since there were proposed projects that
are already implemented from other sources of funds; specific places
for project implementations are not provided; resource persons/offices
for various social/promotional programs are not identified and
priority programs are not reflective of the needs of the Samarnons.
It may be recalled
that Samar has been operating under a re-enacted 2008 budget since
2009. The succeeding proposed annual budgets failed to get the SP's
approval after the Tan's administration has continually been bombarded
by criticisms for irregularities in its financial transactions,
unfinished infrastructure/road projects, poor governance and more
other administration lapses. In fact, former Governor Milagrosa Tan
was meted a 90-day suspension last December 2009 to February 2010 for
graft acts committed.
With the new set of
provincial employees sworn in, the budget controversy becomes a hot
issue putting more pressure on both the Executive and the Legislative
Branches. The seven (7) Board Members (Magnificent Seven), whose
numbers control the Sangguniang Panlalawigan decisions, are decided to
protect the coffers of the province. Hon Eunice Babalcon, Chairwoman
of the Committee on Laws and Legal Matters, was even quoted with these
pronouncements. "We don't want to take part in the approval of a
budget that is not beneficial to the people. Himay-himayon ta ini para
hingadto ha maupay nga kakadtuan".
Likewise, Hon. Noel
Sermense, Committee Chair for Finance and Appropriations bluntly said
approving the budget hastily, will not solve the problems of Samar.
This was Sermense's reaction to Governor Sharee Ann Tan's statement
that, the delivery of the basic services is hampered because of an
unapproved operating budget. Employees were even motivated to lobby
with the Sangguniang Panlalawigan for their benefits and salary
differentials. Placards were displayed at the lobby of the session
hall urging the legislators to immediately pass the budget. Governor
Tan, in a press conference, blamed the Sangguniang Panlalawigan for
the delay in passing the budget. She had posed a challenge to the
Board Members to approve the budget now with the assurance to deliver
the services, and that if she fails to deliver the basic services
provided in the budget, they can disapprove the 2011 budget. It is to
the perception of Hon. Charlie Conejos that these activities are
orchestrated by the administration to pressure them into signing the
budget. Onlookers are waiting for the outcome of this tug-of-war
between the executive and the legislative branches.
While most people
perceive the sincerity of the younger Tans in pursuing a transparent
administration, the opposition has not forgotten yet the corruption
cases that keep haunting the older Tan. People continue to doubt the
role of the previous governor in the present administration. Whoever
gets the people's sympathy with the word war circulating around, the
Samarnons are still hopeful that these officials will be acting on
their independent decisions and in the end, people's welfare wins.
Police torture video affirms police
stations are 'torture chambers'
A Statement by the
Asian Human Rights Commission
August 19, 2010
On August 17, a
national television ABS CBN broadcast the graphic video of a man being
tortured by a policeman inside a police station in Tondo, Metro
Manila. In the video, the torture victim, whom reports said had been
arrested for theft, had his penis pulled by a string tied around it as
he was lying on the floor naked. He was beaten every time he folded
his body as he tried to reach his genitals in pain. The torture took
place in front of several policemen who are also attached to the same
police station.
It was the brave act
of the informant, whose identity was kept confidential, that made this
video widely known to the public possible. It exposed the state of
policing in the Philippines. The video is perhaps shocking for others
but what is more shocking is that it is by no means the only one of
this type. It is however, the first such video to be made public. As
the informant had told the television reporter: these incidents
increase if there is an increase in robbery incidents (in the
community); and the (police) make sure nobody sees it. It explains the
wrong attitude of the police on 'crime prevention'.
In this video, the
policeman who tortured the victim, Senior Inspector Joselito Binayug,
is not an ordinary officer. He is the chief of the said police
station; and his subordinates were watching him as he was torturing
the victim. When he told the victim: "dito bawal ang snatcher
(snatchers are prohibited here) ", he was telling him that anyone who
commits crimes in his area of responsibility would suffer the same
fate. That is what Sr. Insp. Binayug and his subordinates, who did
nothing to stop him from torturing the victim, understand of
investigation and policing in reality.
To instil fear by
demonstrating unthinkable pain and humiliation them remains, for them,
the practical and cost-efficient method of investigation. The police
took offence at suspected criminals who commit crimes and get away
unpunished in their area that is why they deal with them in this
manner once they catch them. This is not an isolated case, contrary to
what the police establishment would want to tell the public in their
defence. This is rather an unwritten policy that is heavily embedded
and well-practiced in the minds of the police in investigating and
preventing crimes.
When Police Director
Leocadio Santiago, of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO),
made comments on the torture video, he said: "I've gone through
physical interrogation before. I've conducted it but not to the extent
that it would be sadistic, there are boundaries and parameters". His
comments had no pretence at all that the policemen, including him, do
harm their arrestees; and that this practice is acceptable to a
certain extent only the police would know. The notion of the absolute
prohibition of torture does exist not in their minds. This type of
mentality is deeply embedded and shared largely by the police and the
military.
While this video is
now widely known many of these incidents go unreported. The majority
of the Filipino people's reaction was disbelief, some would say: "this
can't be", also illustrates their denial and difficulty of coming to
terms as to how cruel their policemen could become. In a largely
religious country, there is supposedly a certain level of behaviour
and morals of people in civilized society; however, this incident
shatters the people's conservative thought. Only when the people come
to terms with this and try to understand the fundamental reasons
behind it will the discussion on police torture in the country be
substantial. There must be an acceptance first that in the country's
supposed civilized society this has s ince been happening. The
Filipinos and the outside world have seen how cruel and barbaric the
policemen could become.
This case is neither
indiscriminate nor isolated, but rather targeted and systematic
practice as methods of investigation and crime prevention by the law
enforcement agencies and the security forces. The Asian Human Rights
Commission (AHRC) has documented numerous cases of torture that took
place inside police station and military camps. This incident also
illustrates that torture is also used against ordinary people, not
necessarily for political reasons, who often had no connections and
influence in the society. They are people whom the police and the
military would thought either incapable of or would not challenge
their authority.
The AHRC further urges
the concerned government agencies, in particular the Commission on
Human Rights (CHR) and the Department of Justice (DoJ), to determine
the plight of the torture victim in the video, in addition to having
the policemen involved investigated. The investigation, as required by
the Anti-Torture Act of 2009, must also be completed immediately. The
CHR and the DoJ should also ensure that the informant should be
afforded with necessary protection should he decide to stand as
witness in the investigation and prosecution of the case. However,
regardless of whether the victim wishes to testify, there is
sufficient evidence in the video to charge and convict the police
officers involved.
RA 9700 – CARPER Law –
now one year old
By CHITO DELA TORRE
August
15, 2010
One year has passed
since the August 7, 2009 signing into law of Republic Act No. 9700 – CARP
Extension with Reforms, or the CARPER Law, the legislation that
extends the implementation period of the government’s Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Law (CARL, per RA 6657), for another five years, until
year 2014. RA 9700 was signed in Plaridel, Bulacan, by outgoing
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo whose constitutional term ended on
June 30, 2010 noon
time.
During the past one
year of RA 9700, only a few administrative orders had been drawn up to
tailor the newly defined steps and activities in strictly implementing
the extender law. Unlike in RA 6657, the extender law has entailed
the tailor-fitting of a lengthy implementing rules and regulations (IRR),
and the detailed accounting of agrarian reform beneficiaries who had
supposedly received land titles from the Department of Agrarian
Reform. Those titles are known as certificates of land ownership
award (CLOAs), issued to individuals as evidence that they have
ascended to the level of landowners with the right to exercise all the
rights and duties appurtenant to land ownership.
With the election of a
new President of the Republic of the Philippines, in the person of
former Senator Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino
III – whose astounding popularity, which his person gained from
the time he was wooed to run for President until his proclamation as
duly elected President, earned for him the monicker title “P-Noy”, for
President Noynoy, Noynoy being his pet name in the Aquino family and
circles of friends and relatives – new hopes have been attached to the
changing of the agrarian landscape. A few minutes after his first
state of the nation address (SONA) at past 12 high noon of
June 30, 2010, a few
government policy watchers and political analysts had noticed that
PNoy (I prefer to ascribe that calling to P-Noy) did not mention
agrarian reform or the Hacienda Luisita in his speech. The Hacienda,
more than one month later, would become a scene of a referendum where
more than 6,000 of its workers gave a 90 per cent high vote to express
their preference for a stock distribution option (SDO) than to opt for
ownership of part of the vast hacienda lands in Tarlac, Tarlac. PNoy
was just consistent, it seemed: He didn’t dwell on the CARP in his
SONA, and neither did he dip his fingers into the Hacienda case since
Day 1 of his presidency. PNoy was right. An hour after the referendum
results were known, plans were up to bring the compromise voting
exercise to the Supreme Court, for a final resolution of the issue,
whether it was legal. But PNoy’s non-mention of CARP didn’t mean he
was abdicating the agrarian program. By July 1, it was already known
nationwide that this bachelor national leader who has a mind of his
own had appointed attorney Virgilio Delos Reyes as Secretary of the
Department of Agrarian Reform. Before that, he had to make sure that
the people who elected him – his masters – appreciated well that he
was seriously for the successful implementation of the agrarian
program, and the CARPER LAW, thus he took in a former Agrarian
Secretary, Florencio “Butch” Abad, as his Budget Secretary, to ensure
that the right cash budget for the agrarian program is always there so
that finally the program can be completely accomplished, as desired.
And long before he was a congressman, Noynoy already must have
understood fully well how the agrarian reform in this country should
work: He was born to a family whose vast hacienda was an agrarian
matter even before his birth, and he was beside his mother when
President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino penned the first Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Program – Proclamation No. 131, the precursor of RA
6657, the first and only Executive fiat that expanded the coverage of
agrarian reform, to include even the limited rice and corn lands of
President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos. RA 6657 was to be correctly
referred to as CARL, for Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law Do you
remember all these? On July 22, 1987, Pres. Cory Aquino signed into
law her Proclamation No. 131 (Instituting A Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Program) “which shall cover, regardless of tenurial arrangement
and commodity produced, all public and private agricultural lands as
provided in the Constitution, including whenever applicable in
accordance with law, other lands of the public domain suitable to
agriculture” (Section 1, Proc. 131). A companion measure, Executive
Order No. 229, also signed by Pres. Cory on July 22, 1987, to provide
the mechanisms for CARP’s implementation, said in Sec. 2 thereof:
“Implementation. Land acquisition and distribution shall be
implemented as provided in this Order as to all kinds of lands under
the coverage of the program, subject to such priorities and reasonable
retention limits as the Congress may under the Constitution prescribe,
taking into account ecological, developmental, or equity
considerations, and subject to the payment of just compensation”.
RA 9700 prescribes
time lines for particular land acquisition and distribution
activities. In observing these time periods, the DAR had perforce to
define specific steps and formulate specific procedures, with
carefully studied forms to be used in the implementation of the
extended program. That has taken most of the months, weeks, and days
of the DAR personnel during the first year of the extender law.
October 15and October
21 in year 2009 became significant dates. On Oct. 15, then DAR Sec.
Nasser C. Pangandaman penned three DAR Administrative Orders (AOs) –
02, 03 and 04 – and six days later, these Orders were published in
national newspapers of general circulation. AO 02 is a 95-page
document on the “Rules and Procedures Governing the Acquisition and
Distribution of Agricultural Lands Under Republic Act (R.A.) No. 6657,
as amended by R.A. No. 9700”. It also presents in tabular form the
series of steps and activities to be undertaken, as well as the forms
and documents required. AO 02 was accompanied eight months later by a
2-page Memorandum Circular No. 06 which establishes “clarificatory
guidelines on the transitory provisions” of AO 02. AO 03 - “Rules and
Procedures Governing the Cancellation of Registered Certificates of
Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs), Emancipation Patents (EPs), and Other
Titles Issued Under Any Agrarian Reform Program” – consists of 11
pages. Four-page AO 04 prescribes “Rules and Regulations implementing
Section 19 of R.A. No. 9700 (Jurisdiction on and Referral of Agrarian
Dispute”.
On Oct. 28, the
24-page AO No. 05, series of 2009, was signed by Sec. Pangandaman, and
on November 3, it was published in two newspapers. The Order defines
the “Implementing Rules and Regulations on Support Services Delivery
Under Republic Act No. 9700”.
The Presidential
Agrarian Reform Committee (PARC) Executive Committee (ExeCom) also
issued last year AO No. 01 to cover the “procedures and data
requirement in the declaration of certain provinces as ‘priority land
reform areas’ which will enable them to: (1) advance to the
acquisition and distribution of landholdings enumerated under the next
phase of implementation or (2) advance to the acquisition and
distribution of landholdings covered under phase 3-b implementation
based on the conditions cited under paragraph 9, section 5 of RA
9700”. [The PARC was given birth in Pres. Cory’s Proc. 131 “to
coordinate the implementation of the CARP and to ensure the timely and
effective delivery of the necessary support services”, with the
President of the Philippines as Chairman. As such it formulates
and/or implements the policies, rules and regulations necessary” –
like the schedule of acquisition and redistribution of specific
agrarian reform areas, and control mechanisms for evaluating the
owner’s declaration of current fair market value. On the other hand,
the ExeCom of the PARC, also created by Proc. 131, is headed by the
DAR Secretary as Chairman and the heads of the following agencies as
members: Executive Secretary; departments of Agriculture, Environment
and Natural Resources, Finance, Public Works and Highways; and Land
Bank of the Philippines. The PARC has been built into the RA 6657 and
respected in RA 9700.]
Climate justice and
human rights
By BASIL FERNANDO, Asian Human Rights Commission
August
10, 2010
There are times when
children are wiser than the adults. We live in such a time. Today's
children know more about the problems of climate as a man-made
problem. They worry about it, talk about it and feel sad about it.
They are wiser than the earlier generations. They are learning the
folly of those ideas of progress, of development for which nature was
sacrificed. They are beginning to see the way man became the enemy of
the environment and is destroying the very climate that sustains human
life.
We have some hope,
because our children have begun to reject the inherently unjust
notions about development that was called history. We are at a turning
point of generational change. Perhaps the young of today, who will
play their roles in not so distant future, may have the courage to
decisively change the course of history by abandoning the notions of
progress that earlier generations blindly believed in. The ideology of
conquest as against cooperation, domination as against participation
will be looked with greater suspicion than ever before. The doubts
that the young have on all those aspects, including notions of gender
and sexuality are why we can look to the future with some hope.
It is time for older
generation to express its confession. Confessions when they are made
genuinely have a great power effect change.
Need to explain
There are many things
about which older generations have to give explanations to the young.
We have to confess that due to our unquestioning attitudes we have
contributed many wrong concepts and ideas to be adopted as practices
and this has led to the loss of our flowers, the birds, the rivers,
the seas, clear skies, pure waters and everything that we treasure.
Above all this unquestioning attitude towards development has caused
the deaths of many millions.
This same
unquestioning attitudes have kept us passive when millions of people
were displaced in the name of development. Displacement meant death to
them in terms of their lives and in terms of their inner spirit. The
idea that the end justifies the means paralysed our minds so much that
we remained unmoved when such deaths take place on large scale. It is
this paralysis that we have to examine if we are to honestly talk
about the climate justice and human rights.
Killer disease
In essence justice
means the absence of this paralysis. The capacity for justice within a
society exists only to the extent of people having the capacity to be
critical of themselves and their beliefs. Blind faith that leads to
blind obedience is the killer disease of humanity and we need to
understand more about this killer disease. Admiration for obedience is
being taught by all those who talk about stability. The economist is
taught to obediently follow the economic plans whatever be the
consequences to the population. The planners are taught to plan with
complete disregard to the human consequences of their actions.
The media is being
conditioned to not critically examine the society and the ideas which
are deified in particular time. The servile nature of the media to the
powers that be has been one of the major causes that have contributed
to the spread of this killer disease.
The creativity of the
artist, of the singer, of the dancer and the poet has been sacrificed
in the name of obedience to great ideas. The incapacity to question
those ideas has lead to the paralysis of the mind and the will and is
responsible for the climatic catastrophes we are facing today.
If we are losing the
Himalayas and the seas are threatening us, if nature in all its forms
is developing patterns of action that are altering its friendly course
it has followed for centuries, it is because human beings gave into
the false doctrines that nurtured in them the attitudes of obedience.
If we wish to save our climate we must seriously grieve out
emotionless obedience.
Human beings can
remain faithful to their nature only to the extent that they are
capable of grieving over the loss of things of on which they have had
their roots. Human attachment leads to an understanding of the
character of loss and in that process we should be able to grieve over
such loses. However, the capacity to grieve is linked to the capacity
to understand the overall processes of which human beings are just a
part. If in the name of development these natural processes are
destroyed then the price of that destruction has to paid with the
lives of human beings.
Our linkage to the
natural world has to be discovered through the examination of the very
forces that paralyses our creativity, our initiative, our response to
the natural world; our capacity to smell, to feel the forces of
nature, our capacity to understand nature.
Siri Aurobindo
India was one of the
world's most creative nations said the great Indian thinker Siri
Aurobindo. He also said that this creativity dies sometime back in
history. He went on to explain how India became a dead civilisation.
He devoted the latter part of his life in trying to regenerate the
creativity of India. To us, in South Asia, who owe so much to our
roots in the Indian civilisation the previous creativity and its death
has had enormous impact. In the periods of India's creativity the
power of South Asia was nourished during the time of the death of the
Indian civilisation and this also affected the other neighbouring
nations and caused the paralysis of the minds and the souls and the
hearts of those civilisations.
Therefore, in trying
to understand the things that destroy us, some moments can be devoted
to understanding the death of the Indian civilisation. That, of
course, is too vast a subject. However, a few thoughts may be in
order. When the concept of the end justifying the means became part of
the Indian thinking that was the time when the death of the Indian
civilisation started in the same way that such moments caused the
death of other civilisations.
It is the Arthaśāstra,
the philosophy of Chānakya that has contributed a great deal to the
destruction of this great nation. When the rulers become indifferent
to the suffering of the masses, when even religious philosophies are
developed to divide the people , when the deepest dividing doctrines
such as caste develops within a civilization, there is no doubt that,
that civilisation is embracing a suicidal path. These suicidal ideas
which made rituals more important than reason and which thereby killed
the creativity of the mind and the spirit also created the deep
attitudes which made us indifferent to nature and as a result we have
had the catastrophes not only of civilisation but also of climate
today.
The adults of the
earlier generations should now have the capacity to grieve over the
contributions that they have made to these great losses by the
adherence to these doctrines and the blind obedience with which they
allowed their minds and souls to be paralysed.
The way to pave the
path for the new generations to find a cure for these losses lies in
the capacity of the older generation to look self critically at their
own past, their own guilt in the contributions they have made to such
losses.
A human being's
greatest capacity is to grow creative by a process of self
understanding and grieving. The path to creativity is this path, the
path of introspection, self criticism, the revival of our critical
minds and the revival of our emotions and creative capacities.
The climate justice
The problem of the
climate is very much a problem about the people. It means the deaths
of large numbers of people, displacement, loss of cultures and
connections, loss of education and the loss of youth and the
possibilities of life for vast numbers of people. It is this human
tragedy that we talk about when we discuss the climate justice. The
loss of the flowers, the seas and the rivers have all taken away many
lives and also taken away what life means to those who survive.
Therefore the talk about climate problems is to talk about the very
fundamental problems of human existence in our times. We have to
recover the theme that human being matter. Unfortunately, the very
essence of all the development theories is that not all human beings
actually matter.
The most neglected
sections are the victims of these climate changes who are among the
poorest. What happens to them is not recorded through our media. There
are no records of this throughout history. Their lives and the
memories are erased from our records.
The only real solution
to the problem of climate is to allow those who are affected by these
problems to be heard. Their voices must be heard, the faces must be
seen and their stories must become part of the common discourse of
humanity.
Creating opportunities
for the voices of the victims of the destruction that is being caused
today to be heard is a primary obligation of the human rights
movements. Many human rights groups think that their primary duty is
to parrot out the UN conventions, constitutional provisions and other
declarations about rights. These documents can at best only provide
certain principles in dealing with this problem. The most primary
obligation in the implementation of any of these principles is to
create the possibility of participation of the victims of the
destruction that is caused by the development strategies to be the
spokesmen of their own cause.
These people speak of
their grievances privately but there is nobody to pick up their
stories so that their voices may be heard and brought to the public
discourse. All plans for development take place without listening to
the voices of these people and without giving them the opportunity to
be heard. Development plans are hatched and carried out in secrecy and
the people have time to talk only after the destruction has happened.
To change that course
is possible only when opportunities are created for the people to
speak up. Today as the younger generation learns more about climate
related problems and as they become more preoccupied with these
problems their attention needs to be drawn to the fact that the
solutions lie in the hands of the victims themselves. Without allowing
victims to speak up, without bringing them to the public discourse,
without allowing the victims to confront the planners there will be no
stopping of the destruction that is taking place now.
Therefore the future
of the human rights movement should be to find ways for the people and
to get them to speak up about the problems that affect them.
Development discourse must begin from the bottom and consultation with
the bottom in a genuine sense must be made possible by the affected
people themselves being heard.
Vast change in
human thinking is needed if human survival is to be guaranteed. The
knowledge that the young people are acquiring about the climate is a
good beginning for such change. However, that knowledge alone cannot
resolve this problem. The solution lies in the affected people
becoming their own spokesman and the decision making of humanity is
changed and the process of genuine consultation between the ordinary
people and the planners becoming a possibility.
Bigotry or insanity?
By Fr. ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
August
10, 2010
“…an insane person
thinks and reasons a lot, except that his logic is detached from
reality.”
THE issue is not
immediately relevant to us, but though it is Californian or American,
it has treacherous global implications that can affect us sooner or
later. And so we just have to make some comments on it as it is
evolving at the moment.
I am of the opinion
that we need to react now to avoid this complicated development to
reach our shores. We cannot deny that its dangerous seeds are already
sown in our society. It is part of the culture of death that the late
Pope John Paul warned us about.
I’m referring to a
recent decision of an American judge to overturn the so-called
Proposition 8 that bans same-sex unions in
California. This proposition was put to a plebiscite before, and it
won.
In fact, in all the 31
states where this issue was put to a vote, no state voted for “gay
marriage.” Every single one of them reaffirmed the true nature of
marriage.
Now, a judge wants to
strike down the state law that defines marriage as between a man and a
woman. In a brazen act of judicial activism, he is redefining marriage
based on an ideological reasoning.
In his argument, he
said that the “ability to marry” is a fundamental right that cannot be
denied to gays and lesbians. This is diametrically opposed to
historical evidence where societies have always made some restrictions
to this “ability to marry.”
As in, one may not
marry your own sibling, nor marry several spouses at the same time,
etc.
There are many valid
reasons why marriage has to be regulated. Foremost among those should
be the obvious natural truth that marriage is meant for couples to
have children, and this can only happen between a man and a woman.
The nature of marriage
does not depend on the subjective feelings and preferences of the
parties involved. It has an objective, absolute and universal basis.
Of course, in real
life, this objective basis may not be fully appreciated by different
people in different cultures and circumstances. But there has always
been a consensus that it has to be between a man and a woman. Same-sex
unions have largely been seen as abnormal.
Several pro-same-sex
union commentators were quick to declare that with this judge’s
ruling, bigotry has been smashed, obviously referring to the Christian
understanding of marriage.
One noted that the
judge’s decision faulted Proposition 8 banning gay marriages for
violating the rule on due process and equal protection under law. I
consider these claims as alibis.
For sure, everyone is
entitled to his opinion. I prefer to see the whole development not as
bigotry on the part of those who are not in favor of same-sex unions,
but as a step toward legal insanity.
Insanity is never a
matter of a lack of reason. An insane person thinks and reasons a lot,
except that his logic is detached from reality.
And when a legal
system confines itself solely within reason, of the social type more
than the metaphysical, and fails to anchor itself on an ultimate
source of truth, as in faith and beliefs, then it is likely to lapse
into legal insanity.
Its understanding of
due process and equal protection under the law, while formally
commendable, will suffer a basic infirmity that can easily be
manipulated by ideologues pursuing some private agenda.
This has happened many
times in many places and in different episodes of history. We have to
be wary of these tendencies that come as a result when the moral and
spiritual foundations of a society weaken.
We need to be
discerning of the dangerous trends our current world, especially
involving the more developed but decadent countries. We have to be
quick to read the signs of the times, and ready to wage a battle of
love and truth to correct emerging anomalies.
An abominable danger
we should all be careful about is when our legal system makes itself
an absolute source of its own power, authority and wisdom. We become
the most pitiable creatures in the universe when we allow this
disorder to reign over us.
When law and justice
have no deeper foundations than our own understanding of things, our
own preferences, our own historical, cultural and social
conditionings, with no recognition of a higher source of wisdom, then
we truly would be in profound trouble.
This is legal
positivism, pure and simple, a very funny if most painful predicament,
where we can have very sophisticated laws, thoroughly developed and
elaborated, but resting ultimately on a vacuum.
Aquino Presidency: An
unfolding drama of hope
By CHITO DELA TORRE
August
7, 2010
“The Almighty has a
plan for all of us and I agree that the All Seeing Eye does not play
dice with our destinies. Indeed, even pain has a purpose.” - Chief
Justice Reynato Puno (lifted from Atty-at-Work).
To some observant
Filipino eyes, the current administration of President Noynoy Aquino
is repeatedly committing blunders in decision-making and approaches in
its haste to right what it perceives to be wrongs committed during the
more than nine years of an Arroyo regime. To a few, mostly loyal to
ex-president Gloria Arroyo, the blunders of the new administration are
serious and could be contested up to the Supreme Court, such as the
creation of the Truth Commission which is given a limited executive
mandate of only two years to complete its mission.
Be that as it may,
criticisms such as these don’t bother Malacańang. Malacańang just
does what it believes it must do. It goes with the best speech of the
year, President Aquino’s first State of the Nation Address (SONA) –
which I rate 100 per cent, for its being honest, down-to-earth, and
purposive, bereft of pomposity and euphemisms.
It seems, when making
decisions, Malacańang always looks back to the promises made by PNoy.
Decisions must approximate the solutions to problems, crimes, and
failures that never saw the truth in the past regime, until Malacańang
hits the right chord. Hence, the constant need for consultations and
for cabinet meetings, and the need for accordingly responding to
feedbacks from and grievances of the Filipino people.
Of course, those
decisions could be wrong or simply lack some basic requirements to be
universally acceptable. That’s why, PNoy, and his early-erring
Secretaries and heads of agencies, are fundamentally prepared to make
the necessary corrections, and they do the immediate corrections,
taking note of lessons and insights learned their own way.
All these are normal.
It’s normal for a new leadership, to err or to lack. And it will
always be normal, until the present dispensation can correct the
wrongs of the past that have been carried to the present, or that had
caused the big problems of today.
Sifting the sands of
options - of which many are available and are multifarious, especially
when just everyone gets on to the television screen or is quoted in
newspapers and magazines or is heard over the radios – sometimes lead
leaders to courses of action that are vulnerable to open attacks. It
will be so, for as long as there still remain the bitter fruits of
seeds of discontent that had been planted during the past 33,000 days
before June 30, 2010.
But the All Seeing Eye
has let these things happen, always beyond our expectation, beyond
even what the most perfect systems on Earth could predict or
interpret. Those who are like PNoy who strongly believes in God’s
purpose see that as a normal occurrence. Hence, they hope to find
hope in whatever their hope can provide, convinced that in the end,
they will see and enjoy the fulfilment of the simpler times that they
have for long been sighing for. And they are convinced that President
Noynoy Aquino is that hope, their hope, who can give unto them that
fulfilment, even little by little, even through thick and thin, even
inch by inch, notwithstanding the monstrosity the appearance of every
policy nemesis may be, and even if it may only take pragmatism to
eradicate the evils in governance and of society.
For that has been
happening in Philippine republicanism and in this country’s battle for
independence as a one-identity nation, and for sovereignty over its
own territories, natural wealth, people, aspirations and future. God
– probably, because not all Filipinos can see one thing from one and
through one view at the same time, hence the urge to question each
other’s claims and contentions – lets us get what we wish through the
drama of His sole authorship. Ramon Magsaysay, a guerrilla and
auto-mechanic, and then a “mere housewife” Corazon Aquino, became
president.
Not far from a fading
memory, Leyteńos and Samareńos had a Basaynon high school drop-out but
a “voracious reader” who became the Waray region’s first Budget
Commissioner – Serafin Marabut, for whom Marabut, once a barrio of
Basey, was created as a new town in Samar in recognition of his
achievements for the whole
Philippines.
Now, we have a not
really simple citizen whom millions of Filipinos have asked to be
their leader. Now he is our President. He resembles the simple hope
of the ordinary Filipinos, the poor and the hopeless. Thanks God he
accepted to lead us all.
Wherever his actions
may presently lead this nation to, whichever his strategies may be,
they could only be part of God’s grand plan. Man proposes, but God
disposes, so it has been said time and time again. And behind all
these, we are comforted with the thought that the Catholic Church in
us and the religious leaders of various congregations are praying that
through PNoy we can all get there.
Yes, harsh criticisms
and negative feedbacks will continue to pester the present
dispensation, but let those all be just to HELP GUIDE the leadership
so that it will succeed in its avowals. This, even if it is the
unquenchable abnormality of this nation to always demand for unity
rather than a rebellious division in the ranks of those in power, for
it has always been an equally cacophonous abnormality to reject
government action and demand at the same time for rara avis measures
that will only preserve and perpetuate evil whims – such as corruption
via pork barrels, dynastic power through malevolent authority.
Yes, some measures
adopted by the current leadership may not be what others see should
be, but let those all engender their own desired results. For, the
current leadership also knows that, and in knowing that, it knows what
are its impact consequences and what courses of action to take. It can
refine until it gets the best. That’s why no war is briefly fought,
for strategies interplay from both sides of the war. We have 9 years
war enemy behind and in front of us all, and today’s 6 years of a PNoy
presidency may not be enough. But, like every refined hope, PNoy’s
administration gets its strongest determination to get over from the
inexhaustible arsenal of hope from People Power, the power that is
behind him.
So, President
Aquino, just carry on! Cabinet Secretaries, heave-ho!!!
Lawmakers’ group does
not support call to legalize abortion
A Media Statement of
the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development
Foundation, Inc.
August 6, 2010
The Philippine
Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc.
(PLCPD) expresses strong opposition on the call of a group for
Congress to pass a law that would legalize abortion in the
Philippines.
PLCPD, however, is
firmly pushing for the passage of the proposed Reproductive Health,
Responsible Parenthood and Population Development bills currently
filed in Congress so as to allow couples to have access to legal and
medically safe family planning methods that will reduce unplanned
pregnancies which eventually will lessen the incidence of abortions in
the country.
Legalization of
abortion is not the right approach to address the increasing number of
eleven (11) mothers dying every day due to pregnancy and
pregnancy-related complications.
The legal and
culturally-sensitive approach in reducing maternal deaths is for women
and couples to practice family planning, provide skilled birth
attendants to every delivery, and establish basic and emergency
obstetric care which is accessible in urban and rural settings. PLCPD
further emphasized that voluntary family planning can reduce maternal
deaths by 20 to 35% (WHO, 1995). These can be ‘institutionalized’ by
enactment into law of the proposed RH bills.
PLCPD and authors of
RH bills stressed further that the proposed measure does not consider
abortion as a family planning method. In fact, in the Guiding
Principles of the bill states “nothing in this Act changes the law on
abortion”. PLCPD however emphasizes that though abortion is not legal,
the government should ensure that all women needing post-abortion care
must be treated in a humane and non-judgmental manner.
We call on the media
and the public not to confuse the campaign for the legalization of
abortion in the Philippines as part of the reproductive health
advocacy campaign.
To reiterate, abortion
is not part of PLCPD’s proposed measures on reproductive health and
that the organization is not a part, and will not be a part, of any
group that will call for the legalization of abortion in the
Philippines.
PLCPD is an advocacy
institution of lawmakers committed to harness the efforts of the
members of the Philippine congress in legislating progressive policies
on population and development. It was organized as a non-stock,
non-profit, non-partisan organization in 1989 by a group of
progressive legislators from the Senate and House of Representatives.
Karapatan reiterates its call to PNoy:
end impunity, prosecute Gloria Arroyo and state security forces
involved in human rights violations under her watch!
A Press
Statement by KARAPATAN on the Palace announcement of the President’s
signing of an Executive Order forming the Truth Commission
July
31, 2010
Now that President
Benigno S. Aquino III has already signed the Executive Order forming
the Truth Commission, we at Karapatan, ask him: Will PNoy’s government
lead the prosecution of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the military
and police personnel involved in human rights violations from 2001-
end June 2010?
The Palace has said
that the Truth Commission will “investigate reports of graft and
corruption of such scale and magnitude that shock and offend the moral
and ethical sensibilities of the people.” The President’s
spokesperson, Mr. Edwin Lacierda said “[The commission’s] job is to
investigate and seek the truth in the grave allegations of graft and
corruption during the past nine years that allegedly involved
government officials and their conspirators in the private sector.”
It is good and proper
that these anomalies must be investigated and we hope that prosecution
and punishment of those found guilty will also be done.
But we maintain that
human rights violations cases must be viewed also as cases “of such
scale and magnitude that shock and offend the moral and ethical
sensibilities of the people” and thus, must also be prioritized by
government so that impunity that attend the commission of these crimes
must be put to an end. The victims are still crying for justice up to
now.
President Benigno
Simeon C.Aquino III said, in his meeting with the European envoys on
May 31, 2010, “Cases of extrajudicial killings need to be solved, not
just identify the perpetrators but have them captured and sent to
jail. That’s part of the agenda [of the incoming administration]…
Judicial reform is so important. There has to be closure as soon as
possible, which means not the usual average of six years.”
We therefore reiterate
our urgent call to the President to prosecute the previous president
and her military and police forces who committed or participated in
human rights violations cases; punish the guilty and let the
perpetrators promise not to commit the same crimes again.
Ending impunity is one
of the hardest human rights issues to be realized as past
administrations have tolerated, some even encouraged, security forces
to commit human rights violations in the twisted notion of “protecting
and defending democracy.” We urge the present dispensation to break
free from the bad practices of the past and really GO AFTER HUMAN
RIGHTS VIOLATORS, not only the corrupt and cheats, so that impunity
will be ended and a really new beginning for the country will come
about.
Freedom of religion
under threat
By Fr. ROY CIMAGALA,
roycimagala@gmail.com
July
24, 2010
POPE Benedict has
decided to make religious freedom as the theme of next year’s World
Day of Peace. I find this development very interesting and most
relevant. The Pope is quite direct on this. Religious freedom fosters
peace, he says. It does not undermine peace, much less, destroy it.
In the communiqué that
announced this papal decision. It is mentioned that "in many parts of
the world there exist various forms of restrictions or denials of
religious freedom, from discrimination and marginalization based on
religion, to acts of violence against religious minorities.”
What I know is that
lately, there had been threats and open attacks on this most
fundamental aspect of our freedom. Religious persecutions have surged
in India, Indonesia, China and in many other countries. Priests and
other Church workers have been killed, churches burned, etc.
In France, students at
public schools cannot wear head scarves and large crucifixes. The
European Court of Human Rights has prohibited crucifixes from walls of
Italian schools.
In the US, there seems
to be drift to reduce freedom of religion to mere freedom of worship.
That means religion is relegated to the private life of individuals,
denying it public expression. This can be observed in the recent
speeches of President Barack Obama and Secretary Hillary Clinton.
Religious freedom is
the freedom of all freedoms. It’s freedom at its core. It’s the
freedom that touches on the most basic and deepest need of man – to
believe or not to believe in God or simply in ourselves in whatever
frame of mind we can have.
From here spring all
the other aspects of freedom – our understanding of human rights,
freedom of expression, etc. This freedom of religion simply has to be
respected, fostered and defended.
Obviously, the other
part of this matter is that religious freedom is also the most
delicate aspect of freedom. It can be the most mysterious, the most
elusive in terms of understanding it and living it.
But in spite of this
character, or rather because of it, we should be unrelenting in our
pursuit to really know it and live it. We can never say enough of this
effort, choosing to ignore the question for the false reason of
avoiding so-called unnecessary trouble.
This excuse is the one
offered by President Obama and most likely by Mrs. Clinton herself in
talking about freedom of worship more than freedom of religion.
Obviously it has its valid point. That’s always the nature of an
excuse. It offers a valid point, but it can miss the more crucial part
of an issue.
In this case of the
freedom of religion, while everything has to be done to avoid public
disorder and conflict in order to uphold religious freedom, it should
never be reduced simply as a strictly private, personal affair of
freedom of worship.
We have to find a way
where the true nature of religious freedom can really be seen and
appreciated, one that obviously will avoid public disorder and
conflict. Thus, the Pope’s message for next year’s World Day of Peace
can be most helpful.
In that message, the
Pope highlights the basis for freedom of religion. And this is nothing
other than the equal and inherent dignity of man. Here are some
relevant words of that communique which I think are worth reflecting
on.
¨This notion of
religious freedom offers us a fundamental criterion for discerning the
phenomenon of religion and its manifestations. It necessarily rejects
the ´religiosity´ of fundamentalism, and the manipulation and the
instrumentalization of the truth and of the truth of man.
¨Since such
distortions are opposed to the dignity of man and to the search for
truth, they cannot be considered as religious freedom.
¨Rather, an authentic
notion of religious freedom offers a profound vision of this
fundamental human right, one which broadens the horizons of
´humanity,´ and ´freedom´ of man, allowing for the establishment of
deep relationship with oneself, with the other and with the world.¨
We may have to go
through these words slowly. It will be an effort that will be truly
worthwhile, since it would bring us to the true nature of religious
freedom that is now badly understood, let alone, lived.
We have to be wary of
the caricatures presented often in the media. They come as a result of
some dangerous twists to accommodate perhaps some practical reasons.
But such distortions will ultimately destroy the substance of
religious freedom.
We may have to go
slow but in the right track, rather than go fast but out of track.
Media focusing on Taft
come its July 24-25 fiesta
By CHITO DELA TORRE,
delatorrechito@yahoo.com
July
23, 2010
Taft, Eastern Samar
will be the launching pad for the first major activity of the newly
organized media group in Region VIII after this group’s founding
officers are sworn into office during the vespera of that town come
July 24, 2010 evening by Immigration commissioner Marcelino “Nonoy”
Chicano Libanan. The following day, its coverage of the vesper and
fiesta events would be released to the public, almost simultaneous to
a press conference with that town’s elected officials and perhaps some
provincial officials who may be visiting Taft on that day.
Plans for that affair
and the choice of Taft were mulled during the second organizational
meeting of this newest media group that originally adopted the name,
TAMESDA, or Tacloban Media for Eastern Samar Development and Action.
On July 18 early evening, the group voted to rename itself as the RETA,
acronym for Region Eight Tri-Media Association.
RETA’s founding
officers, as of this writing, are the following: Justenry Mendoza
Lagrimas - president, Rey Ledesma - vice-president, Rowel Amazona -
secretary, Archie Globio - business manager, Byron Alcoba - chairman
of the board of directors, Ben Veridiano and Brian Azura as board
directors, and Chito Deloria Dela Torre - treasurer of the association
and secretary of the board.
Originally, the group
was formed to be exclusively committed to help in the development of
Eastern Samar. Since the members discovered that their group’s
capabilities could also be tapped by other provinces and cities in
Region VIII, they have decided to adopt an association’s name that at
the same time bespeaks of its regional base. However, they have
agreed to initially focus on
Eastern Samar province, its 21 towns and the city of
Borongan, and their
constituents.
It was in Taft that
the Immigration commissioner completed his primary education (at Taft
central elementary school) as a consistent honor student. Although he
was born in Quezon City (he will be 47 come September 20), Taft is his
hometown. Taft today, as it had been in many years past, is proud to
have him as her son. Well, he graduated gold medalist from the
Seminario de Jesus Nazareno in Borongan, was a Leyte-Samar diocesan
scholar and 100 per cent academic scholar of the Divine Word
University until the university conferred him with the degree of
Bachelor of Laws, passed the Bar examinations in 1988, was elected
congressman for three consecutive terms for the lone district of
Eastern Samar which he first served in his capacity as senior
(although the youngest, elected at age 24) board member and then as
its vice-governor. He was cited as most outstanding congressman for
four consecutive years (2001-2004). In May 2007, he was appointed as
Commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration. He has other
accomplishments and achievements, that is why, not only Eastern Samar
but the entire Waray region and the whole
Philippines
are proud of him.
As for Taft, a Pacific
Ocean-facing town, has through the years been in the limelight as
among the region’s tourist destinations. Among its natural
attractions is a beach coast that can be best enjoyed through the
amenities made available by the now famous Dangkalan Pacific Beach
Resort, which Catbalogan-based tourist guide and cave explorer Joni
Abesamis Bonifacio describes as “a little paradise, a perfect place
for camping with mini forest and park for backpackers, family, friends
or lovers on a leisure trip”. The beach resort itself, says Joni, is
an oceanfront resort located on miles of golden fine sand facing the
Pacific Ocean, and “facing the Makati Island, a world class surf
destination”.
Taft can be visited
through the internet. Find http://www.batch2006.com/visit_taft.htm to
view pictures of the Loop-D-Loop Bridge and other sites and sights in
the town, as well as for what website visitors say, like these ones:
“Ay salamat nga damo
paka abre ko dama hin nga site, sugad hin mahidlaw na ha taft balitaw,
bisan kun sugad aton bungto mahal ko pa iton. tnx, han akon ka parag
silhig ha may singbahan na practise ako. Pagkadi ko canada asya la
gihapon paragsilhig. An ginkaibahan la kay medyo high tech na he he he
he. balitaw regards nala iyo tanan dida ha taft, maupay nla nga patron
(advance) ha iyo nga tanan. mis u mis u. . . .´ - boyet cherreguine |
cherreguinee@yahoo.com | brgy.2,taft, eastern samar | grande prierie,
alberta,
Canada, Wednesday,
June 23, 2010
at 04:38:54 AM PST
“Kamahidlaw na maupay
na it pagule hen marisyo pag may okasyon urog na et patron.” -
jason_olidac@yahoo.com. , Brgy.# Danao, Taft E. Samar | Q.C.,
Tuesday,
November 17, 2009 at 01:57:44 AM.
“(A)s always, Taft is
the most beautiful place I've ever been it is the paradise of eastern
samar because or its wonders Taft will be the most beautiful of all
beautiful and it is the most diverse place to be develop and invest
because of its location as the gateway to western samar - jim jim |
justinelarde@yahoo.com | brgy.2 taft, eastern samar | quezon city
Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 06:39:13 AM.
HAPPY FIESTA to all
Taft officials and constituents on July 24-25, 2010!
No tall order: those
military probes
By CHITO DELA TORRE, delatorrechito@yahoo.com
July
15, 2010
"...the New People’s Army... had always been able to prove that it
could not be wiped out."
Warays should welcome
calls for investigation to the reasons that forced the military during
the period of from 2006 to 2009 to consistently proclaim, pursuant to
a goal pronounced by Gloria Arroyo herself as then president, to the
whole nation and the whole world that it can crush and put an end to
insurgency in the Philippines.
Of course, when those
proclamations were being made, one undying unit of the insurgent group
(against which the military declared war when talks to end hostilities
failed during the presidency of Fidel Ramos) always kept laughing, and
rebuffing.
That group was the New
People’s Army, the armed rebels’ unit of the Communist Party of the
Philippines that the combined forces of the government continued to
fail to defeat during the mighty Marcos regime, during the next 20
years, and during the almost 10 years of Arroyo, had always been able
to prove that it could not be wiped out.
The investigation
being asked today will also look into how much exactly did the
military receive from out of the people’s money, and maybe even from
foreign debts and foreign donors, to crush and end insurgency. The
calls, from various concerned groups and some legislators, want to see
the logic which served as basis for those proclamations and
tremendously huge funding. It has seemed, after all, that that logic
never existed and that the bases and reasons advanced by Arroyo and
the military did not produce deaths to the rebels and the insurgency
itself. As the probe may begin soon, examiners should also dig into
the truths of the military’s claim that only about 1,000 more active
and armed rebels are on the loose, and then force the military to name
and establish the locations of these ubiquitous rebels. It will not
be enough that taxpayers and the very people whom the military itself
says it is sworn to protect and defend is citing numbers of its
enemies and numbers of its overrun enemy lairs. The enemies
themselves should be named and fully described in a published and
publicly posted document. The enemy lairs should also handled
similarly.
Why this public
responsibility revelation was not being done by the military before
the current Aquino Administration should be interestingly investigated
as well. Imagine, here is a country called the Philippines whose
denizens are being claimed to be protected and defended but who do not
even know who are those against whom their protection and defense is
pressed for and must be a sworn-to duty.
There should likewise
be an accounting demanded, why the military inveterately reported that
the discovery of enemy camps or the presence of armed rebels had to be
attributed to the people themselves, usually in the rural and almost
uninhabited sections in often mountainous areas. The government needs
to get that information out to the public so that the people would
know that the military actually failed heavily in its intelligence and
counter-intelligence, or espionage, activities. There actually are
other things that the military should be doing in order to pinpoint
exact locations of enemies and their hideouts or camps, but which it
does not do. That embarrassing failure is always embarrassingly cured
by the participation of ordinary, often unschooled, citizens in
barrios and sitios who have no military training and are not receiving
any salary as does every soldier. In technical military sense, it is
not acceptable to claim that information or tips volunteered by
private citizens is a product of effective military intelligence
strategy. That claim is self-defeating and an excusable denial of the
military’s foible – the military’s quirk that is almost tantamount to
a dereliction of duty.
The investigations – I
hope there will be a series of intensive, no-holds barred probes – may
build scrutinizing arteries to where intelligence funds have been
going for during the past many years until an Oakwood mutiny made a
senator and an Ampatuan massacre rocked the whole world.
President Noynoy
Aquino is in the right track. He has vowed to provide the military –
and the police – with more funds, more men, and more better arms. In
the case of the military, he has seen that as an urgent need in order
to enable the government’s armed forces to win in the government’s ---
not the military’s --- war against insurgency and truly end insurgency
and its shadows. PNoy doesn’t like the military lying to the Filipino
people. He wants it to tell the people that its soldiers couldn’t yet
win and that they can’t yet end the war, and that it was not honest in
its claims of minuscule victories in the past when in fact it was only
chipping off a tip of an iceberg, in a manner of talking.
Thus, Lieutenant
General Ricardo David is the right officer and gentleman to lead the
entire military towards this objective of President Aquino. He may
have been a silent witness of the excesses of military officers in the
past but certainly he is committed to enforce the command of his
commander-in-chief to make the military and all its personnel at par
with the highest expectations of the New Government and the wishes of
the Filipino people. The conduct of investigations, with his fullest
support and cooperation, in addition to his participation, apart from
what he may be initiating by himself as the most powerful armed
officer in the Philippines, will vigorously, albeit strenuously, guide
his commitment which, by its quintessence, is a valorously noble step
towards professionalizing the military service.
While in the
meantime there will be no demotions in rank, for now, as pronounced by
the staff of AFP chief of staff Lt. Gen. David, it will also be of
help the investigative work if no promotions are at the same time
instituted unless they are a necessary corrective measure, such as the
need to change division and brigade commanders, or in due recognition
of exemplary leadership and accomplishments that had significantly
contributed to community development, in addition to true peace and
galvanization from threats to such development. When COS David shall
have accomplished that, naturally, Pres. Aquino would be happier. The
President of the Republic of the Philippines will be comfortable with
the thought that finally this country and its people has a sensitive,
sensible, responsive, fair, parsimonious, and honest military.
Nicart – the
pro-farmer practical governor
By CHITO DELA TORRE
July
12, 2010
Until I glued my ears
to almost hushed small group conversations at the Capitol in Borongan
City, I didn’t know who the people were referring to by the
ascriptions “Bungot” and “Aklon” which I had been hearing since past 9
a.m. of June 30 up to the first press conference of the new provincial
administration in Eastern Samar neared its start at past 2 p.m..
At first, I thought
every mention of Bungot and Aklon referred to someone in
a legend which only the Estehanons know, rather only during the past
decade that I had missed the sweet and sometimes intoxicating company
of my closest friends in that province that lies opposite of America
while kissing the vast and wavy Pacific Ocean. Thus, I remembered my
literary writer, Morris Anacta Baquilod, a Boronganon who was our
editor-in-chief during our college days at Southwestern University in
Cebu City and who resigned ahead of me from the Department of Public
Information to help in the crusade for genuine democracy, and other
good writers in that province with whom I enjoyed journalism work
during the martial law days and until the post-People Power Revolution
months when we understood time had come to start writing more about
the Waray-Waray region and especially on the need for the national
government to give now its attention to the seemingly abandoned island
of Samar. Byron Bugtas, who would later on become station manager of
Radyo Ng Bayan DYES, although often serious in his job, kept our
groups zestful with his dramatized tales and self-composed songs which
we all loved to listen to.
Yes, I did imagine
that because the Waray term “bungot” means beard or moustache, it
referred to a Judas or Jesus who were depicted as bearded. As for “Aklon”,
I did recall that Waray versions of Robinhood were sometimes called “Aklon”.
Then, after I had
talked for a while with my first cousin Cornelio Adel, former
vice-mayor of Taft, Eastern Samar’s town that is popular for its “Loop
the loop” road (forming almost the figure “8”), I started laughing.
Like having succeeded getting out of a maze, I said “eureka!” – Greek
for “I’ve found it!”, corrupted jocosely by Filipino nerds, as it had
been with the jejemon jejune talk, into “yari ka!” I got my jejunal
clarification off my jejunum.
In his inaugural
address, governor Conrado Nicart Jr. mentioned the term “bungot”
twice, and to my mind it was a metaphor for an old, bearded man who
always insisted on what is right. “Kontra ni Bungot it malimbong,
malupot, makawat ug hakog” and “Para kan Bungot, immoral an pagsingabot hin gahum, immoral an
pagriko tikang han pag-malun-makon han pondo, nga para unta han mas
mamadamo nga tawo.” These both engendered a wild applause from the
nearly 1,000 people who witnessed his oath-taking and installation as
their new governor.
He was referring to
himself, I realized hours later.
The appellation must
have been attributed to his being unshaven up to his chin. His grey
beard, though, matched with his partly greyish hair that almost looked
shaggy but yet made him look even younger than the senior citizen in
the media group of more than 20 (6 from Tacloban City) that covered
the inaugural ceremony.
In his brief message
that came earlier than did “Bungot’s”, I thought vice-governor
Christopher “Sheen” Gonzales blundered twice when instead of saying
“governor Nicart”, he mentioned “governor Aklon”! I was surprised why
the audience didn’t boo him. I said to myself, it was impossible for
everyone not to have noticed the wrong mention of the name of the new
governor. This can’t happen, I continued, shaking my head. The old
woman seated before me at the back row of the tent-covered Capitol
ground kept staring at me each time I disbelievingly interjected “oww!”
This young and handsome second highest official of the province was
expressing his preference for his own governor, I thought. But no!
My notebook listed Sheen’s gubernatorial candidate was Andres A. Yu,
his tandem from the Lakas-Kampi-CMD, whom Nicart walloped miserably
with a downgrading win of 6,000 extra votes. If Andres were the
“governor Aklon” enunciated by Sheen, why could Sheen afford to commit
that mistake? I asked myself. He could not have referred to
ex-governor Ben Evardone who was simply “Ben”. So, who was this
“governor Aklon”?
At the other end of
the oval coco-lumber conference table of the sangguniang panlungsod,
Sheen once again enunciated “governor Aklon”. I smiled. I already
knew he was addressing Nicart and the governor’s other alias is “Aklon”.
And yes, the beard and
the Robinhood literary attribution literally distinguished Gov. Nicart,
who had served as barangay kapitan, Liga president, and mayor for 16
years and vice-mayor for one term in the town of
San Policarpo
in Eastern Samar. I would soon start learning how the heart of this
former constabulary-police officer ached and bled for the poor and
ignored Samarnons. In his 5-agenda message, he made as number one
priority the improvement of agricultural productivity to at least
alleviate poverty by adding some more irrigated rice land hectarage to
the province’s a little over 2,000 hectares of existing irrigated
lands in order to increase the volume of rice harvests and stop the
practice of buying rice at high prices from outside Eastern Samar.
His belief: “...kadak-an nga problema han kapobrehan in masosolbar
kun supesyente and produkto nga pagkaon tikang ha uma.”
He said that even as
he is enlisting the full support on this of the Capitol and other
provincial government employees, he is also appealing to the
sangguniang panlalawigan to help him realize this priority. This guy
is going to the basics to reach his very high goal: frequently talk
and walk with the actual farmers right at their farms, “dire ha usa
nga aircon nga opisina, nga kinurtinahan”.
His second top
priority – infrastructure projects, which he said the people will
appreciate after he shall have completed his 3-year term as governor.
“Pipili-on ta an kontraktor nga maaram mag-templa han kadamo han baras
ug semento. Aton panginanohon nga, kun an proyekto kalsada, aton
igkakalsada, dire sungkaan ha kalsada, kun irigasyon an proyekto,
tumanon nga irigasyon, dire mansion, ngan kun medisina an papaliton,
asya ta paliton, dire baybayon.
His third priority –
much improved provincial hospital services, which the patient would
appreciate by the end of his term as governor. The patient, he said,
“dire na mapalit han talagudti nga higamit, gapas, dagum, plaster ngan
bisan la medicol. He emphasized that he was stringently condemning
the insensitivity to poverty or absence of sympathy for the poor.
He said he would also
give equal treatment to all the 22 towns and 1 city that make up
Eastern Samar. “Laumi niyo nga papreho la it ak paghatag hin grasya,
kun mayda man, waray ko mamayporayon, bisan kun wara ak pagdaog dit ha
iyo, kay it politika niyan la it ngin panahon hit karampanya, katapos
hit, mamaupay ko la kun magsasarangkay la kita.”
Gov. Nicart’s fifth
priority is to launch the start of renewal thru a new brand of
leadership. Yet he has appealed that early for everyone’s
cooperation, citing as an analogy the lesson from the flight of geese
in “V” formation. “Kun sugad la daw kita nga mga tawo, mas
maintindihan ta, nga kun nagkakaurusa la kunjta hin usa nga direksyon
ug tinguha, diin ginbububligan an problem ug mabug-at nga trabaho, mas
madagmit hingadtoan an kaupayan.
In concluding his
message, the new governor pledged “a government that will be peaceful
and drug-free, maybe not in the next three years, maybe in the next
three months.” He also promised to crack down officials who abuse the
environment and take advantage and exploit the poor, the weak and the
hungry, even in my own little way”.
His had been a
down-to-earth but loaded message, one that even the unschooled could
easily understand and recall.
He also sounded that
way when he answered questions during the press conference, especially
when he declared his response to what every well-meaning Estehanon has
been complaining about for years, which is to remove all signages that
proclaim that a project is named credited to a particular official,
because in his own time, he would not also allow his name to be shown
for a similar false claim. For him, every project funded from out of
the people’s money is a project of the people, a duty performed by the
public servant who is bound to respond to the people’s needs.
I liked all that I
heard from you. Damo nga salamat, governor Nicart! I wish you good
luck. God be with you in your crusade. I am convinced that you will
do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you
can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the
people. You can as long as you ever can.
Beware of newspeak
By Fr. ROY CIMAGALA,
roycimagala@gmail.com
July
3, 2010
ACCORDING to my
dictionary, newspeak is a language invented by George Orwell in his
book, 1984, that portrays a horrible world scenario of people
brainwashed and controlled. Newspeak is “a deliberately ambiguous and
contradictory language used to mislead and manipulate the people.”
We have to be wary of
its existence, because it is actually present in today’s world. It in
fact is proliferating, thanks to an ongoing ideological warfare that
is employing subtle tricks and traps, victimizing simple people.
It’s a language that
deftly mixes truths and untruths, and cleverly exploits a window of
acceptable concepts and beliefs to introduce false and harmful ideas.
It’s like a Trojan horse, a most cunning exercise in hypocrisy and
treachery.
It must come from the
devil, because our Christian faith considers him as the “father of
lies” (Jn 8,44), and newspeak in its core is actually a lie,
irrespective of the many beautiful and true things it also emits.
Its pedigree betrays a
complicated mix of isms—atheism, agnosticism, deism, relativism,
socialism, etc. Common among them is the element of making man, us,
not God, as the ultimate source of truth, the final arbiter of good
and evil.
In the first place,
the agents of newspeak laugh at any mention of a possibility of God’s
existence or of his providence in our affairs. They just can’t believe
that. They are either awkward or hostile toward that truth. They only
believe in themselves and their brilliant ideas.
It can originate and
thrive in an environment described in
St. Paul’s
second letter to Timothy:
“There will come a
time when they will not endure the sound doctrine, but having itching
ears, will heap up to themselves teachers according to their own
lusts, and they will turn away their hearing from the truth and turn
aside rather to fables.” (4,3-4)
In this current debate
about reproductive health and sex ed in public schools, for example, I
cannot help but think of this tricky phenomenon of newspeak.
We are regaled with
many good and true things about them, but we have to look closely at
the fine print, because it’s there where the lies and dangers are
hidden. Its practitioners have mastered the darker side of the art of
propaganda.
Whenever I read their
statements, I find myself also agreeing with many of what they say,
and even praise them for some of their views. It’s just that they do
not say everything, and where they think they would go against truth
and faith, they become evasive and sly.
I have no quarrel with
the need for everyone to attain reproductive health and have sex ed.
It’s in what is meant by these ideals, and how they are to be
implemented where I seriously beg to disagree.
In this often
unnoticed level, one can readily see the remaking of the concepts of
morality, of faith and religion, of human progress and development,
etc. It’s a hideous activity.
Sad to say, newspeak
is now widely used by politicians and pundits, social pacesetters and
cultural gurus, and even religious leaders who are actually referred
to as false teachers in the gospel. We need to be most discerning,
helping one another develop a keen sense of judgment.
Recently, I received
an email of a commentary regarding a speech of US State Secretary
Hillary Clinton. It talked about how Mrs. Clinton cleverly downgraded
religious freedom into freedom of worship in her effort to further the
cause of same-sex unions.
In short, Mrs. Clinton
waxed lyrical about religious freedom understood as freedom as worship
where one’s faith is kept private and personal only, with practically
no public and social dimension.
This is a clear
distortion of freedom, castrating the very core of freedom which is
religious freedom. It’s an understanding of freedom that is purely
political and ideological, man-made and artificial, lacking its
original foundation who is God.
It’s an understanding
of freedom that simply floats according to the fashion of the times.
It speaks the language of what is politically correct at the moment
with no reference to a universal, absolute truth. It simply is tied to
changing and relativistic criteria.
This understanding of
freedom confuses objectivity with subjectivity, and divorces right to
privacy from the common good and universal truth.
With that character,
freedom is prone to be exploited by the strong and the clever, the
lucky and the privileged, the healthy and the rich. Lady Justice here
does not wear a blindfold. She openly plays favorites.
We need to be wary
of the evils of newspeak.
Asian governments need to change
policing based on the use of torture
A Statement by the
Asian Human Rights Commission on the occasion of the UN International
Day in Support of Torture Victims - June 26, 2010
As the International
Day in Support of Victims of Torture is commemorated on the 26th June
the Asian governments need to face up to their failure to honour their
obligations to eliminate the use of torture in their countries. The
use of torture is endemic in Asia and the reason for this is that the
policing systems still use torture as the main method of investigation
into crime. The extent to which torture is used is scandalously high
and the time to stop it is clearly now.
Policing in many Asian
countries is still very cruel, primitive and also inefficient and
corrupt. The extent of the governments' failure is reflected in the
widespread use of torture and their unwillingness to deal with this
problem. The nature of the policing systems is very much linked to the
kind of political systems that still prevail in Asia. These political
systems have made possible the abuse of power and corruption and the
local policing systems are used as instruments to facilitate such
abuses and corruption.
The use of torture by
the police contributes to prevent the development of democratically
based political parties. Internal democracy within the parties is
prevented by powerful politicians who aspire to power more for
personal gain rather than in the service of any national objectives.
Internal forces of repression prevent a healthy competitive spirit
through which proper political leadership can emerge within these
parties. The ruling parties also use the police as an instrument to
suppress other political parties from emerging. In this manner the
internal democratic process is seriously disturbed by the use of
coercion in favour of a few powerful persons. As a result national
institutions, vital to ensuring accountability and transparency, are
prevented from being developed.
Bad policing based on
the constant use of torture and coercion contributes to violence
within societies. The chief beneficiaries of bad policing systems are
those engaged in organised crime. In many countries direct links are
visible between the police and the organised gangs. The emergence of
the underground forces disturbs the peace within society and
complaints of insecurity are constantly heard from most of the
countries.
The fear of the police
has so deepened in society that women openly complain that they will
not dare to go to a police station even if they have to face some
problems which requires the intervention of the police. The fear of
rape and sexual harassment by the police has developed to such an
extent that women in Asian societies openly express the view that the
police are a socially unfriendly agency. During the months of May and
June of this year the Asian Human Rights Commission interviewed women
from several Asian countries and they unanimously expressed the view
that policing in their countries has emerged as an agency which has a
negative influence on society.
Bad policing with
their power to use coercion and the manipulation of their powers of
arrest and detention has reached such levels that many societies
cannot make any progress towards democracy or rule of law without
first dealing with serious police reforms. Radical police reforms
remain the primary requirement of social stability and the prevention
of violence.
Unfortunately the use
of propaganda relating to the elimination of terrorism has also been
used in order to further enhance the possibilities of the misuse of
police powers. Under the pretext of anti terrorism even the limited
achievement relating to the development of rule of law systems have
been undermined. Through extensive powers acquired by anti terrorism
laws the powers of arrest and detention are being misused in high
proportion. Such abuse is accompanied by extrajudicial killings, by
either death in custody or through forced disappearances. Serious
crimes are being committed in the name of anti terrorism and as a
result impunity has become widespread. The citizen is powerless under
these circumstances.
Bad policing and abuse
of power through anti terrorism laws has become a major threat to the
independence of the judiciary. The judiciary in many countries is
powerless when investigations are subverted and when the law
enforcement agencies themselves engaged in serious crimes. Recent
studies show the manner in which even legal remedies like habeas
corpus actions have become ineffective in the face of massive
violations by law enforcement agencies.
A theory is now
gaining ground that the use of overwhelming power is the only solution
to terrorism. Sri Lanka's experience in the suppression of the LTTE is
now being used as a kind of model or example on how to deal with
terrorism. The safeguards developed to protect individual rights are
even being ridiculed as impractical or counterproductive. Ideological
support for the use of naked power and the justification for impunity
is being promoted.
All these tendencies
are only contributing to create insecurities in society and for
unscrupulous politicians to abuse power for their own purposes.
The Asian Human Rights
Commission calls on the societies of all Asian countries to take
serious note of this dangerous situation. In recent years civil
society organisations themselves have compromised with these negative
developments and as a result contributed to this situation. Today
civil society is challenged by these threatening developments and it
is time that civil society faced up to this challenge.
The elimination of
torture-based policing and all kinds of justifications for the
unscrupulous use of power need to be stopped. This is the issue that
needs to be reflected upon by civil society as well as the governments
on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Torture
Victims. Unless the negative developments mentioned above are
seriously dealt with the number of torture victims will only increase.
The Asia Human Rights Commission also calls upon the United Nations
and the international community to deal with this situation without
ambiguity and delay.
Kindly see the
statements by women of several Asian countries who have called for the
end of bad policing and the use of torture. These may be seen at:
http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/search.php?searchstring=women