Challenges facing Teodoro

Challenges facing Teodoro

The Philippines has had as many civilians (12 in all) as military men among its 24 defense chiefs since it became an independent democratic republic in 1946. This 50-50 ratio is not a revealing measure at all of whether the concept of civilian supremacy over the military in Philippine democracy is working.

By next month, former Rep. Gilberto Teodoro of Tarlac, takes office as defense secretary, after serving out three consecutive terms in the House of Representatives. He takes over from Hermogenes Ebdane, a dyed-in-the-wool military man, who once headed the Philippine National Police and was among those who joined then Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Angelo Reyes in withdrawing military support from the government of President Joseph Estrada in January 2001. Ebdane, a core loyalist to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has been shuffled back as secretary of public works in the first Cabinet-level revamp following the disastrous defeat of the Arroyo administration in the May 2007 Senate election.

Teodoro becomes another civilian defense chief following the resignation of Avelino Cruz Jr., a lawyer in the Villaraza law firm and erstwhile political ally of the President. His appointment follows a key recommendation of the Feliciano Commission, which held an inquiry into the causes of the 2003 Oakwood mutiny led by a cabal of young officers. The Feliciano Commission reiterated the recommendation of the Davide Commission, which conducted an inquiry into 1986-89 coups during the Aquino presidency, to appoint a civilian as secretary of national defense. It said, “Beyond the need to institutionalize the supremacy of civilian authority over the military, the appointment of persons who have not had long and deep ties to the military, and who have not held positions in the military establishment that itself needs to be reformed, is essential if a reform program is to succeed.” Although military officers acquire civilian status upon retirement, the Feliciano report said, “they are likely to bring the rigidity of hierarchy, seniority, camaraderie and other aspects of military culture into the office of the DND that would obstruct reform.”

Teodoro’s appointment has been received with approval by a broad sector not only because it sustains the principle of civilian supremacy over the military but also because of his legislative experience, his credentials as lawyer (and a bar topnotcher) and his relative youth.

There is another significant aspect in his appointment. He is known to be a protégé of his uncle, Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., founder of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), a key ally of the President and component of the Lakas-CMD-dominated majority coalition in the House. In the May 2007 election, the NPC retained its block of 27 seats in the House, against the 90 held by Lakas-CMD and 47 by the President’s Kampi party.

Teodoro’s appointment to the defense department cannot simply be seen as the resealing of the President’s alliance with Cojuangco’s NPC or as a political reward for his support during earlier attempts to impeach her. The appointment represents a departure from the pattern of Cabinet appointments of the Arroyo administration as well as that of previous administrations in the post-Edsa People Power period from 1986. During that period, most Cabinet appointments came from mainly bureaucratic and technocratic sectors, none of which represented political constituencies based on regional bailiwicks. Teodoro’s appointment marks the return of a Cabinet recruitment that draws on a political base made up of the NPC’s constituency.

This factor gives Teodoro a platform to exercise autonomy instead of acting like a rubber stamp of the President. From this perspective, his appoint should be welcomed for its potential in initiating not only reforms in the military establishment but more so in asserting civilian control over the military that has become a hotbed of coup attempts and politicized military interventionists in politics.

As a man of the law and as a political creature of representative democracy, Teodoro brings with him into the defense department the kind of political culture needed to curb the rise of military assertiveness in the execution of President Arroyo’s total war that seeks to crush the communist insurgency by the end of her term in 2010. Teodoro enters the defense department at a critical juncture when he is expected to play a critical role in implementing the Human Security Act that takes effect on July 15. The issue that faces Teodoro is whether he would use the defense department as a counterfoil to the hardliners in both the Cabinet and the military, who are eager to use this piece of legislation to crack down on Leftwing activists operating inside the legal system. Will Teodoro be their compliant tool or will he make a difference in curbing the repressive tendencies of the ultra-Right forces in the Cabinet and the military establishment?

Even before the formation of the Antiterror Council that is mandated to implement the Antiterrorist Act, two anticommunist hardliners -- Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita (a former martial law general) and Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez -- have already preempted it by calling on the courts to outlaw the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army, and the Abu Sayyaf. Their call came even before Teodoro could take office in August. The hardliners’ call seeks to turn back the clock to 1992, when the 1957 Anti-Subversion Act was repealed, legalizing the communist movement.

Will Teodoro make the defense department an instrument to enhance control of civil authority over wayward generals blamed for the wave of extrajudicial executions of political activists? Much is expected of him.

The population question, again

The population question, again

IT is reported that the Philippine population is now nearing the 89 million mark. The very mention of our population numbers triggers thoughts about our “population problem.” This in turn leads our thoughts to the conflicting position of the Church and many concerned people in the business and political world regarding the proper approach and solution to this concern.

For all the talk in the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines about “critical collaboration,” the population question is one area where the CBCP has not been able to, precisely, collaborate critically with the government in approaching, assessing and solving the “problem.” In fact, in this matter, the CBCP and the government have long had an adversarial relationship, dating back to the Marcos times. I am one of those who believe that there can be some kind of collaboration between the CBCP and the government in this matter.

Here, what I want to do is state clearly what is non-negotiable and what is negotiable in the positions taken by the CBCP. Then, I want to suggest how there can be some sort of limited but helpful collaboration between the CBCP and the government.

The non-negotiables: (1) The Church teaches that direct abortion, direct sterilization and direct contraception are wrong in themselves and should not be resorted to. Hence, there is no way that it will say yes to the promotion of these immoral practices. (2) The Church believes that the decision regarding the number of children the couple should have lies with husband and wife themselves. Hence, the Church will object to any coercive type of birth control. (3) The Church considers truthfulness a basic moral consideration in any activity. Hence, the Church cannot accept and propagate deceptive information and will demand that full and truthful information be given regarding birth control methods.

These are the only non-negotiable points regarding the Church’s position on birth control.

It is not the official Catholic position that there is no population problem in our country. It is not the official Catholic position that we should not decelerate our population growth rate. A good Catholic may hold the position that there is a mismatch between our population growth rate and our resources to meet the needs of our growing population. A good Catholic may hold that we should slow down our population growth rate to a manageable level.

Again, while the Church advocates only natural family planning in order to implement a responsible parenthood program, the Church does not reject as immoral any method of birth control that is not directly abortifacient, sterilizing or contraceptive.

So, in what ways can the Church and the government collaborate? Personally, I think it will be a waste of time for the Church and the government to try to come to a consensus that there is indeed a population problem, and that our population growth rate should be curbed. Within the Church itself, that question has not been settled. And I believe that it need not be settled in order to achieve effective collaboration.

But the Church and the government can still collaborate toward improving our economic and social condition as a people. They should agree on promoting responsible parenthood. They should agree to project this message together: “Couples should bring into the world only the children whom they can raise up as good human beings.” There will be no objection from the Church to this message, which expresses part of the meaning of responsible parenthood according to Catholic teaching. If all couples get this message and put it into practice, we will arrive at the optimal population growth rate.

In addition, the government can offer to subsidize (without strings attached) the natural family planning program of the Church. Again, there are no insurmountable obstacles for the Church to receive such assistance for a thoroughly moral natural family planning program.

It will be more difficult to effect collaboration if the Church should be asked to take part in government programs of birth control. Bishops have some reservations about being co-opted and being made a part of a government population control program with morally objectionable components from their point of view.

With such beginnings, the Church and government may later on develop other forms of collaboration beneficial to our people.

The Good Soldier

The Good Soldier

Speculations abound on the transfer, albeit temporary, of Romulo Neri from the National Economic and Development Authority to the Commission on Higher Education.

Neri himself, however, admits Finance Secretary Gary Teves was not too happy with his statement that the budget deficit could balloon to P100 billion this year. The official projection stands at only P63 billion. This should end the talk.

After all, Neri’s new assignment is just as crucial as his Neda post.

He says he will focus on making higher education more responsive to the practical needs of industry. This will ensure college graduates will find enough job opportunities that will employ their specific skills.

Neri also intends to look into schools’ tuition increases, which have become unprecedented despite the low rate of inflation in recent years. The high cost of education causes students to drop out of school altogether.

There are also industry-specific issues and emerging sectors that need regulation and direction.

Effectiveness of education reforms and programs is measured by the competitiveness of a nation’s graduates. The goal is to give them career placements abroad or, more importantly, here in our own country, as agents of genuine development.

As every other presidential appointee, Neri serves at the President’s pleasure. He says that like a good soldier, he will take whatever task is given him.

He couldn’t have displeased anybody enough because he got “exiled” to an agency that plays a central role in the empowerment of human capital, as the President said in last week’s State-of-the-Nation Address.

She can only give this job to somebody who enjoys her confidence.

A legislative agenda to increase competitiveness and attract investors

A legislative agenda to increase competitiveness and attract investors

THE global economy is a complex mix of government and business relationships that can be influenced positively only with a good standing and effective messages delivered with suitable communication skills. To succeed in this globalized world, each country has to devise its own plans for success, identifying markets for its particular set of products, services, and business opportunities. A country with beautiful natural surroundings, great tourist destinations, and wonderful exports is likely to enjoy a positive image, an identity that will serve to multiply its exports, tourism, and lure investors. Among the other factors that spell economic success, it is important that nations should have marketing strategies and a legislative agenda that can survive leadership changes.

With the aim of boosting the country’s competitiveness and attracting more investors, 17 local and foreign business groups have called on the 14th Congress to act on a list of proposed new laws which would greatly elevate the level of economic growth of the Philippines. These business organizations are active in the National Competitive Council, a collaboration between the government and the private sector whose main function is draw up and redefine an action agenda to attract investors to the country. Local business chambers and industry associations called on lawmakers to establish an ad hoc committee on competitiveness composed of key committee chairmen that would advise the Senate and the House of Representatives on a legislative agenda.

Included in the legislative wish list agenda is a call for changes in the Build-Operate-Transfer Law, the Local Government Code, the Customs Brokers Act, and the Magna Carta for Small and Medium Enterprises. The business groups also requested new laws ensuring freedom of access to information, reforming land administration, institutionalizing the use and promotion of renewable energy, simplifying taxation on net income and rationalizing taxes on the financial sector and providing fiscal incentives as well as restrictions on foreign investments.

These present great opportunities for the country to build on recent gains, establish a good reputation in the world, enable it to export its products, and attract investments to develop its economy. The ability to thrive in the economy in an investment road ridden with potholes will rest heavily on a country’s capacity to use and create laws favorable to the business community and beneficial to the economy.

Textbooks that miseducate

Textbooks that miseducate

ONE of the urgent problems that education troubleshooter Romulo Neri may look into is the big number of textbooks that miseducate Filipinos because they are shot through with grammatical and factual errors.

This anomaly is public knowledge and has existed for decades. Efforts to correct the mistakes have generally been unsuccessful. The books continue to be printed, reprinted, sold and taught at elementary and secondary public schools. According to the experts, solecisms in language and in fact also crowd many college textbooks.

Two or three years ago, the Department of Education commissioned a study to look into the problem. The department asked the National Historical Institute, the University of the Philippines and other offices to make an assessment of the trouble and to offer solutions. We have not heard from DepEd regarding its study.

On history, we have had the investigations of Dr. Augusto de Viana of the historical institute, the essays of the historian Ambeth Ocampo and books by Benito Legarda Jr. and others to show the historical lies that popular myth and schools have helped perpetuate.

On language and logic, we have heard from Antonio Calipjo Go, academic supervisor at the Marian School in Quezon City, (read his ad in The Times and other papers), our language policeman Jose A. Carillo, parents, scholars and journalists who have heard complaints about these heresies or have read their contents for verification.

A host of reasons explains why substandard books have entered the public school: a reported book cartel among authors, middlemen and publishers, poor evaluation system, the reported influence of supervisors on the choice of reading materials, poor oversight and monitoring, authors writing out of their depth. The collective failure to write and speak English correctly has victimized students.

The UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines and the Department of Education are working on an aspect of the problem but we wish they could do no more.

While admitting the abundance of flawed textbooks in public schools, Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan, former Health secretary and project leader, said that their study is focused on books dealing with social studies and health education, and on the production of “resource books.”

At a news briefing, Galvez-Tan said an earlier study by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization confirmed the poor quality of these textbooks. The researchers gauged the accuracy, balance, readability, consistency and organization of the materials to arrive at their conclusions.

He singled out a Grade 5 textbook on health and science for having “condemnable” errors. Errors filled every page, he moaned.

His approach, however, to the problem is to publish a “resource book” for every subject “so that teachers can correct what they see wrong in the previous textbooks.”

What does it mean? In previous press releases on the subject of “resource books,” DepEd said such a guidebook would simply take note of a published error and correct the mistake. It’s like adding an “erratum” page to a book.

Not enough. What the Department of Education should do is get rid of all badly written textbooks and replace them with well-written ones.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus should also create a national commission to deal with the problem, hire experts, define their work and give them a deadline. If he doesn’t do it, Mr. Neri should look into the matter.

Here are a few gems culled by Mr. Go: 1. “Jose Garcia Villa wrote the story “’Woman With Two Navels.’” 2. “He became the primetaker of his family’s farmland.” 3, “’Here’s for you!’” the guard said while hitting Basilio.”

Here’s for you, you poor student!

How to save water

HERE, according to Maynilad Water Services, are some practical tips on saving water:

Report leaks, busted pipes and hydrants to the government or to your water provider.

Make sure all taps are closed.

Have leaks repaired promptly.

Recycle water. Use rinse water from the laundry or kitchen for flushing the toilet, cleaning the car or watering plants.

When washing clothes, don’t let the basin overflow under a running tap.

When using the washing machine, wash with a full load every other day.

Use only the right amount of water to cook food or wash dishes.

Use a basin or fill up the sink halfway when soaking, soaping or rinsing dishes or cleaning vegetables. Don’t use running water for this purpose.
Don’t water your plants too often.

Never soak your lawn with water.
When washing your car, use a pail, not a water hose; a cotton rag, not a sponge.
Don’t hose down your driveway. Use a water pail and broom.
Avoid unnecessary flushing.

Turn the tap off when washing, shaving or brushing your teeth.
Using a timba and tabo is preferable to using the shower.
Don’t stay under the shower longer than necessary.
Place a heavy brick in the water tank to reduce the volume of water.
And our small contribution: Shower with your wife or girlfriend.

Roll call

Roll call

Leaders of the House of Representatives were pleased to announce a record attendance at the start of their session yesterday, with 204 of the 236 members answering a roll call. This was probably the result of a proposal from the minority bloc to compel attendance during session days through a roll call at the start and end of every session.

No one knows how long House members can keep up the high attendance before diligence slackens and absenteeism again becomes the order of the day. The House is in session for only three days every week. Lawmakers have more recesses and vacations than schoolchildren. Despite the limited working days, absenteeism afflicts not just House members but also certain senators, as records of the 13th Congress show. House members point out that they spend the days outside the session hall visiting their districts and meeting with their constituents. Senators do not have such an excuse.

It’s true that the task of legislation requires touching base with the public. But the task also requires painstaking study, paperwork, and yes, attendance during deliberations on proposed pieces of legislation. Even legislators with the requisite expertise can find the job of crafting laws an enormous challenge. Those who lack the qualifications for the job, including those who won a seat in Congress simply by virtue of their popularity or a well-known surname, should be under greater pressure to prove their worth. If they can contribute little to the actual crafting of laws, they should at least see to it that they are present when their votes need to be counted. Congressional leaders, for their part, should set the example in seeing to it that every session day will have a quorum.

Taxpayers’ money is spent for the upkeep of two congressional chambers. Apart from getting operational funds, lawmakers also have control over the use of billions of pesos in public funds under the pork barrel system. Lawmakers must remember that they are public servants under the payroll of Juan de la Cruz. Congressional inquiries are fine as long as they don’t keep hitting dead ends; an investigation must result in legislation. And lawmakers must show up during session days to get some work done. Surely this isn’t too much to ask.

Monday and Friday

Monday and Friday

YOU'LL like this. Monday's leader opinion column (really an advert for GMA television) was an omigosh-shock-horror expose of one of Davao's girly shows. How the girls earn a peso or two by flaunting their bods.

A couple of pages further on there was a full-color, whole-page feature on the world's highest paid supermodels. Girls who earn a peso or two by - um - flaunting their bods. Hypocrisy anyone?

Monday was also Sona day which, as time goes on, seems to be less a serious statement of intent and more an honors list. No? Read the papers, watch the news - everybody and their dog have been jumping up to complain that they, dammit, didn't get a mention.

The MILF (murder and mayhem our specialty), Cebu (in the person of Representative Antonio Cuenco), and, a few evenings ago on television, Joker Arroyo were all fluffed up because he wasn't singled out for approval.

I reckon one of Davao's councilors hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that the Sona was, after all, only a speech made by a politician. And we all know what to make of those, don't we?

Moving smoothly on and dress-down days, those Friday's and Saturday's when office workers leave their uniforms at home and wear something more personal, more them. It's a ritual I've never understood - uniforms promote team spirit and, more importantly, to any visitor they give an impression of neatness and efficiency. Why throw away such advantages?

Friday last I paid a visit to Davao's legal office and after the usual gasps and oohs and ahs - undoubtedly something to do with my manly physique and rugged good looks - I was afforded every courtesy, tendered every consideration and left 30 minutes later well pleased with the information I'd called for but -it was Friday and a dress down Friday.

Now imagine me a Japanese businessman visiting the legal office to clear up a point of local law. Here's Davao City's legal office, the legal office of the premier city of Mindanao and yet some of its staff look to have been outfitted by the “ukay-ukay” store around the corner, one woman in particular wearing a denim jacket and below, a pair of ripped and torn raggedy jeans. What tales I'd take back to Japan!

Have a no-uniform day by all means but surely there must remain some sort of dress code, some benchmark of presentable appearance.

Still on governmental issues, a lot has been made this last couple of weeks of the lunatic proposal that the LTO become an insurance agency but so far every commentator has missed the point. It's nothing to do with public money finding its way into private pockets (perish the thought), nothing to do with rooting out fake agencies (just publish a list of LTO approved companies) and all to do with the government's plan to load us all down - despite GMA's promise to the contrary - with yet more bureaucratic red tape and more government employees paid for by you and me.

No gobbledegook this week. I was tempted to take the hatchet to Tek Ocampo's Monday column "Forbidden Dance," Tek writing as if shower girls hadn't been around for the last twenty-five years and, outside their clubs, advertised with twinkly sparkly lights. But I won't.

A Finer Reflection

A Finer Reflection

It’s been all about evolution in Cinemalaya ‘07, the indie film festival ending at the Cultural Center of the Philippines on July 29. As most everyone knows by now, “indie” is shorthand for independent film – both for its financing and a whole new freedom possible in the eighth and liveliest art, thanks to popularly affordable digital technology

That a new Filipino generation has taken to indie and is speeding with it towards expansive new horizons would be an understatement. This early in the development of technology that’s democratizing filmmaking worldwide, we’re regularly jolted by a new Pinoy indie global prizewinner or contender in a lengthening list of foreign competitions – possibly one of the best things happening to this nation’s image at home and abroad today.

Ed Cabagnot, who runs the CCP’s media arts division, wasn’t kidding when he said that 2007 would outdo the rousing first two years of Cinemalaya. Indeed, not a rain but a torrent of fresh and exciting new film work by Filipinos is upon us, made possible by digital cameras, editing and projection, with film grants kick-starting projects.

It’s a whole new ballgame of serious challenge to the old studio system local and foreign, its stories largely picked and crafted by exploiting lower human emotions, the highest value given exclusively to money, and film stars with a lion’s share of the budget as studio property with the equipment and machinery for media hype, all derisively labeled “show biz.”

You could touch and smell the opposite pole at the CCP this week –indie as a matrix for a new way of film, filmmaking and film-going. All ages, though mostly young and middle class, came trooping in – lining up for tickets, huddling in lively circles of critique between showings, applauding onscreen dialogue and film director in contagious enthusiasm that brought many “feeling-rally” moments.

Here’s an overview of Cinemalaya 07 – modern film classics in exhibition, new films on premiere, competition entries in the short-film and full length feature categories, the winners to be announced in the evening of July 29.

If there’s been a downside to the banquet, it’s the old festival syndrome - too many things to see and too little time to see them without suspending the rest of your life, ready to turn catatonic from an overload of fascinating micro-universes in film, unable to remember the title of the 6th film you saw that day.

Vowing a leisurely catch up with future showings of gems that cineastes and culture eagles have begun gurgling about at this writing, I saw only three full-length features. First, the two-hour competition feature Endo, a luminous first try by the 28-year old balikbayan director Jade Castro; next Auraeus Solito’s Pisay, also a competition feature; third the exhibition film Kaleldo by Brilliante Mendoza, another young director bidding for a global reputation (marred, however, by overly mannered cinematography and editing of this otherwise richly textured film in Tagalog with snippets of Pampango, subtitled in English for global audiences. )

Close-up on Pisay

Lyricism, honesty and originality in Solito’s Cinemalaya ‘05 winner, Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, and daring theater of stunning visual quality in Tuli, , a Cinemanila winner later that year, made it easy to gravitate to his latest in Pisay - slang for the Philippine Science High School founded in 1964 as a seedbed for young Filipino scientists.

However the competition judges evaluate this film, what I saw was another milestone faithful to both art and life. Even better, from the germ of the plot to the finished film are a series of lessons in authenticity – pagpapaka-totoo, indie’s most telling hallmark.

A Story Behind a Story

Pisay literally began on the road when Auraeus, fresh from the Rotterdam Film Festival with Maxi, dropped by Ultrecht, that famous safe haven of Filipino communist officialdom. Who else would fate have him bump into but Ludy, an old classmate who had mysteriously dropped out in their sophomore year two decades back? For the first time, Auraeus discovered why – her parents, both CPP members in the military’s Order of Battle, had fled with her into exile.

That encounter between two classmates, part of their generation’s “cream of the cream,” lodged a stubborn bit of sand in an artist’s oyster. Their batch of state scholars entered high school in 1982 and graduated in 1986 - a pivotal historical period mirroring the beginning of a previous generation’s revolution in the late 60s.

Ludy was a passionate and eloquent political animal. Auraeus was a history champ in grade school, just the oyster to be stung into secreting a new pearl. Ludy’s story haunted Auraeus on more festival trips with Maxi, becoming a compulsion as he bumped into more Pisay graduates all over Europe and America.

He had grappled with conflict in Pisay as a government scholar discovering that he preferred to do theater. How did the rest of their batch fare? Thus began a filmmaker’s e-mail dialogue with his high school classmates, one contact leading to another as life stories poured into his inbox, fragments in interlinked patterns of an autobiographical story – youth in a time of revolution, just begging to be told afresh.

Following the feeling, Auraeus wrote a story-line and a shooting script, then asked his old Pisay classmate Henry Grageda to “play my left brain” and write the dialogue. That turned out to be the easy part. What followed was indie’s built-in obstacle course - mostly defined by money and the organic solutions artists are compelled to discover to enflesh a creative dream.

When his Cinemalaya filmmaking grant ran out in mid-production, Auraeus turned to a now global Pisay community for rescue. The way the Philippine Science High School Foundation and Batch ’86 here and abroad came through brought back their teen years together in inspiring poignancy. But like true love, the path of true film never runs smooth. A crash followed, with new post-production obstacles and money running out again in looming deadline. It almost had Auraeus giving up.

Enter producer Robbie Tan and the Roadrunner Network with its state-of the-art editing facilities. Tan’s name was already attached to Dante Mendoza’s “Foster Child” as producer of a film favorably reviewed at the last Cannes Film Festival, now Cinemalaya 07’s inaugural feature.

And Robbie Tan’s original billing as profit-churning producer of Seiko Films’ skin flicks and his new role as indie convert became part of the making of Pisay and the rest of a whole new chapter of Filipino film history.

Unforgettable Reflection

On the path of the liveliest art, off-screen drama lent Pisay the movie its tone and spirit. Youthful charm and pathos in Bisayan, Tagalog, Taglish and American English accents unfold a tapestry of first love, steep challenge, early death, failure, hope and heartbreak as individual moments of revelation flow into the larger rhythms of history.

Briskly woven into personal lives is documentary footage of the Aquino assassination, Cory’s acceptance of the draft for her candidacy and Mr. Marcos swollen on steroids in the barely disguised agony of lupus, all nudging the film to climax. Implosion and explosion leap from the screen as they sweep Pisay’s students and teachers into a historical tide that ends in a moment of reflective silence, just before a festival audience burst into applause. Once more indie had dived deeper and etched life more sharply in art.

This one’s definitely a must-see.

Integration

Integration

The dream of a Constitution for ASEAN was formally expressed in Kuala Lumpur in 2005. It was reiterated in Cebu City last year during the ASEAN Summit. The idea is supposed to reach fruition by means of a final draft to be presented in Singapore later this year.

For generations, formalizing a closer relationship with our neighbors has been a Filipino aspiration. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, our revolutionary founding fathers forged friendly ties with their counterparts in the region. The 1920s saw a growing sense of solidarity between Filipino leaders and their Indonesian counterparts. By World War II, Manuel Quezon was proposing union with Indonesia as a postwar objective, and by the administration of Diosdado Macapagal, this pan-Malay feeling had found a formal expression in the Maphilindo.

By 1967, ASEAN had been formed, expanding what up to then had been pan-Malayan Filipino sentiments to a growing appreciation of a Southeast Asian identity. The spread of democracy in the region—allowing the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, for example, to lockstep for nearly the first time, as democratic countries—has done much to soothe international jealousies, and to push toward a substantive, and not merely symbolic, ASEAN system.

A growing desire to collaborate economically, among ASEAN member-states, too, has pushed forward the idea of a regional constitution, in many ways, on the model of the European Union.

The process isn’t easy. The European Union’s efforts to draft a constitution revealed that drafting a regional charter is an often frustrating effort. But the European Union, born of the European Economic Community (EEC), has demonstrated the economic benefits member-states can derive from a closer integration of their rules, and the adoption of policies favorable to the populations of its members. Not to mention the advantages gained from lobbying as a bloc.

The vision for an ASEAN Constitution is fundamentally, an economic one: the creation of an ASEAN Economic Community by the year 2020. By then, as ASEAN itself has expressed it, our region will hopefully be characterized by “a free flow of goods, services, investment and a freer flow of capital, equitable economic development and reduced poverty and socio-economic disparities.”

It may be easier to achieve consensus on economic rules and regulations but an ASEAN Constitution will have to be about more than economic matters. It is an encouraging sign, for example, that two countries that traditionally have had warm feelings for each other (the Philippines and Indonesia) and another country, Singapore, with which Filipinos have often differed in terms of political values, have come together to push for the creation of an ASEAN human rights body under a regional charter.

This has put the charter-drafting process at odds with the government of Burma. Filipinos have also not only felt, but expressed, a sense of solidarity with the Burmese people over their thwarted democracy movement. This has placed Filipinos at odds with our own government’s policy concerning Burma, and pressured the Philippines to maintain the democratic line together with other concerned countries.

That being the case, we believe that it’s important, at this point, to support efforts to establish a regional human rights body under the auspices of ASEAN. Philippine NGOs can make common cause with their counterparts in the region, particularly in Indonesia and Cambodia, to continue lobbying our governments to support the idea. It will help our diplomats, who are engaged in the consensus-building process required to produce a charter draft, if they know they have public support for the inclusion of a human rights body in the ASEAN charter.

If ASEAN envisions an ASEAN Economic Community by 2020, it also looks forward to establishing an ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community by the same year. It is supposed to be “a community of caring societies and founded on a common regional identity.” A strong aspect of that identity must be that our region represents a strong constituency for the protection of human rights.

Drought as nature’s revenge

Drought as nature’s revenge

Suddenly, climate change is no longer a lofty scientific concept. It has become a reality and we are suffering from its effects.

Last week the government alerted the public to the possibility of a drought parching Luzon unless long-overdue rains started falling within the next few days. The concern was raised after unscheduled power outages blacked out large sections of Metro Manila and neighboring provinces. The reason: a number of hydroelectric plants had stopped running because there was not enough water to drive their turbines. The dams supplying water to the plants were drying up, not having been replenished because of below-average rainfall. The authorities had to admit that the afternoon showers offering some relief to the metropolis were induced by cloud seeding, and that power and electricity may have to be rationed.

The consequences of a severe water shortage go beyond rotating blackouts. An extended dry spell could play havoc on Luzon’s rice and corn harvest and drive up grain prices. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap was quick to explain that grain prices would remain stable for the rest of the year. However, the secretary added rather ominously, a prolonged dry season could impact on next year’s crop.

What looms even darker on the horizon is the fact that man, not nature, is largely responsible for the unusual and potentially damaging weather gripping the country.

For years environmental scientists had warned that pollution and forest denudation were raising temperatures all over the world. Unless drastic steps were taken soon, Earth would get warmer, triggering such catastrophic events as crop failures and even the extinction of many animal and plant species.

Global warming has since been recognized as a menace that requires international action. In the Philippines, it took longer to sink in because its effects had not been readily apparent or dramatic. The farmers attributed the lateness of the rains or the viciousness of supertyphoons to the fickleness of nature. The smog that enveloped the city was nothing more than a minor inconvenience for commuters. The laundrywoman saw nothing wrong with leaving the tap running while the water overflowed from washbasin.

It’s time we recognize that we are responsible for what is happening to our climate. It’s time we do something about the weather, not just talk about it.

A study published last week by a British scientific journal confirms that global warming is already influencing world’s rainfall patterns. Last week Europe sweltered as a heat wave swept across the continent, while across the English Channel, record floods swamped parts of Britain.

Closer to home, a senior climate scientist at the International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños said it would be harder for the Philippines to cope with climate change because it has different climatic zones that need a specific response strategy.

“Regions of the Philippines differ in terms of land use practices and landscape characteristics, so they will be affected to varying degrees by climate change,” the scientist said.

The government must look at the aberrant weather as a consequence of global warming and not just a seasonal phenomenon, and adjust its response accordingly.

Problems juvenile justice law (RA 9344) failed to anticipate

Problems juvenile justice law (RA 9344) failed to anticipate

Imagine the following: A criminal gang recruits youngsters 15 years old and younger to its fold. The children are instructed in the trade secrets of the underworld. Armed with criminal skills, they are fielded by their syndicate masters to engage in mugging, porch-climbing, armed robbery, murder and other offenses.

When the youthful perpetrators are caught, the police have no option but to turn the kids over to social workers who, after documenting the cases, are obliged to release them. Under the recently enacted Republic Act 9344—also known as the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006—minors aged 15 and younger have no criminal liability.

That scenario is, of course, a hypothetical one; however, it is not entirely implausible. R.A. 9344, which its proponents hope would guarantee children’s rights, may have in fact exposed minors to further exploitation by criminals—thanks to certain provisions of the law.

For years many well-meaning groups and individuals have advocated the passage of a juvenile justice bill. Helping boost their campaign were numerous media reports of youngsters confined in jails along with adult crime suspects. According to social workers and advocates of children’s rights, the experience exposed the youths to abuse by both their jailers and older detainees. In far too many cases too it turned the kids into hardened criminals.

President Arroyo affixed her signature to R.A. 9344 on April 28. Fifteen days later the entire text of the law was published in newspapers, thus completing the process of its enactment. It was a moment of triumph and vindication for many professional social workers—meaning those who are certified as such and duly licensed by the Professional Regulation Commission—and nongovernmental children’s advocates.

An immediate effect of R.A. 9344 was the retroactive dismissal of criminal cases filed against thousands of children aged 15 and younger throughout the country. As this was being written, no exact figures were immediately available although the commonly accepted range was from 1,500 to 4,000 “youth offenders.”

Some of them were confined in facilities specially designed for minors, such as Quezon City’s Molave Youth Hall, jointly operated by the city’s Social Services and Development Department (SSDD) and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology. However, the vast majority of youngsters who ran afoul of the law were detained in city and municipal jails—along with adult inmates.

R.A. 9344 provides that children 15 years and below are exempt from criminal liability. Criminal charges can be filed against those older—up to 18—but only if they are found to have committed the offense “with discernment,” that is, they were aware that what they were doing was wrong.

The law requires police and other law enforcers to immediately turn over to social workers children caught committing criminal acts. And the lawmen—relieved of the onus of jailing minors—have been only too eager to comply with the requirements of R.A. 9344.

The problem was that government social workers have found themselves swamped with problems that the law’s authors obviously did not anticipate. And by social workers I mean those employed by the various cities and municipalities; they are independent of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. As a result of the government’s policy of devolution in the late 1990s, the DSWD no longer has a significant local presence.

Strangely, the authors of R.A. 9344 consulted DSWD officials extensively but hardly touched base with city and municipal social workers—who are now expected to implement the new law’s provisions whether or not they are ready to do so.

Last week, for instance, police began turning over to the QC Molave Youth Hall dozens of minors—including those apprehended outside Quezon City. The number of minors police have been bringing to the city’s SSDD is growing at such a rate that QC social workers fear they will soon have little time left for their other programs, including hundreds of day-care centers.

But the strain on local resources is just an aspect—albeit an important one—of the complications brought on by R.A. 9344.

Last week, for instance, police turned over to the QC SSDD a 15-year-old boy accused of raping a 14-year-old girl. Under the new law, the boy cannot be held criminally liable even if he were to own up to the charge.

“Nonetheless, a crime has been committed,” said one of the QC social workers. “A 14-year-old girl was victimized. What do the authors of R.A. 9344 expect us to do? Tell the girl nothing really happened to her?”

The parents of the 14-year-old complainant are at a loss too. To whom, they ask, should they go now to get justice for their daughter?

As youth offenders flooded Molave Youth Hall, QC social workers tried to get advice from one of R.A. 9344’s authors, Sen. Francisco Pangilinan.

When they called up his office, a member of Pangilinan’s staff reportedly said that the senator was “unavailable.” Instead, the QC social workers were told to refer their questions to the DSWD.

One of the questions the QC social workers wanted to ask the senator was: What if criminal syndicates begin employing minors—who cannot be charged, thanks to R.A. 9344—to commit armed robbery, murder and other crimes?

For instance, even before R.A. 9344 was enacted, many of the reported cases of cellular phone snatching were perpetrated by teenage muggers. In some instances, the mugging victims were knifed or shot to death. It should not be too hard to imagine how youths who cannot now be held criminally liable could be further emboldened to commit such crimes.

Pangilinan unfortunately could not be reached for comment, much less guidance.

Sloppy

Sloppy

Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Gregory Ong has saved President Arroyo from further embarrassment by giving up his nomination to the Supreme Court. But the withdrawal does not save the President from questions on how she picks her officials. An appointment to the nation’s highest court requires an extensive background check on the nominee. Questions about his citizenship have long dogged Ong. Whoever vetted him for the SC post did a sloppy job.

It’s unclear whether the President was aware of the questions about Ong’s citizenship but appointed him anyway, or was simply left holding the bag by inefficient staff. There is often no rhyme or reason in the way the President picks her officials. Efficiency is not a criteria, or she would not have replaced Anneli Lontoc, after the Land Transportation Office chief got ISO certification for the agency’s driver’s licensing process, with Reynaldo Berroya, whose conviction for kidnapping was overturned on a technicality. The President would not have hurriedly transferred Angelo Reyes after he did a good job fighting kidnappers, and later smugglers. Or perhaps he did too good a job? Many positions are given away as political accommodations. This is going to be evident as the posts vacated by board directors of government corporations are filled.

Even the way the President replaces officials is often messy and devoid of elementary courtesy. Hermogenes Ebdane is back in public works after handling defense during the campaign period. Romulo Neri is going to the Commission on Higher Education, and if certain officials are correct, the man he will be replacing was the last to know. Reyes, after having barely warmed his seat as environment secretary, has been transferred yet again, this time to the energy department.

Such movements betray indecisiveness by the appointing power. Then again, there could be some method in this madness. The endless game of musical chairs can keep the Commission on Appointments off-balance, with its members simply waiting for the next Cabinet reshuffle rather than asserting Congress’ oversight powers over presidential appointments. Several Cabinet members have been at their posts for over a year without bothering to get the CA’s nod.

Ong doesn’t need to go through the CA wringer, but he has been unable to hurdle the scrutiny of his peers. This embarrassment could have been avoided if Malacañang’s headhunters had done their homework.

Brilliant Minds Amid Dirty Politics

Brilliant Minds Amid Dirty Politics

EVERY Filipino is on his heels as the whole country awaits President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to deliver her State of the Nation Address on Monday. Who can blame us? The political situation in the past months has been nothing but ordinary.

The recently concluded elections have shown some glimmer of hope for change. The Senate is now controlled by the opposition despite token allegations of massive cheating on both sides. Although the administration reasserts its control of the House of Representatives, there has been news of in-fighting among administration congressmen on who would take on the Speakership. The administration, however, boasts of lopsided victories of their candidates in the local governments.

Filipinos from all over the world have also been keen on the recent implementation of the Human Security Act of 2007, better known as the Anti-terror Bill. The spate of political disappearances and the countless human rights abuses simply make the average Juan dela Cruz defensive about this supposedly landmark law. In recent weeks, there has been an upsurge in skirmishes in Mindanao that resulted in numerous casualties on both the military and the Islamic separatists.

At least there’s one good news of late. The release of Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi from Abu Sayaff kidnappers after being held for 40 days has every Filipino breathing a well-deserved sigh of relief.

Still, some issues deemed not worthy of front page coverage may just open a well-spring of hope of the country. If we just make politics take a back seat for a while, we may find refuge in some aspects of society Filipinos can truly be proud of.

Last week, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) celebrated National Science and Technology Week. In the week-long event, the best scientific minds of the country converged and conferred on technology innovation for micro to small and medium enterprises or MSMEs. Different DOST offices opened house to showcase Filipino achievements in alternative energy, information and technology, health and environment and technology.

Needless to say, the event came and went without much fanfare. Indeed, achievements in this sector of society only become apparent in the long run. However, more than the actual scientific discoveries or innovative inventions, if at all, this meeting of minds only shows that there are Filipinos who, in their quiet achievements, deserve big attention and loud praise. Silently, they breathe hope to our nation’s future.

While Filipinos are not generally known to be scientifically and technologically inclined, the recently-concluded National Science and Technology Week shows there are some, if not a few, who can excel in this field. We reserve this space for them before the political arena becomes animated once more next week as the 14th Congress officially opens.

We salute the beautiful minds of Filipino science and technology advocates.

Square pegs in round holes

Square pegs in round holes

No doubt Gloria Arroyo is in a panic over the deteriorating fiscal situation.

The first time around, she had at least an excuse and even support from various economists from the University of the Philippines, all of whom pointed to the fiscal crisis that needed fixing, through an expanded value-added tax (e-VAT) slapped on the nation. It was painful, they said, but necessary.

But it now looks like she has absolutely no more excuses to lean on.

But whenever Gloria hangs dangerously at the end of a cliff, Romulo Neri and Angelo Reyes come to the rescue.

Neri and Reyes, now Energy secretary and short-term former Natural Resources secretary and former Interior and Local Government secretary and once Defense secretary until the junior officers called for his resignation, are the two longest-serving mainstays of Gloria’s Cabinet.

Both appear to have won Gloria’s ultimate trust for staying with her when the political platform on which Mrs. Arroyo stands precariously was about to flip.

Reyes, who was detained President Joseph Estrada’s untrustworthy military chief of staff, was among the key figures in the coup d’etat that was made to look like a popular revolt that installed Gloria in power.

Neri held out against the so-called Hyatt 10 — eight Cabinet members mainly economic officials and two bureau heads — who resigned at the height of the “Hello Garci” controversy that backed up allegations Gloria cheated to steal the vote in the 2004 elections.

The Hyatt 10 asked Gloria to resign and Neri and Reyes were her key defenders and went live on television to pledge allegiance to Mrs. Arroyo at the height of the political turmoil.

Neri was rewarded with a guaranteed slot in the Cabinet moving from the Budget secretary then back to the National Economic Development Authority then apparently temporarily to the trouble-laden Commission on Higher Education (Ched).

Thus no matter how both appear as square pegs in round holes in the positions that they are recycled into, Gloria would be tapping the two for a rescue, which is quite ironic, considering that they are not quite the bright boys they want to make themselves to be.

Both, after all, are unremarkably unremarkable as Cabinet secretaries.

Gloria is in a new crisis, or to be exact, an old crisis that was temporarily swept under the rug, involving the budget.

Two main planks of Gloria fiscal reform packages, the Electric Power Industry Reform Act and the e-VAT law, were not delivering what was expected.

The reform in the power industry was stumped by the failure to sell much of the power assets putting in disarray the reform timetable. A power spot market was opened without complying with a requirement for at least 70 percent of the generating assets, or power plants, to be sold to have a truly competitive market.

The electricity now being traded at the spot market is subject to manipulations since the government remains the dominant seller of electricity.

Electricity prices are on the upswing instead of being reduced, which was the reason for its being in the spot market.

The slow pace in the sale of the power assets was mainly the result of poor investment confidence in Gloria. Investors are turned off by the image of the country under Gloria as being the most corrupt in the world.

Gloria sent in Reyes to fix the energy mess.

The e-VAT should have resolved the perennial fiscal shortfall since the sales tax, which everybody — poor or rich — pays, was raised from a rate of 10 percent to 12 percent while at the same time, its coverage expanded to include those previously exempted such as electricity and oil products.

At the same time, the corporate tax was increased to 35 percent from 30 percent.

What Gloria got was progressively falling tax collections that was obviously the result of low efficiency among the collecting agencies, meaning that corruption remains high and could have grown still higher because of the bigger amounts involved with the e-VAT.

In comes Neri with a mission from Gloria--and to the Ched, of all agencies!

Reyes and Neri, Gloria’s troubleshooters who make an even bigger mess.

Gloria creates the trouble and the two willingly pick up the mess and mess it up some more.

Such blind faith.

The Burmese thugs’ local relatives

The Burmese thugs’ local relatives

The political troglodytes strike again with their plan to deport foreign activists gathering for this week’s meeting of the Asean foreign ministers and their counterparts from Asean partner countries in the Asean Regional Forum.

Foreigners are not supposed to meddle in the domestic affairs of the country. So visitors are welcome to see the scenic sights, have a taste of the Manila nightlife and shoot the breeze with local activists. But standing at picket lines and marching in the streets are a no-no. That’s foreign intervention. And no comparison should be made with American soldiers helping track down Abu Sayyaf fighters. They are here with the express blessing of the government.

We ourselves are at times bemused by the sight of these scruffy do-gooders from the First World who travel thousands of miles to join the fight against injustice and oppression. Can’t they do battle against bigotry and prejudice, to name just one issue that is currently besetting advanced European countries, right in their own backyard?

Perhaps they see themselves as the contemporary incarnation of the volunteers of the International Brigade who fought against Franco’s barbarians in the Spanish civil war. The literary types, it seems, continue to draw inspiration from Christopher St. John Sprigg aka Christopher Caudwell, who was last seen manning a machine gun on the bank of the Jarama river.

But misplaced the idealism of these foreign activists may be, they personify humanity’s deepest longing for a better world, a longing that transcends national boundaries. Only the narrow-minded of the likes of Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan and national security adviser Norberto Gonzales would see these fine young men and women as troublemakers if not outright threats to the security of the Republic.

Very likely, Libanan and Gonzales do not see the irony of throwing out visitors who want their voices heard in the coming deliberations on the Asean Charter, considered the most important document to be tackled by the regional group since the Asean founding declaration in 1967.

The Asean Charter seeks to provide the framework for regional cooperation in the 21st century. It seeks to ground relations among the 10 members on codified principles, on bedrock rules that would bind autocratic but economically advanced Singapore, Western-style democratic but economically middling Philippines and political and economic basket case Burma.

Among the more ticklish provisions of the proposed charter is the enshrinement of respect for human rights. We would like to believe the Philippines, with its long history of liberalism and democracy, however flawed, is in the forefront of efforts to press for the adoption of the draft provision which calls for "respect of fundamental freedoms, the promotion and protection of human rights and the promotion of social justice."

But the way Libanan and Gonzales are threatening foreign activists, they probably feel more comfortable aligning themselves with the thugs who rule Burma.

Deadlocked

Deadlocked

The High Level Task Force of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations needs to come up with the first draft of the Asean Charter soon. Foreign ministers of member-countries, who will be here for meetings next week, will review and deliberate on the draft.

The final version is supposed to be ready by November for the summit to be held in Singapore.

Yesterday’s discussions, however, ended inconclusively due to an impasse on a provision that calls for the setting up of a human rights body in the region. The task force will thus be working overtime this weekend.

The Philippines has taken on an active role in pushing for the clause on human rights protection, and a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs has said the country’s position is “non-negotiable.”

“We are pursuing this position forcefully,” says the department’s Claro Cristobal.

After gaining notoriety for a spate of political killings and encountering strong opposition to the recently enacted Human Security Act, the Philippines is now attempting to show its commitment to protect human rights.

There is opposition, predictably, from Myanmar. Task force officials also say they are exercising caution on the use of words to be used in the charter.

Laboring over the words is understandable. After all, the charter will serve as the association’s fundamental document and embody its beliefs and objectives.

But as we have seen so many times before, even the most prolonged discussions on wordings are rendered insignificant once the charter is in place. Then, implementation becomes key. This will determine whether the most carefully crafted provisions will indeed achieve their aim.

Call for water conservation

Call for water conservation

DESPITE an earlier declaration of the start of the rainy season, the government sees the need for the public to engage in water conservation. There is an unexplained dry spell that has hit Metro Manila and nearby provinces and a water shortage and lower agricultural production loom if the drought-like condition continues in the coming weeks.

As reported by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), the country is expected to have below normal rainfall this August, particularly in most parts of Luzon, some parts of the Visayas, as well as central and eastern Mindanao. If this forecast comes true, Regions I (Ilocos) to V (Bicol region), especially some areas in Region III (Central Luzon), will be in danger of a water crisis. The same condition is forecast for Region VI (Western Visayas) and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

PAGASA sees lower water levels in the major dams servicing these areas – Angat Dam, Magat Dam, and Pantabangan Dam. This month of July, below-normal rainfall was registered in Abra, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Apayao, Mountain Province, Ilocos provinces. La Union, Nueva Vizcaya, Metro Manila, Cavite, and Agusan del Norte. Last June, below-normal rainfall was noted in Bataan, Pampanga, Zambales and Metro Manila.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has mobilized various government agencies to prepare for a possible drought in Luzon. She directed the National Disaster Coordinating Council to launch an information campaign to raise public awareness about water conservation. She directed the Department of Agriculture to plant "drought-resistant" crops that do not require much water to grow.

The current situation indicates how much of a precious resource water is. Let us all do our share in preventing a worsening of the condition – CONSERVE WATER!

This trick of naming roads, etc., after VIPs

This trick of naming roads, etc., after VIPs

NAMING GAME: They say that one way of ensuring government support for a project, especially big ticket infrastructure, is to name it after somebody dear to the President. I don’t know if the trick works, but I won’t be surprised if it does.

In my province, for instance, local politicians pulled a scoop when they named Clark Field, the former home base of the US 13th Air Force, the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.

If you were President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, would you allow a major airport named after your dear father go the way of ordinary weather-beaten infrastructure standing as monuments to government neglect?

But what rules are there, if any, governing the naming of public structures after notable persons, dead or alive?

* * *

DIVISIVE: Reader Jorge B. Navarra, a Butuanon, has written the National Historical Institute to ask if the renaming of the “2nd Magsaysay Bridge” in their city as “Diosdado Macapagal Bridge” complied with NHI requirements as prescribed by law.

Navarra reported: “This multibillion-peso bridge project spans the Agusan river about three kilometers upriver from the old Magsaysay Bridge in downtown Butuan. It was temporarily called 2nd Magsaysay Bridge.

“When it was inaugurated before the May 14 elections, its name was 2nd Magsaysay Bridge. The people of Butuan knew that a permanent name would be given in due time.

“Not a few Butuanons wanted ‘Butuan Bridge’ to identify this landmark with Butuan and inculcate pride of place among its citizens. This was a monumental project for Butuanons and naming it Butuan Bridge will inspire unity. This name will avoid the divisiveness caused by naming public structures after politicians, their relatives and their benefactors.”

* * *

RECOMMENDATORY: Navarra recalled that during the Butuan visit of President Arroyo last July 10, the bridge suddenly sprouted signs identifying it as “President Diosdado Macapagal Bridge.”

Then the President was reported on TV, radio and the newspapers to have accepted the resolution of the Butuan City Sangguniang Panglungsod giving the Macapagal name to it.

Did the Butuan City Sangguniang Panglungsod officially confer this name to the bridge? “If it did,” Navarra said, “was this not done in violation of the Local Government Code?”

He noted that Section 13 provides that local governments can exercise authority only over structures owned by them. It so happened that the Butuan bridge is funded by a national government loan from Japan’s ODA-granting agency.

If the Butuan Sanggunian passed a resolution endorsing to the President or to Congress the naming of the new bridge, Navarra said, this resolution is merely recommendatory.

* * *

CONSULTATION: The Macapagal name cannot as yet be adopted, he added, yet it has been placed on signs at the structure, carried in media and used by bureaucrats in referring to it.

Until a presidential proclamation is issued or a law is enacted naming the bridge, its project name “2nd Magsaysay Bridge” remains. The preparing of the proclamation or passing of a law must involve public consultations, Navarra said.

“We have no issue with the credentials of the persons being honored by naming public structures after them,” he said. “We are questioning the practice of naming highways, bridges, buildings, airports, etc., after persons using procedures that do not conform to the law.”

* * *

WHERE’S MONEY?: Sen. Mar Roxas is pressing Malacañang to tell the people where it would get the billions needed to fund the ambitious infrastructure program that President Arroyo outlined in her last State of the Nation Address.

This makes sense, because it is easy to draw up a wish list of supposed projects and wave it before an expectant population — and another thing to produced the money to make the wish come true.

Roxas said the President mentioned only these fund sources: P1 trillion from state revenues, with tax reforms, and orders to the BIR and Customs to meet their collection targets, P300 billion from government corporations, and more billions from state financial institutions, private sector investments, local government equity, and foreign loans and grants.

But after you add up the money, he said, there is still a big deficiency.

* * *

MASINLOC SOLD: The government announced the sale, finally, of the 600-megawatt Masinloc coal-fired power plant in Zambales.

This is significant because Masinloc is the most valuable among the power-generating plants of the National Power Corp. and has been the subject of questioned attempts to sell it to favored bidders.

The Singaporean-led consortium Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd. won the auction after submitting a $930-million bid. It will be asked to pay 20 percent of that price up front after the official transfer of the plant.

The MPPC is affiliated with Singapore’s AES Transpower Pte. Ltd., an investment holding and service company for entities involved in generating, accumulating and trading electricity.

Losing bidders included big names: Masinloc Consolidated Power Inc. (which bid $588 million), Masinloc Holdco Inc. ($606 million), Anglo Cayman Energy Development Co. Ltd. ($650 million); First Gen Luzon Power Corp. ($710 million).

* * *

BID CANCELLED: The first round of Masinloc bidding in 2004 failed because the only buyer, the supposed winner, would not pay the required deposit until it is assured of signing a firm supply contract with a generator or distributor.

In that bidding in 2004, YNN Pacific Consortium offered $560 million. But it failed to deliver the 40-percent up-front payment of $270 million.

The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management which oversaw the bidding forfeited YNN’s performance bond of $14 million in July 2006.

Another major transfer of power assets months ago was of Mirant — the biggest independent power producer — selling its assets in the country to a consortium of Tokyo Electric Power and Marubeni Corp.

Asean at 40

Asean at 40

Regional integration is never easy. National interest, often defined by the personal interests of national leaders, trumps regional needs. Local politics and power play can derail initiatives that will benefit the region. Some governments base policy-making on long-term considerations; others can’t afford to look beyond a year or two.

Despite such complexities, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has managed to achieve significant progress in regional cooperation since it was created 40 years ago. The foreign ministers of the founding member countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand — signed the ASEAN Declaration in Bangkok on Aug. 8, 1967, creating a grouping that was meant to prevent the spread of communism in Southeast Asia.

From that original objective, ASEAN has expanded both its areas of cooperation and membership, taking in Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. A larger membership is more unwieldy, especially in a grouping with a policy of non-intervention in each other’s internal affairs. This is evident in ASEAN’s efforts to set up a human rights body and include a provision in its proposed charter committing respect for human rights. Myanmar, whose repressive junta opted to have the country relinquish the revolving ASEAN chair rather than implement democratic reforms, is strongly opposing the regional initiative on human rights.

ASEAN has a population of about 600 million with a combined gross domestic product of $2.75 trillion. If the grouping can market itself as a unified economic bloc, ASEAN can wield more clout in international trade negotiations. But economic integration has also been slowed down by differences in quality standards and disagreements on product qualifications and tariff systems, among other things.

Other areas of cooperation, however, have been less contentious. Regional cooperation has worked well in efforts to fight terrorism and transnational crimes as well as prevent the spread of diseases such as bird flu. The region, which has not seen war since the end of the Vietnam War, understands the benefits of peace and prefers to settle territorial disputes through non-violent means. There is also general support for nuclear non-proliferation.

Life, it is said, begins at 40. More progress lies ahead for ASEAN as its 40th Ministerial Meeting opens today and regional cooperation becomes stronger.

Girls in trains

Girls in trains

There are three ways to climb the Quezon Avenue Metro Rail Transit station, but unless you take the elevator, all three ways amount to scaling endless sets of stairs. I go up across McDonald’s, past the two men hawking FX rides to Ortigas and the bedraggled, skinny little girl who looks down at my offer of a partially eaten ice cream cone.

Once there, you climb, calves screaming, up the more-often-than-not broken escalator, past signs draped on the wall of the next building. There are offers of plastic surgery discounts, before-and-after pictures of broken yellow teeth, and training advertisements for those who seek a career in the call center industry. Learn to speak American from real Americans! Apply now! There’s a rhythm to the ascent, a 1-2-1-2 tapping of boot heels, pink flip-flops and grimy sneakers; an orchestra directed by clacking stilettos. When you hit the top, high above the slow crawl of morning traffic, a line snakes past two tables, where a listless pair of inspectors tap bags with wooden sticks. From there, it’s mechanical. Stick the card into the slot, whisper a quick prayer to the gods that there’s enough credit left for a return trip, push against the metal railing, and trudge down to the yellow arrow at the very end of the platform.

A year ago, when they first cordoned off this area with a guard standing on a blue box and printouts that proclaimed the first few cars were only for “female, elderly, children and handicapped,” I continued to ride with the men. I’m all for offering special privileges for the elderly and the handicapped, as well as those hauling along small children. But in the age of Oprah and mountain-climbing women, not to mention a female President who has proven she has just as much bullheaded machismo as all three of her male predecessors, this sort of legislated chauvinism seems backward.

Every time I shoved myself into the men’s section, I thought of it as a silent protest against segregation. Sometimes, it was not so silent, on the occasions I had to explain to the guards that I wasn’t illiterate, that I deliberately chose to sweat in the back cars, and that yes, I could shove an elbow into a harasser’s balls if I had to. I thought of it as my early morning crusade—what can I say, I was a 20-year-old college kid with angst to spare. It took a full month when I realized that by forcing my way in, I was depriving men of space, seats and oxygen.

So I packed up my indignation and resigned myself to the women’s section. Four days ago, I caught the MRT at the last stop, Taft. The women flooded the car, enough to fill seats on both sides. At Magallanes, the doors slid open, and a pregnant woman slipped in. She was thin, with bony wrists clutching the metal pole at the other end of the aisle. When I stood up to offer my seat, I had to walk over to the other side of the train to tap her on the shoulder. She smiled, moved toward the seat I vacated, just as a curly-haired girl in an orange T-shirt, black leggings and flat pink patent ballet shoes shoved her behind and leopard-print hobo bag into the empty blue seat. Then she looked at the pregnant woman, looked at me, then looked away and pretended to sleep.

The pregnant woman shrugged. I think she was used to it. Then the doors slid open again to let in another flood of females. I lost sight of the girl, but not my temper. And during all 10 stops to Quezon Avenue, not a single one of the sneakered, IPod carrying teenagers who had snared their seats from Taft Avenue stood up to let the pregnant woman sit. I felt the same way Jesus Christ probably felt when vendors sat chattering outside the temple doors. Pissed.

It used to be that when a man stood up to offer a woman his seat, it was because the woman he was standing up for might be his mother, his sister, his wife; and that by standing up, perhaps somewhere, sometime, some man might stand up for his own mother, sister or wife. Is this why women don’t stand up for other women, because they can’t see themselves in the pregnant woman barely able to keep her footing?

The standards for manners have evolved, of course. Fragility is no longer gender-based, so manners differ from one person to another. I like to think, however, that manners are something like human rights. Inasmuch as culture is negotiable, there are certain non-negotiables, like torture, like genocide, like child molestation. When it comes to manners, whether you’re man, woman, or teenager coming home from a shopping spree, you stand up for the old man or woman, for the handicapped boy, for the pregnant mother. You do not, for example, look up at her, then shove earphones into your ears and pretend not to see her. The privilege of anonymity is a wonderful thing in a world of cameras and cell phones and speed; that privilege, however, does not extend to callousness. One incident in a train may not seem like a big deal, but if you don’t stand up for the pregnant woman, you’re bound to sit back when the man gets run over on the side street, or when the child is kidnapped before your eyes.

I thought that the reason I was writing this column was indignation, some sort of righteous anger. I changed my mind when a friend asked me, when I was telling the story, why I didn’t speak up, why I didn’t ask one of the girls to make way for the pregnant woman. And that’s when I realized the reason I had to write this was to make up for that, to apologize, in a way, for being afraid to rock the boat and make a scene, or for simply not knowing how to.

I like to think those girls who sat with their eyes on their Adidas sneakers wanted to do something, only that they didn’t know how, or if they should. The darling girl with her leopard print bag will always stay in my head as someone whom I would love to meet in a back alley somewhere. As for the rest, maybe they were like me, recklessly passionate, but because of some sort of misplaced shyness, or lack of knowledge, became incapable of concrete action.

So I write this today, indignation deflated, in an attempt to make it up to a woman with thin wrists wearing a flowered shirt. I want her to know that yesterday, I stood up for an old lady with a grandson, and that after me, a girl in a nursing uniform stood up for someone’s mother.

Music and the Marcoses

Music and the Marcoses

The library director and National Library ushers all wore ceremonial red like Imee Marcos and Irene Araneta at the 07-07-07 launching of the seven books on the Marcos years. Alas, the scripted air of that scene extended to the books themselves.

Where the direst need of the Filipino historical hour remains the telling of more, not less truth on the present and the under-examined the past it’s built on, the first book I read - “The Musical Arts in the New Society” - yielded cardboard cutout figures from a movie house lobby.

The first dead giveaway to a combined apologia and hagiography in this book is the inclusion of the still emotionally loaded phrase “New Society” in its title, locating it right in the stream of “Tadhana,” “Notes on a New Society” and “Towards a Democratic Revolution” – the three main propaganda tomes that sought to justify the declaration of Martial Law 25 years ago.

As though nothing at all had happened to interrogate and contradict the “newness” of that society Ferdinand Marcos created by fiat and backed by armed force, this book now asks us to accept the failed intention of a “New Society” as a valid historical description of the era.

I find this a pity, another wasted opportunity to readjust the nation’s historical spectacles on one-dimensional demonization of the period, throwing several healthy babies out with the bathwater. Now is the time to remember: one of those babies was a foresighted energy program cutting down Philippine dependence on imported oil. Geronimo Velasco was slowly inching to a dramatic 55% from the high 90s of the mid ‘70s, with a lot of help from geothermal energy and our own Pinoy engineers and scientists. We all know the direct contrast of what happened to energy after that.

Another baby thrown out on its ear by the succeeding dispensation was Imelda Marcos’s fruitful patronage of the arts, sped by music. With its fruits all around us today, still gaining honors from the world at large as they send out new shoots on home ground, it seems history itself has been ripening a new moment for truth-telling. With twenty-one more years of experience in the opposite, never has the nation been better prepared for the adult exercise of revaluing the achievements alongside the terror of the Marcos Years.

In the book’s closed defense of the mix of good and evil that was the reign of Malakas and Maganda , an earnest student of history is however left rummaging for missing nuggets of fact and snippets of insight for a more complete, more nuanced and more truthful understanding of the past that led to this present.

With all due respect to Antonio C. Hila, author of “Musical Arts in the New Society,” associate professor of history at De la Salle University and Inquirer music critic, a serious failing of his book is not so much its over-reliance on “textual” sources to recount the period – ghostwritten speeches by the Marcoses, Executive Orders, Presidential Decrees and “praise releases” passed off as appraisal of the cultural initiatives and milestones of the period.

The culprit is a book schema that stops short of a crucial reality check. This was the real challenge - to bring the Marcos era right alongside the present in a comparative view. The inclusion of facts and insights from a more complete spectrum of artists and other culture bearers, including those that resisted the regime - the world over, one might add - would have given the book far greater value.

With the passing of time and the emergence of fresh perspectives born of experience, a fuller, more fearless account could now help the nation arrive at a more balanced appraisal, a plumb to its depths, a measure of how it’s outgrown - or failed to outgrow - the Marcos template of “revolution” that mirrored Joma Sison and his generation’s own. This is a large part of what Philippine military intellectuals have yet to outgrow.

The record stands. There were countless abuses of power and unspeakable violations of human rights under the Marcos regime. Paradoxically, to deny Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos’s instincts for excellence while all that was going on is to do Filipino history itself a disservice. That would be like denying the brilliance and cunning of Joma Sison, the delightful originality of Joel Rocamora, or the human kindness of Satur Ocampo.

“He’s a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch,” was the vulgar shorthand for Washington’s support of Marcos to his regime‘s last two minutes. Our own Pinoy lead question might well be, “Yes, he was a tyrant, but what have we learned from the way his leadership attracted as many of the best Filipino minds as it alienated and turned into implacable enemies, or simply tortured and shot dead?”

Meanwhile Imelda Marcos’s musical gifts and unfeigned sensibilities for the arts were fueling a new cultural bureaucracy, identifying and nourishing many outstanding musical talents that teach and flourish today, the way she built several cultural institutions at the peak of her husband’s political power.

That these institutions survived and went on serving the nation long after she left the center of national life is a reality no ideological wand - or even her own silly senior moments - can whisk away. Prime among these were a Cultural Center of the Philippines attended by sniping both at its birth and the regime’s demise, and its 30-year old coeval, the Philippine High School for the Arts whose growing roster of accomplished young Filipino artists can speak for themselves.

Then there are the National Artist Awards created in 1973, giving state recognition to the Filipino artist for the first time in the republic’s history. The controversies that have recently visited these awards redound to a left-handed compliment to their creation. In agitating to reexamine and update them today, the Filipino artistic community has in effect “owned” the National Artist Awards beyond their origins in Martial Law – a sign of new life.

Professor Hila’s recitation of musical careers that enjoyed Imelda Marcos’s pro-active patronage is led off by the name Cecile Licad, followed by Rowena Arrieta , Jovianney Emmanuel Cruz, Andion Fernandez, Rene Dalandan, Raul Sunico, Julian Quirit, Jaime, Ramon and Alfonso Bolipata; Lucrecia Kasilag, Francisco Feliciano, Jose Maceda, Antonio Molina, Lucio San Pedro, Levi Celerio, Andrea O. Veneracion, the Philippine Madrigal Singers…

The list goes on, telling the story of institution-building alongside the recognition and valuing of genuine talent. Not only did the NAMCYA (National Musical Competitions for Young Artists), the YAFP (Young Artists Foundation of the Philippines) and the CCP discover, nourish and showcase performing and creative talents that would otherwise not have reached their present niches as teachers and templates.

As Professor Hila reminds us, all of that came with programs to build and sustain popular taste for more elevated music in programs like Concert at the Park, Puerta Real Evenings and Paco Park Presents. That they languished and slowly died out with the withdrawal of state support under succeeding political regimes invited the inevitable – fresh onslaughts of crude commercial music in beer gardens ruled by plakado and karaoke. (At the boulevard Baywalk, it comes with streetlamps in High El Cheapo, courtesy of ex-Mayor Lito Atienza.)

And so the value in Professor Hila’s book lies in the music and the musicians themselves, with Madame Marcos speaking their language like a native, beyond the speeches and between the lines. Burdening this story with a defense of Martial Law all over again, instead of allowing it to roam free in the far wider field of a musical race’s past, present and possible future, is a double pity, Ms. Imee.

The nation in Arroyo’s eyes

The nation in Arroyo’s eyes

A State of the Nation Address (Sona) is interesting not only for what it says but also for what it does not say. The nation hears not only the speech but also its silences. Every Sona reveals a president’s way of seeing, and there is no way of excusing its blind spots by referring to the speaker’s limited time.

In a speech lasting 56 minutes, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took her listeners on an archipelagic tour of the Philippines. She hopped from island to island, identifying regional growth centers by their main political players and sponsors, and cheerfully acknowledging their presence in the audience. You realize that what is being described is not merely a location map of the new infrastructure, but the whole terrain of political patronage -- the path of the gravy train.

Unseen and unmentioned is the state of the people living in these regions. Do they have jobs? Do they have enough food on their tables? Are there enough schools and teachers for their children? Are they adequately sheltered? Do they have water, electricity and basic medical care? Are they safe in their homes? How did they vote in the last election, and what messages might they be sending out by the way they voted?

What set the 2007 Sona apart from the past Sonas of this administration was the bravura and callousness that attended its entire delivery. Ms Arroyo sounded as if she was the winner of the recent election. She spoke as if the problems that have troubled our society over the past years -- the political killings, the mass hunger and unemployment, the threat of renewed conflict in Mindanao, the government’s continuing dependence on massive foreign and domestic borrowings, etc. -- are nothing but figments of her enemies’ imagination.

For the first time, Ms Arroyo gave the nation an idea of what she thought defined the limits of her powers: none. “From where I sit, I can tell you, a President is always as strong as she wants to be.” I think only a dictator can say that with a straight face. Do we still wonder why our institutions are weak?

I used to think that former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban’s rebuke of Ms Arroyo’s Presidential Proclamation 1017 was sharp. Justice Panganiban had written: “Some of those who drafted PP1017 may be testing the outer limits of presidential prerogatives and the perseverance of this Court in safeguarding the people’s constitutionally enshrined liberty. They are playing with fire, and unless prudently restrained, they may one day wittingly or unwittingly burn down the country.” I now think it was too subtle, and that it had fallen on deaf ears. This president is not in the business of testing “the outer limits of presidential prerogatives.” She recognizes no such limits.

The wonder of it all is that Ms Arroyo could, in the same breath, talk about her vision of a modern Philippines in the coming years. “We will have achieved the hallmarks of a modern society, where institutions are strong. By 2010, the Philippines should be well on its way to achieving that vision.” This is empty rhetoric. She said nothing that would substantiate that vision. Modernity is not just about physical infrastructure. It is about institutions, a way of running the complex affairs of a nation.

But all these blind spots and omissions should not surprise us anymore. The key to Ms Arroyo’s rise to power and political survival has been precisely her ruthless disregard for institutions. She justifies it as a normal survival reaction to the demands of a “degenerated” political system. (That clumsy word comes from one of her previous Sonas).

She knows that what has worked for her is not the rule of law but the system of patronage that permits her to buy the support of politicians and generals. What she may not know is the brittleness of any form of authority that rests chiefly on remunerative and coercive power. It breaks as soon as the resources run out. Worse still, this style of leadership tends to invite reprisals, while offering no protection against them, once the ruler is out of power.

“It is my ardent wish that most of the vision I have outlined will be fully achieved when I step down,” she said toward the end of her speech. Almost every one noticed that she did not say when that was going to be. Under the Constitution, her term ends in 2010. But, once we consider how she managed to get this far, it becomes easier to understand why a lot of people don’t believe her and why they think a push for constitutional change is likely to be attempted again.

She doesn’t even need to demand Charter change on her behalf. Someone is bound to say it for her, to shout to the world how we cannot live without Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Mass demonstrations and posters will suddenly appear on our streets to bring this message of great urgency to the public. This theme will be picked up by a chorus of columnists and commentators who, even as they sing hosannas to Ms Arroyo, will note the absence of worthy leaders among those currently waiting in the wings.

Nothing, perhaps, can be more wretched than the future of a bratty autocrat about to lose power. “They say the campaign for the next election started on May 15, the day after the last. Fine. I stand in the way of no one’s ambition. I only ask that no one stand in the way of the people’s well-being and the nation’s progress.” But who is she to expect anyone to subscribe to her pre-modern notion of “the people’s well-being and the nation’s progress”? Isn’t this what is supposed to be debated in a democracy?

Short

Short

When President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo unveiled her administration’s P1.7-trillion Public Investment Program for the last three years of her presidency, the question on everyone’s lips was an unbelieving, “Where will she get all that money?” Ms Arroyo hastened to supply the answer by citing three major funding sources: P1 trillion from revenue collections, P300 billion from the earnings of government corporations, and P400 billion from private investments, local government units and foreign assistance. Those figures hardly reassured those who suspected that she did not have her feet planted firmly on the ground. But while such carping and cynicism were expected from her usual critics, whether in the opposition or the media, what caught administration officials by surprise was the public airing of similar doubts by the London-based Fitch Ratings.

The day after the President delivered her State of the Nation Address, Fitch declared that the government would not be able to carry out its “ambitious” infrastructure development program unless there was a “significant improvement in tax collection.” The government’s revenue collection effort during the first six months has been disappointing, the international credit rating agency said, noting that while real economic growth was believed to have averaged 6.5 percent in the first half of 2007, “the 3.4 percent growth in tax receipts was rather poor.” Because of the revenue shortfall, Fitch said, the government would not be able to achieve its goal of holding the budget deficit down to P63 billion, and the full-year deficit would balloon to P125 billion.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves promptly disputed Fitch’s basis for its gloomy prediction, saying it didn’t count the expected proceeds from the sale of some government assets. He said that with the privatization of some big-ticket items and improved collections, the government would still be able to keep the deficit at P63 billion for the whole year.

The fact remains, however, that both the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) have failed to achieve their collection targets so far this year. The BIR, which was given a collection target of P373.3 billion for the first half of the year, managed to collect only P334.7 billion. The BOC collected P92.2 billion against its target of P105.3 billion. Thus, the two principal tax collecting arms of the government fell short of their targets by a total of P51.7 billion. And this is the reason the actual deficit widened to P41 billion compared to the target of P31 billion.

Despite the confident pose they put on, Teves and other officials are obviously very much worried by the shortfalls in revenue collection. And they should be, for the administration’s infrastructure program, which the President intends to be the country’s springboard to First World status, hinges on the government’s ability to raise funds.

Right now those ambitious projects look like pure fantasies, given the poor performance of the government revenue-collecting agencies. With this year’s revenue shortfall, the targets given to the BIR and BOC under the proposed 2008 budget don’t seem realistic at all: P845 billion for the BIR, up 14 percent from its P740 target for 2007; and P254.5 billion for the BOC, up 10 percent from this year’s P231 billion.

Finance officials have been scrambling to find ways of pushing up collections, starting with the sacking of Internal Revenue Commissioner Jose Mario Buñag for the BIR’s failure to deliver the targeted revenue. More recently, the revenue district offices were ordered to conduct a tax-compliance audit, aimed at flushing out tax cheats. There was also the successful bidding for the coal-fired power plant in Masinloc, Zambales, which fetched $930 million. With some luck, the government might yet be able to prove Fitch wrong as far as the deficit is concerned.

But the administration cannot bank on the sale of government assets to bridge the gap between revenues and expenditures, much less to finance its infrastructure-building program; there are only so many of those assets, and soon everything will be gone. The key is efficiency in tax collection, which seems to be the direction the government is taking.

Filipinos should hope the effort to collect the right amount of taxes will succeed this time. Otherwise, the administration might ask Congress to pass new tax measures, which would again penalize honest taxpayers and continue to reward tax evaders.

Asean and the Philippine legacy

Asean and the Philippine legacy

When the Philippines formally relinquishes the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) during the 40th Asean Ministerial Meeting that opens in Manila on July 29, it would have given a new dimension to the vision and mission of the 10-member regional grouping.

This new dimension is expressed in the theme of the 12th Asean Summit, “One Sharing and Caring Community,” which is also the theme of the 40th AMM and the two related meetings, the Post Ministerial Conference and the 14th Asean Regional Forum.

The theme, we were told, was personally chosen by President Arroyo from a number of suggestions to emphasize that the Asean, which was formed 40 years ago as an economic grouping, should put a human touch to its agenda to serve the people and the community.

According to Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, the concept deals primarily with poverty eradication, employment generation, gender equality, environment protection, primary education and HIV-AIDS prevention and cure.

On the aspect of caring, Romulo said that Asean aims to stress human resource development, sustainable environment and promoting health and welfare in the region.

In 2004 the Asean adopted a road map called the Vientiane Plan of Action, whose objective was to come up with an Asean Community by 2020. To achieve this goal, the Asean leaders decided to work together in three areas of cooperation—politics, security, and in economic and socio-cultural advancement.

It was during these discussions that the Philippine delegation pushed for the adoption of a community-centered concept, a more compassionate rather than materialistic approach to solving problems besetting the region.

The Philippines should follow through with more concrete measures that would flesh out this humanitarian concept, lest its initiative turns into an exercise in sloganeering.

For example, the Asean should come up with a swift mechanism that could respond to any disaster or emergency in the region, like the tsunami that hit Thailand, or the typhoons and landslides that ravaged the Bicol Region.

When some of the countries in the region were devastated by natural calamities, where was Asean? We read a lot about relief and rehabilitation efforts by the United Nations and other international organizations but nothing from Asean.

What about the hungry or malnourished children in the slums of Manila, or the increasing number of HIV-AIDS victims in Thailand? What is Asean doing to stop human trafficking and child labor in the region? Why has Asean not conceived a plan that would give scholarships to poor but deserving students?

Asean could truly transform itself into one caring and sharing community by matching its agenda for security, trade, human rights and regional cooperation with programs that help alleviate suffering and deprivation in the region.

The Philippines has the responsibility to make these things happen. We hope it exercises leadership once more in charting new directions for the Asean.

Outpacing economic growth

Outpacing economic growth

One of the few sources of pride of the administration is the country’s economic performance. But the good news is always tempered by the fact, admitted by the administration, that the benefits of economic growth have not trickled down to the masses. There are several reasons for this, a number of which the government is moving to address. But one of the most glaring has been consistently ignored by the administration: economic growth cannot keep up with population growth.

The National Statistics Office, which launched the other day a nationwide census, expects the population to grow by less than two percent this year. The growth rate has slowed down in the past years, but this year’s growth will translate into a population of 88.7 million. That’s still a huge number that will put additional strain on limited resources and basic services.

As things stand, the government can barely provide those services. Public schools are filled to capacity and the deterioration in the quality of education has taken its toll on the quality of the nation’s workforce. Health centers are shutting down due to an acute lack of doctors and nurses. In densely populated cities, new mothers share beds in government hospitals. For want of decent jobs and livelihood opportunities, people continue to leave the countryside, turning urban migration into a serious problem. The growing lack of agricultural workers threatens the nation’s food security.

The government can boost national production and generate employment to meet the needs of a growing population. Unable to do this, the growth in demand can be tempered through an effective family planning program. This the administration has refused to undertake, with President Arroyo invoking her religious beliefs to explain her stand on family planning.

The position has earned the President brownie points with the Catholic Church, which frowns on all forms of artificial contraception. But as a result, millions of couples lack information on options in planning the size of their families, and women are deprived of information on their reproductive rights. Until the government finds the political will to intervene, population growth will continue to outpace economic growth, and economic benefits will continue to elude the poor.