Farmers’ group tags leader’s murder to agrarian reform failure
By Walter I. Balane / MindaNews / 27 April 2006
DAVAO CITY — A group of farmers and landless farmworkers has condemned the killing of one of its leaders last Monday and blamed the failure of the implementation of agrarian reform for his death.
Leaders of the Pambansang Ugnayan ng mga Nagsasariling Lokal na Organisasyon sa Kanayunan (UNORKA) said in a press conference Wednesday that their secretary-general Enrico “Eric” Cabanit, 53, could have not died if only the country’s agrarian reform program was implemented well.
“The brutal murder of Ka Eric signifies continuing failure of our government to give serious commitment to alleviate the plight of its ordinary citizens, and protect especially the impoverished majority in the countryside from the wicked maneuvers of the wealthy elites,” UNORKA said in a statement issued Wednesday.
Cabanit was gunned down around 6 p.m. on April 24 at a public market in Panabo City, 32 kilometers northeast of Davao City, hours after presiding a dialog between Department of Agrarian Reform and UNORKA officials. His daughter, Daffodil, 19, sustained a gunshot wound on the left side of her chest and is now recuperating in a hospital.
UNORKA and DAR officials led by Undersecretary Narciso Nieto discussed a stand-off between the farmworkers and owners of the agricultural estate TADECO, a company owned by a Floirendo corporation. According to DAR, about 386 hectares of the 1,023-hectare estate have been exempted from redistribution being a pasture land area. But DAR and UNORKA officials considered it a “gray area” because the exemption was issued without an application for it.
In the dialog, UNORKA said DAR issued instructions for the conduct of ocular inspection in the area. Nieto also reportedly committed to send a DAR committee to investigate the 400-hectare citrus farm run by WADECOR, also reportedly owned by a Floirendo corporation.
Cabanit was chair of the WADECOR Employees Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association (WEARBAI). UNORKA said they had been pushing for the immediate acquisition by the government of thousands of hectares of land owned by the Floirendo family for distribution to farmer-beneficiaries, as mandated by Republic Act 6657, or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL).
Rosauro Tapal, president of UNORKA Mindanao, said it has become very difficult for the farmers to struggle for agrarian reform within the legal process.
“It is such a long legal battle, from the local agrarian courts to the Office of the President, Court of Appeals, to the Supreme Court,” he said.
UNORKA said they are fighting for justice for the death of Cabanit, the fourth victim this month.
“Money has become more powerful than the law in this country,” he said. “But Ka Eric’s death is not a defeat for us, there will be more Ka Eric who will continue the struggle,” he stressed.
UNORKA, which claims a membership of 80,000, with around 18,000 of them in Mindanao, called for the government to impose mechanisms to counter hindrances put up by landowners.
“The government must take action on this or the farmers would have to suffer more as CARP expires in 2008,” Tapal said.
The 10-year Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was created by the enactment of RA 6657 in June 1988. When the law expired in 1998, and with the government not even halfway through the program, Congress passed RA 8532, which extended the program for another 10 years.
DAR regional director Rodolfo Inson told MindaNews that DAR also condemned the killing of Cabanit. He said he has sought for the immediate investigation of the murder.
“Doing agrarian reform work is a very difficult job. Indeed it is very hard to meet the interests of the landowners and the farmers,” he said.
Inson admitted that farmers have to go through a long legal battle with the present system.
“But I have to disagree that the program has been a failure,” he said.
He cited that in Region 11, they have already distributed around 200,000 hectares of lands to 134,000 beneficiaries out of the target of 210,000 hectares.
“Our difficulty is in covering commercial farms, which started only in 1998, as the CARL provided for a 10-year deferment period for these areas,” he said.
Inson said they have problems in identification of beneficiaries, areas to be covered, litigation and administrative constraints, land valuation and also in budget for “just and fair compensation” for the landowners and support services to beneficiaries.
He said that only land distribution will stop in 2008, but agrarian reform projects will continue after that.
But Inson said the “government must have a political will to resolve pending cases in different courts,” regardless of who own the lands.
“It must source out budget for a fair and just compensation for lands subjected to distribution so that landowners won’t make it difficult for DAR and the beneficiaries,” he said.
He also cited a problem on disparities in land valuation between the initial figures given by Land Bank of the Philippines, mandated to do official land valuation under CARL and the figures given by the Court of Appeals when land owners appeal the cases.
Another problem is budget support for support services to beneficiaries. “We are not giving enough support for there is insufficient budget,” he said.
One major problem of DAR that Inson projected is the exodus of lawyers who are supposed to defend beneficiaries in cases, from the department's provincial and regional offices to other offices for greener pasture.
Inson is confident they are going to complete land distribution of around 10,000 hectares by 2008, including around 6,000 hectares identified to be “problematic” areas or those with pending legal cases.
One fine day in Mindanao
By Walter I. Balane On April 25, I got invited to attend one function of the Mindanao Coalition for Transparency and Accountability in Governance (MCTAG). A forum, run by various organizations, including the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center in Makati; would be held the following day to mark achievements of seven pilot cities around Mindanao who took their City Coalition for Transparency and Accountability in Governance (CCTAG).
On April 26, on my way to the forum, I got a call from a friend from an NGO working with farmers in the
Davao region. I was invited to an urgent press conference of UNORKA, a farmers' and landless' group, whose leader Eric Cabanit was murdered on April 24. His death was linked to the groups’s struggle for the implementation of the agrarian reform program. Cabanit’s 19-year old daughter also figured in the shooting incident that killed her father in the Panabo City public market.
Cabanit’s group just came out that day from a dialogue with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) led by Undersecretary Narciso Nieto. DAR regional director Rodolfo Inson, who condemned the killing, told us in MindaNews that it was a smooth and normal dialogue. The dialogue was about hundreds of hectares of agricultural lands considered by the DAR and the farmers as “gray lands”. Around 386 hectares of a total of 1023 hectares owned by the Floirendo family in Davao del Norte was the subject of the dialogue, pushed by the farmers who said almost have lost their faith in the government’s agrarian reform program.
On my way to the forum, I have to take a detour. I was in a typical call of duty. One, where I have made a prior commitment, the other, though with short notice, was important too.
DAR’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, created in June 1988 by RA 6657, was mandated to redistribute lands to the landless from the country’s landed elite. It was also tasked, with other national government agencies, to give support services to these farmers so that they will not end up selling these lands in times of distress.
DAR was supposed to complete the distribution in 1998, but did not. Congress enacted a law extending the program for another 10 years in 1998. So in a couple of years, DAR is supposed to complete the distribution of 'CARPable lands'.
But farmers from UNORKA, although retaining hope, claim this is not happening. They said the death of Cabanit is one indication that they are still on a long way to go. For them CARP is a failure. They cited the long and gruesome legal process of agrarian cases that land in the Office of the President and the Court of Appeals.
It was indeed a depressing press conference to cover, held at Kuya Ed's restaurant along Magallanes Street in Davao City.
Of course, I did not regret choosing to go to the press conference first. My Communication 2 term paper at the University of the Philippines in Miagao in 1995 was on CARP. Cabanit's death and the press conference was a short revisit to an earlier interest, and I proved that I did not lose that interest after 11 years.
After the press con, I proceeded to cover the forum in Apo View Hotel. I felt relieved when I saw many journalists in the forum. I made the right choice to got there first, otherwise, who would have gone there? Yes, there were eight of us who covered the agrarian story, not bad.
That choice was only a beginning of a whole day of choices I made as I continue to juggle multi-tasked work of a being a MindaNews reporter, a marketing guy for our journalists’ cooperative and also as a student of everyday Mindanao.
It was, after all, another one fine day for learning.
Commencement Speech: UP Mindanao graduation, 22 April 2006
Speech delivered by Dr. Jose M.
Tiongco at the 9th Commencement Exercises of the
University of the Philippines in Mindanao, 22 April
2006).
Were I to introduce myself, I would present a simple
country bumpkin of a doctor, a surgeon who was born
and raised in Mindanao. And will die here too. And
that would probably be soon, if I do not finally learn
in my old age to keep my mouth shut.
I have gone around the world a few times and talked to
quite a number of people of different races, people of
different cultural, economic and educational
backgrounds. And this is not the first time that I am
speaking to a UP audience. But I get goose bumps every
time I find myself in a UP institution. It is not easy
to talk to UP people. I should know that. I come from
UP myself. You can always tell a UP graduate from
those of the other Universities. You would generally
be looking at a person who is multi-talented,
multi-tasked, interesting, interested, articulate,
efficient, effective, competent, self assured, and
eager to learn more; even if you understandably would
also have to deal with a certain palpable cockiness.
Would you agree?
But if there were a Jesuit in the audience today, he
will probably rise up to say that I am really
describing an Ateneo person as well! I have been with
the Ateneo much, much longer than I had been with UP.
And I would have to agree, especially on the cockiness
part. But I will argue that it is in the University of
the Philippines that the student acquires on top of
all that I described, a sense of Nationalism, of
cultural identity, and a burning sense of outrage at
the historical and present oppression of our country
and our people.
And this is what UP is really known for. Would you
agree?
Yes. I can attest to that, having graduated 35 years
ago from the University of the Philippines College of
Medicine in Manila. And those were the times in our
nation’s history when the UP students hurled
themselves at the Marcos military in the cities and in
the countryside to tell them and the rest of the world
that they would rather die than tolerate oppression.
That was 35 years ago. And today I often wonder what
happened. How could such a pure and pristine movement
that wore the invincible armor of love of country and
resistance against fascism degenerate after all those
years into the tattered rags of banditry, extortion
and opportunism?
Those who were fortunate enough to die in the struggle
have remained true to the cause. But that cannot be
said for the unfortunate many who survived. For one
can now see quite a number of them carving out their
opulent lifestyles in USA, paying only lip service to
the sufferings here in the Philippines. And those who
have decided to stay in the Philippines can now be
seen walking the corridors of power, integral parts of
the system they had previously fought against and
wished to destroy.
What started out with a bang has now ended with a
pitiful whimper, if not with the clink and clatter of
thirty pieces of silver.
Is our history really meant to be this way?
In a couple of years, the University of the
Philippines System, the most venerable educational
institution in the country will be celebrating its
centennial.
How would history judge UP in the last one hundred
years? If the long suffering people of the Philippines
were to examine the University of the Philippines
System and grade its performance for the country in
the last 100 years, would the UP pass or fail the
examination?
Or to put it bluntly and more graphically, if the
President of the University of the Philippines System
were to be dragged kicking and screaming into a
people’s court to account for the one hundred years
the blood sweat and tears of the poor people of the
Philippines were used to support UP as the citadel of
the True, the Good and the Beautiful in the country,
would she be able to give an answer that will be
acceptable to the tubercular stevedore in Sasa wharf
who eats only once a day and whose children sit in
malnourished stupor by the roadside?
Can she answer for the fact that up to 90% of the
graduates of the UP College of Medicine are serving
the Americans and not the Filipinos who sacrificed for
their education and training?
Can she answer for the fact that even as the graduates
of UP College of Law top the Bar every year, the halls
of Congress in the Philippines are filled with UP
lawyers who use their legal gobbledygook to pass laws
favorable to the multinational business industries in
the country and detrimental to the poor in the
Philippines? Can she justify why justice in the
Philippines is officially and unofficially for sale
and is out of the reach of the ordinary Filipino who
lives below poverty level?
Can she answer for the fact that the graduates from
the UP College of Agriculture in Los Banos devastate
hundreds of thousands of hectares of prime land in
Mindanao growing bananas, pineapples and oil palm for
the transnational industries while the Philippines
must still import the Filipinos’ basic needs in rice
and sugar?
Can she answer for the fact that UP Geologists and
Mining Engineers ravage our mountains and soil our
pristine streams, our rivers and our seas and
irreparably harm the environment and the health of our
indigenous tribes and people as they extract minerals
and precious metals for foreign business concerns?
Can she answer for the fact that while UP College of
Mass Communication supposedly teaches the loftiest
principles of information dissemination and the
responsibilities that come with the freedom of speech
and __expression, her graduates lead big Media
organizations in the Philippines that are active and
willing servants of big business interests and
political pressure groups? The Philippine Media is a
world wide marvel for its prattle and irresponsibility
and for the naked arrogance of its power over our
people. It has become more predatory, mercenary and
corrupt than the government institutions it denounces
every day in print and in lurid broadcast coverages.
I could go down the line and pile up quite a lot of
indictments against the UP system. But my time here as
a speaker is limited.
Of course, it could be argued that UP’s role is that
of Education and is different from that of the
Government of the Philippines that makes the policies
and enforces the laws of the land.
But UP’s role as the country’s premier institution in
education and training precedes that of the
government; because it uses the Filipino taxpayers’
money to train the leaders who eventually control the
reins of government and private enterprises in the
Philippines.
If the University of the Philippines takes great pride
that her graduates easily top the government
examinations in any professional undertaking, the
University of the Philippines must also bow its head
in shame and sorrow because it cannot shirk the
accountability and responsibility for her graduates
who raid the coffers of the country, corrupt the
morals of our people, and turn the Philippines into an
international basket case and permanent laughing stock
of the nations of the world.
I am a simple country doctor. And I do not have claims
to be part of the academe. But I do not believe in
Education and Training for the sake of Education and
Training themselves. I do not believe that Education
does not have anything to do with Moral Duty and
Accountability. I believe that UP, as an educational
institution, must have something to do with the clouds
of unmitigated materialism and greed that darken the
cultural horizon of the Philippines today. I believe
that a University education, especially in UP has to
do with the constant search for what is Good, what is
True and what is Beautiful, no matter how polluted
these concepts may have become through their constant
prostitution for personal motive and gain.
What makes a UP student momentarily flash the bright
colors of Nationalism and love of country, and then
upon graduation, promptly fall into the grey colors of
compromise and conformity just to be able to exist in
a way of life that forces him to suppress the shame
and the painful voice of conscience within himself,
shut himself inside his own ego, praise with bitter
half-smiles the oppression and exploitation of his own
people so he can beg with his eyes for a small part of
the loot to be thrown his way?
What dulls the edge of his seething outrage?
I came back to Mindanao from my studies in UP Manila
to seek the answers to these questions.
Mindanao is the second largest island in the
Philippines. It comprises thirty percent (30%) of the
country’s land area and is home to twenty percent
(20%) of the population. Seventy five percent (75%) of
the Mindanawons are of migrant stock, from the
different areas in the Philippines who came to escape
the cultural, political and economic baggage that
burdened them in their places where they were born.
They came prepared to bear the new burdens of
adjustments with and consideration for others of
different cultures, traditions and religions. They
came prepared to work. And work hard for their
children and for their children’s children as well.
They came prepared to respect others and be respected
in their own right.
Mindanao is the richest island in the Philippines. It
produces 54% of the Gross National Product but gets
only 7% of the national Budget. One senator from
Mindanao once describe it as the National Cash Cow
that gets only dog food – crumbs from the tables of
the rest of the country. But without Mindanao, the
entire Philippines would starve to death.
The Philippines is a typical example of external
exploitation by the G-7 countries, and Mindanao is the
typical example of internal exploitation by the
central government in Manila.
But it is here in Mindanao where the real heart of the
Philippines beats.
The average Mindanawon is multi-cultural and
multi-lingual. He lives in his community, comfortable
in his culture, his own way of life, even when his
next door neighbor and friend dresses differently,
eats differently, talks to his children in another
language, and adores another God. His children play
happily with the children of people in his community
whom his ancestors used to be afraid of and hated and
waged continuous wars against.
It is here in Mindanao where the people consider
diversity not as a divisive factor but the key to
Unity and progress. It is here where we respect the
rights of others to their own thinking and culture.
Here where the central government is physically and
administratively distant, the people have learned that
working together in mutual respect and consideration
is the key to save our families, our communities and
our country.
For generations, your fathers and mine, products of
different cultures in the Philippines, have worked
hand in hand and side by side in peace and brotherhood
with each other and the indigenous peoples here in
Mindanao. We belong here.
It is only when the Manila government makes moves in
Mindanao that devastating wars happen among the
inhabitants of our island. It is a past and present
government practice that the undesirables in the
military and civil services in Luzon and the Visayas
are punished for their transgressions by sending them
to Mindanao – where they usually wreak havoc on our
lives.
Generations of hard work and carefully nurtured
goodwill among peoples in our island have been erased
by thoughtless and exploitative laws that are passed
in Congress in Manila by people who have never been to
Mindanao and are even afraid to visit it.
Twenty years or so ago, a group of UP graduates here
in Mindanao visited the other sites of UP in other
areas in the Philippines like, Baguio, Diliman,
Manila, Los Banos, Iloilo and Cebu. And they wondered
why there was no UP in Mindanao.
Thus was born a dream. And the dream was brought to a
reality ten years later. I have watched UP Mindanao’s
development through the years as the youngest, least
funded and most neglected institution in the UP
system. And I have cheered your valiant efforts. I
knew in my heart that you would be different from all
the other UPs in all the other places in the
Philippines because of the legacy of cultural
belongingness, respect and tolerance you have been
exposed to. And I never doubted your success.
I do not believe that the majority of your students
use UP Mindanao only as a jumping board to UP Diliman.
Only the most calloused and unseeing students would
not swear to the vision and mission of UP Mindanao.
The University of the Philippines in Mindanao is
committed to lead in providing affordable quality
education, scholarly research, and responsive and
relevant extension services to diverse, marginalized
and deserving sectors in Mindanao and neighboring
regions through its programs in the sciences and the
arts inculcating a passion for excellence, creative
thinking, and nationalism in the context of cultural
diversity in a global community.
As you graduate from the youngest UP institution,
aware of your role in community building in Mindanao,
you are sending a dare to the older institutions in
the University of the Philippines System. Here is UP
Mindanao’s answer to the failures of the University of
the Philippines System: Belong to the Land and to the
People, and serve them well!
From here onwards you have crowned yourself with the
laurels of commitment to service.
Do not listen when they tell you that the crown of
laurels you wear is soaked in disappointments and
bitterness and the dried leaves hide thorns and
maggots. Do not listen when they say that a life
dedicated to others is not a life; that it does not
bring food and comfort to you and your children; that
it brings you no honor and laurels serve not even as
condiments for a meal. Do not sell your life of
service to your countrymen for thirty pieces of
silver.
Because if you do, then deep in the night, years and
years from now, when your remaining hair has turned to
silver, a small voice will speak to you, just before
you fall asleep. And you will have to listen to it. Or
break apart.
And it will be in Spanish. Because it was said by a
man who died young, twelve years before the University
of the Philippines was born in 1908. He was a man who
spent the last years of his life here in the service
of our people in Mindanao. And he said it to an old
man like me, who had white hairs on his head. And this
may well have been spoken by you, the graduates of a
young and dynamic UP Mindanao to the old and failing
University of the Philippines System.
Cuando tenga canas come esas, senor, y vuelva la vista
hacia mi pasado y vea que solo he trabajado para mi,
sin haber hecho lo que buenamente podia y debia por el
pais que me ha dado todo, por los cuidadanos que me
ayudan a vivir, entonces, senor, cada cana me sera una
espina y en vez de gloriarme de ellas, me he de
avergonzar!
Ug sa ato pa:
Sir, pagabut sa panahon nga ang akong ulo, maora sad
kadaghana ang uban susama sa inyo, unya balikon nako
ug lantaw ang akong kinabuhi, unya Makita nako nga ang
akong mga paningkamut diay, alang lang sa akong
kaugalingon ug walay kalabutan sa mga maayong butang
nga ako untang nabuhat u di kaha kinahanglan buhaton
alang sa lungsod nga mao’y naghatag sa ako sa tanan,
alang sa akong mga isigkatao ng mitabang sa ako arun
manginabuhi; nianang panahuna, Sir, ang tagsa-tagsa ka
uban nga anaa sa akong ulo mahimo ug maidlot nga tunok
nga muduksak sa akong panghunahuna ug inay nga
mahimayaon ako sa akong katigulangon, iduko hinuon
nako ang akong ulo sa tumang kanugon ug kaulaw!
So if there is anything then, that Mindanao has taught
you here in University of the Philippines, it is to
belong to land, to belong to others, especially those
who have made you what you are; to be sensitive to
their needs, to constantly consider the other person’s
way of thinking, in much the same way as you
considered everyday, what language to use to talk to
the little child of a jeepney conductor who took your
fare, or to the daredevil habal-habal driver who took
you over the butt breaking roads to your refreshing
little UP Mindanao campus.
Look up to the mountain that you see everyday. Breathe
in the pure air of Mindanao. This may be your last day
in the campus. Take it all in. And remember it well.
Most of you will wander far over yonder, but you will
never find anything more beautiful.
Because you will never find the True, the Good and the
Beautiful in the world, no matter where or how you
search, unless you find them first here on that
mountain where the gods of our beloved Mindanao dwell,
here among your people who made you what you are now,
and finally, here in your own heart. (Dr. Jose M.
Tiongco is a graduate of the University of the
Philippines College of Medicine Class 1971. He writes
a column titled “Child of the Sun” for MindaNews and
is the author of “Child of the Sun Returning,” a book
about the early years of the Medical Mission Group
Hospitals and Health Services Cooperative-Philippines
Federation, where he is chief executive officer).
Mindanao legislators urged to act on population bill
By Walter I. Balane
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/22 April) — Mindanao officials
have to take local actions for the passage of a law on
reproductive health and population management,
according to Senator Rodolfo Biazon and Bukidnon 1st
district Rep. Nereus Acosta.
Biazon and Acosta encouraged local legislators to
follow the example of the Province of Aurora, which
passed a Reproductive Health Care Ordinance in 2005,
the first in the country, amid strong opposition from
local organizations.
Both legislators spoke Friday at an assembly here of
vice governors, board members, vice mayors and
councilors in Mindanao to urge them to help “snowball”
moves to pass House Bill 3773 and Senate Bill 1280 or
the Reproductive Health Care and Population Management
Act.
Acosta said that through this initiative, local
legislators will be the one to shape policy-making in
the country more than congress can.
Biazon said the country’s population, projected by
National Statistics Office at 85.2 million in 2005, is
increasing at a rate of 2.36 percent every year.
“It has become one of the major causes of the
country’s crises and has continued to strain its
political, economic and social conditions,” Biazon
said.
Both legislators cited the strong opposition from the
Roman Catholic Church as a major hindrance to the
passage of the law.
“We cannot just stop and wait for Congress and Senate,
we have to do something,” Aurora vice governor
Annabelle Tangson said.
Tangson heads the Local Legislators’ League of
Population, Health, Environment and Development
(3LPHED).
The group launched a signature campaign in support of
the bills together with the Philippine Legislators’
Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD).
PLCPD, co-chaired by Biazon and Acosta, describes the
bill as one “which provides for an integrated and
comprehensive national policy on responsible
parenthood, population management and human
development”.
For PLCPD, the guiding principles of the bill include
freedom of informed choice, ensured through free and
full public access to adequate and relevant
information on reproductive health; and a full range
of family planning methods and devices, excluding
abortion; protection and promotion of gender equality
and women’s rights to reproductive health; and respect
for and protection of the reproductive health rights
of children and adolescents.
A PLCPD statement said that critics of the bill claim
it will legalize abortion and promote promiscuity
among young people and that it is backed by
“imperialist funding agencies” and “beautiful ladies”.
Biazon urged critics to read the bill and go to the
communities where he said there is massive support for
the principles it espouses.
Acosta said local legislators have to help discuss,
debate and explain the need for the bill with the
people in their communities.
Suraida Mamaluba, 48, municipal councilor of Ampatuan,
Maguindanao said this is a good move to do and pledged
to help. She said they will have to see how they can
replicate the achievement of the province of Aurora.
“But I have to read the bill and see what is there,
why our national legislators could not make sure it is
approved,” she said.
In 2004, around 200 religious leaders from Mindanao
declared a national fatwah (religious edict) declaring
that family planning is in accordance with the
teachings of Islam. The group found the fatwah
necessary to generate consensus and galvanize support
for family planning in the Muslim community.
The fatwah, the Philippine Information Agency
reported, accepts all methods of contraception as long
as they are safe, in accordance with the Islamic
Shariah, and approved by a credible physician
preferably a Muslim for the benefit of both the mother
and the child.
Sen. Biazon cited the fatwah on child spacing and the
Islamic teaching that “every child has a feeding
right”.
Acosta said he respects the stand of the Catholic
Church on the issue. But he stressed that as policy
makers, legislators must have a holistic point of view
and not just look at the moral dimension.
Earlier, http://www.sunstar.com.ph reported that while the
church said there is nothing in HB 4110 (the
predecessor of HB 3773) that expressly legalizes
abortion, it questioned the term reproductive health
care because this suggests access to artificial birth
control methods using “abortifacients.”
“In opposing HB 4110, the church is not blocking
progress, but is making sure this progress will be
enjoyed too by those yet to be born, the official
newsletter of the Cebu Archdiocese said in the report.
”The church is not ignorant about statistics and
scientific findings on population, it just wouldn’t
subscribe to the belief that life has to be sacrificed
in the name of progress. The population control issue
is not about population, but about control. Here, the
church is clear: there should be no tampering with
life, from God’s will, to the mother’s womb, to the
grave,” the Bag-ong Lungsuranon newsletter said.
Acosta said that at any rate, under the Arroyo
administration and even if local legislators do their
share, it is “almost impossible” to pass the bill.
“But we have to continue winning little battles,” he
said. (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)
“WHAT IS TO BE DONE?”
(Note: I attended a forum topbilled by Prof. Randy David organized by the Initiatives for International Dialogue on 19 April 2006 in Grand Men Seng Hotel, Davao City. In lieu of an article, I'm posting his prepared speech. By the way, he gave an imprumptu pesentation and did not read this, as earlier conveyed.)
by Prof. Randy David
I am pleased to be here in Davao City, the country's most dynamic and most productive city in the South. And I am happy to be invited by the Initiatives for International Dialogue to speak and engage you in a dialogue on the national situation.
In various parts of the country today, social activists are being ruthlessly murdered. The more we allow this to happen, just because we do not share the social class or ideology of the victims, the more brazen the use of the state's coercive power becomes. Some middle class marchers recently found out to their dismay that simply by wearing black shirts with “Patalsikin Na” slogans, and walking along Roxas Boulevard is a violation of the law. There will come a time when attending a forum like this would be an act of sedition.
Those who run the present government have a way of keeping track of our personal vulnerabilities – regardless of who we are. They know where to hit us where it hurts. It could be an old case, an unserved warrant of arrest from the distant past, a decade-old tax deficiency, or, if you are a government employee, an inaccurate Statement of Assets and Liabilities. It could be a pending application for a business license, or a collection case for unpaid obligations pending before a government agency.
It could be anything. Of we allow the Arroyo governmental power, we will soon find ourselves terrorized into silence. There is no way we can fight power of money except by holding the face of truth before it. And there is no way we can fight coercion except by acts of solidarity with its victims. We have to tell the power-wielders who rule our country today that not everyone is for sale, and that we are ready to bear witness to the abuses of power. Does this sound like a weak response?
At the beginning, maybe yes. But bear in mind that the regime is methodically drawing us into a brawl we can only lose. If we use violent means, Ms Arroyo and her minions will feel even more justified to deploy the coercive powers of the state against us. We have to respond non-violently to the extent that we can, using what is left of the avenues prescribed by the law. But more importantly, we must begin to tap the moral resources that belong to us as a community.
We have done what is necessary and possible by appealing to the courts, challenging the legality of the calibrated pre-emptive response or CPR which Ms Arroyo's police has used to stop all demonstrations. We have petitioned the Supreme Court to declare EO 464 and Proc. 1017 unconstitutional. Our colleagues in media have gone to the courts to press their case against the police. I and other victims of 1017 and CPR have filed criminal and administrative cases against officials of the police before the Ombudsman. Various Senate committees have been conducting their own investigations of the issues against Ms Arroyo. A new airtight impeachment complaint is being prepared by the opposition in the House of Representatives. Former Sen. Loren Legarda is pursuing her petition before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to re-open the election returns in the 2004 election. But the Arroyo administration must have realized that the best defense is offense. And so Proclamation 1017 was announced at precisely the time when the government was least capable of enforcing it. After one week, it was formally lifted before it could be challenged before the Supreme Court. And while everyone was still preoccupied with 1017, the government has launched the Charter Change Express via People's Initiative. It is now forcing everybody to engage in the great debate on charter change, whether we like it or not. What this tells us is that at every point a new game is being initiated be the government, to which the fragmented opposition cannot effectively respond. I think the opposition's disunity has prevented it from doing much to challenge the moral standing of the government. For example, it has failed to tap the moral capital that belongs to every community. A Citizens Congress to hear the complaints against Ms Arroyo led the way last year. That was the last time. There hasn't been any follow-up. We are citizens of a state. But we are also, in our daily lives, member of communities. We belong to kinship networks, to neighborhoods, to churches, to schools to civic organizations, to residential villages, to social clubs. We are consumers of goods and services. Our children attend in the same schools, and we go to the same social functions. We even live in the neighborhoods and shop in the same places. In short, we share the same social spaces. Those spaces are governed by one law alone, but by moral norms of acceptable behavior. These are the sources of our moral identities, and they are far richer and older than the wellsprings of our common citizenship. We have not consciously mobilized the power inherent in these moral identities. We continue to regard and receive those individuals who cheated massively for Ms Arroyo in the last election and who participate in the continuing plunder of our economy as if their actions were the most natural in the world and do not bother us at all. I hope you are getting the drift of what I am saying here. If we want to stop corruption in our national life, we must begin to show outrage over the loss of decency in our public life. We have underestimated Ms Arroyo. She has been more clever and more systematic – and also more brazen – on her quest to replenish her rapidly vanishing social and political capital. I am sure all of you have noticed that in the last two months alone, the newspapers have reported her every social visit to Catholic bishops and archbishops all over the country. Photographs of these visits have been published in major newspapers. In some instances, the leaders of the various churches have been inveigle into giving her the “pray over”. I am sure they are aware that this formal display of piety is part of a systematic attempt to prop up a troubled presidency. If religious leaders allow themselves to be used like this, sooner or later they will find themselves being confronted by their flocks, who, while they may accept their bishops' silence on political issues, would feel revolted by their uncritical anointment of a politically beleaguered president. Ordinary priests and nun themselves may call their bishops to account for their actions. Parishioners themselves, the laity who constitute the core of the church as a community of the faithful, may one day whisper to their parish priests their own misgivings. What may begin as misgivings could soon ripen into an explicit resolve to avoid any contact with persons who seem in mindful of the imperatives of decent behavior. Such avoidance may soon translate into open ostracism. This is the extreme form of assertion of the power of a moral community. Its intended effect is social isolation. It is the equivalent of a consumers' boycott in the realm of social relations. Any holder of public office, especially at the highest level of the state, basically relies upon three types of powers. The first is *moral power,* which draws both from the importance of the position and from the charisma and legitimacy of its occupant. The second is *remunerative power,* which is the power to dispense rewards and favors. The third is *coercive power –* the power to punish, to intimidate, and to use the exact submission and conformity. Together they roughly constitute what is sometimes called political capital” of a leader. The best type of power is moral power. The compliance it secures is normative. The leader appeals to values and to shared goals, and the people comply and cooperate as an act of duty. Where moral capital is lacking, the next preferred form of power is remunerative power. There the appeal is to personal interest. It is a less preferred form of Power because the compliance it secures is calculative. There is no commitment here. People comply or cooperate only for as long as it directly benefits them. The least preferred, of course, is coercive power. It is the last resort of leaders who have lost almost all moral standing in their community. Rulers know that when you use coercion too often, you breed alienation. No political order has been known to survive over an extended period of time solely on the basis of coercion. In this sense, the use of naked force to keep oneself in power is a demonstration of weakness rather than of strength. This is how i see the issuance of Proclamation 1017. Ms Arroyo wasn't very sure she could call upon the armed forces to enforce the harsher measures provided by the Constitution, i.e. The suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus or the declaration of martial law. She wasn't sure that the public would support any of these. Thus she chose relatively lighter measure of calling out the troops in the light of a declaration of a national state of emergency. As we now have seen, 1017 had two basic objectives, namely, to create an atmosphere of urgency to justify extreme police measures and thus produce a chilling effect on the public, and secondly, to test the public acceptability of the use even more coercive measures in the future. Hardly anyone outside of her usual supporters welcomed 1017. It had been lifted, at least in name, after one week. But extreme police action against dissenters, especially those openly identified with the legal Left, has continued. The idea is to isolate them from labeling them communist, and ultimately to crush them. We must hope that the courts will stand up to protect the rights of citizens and not allow this to happen. If the courts fail to do so, ordinary citizens will increasingly be forced to defend themselves by any means available to them. The use of coercive powers of the state by the Arroyo government should not lull into thinking that her other powers have completely run out. She continues to enjoy residual support from sections of the mass media, from the business community, as well as from church leaders. She knows this support is dwindling every day. That is why she is doing everything to preserve what remains of this presidential visits or treating them to a dinner in Malacañang. We must find ways of telling these presidential props that they cannot play the game without being accountable. If they wish to remain politically neutral, they must manifest that neutrality both in respect of Ms Arroyo as well as of her opponents. My own personal view of Ms Arroyo's political strategy is that she will be increasingly relying on her remunerative powers to remain in the presidency in the coming days. We have already seen this in the generous dispensing of awards and promotions to officials of these police and the military who have zealously carried out her orders. The latest beneficiary of this reward system is no less than the reputed “butcher of the left”, Gen. Jovito Palparan, who has distinguished himself by the number of dead dissidents he leaves behind in every place where he is assigned. Perhaps unknown to many of us, every public demonstration is welcomed by a section of the police as another opportunity to earn reward points for future promotions or to compensate for demerits incurred in the past. Of course, this system cannot be operated at will. It eventually runs over professionals, resulting disenchantment weakens the chain of command and further fragments what is already a severely divided institution. The enormous remunerative powers of the Arroyo may also explain the support she continues to get from local government officials – the mayors, governors, and congressmen – who most of all rely on the manna dispensed by Malacañang to keep their constituencies satisfied because she does not need to draw from her own pocket or family fortune to fill the feeding troughs of the patronage system, the resources virtually unlimited. They are taken from the carious public funds at the disposal of the office of the president – the president's social fund, the intelligence fund, and many other off-budget items over which the president enjoys wide discretionary powers. We saw the maximum use of this power during the impeachment proceedings last year. It is being deployed again today in the form of Cha-cha express via people's initiative. The Cha-cha plan has something for everyone. The crucial concessions are hidden in the so-called transitory provisions. They include the cancellation of elections in 2007, thus rewarding all incumbents an extra term without having to spend a single cent. All term limits will be lifted. But the biggest beneficiary would be GMA herself. She will be rid of the Senate. Impeachment will be made even more difficult under the new rules to be promulgated. If worse comes to worse, money, as in 2005, will again be deployed to ensure a favorable note. The only way to restrain the use of such power is by employing the system of checks and balances inherent in Congress. But, with EO 464, this congressional power is effectively checkmated. What options are left for us? Plenty, i believe. But all of them depend on the kind of popular support that can be enlisted to make them work. Gloria's government is bound to collapse sooner or later beneath its own weight. This may happen soon, or it may take a little longer. What is important is that we have to think beyond her. Sometimes our dislikes or hared for a particular condition can be such that we become exclusively preoccupied with getting rid of the condition, rather than thinking clearly of what might actually be done not only to get rid of the condition but also to prevent it from recurring. We lose sight of the bigger goals we should be pursuing. How we should act depends a lot on the way we view the present crisis. I think this is a crisis that did not arise overnight. It has a long history. It is a crisis that goes beyond Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. It has many sources. To go beyond this crisis, to be able to resolve it in a meaningful and enduring way, we must go beyond simply overthrowing GMA from the presidency. We have to start thinking of the options we must put in place. More importantly, it involves a re-statement of our fundamental goals as a community. At the most basic level, a solution must revolve around what is feasible – i.e., what has a good chance of being carried out in this imperfect world. It has to include a basic agenda of realizable objectives or goals, complete with an operational plan for carrying out within a reasonable time frame. Such an agenda is necessarily the product of a particular analysis – a particular way of making sense of the present situation we face. Let me elaborate. I believe that what we confront in Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is not just a ruthless and amoral person who does not mind plunging the country in a civil war if that is what it takes for her to avoid being removed from presidency and being prosecuted for crimes committed during her incumbency. What we confront in Ms Arroyo is a shrewd politician who personifies the logic and imperatives of a political system based on money, patronage, political remuneration, and the strategic use of administrative, financial and coercive powers of a pre-modern state to further vested interests. If we get rid of Arroyo but retain the system, we will surely get another one like her in no time at all. I know that many hate her so much that their idea of bliss is simply a world without Gloria. Lest we forget, that is how many of us used to think of the Marcoses. We have to start examining the system that gave birth to a Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and begin to cut its roots and clean out the soil that has nurtured it. This is a system that traditional politicians, who alternate between being administration and being opposition, know very well, and whose vulnerabilities they are able to exploit at will of their own respective purposes. This system has basic rules, and the politicians who operate within it know these rules, and abide by them in a manner tolerated or deemed acceptable to every player. The system expects all its participants to exercise some restraint, and avoid abusing prerogatives in such a way as to endanger the whole system itself. Let us examine some aspects of our recent past. Of the nation's past politicians, I guess it was Ferdinand Marcos who had the boldness to deviate from the cycle of elite politics by taking advantage of the martial law provisions of the existing constitution to monopolize political power for an indefinite period. Instead of quietly finishing his unprecedented second term as president, Marcos embarked on an offensive program of sweeping changes that required a shift to authoritarian rule. Instead of being able to smoothly pass on political power to his anointed successor, however, as was the case in Singapore and in Malaysia, Marcos was overthrown by a middle-class-led peaceful revolt. The peculiar contingencies of this revolt thrust the non-politician Cory Aquino into the presidency. Edsa People Power, as the event came to be called, started off on a revolutionary footing but gradually found itself coming back to the mode of governance that Marcos had tried to break in 1972. This mode of governance was based on elitist patronage politics, that for the most that could only be played by the rich and moneyed families. Cory Aquino herself was far more comfortable with this form of politics than with the revolutionary impulses that thrust her into power in 1986. She came from a powerful landowning family; her husband, whose assassination put her in the political limelight, was a whiz kid in the realm of traditional politics. Without a background in reformist or revolutionary politics, Cory became the instrument for the restoration of oligarchic politics under the guise of re-democratization. The middle class that played a key role in overthrowing Marcos and putting Cory in the presidency were concerned with basically two things: (1) the return of constitutional democracy, and (2) the institutionalization of good governance, which was basically synonymous with anti-corruption. The euphoria surrounding Cory's rise to the presidency and the need to support her against the successive coups mounted against her somehow made the public less demanding and less critical of the Cory government. Filipinos became quite content to have their freedoms back. They did not pay much attention to the pair of issues that historically troubled the Filipino nation, namely, corruption and mass poverty. These two issues are actually two sides of the same coin. Mass poverty produces a large army of dependent voters whose urgent short-term needs defined the mode of exercise of their political rights. Politicians respond to these needs through a highly developed system of patronage, that can only be subsidized from the proceeds of systematic corruption. This is a system that was almost completely controlled by the country's traditional political clans until the 1980's. In the 1980's and the 1990's, the rise of mass media celebrities, as a result of the phenomenal spread of television, began to pose a challenge to the supremacy of the political clans. Money still played a crucial role in determining electoral outcomes, but now “winnability” became equally important in choosing candidates. This new factor paved the way for Joseph Estrada's bid for presidency in 1998. Estrada won by a landslide, and his victory taught the country's traditional politicians the important lesson that left to themselves, the masses would henceforth vote for media celebrities rather that any one of their own. The decisive victory of Erap at the polls shocked the country's elite and educated middle class. While he clearly enjoyed the mandate of a relatively honest election, the fun-loving movie actor seemed to mock the expectations of the educated population. The elite and the middle class could not wait for Estrada to finish his term. Edsa !!, mounted on a platform a good governance, exploded and triggered a military defection or a passive withdrawal of support. The traditional politicians who brokered and made this even possible had actively courted the military and succeeded in replicating the romance of People Power 1. The Supreme Court ignored the extra-constitutional route taken by the removal of Estrada and tried to constitutionalize it by alluding to the novel concept of a “constructive resignation”. In short, the SC eventually legitimized Gloria Arroyo's succession to the presidency. But the damage is done. Military withdrawal of support, which, in normal times would be punishable as an act of mutiny, was passed off as an acceptable prerogative of the military. Some of the SC justices had critical words for the civilian face of people power (calling it a hooting throng”), but they remained silent about its military component – the withdrawal of support. Edsa 3, largely composed of the urban poor, which exploded in May 2001 tried to take back power from Arroyo. It did not succeed because it failed to trigger a military defection. What is clear from this is that since 1986,the Armed Forces of the Philippines has become a decisive fulcrum in the survival of any administration. Much as we wish for contingencies that have shaped the AFP. It is a reality we must take into account, whether we like it or not. Ms Arroyo has shown how much she factors in the military imperative in every move she takes. She has succeeded in turning the internal weakness of the institution into her own advantage. Thus, when she asks that we insulate the AFP from politics, she means that the rule applies only to the rest of us, not to her. How should we respond to this dilemma? I think we should bear in mind that whether we, ordinary citizens, choose to act or remain uninvolved, enough damage had been done to the professional ethos of the military and the police that could trigger dire consequences. The AFP and the police are living institutions; they have their own corrective and self-healing mechanisms. When these fail, the outcome could take the for, on an unending cycle of mutinies and coups. The activation of these options does not really depend on the extent of popular mobilization against an existing regime. It is easier to restore professionalism in the military and the police when the government of the day is strong and enjoys popular support. It is almost impossible to repair the damage in these institutions if the government of the day itself is the main source of institutional fragmentation. Therefore, the solution of the political crisis takes precedence over the solution of military fragmentation. So as not to exacerbate the institutional damage that has already been wrought, we must exhaust all popular and legitimate means to effect a transition to a new government. Ultimately, we must rebuild our institutions on the basis of the outcomes of a democratic and honest election. The Arroyo government is sidestepping all these urgent issues by offering charter change as a cure-all for our problems. It is a clever ruse that attempts to bolster Ms Arroyo's political legitimacy without risking anything. If she succeeds. She remains president till 2010, and possibly beyond. This is to me is not a viable option. It keeps the trapos in place, starting with the queen of trapos herself, GMA, while promoting the illusion of system change. If charter change through people's initiative becomes a reality, then we will have a government without an effective opposition. This situation is not sustainable. Sooner or later, the government will be engulfed by an even more radical crisis. This may hopefully pave the way to a new political era of modernist governance led by an awakened middle class. Or it may spawn fresh demands for revolutionary transformation. Whatever happens, we need to prepare ourselves by nurturing even now a new breed of leaders, in addition to the handful of existing ones who have not been corrupted by the system. More importantly, we must begin to examine all facets of public policy which have so far governed the routines of our everyday lives. Some groups have already begun this process, and the products of their work are now available in different websites. If we must rebuild this country, we must start by rebuilding the nation in ourselves. We must get organized, we must prepare ourselves for a long fight, a fight beyond Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a fight that will take us to some election, and beyond, to a future we can all be proud of, to a nation we can proudly bequeath to our children. That nation has to be free, prosperous, just, decent and competently governed. We can start building that future here and now. Thank you. (Prof. Randy David is a veteran street parliamentarian since the Marcos dictatorship days. He is a University of the Philippines sociology professor and columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. He also co-hosts with Atty. Katrina Legarda a tv talk show called "Off the Record". Prof. David was among one of the first ones arrested after the issuance of Presidential Proclamation 1017 on Feb. 24, 2006) FOR REFERENCE: Jan Lozano Databank Staff Information and Communication Unit Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) Phone: (63)(82) 299-2574 & 75 Fax: (63)(82) 299-2052 http://www.iidnet.org email: jan@iidnet.org
Moratorium on terminator seed technology stays
By Walter I. Balane / MindaNews / 9 April 2006
(Published on April 10, 2006 at http://www.mindanews.com)
DAVAO CITY — An agricultural research group called the decision of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UN-CBD) to maintain the moratorium imposed on the Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTS) terminator technology a victory to the small farmers.
“It landmarks the victory of small farmers,” the Southeast Asia Regional Initiative for Community Empowerment (Searice) said in a press statement to MindaNews.
The Conference of the Parties of the CBD, in its 8th Meeting in Curitiba, Brazil from March 20 – 31, reaffirmed the moratorium on GURTS as contained in an earlier decision of the same body.
CBD rejected the proposal for a “case-by-case” risk assessment clause proposed by Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Indigenous groups, peasant and farmers movements, and civil society groups who staged protests during the 2-week CBD meeting criticized the proposal as a move to weaken the de facto moratorium.
Searice believed that the clause will lead to field testing and eventual commercialization of the terminator technology.
“Even though the moratorium was reaffirmed, we must not stop campaigning against this technology. The battle has not ended. The companies, backed by the US government and biotech corporations that own the patent of this technology will not stop in finding ways to lobby and commercialize the terminator technology. Let us remain vigilant and observant”, said Vincent Malasador, Searice technical officer.
In December 2005, during the “Go Organic Mindanao” forum in Davao City, around 200 Mindanawons from different sectors sought a total phaseout of synthetic agricultural inputs in the country by 2015 and a ban on field releases of all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food and agriculture.
Mindanao has become a haven for high value export crops with the spread of banana, pineapple and other mono-crop plantations.
After the government approved the release of GMOs in the country in 2003, the anti-GMO movement has “changed strategy.”
Roberto Verzola, sustainable agriculture campaigner of Philippine Greens, told participants to the forum that promoting sustainable organic agriculture is the new strategy in campaigning against GMOs.
“The promotion of sustainable organic agriculture is a positive step towards attaining environmental sustainability,” according to a covenant signed in the forum.
Also, the Philippine Senate has to ratify immediately the Cartagena Protocol, a protective instrument against the damaging effects of genetic engineering and GMOs which has been signed by 120 countries as of 2003.
The forum, which discussed GURTS, likewise called for the implementation of the precautionary principle in dealing with synthetic technology.
The forum was organized to help revitalize debates on genetic engineering and at the same time strengthen and promote organic agriculture as an alternative.
Farmers who attended the forum considered the technology unfair, selfish and beneficial only to the interests of hybrid seed companies.(MindaNews)
Charter change may be a problem for Mindanao peace process if…
Walter I. Balane / MindaNews / 27 November 2005DAVAO CITY — “If there is no dovetailing or convergence, charter change will not contribute to a solution and, worse, may even become a problem for the Mindanao peace process,” a lawyer who studied Constitutional options in relation to the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said.
Lawyer Soliman Santos, Jr., author of several books and papers on the peace process, including “The Moro Islamic Challenge: Constitutional Rethinking for the Mindanao Peace Process,” told Kusog Mindanaw Saturday that amending the 1987 Constitution and the Mindanao peace process (MPP) are parallel tracks but right now, “it seems that most of the key actors on both tracks are not conscious of the need to seek a convergence.”
He cited the shift to federalism as a possible converging point but “for the MPP, the question may really be not so much whether to go federal but what kind of specific arrangements of federalism and whether this will be unilaterally determined by the Philippine side again.”
He said this time it could be bilaterally determined with the Moro side by the peace negotiations “inputting into charter change.”
He cited strong impetus from the present Philippine government at the national and local levels in favor of charter change. He also said there is a determined civil society movement for federalism mainly based in Mindanao.
But Santos said the current political crisis around President Arroyo is a downside with charter change becoming a GMA (President Arroyo) issue. He pointed out that there might be a bottleneck in the Senate and a general public sentiment against charter change, especially in Luzon and Visayas.”
Several tracks
Santos pointed out that the Mindanao peace process is “not just one track but several” which he said might be presented as component routes in a road map or building blocks of the “edifice of peace” in Mindanao.
Among the tracks are the government-Moro National Liberation Front peace agreement implementation, the government-Moro Islamic Liberation Front peace negotiations, the government-Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa ng Mindanao peace negotiations, Lumad agenda against development aggression, people-to-people or tri-people peace processes at the community level and economic development.
He also cited the government-National Democratic Front peace negotiations as significant to Mindanao’s peace process even if it’s a nationwide scope, because of its presence in non-Moro areas.
But Santos said the Mindanao peace process has two main dimensions: addressing the structural – those concerning the root causes of the conflict (vertical) and healing the relational – the deep social, cultural and religious cleavages (horizontal).
Santos considers the MILF track as the priority, as it is the most relevant track to the charter change track.
He said the ancestral domain agenda of the MILF is also a relevant opportunity to address other Mindanao tri-people concerns.
Going well
Santos said the talks between the MILF and the government are “going well, even faster in 2005 than ever before” although not smooth-sailing, with a final peace agreement between the panels now seemingly possible within 2006.
Historian Rudy Rodil, vice chair of the GRP peace panel, presented encouraging indicators of the peace process when he gave an update on the GRP-MILF peaceprocess” (See related story).
But Santos identified intra-Moro dynamics between the MNLF and the MILF as a“worrisome spoiler” of the peace process if it is not resolved.
He pointed out that the MNLF track looks like it had just made a critical turn for the worse in 2005. He cited among the reasons as the failure of ARMM governance by the MNLF, culminating in its being voted out of power; the fragmentation of the MNLF in recent years; the inability of the official mediator Organization of Islamic Countries to act approapriately; the evident inadequacy of the 1996 Peace Agreement itself as an instrument of peace, development and governance; among other reasons.
He said a satisfactory degree of intra-MNLF unity and MNLF-MILF unity, with the help of the Moro civil society, may help save the MNLF track.
But Santos cited some positive points in Mindanao, which could be a model for the rest of the country, among them an active and vibrant NGO and people’s organizations engaged in peace-building.
Dam Vertido, Executive Director of the Mindanao Land Foundation said the most important track is the people to people track. “We are getting a mouthful of what could possibly constitute as strategy as Sol (Santos) provided. What struck me is the people to people track which is completely absent from the strategy,” he said.
Lerio Nevarro of the Kahugpungan sa Mindanao said there is a need for empowerment of the people on the issues because those who been leading us to push for federalism are not enough.
Lawyer Zainuddin Malang, director of the Center for Moro Legal and Policy Concerns in Cotabato City said there is a need for a communication strategy to reach out to the “unconverted” in the push for federalism.
He also pointed out that deliberation on the peace process should not be limited only to what is constitutional. “Maybe it’s time to consider extra-constitutional processes,” he said without elaborating.
“Maybe its time to put more political value to the sovereign will of the people,” he said.
Kusog Mindanaw, a coalition of several Mindanao NGO’s, passed a resolution calling for the consultative commision (ConCom) for charter
change to adopt the outputs of the different Mindanao peace processes.
It also resolved to dovetail the result of MPP into the provision of the ConCom and the charter change; to incorporate in the MPP the discussion on the Lumad Agenda for Peace and a resolution to encourage other IP groups to come up with their agenda for peace and development in the context of charter change and federalism.
A representative from Balay Mindanaw asked how to push for federalism amid the different tracks when time is running out for the proposed plebiscite in March 2006.
Santos said that is a problem because the pace of the charter change track appears faster than the MPP track.
“That’s why the key players in both tracks should consciously do efforts to dovetail or converge,” he said.
FROM BUKIDNON TO THE WORLD: Chief executive ‘farmer’
Walter I. Balane / MindaNews (Posted at www.mindanews.com a year ago, today)
MALAYBALAY CITY — I want to meet a small farmer in Bukidnon who is proud of his farm, one who manages it as a business entity and is good at it. When I could finally meet this farmer I’ll tell him it is people like him who truly make Bukidnon’s wheels of commerce move.
I have met many of those who made it big from humble beginnings, but they have resources that most of Bukidnon’s farmers don’t have like land, capital and orientation. And you rarely find them in Bukidnon.
The province’s reputation of being one of Mindanao’s agricultural powerhouses has not translated into the empowerment of farmers. Behind its large plantations that have sprouted lately small farmers have remained unorganized and barely surviving.
According to a National Statistics Office (NSO) report released in November last year, Bukidnon has accounted for the largest number of farmers, farm lots and land area used for farming in Northern Mindanao.
Bukidnon was the source of at most half of the region’s production for crops like corn, rice, coffee, sugarcane, pineapple, banana, fruits and vegetable, root crops and even a significant volume for coconut.
Around 47 percent of corn production came from Bukidnon. Around 45 percent of hogs from Northern Mindanao also were raised from Bukidnon. Also, 36 percent of the cattle marketed in Northern Mindanao came from the province according to the NSO report using data from 2002 to 2003.
Bukidnon also raised 51 percent of the chicken or poultry products of Northern Mindanao at 14.5 million heads. About 67 percent of 192,000 heads of ducks raised also came from the province. You can just imagine from these figures how rich Bukidnon farmers are.
But make no mistake. The large plantations that spread around Bukidnon are owned by large corporations. Among their employees are displaced farmers who now lease their lands to the agribusiness operators. The farmers find security in the rent as “assured income” and the companies’ pledge to employ their children as workers.
This arrangement might work wonders in one way or another for a province that ‘exports’ high value crops, but it poses a problem on food security as individual small farmers shift from food production to lease arrangements.
As Bukidnon transforms into a ‘backyard of Asia’ in terms of fruit and high value crop production, food production for the local economy like that of corn, palay and other crops has decreased based on the NSO report which compares data between 1991 and 2002.
For example, as land planted to corn shrunk more than 33 percent from 1991 to 2002, those planted to sugar rose by 51.3 percent.
Let us see a microeconomic situation of an individual farmer.
In Don Jose, Kalilangan, Bukidnon during the tragic hybrid corn cob problem that struck around a thousand Bukidnon farmers in 2003, many farmers went bankrupt.
One of them, Manong Nito Callar, 57, owed more than P70,000 to financiers in Kalilangan because suddenly the hybrid corn variety he was using for the cropping season went pfft. The crop failure that cost him his children’s education.
An ordinary farmer in a far-flung barrio, Manong Nito has no formal education. He didn’t have any technical support on farming aside from technicians of hybrid corn seed companies who go to Bukidnon’s barangays and sell their stuff.
According to studies conducted on Bukidnon’s economy, a lot of work needs to be done to provide greater access to credit, technical support, education, monitoring, post harvest facilities and social preparation. The private sector is already filling the gaps slowly, but this is supposed to be the obligation of government.
What exactly is the vision for Bukidnon? A giant farmland of plantations with its people as employees, lessees and laborers? Or should it be a land of diverse and highly productive farmlands run by business-minded and empowered farmers?
If Bukidnon is indeed strategically pursuing an agriculture-powered economy, how many farmers study at how many agricultural schools? What are the courses taken by most of Bukidnon’s students?
Bukidnon's farmers need a lot of leading: how to become entrepreneurs instead of becoming just laborers in their own lands. Can leaders from the government and private sectors show them how?
Actually I was dreaming to transform Manong Nito into the farmer I was looking for. "Nito Callar, CEO." The last time I was in Kalilangan I thought of this old man and of thousands of farmers around Bukidnon suffering the same fate. But what will I show him if he is still in Kalilangan? The address of a new financier where he could pawn his only carabao?
A student of Mindanao (2)
ESSAY
A student of Mindanao (2)
By Walter I. Balane/MindaNews
Indeed, being a resident of Mindanao is an exposure to learning experiences everyday. It makes me a quintessential student, a wide-eyed Mindanawon wanderer, if not dreamer. And my lessons from
Mindanao are not boxed in those fora and interactions with the communities.
I could even draw lessons from talking to vegetable vendors in Davao’s Bangkerohan market.
‘Public market’ of ideas
Public markets around Mindanao are schools and museums of learning, too. Daily, Mindanao’s agricultural products, and their producers and marketers, converge at the market in cities and towns. I chanced upon a transaction in Bangkerohan between a producer of sweet potatoes from Marahan and a vendor. Even in transactions like these, there are middlemen and I realized that they are crucial in the price determination of camote-Q in the streets of Davao.
The farmer told me stories about sweet potato (camote) production in Marahan, the issues they face; like transportation costs and even the use of pesticides and inorganic fertilizers. He said there are methods of planting and harvesting their crops and went on a tell-all sharing of joys and pains in farming and selling his produce in the market.
Stories like this go beyond Davao’s busy markets. There are other stories from
Mindanao’s flea markets or “taboan” such as in Quezon, Bukidnon or in Alicia, Zamboanga del Sur. It is such an interesting facet of Mindanao. Every time I buy something from the market I make sure I know at least a new story. Every piece of tomato has a story, where it came from and where it is going.
Stimulating farmlands
This leads me to Mindanao’s wide and productive farmlands. The farms are even wider fields of study, not only for those who are into agriculture and business. The farmers, especially those running small to medium size farms, have their own story to tell as Mindanao’s agriculture changes.
I used to play in our backyard in 1986 Don Carlos, Bukidnon with the backdraft of smaller but diverse farms. To our east, is a corn plantation. In the west, sugarcane. In the south is a fruit plantation. In the southwest is my grandfather’s rice, cassava and corn farm. Next to it is an Ilocano neighbor’s singkamas plantation.
Today, surrounding the location of our old house is a vast pineapple and sugarcane plantation.
Mindanao’s farms are fast becoming mono-crop giants. One of the issues about farming now is whether it is still practical to operate larger instead of smaller farms.
According to an advocate of mono-crop production: The wonders of the “Bahay Kubo” as “a haven of diverse, self-sustaining products” have long been debunked. I took a hard look at the source of that information, especially when I made him reveal that his farm has been producing for exports to
Japan. I detest him hitting that song in the first place.
When I was in Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte, I got serious lecturing from a Banana farm operator about their choice between export –orientation or farm losses. I was speechless.
I think it is important to know what is going on, what do farmers in
Mindanao produce for whom? Where do we get our consumption? Good thing that the organic farming movement in Mindanao is growing to balance, hopefully, the equation. This makes the farmlands, now a “battlefield” between plantation-synthetic economy and organic farming, an interesting fieldwork.
Study tours
Mindanao’s highways and narrow roads too revealed many things to me. Travel will be very worthwhile as the face of Mindanao is changing. There are good roads from the yesteryears’ bad roads, but many of yesteryears’ good roads are now bad roads in some parts. Nevertheless, travel around
Mindanao is a virtual history tour. If you stop and ask around, you’ll find that history is unfolding in these places.
For me too, travel has become a sanctuary. In transit, I prepare to shift from one reality to another. From work to home. From one community to another. From city to barrio. From known to unknown or vice versa.
With better roads and better buses, traveling on a 24-hour basis in some areas is possible. It is interesting to see the passengers come and go from different places and going to different destinations. Interactions also inside the bus revealed to me the character of places I passed by. You’ll see that the passenger are in varying forms, sizes, odors and origins.
There was one occasion when a Christian missionary preacher, maybe unwittingly, invited the passengers, half of them I think were Muslim believers, to watch a Christian program on TV. I knew it was a tense case. He should have considered that his audience were not all Christians and exercised more sensitivity. But my Maranao seatmate told me, he has got used to that particular intricacy in living in
Mindanao.
Inside the bus, the scene is a study of diversity, and it is such a stimulating microcosm of
Mindanao.
Formal education
Formal education in Mindanao would also be interesting. But the growing disparity of students in private universities and state colleges would be a study in contrast. For basic education, the same contrast holds true as more and more students in the rural areas are left behind by their counterparts in more urbanized areas. The issues of lack of school buildings, teachers, books among others– widen the gaps.
But even in a school in relatively urbanized Toril, Davao City science education is still lackluster as they are in the rural areas.
As a teacher too, I had serious contemplation on whether students in Mindanao possess a “Mindanawon consciousness”. In my advanced journalism class, I got an empty stare from the whole class when I mentioned the words “Bud Dajo”. That prompted me to dedicate half of the time for the next session to share the story of that historic place in Sulu and drew from them some reactions.
I really shift gears and modes between my journalism students in Ateneo and our basic journalism trainees in Upi and Caraga. There are just so many gaps and divides between the fields of formal education and the real field in communities.
I’m just glad that the academe, civil society, government, media and other sectors meet in some venues, like in cyber space alleys such as Mindanao 1081 to discuss some issues and along the way bridge some of these divides. Cyberspace has also become a growing venue for learning in
Mindanao.
But, in our Amul-amul Bukidnon e-group, there will be silence as soon as issues about the community bypass postings on soft topics as “Davao’s best coffee shops among other things”.
There are other venues to learn about Mindanao. Just look at its health centers, hospitals churches and even funeral houses, they will reveal many things that we cannot read in books and watch on Manila-centered TV programs.
The whole gamut of learning avenues is characteristic of Mindanao’s diversity and learning may come as fluid and in informal notions. I think there is a greater need for religious if not cultural sensitivity here than elsewhere in the Philippines. And people demonstrate it.
My work as a journalist is probably the lens I can use in this quest for learning. It gives me wide-ranging opportunities to listen, to question, to interact and to connect. As I connect to the different shapes and forms of Mindanao, its peoples and their issues, I become both a recipient and a carrier of messages, mostly lessons I culled from this continuous, free-wheeling and “open university”.
The lessons are boundless, the results are priceless, but the demands are high for a student of
Mindanao like me. Unlike those who are graduating these days from Mindanao’s schools and universities, I do not see my graduation from Mindanao’s dynamic curricula learning. I will remain a student of
Mindanao for as long as Mindanao continues to change and evolve.
This is not because honestly, Mindanao’s experience contribute to my growth and maturity. But this is also about what I can share from this “way of life”. Given a chance, I’ll share my lessons learned to the future generations, but even more to the present generations estranged by divides around
Mindanao.
There is a present-day Mindanawon who should also learn the lessons I am learning right at this moment as I learn from others day to day. Everything I learn every day helps me become a better Mindanawon and that hastens my interaction in the dynamics of a Mindanao beset with uncertainties.
Living and remaining in Mindanao is a great and rewarding experience and I draw a lot of lessons here that I couldn’t barter for anything. (Walter I. Balane)
An upland school teacher’s closing program speech in Malaybalay
For a friend who teaches at the Mapulo Elementary School in upland Malaybalay City, Bukidnon
Mga tinahod nga mga bisita, mga estudyante ug mga ginikanan, Maayong Adlaw kaninyong tanan.
Honored guests, students and parents, Good day to all of you.
While I stand in front of you today, I am filled with joy and gladness. Once again, we are closing a school year. It was such a year of pains, hardships and difficulty. Daghan sa ato intawon nagka-utang utang aron lang makapadayon ang atong mga kabataan sa ilang pag-tuon. Ang uban sa ato naka tagbo og mga bug-at og malisud nga mga pagsulay.
Apan duna usab mga kadaugan og daghang mga grasya nga atong nakaplagan niining tuiga. Labaw sa tanan, migawas kita nga dunay kapiskay sa panglawas og duna’y maayong panglantaw sa atong kinabuhi. That is why, Tuig pud ni sa kalipay, kadaugan ug kalampusan.
For the teachers, today would be a relief. Finally, a year of hard work is done.
The noble profession of teaching and guiding the pupils to become better children takes on a daily grind. “From dusk til dawn” and sometimes on a 24 hour basis, teachers think of their pupils for various reasons. Kung sa binisaya pa, “Si sir ug si Ma’am, Mata, baynte kwatro oras”.
As teachers, it is as if we raise so many children and help in their formation. And though they come and go every year, such as what we mark today, teachers also feel a portion of them go every year. That feeling is not only of joy to see fruits of their labor of teaching but also joy for being a part of the children’s education and transformation.
I’d like to ask our teachers to stand to be recognized. Ato silang palak-pakan. Daghang salamat.
Kini pung adlawa, adlaw sa mga ginikanan. Sila gayud katong tinuod nga mga bayani sa likod sa mga paninguha sa ilang mga anak ug sa mga panlimbasog sa mga maestro ug maestra. Mas taas man ang oras sa mga ginikanan nga maka uban ang ilang mga anak sa matag adlaw busa sila ang namahimong partner educators sa matag panimalay.
Kadaghanan sa ato nga mga ginikanan, ato gayud nga gipangandoy nga makab-ot sa atong mga kabataan ang kalampusan. We have a strong resolve to work for the success of our children especially that many of us were not able to finish our education ourselves.
Kanunay nato nga gipasimangno sa atong mga kabataan nga mao lang gyud kani ang atong mamahimong habilin, buwas damlag. Many of us can only wish for this only inheritance we can give our children.
Indeed education is a treasure more valuable than what money can buy.
I am at peace with this idea, because no matter how simple this goal is, it is quite a noble and worthwhile goal to pursue. Mao bitaw nga intawon kining atong mga ginikanan, ipagsagul ang singot ug luha aron lang maka panginabuhi intawon para i-suporta sa mga panginahanglanon ni ondo ug ni inday.
Most of us mix sweat and tears everyday to labor for our children’s future. That is why today’s exercises is also for the parents. Angayan pud untang maka ribbon si nanay og si tatay. Pero ato nalang pud silang patin-dugon og palakpakan.
Daghang salamat nay, tay, sir, ma’am. Let us make this day a tribute to all the heroism of the year from each of us.
Indeed, education is everybody’s responsibility and achievement as well. Honor student man o dili, basta ang importante, nakatungha, naka tabuk na pud ta og
usa ka dakong suba niining tuiga. Salamat usab sa giya og grasya sa labaw nga makagagahum nga Diyos natong tanan. Palakpakan usab nato siya.
Siguro matingala kamo ngano nga dako ang bili nga atong gihatag niini nga bulohaton karon. You might be wondering why are we giving importance to this day. This is just closing exercises and not the graduation day. Maybe the others could say, we still have a long way to go. Layo pa kayo ang atong baklayon aron maka-abot sa atong destinasyon.
Tinuod bitaw. Apan ga-anan ta og kaduol matag tuig, matag bulan, matag adlaw.
What do we normally think every time we end a school year?
Haay salamat kay maka pahuway ko sa gasto, matud pa sa
usa ka nanay nga akong naistorya. Haay salamat kay makatabang na sa uma si Michael matud pa ni Tatay didto sa Bangcud. Matud usab sa
usa ka Grade V pupil, hay maka-laag na jud ko di na nako makit-an si sir og si Ma’am.
Sagol-sagol man ang atong mga panan-aw. Nagkalain-lain. Apan kasagara sa ato dili ma connect diretso kining adlawa didto sa mas taas nga ugma nga atong gi-atubang tanan.
We are looking at the future with our dreams, ambitions and goals in life. Kinsa ba dinhi ang nangandoy nga mamahimong pal-pak sa ilang kinabuhi? (Pause and ask them to raise their hands). Duna ba?
Kitang tanan nangandoy, samtang nagadungaw sa atong bintana sa payag, nga mamahimong malampuson ug malamdagon ang kaugmaon. We all wish to have a successful and bright future.
We all have dreams. We all have ambitions.
Many of these dreams seem to be “impossible dreams”. Kung atong tan-awon ang atong kaugalingon karon atobangan sa atong damgo, usahay makaingon gyud ta nga, impossible gyud diay.
Apan sa akong pagtindog sa inyong atubangan karon, dala ko ang
usa ka sugilanon nga makapamatuod nga dili tanang damgo “impossible dreams”. POSIBLE nga makab-ot ang mga damgo. DILI lang pagpanghatag og paglaum ang mga ambition sa
usa ka tao o sa
usa ka simpleng bata sama kaninyo. KINI tinuod nga giya aron kita mamahimong malampuson.
Dreams may come true.
Para kaninyong mga pupils sa (name of school) Dili siguro kamo makatoo nga niadtong pareho palang kita og edad, nag damgo ra usab ko. Sama sa “hinaut nga maka graduate ko og high school”. “Hinaut nga makatung-tung ko og college”. “Hinaut nga maka graduate ko sa
usa ka kurso”. “Makapalit unta ko og in-ana nga sapatos”. “Maka kaon unta ko ug in-ana nga pagkaon”. Adtong panahuna, wala ko’y kasiguroan. Apan karon, dili man nga makasulti ko nga malampuson na kaayo ko, apan, hinay hinay ng naabot ang akong mga damgo.
Wala man gyud ko’y power sama sa kang Spider Man o kaha ni Panday. Dili pud ko sing gwapo ni Karding sa teleserye nga Gulong ng Palad. Dili pud ko singer sama ni Gary Valenciano. Apan ako, Si Mr. Danny Flores, naa ko’y akong kaugalingon nga kakayahan, duna ko’y akong kaugalingon nga talent, strengths og mga skills. Wala ko nanghambog.
Gusto ko lang ipaabot kaninyong tanan nga, ikaw pud, oo ikaw nga naka tutuk sa ako karon, kaya pud nimo.
Ikaw pud buwas damlag mamahimo ka pud nga
usa ka professional kung dalhon nimo ang mga panlimbasog sa adlaw-adlaw. Kung kada adlaw imong mapildi ang discouragement, ang kawadon, ang kakapoy apil na diha ang mga pagsulay nga ga-sunlog sunlog gyud sa ato. Sa tabang sa Diyos ng makagagahum, maging malampuson usab kita.
Everyday in school, we are realizing the dreams of the uncertain future.
Every simple and basic thing we learn everyday, from our daily activities, from our mistakes, or from our lessons inside and outside the classroom; they all contribute to the building up of our capabilities, skills and over-all potentials so we be empowered to realize our “impossible dreams”.
The regularity and simplicity of the things we do everyday does not only make us “know more”. It also makes us better persons with character. It makes us individuals with attitudes of making the impossible, possible. Matud pa sa
usa ka advertisement, Posible! Kaya mo yan!
To end, I dare each and everyone to make things possible everyday. Stay in school. Continue doing good. Hagita ang inyong kaugalingon nga lapawan pa gyud ang inyong mga makab-ot na. Tan-awa ang kaugmaon, ….kab-ota kini pinaagi sa inyong ginagmay nga kadaugan sa matag-adlaw! Daghang Salamat ug maayong adlaw sa tanan!
Congratulations!
[WIB, March 2006]
Reflections: Can Mindanao media and spirituality go together?
By Walter I. Balane/MindaNews
DAVAO CITY – One of the participants to the “Forum on Moral Responsibility and Spirituality in the Media” asked that question Saturday at the Lispher Inn function room in Davao City.Davao archbishop Fernando Capalla, one of the two forum speakers, echoed to the participants an earlier sharing with another journalist. “It is not really for the priests to tell journalists how to do their job, they are only there to share on how journalists can become good men and women too.
For Capalla, it is important for journalists and other communicators to be good persons, not only as good reporters. Capalla shared three principles that journalists can consider in the practice of their work as “Handlers of the Word”.
He cited that, “Without silence words will lose its meanings” “Without listening, speaking won’t work” and “Without solitude community cannot save”.Capalla stressed the need for silence, to listen and to reflect in private for communicators to be effective.
The forum was organized, for the first time, by the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) for government information officers and also for invited private media practitioners. PIA regional director Efren Elbanbuena said they would do it again next year.
Capalla, former president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, has a message to Davao’s Catholic faithful: Understand why we will be doing the things we do during Lent, the Catholics' annual 40 days of meditation on Christ's passion with the cross, which ends on Easter Sunday.
Interviewed by media workers and a few journalists just before celebrating a mass with them, Capalla said the most important thing for people to do, especially government officials, is to renew. “Renew just as Christ did in suffering via the cross,” he said.
Earlier in the forum, he used an anecdote about how a member of a Charismatic community could best help his own parish. He said that he told that parishioner to “put order in his life and become a master of himself”. He said each person must focus on how he could become a good person, build up his family well.
“Being a good church singer, giver of alms or mass servant are just secondary things to do,” he said. Capalla said, “we are dealing with a time when there is a wide distance between what we do and what we say.”He cited the recent case of the young Davaoeña girl who returned a big amount of money after finding it somewhere. He said the girl’s mother was the one who was hesitant to return the money.
At first I hesitated attending the "forum" thinking it would be totally a waste of time. I have thought that it would be difficult to fuse spirituality and the media, especially in the indsutry level. Media work oftentimes employ critical methods and touches on controversial and sensitive themes.
Can good reporting emanate from a media with deep spirituality?
I realized that as a journalist I could do that if I report about the truth, by using right, humane and orderly methods in gathering the news and by using the news to help improve the lives of others. I do that if I report for peace instead of sowing conflicts.I realized that "spirituality" may mean not exactly on how to "insert" God in the news reports. It is in the writer of the news, for a journalist could not separate his work from his person and his spirituality. I resolved to learn more how to use my craft as a writer to contribute to the work of peace, understanding, goodness, love, hope and enlightenment –things that God, Allah or Mambabaya called for.
|
The forum was an afternoon of retreat, after all. (By Walter I. Balane/MindaNews).
Blog Events in RP
ISTAMBAY SA MINDANAO 
Recent Comments