Geopolitical Mathematics of Cash Transfers

By admin | December 5, 2011

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!

 

March 2011

July 2011
CCT registered households

1.596 million

2.2 million
Female beneficiaries

1.417 million

2.04 million
6-14 years old beneficiaries

2.3 million

3.96 million
0-2 years old beneficiaries

4,101

403,547
Indigenous Peoples beneficiaries

298,713

417,024
Households delisted from the program

46,740

155,944
Delisted because of inclusion error

3,599
Delisted because didn’t attend assembly

46,622

112,734
Delisted in ARMM because didn’t attend assembly

2,815
Delisted in NCR because of fraud

4
Delisted in Region 3 because ‘not poor anymore’

61

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

Region

March 2011

July 2011
ARMM

150,982

264,267
Caraga

128,603

144,145
Mimaropa

115,083

136,802
Western Mindanao

183,787

199,522
Bicol

186,667

251,278
Region X

197,761
Luzon

664,832
Mindanao

1.058 million

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

Provinces

March 2011

July 2011
Sulu

55,122

73,181
Maguindanao

37,324

87,282
Lanao del Sur

38,165

69,699
Agusan del Sur

46,307

46,454
Surigao Sur

31,424

32,602
Quezon

33,753

66,084
Oriental Mindoro

33,460

45,161
Zamboanga del Norte

74,117

73,974
Zamboanga del Sur

78,829

85,529
Masbate

71,683

78,196
Iloilo

28,980

62,078
Lanao del Norte

60,828

62,299

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?

Municipalities/Cities

March 2011

July 2011
Ampatuan, Maguindanao

4,174
Zamboanga City

19,335

19,443
Quiapo

21

21
Tondo 1-2

7,798

8,445
Quezon City

8,477

9,480
Iloilo City

7,629

7,645
Iligan City

9,046

9,577
Sultan Naga Dimaporo

5,175

5,175
Davao City

16,384

16,579
Pikit, North Cotabato

10,650

10,783
General Santos City

8,006

8,050
Makati

907

910
Cagayan de Oro

8,762

9,087
Claver, Surigao del Norte

1,764

1,764
Bunawan, Agusan Norte

2,800

2,798
Rapu-Rapu, Albay

482

482
Compostela

834

4,567

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?

Tourist Destinations

March 2011

July 2011
Palawan

57,417

58,838
Puerto Princesa

4,599

4,577
Coron

2,660

2,660
El Nido

2,461

2,461
Camarines Sur

46,129

82,413
Caramoan

4,075

4,089
Donsol

4,537

4,537
Baguio

1,034

1,050
Nasugbu

394

394
Tagaytay

413

413
Dapitan City

3,876

3,876
Intramuros

101

109
Daanbantayan, Cebu

461

4,096
Cebu City

4,466

4,506
Samal Island

477

5,760
Gen Luna, Siargao

1,377

1,377

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?

President’ Towns

March 2011

July 2011
Marcos, Ilocos Norte

681

674
Quirino, Isabela

726
Pres Roxas, Capiz

447

1,361
Quezon, Nueva Ecija

474

476
Aguinaldo, Cavite

286

288
Quezon, Quezon

999
Pres Roxas, North Cotabato

2,483

2,627
Aquino, Sultan Kudarat

3,030

3,029
Marcos, Sultan Kudarat

3,182
Roxas, Mindoro Oriental

3,749
Magsaysay, Mindoro Occidental

3,036

3,036
Magsaysay, Palawan

689

735
Roxas, Palawan

4,438

4,445
Roxas, Zamboanga del Norte

3,309

3,304
Magsaysay, Zamboanga del Sur

2,113

2,117
Pres C.P. Garcia, Bohol

1,973

1,988
Quezon, Bukidnon

5,106
Magsaysay, Misamis Oriental

2,801

2,784
Magsaysay, Davao del Sur

453

449
Pres Quirino, Sultan Kudarat

1,740

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?

Region

Amount

NCR

P274.3 million

Calabarzon

P375.7 million

Mimaropa

P592.8 million

Bicol

P1.084 billion

Western Visayas

P620.4 million

Central Visayas

P584.4 million

Eastern Visayas

P593.4 million

Western Mindanao

P1.107 billion

Region X

P895.16 million

Region XI

P507.38 million

Caraga

P732.03 million

ARMM

P904.84 million

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?

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Sex, Politics & Seksualiti Merdeka

By admin | December 3, 2011

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

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Statistics, Hashtags, and Political Blogging

By admin | November 27, 2011

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.

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No Country for Young Politicians

By admin | November 17, 2011

There are no young politicians in the Philippines. Politicians are getting younger but their politics remain old. The new faces, the fashionable and adorable ones, come from the same old boring brand. According to the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center, seventy-seven percent (77 percent) of legislators aged 26-40 belong to political dynasties. They are temporary substitutes for parents and relatives who are barred by law from seeking another term for the same position. Worse, there are those who join the family business even if the old timers, the ‘old porkers’, have not yet retired. They flaunt their power and questionable wealth in public while clinging to the conceited belief that only their family members possess the intellectual competence and dedication required for public service. They spend their idle days accumulating more capital for the family hoard while inflating their egos.

Politicians die young. There are rebellious children who are quite ashamed of their family legacy. They are desperate to shed the trapo image. They try to be different by espousing popular advocacies while some are publicly contradicting their relatives. But their idealism is often defeated by the unbearable weight of the old system. How could they fight the trapo old guards in the parliamentary political arena and expect to emerge unscathed? How could they succeed in creating history if they are unable and unwilling to imagine the possibility of political reforms through non-electoral politics? Humbled by their powerlessness and overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of the system, they surrender to the seductive appeal of the status quo. They become reborn reactionaries guided by this mantra: ‘Stop fighting, start compromising. The system is imperfect but we can still make it work. I want to fight but I want to retain my privileges.’ In short, they want their pork and eat it too while the leftover is given to charity. Convinced that fighting the system is a losing battle, they turn their attention to the next elections. And so everyday we see their smiling faces plastered all over the town, we hear and read their awkward one-liners on TV or radio and even on the internet, and we are helpless to their aggressive use of PR magic and media manipulation. Their fulltime day job is to deceive the people through the most sophisticated and even ruthless means. The promising young politician has mutated into a trapo walking dead monster. It’s the worst kind of death.

Youth without youth. The curious case of Juan Ponce Enrile or the rehabilitation of his image from a hated Marcos crony to being the third most important statesman in the country is simply unbelievable. It’s a very disturbing, frightening political phenomenon. His life story teaches the youth that a person can still manage to become respectable in mainstream politics after being loyal to a fascist dictator for many years and despite participating in the bloody mutilation of democratic ideals in society (military dictatorship, human rights violations, coup, dagdag-bawas). It’s scary to see the rise of closet Enrile fans who are impressed with his legal brilliance while seeking to replicate his staying power in politics. Are we then doomed to a future dominated by Enrile zombies? Fortunately, we have the shining example of senior citizen activists as a viable alternative to the figure of Enrile. The 1960s radicals and the First Quarter Storm generation have remained politically relevant despite shunning electoral politics for many decades. Despite their age, they continue to battle the three evils of society (imperialism, bureaucratic capitalism, feudalism). They revived the mass movement and the revolution in their youth and they are still at it. They are the political Harry Potter, the boys and girls who lived (and survived Voldemort/Marcos). They are the political Peter Pan, the boys and girls who refused to grow old. Forget Enrile, who keeps reinventing himself as a fake and pathetic champion of the masses. (Forget Belo too). The secret to eternal youth is to take the road of revolution.

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Occupy Singapore Flop

By admin | November 13, 2011

Inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, last week saw hundreds of protests against corporate greed and economic inequality spring up around the world. In Singapore, similar action was organized in the financial district to highlight the widening economic gap in the country and to ‘engage the public in creating a new form of democracy.’ But it seems Singaporeans had other things on their mind, because nobody showed up in Raffles Place. Even the organizers didn’t identify themselves to the media, which went there to document the protest.

Is this a sign that Singapore’s ‘99 percent’ is satisfied with the economy? Did the protest fail because the obscene accumulation of wealth by a few corporations that provoked the Wall Street protest is a non-issue in prosperous Singapore?

The ‘Occupy Raffles Place’ flop shouldn’t allow us to forget that Singapore has by some measures the highest rate of inequality among developed nations. It was the first city in Asia to experience recession in the wake of the global financial crisis in 2008, and while its economy has already rebounded, ordinary Singaporeans continue to suffer from stagnant wages, job losses and the rising cost of living. In fact, last May’s election results saw the ruling party suffer its worst-ever electoral setback.

So, if there are valid reasons to ‘occupy’ Singapore, and if the people are searching for alternatives, why did the protest fail? The threat issued by the police against the organizers of the ‘Occupy’ event could have discouraged any interested Singaporeans (and even foreigners) from joining the protest. Singapore might have the most open economy in the world, but it has restrictive laws that make it difficult for its citizens to organize and participate in political assemblies. (Of course, the nameless organizers should also be blamed for their poor planning and failure to offer creative methods of circumventing Singapore’s repressive laws).

Still, the organizers and believers in the ‘Occupy’ movement shouldn’t lose faith over the zero attendance in their initial attempt to introduce a more assertive form of political action in Singapore. They must appreciate the fact that they were able to rattle the Singapore government, especially the police, with a simple announcement posted on Facebook. Also, both local and foreign journalists were there to cover the protest, which highlights the newsworthiness of the action. Netizens were prepared to popularize the protest in cyberspace. If a non-event could generate such a surprising reaction from the government and the public, imagine the political impact of a well-attended ‘Occupy Singapore.’

The opposition and other dissident forces should seize the potential of the ‘Occupy’ idea and transform it into a reality.

Written for The Diplomat

Timor-Leste’s Tasi Mane Project

Part of Timor-Leste’s Strategic Development Plan is the building of three industrial clusters on the country’s southwest coast, which will be the backbone of its petroleum industry. But civil society groups have warned that the ambitious project will have little impact on the economy.

The Tasi Mane (Male Sea) Project will involve the development of an integrated petroleum infrastructure in the coastal zone from Suai to Beaço over the next two decades. The plan includes the construction of the Suai Supply Base cluster, the Betano Refinery and Petrochemical Industry cluster, and the Beaço LNG-Plant cluster.

Suai will become a centre for providing services, logistics, fabrications and human resources for the petroleum industry. The supply base will require the establishment of a sea port in Kamanasa, a housing complex, heavy metals workshop, shipbuilding and repair facilities and a rehabilitated Suai airport. In Betano, a refinery and petrochemical complex will rise in a new centre that will be known as Petroleum City. And finally, in Beaco, an LNG Plant complex will be constructed near the towns of Nova Beaco and Nova Viqueque. The existing airport at Viqueque will be upgraded into a regional airport.

Aside from addressing the long term domestic energy requirements of Timor-Leste, the Tasi Mane Project is expected to generate substantial revenues, jobs, and livelihood opportunities in the country’s southern corridor. The government is confident that it will boost the petroleum sector, which can be used to directly promote the industrialization of the economy.

Timor-Leste is dependent on its oil revenues, but economists have already advised it to diversify its economy by venturing into non-oil activities since its oil and gas reserves are estimated to reach its peak in 13 years. But La’o Hamutuk, a Timor-Leste-based NGO, believes that Tasi Mane reflects the continuing dependence of the country on the petroleum industry. In its critique of the government’s development strategy, the group noted that petroleum processing seems to be the only industrial development discussed in the paper. ‘What about agricultural processing, or light industry to replace imported products?’ the group asked.

The group also questioned the government allocation of over 30 million for the Tasi Mane project, which is more than twice the budget of the Agriculture Ministry. ‘We lamented the nearly exclusive focus on the petroleum industry and resulting in lost opportunities to explore other possibilities for economic development,’ the group said.

The project blueprint is also silent on the concrete and real impact of Tasi Mane on the local economy and the communities in the south coast. ‘Nothing is said about how many jobs these projects will provide for Timorese workers, how much land they will take from uses such as agriculture and fishing, how many people will have to be displaced, or how much revenue they will generate for the state,’ La’o Hamutuk added.

Parliament is being urged by the NGO not to grant the government a blank cheque for a project that’s lacking transparency and whose economic viability is in doubt.

Still, the Tasi Mane Project is the flagship programme of Timor-Leste’s development strategy, and it has much potential since it can harness the country’s petroleum resources for the long term benefit of the local population. It can redirect the oil revenues to spur industrialization and the diversification of the local economy. But the issues raised by La’o Hamutuk and other NGOs are also valid, and they require immediate government consideration and action. Timor-Leste’s leaders must clarify these issues by engaging and consulting with the people, especially the communities that will be affected or displaced by Tasi Mane.

Written for The Diplomat

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Southeast Asia: Social Media and Human Rights

By admin | November 6, 2011

Delivered during the Amnesty International Western USA Conference in Los Angeles, November 5, 2011. Thanks @KalaMendoza for the invitation

We already know that social media is a powerful information and communication tool. It has wonderful uses: Monitor, share, and create news; build networks, enhance communications; reach a broader audience while at the same time engage public authorities. From being an innovative aspect of our work, it’s now an essential component in achieving our goals. It’s already part of an organizer’s daily tasks. Why? Because it’s effective as a platform to promote good governance, transparency, and human rights.

A government which has many things to hide is afraid of social media. It limits web access, censors web content, and even punishes cyber dissidents. But since the social applications of social media are increasing, a repressive government is sometimes forced to relax web restrictions in order not to antagonize its non-politicized constituents.

It’s suspicious when the government becomes the cheerleader and unlikely protector of web freedoms. This happens when the government guarantees the ‘freedoms’ of internet users: freedom to criticize another country, freedom to look and act like fools in the web, freedom to worship entertainment stars, freedom to praise the royal family, and freedom to cheer and heckle during sports events.

Suspicious because it’s during these ‘normal’ times when governments build consensus on questionable and controversial issues. Yes the internet promotes democracy but it can also spread hate, racism, and xenophobia. Furthermore, it’s a very reliable surveillance weapon. Beware of Big Brother and the ‘thousands of little brothers’ who are monitoring our online activities. Despite its usefulness, unfortunately, the internet can also harm the security and privacy of individuals and most especially activists.

We are told that the internet gives us a broader perspective of the world. This is partially correct. On my way here to Los Angeles last night, I saw a glimpse of the whole city. I realized that the satellite view of LA in the evening makes it almost indistinguishable from other cities of the world. From that vantage point, it’s difficult to judge whether a city is rich or poor, well-planned or disorganized. We don’t know if the bright street lights serve a rich neighborhood or an urban poor village. We don’t know if the houses are foreclosed or not. We don’t know if the congregation in the park is a religious event, musical festival or political rally.

To acquire more accurate information, we need to be on the ground; we need to integrate in the community. It’s through our conversations in the social media that we learn the nitty gritty details of our world.

But the internet is flooded with so many irrelevant details. We are constantly bombarded with tons of spam and trashy information. We can google a person, place, event, and we get instant results. We can fact-check everything, even the spelling and grammar. But it doesn’t always improve our understanding of the world. Often, the results we get fail to provide context of the situation.

Who will give the necessary context? Who will identify the stakeholders, the actors, the victims, the aggressors? Human rights activists have a big role to perform in mainstreaming the use of social media for democratic causes. It’s crucial that we recognize that the popular social media tools were encoded not to advance human rights but to generate profit. Therefore, we must persevere as we promote the human rights agenda in the public debates.

Let me cite a few creative and inspiring examples of how activists, journalists, and ordinary citizens in our region have tapped the potential of the internet to campaign for human rights and democracy.

When Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was released from prison last year, the government banned the news journals from reporting about it. Since sports news are often uncensored there, a news journal carried these seemingly harmless headlines: “Sunderland Freeze Chelsea,” “United Stunned by Villa” & “Arsenal Advance to Grab Their Hope.” But they were intercepted as a code since the paper used light-color letters in the headlines to highlight this message: “Su Free. Unite & Advance to Grab The Hope.”

The Bersih democracy movement in Malaysia. is another outstanding example of netizen activism or citizen media participation in the political sphere. The event which was initially organized to ask for electoral reforms became a pro-democracy political action in the end because of the massive participation of the civilian population in the streets on one hand, and the exaggerated and violent reaction of the state on the other. Bersih is now the revolution’s name in Malaysia. And social media was maximized to broaden Bersih’s appeal among the apolitical segments of the local internet community. More importantly, it gave Malaysians the opportunity to imagine the formation of a united and patriotic community of individuals committed to the defense of democracy. Social media’s prominent role in Bersih proved that it’s more than a useful tool in elections exploited by politicians and professional political groups. It taught us that the intelligent use of social media can help us win more freedoms in the cyberspace and in the real world.

Facebook profile pictures ‘disappeared’ in the Philippines when activists asked their friends to remove their pictures during the International Day of the Disappeared in remembrance of the disappeared in the Philippines and around the world. When a lawmaker proposed a ban on planking protests, it provoked students to post more planking photos. Suddenly, planking has become a legitimate form of protest.

A curry solidarity action was organized in Singapore after it was reported that a couple were told by authorities not to cook curry when their complaining neighbors are at home. #hiogat became a popular hashtag in Thailand during the elections after a woman raised a placard while the Prime Minister was delivering a speech. #hiogat means He Is Only Good at Talking. A mapping project in Cambodia revealed the poor state of prison facilities in the country. In Indonesia, netizens launched a successful fund drive to support a housewife who was sued by a hospital for sending an email complaint to a friend.

What are some lessons we can highlight? Weak IT infrastructure in many countries of the region didn’t prevent the spread of internet use. And despite restrictions, activists were able to maximize the political value of the internet. However, we must stress that the campaign for human rights should also include the demand to improve internet access since the government’s initial attempt to ‘tame’ the internet is to make it expensive for ordinary citizens.

This is already obvious but I must still emphasize the reminder that grassroots organizing is superior over our internet activities. Campaign strategies are more effective if online activities are linked to offline solidarity actions. On the other hand, cyber activism becomes a potent force only if it is fused with grassroots activism. Online activism minus the essential offline component is impressive and creative but politically impotent. It gives a false impression that change is possible by being aggressive and passionate only in the virtual world. It prevents the educated segment of the population from developing a genuine link with the working masses. Last month, Occupy Singapore was announced on Facebook and it generated a lot of media interest. But it seems Singaporeans were preoccupied with something else since nobody showed up in the protest. Lesson: Before and after we ‘occupy’, we must organize.

Next reminder: We shouldn’t underestimate the sophistication of government censorship which filters alleged ‘immoral’ web content. Governments justify the imposition of draconian measures by invoking the name of innocent subjects like the children who need to be protected from dangerous influence in the cyberspace. The top prohibited contents are subversive political ideas and pornography. For example, Thailand has blocked more than 400,000 ‘harmful’ webpages. It hired cyber cops who report websites that ‘insult’ the King. Meanwhile, regulators in Cambodia appealed to ISPs last January to censor anti-Khmer websites which unfortunately included the popular blog platform Blogspot. Blogspot’s only fault was that it seemed to be the preferred online portal of various opposition groups and critical media networks in Cambodia.

The media is often fascinated with trending topics, hashtags that drive internet traffic, viral videos, and popular memes. Our task should be to create new hashtags; and to highlight the topics that didn’t trend, webpages that didn’t generate many hits, and issues that were underreported by the mainstream media.

The internet is able to document our protest activities in realtime but not all human rights defenders can afford to reveal their identities. We must protect the safety of activists, including those who rely on the internet for their political activities.

Language is also an important issue. Translation of statements, petitions and speeches written or delivered in other languages; documentation of protests by migrants, refugees, and people who live outside the internet zone. Our activists must reach these places.

Activism in the 21st century features new action words like texting, retweeting, clicking, chatting and social networking. But 20th century action words are still more persuasive and powerful – like talking, organizing, marching, pushing and rallying. Everyday, we should combine words like virtual and real, Facebook like and picket chant, hashtag and occupy.

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Even in the Philippines people live*

By admin | November 3, 2011

The Philippines receives international attention every time a freak storm hits the islands. It becomes more interesting to the global audience if floods, volcanic eruptions and super quakes destroy the communities of islanders. It’s pitied for being the most disaster-prone country in the world. But it also ‘trends’ because of its youtube-famous dancing prisoners, boxing champs, Imelda Marcos shoes, and legislators who want to ban planking protests. It seems the Philippines becomes visible in the news radar only if strange things happen in the 7,107 islands.

But the country’s image shouldn’t be reduced to the world of exotic and magic.

Indeed, ‘really existing’ poverty in the country is obscene. If a gated community is built near an urban poor sprawl, the public debate will focus on the actual and imagined excesses of the poor instead of redirecting the righteous indignation of the twittering classes (previously known as chattering classes) to the vulgar display of social inequality. It seems easier to inflame the tsunami rage of the TV-crazed mob by highlighting the criminal activities of the masa than, for example, to build opposition to the irresponsible and elitist decision of the government to lower the indicators of poverty. Solve poverty by redefining it, clever!

But then again, the Philippines should be more than about disasters and Smokey Mountain. It may be famous for its white sand beaches and giant crocodiles but even in these islands of contradictions people live. The islanders, the ‘orphans of the Pacific’, know how to cook adobo and sinigang; but more than their love for merrymaking and baby making, they know how to fight. They produced super maids and super nannies but they also gave us superheroes and super revolutionaries.

The Philippines is guilty of bringing Marcos to this world (and maybe even Hitler if rumors are true) but it’s the same country where Rizal was born. It’s the land of Bonifacio and Jacinto who launched Asia’s first anti-colonial revolution in the late 19th century. Before Sun Yat Sen and Gandhi, there was the anti-Spanish Katipuneros and their bolos. It’s the country which exposed the imperialism of the great US of A when its people resisted the American occupation in the early 1900s. Out of the ruins of the second world war (beautiful old Manila was the second most devastated city in the world next to Warsaw), the Philippine Republic – Asia’s first after the war – was established. Filipinos defied the dictatorship in the 1970s and wowed the world with their peaceful People Power uprising in Edsa in 1986.

Recently, protesting workers and farmers ‘occupied’ Mendiola and proclaimed themselves the ’75 percent’ who are urging the 24 percent (professionals, students, middle forces) to join the struggle against the oppressive rule of the ‘1 percent’. Behold the exploited majority as they affirm their readiness to challenge the supremacy of the political dynasties.

Yes Wikileaks, there is poverty, repression, and old style imperialist meddling in the Philippines; but why dwell on these depressing topics?

The people’s movement in the islands is actually intensifying. The armed revolution has been raging in the archipelago for more than four decades already and it’s officially the world’s longest insurgency. The oppressors, the apathetic, the conformists, and the clueless observers couldn’t understand why the rebellion is thriving in the country despite the dramatic fall of the communist bloc. But the serious students of history, the oppressed, and the dreamers of a new future clearly understand the logic of revolution. They know that tyranny can’t exist without provoking anger and resistance in society.

From the Middle East to the Americas, the people are raising the level of fighting. Arab Spring. Occupy Movements. General Strikes. People’s War. Dictators are ousted in unceremonial ways but more significantly, the people are learning how to fight back. They are reclaiming politics by asserting the power of organized collectives. The one percent has the purchasing power but the people, the grassroots, has the real power to change the world. The poor will not reject charity but solidarity is superior.

The search for the perfect hashtag to capture the essence of revolution should be abandoned since the truth has to be experienced in the real world. It’s through the participation in the daily struggles that life becomes more meaningful. It’s when workers, farmers, and the rest of the exploited are united in the revolution that they are able to create history, even as they viciously confront their differences.

Therefore, the fire of life is burning in the Philippines because its people are waging a revolution. From the cities to the boondocks, the flags of the mass movement are standing proud.

*From Anton Chekhov’s short story In Exile, “Even in Siberia people live.”

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WikiLeaks on Laos

By admin | October 25, 2011

The Laos files from WikiLeaks underscored the country’s underdevelopment, endemic corruption in the bureaucracy and the fragile state of its environment. But we already know that. What makes the cables interesting is the kind of frankness that we don’t often get to see or hear from diplomats’ public statements.

For example, here’s how the US Embassy in Vientiane described the poor and unequal economic conditions in the country:

‘Although GoL (Government of Laos) ministers and officials with salaries of less than S75 per month sport villas and cars worthy of Monte Carlo, GDP per capita is still officially less than $400…Unemployment is epidemic, underemployment is endemic, crime is rising, and the investment climate is among the least hospitable in the world.

‘There is almost no rule of law or basic human freedom in Laos, and education is in the hands of a corrupt and ideologically hidebound ministry that uses ADB money to build a grandiose but unnecessary new ministry building while rural children sit on logs and try to remember what a teacher looked like.’

One report even declared a ‘direct consequence of decades of abuse of power is that there is no public trust’ and that ‘government officials are presumed to be corrupt unless proven otherwise.’

These corrupt officials apparently approved the implementation of several development projects that are hurting the poor:

‘Intent on giving an open door to some foreign investors, the government has few compunctions about trampling on its own citizens, ignoring their traditional lands and livelihoods and utter dependence on their environment for their survival. In the near-absence of meaningful rule of law, those affected are at the mercy of sometimes venal, usually uncaring, bureaucrats administering the land use system. As Laos’ reputation grows as an “easy” place for investors in sectors like hydropower, plantation forests and mining, more and more of Laos’ poorest citizens are likely to find themselves dispossessed of their traditional lands.’

It’s important to highlight that China, which shares land borders with Laos, is the biggest investor in northern Laos. It has cornered the big item land development projects which, according to WikiLeaks, have seriously damaged the environment. But would environmental preservation really still be a major concern if the investors were Americans and not Chinese?

Meanwhile, even the conduct of elections in Laos was indirectly criticized in the WikiLeaks cables

‘By-and-large, Lao citizens took the election seriously, as a matter of national pride. Voters were expected to show their regard for the electoral process. Women who showed up to polling stations wearing slacks or “improper” dress were sent home. In spite of the guarantee of a “secret” ballot, election officials were on hand to inspect each ballot to make sure the voters took their responsibility seriously and voted correctly.’

But there were also cable reports that recognized some achievements by the Laos government especially on its success in reducing opium cultivation in the country. From the late 1980’s until 2005, Laos was the third largest producer of opium poppy in the world. But the aggressive anti-opium drive of the local government, which received significant assistance from the US government, has effectively weakened the poppy cultivation industry in the country.

As far as Laos is concerned, WikiLeaks has no startling revelations to offer other than to confirm what we already know about this small, landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It must be emphasized, too, that the cables merely reflect what Washington considers important in deciding the future of its relationship with Laos. They don’t necessarily represent what Laotians really feel and think about their present and future.

Written for The Diplomat

Cambodia’s Overcrowded Prisons

According to human rights group Licadho, prison occupancy in Cambodia is alarmingly close to 180 percent, making the country’s prison system among the 25 most overcrowded in the world. The group warned that if reforms aren’t immediately implemented to curb the prison population boom, Cambodia’s prison system could end up being the most overcrowded in the world as soon as 2019.

Licadho said that as of April this year, Cambodia’s total prison population stood at 15,001, which was a 12.6 percent increase compared with last year. The records of Cambodia’s General Department of Prisons showed that they processed 6,836 new admissions last year, which represented almost half the prison population.

Seven years ago, Licadho notified authorities that the 18 prisons monitored by the group were already filled to capacity and called for drastic judicial reforms to reduce the number of inmates in dilapidated prison cells. But it seems their petition went unheeded because the number of prisoners has continued to rise, despite the absence of programmes to expand and improve the country’s prison facilities.

Based on Licadho’s documentation, there are three factors that contributed to the prison overcrowding in Cambodia: The practice of detaining those who can’t pay criminal fines, a pilot programme in which pre-trial inmates were transferred to a community drug detention centre, and the use of prison sentences that aren’t commensurate with the crimes committed.

Human rights advocates have raised concerns that people convicted of minor crimes are handed excessively long prison sentences. For example, a juvenile in Sihanoukville was sentenced to six months imprisonment for breaking a window. In Svay Rieng, an 18-year-old man was arrested last year for stealing a chicken and was sentenced to a year in prison. In Kampong Cham, a man was arrested and charged with stealing a bottle of cooking oil and was later convicted and sentenced to seven months in jail for theft.

As a preliminary reform measure, Licadho proposed that a nationwide survey of the country’s prisons be conducted by the government and preferably assisted by an international partner in order to determine the system’s true capacity. Next, the government should ‘compile a reliable and accurate profile of the prison population to help inform criminal justice policy decisions.’ The evaluation of the prison population should include details such as sentence length and the age of offenders.

Licadho also reminded the government that the practice of detaining individuals who can’t afford to pay fines costs the state more money because of the expense of incarceration. Instead of automatic imprisonment for every offense committed, they suggested the use of non-custodial sentences as a possible response to petty crimes.

Licadho believes that alternative sentencing measures could the reduce prison population by half. They added that ‘judicious use of prosecutions’ can be easily accomplished if government is ready to provide adequate resources to the courts, police and other institutions of the judiciary. This is necessary so that ‘clear processes and procedures for monitoring adherence to non-custodial sentences’ can be established.

The government should seriously consider the recommendations submitted by Licadho, especially the development of a probation department and the use of alternative sentencing, if it wants to improve the country’s prison system. Otherwise, it will end up having to keep converting abandoned buildings into makeshift prison cells as it has had to in Pailin City.

Written for The Diplomat

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Punch Hard Like Pacquiao

By admin | October 24, 2011

Excerpts of my keynote speech delivered during the second general assembly of the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns in New Jersey, United States.

When I (first) arrived here (in 2008), people were talking only about two things: Obama and the recession. Obama promised change and the voters believed him. His victory was seen as something that would usher in a new political era. But the political euphoria immediately died down when the inconvenient truths of the economy were finally revealed. It soon became apparent that the minimum wage earners will be the most vulnerable sector if the recession worsens. Indeed, workers lost their homes while banks received bail-out funds, thousands were laid-off from work while bank executives were given fat bonuses. The American Dream became a nightmare for those who are barely surviving from paycheck to paycheck.

This was America in 2008. Three years later, it seems the situation has changed for the worse. Obama is still Obama, promising here and there about hope and change. Wall Street is still Wall Street, accumulating more fictitious wealth for the corporate shareholders at the expense of the working classes which produce the real wealth of society. Bank executives are allowed to ruin the economy through their black magic (popularly known as speculative investments) and their irresponsible behavior is ignored by the government. They hoard the money during good times but they require everybody in society to make a lot of sacrifice to help solve the financial mess they created.

During the Cold War, it was believed that if the US sneezes, the world gets a cold. It’s still true today: the virus of the US financial crisis has spread to many parts of the world.

But if there is something to cheer today, it’s the rising and visible resistance of the masses in the virtual and offline worlds. The people’s struggles are intensifying. The birds are even angry, the plants are fighting the zombies, and the fighting collectives are multiplying.

What is the role of Filipino migrants in this global counterstrike against the exploitative financial and economic system whose controlling apparatus is located here in the US?

You perform a very special and significant task. Special because you echo the devastating impact of neoliberal globalization in the Third World. Your militant presence, your voices, your status updates, your organizing in the grassroots can unmask the evil economic order. Significant because as you struggle for better protection for migrants you are also strengthening the people’s capacity to defeat the empire. You are slaying the dragon inside its lair.

It’s inevitable that your actions are both local and global; and you must realize that their impact is also felt locally and globally. I admire the inventiveness of the migrant’s movement because you are able to articulate your demands in a foreign land without losing your symbolic and organic ties with the homeland. I salute NAFCON for affirming the link between the immigrant rights movement in the US and the struggle of the Filipino people in the Philippines for genuine democracy, freedom, peace and justice. This admirable political standpoint must inspire Filipinos in the US to act decisively against economic inequality, corporate greed, racism, and political repression; and this should bring them closer to the revolution which is raging in the Philippines as they become part of the global people’s movement for genuine change.

Or in other words, Filipinos must realize that shouting and marching for immigrant rights in the US will also contribute to the victory of the people’s movement in the Philippines. As you militantly assert your political demands here, the unjust domination of a corrupt and highly abusive political-economic system in the Philippines is weakened too. You can’t present a genuine alternative to the public without disturbing the hegemony of the empire here in the belly of the beast and in the peripheries of the kingdom. If you punch, a tyrant somewhere in the Philippines will receive the blow. So punch hard like Pacquiao.

But NAFCON and its member organizations are relevant not only because of your interventions in behalf of all Filipino migrants but also because you are determined to address the roots of the problems confronting the community. You are correct to highlight the feudal backwardness of the Philippines and the despotic rule of oligarchs in the archipelago as the culprit for the forced migration of Filipinos to distant shores. It’s essential to pinpoint the criminal responsibility of politicians, past and present, in maintaining a system that draws its sustenance from the sweat, blood, and labor of migrant Filipinos.

What kind of government allows its own people to be exported to other countries and expects the continued inflow of remittances to keep the economy afloat? What do we call a policy that shamelessly sells the labor power and dignity of Filipinos to the altar of the global market? How can we accept the argument that the damaging impact of migration like separated families, the exodus of skilled professionals, the exploitation of cheap Filipino labor, the silent agony of discriminated Filipinos who experience various humiliating forms of racism – can we endure and ignore this suffering just because the OFW remittances constitute the black gold of the Philippine economy?

Only a leadership with a shortage of imagination could proclaim that no alternative is available to this social set-up; that we have to continue exporting our own people; and that we still need to experience more pain and anguish for a longer time. If this is the way our government thinks, then we have no choice but to do the only honorable and right thing and that is to export all our politicians to other countries. Or to Mars if no one will accept them.

I have some bad news to share and also some good news as pasalubong from Pinas.

The bad news is that the present supremo of the Philippine Islands is no torch bearer of genuine change so the situation in the country is bound to worsen. Why do we say that? Because 1) President Noynoy Aquino, the son of two democracy icons, the country’s most illustrious bachelor, the brother of Kris, the former owner of a second-hand Porsche, the hacendero president is surrounded by advisers who faithfully cling to the neoliberal dogma; 2) After more than a year in office, his single concrete achievement as president is the elimination of wang wang in the streets but the more insidious forms of wang wang mentality like the refusal of landlords to distribute their lands to small farmers are tolerated; 3) There is no review of anti-people policies implemented by previous governments like the reduction of state subsidies to social services, unabated profiteering of oil companies, and active promotion of labor export.

The Daang Matuwid is now operational but it’s only for Porsche cars, the president’s friends and kamag-anak. And if you are lucky, you can pass but you must pay high toll fees, VAT included.

What should migrants do? As the boss of Pnoy, demand reforms, assert your migrants’ agenda. Remind him that decent jobs will not be created if he continues to subscribe to a discredited economic thinking. Make him understand too that progress shouldn’t be equated with abstract numbers like GDP, foreign investments, and rising profits of big corporations. We are more concerned about the quality of living in society like the social opportunities for the poor, relevant education, accessible health care, peace in the community, delivery of social justice, solidarity, bayanihan in society. These are the things that truly matter.

Most of all, migrants should show to Pnoy and to other ruling oligarchs that you are prepared to exert the full potential of your power, and I do not only mean your purchasing power, but the power to change the world, the power to refashion a new social order.

2011 is an important year for the people’s movement. This year is the 10th anniversary of the Edsa Dos Uprising, the 20th year of the historic Senate vote that rejected the US Bases Treaty, the 25th year of the EDSA People Power, the 40th year of the Diliman Commune. The year started with the Arab Spring uprisings; then the Occupy Wall Street protest inspired several ‘Occupy’ actions. In the Philippines, farmers and workers conducted an ‘Occupy Mendiola’ protest a few days ago. They said they are the 75 percent of the population who are urging the other 24 percent to join the struggle in resisting the oppressive rule of the 1 percent.

But after we ‘Occupy’, we must organize. Otherwise, the repressive state will attempt to seize control of the spaces we liberated. The protesters in Wall Street and other ‘Occupy’ sites need to regroup, expand, and organize the people, the masses who are preoccupied with something else.

I said earlier that I have some good news as pasalubong. I’m happy to announce that the people’s movement in the Philippines is getting stronger and bolder. The parliament of the streets has been successful in presenting the people’s agenda; and it has been consistent in unmasking the bankrupt and reactionary programs of the Aquino government. Meanwhile, the mass movement in the countryside for genuine agrarian reform and the protection of our finite natural resources continues to frighten the enemies of the people. Day by day, inch by inch, zone by zone, victory is getting nearer.

This is my pasalubong. What about your pabaon to me? Well, I can report back to our kasamas in the Philippines that the Filipino community in the US, led by NAFCON and other allied organizations, is ready to enter into a new era of resurgent struggles. The community is prepared to boost the full potential of the mass movement in advancing the rights of migrants, the workers, the poor, in solidarity with all those who are struggling for a better world, a new future.

Once again, I salute the NAFCON for leading the noble fight of Filipinos in the US. Laban mga kasama! Tuluy-tuloy sa pakikibaka! Mabuhay ang migranteng Pilipino!

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Political Dynasty or Destiny?

By admin | October 17, 2011

A new feature in the website of the Philippine House of Representatives is the Online Roster of Philippine Legislators from 1907 to present. During its launching, Rep Jun Abaya of Cavite (Liberal Party) said that it could be used to study the history of political dynasties in the country. Indeed, the database shows that local politics in the past century were dominated by only few families. While it’s not unusual for a veteran candidate to emerge undefeated in the polls, it’s quite disturbing that the winner is always from the same family. Maybe it’s the application of Einstein’s Theory of Relativ(e)ity?

It can be argued that dynastic political families also exist in other democratic societies; but the Philippines has a negative experience with the political dominance of warlord families which prompted the delegates of the 1987 Constitutional Commission to insert an anti-political dynasty provision in the new Constitution. The pertinent provision refers to Article 2 – Declaration of Principles and State Policies, Section 26: The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service, and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law.

Congress has not yet passed a law which would define political dynasties. Of course there are good political dynasties; but a dynasty is a dynasty is a dynasty (it’s also a TV show, a friend from East Timor reminded me through twitter).

So how do we use the new special section of the Congress website? Simply drag down the select option and type the name of legislator or choose a district, province or region. To search a dynasty, type the province name then sort the list by last name (but listing can be incomplete since some dynasty members adopt new family names through marriages). I played this game during one of those boring hours in the departure gate while waiting for my delayed flight.

Let’s start with the Abads of Batanes. Due to the long list of Abads in public service, my screencap was unable to include Jorge Abad who served in the legislature in the years 1950-57, 1962-64, and 1970-72.

Probably the most popular and powerful political dynasty in the past half century is the Aquino Family of Tarlac. Again, missing from my screencap are Sergio Aquino (1943-44) and Herminio Aquino (1987-98).

Roque Ablan of Ilocos Norte dominated the polls for forty-years

But the Marcoses are the undisputed lords of the north. The first prominent politician in the family was Mariano Marcos (1925-30)

Two screenshots are required to identify all Roxases who represented Capiz in Congress

Here is the second screenshot

The Dimaporos of Lanao del Norte. Another member of the clan is Rep Imelda Quibranza-Dimaporo.

The Ortegas of La Union are one of the oldest political families in the country. Two screenshots are also needed to identify all family members who entered Congress

Here is the second screenshot

Several families have dominated Cebu politics. We have the Duranos

The Gullas family

And the Osmenas

In Camiguin, the Romualdo family is still in power

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