Mong Palatino

Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei and Juan Ponce Enrile of the Philippines – all have something in commons: they belong to Southeast Asia’s prominent club of senior citizen statesmen.

Politicians may be getting younger, but it doesn’t mean the old guard is completely excluded from politics. Indeed, it continues to be politically relevant despite the rise of a new generation of voters who are skeptical of old-style politics.

Lee Kuan Yew became Singapore’s first prime minister in 1959, and ruled the country for three decades. When he stepped down from power in 1990, he was appointed senior minister. His son, who became prime minister in 2004, designated him minister mentor. He’s the country’s longest serving minister, the world’s longest serving prime minister, and still holds a parliamentary seat. The only global icon who rivals Lee Kuan Yew’s feat of longevity is Fidel Castro, who became Cuba’s leader in 1959.

Mahathir served as Malaysia’s prime minister for 22 years. His political party remained undefeated in the polls, and when he retired from politics, he was offered an emeritus role in the new government, but rejected the offer. But despite no longer holding a position in government, he’s still a feared political figure in Malaysia and has the luxury of being able to criticize the prime minister, a foreign leader, or other countries from time to time. He has consistently attacked the West, for example, for supposedly undermining the economies and sovereignty of developing nations.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand and Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei are highly respected and well-loved political icons in their respective countries. King Bhumibol, the longest reigning sitting monarch, is the only political figure who can unite Thailand’s warring political forces. Thai politicians show their devotion to the King by strictly implementing a law that forbids anyone insulting the royal family. Meanwhile, Sultan Bolkiah has continued to exercise a direct role in the governmental affairs of his country since his coronation in 1968.

In addition, although Juan Ponce Enrile was never president of the Philippines, he has been influential politically since the 1960s. He was the oldest senator of the republic to be reelected last year, despite an overwhelmingly young electorate. He’s also the senate president, which makes him the third most important lawmaker in the country.

After serving their country for decades, these politicians were expected to retire from politics, but it seems they are incapable of taking a less active role in public affairs. Despite their age and frail health, they still hold powerful positions in government, political parties respect their views and voters continue to re-elect them.

Schooled in the tradition that a country’s leaders are infallible, they continue to expect everybody to agree with their views, even if their beliefs seem to most to be obsolete. Yet despite them being out of touch, no one in government seems to have the stature to antagonize them.

It’s a strange situation indeed when elderly statesmen are still calling the shots despite the future of their countries lying with a much younger future.

Written for The Diplomat

Thailand’s Turbulent Year

Three issues made 2011 an interesting but turbulent year for Thailand: Yingluck Shinawatra, the three-month flooding disaster, and lese majesté.

Yingluck made history when her party dominated the elections this year, which allowed her to become Thailand’s first female prime minister. Her critics, though, accused her of being a mere proxy of her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted from power in 2006. Yingluck’s victory didn’t impress many feminists, but it’s still a significant gain for the political opposition identified with Thaksin.

Still, it was the deadly flooding tragedy, not Thaksin, which proved to be the first serious challenge to Yingluck’s leadership. As expected, her enemies portrayed her as a weak and incompetent leader who failed to handle the floods properly. Massive floods hit most countries in Southeast Asia this year, but Thailand suffered the most when floodwaters submerged a third of the country’s provinces, including major industrial estates, 4.4 million acres of agricultural land, and 470 areas of Bangkok. More than 600 people died in the floods, while 2.4 million families have been displaced from their homes in the past three months.

However, Thailand’s international image suffered not only because of the country’s flooding woes, but also because of the government’s aggressive efforts to implement its very strict and rigid lese majesté laws. Aside from convicting a 61-year-old man to 20 years in prison for sending text messages that insulted the royal family, Thailand’s harsh laws attracted global attention when authorities banned 761,416 webpages that are deemed offensive to the King.

Thai politics certainly seemed less bloody and violent as the year went on compared with the Yellow Shirt airport takeover in 2008, the Red Shirt riots last year, and border clashes with Cambodia earlier this year. But as in previous years, they are still more divisive than ever. The flooding disaster, which was reported to be the worst in 50 years, is also expected to generate a political backlash in the coming months if the government is unable to provide immediate and sustained assistance to flooded communities.

It can only be hoped that when the monsoon rains return next year, Yingluck will be better prepared to minimize flooding casualties. But she should also start addressing the other contentious political issues in the country, such as rising inequality, erosion of democratic values, creeping censorship of online media, and corruption in high places.

Written for The Diplomat

Speech during the National Congress on Good Governance, UP NCPAG, January 15, 2012.

The keywords of my presentation are youth, good governance, and sustainable human development. The thesis is easy to formulate: The youth have a significant role to perform in promoting good governance in the country to achieve sustainable human development. But how do we concretely realize this mission? How do we effectively tap the youth’s vast potential to bring reforms in our country? Let’s discuss the keywords first.

Youth

The Philippines has a very young population; the youth sector comprises about one-third of the population. If we will include children, almost half of the country can be considered young. How young is this generation? Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile was already 73 years old when our teenagers today were born in 1997.

A big youth population is good for the economy since we can benefit from the talent, skills, energy, and idealism of young people. In short, young people are our human resources, our human capital. But certain conditions exist in order to maximize the potential of the youth. First, young people must be given adequate education and training. Second, their other basic rights are fulfilled like health, leisure time, and participation in societal affairs. Third, they must have access to decent jobs and opportunities for career growth. And fourth, they must be encouraged and given the freedom to lead in various organizations and institutions. I must add that the right of young people to dissent, to criticize, must be respected. Recently, the UN declared internet access as a human right. Are your human rights being violated?

What are the characteristics of today’s generation? Many of you can be called ‘Arroyo Babies.’ You grew up in the decade dominated by this politician, former President now Congresswoman, and Veteran Hospital’s most famous patient, Gloria Arroyo. You are also called ‘Digital Natives’ since IT almost became mainstream during your formative years. My generation sang ‘Ibon man may layang lumipad’ in Edsa while you on the other hand are playing with the angry birds.

To leave the country as OFWs is still the popular option of many young Filipinos. The BPO sector, meanwhile, continues to attract more young workers. Contractualization is accepted as a standard business practice instead of viewing it as an affront on human dignity. There are two career choices which seem to be anathema to young people: one is to work in the farms (students prefer Farmville over real rice fields) and second is either to be a politician or to be active in politics.

Good Governance

I can understand why many young people turn their backs on politics. Who would want to be associated with trapos, warlords, and other dark characters of Philippine politics? But if we will abandon politics, the government will be dominated forever by political dynasties. And why should we reduce political participation into electoral politics? We can still take an active role in politics without necessarily becoming politicians.

Good governance these days is defined by identifying the negative behavior of political leaders. It’s often invoked to battle corruption, abuse of power, and inefficient delivery of services. During my student days, Marcos was the supreme evil symbol for bad governance. Then Estrada came in 1998 and while he was no Marcos, he was ousted from power in our pursuit of good governance. Today, it’s clear that Arroyo is the preferred target of our righteous indignation. The Corona impeachment must be viewed as part of the demand to make Arroyo accountable for her many sins against the people.

Good governance is often discussed separately from people power which I think is wrong. The first term usually refers to the behavior of public officials while the latter is invoked during great political moments. But good governance and people power are directly related. We can successfully achieve good governance through people power. Politicians must not be given the exclusive right to enforce good governance since they can distort or dilute its substantial meaning. Magiging business transaction, accommodation, wheeling-dealing, horse-trading ang mangyayari kapag sila lang ang lalaban. We, the people, the boss, must reclaim our leadership in this battle.

On the other hand, the failure or refusal to empower the grassroots, the rejection of people power politics, must be condemned as a violation of the principles of good governance. How can you preach good governance while depriving the people of their right to take a greater role in the country’s political affairs?

Transparency is the buzzword today and it’s often cited as an effective approach to promote good governance. Thus the campaign for the swift passage of a Freedom of Information law. Young people are also being asked to join the transparency bandwagon by reminding them to engage our leaders and agencies through the aggressive use of social media networks. It’s convenient because the tools are already available, internet use is on the rise, and virtual collectives can be organized in support of a campaign (think of #itsmorefuninthephilippines).

Last year, netizens demonstrated how public officials can be humiliated if they are less honest about their work. DPWH officials learned it through the photoshopped way. But there are other tools we can develop to expose bad governance like maps, videos, and the ubiquitous use of twitter hashtags.

The transparency campaign must be sustained and it must be pursued even if the FOI bill becomes a law. Why? Because we have numerous anti-corruption programs and laws yet we still have one of the most corrupt regimes in the world. Corruption is the best Public-Private Partnership showcase in the country.

From Quirino’s Integrity Board, Magsaysay’s Presidential Complaints and Action Committee, Garcia’s Presidential Committee on Administrative Performance Efficiency, Macapagal’s Presidential Anti-Graft Committee, Marcos’ Complaints and Investigation Office, Aquino’s Presidential Commission on Good Government, Ramos’ Presidential Commission Against Graft and Corruption, Estrada’s Inter-agency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council to Arroyo’s Presidential Anti-Graft Commission – we don’t have a shortage of anti-corruption initiatives in the past half-century. Should I mention too the anti-corruption laws that are still in effect today?

So yes, pass the FOI bill. Release the SALN of Corona and other officials. But let’s not stop with that. Good governance requires that we must be vigilant and aggressive in demanding the implementation of our laws and programs. When was the last time you wrote to your public officials?

‘It’s the economy, student’

Aquino said ‘Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.’ It’s simplistic but it made him a winner in the polls. It’s a catchy and impressive slogan but it doesn’t mean we have to believe it. Last week, Arroyo the professor published an essay entitled ‘It’s the economy, student’ to criticize the weak leadership of his successor. In the essay, Arroyo ridiculed Aquino’s anti-corruption slogan: “It is in poverty that we find the material roots of the problem of corruption – because the political system based on patronage–and ultimately, corruption to support patronage–is made possible only by the large gap between the rich and the poor. This will persist until and unless we enlarge the economic pie.”

Arroyo made some valid points in the essay especially about the need to expand the economy. Unfortunately, she should be the last person to lecture us about inclusive economic growth. Yes, GDP numbers improved during her watch but it didn’t lead to equitable growth. The rich became richer while the poor became poorer despite losing their kidneys.

If Aquino doesn’t want the ‘boss’ to be busabos, he must reverse the policies of his predecessor. Unfortunately, he is even expanding the bad legacies of Arroyo like the misnamed conditional cash transfer, foreign debt accumulation, and labor export.

Indeed, the economic fundamentals seemed sound during the time of Arroyo but quality of life deteriorated in the country. Lesson: economic numbers are rendered meaningless by the continuing poverty in the country. But this is no longer a new conclusion. In fact, the Philippines is supportive of innovative international campaigns to combat poverty like the Millennium Development Goals 2015. There is already consensus that the broad human development framework must be adopted if we want our people to escape the inter-generational poverty curse.

So why are we still poor despite the recent tweaking of poverty statistics by our so-called poverty experts? Again, the answer is no longer a mystery since we already knew that the problem is structural. Poverty persists because the system is designed to benefit the privileged few.

This is precisely the reason why the rise of global ‘occupy’ movements in 2011 was welcomed as an inspiring development for those who dream of a better world. The ‘occupy’ protests questioned the system sustained by greed and obscene hoarding of wealth by a cabal of corporations and evil geniuses on one hand, and the pauperized conditions of workers on the other. The ‘occupy’ message is applicable in the Philippines and it should replace the condescending attitude of blaming the ‘lazy poor’ for their destitute conditions.

End of the (old) world

The answer to bad governance is people power. The alternative to poverty is human development. The youth who will inherit this society must decisively act now if they want a more prosperous and peaceful future. Most likely the world will not end in 2012 but for the majority who are excluded from enjoying the wealth of nations, life is nearly synonymous with death.

We need young people who will fight the old system of exploitation, oppression, and injustice. Fortunately, we have the militant example of young people who made a big impact in our history. Our republic was founded by young visionaries like Rizal, Bonifacio, Aguinaldo, and Jacinto; young revolutionaries fought the Spanish, American, and Japanese colonizers; our modern martyrs were students and young workers who defied Martial Law. We ousted Marcos and Estrada. We rejected the US Bases Treaty in 1991.

The promise of the new government is daang matuwid. Our task is to ensure that this new road will be open for all and not only for hacenderos and Porsche owners. Change should not be dictated to us; we should put forward our agenda of genuine change. Otherwise, we will only witness some cosmetic changes in the country.

It’s not enough that we merely absorb and accept the daily dose of information offered to us by mainstream media. Empowering the people requires that they are armed with correct information and a comprehensive understanding of our societal problems. We are in a unique position to perform the task of spreading and sharing relevant information to our various social networks. For example, we should aim to explain the relationship of good governance and sustainable human development, environment protection, and people empowerment. Yes, illegal logging is to blame for the floods in north Mindanao. But what about legal logging, legal mining, and other destructive practices sanctioned by the state?

I recognize that many of you are afraid, reluctant, and even doubt the power of young people participating in advocacy movements. We were told that joining or even supporting causes is dangerous, ineffective, and obsolete. But if we will examine our recent history, some of the most dramatic political episodes which made a huge impact in the country were direct actions and struggles of our people. Besides, do we want to inhabit a world where political engagement is limited to adding causes on Facebook, signing online petitions, and organizing virtual rallies? I can assure you that Filipino politicians are not afraid of online activism because 1) they don’t read; 2) they don’t manage their social media accounts; 3) you don’t vote in their districts and cities. But let’s replicate the outstanding practice of Arab Spring activists who have effectively combined online and offline activism to express their democratic demands.

While researching on employment issues, I stumbled upon an article written by a young American who defends the idea of working as a community organizer. He recalls this conversation he had with his mother. His mother asked him this: “You’re a bright young man. You went to college, didn’t you? I just cannot understand why a bright young man like you would go to college, get that degree and become a community organizer.”

His mother added: “’Cause the pay is low, the hours is long, and don’t nobody appreciate you.”

What was the reply of the son? He said: “It needs to be done, and not enough folks are doing it.”

Who is this young graduate who decided to become a community organizer right after college? His name is Barack Obama and he is now the president of the United States.

American poet Samuel Ullman explained how people grow old. “Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a body of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.”

My fellow youth, stay young, dream big for our nation, be brave and fight the oppressors. We are young and we should dedicate the best years of our life in the service of the poor. We should be like the angry birds. We should be like the plants fighting the zombies. Tanong sa isang commercial: Para saan ka bumabangon?

What’s the proper reaction if confronted with the odious task of manipulating public resources for personal gain? The honorable thing is to immediately reject it and bravely face the consequences. But others condone corruption while some even try to justify it. Then there are bureaucrats like Romulo Neri who simply prefer to ‘moderate the greed’ of their recidivist superiors. So the fight against evil has been reduced from active resistance into mere tweaking of highly malevolent and illegal behavior. Greed, it seems, is not a sin if practiced in moderation.

Isn’t it disturbing that greed is considered not excessive enough and that there is a level of greediness which the public can allegedly tolerate?

Senior civil servants like Neri are unique moralists who think they are still doing a good deed even if they barely scratch the fundamental evils of the hopelessly bankrupt system. Their life goal is no longer to fight the system from within but to collect their fat paychecks every month while diligently doing grand favors for their powerful patrons.

But if we were scandalized by Neri’s ‘moderate their greed’ dictum, General Angelo Reyes shocked us even more with his epic fail attempt to defend his dishonorable performance in government: “I did not invent corruption. I walked into it. Perhaps my first fault was in having accepted aspects of it as a fact of life.”

Maybe it’s a disgraced warrior’s desperate plea for compassion but it essentially captures the attitude of good individuals who decided to compromise their virtue by benefiting from corruption instead of exposing it.

Neri and Reyes were publicly condemned even by lower life forms in government not because they violated the law but because their reckless behavior exposed the imperfections of the system.

As high ranking subalterns who blindly implemented the brutal directives of the system, Neri and Reyes must be seen not as aberrations but authentic representatives of the decaying political system.

Their refusal to act decisively against clear transgressions of the law and public morality is their original sin but it’s also at the same time the preferred political stance of conservative liberals. Sadly, this impotent political posturing is often glorified in the mainstream discourse which allows politicians like Noynoy Aquino to brag their non-involvement in radical politics without generating any political backlash.

Reminiscing his Ateneo student days, Aquino explained why his friends rejected the League of Filipino Students: “There was already a dictatorship outside the university and yet we are going to join an organization that will dictate to us what we will do.” (Chief Justice Corona also uses the word dictator to describe Aquino today)

The revelation here is not Aquino’s anti-LFS sentiment but his rejection of the radical student movement at a time when the clear political choice was to actively oppose the dictatorship. Unknowingly, Aquino confessed that his actual political engagement during the Marcos years was to be a mere passive student leader. He ignored the chance to be part of a group which later became the most militant anti-Marcos student force in the country. It was Aquino’s opportunity to create history without the protective shadow of his family but he rejected it.

How could someone who claims to be the heir of People Power boast his non-action, his passivity, his non-involvement in the student movement during the Martial Law years?

Aquino’s rejection of LFS is similar to an Ilustrado’s refusal to join a Katipunan cell in 1896 or a Makapili’s non-membership in the Huk during the Second World War.

But Aquino only exposed the real kernel of liberal politics: Non-action is still an acceptable option to resist evil.

The alternative to the disappointing political behavior of Neri, Reyes, and Aquino is to embrace the political morality of revolutionaries and genuine dissidents. A revolutionary will not moderate greed; he will punish the greedy. A revolutionary will not tolerate corruption; he will jail the corrupt. A revolutionary will seize the moment by being part a political collective.

Related articles:

No country for young politicians
Corrupt nation

The Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street are localized protests that still made a tremendous impact in the world this year. They were organized in response to place-specific issues, but their appeal and influence were immediately global. Through their marching calls of democratic reforms and economic equality, the protests inspired multitudes of activists in many countries to ignite their own brand of revolution. In Southeast Asia, there were several protest movements this year that echoed the radical politics of Arab Spring and Occupy.

Malaysia’s Bersih (Clean) was the most outstanding protest event of 2011 in the region. The event, which was initially organized to ask for very sensible and doable electoral reforms (e.g. cleaning up of the electoral roll and the use of indelible ink), in the end became a pro-democracy action because of the massive participation of the civilian population in the streets – and the violent reaction of the state.

And like the tech-savvy Arab protesters, the Bersih marchers maximized social media to broaden the movement’s appeal among the apolitical segments of the local internet community. More importantly, it gave ordinary Malaysians the opportunity to imagine the formation of a united and patriotic community of individuals committed to the defense of democracy.

Bersih isn’t just the name of Malaysia’s new revolution; it should also be recognized as Southeast Asia’s Tahrir Square.

Next to Bersih were the various Occupy protests in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. They didn’t succeed in sustaining big crowds, but through their militant and creative actions, they were able to highlight the worsening poverty in their societies while the tiny elite of privileged families and corporations are accumulating obscene wealth.

The Occupy protests in the Philippines were joined by students and other young people who used planking as a unique and funny way of expressing their anger over the state budget cuts on education and other social services. Early this month, the Occupy-like campout protests of students near the presidential palace were violently dispersed by the police.

Perhaps the most underrated protest of the year was the rally of Cambodian villagers who dressed up like the Na’vi tribe from the 2009 science fiction film Avatar in opposition to the government’s plan to convert the Prey Lang forest into plantations and mines. Prey Lang is the largest remaining primary lowland dry evergreen forest in the region.

We should expect more Avatar-inspired actions because the story of Prey Lang is similar to other rural communities in the region affected by large-scale development projects like dams, mining, and commercial rezoning. Environmental protests actually intensified this year, and one of them succeeded in forcing Burma’s government to cancel its hydroelectric dam project on the Irrawaddy River.

Not all those who fight for land rights, even through non-violent means, are able to freely express and organize their campaigns – a fact underscored by the experience of seven activists in Vietnam who were arrested, charged, and found guilty of overthrowing the government.

Finally, the protesters whose actions perhaps most symbolized the deep hatred and frustration of the poor against an oppressive system were Pham Thanh Son of Vietnam and Sondang Hutagalung of Indonesia. Son burned himself early this year in front of Da Nang’s municipal office to protest the confiscation of his family’s property by local authorities, while Sondang set his body on fire just a few weeks ago in front of the presidential palace to condemn the anti-poor policies of the government.

There were no London-like urban riots in Southeast Asia this year, but the great floods that destroyed rice fields and food crops in almost all countries of the region could lead to food and rice protests next year.

The challenge for politicians is not to view dissent as the cause of disorder in society, since this will only lead to violent solutions. Instead, they should treat it as a symptom of greater issues that governments must address like rising inequality, corruption, and bad governance.

Written for The Diplomat

This is the year of tweeting birds, homeless migratory birds, and angry birds. Are there angry birds in the Philippines?

Ibong Adarna is the original ‘angry bird’ of the Philippines. It’s a classic in Philippine literature although its author is unknown. It’s a required reading material in schools so students are familiar with the story of this mythical bird whose enchanting voice can magically heal wounds and rare illnesses. But Adarna’s charm is deadly since it possesses the power to turn humans into stones. Below is an excerpt of the original text of Ibong Adarna:

Sa Tabor na cabunducan
ang siyang quinalalaguian,
cahoy na hinahapunan
Piedras Platas ang pangalan.
Cun arao ay uala roon
itong encantadang ibon,
sa iba sumasalilong
at nagpapaui nang gutom.
Cun gabing catahimican
ualang malay ang sino man,
ay siyang pag-oui lamang
sa Tabor na cabunducan.

Ay ano’i, nang tahimic na
ang gabí ay lumalim na,
siya nangang pagdating na
niyong ibong encantada.
Dumapo na siyang agad
sa cahoy na Piedras Platás,
balahibo ay nangulág
pinalitán niyang agad.
At capagdaca’i, nagcantá
itong ibong encantada,
ang tinig ay sabihin pa
tantong caliga-ligaya.
Ang príncipe ay hindi na
nacaringig nang pagcantá,
pagtúlog ay sabihin pa
himbing na ualang capara.
Ang sa ibong ugali na
cun matapos na magcantá,
ay siyang pag-táe niya
at matutulog pagdaca.
Sa masamáng capalaran
ang príncipe’i, natai-an,
ay naguing bató ngang tunay
ang catauan niyang mahal.

Matanglawin (Hawkeye) is a character in Rizal’s second novel, El Filibusterismo. He’s a Luzon bandit formerly known as Kabesang Tales, a cabeza de barangay (barangay head) in Sagpang. Matanglawin’s criminal activities are described in chapter 28 of the book

“Matanglawin was the terror of Luzon…It burned a sugar-mill in Batangas and destroyed the crops, on the following day it murdered the Justice of the Peace of Tiani, and on the next took possession of the town of Cavite, carrying off the arms from the town hall. The central provinces, from Tayabas to Pangasinan, suffered from his depredations, and his bloody name extended from Albay in the south to Kagayan in the north. The towns, disarmed through mistrust on the part of a weak government, fell easy prey into his hands—at his approach the fields were abandoned by the farmers, the herds were scattered, while a trail of blood and fire marked his passage. Matanglawin laughed at the severe measures ordered by the government against the tulisanes, since from them only the people in the outlying villages suffered, being captured and maltreated if they resisted the band, and if they made peace with it being flogged and deported by the government, provided they completed the journey and did not meet with a fatal accident on the way. Thanks to these terrible alternatives many of the country folk decided to enlist under his command.”

Tales the farmer became Matanglawin the bandit because of the oppression and injustice he suffered when the friars took possession of his land and received no support from the civil government. Here’s how Tales reacted when he learned about the plan of the friars to rob him of his precious land

“Poor Tales turned pale, he felt a buzzing in his ears, he saw in the red mist that rose before his eyes his wife and daughter, pallid, emaciated, dying, victims of the intermittent fevers—then he saw the thick forest converted into productive fields, he saw the stream of sweat watering its furrows, he saw himself plowing under the hot sun, bruising his feet against the stones and roots, while this friar had been driving about in his carriage with the wretch who was to get the land following like a slave behind his master.”

Aves de Rapiña (Birds of Prey) is the title of a controversial 1908 editorial written by Fidel Reyes in the nationalist newspaper El Renacimiento. Secretary of Interior Dean Conant Worcester sued the paper for libel because of the article. Worcester won the case but it didn’t invalidate the message of the editorial which accurately depicted the true intentions of US colonial rule in the Philippines.

“The eagle, symbolizing liberty and power, is the bird of prey that counts with the most followers. And men, individually as well as collectively, have frequently aped the most rapacious of birds in order to triumph in their acts of plunder as well as in their acts of robbery and theft against their fellowmen.

“Climbing the mountains of Benguet with the supposed objective of classifying and measuring the skulls of the Igorrotes, with the pretext of studying them in order to civilize them, they go there to really search, as they fly in the air with the eyes of a bird of prey, the locations of gold deposits, (the hidden booty in the midst of the sad mountains), with the aim of later grabbing these for themselves. And thanks to the facilities, supposedly legal with which they do, and undo, their acts at their own pleasure, that they always get to grab these treasures for their own benefit.

“Such are the characteristics of the men who are at the same time an eagle that surprises and devours, a vulture who gorges itself with putrid meat, an owl who feigns petulant omniscience, and a vampire that silently sucks the victim’s blood until leaving her with deathlike pallor.”

Mga Ibong Mandaragit is a socio-political novel written by National Artist for Literature Amado V. Hernandez. It was published in 1969, a year before the author’s death. The book is about the continuing neocolonial subjugation of the Philippines after World War II. It exposes the numerous social problems of agrarian Philippines and the decadent rule of the oligarchic class. It’s still a required reading material for third year high school students in many schools. The book is praised not just for its literary merits but also for its brave articulation of the necessity for radical politics to successfully reform Philippine society.

Bayan Ko is a poem by Jose Corazon de Jesus written in 1929. It has become the most popular protest song in the country especially during the Martial Law years. It’s most famous lines reflected the yearning of Filipinos to be free from colonial and neocolonial bondage and other forms of oppression.

Ibon mang may layang lumipad,
kulungin mo at umiiyak!
Bayan pa kayang sakdal dilag,
Ang ‘di magnasang makaalpas?
Pilipinas kong minumutya,
Pugad ng luha ko’t dalita,
Aking adhika,
Makita kang sakdal laya!

The Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) is the king of Philippine birds. It was officially declared the country’s national bird in 1995. For a long time it was mocked as a monkey-eating eagle but scientists insisted that it’s an inaccurate moniker for our Haring Agila.

Perhaps the real angry bird is the so-called Maya. First, it was never recognized as a national bird though many Filipinos (including me) grew up thinking that it was the original national bird. Second, the little brown bird we call Maya is actually not the real Maya.

But we will soon have thousands of angry migratory birds if the planned reclamation project in Manila Bay near Coastal Road and Freedom Island will push through. Despite its polluted waters, Manila Bay is still the preferred stopover of migratory birds but the Noynoy Aquino government had just issued an order to demolish the bird sanctuary when it approved a reclamation project in a critical habitat area in Manila Bay.

There are two ways to describe the birds inside cockpit arenas. Either the sabong birds have anger management issues or they are born warriors. Pinikpikan could be the horror code for birds which fear torture. #itlognitopacio is the most infamous angry bird in the Philippines today (apologies to the birds of the world).

Special mention should go to Ibon Foundation, one of the very few angry bird think-tanks in the country.

Please visit the special page I created about Philippine Airport Terminals. I also edited my profile page

The Philippines is often recognized by global institutions for its strong commitment to human rights. Indeed, compared with other countries in the region, where government critics are given insanely long prison sentences and media reports are heavily censored by the authorities, the freedom loving Philippines may seem like a viable and vibrant democratic state to the casual international observer.

But the existence of Western-style democracy in the country doesn’t mean it’s fully compliant with international human rights norms. There’s a free press in the Philippines, but it’s also one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. Activists and political dissidents are free to organize rallies and assemblies even without securing police permits, but many of them have become victims of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances over the past decade.

Indeed, human rights violations became so intense during the incumbency of Gloria Arroyo that a U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions visited the Philippines in 2007 to investigate the rise in political killings, torture, and kidnapping in the country. Arroyo’s atrocious human rights record was also one of the major issues in last year’s presidential elections, which saw a landslide victory for the opposition.

And since President Benigno Aquino III was one of the leaders who decried the human rights violations committed by the previous administration, human rights groups had high expectations that the killings of activists and journalists would stop. And the killings did stop, but only for a brief time.

To the surprise of human rights defenders, the new government hasn’t bothered to file appropriate charges against military officials involved in well-documented cases of human rights violations. Activists demanded an end to the climate of impunity that allowed perpetrators of the most heinous crimes against humanity to remain unpunished, but they received no concrete response from the government.

The latest report drafted by Karapatan, a human rights NGO, reveals the poor performance of the Aquino government when it comes to human rights. The numbers are very disappointing: There are 64 victims of extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary killings from July 1, 2010 to October 31, 2011. This translates to one political killing per week in the past 16 months. According to the same report, 6 victims are women and 37 are human rights workers. More than 40 percent of the victims are peasants followed by indigenous peoples and workers. There are 9 cases of enforced disappearances and 52 cases of torture.

The government claims there are no political prisoners in the Philippines but Karapatan was able to count 78 prisoners who had been arrested in the past year because of their political beliefs and activities. Karapatan added that there are 356 political detainees in the country who are facing various trumped-up charges.

The group observed that human rights violations tend to be higher in areas where development and infrastructure projects have been identified by the government like large-scale mining, power plants, and airports. In particular, the recent decision of the government to approve the formation of a Special Civilian Armed Auxiliary to secure mining operations is blamed for the heightened attacks against environment defenders and tribal community leaders.

And since the Philippines is confronted with two insurgencies – the world’s longest communist insurgency and a Muslim separatist movement – the slow pace of peace negotiations between the government and the rebels means more civilians are being harmed or killed in conflict areas. Thousands of villagers have also been forced to evacuate their homes in many parts of Mindanao Island because of military operations and the armed activities of rebels.

Aquino should remember the promises he made during his campaign if he wants to address these human rights issues. First, he should mainstream a pro-human rights agenda in the policymaking process. Second, he should tackle the roots of the armed conflict as his government prepares to fast track the peace talks with both the communist and Muslim rebels.

Edited version of a post I submitted for The Diplomat

Jail Gloria

I agree that Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo deserves ‘special treatment’ because she was former president of the Republic. As a concession to her camp, let’s give Rep. Arroyo the chance to choose her preferred detention facility in Metro Manila. After inquiring from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, we learned that there are 25 jails in Metro Manila, 19 of which can accommodate female prisoners.

Name of Jail Female Population

1. Caloocan City Jail 108
2. Las Pinas 83
3. Makati 81
4. Malabon 38
5. Manila 773
6. Mandaluyong 98
7. Marikina 46
8. Muntinlupa 84
9. Paranaque 116
10. Pasay 109
11. Pasig 92
12. Taguig 61
13. Valenzuela 40
14. Navotas 30
15. San Juan 31
16. Pateros 9
17. Quezon City Female Dorm 550
18. Rodriguez 21
19. San Mateo 24

It’s clear that we don’t have a shortage of prisons in Metro Manila so let’s stop looking for hospitals or houses suitable for Rep. Arroyo.

I’m certain that our jail wardens will be honored if their prison will be chosen by Rep. Arroyo. They can reserve a special room where Arroyo can meet visiting relatives, friends and lawyers.

If Arroyo’s wish to be placed under La Vista house arrest is granted, it will be very unfair to the 2,394 female prisoners in Metro Manila who are looking forward to be jailmates with the former president.

First posted on Kabataan Partylist

With 37 votes in favor, 19 against and 3 abstentions, Timor-Leste’s parliament initially approved on November 11 the general terms of the government’s proposed budget of $1.763 billion for the year 2012.

2012 promises to be an exciting and significant year for this tiny nation. It will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Restoration of Independence, the 100th anniversary of the Manufahi Revolt and the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the first Portuguese in the country. It will also conduct the third presidential and parliamentary elections since democracy was restored.

During the budget deliberations, civil society groups questioned the abnormal increase in the budget, the country’s continued dependence on oil revenues, and the unusually high number of mega infrastructure projects. But the most controversial issue was the decision of the government to obtain foreign debt next year. Timor-Leste currently has no debt from other countries or international financial institutions.

The Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis notes that the increase in the country’s budget is one of the highest in the world. In nominal terms, the 2012 budget is 35 percent higher than 2011. If adjusted to inflation, it’s 25 percent larger than last year, while the budget has grown 273 percent since 2006. The group cited a report from the IMF World Economic Outlook that identified Zimbabwe as the only country in the world whose state budget grew faster during the last four years. Many are concerned about the inflationary impact of rising state expenditures.

Many from the Institute are also concerned that the budget doesn’t reflect the need to develop non-oil industries. Income from oil and gas provides 95 percent of state revenues, making Timor-Leste the most petroleum-export dependent country in the world. “In the medium term, our oil wealth can’t even pay for provide half the level of services the government will provide next year. That’s why we need to develop our non-oil economy.”

Meanwhile, some parliamentarians criticized the decreasing budget allocation for the education, health, and agriculture sectors and alleged that the government “prefers investing in mega projects which are beyond its capacity to execute and will end up in misuse of lots of money.” One of these huge infrastructure investments is the Tasi Mane Project, which will involve the development of an integrated petroleum infrastructure in the county’s south coastal zone in the next two decades.

But the most controversial, if not unpopular, budget-related issue is the plan by the government to secure $33 million in loans for the Dili sanitation and construction of national roads. It’s the first time the government has asked parliament to approve a proposal to borrow money from foreign institutions, and it immediately drew opposition from civil society groups who initiated a petition drive signed by more than 137 organizations based in 32 countries urging the government to “keep the nation debt-free and refrain from borrowing money from international lenders to protect its future generations.” The groups warned that “Rather than repeat the mistakes of other developing countries that have struggled with debt during recent decades, Timor-Leste should learn from their experiences, which often inflicted great hardships on their people.”

Despite the criticisms, the government maintained that the budget is service and development oriented, and will stimulate the local economy while addressing the human development needs of the people. The government also boasted that the budget process is one of the most transparent in the world. Indeed, it created a Budget Transparency Portal that allows the public to access budget documents. It also provides a daily summary of budget deliberations in parliament.

For the government, the budget proposal reflects the renewed optimism in the country’s future, but for many civil society groups, the budget could harm the economy in the long run.

Written for The Diplomat

Malaysia’s Troubling “Peace” Bill

The Malaysian Parliament has unanimously approved the controversial Peaceful Assembly Bill, which critics warned would make it extremely difficult for citizens to organize protest activities. Activists denounced it as a repressive measure intended to curtail the people’s freedom of speech and expression.

The opposition, for its part, was so outraged by the hasty introduction of the measure (MPs received copies of the bill only on November 22) that they staged a walkout during the voting process. Outside the parliament, lawyers organized a “freedom walk” to dramatize their rejection of the bill, which they think is in violation of several international human rights norms. Protesters also took Prime Minister Najib Razak to task for reneging on his pledge during the Malaysia Day celebration in September to review section 27 of the Police Act 1967 in order to uphold the people’s freedom of assembly.

Lim Chee Wee, president of the Malaysian Bar, identified the dangerous provisions of the bill that could undermine the constitutional rights of Malaysian citizens:

1) Prohibition of street protests;

2) Prohibition of organization of assemblies by persons below the age of twenty one years;

3) Prohibition of participation in peaceful assemblies of children below the age of fifteen years;

4) Unduly onerous responsibilities and restrictions on organizers and assemblies;

5) Excessive fines for non-compliance of the bill.

Civil libertarians are also horrified over the other insidious provisions of the bill, like the prohibition of rallies near a place of worship or any area that the government may declare as “protected,” the banning of foreign journalists in a protest assembly, and the granting of power to the police to use tear gas, chemical-laced water, batons and shields as well as arbitrary arrests on participants if these are deemed necessary by authorities to make the assembly peaceful and orderly. Activists are also worried over a provision that gives police forces the right to disperse an assembly if participants are heard giving statements that “promote feelings of ill-will, discontent or hostility among the public.”

Police are given such extensive powers to disperse assemblies without official permits that even an outdoor birthday party can be classified as an event that needs police approval. Furthermore, the police can impose numerous conditions when they approve the conduct of an assembly. And, if they decide to disperse a crowd, they are given the right to use “all reasonable force” in dealing with protesters.

Perhaps the restrictive Peaceful Assembly Bill is the government’s preemptive legal effort to prevent another Bersih (clean) march, which could further weaken the ruling coalition’s chances in the next elections. Bersih was organized in July by election reform advocates, but it has evolved into a strong political movement after the police violently dispersed a crowd of about 50,000 in the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

Maybe the bill won’t be able to stop Bersih or other protest assemblies organized by the big political forces, but it can minimize the influence of these events by limiting the protest actions in select venues. And because of the broad definitions used in the bill, it can also affect the activities of non-political groups.

After Bersih, everybody expected the government to implement reforms that would convince the people about its commitment to democracy and transparency. But with this bill, it seems the government prefers to provoke its enemies and weaken their ability to shape public opinion by banning street protests. The bill appears proof that the government is afraid of the radical potential of Bersih and the emergence of a Malaysian Spring that could finally deliver the fatal blow to the ruling coalition’s decades-old reign in Malaysia.

Written for The Diplomat

Part 1: My critique of President Noynoy Aquino’s Pantawid Pamilya Program

The Department of Social Welfare and Development has been bombarding us with statistical reports on the Conditional Cash Transfer program. It’s either they are obsessively transparent or they are merely trying to convince skeptics that the program’s mega funding is justified. The Liberal diehards can use the data to trumpet the effectiveness of CCT as an innovative poverty reduction measure while the angry opposition birds can cite the excessive amount of taxpayers’ money allocated for a single program.

But there are other ways to interpret the DSWD reports and one of them is to link the numbers to the geopolitical distribution of poverty in the archipelago. They can affirm and even expose the existence of extreme poverty in supposedly first class municipalities. The numbers can be overwhelming and the ‘shock effect’ can distract us for a while but once we relate the numbers-that-appear-insignificant to the national poverty situation, they start to become useful and their political value becomes visible.

One of the success indicators attributed to CCT is the alleged high compliance rate of beneficiaries in fulfilling the conditionalities, like attending schools and health centers. But in presenting this achievement, the DSWD also revealed and validated (with extreme accuracy) the failure of both local and national governments in their mandate to deliver appropriate health and education services to our children

4th Quarter 2010

3-5 years old, not attending school: 56,504
3-5 years old, attending school: 72,489
6-14 years old, not attending school: 93,228
6-14 years old, attending school: 449,457
0-5 years-old, not attending health center: 36,793
0-5 years-old, attending health center: 223,477

In less than four months this year, the DSWD managed to expand the CCT registered households by 700,000. Maybe that’s what P21.1 billion can accomplish. But the DSWD also succeeded in delisting 200,000 households from the program. What was the crime committed by the ex-CCT beneficiaries? In Metro Manila, four of them were accused of fraud while 3,599 inclusion errors were recorded throughout the country. But most of the delisted households were found guilty of the heinous crime of ‘not attending assemblies’ conducted by the agency. Curiously, 61 beneficiaries in Central Luzon were delisted because they are no longer poor anymore. Balato!

Most of the beneficiaries are located in Mindanao and the share of ARMM is the biggest in the country. That the ‘very poor’ reside in Mindanao could also probably mean that most of the moderately poor, slightly poor, and the invisible poor are also to be found on the island. And CCT-defined poverty is not just a problem ‘there’ in Mindanao: look at the Bicol numbers. What’s the government’s official intervention to alleviate their conditions? Or maybe we are too fixated with the CCT viagra pill that we are unable to see the need to develop a holistic policy to deal with poverty and its discontents.

CCT registration

There are provinces which are not included in the CCT program because there are no qualified beneficiaries there (Batanes) but the program is already operational in 75 cities, 950 municipalities, and 79 provinces. Despite the program expansion, there are still politicians who are complaining about the non-inclusion of some of their constituents. By asking DSWD to accept more beneficiaries in their areas, aren’t they admitting their failure to solve poverty in their jurisdictions? Below are some of the CCT provinces and the rising number of CCT households

Tell me the number of CCT households in your town and I’ll tell you what kind of leader you are. Maybe this applies to the Ampatuans who ruled Maguindanao and ARMM for several years.

Meanwhile, superstar cities like Iloilo, Zamboanga, Davao, Quezon City, General Santos, and Makati (ganito kami sa Makati) have high CCT registrations. Maybe their leaders are more concerned about how to impress credit rating analysts and business competitiveness experts that they failed to notice the widening economic inequality in their places.

And speaking of municipalities which recorded high levels of CCT poverty, Rapu-Rapu and Compostela proved that there may be life after mining but it’s a poor one. Lesson for local leaders: Think twice before embracing the seductive offer of mining firms.

Caraga towns Bunawan (Lolong giant crocodile) and Claver (NPA mining raid) have been in the news recently but the poverty rates in these places also deserve a special mention.

Next time we go to a Friday mass in Quiapo, think of the 21 very poor households in the historic area. Can’t we ask the rich devotees to do something about the unlucky 21?

Tourism will bring dollar receipts (and sex tourists according to a US diplomat) but poverty elimination isn’t a guarantee. See listing below. CamSur and Cebu may be the country’s top tourist attractions yet the poverty index in these towns is quite alarming. Sadly, after years of eco-tourism in Puerto Princesa and Palawan, they remain poverty-stricken destinations. On the other, could the non-inclusion of Puerto Galera, Panglao, and Malay (Boracay) mean there are no CCT poor in these popular tourist destinations?

A senatorial candidate once complained that scions of prominent political families are lucky since their family names are also the names of streets, towns, and buildings in the country. They can bank on a name-recall strategy to win in the polls. We are familiar with the famous streets, airports, and landmark buildings named after former presidents and heroes but we seldom acknowledge the lesser known towns which got their names also from dead presidents and heroes. Through the DSWD reports, we are able to list the towns named after former presidents and the existence of CCT poverty in these places. Who are the ‘poorest presidents’? How should their families react to the fact that the towns which are named in honor of them are afflicted with CCT poverty levels?

As of September 2011, the cash grants released by the DSWD for the current year have reached P9.2 billion. Below is the list of regions which received substantial amounts from the agency. Notice the billion peso CCT funds for Bicol?

The DSWD targets the location of the poorest of the poor in the same way the military hunts the lair of its rebel enemies. Precise. Detailed. Ruthlessly efficient. Mission objectives couched in a neutral-sounding, technical language. After locating the poor and giving them a dose of CCT, what’s the state’s next ‘shock therapy’ for them? The poor, because they are poor, are easily subjected to various social experiments even if these are highly discriminatory.

In imperial regimes, maps were technological tools used to impose hegemony in the colonized territories. Maps didn’t merely define the boundaries of the Empire but more significantly, they placed the subdued populations under the cartographic monitoring of rulers. Maps performed military functions in aid of modernity and the fanatical drive to spread the civilizing mission to the barbarian worlds. In short, there is nothing innocent in the quasi-scientific categorization of individuals and groups in an enclosed space.

Like military maps, the hyper-accurate matrix of CCT beneficiaries supports the power imperative of the dominant faction of the ruling class. If the CCT fails (and it’s bound to fail because it’s not designed to disturb the roots of deprivation in the country), will politicians in search of stability be able to resist the compulsion to use the DSWD database to exclude and even exterminate the unwanted (system losses) poorest of the poor from mainstream society?

First organized in 2008, the Seksualiti Merdeka festival has been an annual celebration of sexual diversity and gender rights in Malaysia. It promotes the human rights and acceptance of the LGBT community through films, art workshops, stage plays, and seminars. Themed ‘Queer Without Fear,’ this year’s vision is for everyone “to be free from discrimination, harassment and violence for their sexual orientations and their gender identities.”

According to organizers, festival attendance grew from 500 people in 2008, to 1,500 last year. A bigger number was expected this year, but unfortunately, the police decided to be a party pooper by banning the festival activities. They even threatened to arrest any individual who defies the ban; the organizers were also summoned for questioning.

Police justified the ban by arguing that the festival “could create disharmony, enmity and disturb public order.” The police could, truth be told, be referring to the tiny but loud protests of conservative groups that denounced the festival for promoting “free sex” and the gay lifestyle. They are the same groups that expressed opposition to the upcoming Elton John concert in Malaysia.

The festival organizers, which represent a coalition of groups that includes the Malaysian Bar Council and Amnesty International, reminded the government about their right to conduct peaceful forums, workshops and performances. They added that the “intimidating displays of hatred and ignorance towards us, and calls for us to be shut down, demonstrate why we absolutely need a safe space and event like Seksualiti Merdeka.”

They should also note the fact that Malaysia was a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948 before becoming a member of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, “vowing to respect sexual rights as universal rights based on the inherent freedom, equality and dignity of all human beings.”

According to MP Charles Santiago of Klang, the government and police have exposed themselves to the world as “callous, intolerant and homophobic” when they banned Seksualiti Merdeka. But he also believes there’s a more sinister reason why the festival was banned: “Driven by the need to stay in power, the government has fashioned the controversy surrounding the festival for its own political mileage. Clearly the ban demonstrates the ongoing persecution against Ambiga.” Aside from being a supporter of Seksualiti Merdeka, Ambiga is a Malaysian lawyer who spearheaded Bersih 2.0, a popular movement for electoral reforms that damaged the credibility of the ruling political coalition.

The ban generated an international outcry from human rights groups and LGBT networks, which sent protest letters to the Malaysian government. They demanded the lifting of the ban against Seksualiti Merdeka, they asked police not to arrest or intimidate the festival organizers, and they called for the protection of the organizers from private actor violence.

The groups added that the ban also proved that it’s necessary to “conduct a public awareness campaign about equality before the law and non-discrimination, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.” They asked authorities to train police officials with regard to LGBT rights “to end arbitrary harassment of LGBT individuals, their speech and assembly.”

But organizers of the Seksualiti Merdeka festival perhaps should also thank the government and the police for banning their event since it made a lot of noise in the news and the public actually came to know more about LGBT rights, gender equality and sexual tolerance (or the lack of it) in society. Unlike in previous years, the festival’s objectives became popular this year because of the ban.

The opposition should also use this opportunity to remind the people that as the prime minister talks about his 1Malaysia national unity slogan, his actions and policies are actually creating more divisions in the country.

Written for The Diplomat

Burma’s Opium Addiction

Opium cultivation is on the increase in the Palaung communities in the northern Shan State of Burma. This fact was revealed in a study published last month by the Palaung Women’s Organization. Indeed, it would seem the local authorities are not only aware of the problem, but are aggressively promoting and protecting the opium trade there.

The group reported that opium growing in the 15 villages in Namkham Township has increased by 79 percent in the past two years. In 2008, there were only 617 hectares of opium fields in the area. This year the figure is expected to rise to 1,109 hectares. About 12 villages that hadn’t previously grown opium have started to grow it since 2009.

Drug addiction has also worsened in Palaung communities. In one village, the group discovered that 91 percent of males aged 15 and over were addicted to drugs. The drug menace has also caused the crime rate to go up, including a spike in cases involving domestic violence.

The group is blaming the local and national government for the revival of the opium industry in the area, even accusing a local MP of being the key protector of the opium trade in the region. The group cited testimony from a villager that former militia leader Kyaw Myint had promised Namkham voters that they could plant opium without regulation for 5 years if they voted for him. Kyaw Myint ran under the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which dominated last year’s elections.

Palaung farmers were tea growers, but the decline of the tea industry, which is heavily controlled by the junta-dominated government, has forced them to switch to opium growing in order to survive. Meanwhile, opium cultivation is tolerated because politicians, soldiers, police, and militia forces can collect high taxes and bribes.

The local women’s group believes that the national government allowed Kyaw Myint’s illegal drug activities to flourish in exchange for its support for the government’s military campaign against ethnic rebels. It said the issue “highlights the nexus between drug production and power relations in Burma’s conflict-ridden Shan State.” It added that the government “needs to rely on its army infrastructure, including local paramilitary forces, to suppress the ethnic resistance movements,” even if the pro-government forces are sustained by the opium trade.

This latest alternative drug report by a local NGO, which covered only one province of Burma, should inspire the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to conduct a more independent study of the drug situation in the country, since it only relies on the data submitted by the junta-backed government. The fact is that the UNODC reliance on government statistics has blinded the agency and weakened its capacity to address the worsening drug problem in the country.

At a minimum, the Burmese government should investigate the illicit drug cultivation in the Shan State. It should be ready to punish public officials and military officers who are found guilty of protecting the opium trade, and it should also assist opium farmers by promoting alternative crop development. Instead of turning a blind eye to the evils of drug use, it should launch an awareness campaign targeting the young about the need to combat the dangerous impact of illegal drugs in society.

Written for The Diplomat

Excerpts of my presentation in the Visayas Blogging Summit 2011 in Cebu

It’s fair to assume that we are fascinated with numbers, except of course during our student days when we cursed calculus, algebra, and our math wizard classmates. But as a general rule, it seems we often equate truth with numbers. A thing, an event, a place, a person, an issue becomes more real if they are linked to statistics. And so we use numbers and impressive statistics in our presentations, lectures, conversations, and essays to increase our credibility. We bombard our audience and readers with numbers to convince and even intimidate them into believing to what we are saying or writing. The statement ‘The Philippines is a poor nation’ becomes more believable if we turn it into this statement: ‘The Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 islands inhabited by 94 million people but one-fifth of the population is surviving on less than two dollars everyday.’ It seems easier to count the hungry stomachs than explain this tragedy.

Let’s admit that we prefer to cite statistics than to be part of them. We like to highlight the depressing numbers which are not directly linked to our lives. Chances are that a person who writes about poverty statistics, number of road accidents, and school drop-out rates is not part of that unfortunate segment of the population. We are unconsciously writing about the miseries suffered by other people.

This brings me to the popular usage of hashtags today. I think hashtags do not merely reflect our desire to ‘trend’ globally. We use hashtags to spread an idea, create a message and promote conversations around it. If carefully chosen, hashtags can dominate the cyberspace and influence the political landscape. The use of hashtags is our attempt to shape the interpretation of an event. But it can also lead to the emergence of something new, something unexpected in the social and political realms. Hashtags represent our active engagement in the world – they are statistics-in-the-making. When we propose a hashtag, we are actually seeking collaboration. We are continually in search of virtual collectives who will support our initiatives.

In the past, poverty discussions were dominated by depressing statistics. Well, poverty discussions today are still about depressing statistics but by using the #poverty hashtag, we are able to expand the conversations as we enjoin others to share their views and thoughts. We seek to provoke their passions and persuade them to do something about the existence of poverty in a land of plenty. And through the #change hashtag, we try to challenge other netizens so that the passive cyber exchange of 140 characters will lead to concrete actions in the real world. From tweeting birds, we become angry birds. From decorative plants, we decide to make that great leap and fight the zombies. It’s the power of the networked mob.

But the #change hashtag can’t dominate the trending wars consistently. Most of the time, the #viceganda hashtag tops the trending topics. It’s only during momentous political phases that hashtags like #ArroyoArrest or #itlognitopacio are able to register their strong presence in the twitterspehere. But during ordinary times, it’s hard to beat Vice Ganda, Anne Curtis or Vicky Belo. So should we admonish the showbiz twitterers? Not at all. Well, it won’t hurt to be more critical sometimes. But we must recognize that the political value of our mundane online ranting, and even our silly tweets, becomes visible when despots try to clamp down on the web. We should count the non-political netizens as among those who can be tapped in the resistance every time web access is restricted. Authorities are sometimes afraid to antagonize this constituency.

When Cambodian authorities banned Blogspot early this year, and Blogspot’s only fault was that it’s the preferred web portal of the political opposition, Cambodian netizens quickly reacted and demanded the restoration of Blogspot access. It’s when netizens are prevented from exercising their right to post their favorite photos, the right to share, like and comment on the most ordinary and non-political issues that often trigger widespread collaboration in the cyberspace.

So yes, the campaign to protect and strengthen our internet freedoms is also a defense of the right of ordinary internet users to use the web for whatever purpose. Our task today as committed bloggers, while we are enjoying almost unhampered web access, is to prepare everybody on how to respond collectively and even militantly when the political situation becomes difficult for web users. Please don’t forget that the state still has the regulatory power to shut down the internet. Even the US and UK, the two self-declared most democratic societies in the world, had no qualms when they proposed to filter or censor twitter when riots and mass actions threatened the stabilities of their cities.

Our social media campaigns should be appreciated as part of the learning phase – it’s the time when we are experimenting with the various social uses and applications of the web with the hope that one day, and I hope that day will never come, the skills we acquired and our accumulated positive practices will be our weapons in defending our web freedoms against various tyrannies.