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 naïve 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 Malacañang.  Malacañang 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, Malacañang 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 Malacañang 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, Leyteños and Samareños 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.

Last updated: 08/28/2010