Achieving Happiness

Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales is completely
missing the whole point on the issue of the extrajudicial killings and
worsening human rights situation in the country. Rosales was essentially
defending the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)
and absolving the
institution and its members from culpability over the killings by giving
credence to its arguments that the New People’s Army (NPA) were also guilty.

It’s most unfortunate that Cardinal Rosales can even think
to say that the extrajudicial killings under the incumbent government are
nothing compared to those perpetrated by the Marcos dictatorship. It’s like
he’s trying to downplay the urgency of the need to find justice for the victims
and put an end to the killings. Is he saying that we should wait for the number
of extrajudicial killings under Macapagal-Arroyo reach or exceed the record set
by Marcos before we sound the alarm?

Cardinal Rosales has begun to be convinced by the twisted
arguments and lies of the AFP that the progressive party-lists are fronts for
the NPA and the Communist Party of the Philippines, and this is a very
terrible mistake. The victims of the extrajudicial killings are unarmed
civilians, members and leaders of the progressive party-lists, and all the
signs point towards the AFP as the perpetrators of the killings. Cardinal
Rosales sounds like he is already giving up on the campaign to find justice for
the victims and is now just spreading the blame around instead of focusing on
the institution that’s mainly responsible for upholding human rights in the
country but is now violating them: the
Macapagal-Arroyo government.

We hope that other bishops, cardinals and priests will not
take the same tack as Rosales and instead see the issue of the extrajudicial
killings as it really is: the responsibility of the Macapagal-Arroyo
government. He’s better off following Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick
Pabillo’s lead. Bishop Pabillo recently released a report endorsing the public call for the
pull-out of AFP troops from the urban poor communities and residential areas in
the National Capital Region.

—

Senatorial candidate Joker Arroyo must know the reason
behind the voting public’s less than enthusiastic response to his latest bid to
return to the senate. He’s still on insecure footing and might still be taken
out of the Magic 12, and this might well be likely a result of the public’s
disappointment with his decision to run under the administration banner. Many
are also surprised with the line that Sen. Arroyo is taking on the issue of
extrajudicial killings and the international attention the issue has been
getting. People expect more Joker – after all, he’s the ‘good Arroyo.

I’m a Joker fan, but I was very surprised and disappointed
with his stance on pressing political issues such as human rights and the
extrajudicial killings. Joker’s vote in support of the Human Security Act or
the anti-terrorism law was also tragic.

He became known as a human rights lawyer and a civil rights
defender; but now his stance seems to vary from day to day. It’s most
unfortunate that he has chosen to side with the Arroyo administration and
defends its from ultimate responsibility and criminal liability for the
extrajudicial killings. Many see him now as an apologist for the Arroyo
government, and it has caused much confusion in how voters perceive him. If he
didn’t want to join the Genuine Opposition, he should have gone independent
instead of throwing his lot with Team Unity and his infamous namesake of an
illlegitimate president.

Supporters and sympathizers of the progressive party-lists
Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, and Gabriela
Women’s Party are not encouraged to include Joker in the list of candidates
they will vote for in the senate elections. However much we want to support and
endorse Arroyo’s candidacy, it’s become difficult for us because of his
inconsistent stand on human rights and the extra-judicial killings. Many were
shocked to hear him defend the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the
Arroyo government itself from culpability. It was a disappointment.

Joker would win more votes and once more secure a seat in
the senate if he once more takes up the cudgels for human and civil rights in
the Philippines.
This is what the Filipino people expects of him. I bet even Gloria Arroyo was shocked but hit it when Joker decided to run under Team Unity. She must’ve thought "Hell! What is he doing siding with the like of me?!"

In any case, it’s still not too late for Joker to
disaffiliate himself from Team Unity and take a more correct and humane,
internationalist stand.

Last Tuesday I was a guest on Manolo Quezon’s program ‘The Explainer’ on ANC. The topic was how the progressive party-lists are being accused of being fronts of the New People’s Army and the Communist Party of the Philippines, and what the impact was on the PPLs and their mass membership and leaders.
I am grateful to MLQ3 for being fair and objective in his explanations and his conclusion at the end of the program. He expressed disagreement with the means and methods the Macapagal-Arroyo government is utilizing to convince the Filipino people that communism was wrong. If the government wants to fight the CPP-NPA-NDF, he said, it should do so not by violating the human rights of members and sympathizers of the progressive party-lists, but by initiating genuine reform in the Armed Forces of the Philippines; by implementing genuine economic programs that will benefit the poor; and by serving as a good example of pro-people governance. That’s the only way to convince the Filipino people that there is no need for armed struggle.
I would like to reiterate my apologies to Patricia Evangelista if she thought that I was offended when she donned a ‘Mao cap’ during the opening segment of the show. I think she caught me wincing; I winced not because I was offended by her or the cap, but because, well, naisip ko lang na sa panahon ngayon, especially in the provinces, wearing the iconic green cap with the red star could get you into trouble, the military might well literally blow your head off.
Ms. Pat, feel free to wear the cap, just be careful though. You might end up being tagged as a terrorist. The HSA has been passed and we have a highly paranoid government. I own a ‘Mao cap’ myself, but I never wear it.
Like so many others, I am grateful that Ms. Evangelista has now chosen to write about issues and causes that impact on the lives of the poor and marginalized sectors; that she now writes about human rights and the worsening political situation in the country in a way that is deeply sympathetic with the victims of such a situation.
—-
This is an excerpt from a project I’m doing:

Crispin did not regret joining the union or the strike; but
inside him, there was a niggling regret for the P8-P10 a day he lost for every
day that he was part of the strike. He did not once think of being a scab, but
privately he bemoaned the lost income. It was to be expected, this small
regret: for the first time in his entire life, he had money that amounted more
than P4 every day. His wallet was heavier with more than just coins; he was
able to send money home to Tanagan more regularly, and he could afford to drink
beer and not just the slightly weak coffee they served at the karinderia after work
hours.

On the
morning the strike was launched, Crispin parked his taxi in the garage, and
took on the task the union leadership assigned him: kitchen crew.

It was a
job Crispin was only too glad to accept. He was very much a greenhorn to
unionism, he was there primarily on instinct, his belief in standing in
solidarity with those he worked with, uniting with people with whom he shared
similar experiences and even educational and family background. Being assigned
kitchen duty allowed him to work around familiar territory, and it gave him a
chance to meet and get to know the other taxi drivers.

He took
charge of the picketline’s makeshift kitchen, chopping the vegetables, stewing the fish, boiling water and
cooking rice. He also had the initiative to be the food server, announcing when
the food was ready, and dishing it out as his fellow strikers formed a long
line, their plates and spoons in hand.

For the
first five days of the strike, negotiations between the union and the Yellow
Taxi Company management were full-blown and heated. It was revealed that when
Yellow Taxi bought out the old cabs of the defunct Malate Taxi Company, it also
absorbed the former company’s taxi drivers. There were many unresolved
issues between the drivers and Malate, but none of these were settled; when
Yellow Taxi took over, it also inherited the labor problems. Like the
management of Malate Taxi Company, the management of Yellow Taxi did not take enthusiastically to the idea of improving the economic welfare of the drivers.

Primary
among the demands of the Yellow Taxi Drivers Union was to raise the share of
the driver in the fares he collected during his shift. From a 25%-75% division
in favor of the company, the union wanted a 30%-70% division.

The union
also wanted the company to stop automatic deduction from the workers’ salaries.
Whenever a driver was unfortunate to have met an accident on the road, the
repair costs for the damages sustained by the vehicle was shouldered by the
driver and taken out of his wages, regardless of whether the accident was his
fault or not.

  As far as Crispin knew, the management was not
budging from its position and refused to give an inch to the union’s demands.
There was nothing the management could do about the paralysis in the company
operations: a majority of the 2,500 taxi drivers had joined the strike, and
those who did not join the strike and stayed at the picketline opted to stay at
home.

The sixth
day of the strike arrived. The sun rose bright and early at the picketline. The
residents of the apartment right next door to the taxi garage were preparing
for work; and the strikers were preparing for another day of resistance.

Crispin,
being used to waking up even earlier than most chickens and roosters, had
already heated water for coffee, cooked rice, and had begun the viand. He
cooked the ulam in a large talyasi, or a heavy iron concave cauldron, also
called a kawa.

It looked
as if it would be just another day at the picketline, with the strikers
engaging in one-upmanship as they traded stories about their taxi driving
experiences: how they fought off men who tried to rob their taxis; who had the
oddest passengers and where they could be picked up; the best way to beat a red
light; the alternative roads and alleys
to avoid traffic; how to distract passengers from noticing that the taxi meter
is moving way too fast.

Most of the
morning was spent with the strikers doing their respective tasks in the
picketline. Some were on market duty and went to replenish staple supplies like
rice, coffee and sugar. Others cleaned the picketline area, picking up stray
trash, cleaning the pavement where the
strikers slept on flattened carton boxes and plastic rice sacks.

The
afternoon was also a lazy affair. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the
sleepiness that came after eating a good meal, but none of them noticed that
strange men had already entered the company compound.

There were
policemen guarding the picketline, and it was their supposed duty to make sure
that nothing untoward happened in the picketline area and the immediate
vicinity of the strike. The police were also supposed to be neutral: they were
not there to monitor the strikers themselves, but only their activities, to
make sure that they did not destroy any property. It was also understood that
they were there to make sure that no harm came to the strikers from any outside
forces. They were, supposedly, guardians of the peace.

The sun
set, and Crispin was again at his post, wielding his sandok and carefully putting dollops of a vegetable
dish on the plates of the strikers who stood in line formation. The picketline
was alive and lively with the noise of men whose bellies were grumbling, and
whose collective sense of humor was never blunted despite the difficult
circumstances they were in.

Suddenly, a
burst of gunfire. Chaos erupted. Bullets seemed to rain from the sky. Plates
newly laden with food fell to the floor as their owners dropped to the ground
or ran for cover.

Crispin
himself was standing next to the talyasi when it was struck by bullets,
shattering it to pieces. Shrapnel went flying, but he was quick enough to dodge them and he dropped
to a crouch, then lay flat and crawled on his stomach, hoping to reach the
apartment gate and through it, the open street to Arlegui and the Pasig river embankment.

The air was
heavy with the sound of gunfire, the sharp smell of steely dust. To Crispin it
seemed like an eternity had passed since he first fell to the ground. Beyond the loud crack of bullets firing, one
after the other in swift succession, Crispin could hear voices of women crying,
screaming. He could feel the ground trembling under the weight of hundreds of
running feet.

He felt
bullets hit the wall he lay flat against. Chips of plaster and paint rained on his hair. He did not dare move, but
he was struck with anguish and shock when he heard a cry of pain. He lifted his
head a few inches and there, some 40 meters in front of him two of his fellow
strikers were running as if drunk, swaying and zigzagging. Just as
they passed the gate leading to the Malacanang Palace grounds, both men fell
face forward, their bodies struck down by bullets.

Before he
could recover from the shock of what he saw, Crispin noticed another prostrate
body a few feet from his. Unlike him, however,
the man did not make the slightest response to the debris flying around and
falling on him. The man was dead, also shot in the back.

After 15
minutes, the shooting stopped. Carefully, Crispin lifted his head and
cautiously looked around him. He slowly got up, and when he saw that everything
had gotten quiet, he quickly ran out of the compound and into the street.

By then the
police had arrived, their sirens blaring loud, disrupting the sudden deafening
silence.

Crispin did
not know where else to go. Shaking, he walked to the Quiapo karinderia where
the drivers usually hung out. He all but collapsed on one of the chairs, and
the karinderia owner and staff rushed to his side, asking what was wrong.

Crispin
would thereafter remember that moment as the first time he would ever cry in
public. He was filled with grief and rage; anger at what was done to the
strike, and grief over what happened to his fellow strikers. He lay his head on
both hands on wept.

Now on his 4th day of fasting, Anakpawis Representative Crispin Beltran, Ka
Bel, says that he is very much prepared to once more face his accusers in court
tomorrow, March 25 as the arraignment for the sedition case against him is
heard at the Metropolitan Trial Court of
Metro Manila Branch 43 in Quezon City at 1:30 pm. He is still demanding the court dismiss all charges against him and
immediately have him released in the interest of justice and truth.

Ka Bel began his fast last Thursday in gratitude to and solidarity with the political detainees from all over the country who began a hunger strike in protest of Ka Bel and Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo’s incarceration. Ka Bel himself was outraged by the  PNP and Arroyo government’s botched Let’s-drag-Satur-off-to-Leyte-in-a-Cessna plot and for the last week his blood pressure has been like a teeter-toter board  going up and down, up and down.

I’ve heard expressions of dismay and worry over Ka Bel and his fasting. Friends and colleagues were worried that given Ka Bel’s current health condition, going on a fast may not have been the best thing.

First off, let me clear myself: I may be his chief of staff, but heck, this wasn’t my idea. It was Ka Bel’s. He wanted to do something to protest what was done to Ka Satur (when they talked on the phone last week Ka Bel said it was all he could do to stop himself from telling Satur to hand the phone to the arresting officer — "para mamura ko siya…" Ka Bel is a very patient man, but his patience has limits. Seeing  a respected colleague being treated like a common criminal was way too much).

Anyways, his doctor at the Philippine Heart Center Dr. Raymundo said that fasting was good for Ka Bel and his hypertension. A few months back Ka Bel began to monitor his diet and cut back his food intake. Instead of having a cup and a half of rice, he reduced it to one cup, and eventually to half cup. Now, well, he’s sticking to Sky Flakes soda crackers and water, or consomme.

Ka Bel is in fighting form. Even his CIDG guards tell me how amazed they are at Ka Bel’s stamina (despite the hypertension, diabetes, lung trouble, etc).

‘Mam, yung ibang mga kasing edad ni Sir naka-wheel chair na, o nakakabit sa respirator. Si Sir, nagpu-push-up pa…’

Actually, Ka Bel’s health only began to slide when he was arrested. The stress of being detained by a corrupt and inhumane government is tremendous.

Anyways, bukas ang arraignment niya.

It has been months since the court
heard his case, and it’s a grievous violation against his rights. As an elected
lawmaker, he has the right to immunity, but the courts have chosen to ignore
this fact. The leadership of the House of Representatives led by Speaker Jose
de Venecia has also done nothing to vouch for Ka Bel and his rights. Despite
all this, Ka Bel remains  in fighting
form, ready and eager to ready to prove that all the charges and testimonies
made against me by the various ‘pakawala’ of the Macapagal-Arroyo government
are out and out lies.
Ka Bel,  74, has been fasting since Wednesday in
protest of his continuing detention and the attacks against fellow progressive
lawmakers, mainly Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo. He also began his fast in
solidarity with and in gratitude to other political detainees all over the
country protesting against his and Ocampo’s incarceration.
It’s yet another testament to how
twisted the judicial system in the country is, the way the courts are still
slow to discern genuine and legitimate cases from purely politically-motivated ones,
cases that in truth should be considered ‘nuisance cases’ and a waste of public
funds. The charges of sedition and rebellion against me are all baseless, and
the results of a malicious and vicious plot to weaken the progressive bloc of
party-lists and their effective campaign of being the voice of the Filipino
people in the congress. Malacanang and the Department of Justice led by Sec.
Raul Gonzalez and well as national security adviser Norberto Gonzales continue
to pursue these charges against Ka Bel  not because he is guilty, but because they are
pikon. They are retaliating in this
underhanded way for all the just and legitimate criticism progressive lawmakers
like Ka Bel and Ka Satur  have made
against them and their policies that attack the Filipino people’s economic,
political and human rights.

    The court has denied Rep. Beltran
’s motion to quash the government’s move to proceed with Criminal Case No.
132943 or the case charging him with sedition. The court has ordered a
full-blown trial. The decision was laid down by Acting Presiding Judge Thelma
de los Santos.

        De los Santos has  ordered  that the sedition case against Ka Bel be
deliberated in a full-blown hearing, denying the motion of Ka Bel’s lawyers
that the case be immediately dismissed on the grounds that Ka Bel’s  arrest on February 25, 2006 was illegal and
that the arresting officers did not have a warrant for his arrest much less
clear-cut charges to back it up. The court also denied the assertion of Atty.
Romeo Capulong, Atty. Amylyn Sato and Atty. Rachel Pastores that the court
erred in holding that the crime of inciting to sedition can be absorbed in the
crime of rebellion despite the clear ruling in People vs. Hernandez and People
vs. Geronimo.

In the meantime, Ka Bel’s  lawyers intend to file a motion for certiorari
on the sedition case. They insist that sedition and rebellion charges
should be heard as one and the same.
They have been petitioning the court that the more serious case of rebellion
should be heard while the sedition charges should be dropped.

I woke up yesterday morning to Kim’s shocked exclamation that Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo was being taken to Leyte.
It was barely 6am, and I had slept a bit late the night before (guilty of watching CSI on DVD), but the news was like a splash of freezing water, fully driving away sleep, jolting me wide awake.
We turned on the telly and there, on GMA 7, was Ka Satur, looking tired and harrassed, but angry and defiant all the same being dragged, pushed and pulled by elements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) into a waiting black van.
I was so angry I started crying. It was impossible to not be angry to see one of the people you respect most in the world being manhandled by the police. But the truth is, what really made me angry the knowledge that if the PNP can do such a thing to an elected legislator, a personality known even in international human rights circles, they can do (and have done and will continue to) worse to Filipinos of much less reknown.
In picketlines, especially in Southern Tagalog, the SWAT and PNP forces even help company security guards and hired thugs attack striking workers with shields and truncheons and teargas.
Seeing Ka Satur being treated like an ordinary criminal was way painful. I would flinch to see Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo treated like that, and that’s Gloria, sinungaling, magnanakaw, mandaraya and mamamatay-tao extraordinaire.

—
Ordinary Filipinos get treated like scum by the Philippine government every single day. They are forced to fend for themselves, raise and take care of their families without receiving the slightest support and assistance from the government. They have to beg and grovel at the public assistance offices of the DSWD, their local congressman, the senate, the PCSO for money to buy dextrose and syringes for their loved ones in the severely-congested public hospitals.
The severe problems of hunger, disease, homelessness and joblessness are violations against the rights of Filipinos, and they remain for the most part unresolved to this day. Those in power refuse to wield their authority to uplift the welfare of the people they promised to serve, thinking that by making a few donations for the construction of a waiting shade, a new school building, heck, even the pavement of a new road they have already done their duty. And these officials act like it was their own money that they used! Gad, the way they expect to be thanked; the way they expect to be venerated.
Congressmen agree to support the more infamous of Malacanang’s priority bills (anti-terrorism,  oil  deregulation, electricity privatization, lateral attrition schemes in government service, expanded value added tax, etc) in exchange for pork barrel, funds they will supposedly use to build public infrastructure in their respective districts. They make it out like they’re being hostaged into voting in favor of Malacanang’s bills because if they don’t, they won’t their SAROs and NCAs, and hence they won’t be able to BUILD anything for their constituents.
It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic — they sacrificed and betrayed the interest of the entire nation just so they can give what their  district constituents supposedly need.
I wonder how congressmen would vote if they didn’t receive pork barrel? Would they be less sheeplike to the whims and demands of Malacanang? Would they be more attentive, receptive to the demands of their constituents who demand lower electricity rates (hence fight electricity privatization and the sale of Napocor’s assets), increased allocations for public schools and hospitals; (and cut funding for foreign debt payments and military expenditures) and more spending for agriculture (instead of supporting massive land conversion and open pit mining)?

All pork barrel funds would instead to be added to the allocations for public health, housing and education.

I wonder if politicians would be so eager to hold public office if they didn’t get any monetary compensation and it was illegal to accept any other financial assistance or support from the private sector? Like, say, they would receive P15,000 tops as monthly salary, and their main government function would be to legislate, attend public hearings and congressional investigations. Just that. Would they be less beholden to business interests and landowners (maliban na lang kung land-owners at malaking negosyante din sila)?

The progressive party-lists Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela Women’s Party have no problems if the pork barrel is scrapped. The progressive mass movement has survived for three decades without it, utang na loob. Kaya nga katawa-tawa sina Norberto Gonzales for insisting that the congressional funds our party-lists get go directly to the CPPA-NPA-NDF.  Do the staff at the office  of Speaker Jose de Venecia when handing out the SAROs and NCAs go to, say, Sierra Madre and get a receipt from Roger Rosal? Has Gonzales any idea how these funds are released by the DBM? There is no release of actual cold cash. Everything’s just signed documents, seals and signatures on paper.
It was only in 2001 when the progressive people’s movement directly participated in the legislative system  by winning big in the  party-lists polls, and when Bayan Muna first came to office, the staff had to do learn everything from scratch, learning one thing at a time, hits and misses galore. Is Gonzales saying that the party-lists  actually coerced the DBM into releasing actual money, in bills in, say, thousand peso denominations?

Anyways, it would be a genuine test of commitment if government officials were not allowed to own more assets than a house and lot and a car while they’re in public office. That they would get only maximum P15,000 monthly, and no other allowance. Kung talagang mahusay sila at malapit sa mamamayang pinaglilingkuran nila, they would be FED by their constituents: uulanin ng manok, baboy, isda, gulay, mangga, kamatis, asukal, etc ang mga bahay nila.

—-
I realize I have pretty naive views when it comes to politics. I don’t care. To me it’s all about fighting for the right of the poor majority (who are also the ones who work their butts off daily to produce freaking everything in society) to live decently and with every opportunity to develop all aspects of their humanity,  to cultivate their better and finer aspirations and instincts, and enjoy their lives with their families free from worries of getting kicked out of their house, having their electricity cut off, starving to death or dropping dead from tuberculosis or pneumonia. Anyone who is against this, work against these efforts, is an enemy.
Bill Gates has this slogan at Microsoft: A personal computer in every home.
Why not?

I’m resolving to plaster my laptop with stickers calling for the release of Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran , and end to the political killings, and a stop to the harassment against progressive party-lists and legislators led by Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo.
I haven’t joined an OP-OD (operasyon pinta, operasyon dikit) since my days in KMU and started work in congress. I suppose I should start learning how to do OP-OD again and start with pasting stickers on every available stickers and to hell with what Comelec Benjamin Abalos and MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando have to say about it.
I feel a little guilty about Ka Raffy these last few days since the warrant for his arrest was released. I’ve been such a brat at work (don’t even ask). Tapos ngayon, shet, he stands to be arrested and it’s…insane. It was only last week when he was asking for help on how to use the fax machine and everyone was ignoring him and telling him to LEARN IT’S JUST A FAX MACHINE FER CRYIN’ OUT LOUD NOT A SPACE SHUTTLE   (and this is one of the guys the PNP and the AFP say ordered the murder of 19  people).
Anyways. Work is bizarre as usual.
If the progressive party-lists are not linked with the CPP-NPA-NDF, then how come they haven’t eschewed and denounced armed struggle.
Ano daw? Kelan ba sinuportahan ng Bayan Muna, Anakpawis at Gabriela ang armadong pakikibaka?! Support for armed struggle is not in any the respective constitutions of our party-lists, and except for a few members of the security team, our supporters, members and leaders do not carry fire-arms or weapons.
At bakit naman kailangang idenounce ang armadong pakikibaka? It’s a social reality. There’s an ongoing civil war; there are Filipinos defending themselves against the abuses of the military and the attacks of the national government against their welfare and rights. Sino naman ang mga progressive party-lists para tuligsain sila? Armas laban sa armas, pero ang magtatakda ng kung sino ang tama at mali ay kung nakanino ang suporta ng masa at para saan ginagamit ang armas. Para ba magtanggol sa mga inaapi, o protektahan ang mga nang-aapi.
It is so politically immature that the Philippine government would insist that the progressive party-lists categorically state they are against armed struggle. Ang pagsuporta ba ay nangangahulugan ng aktwal na paglahok? Intellectually, can’t one acknowledge the existence of an armed revolutionary movement that continues to fight the government because of its failure to do good and bring peace and justice to the country?
Kung galit ang AFP at ang gobyerno ni Gloria sa CPP-NPA-NDF, then they go do battle with the CPP-NPA-NDF and not attack the progressive party-lists and their civilian members and leaders. Lahat ng pinaslang na aktibista at masa, walang armas na dala nang sila’y patayin. Sa pagkakaalam ko, ang mga NPA ay may mga armas kaya nga sila tinatawag na sundalo ng rebolusyon.
Ang mga sundalo naman ng gobyerno, mga kampon ng kadiliman at kasamaan.
—-
Lieutenant colonel and AFP spokesperson Bartolome Bacarro says that the latest victim of extra-judicial killings Siche Bustamante-Gandinao, 56, a Bayan Muna member in Misamis Oriental was killed by the NPA.
Right. Gandinao testified during UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston’s investigations into the killings last month and said in her testimony that the AFP was behind the murder of her father-in-law Dalmacio ‘Tatay Daki’ Gadinao. Now the NPA’s have killed her?!
I have noticed that I have resorted to name-calling in my blog in my last few entries instead of laying down arguments and explanations. Pero kasi anim na taon na ang mga pagpaslang na ito sa mga aktibista. Hindi pa ba sapat ang mga nauna nang paliwanag? Hindi pa ba sapat ang dumanak na dugo ng mga sibilyang walang kasalanang kundi ang magsalita laban sa pang-aabuso at kriminalidad ng gobyerno?
Kulang pa ba ang mga patunay na tanging ang militar at ang militar lamang ang may motibo na pumatay sa mga hindi sa kanila takot at umaatras?

This afternoon I spent two hours talking to Ka Bel in his hospital room at the Philippine Heart Center. It is simply beyond me how the government could accuse him of plotting with the military. It’s simply unfathomable. My brain shuts down trying to figure out the logic behind the accusation.
One year and 16 days have passed  since Ka Bel  was  arrested. 
—–

I have to get this out or my chest will implode.
It was all I could do to keep from crying when I went to the Commission on Elections office in the Palacio del Governadorcillo to witness the leaders of Anakpawis Party-list file its official list of nominees.
Ka Bel was allowed by the Makati Regional Trial Court to leave the confines of his detention hospital room in the Philippine Heart Center from 9:00-11:00am today so he coud lead the filing.
This morning ka Bel’s blood pressure shot up, and he did look a little pale.
He looked so dour and serious in this picture uploaded in the Abs-cbn website; so unlike the way he really is, an upbeat, kind and cheerful man who has a most brilliant smile.
Ka Bel was surrounded by AFP and PNP and CIDG guards (ang OA, sobra), and it was very hard to get close to him. A glass window separated us, and the media were practically hurting each other to get good shots.
I wanted Ka Bel to smile, so I jumped up and started waving like a maniac. Ka Bel saw me and smiled and smiled and smiled, and the photographers had a field day taking much better pictures. He waved at me, raised his left fist in salute, and what first looked like such a serious and even depressing situation was made a little more cheerful.
Syempre naiiyak na ytalaga ako ngayon. Aaagh.
I hate this government with all my heart. It breaks my heart every single day because of what it does and continues to do against the Filipino people, against comrades and friends I care about most. Aarestuhin sina Ka Satur, Ka Raffy. Isang taon mahigit nang nakakulong si Ka Bel. Laksa na ang pinaslang at araw-araw lumalaki ang bilang. Ilap pa rin ang katarungan, at presidente pa rin ang huwad na pangulo.
Leche.
Ka Ofel and Ka Osang brought Trixie with them, the latest addition to the Beltran clan. Trixie is the daughter of Ka Ofel’s second child. Trixie was conceived three months after his grandfather was arrested, and now she’s  a month old and Ka Bel has never seen her. Babies are not allowed inside hospitals.
Before Ka Bel was whisked off by the police into the PHC ambulance, Ka Osang handed Trixie to him. She looked into his smiling, emotional face, lifted her small hand and touched his  face that had seen 74 summers, and just stared.  Ka Bel would’ve cried if it wasn’t such a public first meeting. His second great-grandchild.

I’ve been told that I should move my blog to Blogger. I refuse. If I move it, I’d probably spend more time writing my blogs than writing other more important things. Lisa Ito-Tapang admitted that sometimes she spends more than two hours just fixing the visuals on her own blog. She’s a visual artists besides being a writer, so I guess that’s understandable. Pero ako? I’d probably spend half a day fixing and primping my blogsite. Maraming hindi nakakaalam, pero frustrated interior designer ako. When I was finalizing my application form for the UPCAT oh heck a heckuva long time ago, I was tempted to pick interior design as my first choice.
Anyways, my blog stays on Friendster, so there. I just blog for fun, anyways. Or to relieve stress. Hmmm, mas yung huli.
—
The CIDG raids Ka Satur and Ma’am Bobbie Malay’s house. Whooie. Ang OA! What the hell were they thinking? Malamang they weren’t thinking. Why would Ka Satur stay at home? Did they think he hid himself in one of the kitchen cupboards? Ma’am Bobbie (She was teacher in three subjects back in college) was quoted as saying to a reporter from a foreign press wire that the only place the CIDG didn’t look was under her skirt.
The CIDG idiots did not have a proper and legal warrant! What a bunch of morons! All they showed Ma’am Bobbie was a photocopied warrant and IT HAD THE FREAKING WRONG ADDRESS!
My dog Poofy could probably do a better job preparing a warrant. Not that she’d ever join the CIDG or the PNP. She’s way too smart a dog to do that.
I am convinced that that the CIDG and the PNP are stuffed to the rafters with idiots. But therein lies the rub because idiots in positions of power and authority are dangerous.
The moronic display of authority the CIDG elements showed during yesterday’s raid is similar to what the CIDG also did to Ka Bel February last year when PD1017 was enforced.

Ka Bel was on his way back to Manila from Bulacan when the vehicle he was
in was flagged and surrounded by three black vans loaded by CIDG elements.

He said that the CIDG dopes who arrested him initially said
that they were only ‘inviting’ him to headquarters. They did not present a
warrant. They did not say that he was suspected of any crime, but only cited
the 25-year old rebellion charges against Ka Bel that had already been
dismissed long before.

Ka Bel would’ve declined the ‘invitation’ but he did not want to endanger his driver (his youngest son Noi) and security staff, not to mention his wife Ka Osang and their granddaughter Ada who were with him at time. Armado ang mga
CIDG. Ka Noi said that at the time he was tempted to laugh despite the tense
situation because the CIDG agents and how they stopped Ka Bel’s vehicle all
looked like a stupid cross between the A-Team and some strictly B-rated Pinoy
police movie.

Anyways, it was an illegal arrest. Ka Bel’s rights were
bypassed and violated, and he was directly taken to Camp Crame.
When the arresting officers realized their serious legal error in arresting
him with an old and very much lapsed
warrant, that’s when the Department of Justice (DOJ) led by Sec. Raul Gonzalez
machinated to have inciting to sedition and rebellion charges formally filed
against Ka Bel. . Everything was in violation of the law.

Now we have the CIDG raiding the ka Satur’s house and and harassing his wife Bobbie. It was an
illegal search, just like the fraudulent charges being laid against Satur and
the other lawmakers of Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela Women’s Party. This
government has the infamous habit of breaking its own rules and laws. These
series of attacks and political harassment and repression are the brainchild of
the likes of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, AFP chief of staff
Hermogenes Esperon and national defense secretary Hermogenes Ebdane. They are
lashing out in retaliation against the
beating they received at the hands of the international community and UN
Special rapporteur for extra-judicial killings Philip Alston.

Care to make a bet, anyone? There’s the very strong possibility that if Ka Satur and the others
being charged with the same pekeng krimen submitted themselves to arrest, they will also be denied due process, and false testimonies and
documents and what have you will be piled against them. Barumbado ang
gobyernong ito. It does not hesitate to twist its own rules and laws just so it
gets its way. Having miserably failed at convincing the Filipino people to turn
against us and dropping their support for our party-lists, the government
ruthlessly executed hundreds of our members and leaders, raided communities
where have a large base of supporters, and now manufacturing criminal charges
against the progressive lawmakers.

—

Breaking news - the PNP to ask Interpol for help in finding the ‘communist leaders’ in their arrest list.
Arrrrgh! They didn’t even think of asking the International Crime Police Organization for assistance to help solve the more than 830 extra-judicial killings. Ngayon, to track down Ka Satur et al, tatawag sila sa Interpol?!!!
(But since the collective IQ in the entire leadership of the PNP wouldn’t hit the three digit mark, baka yung indie rock band na Interpol ang tawagan nila.

Sen. Enrile calls Filipino activists who brought the issue of the killings to the US Congress ‘Modern Day Makapili.’

Ano daw? Enrile has become senile. Shet. I can’t believe that when I was younger, back in grade school, Enrile was my idol. My dad worked as speech writer and political analyst for the DND (walang mamato ng kamatis…) and I had actual pictures of the man pasted in my notebook (e gwapo naman talaga siya when he was younger. EDSA People Power Days).

Now he makes me want to scream and tear my hair out.

Or what remains of his.

The Philippine National Police (and quite possibly the Armed Forces of the Philippines) have officially began a manhunt against Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo. The ^%$#&#$! government is citing  23-year old murder charges as basis for the the warrant.
Aaargh! Wala na talagang pag-asa ang gobyernong ito! Si Ka Satur, aarestuhin na rin?! Aaaargh!
Friends living abroad email me — "What the hell is going on back there?!"
I answer - "My worst nightmare unfolding itself - a repeat of the dark and evil days of the Marcos dictatorship."
Gloria Arroyo refuses to answer questions that have to do with politics. She says she will only respond to queries on the economy.
What, all questions about politics will now be answered by the likes of AFP chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon and DND secretary Hermogenes Ebdane?  Who’s really running the country now?
The charges against Ka Satur are so ridiculous. It’s like, well, like me being arrested for pulling up grass in Luneta Park 28 years ago. When the Marcos dictatorship fell, individuals like Satur Ocampo were lauded for having fought against the dictator and persevering despite having been incarcerated for more than five years in succession.
Now, because the Philippines has a Marcos clone for a president, the horror has started again (not that it ever really ended for the Filipino people, especially for the victims, survivors and family of the victims of the tortures, the enforced disappearances, the campaign of brutality unleashed by the Metrocom and the AFP.

It’s highly ironic that
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales is setting his sights on a position
in congress even as progressive
lawmakers led by Ka Satur are being threatened
with arrest.

Si Gonzales ang klase ng
kongresistang ipapalit sa mga katulad naman ni Rep. Ocampo?!

According to reports,
Gonzales is set to resign from his post within the month to seek a
congressional seat in the second district of Bataan in the May polls. He is the
chairman of the Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas, a member of the
administration coalition.

It’s an harsh insult against
Filipinos that it’s the likes of Norberto Gonzales that the government wants to
put in Congress. The Macapagal-Arroyo government is bending, twisting and
breaking the law to discredit, disenfranchise and disqualify progressive and
genuinely pro-poor and pro-people party-lists like Anakpawis, Bayan Muna and
Gabriela Women’s Party, and criminalize their top leaders. To what ends? To put
the likes of war-mongerer, human rights violator Norberto Gonzales.

PhilippinesThe series of attacks and
harassment campaign against the progressive partylists where the brainchild of
the Inter-Agency Legal Action Group formed on the strength of Pres. Arroyo’s
Executive Order 493. The IALAG was tasked to study the possible cases to be
filed against supposed enemies of state. The group in consisted of the
Department of Justice, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The IALAG is led by Norberto Gonzales. He will most assuredly cheat and
lie himself to congress with the help of the AFP and the PNP who are being
utilized in a nationwide harassment campaign and killing spree against the
progressive party-lists and its members.

What are the likes of senator Joker Arroyo thinking and doing about this? How can he stand to be a candidate of the administration, to work with the same executive who cheated her way to victory, and honors serial killers and human rights violators like Jovito Palparan?
Dahil hindi magawang durugin ang mga progresibong party-list ng Bayan Muna, Anakpawis at Gabriela Women’s Party sa pamamagitan ng  prinsipyadong debate at  ligal na mga panungkulan, ginagamitan sila ng dahas at iba-ibang  porma ng kawalanghiyaan gaya ng pang-ungkat ng mga nabulok nang kaso laban sa kanilang mga pamunuan.
I feel so sick, I want to throw up…on top of Macapagal-Arroyo’s head.
—-
This helped me feel better - Government employees heckle Macapagal-Arroyo during Women’s Day rites in Pasay. Ahahahahahahahaha!
What I would’ve given to have been there to hear the women of Pasay laugh and ridicule the Pekeng Pangulo. Priceless. What an idiot she is. She’d better be careful the next time she tries to ask crowds of Filipinos whether or not they’ve benefited the slightest from her policies and programs.
GMA: "Tumaas ba sahod ninyo?
Audience: "Hindeeeeeeeh!"
GMA: "Nagmura ba ang mga bilihin?"
Audience: "Hindeeeeeeh!"
GMA: "Umayos ba ang mga kabuhayan at kabahayan ninyo?"
Audience: "Ang kulit mo, sinabi nang hindeeeeeh!"
GMA: "Gumanda ba ang buhay ninyo nang maging presidente ako?"
Audience: "Hilo ba ka?!"

Kung pwede lang matunaw at mamatay dahil na natatanggap na pandaraot, matagal nang tapos ang career ni Gloria.
—-

The sun shone bright and relentless in the afternoon sky.
Unseen, the ten-year old boy quietly climbed the tree with a grace that belied
his young age. He was small, but compactly built, and as he grappled with the
branches to hoist himself up the tree and then onto the roof of the school
building next to it, his callused palms felt nothing of the hard bark that
cracked and splintered and cracked under his grip.

Below him, the Japanese soldiers were barking orders. The
boy didn’t understand the words themselves, but seeing the soldiers point at
the Filipino prisoners with samurai swords, the boy felt that the words were
bringing death.

The boy recognized some of the Filipinos. They were his
neighbors, hard-working folk who planted the fields close to where he and his
family lived. They were men who began their toil very early in the morning and
only came home when the moon was already fully in the sky. Now they were
digging holes in the ground with rusty spades and makeshift trowels.

"What could they be digging for?’, the boy asked himself.
‘There isn’t any gold there…"

The soil in the school yard was hard and stony, but with
jabbing motions, the soldiers continued to exhort their prisoners to dig
faster, deeper.

Soon the holes seemed deep enough to satisfy the soldiers.
They signaled to the exhausted and sweaty diggers to drop their implements. The
soldiers then proceeded to shove the men, pushing and kicking at them. They
pointed at the holes.

The boy on the roof felt a creeping horror: he realized what
was happening. The Japanese soldiers wanted the Filipinos to bury themselves in
the hole. They were digging their own graves.

It was all he could do to keep from falling. He clung to the
roof, his body warmed by more than just the afternoon sun. His eyes started to
water, and not because of the sunlight reflecting on the roof’s steel surface
burning his irises with white glare.

The Filipinos, five of them, were buried up to their chests.
They began to cry and weep, remembering
their wives and children. Their heads were bowed, their tears falling on the
hard soil. The air suddenly began to feel thick and viscous, and everything
began to move in seeming slow motion.

The soldier raised his samurai, then brought it down on
the neck of the Filipino at his feet. The sword made a downward arc,
cutting through the air swiftly, and then, cleanly, through bone and sinew.

 The boy on the roof saw how blood spurted like a miniature
fountain. A sudden vertical stream that hit the air at five feet, and then
descended, hitting the dust at the soldier’s feet.

A severed head lay close, its eyes tightly closed; and its
lips half-open. From a distance, a rooster crowed, breaking the sudden silence.

The boy on the roof laid his cheek on the roof’s hot metal.
He felt cold. It would be another hour before he would be able to fully move,
climb down, and walk slowly home.

—–
This is the first page of something I’m working on. I hope to finish it by the second week of April, and I’m practically getting an ulcer worrying that I’m not good enough to finish it (or at least make a passable first draft). Wish me luck.

Wo-hoh! Economic progress is now a reality. I need my medication, because I can’t seem to feel or see what this progress the government is talking about. Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently unveiled her new vision, and she’s calling it ‘8 in 08′. Actually, she should call it  ‘0
in 08. She’s merely recycling her old economic blueprint and formula. In her agenda,
Arroyo cited job creation, cost of living improvement, a strong peso,
increasing investments, pro-poor education, health care/housing/ending hunger,
a green Philippines and a strong anti-terror campaign; but these are the very issues  — welfare and livelihood in particular- that she has  failed to address and eradicate. Instead of an anti-terror campaign, she should be cracking the whip against the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for the massive human rights violations; but hey, she’s as guilty as they are, so…

Eight in 08. New name, same old policies that will not result in any
genuine improvement in the lives of ordinary Filipinos.  Arroyo and her
spin doctors have come up with admittedly catchy-sounding slogan for the
government’s economic program, but there’s nothing new about it. These
projections are being made in self-defense, against the assertions of the
Genuine Opposition and other critics
that the basic sectors have benefited nothing government programs. Same old
promises, and given the Arroyo government’s track-record of economic and fiscal
failure, the results will be the same: 0
by 08.

Macapagal-Arroyo is high on projection but very poor on the
follow-through. It’s impossible to achieve genuine economic progress using her
blueprint and formula because they completely ignore what’s necessary for the
Philippine’s economic development: the creation of strong and independent basic
industries, and genuine agrarian reform. Nowhere in her economic program is the
land distribution to farmers mentioned; and the country remains highly
dependent on exports.  In
nominal terms, the country has had a 211% increase from debt service levels in 2001. under Arroyo, the
country has suffered and continues to suffer the worst ever fiscal crisis. Public debt
payments are on an all-time high, and the country is in the deepest debt hole
in all of its history.

Sonny Africa of IBON Foundation wrote a very good feature on
what lies ahead for the economy given how the government’s budget spending and
allocation patterns.Over-all, he cited the failure of the government to utilize collected taxes to strengthen
social services for the Filipinos and to generate secure and sustained
employment.

  In 2006, because of the
implementation of the reformed value-added tax (RVAT), the government
amassed P978.7 billion in tax and
non-tax revenues, the amount going beyond the set target. , readily surpassing
the target. The RVAT which raised the VAT rate from 10% to 12%, allowed the temporary hike in corporate income tax rates from 32% to 35%.
VAT exemptions on oil and electricity were also removed.

Despite the increase in tax revenues however, government
implemented cut-backs on the budget allocations for social services. The provisions for social services were already
measly to begin with; but instead of pumping funds into them using the
collected taxes, allocations were skimmed. Real public spending on education fell to P1,331 per Filipino in the
recently-approved 2007 budget. In 2002, the highest allocation for education
was pegged at P1,503 in 2002. Health
spending was leveled to a sickly P111.78 per Filipino.

Decreasing allocations for the very same services that Macapagal-Arroyo is citing
for improvement in “8 for 08” has been the norm under her administration. Pres.
Arroyo claims to prioritize education, but Department of Education records
point out the lack of 20,517 teachers
(assuming a ratio of 45 students to one teacher), 45,775 classrooms (assuming
45 students to a classroom), 3.2 million seats and 67 million textbooks during
the previous school year 2006-07.

Filipinos are also ill-equipped to deal with the high costs
of health services. “The Arroyo government has also reduced total health expenditures Records show
that the national and local government’s
share in total health expenditure was 40.6% in 2000. By 2004 the figure dropped
to 30.3%. The continued privatization of
health and education services will forever keep them out of the reach and
access of ordinary Filipinos.

Taxes still
went into payments to creditors as well
as to assure foreign investors. Only last year, P854.4 billion went to total
public debt service. This means that every Filipino was forced to shoulder P9,935 each in contribution to the payments.
The amount for total public dept payments is seven times combined spending on
education and health.

—–

The AFP scores Prof. Jose Ma. Sison for dancing  with actress Ara Mina. She didn’t even know who the heck he was, tapos sasabihin that the party was organized by the Communist Party of the Philippines. Andun din pala yung mga officials ng Philippine embassy (o consulate, whichever).Yeah, well, Gloria Arroyo flatters and makes promises to US President/war criminal/international human rights violator/idiot George W. Bush. She’d probably sing him lullabies to sleep if she could.

—-

I like it when I am able to share things I’m really interested in with my friends. I seldom see them these days what with everyone being so easy with the elections, etc.

The other day Walkie dropped by (to borrow DVDS of SmallVille, hahaha!) and I let her listen to a few tracks from Avenue Q and Wicked, and she completely flipped. Walkie herself has an amazing voice, and in another life she could have given the likes of Lea Salonga a run for her Tony award. It was fun to listen to Broadway musical songs with her because, well, I could imagine her singing some of the songs and it would all sound so beautiful.

Walkie is also a voracious reader. When I think of her reading habits, the image is of a literal bookworm — eating and consuming pages and pages of high quality fiction. She reads anything and everything, and she gets affected by the things she reads. Upon finishing this book about the feudal traditions of olden China like foot-binding, etc, she said it felt like someone sat on her chest and the weight was crushing her. How’s that for imagery.

Gossiping with Walkie is also fun because it’s almost like we’re on tv and we’re a pair of old ladies sipping tea while being upset over the lives of others. In truth, we hate talking about other people’s lives because there’s so much sadness and we both get upset because there’s nothing we can do to help (imagine us talking about Kris Aquino….)

—

Am glad about the new doughnut brands (no, doesn’t include Krispy Kreme. Expensive hype. It’s just like Go nuts Donuts, anyway) like Happy Haus, Hot Loops, and this Australian brand which for the life of me I can’t remember right now. They’re very good, and best of all, they’re cheap.

Top 5 favorite doughnut flavors

1. Blackraspberry of Dunkin Donuts

2. Chocolate Butternut of Mr. Donut

3.Chocolate Butternut of Dunkin Donuts

4.Yema of Go Nuts Doughnuts

5. Black forest of Hot Loops.

 Maple-Glazed Sour Cream Doughnuts with Sugared-Walnut
Streusel, Pumpkin Doughnuts with Powdered
Sugar Glaze and Spiced Sugar Doughnut Holes Raised Cappuccino Doughnuts with Espresso Cream Filling na lahat wala dito sa Pilipinas!!!

Am off! Suddenly hungry with all this doughnut talk.