The national campaign has started and the streets have welcomed the event with campaign posters galore. The printers have been sending quotations to candidates to outbid the others and thanks to modern technology, printers have been able to accept orders through e-mail. Starting Feb 9 and up to May 8, national candidates and their campaigners may now encourage their supporters and volunteers to use media and informal communication systems and may now use explicitly “vote for,” and encourage the use, distribution, exchange of campaign paraphernalia or encourage all shows of support for candidate through all legal acts.
Since the Christmas break, I have visited many rural villages and the issue of poverty stares one in the eye. Candidates’ platforms are now being sharpened. It will be very handy if a candidate has the skills to analyze the issues and problems in one’s constituency and to interface such analyses with a proposed program of governance. One function of the state is to spur development through physical and social infrastructures like roads, irrigation, farmers’ subsidy and extension services, training & educational systems, etc. The cost of the governance bureaucracy takes up a lion’s share in the budget and so these are the items in the budget that need to be revisited and rationalized as to the fit between skills and function.
My sense is that candidates’ messages that address poverty will ring true with voters. Pundits are saying that voters will respond to messages that convey very clearly that it is possible for anyone to climb up the social mobility ladder. Therefore, core messages of candidates that outline how to climb up the social mobility ladder by improving our lives will be relevant. Experts are also saying that trustworthiness of a candidate will be relevant to the extent that a candidate will know what to do with such trustworthiness. In other words, the perception that one will do well with governance is important. This is to say, that invoking one’s pedigree is not everything. Invoking a long line of politicians in one’s pedigree can even be construed as promoting the very concept of dynasty that we are fighting against.
In Davao City and Davao provinces, organized groups will have solid votes. Many of these cause oriented groups have presented their proposed development agenda to candidates. These groups and their constituents will monitor compliance during the term of the elected official and they will judge a candidate through the ballot again in the next election. Which is why, it is very important for candidates to explain, for instance, that the function of the legislator is to make ordinance, appropriate budget, and preside over or perform oversight functions. As it is now, constituents go to their elected officials to ask for help for everything : from birth, baptismal, weddings to death events.
I imagine that candidates’ privacy will be invaded to the hilt. So, for the sanity of the candidate, it will be healthy to have an inviolate sacred space (whether virtual space or real space ) where one can retreat and replenish vital energy which is crucial for one to be able to survive towards the finish line.
But, as voters lets help in promoting vote buying free zones.
Monday, February 15, 2010
2010 Reflections & More
Creating life's markers at the start of the year is a good ritual. It is also good to review what we believe to be true. So, to continue this ritual, I am sharing the second installment of my life’s lessons :
Justice is an esoteric word for most of us. At the start of my human rights work, since we are into development or alternative law, we said, that oftentimes what is legal is not just. Traditionally, our laws were made by the group in power. Which is the reason, for instance, that the basic sectors through the party list system representation have been made a part of our electoral and political system. That some powerful groups have misused this system is another story. In a nutshell, our justice system has a substantive component which is the content of our written law. The structural component are the organizations which are the purveyors of justice or the pillars of the justice system : the courts, the prosecution, the police, the penal structures, the community, etc. And the cultural component of the justice system are the attitudes and behavior of our community towards the justice system. Good citizenship means making a bit of contribution to work for good social changes in our justice system structures, starting with us. Good policies designed to change behavior and create structures or institutions need to be communicated.
Knowledge management (KM) is a fast developing field because of the current information age. We believe that the one who controls knowledge controls power. And so, crucial to community development is the democratization of knowledge. With popular culture, I guess we should widen our imagination and also think outside the box and not to be drawn into the herd mentality that is anathema to positive change. Many traditional values violate human rights such as a patriarchal system that undermines the rights of women.
Love is universal. There are many kinds and they say that the highest form is agape which is about sacrificing one’s interests. Our educational system is still wanting in teaching and inculcating love of country or even love of humanity.
Money is a means of exchange. It can be a measure of one’s passion or industry. We are custodians of wealth and I believe that those who have more money must take responsibility for making this world a better place. Someone said, that one cannot have so much money without the element of violence. Most of all, we cannot bring money to heaven.
Nothing is constant but change. We have been taught that the change agents are our family, the school, our religion, etc. These change agents themselves need changes, too. The concept of family is more than the traditional nuclear or extended family. The laity is not a force to reckon with in the church as evidenced by our religious hierarchy’s supremacy in being able to determine government policies for the reproductive rights of women.
Opposition to the established order is a healthy exercise in a democracy. They say any structure has a tendency to be corrupt in time. Homeostasis and equilibrium just maintains the status quo. Marxism is a theory about conflict and is still very relevant to this day.
People power is now written in our constitution. The concept of recall, party list system, etc are all about people power. But, we must be wary about mass politics that elects the popular and the entertainer. Governance is a skill and an art. But thanks to people power, as it is a deterrent to the rise of tyrants - even if it takes time.
The Quality of life and its changing standards is an index of development. Our kind of development must be a society that can produce the likes of Rizal or a Mozart or a community that can produce a graduate from a remote village in our countryside and can have the same opportunity as anyone to, for example, be able to enter the United Nations to lobby for world peace and development.
Raison d’etre. Life is probably more inspiring or worth living if we believe that we have a reason for being ( raison d’etre). This is about finding our place or niche under the sun. One of the messages I got from the new year text brigade is about waking up and going back to sleep to dream again or to really wake up and chase those dreams. This ‘reason for being’ is also the equivalent of the mission in organizations and corporations. For the mission to be accomplished, it must be couched in specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bounded goals, objectives or outcomes.
Supreme Court. Our Supreme Court is on the spotlight now because the term of Chief Justice Reynato Puno will expire upon his retirement when he reaches the age of 70 on May 17, 2010 and the issue is whether President Macapagal-Arroyo has the right to appoint her choice because there is a ban on “midnight appointments” or presidential appointments two months before a presidential election. Right off, presidential aspirant NoyNoy Aquino was heard as saying that he would not recognize Ms. Arroyo’s appointed Chief Justice if he won the May presidential election because NoyNoy says that would be “contrary to the constitutional ban on appointments…contrary to propriety, delicadeza and precedence.” Notice, that NoyNoy’s remarks invoke both legal and moral grounds. I have always believed that indeed morality is learned from parents if not in kindergarten. Anyway, the University of the Philippines College of Law has issued a statement that a vacancy in the Supreme Court will not be a problem as an acting chief justice can be appointed from among the senior members of the Supreme Court.
Texting. The short messaging system and the information technology have certainly made profound changes in our lives. But, have you experienced disengaging from your mobile phone for a short moment and experiencing bliss from the disconnection? I read that You Tube which is just five years old in 2010, now gets 1 billion views a day; China & India have 350 million internet users; in poor countries, half of all households are mobile phone subscribers. In the coming election campaign and elections, mobile videos and cameras can be used to monitor election offenses and crimes.
United Nations. The representatives of women’s movements worldwide will meet in the United Nations New York for two weeks in March 2010 to mark 15 years after writing the women’s Platform for Action in Beijing in 1995. The meeting is not a General Assembly level but a commission level or the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meeting. The NGOs preparing for this big event are saying that there won’t be any negotiated document for the CSW but there will be a one page declaration that reaffirms governments’ commitments to the platform written for women 15 years ago. Each country will present progress reports on how they have implemented in programs or policies or legislated the 15 year old Platform for Action during the two weeks in March 2010 including responses to the questionnaires sent to governments by UN regional bodies. Of course, many NGOs will make alternative or shadow reports.
The United Nations needs reforms. After the 2009 climate change summit in Copenhagen, we saw that it is now very difficult for 193 countries to agree on something. Governing the world as one is almost impossible now even if the issues are voluminous. Countries are grouping into small clusters according to issues & themes and geography. To the extent that country issues and problems are solved and countries develop to join the rich club of nations, this kind of governance is perfectly all right. Who needs a global world that is divided into very rich and very poor?
I was recently interviewed on DXDC radio and was asked about my principles and values. This is my annotation to my short answer. In academe, we were introduced to the idea that Filipinos have some negative values which have contributed to our underdevelopment : hiya, pakikisama, utang na loob, ningas cogon, bahala na, etc. Later, other Filipino sociologists have debunked the negativity of these values ( as these values can really be seen in positive terms) and other experts even suggested that the respondents interviewed in that study of the so- called negative values were lowland Christians to the exclusion of other highland tribes. Another framework in the study of values is to evaluate our values against universal values such as human rights, democracy, social justice, sustainable development, etc.
Some of the basic tenets in the discussion of values are that cultures and communities believe that their values are best ( ethnocentrism) and that we should not pass judgment on the values other cultures ( relativism ). But, I say, we have to differentiate between understanding cultures and evaluating whether cultural material practices violate universal standards of morality or human rights. This is to say that values really do change. One example is the death penalty. Our ultimate legal penal sanction now is life imprisonment as we have removed the death penalty in our laws. The basis for this change is the premium placed by our legislators on the concept of restitutive justice.
One of the modernity values being promoted now is sustainable development which is associated with the environment. Of course, in ecology ( the study of the environment), the human being is at the center of the environment. Let me focus on the brown ecology or our cities and the rise of informal settlers in our urban areas. The migration of our peoples to the cities is partly due to so much poverty in the countryside. Some economists are now saying that one of the major causes of our poverty is really our neglect of our agriculture industry. The Philippines remains poor because according to Bernardo Villegas, we used a large chunk of our resources in the manufacturing sector and so there were “ no more resources left to build farm-to-market roads, irrigation systems, post-harvest facilities, seaports, and airports that were essential to making our small farmers productive. Agrarian reform failed, not because of the fragmentation of land, but because we did not provide the small farmers with the wherewithal to be both productive and cost-effective.”
This is also to show that there is a rural - urban continuum. Decongestion of our urban cities means that we should develop our countryside. If the rural people are economically productive they will also have the purchasing power to consume industrial products. In this sense, both agricultural and industrial sectors are related, too.
The other reality in our country which is sure to change our values is diaspora or the dispersion of more than six million overseas Filipinos who are working in almost two hundred countries in the world. Although, the downside to overseas migration are many, at least one positive saving grace is that our fellow Filipinos will surely bring positive values when they come home and measure our way of behaving and doing things with the best that they are experiencing in other lands.
Most of all, the one positive value that we should be working on at this juncture of our democracy is to promote the sacredness of the election ballot. When we are able to make our communities vote buying free zones, we will be able to give a chance to deserving candidates and political parties that do not have the largesse and tendencies to corrupt our fellow Filipinos.
Justice is an esoteric word for most of us. At the start of my human rights work, since we are into development or alternative law, we said, that oftentimes what is legal is not just. Traditionally, our laws were made by the group in power. Which is the reason, for instance, that the basic sectors through the party list system representation have been made a part of our electoral and political system. That some powerful groups have misused this system is another story. In a nutshell, our justice system has a substantive component which is the content of our written law. The structural component are the organizations which are the purveyors of justice or the pillars of the justice system : the courts, the prosecution, the police, the penal structures, the community, etc. And the cultural component of the justice system are the attitudes and behavior of our community towards the justice system. Good citizenship means making a bit of contribution to work for good social changes in our justice system structures, starting with us. Good policies designed to change behavior and create structures or institutions need to be communicated.
Knowledge management (KM) is a fast developing field because of the current information age. We believe that the one who controls knowledge controls power. And so, crucial to community development is the democratization of knowledge. With popular culture, I guess we should widen our imagination and also think outside the box and not to be drawn into the herd mentality that is anathema to positive change. Many traditional values violate human rights such as a patriarchal system that undermines the rights of women.
Love is universal. There are many kinds and they say that the highest form is agape which is about sacrificing one’s interests. Our educational system is still wanting in teaching and inculcating love of country or even love of humanity.
Money is a means of exchange. It can be a measure of one’s passion or industry. We are custodians of wealth and I believe that those who have more money must take responsibility for making this world a better place. Someone said, that one cannot have so much money without the element of violence. Most of all, we cannot bring money to heaven.
Nothing is constant but change. We have been taught that the change agents are our family, the school, our religion, etc. These change agents themselves need changes, too. The concept of family is more than the traditional nuclear or extended family. The laity is not a force to reckon with in the church as evidenced by our religious hierarchy’s supremacy in being able to determine government policies for the reproductive rights of women.
Opposition to the established order is a healthy exercise in a democracy. They say any structure has a tendency to be corrupt in time. Homeostasis and equilibrium just maintains the status quo. Marxism is a theory about conflict and is still very relevant to this day.
People power is now written in our constitution. The concept of recall, party list system, etc are all about people power. But, we must be wary about mass politics that elects the popular and the entertainer. Governance is a skill and an art. But thanks to people power, as it is a deterrent to the rise of tyrants - even if it takes time.
The Quality of life and its changing standards is an index of development. Our kind of development must be a society that can produce the likes of Rizal or a Mozart or a community that can produce a graduate from a remote village in our countryside and can have the same opportunity as anyone to, for example, be able to enter the United Nations to lobby for world peace and development.
Raison d’etre. Life is probably more inspiring or worth living if we believe that we have a reason for being ( raison d’etre). This is about finding our place or niche under the sun. One of the messages I got from the new year text brigade is about waking up and going back to sleep to dream again or to really wake up and chase those dreams. This ‘reason for being’ is also the equivalent of the mission in organizations and corporations. For the mission to be accomplished, it must be couched in specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bounded goals, objectives or outcomes.
Supreme Court. Our Supreme Court is on the spotlight now because the term of Chief Justice Reynato Puno will expire upon his retirement when he reaches the age of 70 on May 17, 2010 and the issue is whether President Macapagal-Arroyo has the right to appoint her choice because there is a ban on “midnight appointments” or presidential appointments two months before a presidential election. Right off, presidential aspirant NoyNoy Aquino was heard as saying that he would not recognize Ms. Arroyo’s appointed Chief Justice if he won the May presidential election because NoyNoy says that would be “contrary to the constitutional ban on appointments…contrary to propriety, delicadeza and precedence.” Notice, that NoyNoy’s remarks invoke both legal and moral grounds. I have always believed that indeed morality is learned from parents if not in kindergarten. Anyway, the University of the Philippines College of Law has issued a statement that a vacancy in the Supreme Court will not be a problem as an acting chief justice can be appointed from among the senior members of the Supreme Court.
Texting. The short messaging system and the information technology have certainly made profound changes in our lives. But, have you experienced disengaging from your mobile phone for a short moment and experiencing bliss from the disconnection? I read that You Tube which is just five years old in 2010, now gets 1 billion views a day; China & India have 350 million internet users; in poor countries, half of all households are mobile phone subscribers. In the coming election campaign and elections, mobile videos and cameras can be used to monitor election offenses and crimes.
United Nations. The representatives of women’s movements worldwide will meet in the United Nations New York for two weeks in March 2010 to mark 15 years after writing the women’s Platform for Action in Beijing in 1995. The meeting is not a General Assembly level but a commission level or the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meeting. The NGOs preparing for this big event are saying that there won’t be any negotiated document for the CSW but there will be a one page declaration that reaffirms governments’ commitments to the platform written for women 15 years ago. Each country will present progress reports on how they have implemented in programs or policies or legislated the 15 year old Platform for Action during the two weeks in March 2010 including responses to the questionnaires sent to governments by UN regional bodies. Of course, many NGOs will make alternative or shadow reports.
The United Nations needs reforms. After the 2009 climate change summit in Copenhagen, we saw that it is now very difficult for 193 countries to agree on something. Governing the world as one is almost impossible now even if the issues are voluminous. Countries are grouping into small clusters according to issues & themes and geography. To the extent that country issues and problems are solved and countries develop to join the rich club of nations, this kind of governance is perfectly all right. Who needs a global world that is divided into very rich and very poor?
I was recently interviewed on DXDC radio and was asked about my principles and values. This is my annotation to my short answer. In academe, we were introduced to the idea that Filipinos have some negative values which have contributed to our underdevelopment : hiya, pakikisama, utang na loob, ningas cogon, bahala na, etc. Later, other Filipino sociologists have debunked the negativity of these values ( as these values can really be seen in positive terms) and other experts even suggested that the respondents interviewed in that study of the so- called negative values were lowland Christians to the exclusion of other highland tribes. Another framework in the study of values is to evaluate our values against universal values such as human rights, democracy, social justice, sustainable development, etc.
Some of the basic tenets in the discussion of values are that cultures and communities believe that their values are best ( ethnocentrism) and that we should not pass judgment on the values other cultures ( relativism ). But, I say, we have to differentiate between understanding cultures and evaluating whether cultural material practices violate universal standards of morality or human rights. This is to say that values really do change. One example is the death penalty. Our ultimate legal penal sanction now is life imprisonment as we have removed the death penalty in our laws. The basis for this change is the premium placed by our legislators on the concept of restitutive justice.
One of the modernity values being promoted now is sustainable development which is associated with the environment. Of course, in ecology ( the study of the environment), the human being is at the center of the environment. Let me focus on the brown ecology or our cities and the rise of informal settlers in our urban areas. The migration of our peoples to the cities is partly due to so much poverty in the countryside. Some economists are now saying that one of the major causes of our poverty is really our neglect of our agriculture industry. The Philippines remains poor because according to Bernardo Villegas, we used a large chunk of our resources in the manufacturing sector and so there were “ no more resources left to build farm-to-market roads, irrigation systems, post-harvest facilities, seaports, and airports that were essential to making our small farmers productive. Agrarian reform failed, not because of the fragmentation of land, but because we did not provide the small farmers with the wherewithal to be both productive and cost-effective.”
This is also to show that there is a rural - urban continuum. Decongestion of our urban cities means that we should develop our countryside. If the rural people are economically productive they will also have the purchasing power to consume industrial products. In this sense, both agricultural and industrial sectors are related, too.
The other reality in our country which is sure to change our values is diaspora or the dispersion of more than six million overseas Filipinos who are working in almost two hundred countries in the world. Although, the downside to overseas migration are many, at least one positive saving grace is that our fellow Filipinos will surely bring positive values when they come home and measure our way of behaving and doing things with the best that they are experiencing in other lands.
Most of all, the one positive value that we should be working on at this juncture of our democracy is to promote the sacredness of the election ballot. When we are able to make our communities vote buying free zones, we will be able to give a chance to deserving candidates and political parties that do not have the largesse and tendencies to corrupt our fellow Filipinos.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
New Year 2010 Reflections ( First of a series)
Life is very much bigger than one year’s events or successes or failures.
The trick, as we always say, is to have a proper perspective and be guided by road maps such as values we have learned and will continue to learn in life.
For the new year, let’s make our resolutions measurable, whether quantitatively or qualitatively.
So, I’m sharing my new year’s thoughts in alphabetical order :
Arriving is just one part of travel. Enjoy the preparations and the trip itself. It is true that travel widens our horizon. A city in the world map is meaningless if one is not able to relate to a friend or its people. An exchange can be had between peoples through representatives and leaders of organizations or nations or tribes. Globalization has helped the women’s movement worldwide in this way.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder so check out also how others see you. This is the looking glass self. In elections, how voters see you is crucial in winning elections. That is why candidates must package their core messages in a way that appeal to their constituents. Most importantly, voters can tell if a candidate is sincere or just a charlatan.
Conflict is a part of life. Conflict resolution is a skill that can be learned. That we understand the issues and work towards peace and harmony are what matters. An omelette is made by breaking the eggs. Sometimes, one cannot accomplish something without risking some bad side effects. In development parlance, we develop risk mitigating measures. And, we must bear in mind that one cannot unscramble a scrambled egg.
A Day is just a the time between sunrise and sunset or period of twenty-four hours, counted from midnight to midnight and corresponds to the rotation of the earth around its axis. What matters is making each day ‘one’s day” or a success. This is not to say that enjoying reality is less important than creating reality. The attainment and measurement of new year’s goals and resolutions depends on our indicators for success or how we define success.
Everything has an appointed time. I believe in the ecclesiastic teaching that there is a time for everything under the sun : a time to build and a time to tear down. But, every day is a chance to learn.
Faith is like hope and love. But, we must respect those that have not come near the so called “leap of faith.” These are the humanists and they are increasing in numbers.
This freedom of choosing religious and belief systems is one of our basic human rights.
Guns, goons and gold are anathema to the sacredness of the ballot. Going around in poor communities, I have witnessed that the poor are expecting largesse from politicians like orphans expecting inheritance. What chutzpah!
But, these kind of shameless audacity and mind sets can be overcome with political education.
Humor, if have it, is a measure of intelligence.
The Filipinos are scientifically known to be a happy and a resilient people. They say it is part of our Spanish heritage. Or perhaps, living in the tropics and having the sun everyday makes us happy.
My surname “SOLAMO” in Spanish means I love you, sun.
So, I will always try to be sunny and vivacious amidst conflict that is a constant part of life.
“I think therefore I am.” I write therefore I am. Writing is an act. Rhetoric is a first step. Writing is describing, examining and analyzing reality. The written word when published is one of the ways of knowledge management. Suddenly, through citizen journalism, our world is made real and described by more people from all walks of life, like never before. ( To be continued.)
The trick, as we always say, is to have a proper perspective and be guided by road maps such as values we have learned and will continue to learn in life.
For the new year, let’s make our resolutions measurable, whether quantitatively or qualitatively.
So, I’m sharing my new year’s thoughts in alphabetical order :
Arriving is just one part of travel. Enjoy the preparations and the trip itself. It is true that travel widens our horizon. A city in the world map is meaningless if one is not able to relate to a friend or its people. An exchange can be had between peoples through representatives and leaders of organizations or nations or tribes. Globalization has helped the women’s movement worldwide in this way.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder so check out also how others see you. This is the looking glass self. In elections, how voters see you is crucial in winning elections. That is why candidates must package their core messages in a way that appeal to their constituents. Most importantly, voters can tell if a candidate is sincere or just a charlatan.
Conflict is a part of life. Conflict resolution is a skill that can be learned. That we understand the issues and work towards peace and harmony are what matters. An omelette is made by breaking the eggs. Sometimes, one cannot accomplish something without risking some bad side effects. In development parlance, we develop risk mitigating measures. And, we must bear in mind that one cannot unscramble a scrambled egg.
A Day is just a the time between sunrise and sunset or period of twenty-four hours, counted from midnight to midnight and corresponds to the rotation of the earth around its axis. What matters is making each day ‘one’s day” or a success. This is not to say that enjoying reality is less important than creating reality. The attainment and measurement of new year’s goals and resolutions depends on our indicators for success or how we define success.
Everything has an appointed time. I believe in the ecclesiastic teaching that there is a time for everything under the sun : a time to build and a time to tear down. But, every day is a chance to learn.
Faith is like hope and love. But, we must respect those that have not come near the so called “leap of faith.” These are the humanists and they are increasing in numbers.
This freedom of choosing religious and belief systems is one of our basic human rights.
Guns, goons and gold are anathema to the sacredness of the ballot. Going around in poor communities, I have witnessed that the poor are expecting largesse from politicians like orphans expecting inheritance. What chutzpah!
But, these kind of shameless audacity and mind sets can be overcome with political education.
Humor, if have it, is a measure of intelligence.
The Filipinos are scientifically known to be a happy and a resilient people. They say it is part of our Spanish heritage. Or perhaps, living in the tropics and having the sun everyday makes us happy.
My surname “SOLAMO” in Spanish means I love you, sun.
So, I will always try to be sunny and vivacious amidst conflict that is a constant part of life.
“I think therefore I am.” I write therefore I am. Writing is an act. Rhetoric is a first step. Writing is describing, examining and analyzing reality. The written word when published is one of the ways of knowledge management. Suddenly, through citizen journalism, our world is made real and described by more people from all walks of life, like never before. ( To be continued.)
Monday, January 4, 2010
Island Garden City of Samal 2010
I spent the past few days going around the Island Garden City of Samal visiting friends and relatives and just marveling at the beauty of the island. I discovered a beautiful place on the slopes of the island called Tracer Heights owned by the family of Ms Shirley de la Cerna- Lazaga, my grade school teacher. Their garden view deck is overlooking the urban sprawl of Davao City. The contrast view of Davao City’s asphalt jungle and the pristine beauty from where I stood was not lost on me. I guess I am not unlike the rest of the Filipinos who spent Christmas in the parks instead of malls. My Samal City of 2010 and beyond is not only blue waters but also green mountains and real gardens befitting its name.
The whole island is surrounded by water but there are parts which do not have access to potable water. And the reason is not because of lack of technology nor lack of funds. One of the reasons is the recalcitrant barangays and obstinately uncooperative private local citizens running their old commercial water system and do not wish to avail of the city’s water district modern facilities. This is an example of small village politics which could be harnessed to serve the needs of local residents.
The buses that ply the roads from north to south of the island are good first steps as far as transportation is concerned. But, I hear the residents miss the launch and pump boat ride from many points in the island to the city center in Magsaysay Park. The story I hear is that the former launch operators were not able to meet the sea worthy vessel requirements of Marina, the agency that regulates marine transportation. With all the sea mishap happening all around us, this marine transport regulation is important. But, so are the various options in island transport which are equally important. This is a call for the public and private sector to revive the old sea route from the island’s political center ( Penaplata) to Davao City’s central business district (Magsaysay Park)
This is a cheaper route and faster because modern fast boats are already a well developed technology and is in use in many parts of the Philippines. Plus the idea of one getting off or being transported to the city center in a few minutes is very appealing. Since, the sea route does not require millions worth of infrastructure as in roads and bridges, this track should be facilitated by the local government unit.
My only daughter, Kaye, convinced me to see AVATAR ( a must see film of 2009 written and directed by James Cameron ) on the big screen and I actually saw the forests of Samal Island in the super lush vegetation of Pandora, the earthlike moon “location” of the movie. I compare the touristic “mining” of the natural beauty of the island as akin to the invasive mining of minerals by the earth people in the Avatar movie. The Samal island city must hurry its land banking so that a land use plan ordinance will be in place before the private property owners will put into place their own version of uses of land which could be heavily tilted to the pursuit of commercial uses of land that could very well undermine the preservation of the beauty of the island and the community’s access to public places like parks and fish ports and the like.
We all live in an island and so lets welcome 2010 with open arms and with prayers galore that our wishes for all islanders in 2010 will come true!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Christmas
We all need to feel the spirit and magic of Christmas amidst all the mayhem we are experiencing in Mindanao.
This is not to downplay nor forget the monstrosity of the Maguindanao heinous massacre and the Agusan del Sur and the Basilan tragic events that followed but an invitation to reflect on the meaning and significance of Christmas.
If the goal of warlordism is wealth, fame and power, it would do us well to remember that the great Jesus was born very humbly in a stable among farm animals.
Of course, we agree that the Jesus Christ who said that we should love one another is our model of how one should be famous and powerful. Wealth, fame and power can be harnessed to serve humanity and therefore are not evil per se; the evils are its misuses to harm humanity. Harming others is an act of harming ourselves.
It is a growing concept so it is continually evolving. For example, in advocating that child care is a family and social concern, we promote Christmas cards that has the father St Joseph holding the baby Jesus.
In this sense, we still need to promote The Nativity image that will promote breastfeeding as I imagine there was no commercial cow’s milk formula nor television advertisements to undermine breastfeeding in Bethlehem at that time.
We like to imagine The Belen, or the Nativity scenes to be set in a barn or stable and include Mary, Joseph, the child Jesus, angels, shepherds BUT the Three Wise bearers of gifts are “WOMEN: Balthazara, Melchiora, and Caspara,” who are said to have followed a star, known as the Star of Bethlehem, and arrive after His birth.
We are not anti – men, but we wish to be allowed to imagine a world where women can be “ Three Queens” and find time to leave the domesticity of home to be able to travel and be as gracious and magnanimous as the Three Kings.
While we welcome the economic activity during the Christmas season and particularly, in these times of recession, it is prudent to be austere amidst all the hunger around us.
Don’t we feel violated when others spend millions on lavish Christmas parties while others are hungry? A recent Philippine Human Development Report published by the United Nations Development Program ( UNDP) has determined that “ massive and abject poverty and economic inequity, particularly in the distribution of wealth and control over the resource base for livelihood” is one of the root causes of internal conflicts and rebellion in the Philippines.
This kind of rebellion is perhaps not seen in Maguindanao, a province in Central Mindanao, among the high and mighty enough to have declared a state of martial law.
Our fellow countrymen abroad will assuage these feelings by remitting funds and Christmas presents galore. This is why some mothers think they wish to be “MRDs” ( mothers receiving dollars).
My wish is to be able to feel Christmas through the eyes and heart of the child in me and to believe in the magic of Christmas: faith in a Santa Claus from the heavens, giving gifts of love and all the works.
Faith is a lot like love and hope and invoking that warms my heart !
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Martial Law
The country stood still and seemed stymied when a December 4, 2009 Proclamation No. 1959 imposed martial law in Maguindanao, a province in central Mindanao. Then, that proclamation was lifted eight days later. It was a proclamation of a state of martial law and a suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the province of Maguindanao except for identified areas of the MILF as referred to in the GRP-MILF agreement on general cessation of hostilities.
In generic parlance, martial law is rule by the military, typically imposed during wartime. Suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus means warrantless arrests & warrantless searches, among others. But, the warrantless arrests are good for three days only and after which charges should be filed, otherwise the detained should be realeased. After martial law for twenty years during the Marcos regime when most of our civilian agencies like our national legislature was padlocked, our 1987 constitution has redefined how martial law should be in the Philippines. The old martial law power which was upheld by the Supreme Court of that era allowed the President of the Philippines to legislate by decrees, create military commissions or courts martial to try both members of the military and civilian offenders for specified offenses.
So, the currently binding 1987 redefinition (which is a reaction to that martial law power of the Marcos era) in our Constitution says that martial law can only proclaimed “ in case of invasion or rebellion, when the public safety requires it…” This same 1987 martial law provision has also placed limits to how martial law should be : martial law should have a time limit of sixty days, congress reviews the proclamation and has the power to revoke which cannot be overturned by the president and of course, the Supreme court can review and as well may nullify as void such proclamation.
But then again, there will be many ways of subverting these limits. For example, the president can extend the period to more than sixty days. The Philippine constitution specifically says that both houses of Congress should be voting jointly or as one to revoke a proclamation of martial law. In joint voting, the lower house which has a membership of 268 can outvote the 23 members of the Senate or the 18 members of the Senate who have already expressed that they are against the proclamation. For now, we have yet no idea how the lower house will vote. There were fears, based on past tendencies, that the ruling majority party in the lower house will not revoke the proclamation. Now, after the lifting, Congress could just cancel the joint session of both Congress which was convened to review the factual basis of the proclamation. But, the citizens are expecting that the Supreme Court will pass judgment on whether the martial law proclamation (# 1959) is not unconstitutional as the issue is laden with public interest and for the jurisprudence that will be a very useful precedent to provide guidance. This is the first time martial law was declared after the 1987 constitution came into effect and the ruling that will be rendered will definitely define the limits of the president’s prerogative to declare martial law.
The Arroyo regime has submitted a report of the factual basis of the proclamation to both houses of Congress as required by our Constitution. The report starts with a presentation of the government findings on the Maguindanao massacre which is interspersed with the gruesome pictures of the unspeakable tragedy and finally zeroes in on its description of a state of rebellion in Maguindanao by presenting as initial evidence the military and police reports of the presence of arms and private armies. Citizen’s blogs were saying that if existence of the private armies and arms in Maguindanao is the proof of rebellion and the basis for the proclamation of the state of martial law, many areas could potentially be covered which is scary, to say the least.
In generic parlance, martial law is rule by the military, typically imposed during wartime. Suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus means warrantless arrests & warrantless searches, among others. But, the warrantless arrests are good for three days only and after which charges should be filed, otherwise the detained should be realeased. After martial law for twenty years during the Marcos regime when most of our civilian agencies like our national legislature was padlocked, our 1987 constitution has redefined how martial law should be in the Philippines. The old martial law power which was upheld by the Supreme Court of that era allowed the President of the Philippines to legislate by decrees, create military commissions or courts martial to try both members of the military and civilian offenders for specified offenses.
So, the currently binding 1987 redefinition (which is a reaction to that martial law power of the Marcos era) in our Constitution says that martial law can only proclaimed “ in case of invasion or rebellion, when the public safety requires it…” This same 1987 martial law provision has also placed limits to how martial law should be : martial law should have a time limit of sixty days, congress reviews the proclamation and has the power to revoke which cannot be overturned by the president and of course, the Supreme court can review and as well may nullify as void such proclamation.
But then again, there will be many ways of subverting these limits. For example, the president can extend the period to more than sixty days. The Philippine constitution specifically says that both houses of Congress should be voting jointly or as one to revoke a proclamation of martial law. In joint voting, the lower house which has a membership of 268 can outvote the 23 members of the Senate or the 18 members of the Senate who have already expressed that they are against the proclamation. For now, we have yet no idea how the lower house will vote. There were fears, based on past tendencies, that the ruling majority party in the lower house will not revoke the proclamation. Now, after the lifting, Congress could just cancel the joint session of both Congress which was convened to review the factual basis of the proclamation. But, the citizens are expecting that the Supreme Court will pass judgment on whether the martial law proclamation (# 1959) is not unconstitutional as the issue is laden with public interest and for the jurisprudence that will be a very useful precedent to provide guidance. This is the first time martial law was declared after the 1987 constitution came into effect and the ruling that will be rendered will definitely define the limits of the president’s prerogative to declare martial law.
The Arroyo regime has submitted a report of the factual basis of the proclamation to both houses of Congress as required by our Constitution. The report starts with a presentation of the government findings on the Maguindanao massacre which is interspersed with the gruesome pictures of the unspeakable tragedy and finally zeroes in on its description of a state of rebellion in Maguindanao by presenting as initial evidence the military and police reports of the presence of arms and private armies. Citizen’s blogs were saying that if existence of the private armies and arms in Maguindanao is the proof of rebellion and the basis for the proclamation of the state of martial law, many areas could potentially be covered which is scary, to say the least.
Before The 2010 Election Campaign
The period for filing of certificates of candidacy for the Philippine 2010 elections ended on December 1, 2009. Then, the national election campaign starts on February 9, 2010 while the local campaign starts on March 26. The advantage of local candidates who are standard bearers of national political parties over independent candidates is that they can visit communities already in February to campaign for national candidates. The Supreme Court in a decision has just decriminalized pre-mature campaigning. One is liable for election offenses only if committed during the campaign period. Of course, crimes related to election such as the November 23, 2009 heinous Maguindanao massacre are covered by particular laws in our penal system and even by international laws at anytime because the savagery committed against the women and men are crimes against humanity and particularly if ( Heavens forbid !) a remedy or appropriate penal sanctions cannot be had in this country. Anyway, the Supreme Court decision decriminalizing pre-mature campaigning also means that television infomercials of candidates are not banned. The reason cited is that it is part of our freedom of expression guarantee as enshrined in our constitution. Of course, who has access to media and mechanisms of communications are another matter. So, before the start of the campaign period, candidates can communicate but must not campaign and never invoke the word VOTE or the like. This includes greetings for the holidays in billboards posted in one’s private property or with the permission of the owner of a private property which does not belong to the candidate.
I have been observing some slogans and prominent infomercials and let me do a paraphrasing here of their core messages. Slogans and messages have been crucial in the past. The “ERAP PARA SA MAHIRAP” ( Erap Estrada is for the poor) worked magic with the masses before. Mar’s ( Roxas) “Mr. Palengke” ( Mr. Wet Market ) also struck positively with the viewers. In the current crop of infomercials, the message of NOYNOY’s “Hindi Ka Nag-iisa” ( You are not alone) is in a few words about HOPE and the imperative to continue the struggle as a community or nation. But, others are asking, “ where is the platform?” Which is why, there is a newer version of this television infomercial with a voice over that purports to impart the core message about what the issues are. The Villar infomercials have had plural messages since it started but the main message is : the poor boy who hails from the slums of Tondo, Manila made it but still has empathy with the poor. Critics’ monicker for the old infomercial “SIPAG at TIYAGA” ( industriousness and steadfastness) of Senator Villar is “C-5 at Taga”.
( in reference to the issue of whether there was a double entry in the General Appropriations budget pertaining to the project for the circumferential road called C-5) The Gibo Teodoro infomercial is basically saying to the viewers : I am here and offering to be of service and I have “ talino.” ( intelligence) One big billboard in Davao City says GMA Cares and a vandal wrote “ Pag sure Oy.” ( Hey, please be sure) A friend of mine who does not like to hear the popular expression “ Pag Sure Oy” is suddenly in love with these words in reference to PGMA.
Our change politics movement (CPM) has compiled a list of activities that candidates and supporters can do at anytime and before the campaign period. The CPM list of activities that can be done at any time based on our election law include "publishing results of surveys if favorable, asking media to write columns on favorable results of surveys, using campaign gadgets, gear and apparel on one’s own personal property, expressing supporters’/volunteers’ own belief/opinion on issues, qualifications, programs of government, using supporters’/volunteers’ own alternative media (e.g. Facebook, Multiply, Friendster, Twitter, SMS) to express support/belief/ opinion, using home-made or personally created campaign paraphernalia without words vote for.”
In turn, the CPM list of activities, after filing of candidacy and before the campaign period include "distributing campaign literature or materials but avoiding keywords that may be construed as expressly soliciting votes such as the word “VOTE,” distributing campaign paraphernalia, gear and/or apparel for use by supporters like shirts, caps, calendars, umbrellas, pins, lanyards, baller IDs, jackets/vests, but avoiding keywords that may be construed as expressly soliciting votes such as the word “VOTE,” putting up and maintaining accounts in Facebook, Multiply, Friendster, Twitter, etc. through supporters, but not the candidate, and adding and/or accepting invitations from as many friends or contacts as possible and regularly update posts and status messages expressing opinions or commentaries on the qualifications, programs of government, etc. "
I have been observing some slogans and prominent infomercials and let me do a paraphrasing here of their core messages. Slogans and messages have been crucial in the past. The “ERAP PARA SA MAHIRAP” ( Erap Estrada is for the poor) worked magic with the masses before. Mar’s ( Roxas) “Mr. Palengke” ( Mr. Wet Market ) also struck positively with the viewers. In the current crop of infomercials, the message of NOYNOY’s “Hindi Ka Nag-iisa” ( You are not alone) is in a few words about HOPE and the imperative to continue the struggle as a community or nation. But, others are asking, “ where is the platform?” Which is why, there is a newer version of this television infomercial with a voice over that purports to impart the core message about what the issues are. The Villar infomercials have had plural messages since it started but the main message is : the poor boy who hails from the slums of Tondo, Manila made it but still has empathy with the poor. Critics’ monicker for the old infomercial “SIPAG at TIYAGA” ( industriousness and steadfastness) of Senator Villar is “C-5 at Taga”.
( in reference to the issue of whether there was a double entry in the General Appropriations budget pertaining to the project for the circumferential road called C-5) The Gibo Teodoro infomercial is basically saying to the viewers : I am here and offering to be of service and I have “ talino.” ( intelligence) One big billboard in Davao City says GMA Cares and a vandal wrote “ Pag sure Oy.” ( Hey, please be sure) A friend of mine who does not like to hear the popular expression “ Pag Sure Oy” is suddenly in love with these words in reference to PGMA.
Our change politics movement (CPM) has compiled a list of activities that candidates and supporters can do at anytime and before the campaign period. The CPM list of activities that can be done at any time based on our election law include "publishing results of surveys if favorable, asking media to write columns on favorable results of surveys, using campaign gadgets, gear and apparel on one’s own personal property, expressing supporters’/volunteers’ own belief/opinion on issues, qualifications, programs of government, using supporters’/volunteers’ own alternative media (e.g. Facebook, Multiply, Friendster, Twitter, SMS) to express support/belief/ opinion, using home-made or personally created campaign paraphernalia without words vote for.”
In turn, the CPM list of activities, after filing of candidacy and before the campaign period include "distributing campaign literature or materials but avoiding keywords that may be construed as expressly soliciting votes such as the word “VOTE,” distributing campaign paraphernalia, gear and/or apparel for use by supporters like shirts, caps, calendars, umbrellas, pins, lanyards, baller IDs, jackets/vests, but avoiding keywords that may be construed as expressly soliciting votes such as the word “VOTE,” putting up and maintaining accounts in Facebook, Multiply, Friendster, Twitter, etc. through supporters, but not the candidate, and adding and/or accepting invitations from as many friends or contacts as possible and regularly update posts and status messages expressing opinions or commentaries on the qualifications, programs of government, etc. "
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