Dreaming Of A Different Reality

During this season, I have had much time for reflection and much time to myself for as the French would say, “ A life reflected is better than life itself.” I have also been in conversation with all kinds of folks : from our perfumed European guests at my Inn and with ordinary tricycle drivers who frequent our KTV garden hall to celebrate the end of hard day’s work by singing their troubles away. One common topic is the recession or hard times which is so palpably felt by all even if for many of us nothing is changed as we have always been experiencing poverty all this time, anyway. So, I end up regaling my guests with one of my favorite classic tales that I read somewhere & I like to remember when I’m stressed :

A fisherfolk was resting in a hammock under a palm tree and enjoying the
aquamarine view of the ocean & vanilla sky horizon when a Japanese tourist asked
him " WHY dont you catch more fish?
Why? asked the fisherman.
So you can build more boats, said the old Jap
& then what? asked the fisherman?
So you can buy a fleet of fishing boats, answered the Old Jap
& then what? asked the fisherman
So you can go on vacation holiday, like me.
Ah that's what Im doing already, said the fisherman.

A friend of mine has another version of the story: A farmer...taking a siesta under the tree...and world bank consultant comes around..tells him he can work to increase harvest, to earn more, to send children to school, to buy household appliances, to save time, to do the things one wants to do (other than taking a siesta)...

I may be naïve but much of the recession scare is exacerbated by media hype.
One, for example, would immediately connect the Wall Street mayhem to the drop of copra prices in these islands. The drop in copra prices has resulted to cheapened labor as most farm workers get paid in percentage share. So, labor in the rural area is as low as two dollars a day. One need not go to the uplands ( where they are better off because they have subsistence farming) because in our malls, the wage is not enough for roof and board. Needless, to say, many wage earners in malls are women as sales ladies who have to stand the whole day.

What to do in these times? The intuitive answer is to go back to basic production : plant more, produce more ( including producing more new voices from social movements, peoples organizations, organizations with corporate social responsibilities etc. ) Those who can should invest and continue to buy and sell to cushion the slowing down of markets. Development outcomes and social goals have been articulated in many documents such as the Millennium Development Goals and must go hand in hand with good governance and democratic politics. These are big words. So, let me be vernacular about some of my observations of life in these islands. In my island city, there is no decent transportation from the poblacion to the barangays. Transportation is through motorcycles, which according to the Land Transportation Office (LTO), do not conform to the standard specification of a public utility. But, the LTO cannot regulate, accordingly, because the franchising of these motorbikes has been devolved to the local governments. This hazardous transport can also be found not only in Davao City and Samal Island but also in other third world cities like Bangkok. For me, roads and transportations are women’s issues because these are used by all including children and mothers. And, there is something amiss, if only the driver of a motorbike will wear helmets. As we say, if the roads and transport systems are not safe for women and children, then they are not safe at all. One development expert is suggesting that we urge the World Bank to finance gas-powered vehicles to keep our island garden city pristine! Mumbai has very old taxicabs but because they use compact neutral gas (CNG), there is no pollution! Or maybe use electric powered pedicabs? (at least 3 wheeled).

Each of us has a stake in the survival and future of our city. The recession will result in movement of capital from expensive land and labor to cheap land and labor. So, our islands will continue to be the haven of call centers and business processing outsource entities ( BPO ) and retirement communities for expatriates. To the extent that all these will provide jobs are commendable but relocation or displacement and destruction of the environment are potential complications. We have seen how mangroves have been denuded to give way to these kind of development aggression. While sea resorts bring in the almighty dollar, access by the poor to the sea must not be impaired. This is not to say that we should be xenophobic to foreign visitors and residents as we also deploy about 10% of our mature population to almost two hundred countries in the world.

Best For Babies & Pleasant Slowfood

The law on Milk is about the marketing of breastmilk substitutes because it has been scientifically established that breast milk is best for babies. The Milk law is about products not age. There is no age limit as long as breastfeeding persists. But, breastfeeding is easily undermined, if the TV endorsers of milk are big movie stars like Governor Vilma Santos, Lea Salonga or Sharon Cuneta, showing claims that milk is the magic for health and nutrition. Examples of aggressive advertisements that overwhelm us daily on television are Mead Johnson's Panatag 100% by Carmina Villaroel, Claudine Barreto, Jodi Santamaria- Lacson, 7IQ Plus, Ask your doctor, Pursue excellence, brain development with Lea Salonga, Nestle -Sharon and Miel's Look at me Mom, My only Milk, Wyeth Minds in Progress etc. All these TV commercials continue to entice us with new versions.

The Supreme Court in upholding the Implementing Rules & Regulations (IRR) of the Milk Code says that infants & young children must be protected and that as the Department of Health correctly provided in the IRR, the
“ promotion of products…. must be objective and should not equate or make the (milk) product appear to be good or equal to breastmilk or breastfeeding in the advertising concept…. The total effect (of advertising) should not directly or indirectly suggest that buying their product would produce better individuals, or result in greater love, intelligence, ability, harmony or in any manner bring better health to the baby, or other such exaggerated and unsubstantiated claim.’’

The law on milk says that all health and nutrition claims in the marketing of breastmilk substitutes are prohibited. Photos of mothers and children are prohibited. If the Inter Agency Committee, IAC ( headed by the Department of Health ) in charge of implementing the IRR, approved the advertisement, then both the IAC and the milk company need to prove their claims. As mothers promoting breastfeeding, we have learned that breast milk sourced DHA & ARA ( fatty acids) are the ones best for babies. But, the artificial DHA & ARA added to the milk formula that our movie stars are promoting are derived from algae and fungi and therefore, very inferior compared to mothers’ milk. Other countries, like Canada, had disallowed Mead Johnson ( Enfamil + A formula) from claiming that their product promises visual acuity. Accordingly, it was disallowed because it was not backed by scientific evidence, only a study by the formula maker. As we know, scientific evidence must be confirmed by independent research.

Related to promoting breastfeeding is the Slow Food Movement which has for its adage “ a firm defense of quiet pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of fast life.’’ The slow food movement is about how “to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world”

Atty Ipat Luna, President of Tanggol Kalikasan who is promoting the slow food movement says,” the slowfood movement should take a look at how milk is being pushed nowadays. No one thought to ask why Mrs. Obama wanted her spinach creamless and no one connected the dairy assault (Kapanatag, Gov Vilma Santos and 2 glasses of bear brand a day, Look at me Mom, Lea Salonga and Enfakid etc.) to something that is against local, seasonal, sustainable agriculture. Nearly every bankable star in the firmaments of Philippine TV and cinema is now endorsing milk!”

An Island in the Pacific

My domicile is a beautiful island even if I have also built a home in Davao City.
The Island Garden City of Samal in the Philippines is very accessible from mainland Mindanao and I imagine that in the future, if or when we become a federal state, it will be part of the state of Davao.
For now, Samal City is a component city of the province of Davao del Norte. 

There is evidence that Samal Island is very old, even if the island became a city, by law, only in 1998. 
The island used to be composed of two towns (Samal & Babak) then later, a law further subdivided the island into 3 towns with Kaputi-an as another town. 
Which is why, whoever it was who coined the acronym IGACOS to refer to the island garden city is not doing justice by “layering” the very old name Samal which is also the name of the oldest tribe in the island.

Recently, I was speaker in one of the alumni homecomings in the island and I talked about the concept of pride of place to inspire my friends.
Under the light of a full moon, I told my audience that when I wanted to feel rich, I tell myself that I own the skies, sun, sand, seas and the mountains.
I go out of my way to meditate in one of the island’s highest point overlooking the entire Davao Gulf. But, that, also in these flat economic times, it is very easy to have fun and make money at the same time.
In this month of May, the month of flowers, I planted hundreds of various kinds of Hibiscus or locally known as Gumamela and they are ready for sale when they bloom in August, the month of the celebration of harvests in Samal City.

Also, prime time television put Samal Island again in nationwide consciousness when TV sportscaster Dyann Castillejo featured the beautiful Hagimit Falls and beaches and resort facilities.
The source of the falls is a rainfed deeply indented cavernous land formation and the water passes through a seemingly underground unexplored river that surfaces as a waterfall along its way to lower ground.
The land use plan of the island allocates only about 8.5 per cent of its total lands to forest land use. So, if the island values its water system as a potential investment, it must reconsider its large agricultural land use ( 82.5%) and convert it to agroforestry land use in order to increase the island’s forest cover and thus preserve its rivers, lakes and waterfalls.
These inland attractions complement the island’s pristine beaches.
The advantage of Samal compared to Boracay is that it is very near an international airport and as well, the island hopes not to repeat the mistakes of congested Boracay.

The island is teeming with peoples organization: about 60 organizations in an island with a population of more than 82,000 in 46 barangays.
The women in 46 barangays are members of a citywide council of women. In this sense, the social capital to campaign for free and honest elections in the island has always been promising.

Samal City has a women’s center partly built through with funds under the initiative of our political party Abanse! Pinay under the countrywide development funds program.
The focus of the women’s center is economic enterprise and is a rallying point of the members of the Women’s Council of Women.
But, there are also some cases of violence committed against some of the women in the island and Samal City, for now, has had to bring one of these cases to Davao City’s DSWD ( Dept of Social Welfare & Development) facility because the island city does not yet have a shelter for battered women.

Change Politics in the Philippines for 2010 Elections

May 10, 2009, exactly one year before the 2010 elections, was greeted by civil society, artists and media outfits by gathering people from all walks of life and engaging in meaningful discussions on how to reclaim politics from lesser politicians who are not able to do justice to good governance in our beloved nation.

One of the movements in the Philippines is called the Change Politics Movement ( CPM) which came on the heels of various national and regional meetings to discuss the state of our nation’s governance. Our movement was launched simultaneously last Sunday, May 10 in the national capital region & various cities in the Philippines ( Cagayan de Oro, Butuan City, Iloilo, Dumaguete, Cebu, Ormoc, Samar, & Naga). The ration d’etre of this movement is to organize a critical mass of citizens towards choosing and actively campaigning for a common slate of national candidates for the 2010 elections who will be accountable as public servants and who will bring about the much needed reforms to our government and nation. The movement is determined to give birth to an active citizenry and to make politics “ the sacred covenant that is meant to be – between the leaders and the constituencies.”

In my city, Davao City, the launching of the Change Politics Movement at the student lounge of the Holy Cross of Davao College was graced by more than 250 women and men from Southern Mindanao: from Davao City, Samal City, Compostela Valley, Davao del Norte & Davao Oriental. Through national video conferencing, reports and results of the various workshops in different parts of the country were shared among all of us from different locations. The national discussions sought to determine the criteria for selecting who will be the presidential candidate of the movement. In a national video conferencing, a consensus was reached on the criteria and these included integrity and track record which is defined as character & credibility, competence, leadership and politics and the candidate’s position taken on issues such as poverty reduction, corruption, human rights, peace, agrarian reform, the environment, etc. Another important set of criteria that came out in the movement’s national video conference last Sunday was about the strategic issues that the next president should immediately address :

A) to immediately stop the plunder of the public coffers
B) to rebuild and strengthen democratic institutions
C) to raise sufficient resources & ensure proper allocation & spending of public resources for priority programs
D) to raise productivity ( especially in rural areas) & ensure fair distribution of assets of production, benefits and public funds
E) to ensure social protection for the poorest and disadvantaged communities
F) to set the foundation for restoring the peace track with armed parties

The presidential candidate to be chosen must have capacity to win and seriously engage in the electoral contest for the highest post in the land : whether such candidate has a level of public recognition on a national scale; if there is an actual & potential extent of support constituency; access to or capacity to raise funds; actual presence of organized support and machinery in different parts of the country and whether the candidate has alliances who also believe in reform and change politics.

All members of the Change Politics Movement will choose the Philippine presidential candidate and the entire slate of national candidates on August 8, 2009.

Sexual Rights, War & the United Nations

After having worked on women’s issues for the past twenty five years, or since 1985, the way to go from here is to write about one’s life work. I have started this documentation of my life’s work two years ago when I produced, wrote the script & hosted a weekly television feature on women’s issues in my television show Women’s Work @ 23 that was shown in Skycable Channel 28. So, in this space, I will be churning out tales, stories & lessons learned over the years as my tribute to women in the hope of making this world a better place. That, I think is a very good reason to write 500 to 800 words each time from hereon.

My maiden blog, is about sexual rights, the Mindanao war & the United Nations.

One of our stark realizations in my work with women is that the United Nations (UN), in its international human rights instruments, is not yet itself clear in its ‘discourse’ on sexuality and human rights. The training courses we give to our social development partners include how to promote women’s rights through legal reform at various levels including the United Nations, thus, it is crucial to actually engage at the level of UN structures and processes.

So, I participated in the 49th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW) in New York City as a representative of PILIPINA Legal Resources Center.

This UN CSW meeting is also called Beijing + 10 meeting because this event held in 2005 is also a review of the Beijing Platform for Action that was drafted during the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. In this UN meeting, it was important to be working with other women’s groups and there were daily morning meetings of various women’s groups aside from the official UN sessions. These caucuses which we called ‘safe and free spaces’ for discussion of sexual & bodily rights were under the auspices of the International Women’s Health Coalition, WEDO, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Coalition for Sexual & Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies, etc.

In above meetings, I was part of the Anti-Trafficking core group. The NGO suggested text for draft US resolution on Anti-Trafficking was discussed during the meeting of the Philippine official & NGO delegation in New York at the UN cafeteria organized by the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) of the Office of the President of the Philippines.

One of the important outputs of our daily meetings of our Coalition is a statement signed by twenty members entitled “ A Call By The Coalition For Sexual & Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies On The 10th Anniversary Of The Fourth World Conference”. This statement was also read in one of the official UN sessions as part of the NGO intervention. This is an example of how NGOs and their advocacies can be part of a UN session’s agenda.

AThe Mindanao Context is shared in an International Forum

The Philippine delegation from Davao City led by our center’s co- founder, Ms. Irene Santiago, organized a forum on Gender Issues in Post-Conflict Situations at the UN. This forum before official delegates of governments & NGO delegates to the UN CSW meeting was organized by the Mindanao Commission on Women, a Philippine group with which my center is working with in its research & peace project.

The forum determined the following points for any peace agenda as highlighted by the speakers:

a) In the post peace agreement scenario, reconciliation, rehabilitation, and reconstruction programs will be necessary to deal with the effects of violent conflict.

b) The effects of violent conflict include destruction of the basis of livelihood and social capital, the absence of basic services, the breakdown or weakness of governance and institutions and the pervasive distrust and fear among various groups.

c) It is thus, crucial that as the state and rebel groups continue the process of peace negotiations, gender issues and human rights are highlighted as an advocacy program to address the effects of violent conflict.

d) While women are victims, they must also be seen as active agents of social change and as such any peace accord must thus take into consideration the leadership and participation of women in the reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction process.

e) By defining the roles of women and men can play in peace building and peace maintenance, while ensuring consensus around policy and program priorities, threats to social stability are lessened.

How engagement at the UN level helps shape discourses at the national level and vice versa

Through this UN engagement, one finds that there is a need for a definition of trafficking in the Philippines that is faithful to the principle of bodily autonomy and integrity and this is a case for a legal reform project.

Some of the issues raised against Anti-trafficking as espoused by the official Philippine delegates at this UN CSW session include, among others, that poor countries are the senders of prostituted women (choice is a fallacy for poor women) while countries in European Union like the Netherlands ( where prostitution is legal) look at prostitution as an industry. This is a microcosm of an existing divide among the so-called abolitionists (those advocating for the abolition for all forms of prostitution) and the stance of the activists for sex workers rights. The stance of the Philippine government and the NGO suggested alternative formulation on Anti-Trafficking was proposed to be addressed at many levels. Aside from addressing the root causes that put women and girls at risk of being trafficked, one level is legal reform. In this sense, my organization, which is a legal resources center working on legal reform, plays a role. Our current law on Anti-Trafficking still very much equates anti -trafficking with prostitution (even if our law mentions other forms, prostitution is very prominent) and our anti-trafficking law does not distinguish between forced and voluntary movement of persons. Also, all forms of prostitution, including voluntary prostitution is a crime. In short, Philippine policy is still in the abolition of all forms of prostitution mode. Similarly, the Philippine NGO community is still divided as to various forms of intervention in relation to prostitution. The need for a definition of trafficking that is faithful to the principle of bodily autonomy & integrity and which could ultimately be advocated through a legal reform project must start with organizing support around sexual rights as human rights.

International Advocacy on Sexuality & Human Rights & National Budgets

It was worthwhile working with groups like the International Women’s Health Coalition in projects that address the fact that international human rights is not yet clear in its discourse on sexuality and in many issues, such as anti-trafficking, abortion, prostitution, sex workers rights, reproductive rights, rights of the girl child, etc. Work of this nature is important for defining and shaping of the contour of official national policy on sexual & reproductive rights.

This 49th United Nations Commission of the Status of Women Session was important in exhorting states not only to set laws and policies for women but more importantly, that states agreed to appropriate more budgets for women’s programs in various countries on the ground.