Monday, December 28, 2009
Quotation from the Inaugural Address by US Pres. Barack Obama
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Arroyo Administration One of the Worst in History
HUMAN RIGHTS WEEK:
Violations of economic, social rights worsening under Arroyo administration
The Arroyo government's human rights record is considered one of the worst in history, not just in violations of civil and political rights but also in the economic, social and cultural realm.
Thirty-five years after the Philippines ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESR), the rights of millions of Filipinos are increasingly undermined and unmet daily such as the right to food, decent work, health, education, adequate standard of living, protection and assistance of families, among others.
Right to food: Local food production, measured in kilograms per person per year, has fallen by over 30% since 1981. Rice imports increased 280% from 639,000 tons in 2001 to a record 2.4 million tons in 2008. Around 9.3 million households with 46.3 million Filipinos do not meet the 100% dietary energy requirement. Three million children aged 0-5 years are underweight, while three million more children aged 6-10 years old are malnourished.
Right to health: The Arroyo administration has the lowest record of health spending compared to the past three administrations. Since 2001, it allocated an average of only 1.8% for health, compared to 3.1% under the Aquino administration, 2.6% under Ramos, and 2.4% under Estrada. In the 2010 national budget, the allocation for health fell by 7.4% from 2009, or an average of only P1 per Filipino per day.
Right to education: For school year 2008-09, there were 4.7 million out-of-school youth in the country, consisting of 2 million elementary-age children and 2.7 million high school-age youth. Out of every 100 children who enter Grade 1, only 66 will finish elementary school, 43 high school and 14 college. This year, the government spent only P6 per Filipino per day on education while paying the equivalent of P21 on debt service.
Right to decent work: The period of 2001-2008 is the longest period of sustained high unemployment in the country's history, with an average unemployment rate of 11.3 percent. A record 1.24 million Filipinos were deployed abroad in 2008 or almost 3,400 leaving per day.
Right to adequate standard of living: Latest government data show that some 80% of Filipino families survived on daily incomes of P560 or less, with the poorest 10% of families having incomes of just some P88.Assuming an average family size of five, some 70 million Filipinos each are surviving on P112 per day. It is estimated that even using a low official poverty threshold of P41 per person per day, the number of poor Filipinos is at 27.6 million with at least 13 million urban poor residents in the country.
Moreover, around 3.5 million families do not have electricity, 3.4 million families do not have access to safe drinking water, while 2.4 million families do not have sanitary toilets.
Violations of these rights have intensified because of government's aggressive implementation of neoliberal globalization, which further liberalized the economy's vital sectors, and privatized public utilities and social services. These have destroyed the livelihood of many Filipinos and resulted in the unparalleled decline in the people's condition.
International human rights law declares the principle of protecting the full range of human rights required for people to have a full, free, safe, secure and healthy life. It maintains that the right to live a dignified life can never be attained unless all basic necessities of life such as work, food, housing, health care, education and culture are adequately and equitably available to everyone. The 1987 Constitution also recognizes that the national economy exists to serve the needs of the people and that the State has the duty to intervene when needed.
It is the government's duty to promote and protect these rights, and it should be made accountable for the increasing violations and greater numbers of Filipinos falling into poverty and deepening deprivation. The worsening state of human rights, whether civil and political or economic, social and cultural, only proves government's lack of seriousness in ensuring the welfare of its people and further reveals that it protects only the interests of the elite.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
The Joint Session of Congress: Coverage or Cover Up?
As Congress resumed its last joint session this afternoon (4:00 PM up to 6:00 PM, December 14, 2009) people waited patiently for the live coverage of the debates related to Presidential Proclamation No. 1959. The public was, however, dismayed that the government-owned National Broadcasting Network (Television Channel 4), which is supposed to be the prime broadcast network for information, did not perform the way the public expected them so. No action inside the session hall was seen or heard.
Instead of making a full coverage as they did on the first day of the session, they focused their camera and consumed most of their time at news reporter Rita Gaddi outside the session hall as she seemed to be enjoying the company of pro-administration solons with her never-ending interviews. Of course, the public already anticipated rhetorical answers by identifiable ass-licking puppets.
Although once in a while brief and passing shots lasting only for a few seconds were taken inside the hall, what could be heard was still her own voice, not of the Honorables who were etching history by their respective orations at the podium. Thus, what was expected to be a documentation of a greatly significant event in Philippine history turned out to be something like a monotonous, one-sided, shallow talkshow. Seeing those old familiar faces in TV acting in their traditional politician's fashion outside the session hall while their peers are patriotically debating on a very serious issue has become irritating. Under whose direction has Gaddi been acting? Just asking!
Nonetheless, the Filipino people are not so dumb as to fix their attention and waste the whole afternoon watching Gaddi's overtures while history was unfolding. There are other means, anyway, by which people got real-time, blow-by-blow, word by word account of the proceedings, specially the fiery speech delivered by Senator Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel, Jr.
Thanks to the other privately-owned networks, particularly the radio outfits that unselfishly shared to the millions of Filipinos their live coverage of the closing of the joint session!
Whatever Gaddi, or NBN-4 had in mind for the particular event, no one knows. A layman asked, was it a coverage, or a cover up? It's the station's prerogative, no question about it! But i'm just pretty sure no amount of hullabaloos could anymore induce the greater number of Filipinos to believe in the assumed rationality (?) of the imposition of martial rule and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the province of Maguindanao.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Don Pedro Almazan, King of Ilocos
The friars exercised vast political powers. They supervised such diverse affairs as the municipal budget, taxation, census, statistics, primary schools, health, public works, and charities; certified the correctness of residence certificates; intervened in the election of municipal officials and in the appointment of police officers. So powerful, that they could instigate the transfer, suspension or removal from office of colonial officials, from the highest to the lowest. In line with their feudal interests, they could even murder the governor-general with impunity, as they did to Diego de Salcedo in 1668 and Fernando Manuel de Bustillo Bustamante y Rueda in 1719. As they could be that vicious within their own official ranks, they were more so in witch-hunting and suppressing native rebels whom they condemned as “heretics” and "subversives."
The parallel revolts instigated by Maniago of Pampanga; Malong, of Pangasinan; and Almazan, of Ilocos all started in 1660. The Pampanga struggle led by Don Francisco Maniago failed when a certain leader from Arayat, Juan Macapagal, pledged his loyalty to Spain and cooperated with the colonial rulers, particularly with Spanish Governor Sabiniano Marquez de Lara.
Don Pedro Almazan became more ardent in executing his plan upon hearing of the successful uprising in Pangasinan, by Don Andres Malong, King of Pangasinan, early in December 1660. When a mutiny ensued in Agoo (La Union), a huge contingent of Spaniards from Ilocos went to support their besieged troop. The Augustinian Friar Jose Arias of Bacarra, who was renowned for his viciousness, joined the party. The absence of Arias from Bacarra was anticipated by Almazan and Magsanop as the best opportunity for their brood’s wedding. And so, they set it for the end of the month.
Immediately, Magsanop sent a letter to Gaspar Cristobal, leader of Laoag, inviting him to the wedding and simultaneously asking the latter’s opinion on Almazan’s plan to revolt. After reading it, Cristobal instantly led his people and the emissaries to the Laoag church. He took a flaming torch and set the edifice on fire to demonstrate his concurrence to the plan and his solidarity with Almazan. Cristobal turned to the emissaries and said:
“Bilang tugon sa nais na malaman ng inyong pinuno, ipabatid ninyo sa kanya ang aking pagsangayon sa kanyang layuning mag-aklas! Isalaysay ninyo sa kanya na ang ginawa ko ngayon ay tanda ng aming pakiki-isa!” “Tulungan din ninyo kami na lupigin ang mga Kastila!” (“In response to your chief’s query, convey my concurrence to his aim to revolt! Narrate to him that what I did just now is our manifestation of solidarity. Help us also to crush the Spaniards!”)
“Mabuhay si Manong Almazan, ang Hari ng Ilocos!” ("Long Live Manong Almazan, the King of Ilocos!”).
That momentous event signaled the onset of the insurrection. Sporadic attacks launched against the Spaniards all over the region reached as far as the towns of Cabicungan (now Claveria) and Pata (now Sanchez Mira) in Cagayan.
In February 1, 1661, as nine friars, including Arias, were celebrating in Narvacan, for the suppression of a big group of Zambal fighters, another aggression erupted in northern Ilocos. Despite the looming danger, no amount of dissuasion by his peers prevented Arias from hurrying back to Bacarra. He was deluded by the thought that, by virtue of his position, he could thwart the rebellion. Upon arrival, he was met and cautioned by his servants of the imminent danger posed on his life by the escalating unrests. People were yelling and marching-in from all directions. In no time, the public grounds and thoroughfares were swollen with angry crowds who were ready to attack. They continually cried out:
“Mabuhay si Manong Almazan, ang hari ng Ilocos! Patayin lahat ang Español!” (“Long Live Manong Almazan, the king of Ilocos! Kill all the Spaniards!)
The frantic servants hid the priest in another aide’s house. They planned to send him off as soon as darkness fell. A certain Juan, a Negro mestizo who was with the crowd, cautioned the house owner:
“Palayasin mo ang frayle o papatayin namin kayong lahat, pati ang mag-anak mo! (Send the friar away or we will kill all of you, including your kinfolk!).
In quandary, the servants pleaded that they be allowed to dispatch the friar safely. Juan Boaya, one of the mutineers, agreed to help in the silent departure. He told the servants to take the friar to Laoag right away. They wasted no time in concealing the scared priest on a rattan hammock given by Boaya. They covered it with assorted stuffs and, along with some of Boaya’s men, hurriedly left. Unfortunately, they were met on the way by a group of rebels who were to join the multitude in Bacarra. They scrutinized the hammock and found Arias hidden under the stuffs. The warriors beheaded Arias and brought his severed head to Magsanop.
Magsanop immediately delivered the head to Almazan and gave the King an account of the incident. Cristobal and all who participated in the insurrection were fetched for the celebration. A few days later, the friars begged for the head of Arias and buried it with his body.
Although significantly outnumbered, Almazan's remaining troop continued fighting. As last ditch, the King rode on his cavallo and furiously and courageously confronted the foes up to his last breath. He was, however, outfought, captured and executed along with a hundred and thirty revolt leaders. With the two leaders (Almazan and Magsanop) dead, the remaining warriors were forced to flee.
By his heroic deeds, Don Pedro Almazan, King of Ilocos, epitomized one marvelous paradigm of unreserved patriotism that contemporary leaders should emulate. He lives in the annals of history because what matters most, in reverence to his memory, is for generations to remember him, more on “how he lived” than “how he died”!.
(Send in your comments and suggestions to: edalmazan88@yahoo.com.ph)
