In Defense of the Truth

Kabataan Party-list is at the height of its campaigns. All through the years, the culture of Philippine politics had always been painted with name calling, harassment, destroying a candidate or a group's reputation and even murder and homicide. Most recent is the hideous Ampatuan Massacre in Maguindanao. We critique those who are not worthy, specially the government puppets. Oftentimes, those who just want to do it for fun and baseless rattling taints the essence of these critiquing. Oftentimes as well, we critics or the opposition are being critiqued. This became evident in one of the comments in our official campaigning website (http://kabataanpartylist.com/):

ray joey 03:53

ano ba yang nilagay nyo na text sa isang poster nyo binasura nyo ba ang no permit no exam policy? di yan totoo, tsaka sa pork barrel na natatanggap nyo sana marami kayong skolar,nagpapayaman rin kayo

I cannot blame the likes of Ray Joey. A politician even told us the same thing when we solicited assistance for a regional activity.

A party-list is a group that represents the minority. Duly mandated by none other than our constitution itself, it aims to protect the rights and interests of the minority or the marginalized and underrepresented sectors. Yes, as a party-list voted upon by the people, we are also entitled to the P70 Million annual pork barrel allocation which will finance identified, worthy and endorsed projects for the sector or group the party-list is representing.

On our case, such big money could have indeed financed a lot of less fortunate yet worthy students through scholarship programs. However, as a matter of fact we were never given our pork barrel allocations. Last year, we, including other left-wing party-lists Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela, were even accused by Bantay Rep. Jovito Palparan Jr. and Anad Rep. Pastor Alcover Jr. (both government puppet party-lists) of using our pork barrel to organize and finance anti-government rallies and procure firearms and ammunition for communist rebels.

Then Quirino Rep. Junie Cua, chairman of the House committee on appropriations confirmed this and then after he briefly conferred with Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr., he told us that the problem was lack of funds.

“We will not beg for the pork barrel funds and we cannot be silenced despite the oppression that we are being subjected to. But we want the people to know that despite the absence of our pork barrel funds, we even earned two seats for Gabriela and Bayan Muna got three seats in this chamber,’’ quoting Rep. Liza Maza of Gabriela as she told the Manila Standard Today.

There is no lack of funds. We were oppressed. Hon. Prospero C. Nograles, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Hon. Edcel C. Lagman's, Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations explained and justified pork barrel in their Understanding the “Pork Barrel”, "Indeed, understanding the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) is appreciating its necessity and import. It is not by any measure akin to the sinful “pork barrel” of the original American mold."

Despite the justification, many still believed that it is being used in favor of and against the enemy of the government. It was used during the times of the dictator Pres. Ferdinand Marcos (Salvador Miranda, “The Politics of Pork”, November, 1996). It is being used as well today by the corrupt and neodictator Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to oppress her enemies and critics, including us leftist party-lists. You might want to ask, how is that possible? She cannot. Well, unfortunately, she can. Let me copy here the exact words of Nograles and Lagman:

In the precedent-setting case of Philconsa vs.Enriquez, et al., the High Court declared in no uncertain terms that the CDF is valid and constitutional. It was ruled that:

Under the Constitution, the spending power called by James Madison as “the power of the purse,” belongs to Congress, subject only to the veto power of the President. The President may propose the budget, but still the final say on the matter of appropriations is lodged in the Congress. The power of appropriation carries with it the power to specify the project or activity to be funded under the appropriation law. It can be as detailed and as broad as Congress wants it to be.

The Supreme court further held that:

The Constitution is a framework of a workable government and its interpretation must take into account the complexities, realities and politics attendant to the operation of the political branches of government. Prior to the GAA of 1991, there was an uneven allocation of appropriations for the constituents of the members of Congress, with the members close to the Congressional leadership or who hold cards for "horse-trading," getting more than their less favored colleagues. The members of Congress also had to reckon with an unsympathetic President, who could exercise his veto power to cancel from the appropriation bill a pet project of a Representative or Senator.

And the sad truth is that, the Congress is dominated by Administration representatives. President Arroyo can veto our prospected projects and the Congress will support her. In spite of this, we were able to deliver impressive number of votes last 2007 elections. We were able to accomplish a lot even before we aspired for Congress and run as a party-list.

The most recent of our youth's victories are:

1. Anti No Permit, No Exam Policy

It was Kabataan Partylist that filed the HB6799 or the “Anti-No-Permit, No-Exam Policy” filed by Palatino last September 10, 2009. CHED duly acknowledged and said Okay to it with Commission on Higher Education's (CHEd) issuance of CHEd Memorandum Order (CMO) 02 series of 2010, directing Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to be flexible in the implementation of ‘no permit, no exam’ policy.

CHED officially issued the memo on January 22, 2010. The CHED Memo states in Section 3 . Specific Guidelines, “As such, HEIs shall allow students with delinquent accounts to take school examinations.”

2. No to Tuition Fee Increase (TFI)

The stoppage of tuition fee increase in Major Universities in the country and even hundreds of other Universities nationwide after Rep. Raymond "Mong" Palatino of Kabataan, along with student and youth leaders, conducted a dialogue with Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Emmanuel Angeles. He even asked to be furnished a list of schools being complained in the Kabataan Partylist hotlines that are planning to raise tuition fees and so that he would not approve them - that was after Palatino raised that most of the 233 private schools have tuition hike proposals that have violated consultation guidelines with students and parents. (http://kabataanpartylist.com/blog/breaking-news-students-triumph-over-tuition-hikes-ched-chair-angeles-declares-no-tuition-hike-in-pup/).

This May 2010, we are running once again for Congress not to collect our pork barrel and worse not to make ourselves rich, but to continue what we have started and aim for more and greater victories - victories that will address one by one the roots of the problems and dilemmas that confront not only the youth but the Philippine society as a whole. We, as the first and only youth partylist in Congress today, will continue to stand for the rights of the youth, students and every Filipino citizen to free and accessible education; adequate jobs for all new graduates and the protection of workers’ rights; against corruption and works for the immediate prosecution of corrupt government officials at all levels; continue its pro-environment advocacy.

Most importantly, Kabataan Party-list means politics of change.

In this time of corrupt governance and political unrest, the nation needs young, vibrant and innovative minds that will restore integrity and morality in governance and lead the nation to genuine progress and social change. This is what we stand for.

Ipagpapatuloy natin ang laban!

Mabuhay ang mga Iskolar ng Bayan na lumalaban!

Mabuhay ang Kabataang Pilipino!

Re-elect for Congress - KABATAAN PARTY-LIST!!!

References:

http://kabataanpartylist.com/

"Understanding the “Pork Barrel," by Hon. Prospero C. Nograles, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Hon. Edcel C. Lagman, Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations

"Leftwing solons demand release of their pork barrel," http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNews.htm?f=2009/october/17/news5.isx&d=/2009/october/17

"10 Reasons Why We Should Vote for Kabataan Partylist on May 10," http://kabataanpartylist.com/blog/10reasons/

When We Have To Make A Stand

The other day, I met my friend Cris over at Mr. Donut in one of the malls here in Naga City. She told me a story about how a mother chose the lives of thousands of people over her own child. Destiny is really fond of testing our faith once in a blue moon. Faced with such circumstance, we oftentimes choose what we believe is right morally.

One is expected to choose either of the two, never both or none at all. We are forced to choose either the left or the right way. These roads are most of the time trudged by only a few. Why of all the people in the world do I have to make this choice?

Responsibility. Is it wrong that once in your life you’d find courage to bear on your shoulders the others’ responsibility? Or is it more wrong to avoid that responsibility when you have an obligation to fulfill? Is there any difference between responsibility and obligation?

Well, as they said, once you step a single foot on a pit, you might bring your entire body into it in spite of your struggle to keep the other foot out of it. That is if you don’t know how deep that pit is. Or if they will ever let you know I should say.

Moreover, internal contradictions and personal beliefs, molded by your upbringing and faith, often come in the way. Social morality tells you it is right, but personally for you it is not moral at all. It is just justified by the saying “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” And the belief that power should be yours to attain the coveted, the much needed change.

Violence is part of our society, part of our being human. We tend to be violent even to ourselves whenever our instincts send the impulse to our mind to feel such feeling. But it is something that can be pacified, controlled. Violence to counter violence is deadly. Everything will just be in circles – unending. Somewhere, there has to be a dot, separating the infinite number of dots in a circle. Someone has to sacrifice.

Ah! I can’t think straight. I cannot decide. I cannot elaborate either. I envy a three-toed sloth. At least it doesn’t have to worry about the world even about itself. All it does is hanging upside down a tree enjoying the sky, barely moving. Meditating the sky?

Requiescat In Pace: When The Dead Are Politicized

Requiescat In Pace: When The Dead Are Politicized

November 30, 2006, our country especially the province of Albay was ravaged by the super typhoon Reming (international codename: Durian). That was barely two months after Milenyo (international codename: Xangsane), another typhoon hit us.

Its winds reached gusts of 265 kph or about 165 mph with 446 mm of rainfall, the highest amount of rain recorded in Albay since 1967 (equivalent to an average accumulated rainfall for a month), according to Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). It also claimed about 388-430 lives affected 800, 000 residents. Bicol Region incurred the greatest damage in houses with 215,510 houses destroyed and 328,592 houses partially damaged according to the National Disaster Coordinating Council's (NDCC) December 14 report on the effects of typhoon Reming.

When all of these were taking place, I was in Baguio attending the annual National Convention of YMCA Philippines with my fellow USC (University Student Council of Bicol University) officers and officers from the College-based YMCAs. Helpless, we can only watch and pray that our own families are safe and that our province will be raised hopeful from all these hopelessness. We were having breakfast when the news came, however, for our peace of mind; we weren't allowed to watch any further news.

Lahar and volcanic debris with boulders almost wiped out an entire baranggay in Legazpi City. Until now, Brgy. Padang has not fully recovered from the devastation of the typhoon, after almost 4 years after it happened. I have a firsthand account of the aftermaths of the typhoon. Transportation can go until Brgy. Arimbay Bridge only. From there one has to walk about 5.4 kilometers just to reach Sto. Domingo Bridge, the farthest the jeepneys can go from Tabaco City. Along the way, you will pass by National Highways littered by electric posts, fallen trees. Along Brgy. Padang, you will trudge on sands, boulders higher than buses, water flowing from every direction, the stench of death in the air. At that time, we still saw a hand protruding from a mound of sand just beside the remaining window of a lone wall of a once concrete house. One woman shrieked at the site. It was ghostly.

We conducted relief operations in different municipalities in the region through the efforts of the BU-USC, Kabataan Party-list and Bikol Movement for Disaster Response (BMDR).

Months after that, every time the bus passes by that place while I was on my way to the University, I kept thinking of that experience. Then an idea came to my mind that time. Why not at least create a shrine for those who died and for those who were never found?

The idea excites me. I was also a member of the University YMCA that time and we can spearhead that project. Plans are forming on my mind. We can contact friend organization abroad and get a grant - why not? Proposals are on my mind. However, sadly, I was not able to materialize that goal.

Then here comes election time. A new party-list advertising a major project of creating a similar memorial site in Brgy. Padang. Their rationale is: [Ako Bikol] has adopted baranggay Padang, Legazpi City as a memorial site to serve as a reminder not only of the tremendous losses of lives and properties as a result of the havoc wreaked by typhoon Reming in the Bicol region, but more importantly, to serve as a mute testimony of the resiliency of Bicolanos to rise above personal tragedies, to overcome fears, and to transforms weaknesses into strengths. Eventually, this site will become a major tourist attraction that will generate additional income to the locals.

I am happy that an organization had fulfilled this dream of mine. They have a gallant vision. However, I cannot help but be afraid that our beloved dead may be used for politicizing. They say that everything happens on certain times for specific reasons. They could have done these 3 years ago if they don't want to give this a color of politics. The party-list just surfaced recently, but the individual organizations/groups/companies behind it didn't. My question then now is what is their purpose?

For those who lost their lives - even those unaccounted for - I leave you a prayer.

Requiescat in pace.

A Safer Haven for Bloggers: No More

The Philippines was declared as one of the unsafest place for Journalists since the dawn of Marcos's Martial Law in 1986. The Arroyo government was worse - journalists' blood colors the waters around Malacañang Palace bloody red. The last most inhumane treatment of Journalists was still unsolved as of Press time, referring to the Maguindanao Massacre done in cold blood by the Ampatuans - fed by the bloody hands of Malacañang.

Then the past few days, another alarming case reached my interest through one of the wall posts from Rep. Liza Maza of Gabriela Women's Party-list: Maza raises questions on libel case filed against blogger. The blogger was named Ella who allegedly "exposed and criticized the DSWD’s alleged inability to deliver relief goods to typhoon victims and hoarding of relief items in its warehouses on October 21, 2009 at the height of relief operations for victims of tropical storm Ondoy," quoting Maza's statement on her website.

This fact is alarming. I have been a blogger for quite sometime now and oftentimes speaking my rage, sentiment, opinion on different issues that confront me as a citizen imbued with the right to freedom of speech and expression. To blog and speak against an entity - person or organization, who is known to the public as not different from what you are saying is now a ticket for you to stand before a judge and a court? Well, I don't think Ella is alone in her sentiments, isn't she? It is not only DSWD for chrissake.

Filipinos were never dumb Secretary Cabral. so don't make us one. Rep. Maza was correct - show us the facts and we will decide. But is it worth questioning is the question.

Now, with the new law that they are trying to pass in Congress - the CyberCrime Act, would things be worse than this?

Will there be no more safer haven for even us bloggers?

Out of Inspiration

When writing, I always look for an inspiration to write..

As of now, there is none. I don't know when one may come.. till then

soy un escritor de pluma-menos...

Dukot (Desaparecidos) Movie

From January 21, 2001 to March 31, 2009, there are a total of 1, 013 victims of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines according to KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights) Monitor from January to March 2009. This is no secret even to the international community. If you will read Wikipedia's article about extrajudicial, you will find the same data and information.

According to the same website, the meaning of extrajudicial killings is:

Extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines refer to the illegal liquidations, unlawful or felonious killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines. These are forms of extrajudicial punishment, and include – extrajudicial executions, summary executions, arbitrary arrest and detentions, and failed prosecutions due to political activities of leading political, trades union, dissident and/or social figures, left-wing political parties, non-governmental organizations, political journalists, outspoken clergy, anti-mining activists, agricultural reform activists, members of legal political parties or organizations that the military claims are allied with the communist movement or suspected supporters of the NPA and its political wing, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) by either the state government, state authorities like the armed forces and police (as in Liberia under Charles G. Taylor), or by criminal outfits such as the Italian Mafia.

Same perpetrator as well: the Philippine's own government, headed by the President herself, Gloria-Macapagal-Arroyo, and her agents such as the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) - of course backed and funded by the imperialist United States government. These has been investigated and proven by local non-governmental human rights organization KARAPATAN. The said organization's reports were further investigated and agreed upon by the international community through the following:

• UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston
• 3 FIDH experts, Mr. Nabeel Rajab (Bahrain), Mr. Mouloud Boumghar (France) and Mr. Frédéric Ceuppens (Belgium), on August 13 to 23, 2007
  

Victims range from small children, to early teens, adults and even elderly. Children, women and church people even the media, none was spared as long as you are tagged and alleged as members of left-wing organizations opposing the government. Allegations again include being members, supporters and sympathizers of the New People's Army (NPA) and its its political wing, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The victims were also found out to be listed on various Orders of Battle being recovered from state agents such as the military or on crime scenes.

KARAPATAN has aired its fears that this killings might increase with the advent of the deadline of Oplan Bantay Laya 2 (OBL 2).

That is why, a very timely release of a new movie by Joel C. Lamangan will surely increase the people's awareness of these inhumane killings of activists:

You can also sign in our online petition that is being automatically sent to the following:

• Department of Justice of the Philippines
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
• UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
• Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines
• Pope Benedict XVI

Let us work together to prevent more blood spilled with impunity in our country to stop once and for all.

Justice for all the victims of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines!!!

End Oplan Bantay Laya 2!!!

Uphold our constitutional and democratic rights!!!

Finally: Solon files bill ensuring BPO workers’ welfare, protection

In a move seeking to protect workers of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry from labor abuses, KABATAAN Representative Mong Palatino today filed a bill that would allow BPO workers to join and form unions, institutionalize an occupational safety and health policy, and ensure just compensation for BPO workers who attend work during non-working holidays.

House Bill 6921 or the BPO Workers’ Welfare and Protection Act of 2009, Palatino said, seeks to ensure the welfare and protection of BPO workers and recognize of rights as provided by the Labor Code of the Philippines. Palatino also said his office has also been receiving a steady stream of reports and complaints on violations and abuses by BPO companies from call center workers.

Citing a data from the National Labor Relations Committee, Palatino said 327 cases were filed against BPOs involving 408 workers in Metro Manila. During the first semester of 2009, 124 cases were filed against BPOs involving 175 workers.

“There is an urgent need to pass a law that would ensure the rights of our BPO workers especially since the BPO industry touted by the government as the sunshine industry. Despite our labor laws, violations and abuses are repeatedly committed by companies, who put premium on ensuring profits at the expense of our workers’ rights and welfare,” Palatino said.

The young solon said, “We should not be distracted from the fact that even if this is a dollar earning industry, our mandate, especially the mandate of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), is to protect the workers in this sector. I think it will be advisable for the DOLE to immediately come up with a proposal to establish programs or even a committee within the department with the major intention of advancing the welfare of BPO workers,” Palatino said.

Data from the DOLE shows that there are already 500,000 workers in the BPO sector, and government predicts that the number will increase to one million by the end of 2009.

Under the proposed legislation, erring companies shall be punished with a fine of not less than Ten Thousand Pesos (P10,000) and/or imprisonment of not less than two (2) months but not more than one (1), or both at the discretion of the Court.

Meanwhile, Palatino said Kabataan Partylist would launch a series of fora and symposia among call center workers to inform them about their rights as workers of the BPO industry.

Full text of the bill can be read here.