SILANG IILA’Y IISA ANG MUKHA
Alexander Martin Remollino

Sa masang tagasuporta ng dating Pangulong Joseph “Erap” Estrada

========

“I believe I can best continue to repay our people the blessings that God has so graciously given me by supporting from hereon the programs of Mrs. Arroyo that are intended to attack generational poverty and hunger.”

–- Joseph “Erap” Estrada, 26 Oktubre 2007, matapos mapalaya sa bisa ng executive clemency

I
Kaytagal ninyong sinubaybayan ang pelikulang-seryeng iyon:
ang walang-katapusang duruan
ng isang gustong makalaya’t isang ayaw makulong.
Kaytagal na kayo’y nakingitngit, nakidalamhati
sa tauhang nakakulong
sapagkat sa tabing ng inyong mga panaginip,
siya na sana ang maghuhudyat ng inyong itinakdang araw –-
dangan nga lamang at inagaw ng iilan sa kanya,
wika ninyo,
ang luklukang inyong sa kanya’y pinaghatiran.

Sa wakas ng palabas,
umugong at dumagundong ang inyong mga hiyaw
nang ang bida’y humarap sa inyo
na wala nang posas ang mga galanggalangan –-

at aywan kung rumehistrong malinaw sa tabing
ang nabunyag na katotohanang
’sindilim ng bulwagan kung patay ang mga ilaw:
na yaong bidang kaylaong ipinagrosaryo’t ipinag-orasyon
at kontrabidang kaylaong gustong ipakulam

ay iisa lamang pala ang tunay na mukha.

II
At dito’y walang dapat ikapanlaki ng mga mata
sapagkat sa pelikula ng ating kasaysayan,
tayong mamamayan ay lagi nang mga hamak na ekstra
at may iilan lamang na bida’t kontrabida
na iisa ang hilatsa ng mga mukha.
At magpapatuloy ang nakapahaba nang palabas na ito
hanggang tayong mamamaya’y hindi nakapagpapasya
na maging direktor ng sariling kapalaran.

THE WRIT OF AMPARO AND AO 197

As NUPL secretary-general and CODAL spokesperson Neri Javier Colmenares put it in an Oct. 18 forum at UP, the writ of amparo is a legal remedy that “could pierce the veil of impunity” shrouding human rights violators in the Philippines. Its effectivity as a legal recourse, however, faces a challenge from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s recent issuance of AO 197.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 37, October 21-27, 2007

As National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) secretary-general and Counsels for the Defense of Liberties (CODAL) spokesperson Neri Javier Colmenares put it in an Oct. 17 forum at the University of the Philippines (UP), the writ of amparo is a legal remedy that “could pierce the veil of impunity” shrouding the perpetrators of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines.

Its effectivity as a legal recourse, however, faces a challenge from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s recent issuance of Administrative Order No. 197. The said administrative order, which was implemented on the same day that the Rule on the Writ of Amparo was approved, provides among other things that:

“1. The Department of National Defense (DND) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) shall work closely with Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC) subcommittee on killings and disappearances for speedy action on cases and effective reforms to avoid abuses with regular reports to the Commander-in-Chief through the Executive Secretary as PHRC chair, and in consultation with the Court administrator, invited as PHRC subcommittee observer.

“2. The DND/AFP (Department of National Defense/Armed Forces of the Philippines) shall draft legislation in consultation with the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office and Congress allies for safeguards against disclosure of military secrets and undue interference in military operations inimical to national security…”

A.M. No. 07-9-12-SC, approved by the Supreme Court on Sept. 25 and set to take effect on Oct. 24, provides that the writ of amparo shall cover threats or actual cases of “extralegal killings” and enforced disappearances.

Its reach extends beyond that of the writs of habeas corpus and habeas data, as it expressly disallows “general denials” of allegations in petitions for the writ.

The writ of habeas corpus requires the military to physically produce missing persons suspected to be in its custody. The writ of habeas data, meanwhile, requires that the military produce evidence or items containing evidence on the whereabouts of missing persons believed to be in its custody.

In habeas corpus or habeas data petitions, the courts have no power against the military’s denials of allegations.

Amparo petitioners and interim reliefs

Under the Rule of the Writ of Amparo, aggrieved parties or qualified persons may file petitions for the writ in the following order: any member of the immediate family, namely: the spouse, children and parents of the aggrieved party; any ascendant, descendant or collateral relative of the aggrieved party within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity, in default of members of the immediate family; or any concerned citizen, organization, association or institution, if there is no known member of the immediate family or relative of the aggrieved party.

The Rule provides that both public officials or employees and private persons may be named as respondents to petitions for the writ of amparo.

Under the Rule on the Writ of Amparo, the following interim reliefs are available to petitioners: temporary protection order, inspection order, production order, and witness protection order.

The temporary protection requires that the petitioner or aggrieved party or any member of the immediate family be extended protection by a government agency or any accredited person or private institution capable of ensuring their safety. The protection may be extended to the officers involved if the petitioner is an organization.

The Supreme Court is to accredit the persons or institutions that would extend temporary protection to the petitioners, aggrieved parties, or members of the immediate family.

The inspection order requires that persons in possession of any designated land or other property allow entry “for the purpose of inspecting, measuring, surveying, or photographing the property or any relevant object or operation thereon.”

The production order requires that persons in possession, custody or control of designated “documents, papers, books, accounts, letters, photographs, objects or tangible things, or objects in digitized or electronic form, which constitute or contain evidence relevant to the petition” to produce these and allow their inspection.

A.M. No. 07-9-12-SC provides that if either the inspection order or the production order is opposed on grounds of “national security or of the privileged nature of the information,” the court, judge or justices issuing the writ shall conduct hearings on the merits of the opposition.

Meanwhile, under the witness protection order, witnesses are to be referred to the Department of Justice (DoJ) for admission to the Witness Protection Program provided for by Republic Act No. 6981.

AO 197 and impunity

The writ of amparo faces a challenge to its effectivity as a legal recourse for victims of “extralegal killings” or enforced disappearances and their relatives with Arroyo’s issuance of AO 197 last Sept. 25.

As Colmenares told reporters who interviewed him on the sidelines of the Oct. 17 forum at UP, there is something problematic in AO 197’s requirement that matters involving killings and disappearances be reported by the DND/AFP to the Commander-in-Chief.

“It paves the way for military officers summoned by the courts (on issues regarding killings and disappearances) to claim executive privilege,” Colmenares said. “The military officer can just say, ‘Well, I cannot answer the question because that forms part of my report to the President, and since it’s part of the report it’s already covered by executive privilege.’ So all investigations, all suspicions, all updates, leads are to be reported to the Commander-in-Chief. That may be interpreted as covered by executive privilege. So that will not only defeat the writ of amparo, but that will also undermine the judicial power of the Supreme Court.”

He also sees a problem in AO 197’s instruction for the drafting of legislation to protect military secrets.

“(With that) how can the judge now issue inspection orders?” Colmenares said.

Any legislation to protect military secrets pursuant to AO 197 may also include ways to get around production orders. The items which constitute or contain evidence relevant to petitions for the writ of amparo may also be classified as part of “military secrets” to be protected.

“Whatever openings may have been created (by the writ of amparo) in fighting impunity may close again,” Colmenares said. Bulatlat

FRANCIS VER AND THE PULIDO IMPEACH RAP

The existence of lawyer Francis Ver was practically unknown until last Oct. 9, when Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran delivered a privilege speech at the House of Representatives accusing him of having offered a P2-million bribe three days before in exchange for supporting what was described as a “fake impeachment complaint” against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 6, October 14-20, 2007

The existence of lawyer Francis Ver was practically unknown until last Oct. 9, when Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) Rep. Crispin Beltran delivered a privilege speech at the House of Representatives accusing him of having offered a P2-million bribe three days before in exchange for supporting what was described as a “fake impeachment complaint” against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Beltran’s disclosure has not only brought public attention to Ver; it has also uncovered what appears to be a rift within the administration coalition in the House of Representatives – not only between Arroyo’s party, Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi or Partner of the Free Filipino), and House Speaker Jose de Venecia’s party, Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) –- but also within Kampi itself.

Filed Oct. 5 by Roel Pulido, who was until last September known as the lawyer of the dissident soldiers who have come to be called the Magdalo Group, the impeachment complaint cites Arroyo for betrayal of public trust in relation to the National Broadband Network (NBN) scam.

The NBN project is a $329-million contract that aims to connect government agencies throughout the Philippines through the Internet.

The deal was signed in Boao, China on April 21 – when the government was not allowed to sign contracts because of the then-upcoming senatorial and local elections. It has become controversial for allegedly being overpriced and for supposedly having been signed without going through the proper bidding process.

Jose de Venecia III, son of House Speaker Jose de Venecia and co-founder of Amsterdam Holdings, Inc. which is one of the losing bidders in the NBN deal, has accused former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos of offering him $10 million in exchange for backing out of the NBN deal –- an accusation the former Comelec chief has denied.

In a privilege speech on Aug. 29, Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla said it was Abalos who brokered the deal between the Philippine government and ZTE Corp. Padilla also said Abalos was seen playing golf with ZTE officials in Manila and Shenzen. He also accused Abalos of receiving money and women in exchange for brokering the NBN deal.

In his three-page complaint, of which Bulatlat received a copy courtesy of Beltran’s office, Pulido said:

“During her incumbency as President of the Republic, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications, Sec. Leandro Mendoza, on April 21, 2007 entered into an agreement with the ZTE for the latter to provide equipments, construct and install the same for the National Broadband Network Project under terms and conditions apparently disadvantageous to the Filipino people.

“It appears that entering into such contract was actually dictated by the illegal and corrupt machinations undertaken by high government officials, including but not limited to Chairman Benjamin Abalos of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. and the Speaker’s son, Jose de Venecia III. In fact, in an affidavit executed by Jose de Venecia III, he admits that a breakfast meeting was organized by House Speaker Jose de Venecia to allow the two proponents of the National Broadband Network Project, ZTE and AHI, to consolidate their proposals and corner the broadband project...

“That these corrupt and illegal negotiations were being undertaken was not unknown to the Respondent. In fact, in his testimony before the Senate, Jose de Venecia III claimed under oath that his father, House Speaker Jose de Venecia told him that the Respondent President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr., and Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos discussed the respective proposals of AHI and ZTE during a golf game in China.

“Worse, Sec. Romulo Neri, in his Sept. 26, 2007 testimony before the Senate, admitted under oath that he was offered a P200-million bribe by Comelec Chairman Abalos, and that he reported the matter to the Respondent President. Despite being told of the bribe offer, the Respondent did nothing.”

His complaint was endorsed by Laguna Rep. Edgar San Luis –- who is identified with the administration coalition.

Bribery allegations

On Oct. 8, Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez –- who ran under the Genuine Opposition in last May’s senatorial and local elections -– hinted in a TV interview that an “ally of Malacañang” had approached and asked him a few days back to endorse an impeachment complaint against Arroyo. “Since I know him to be from Malacañang, I immediately got the impression that this is a ploy to prevent a more substantive complaint,” Rodriguez told ANC.

Under House rules, only one complaint can be initiated against any single impeachable official in a single year.

The next day, Beltran stunned the public with his privilege speech in which he said that Ver –- then Kampi’s deputy secretary-general -– had approached him twice on Oct. 5, offering a bribe in exchange for endorsing an impeachment complaint against Arroyo. This, Beltran said, was a few hours before Pulido filed his complaint.

“For all we know, this impeachment complaint could be a sinister plot concocted by Malacañang to save President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from a substantial, just and genuine impeachment complaint,” Beltran said.

Beltran’s allegation of a bribery attempt by Ver has triggered a string of denials, accusations and counter-accusations.

Ver has denied offering bribes to Beltran, Rodriguez, and Fernandez –- although he admitted talking to them. Malacañang has denied having anything to do with Pulido.

Pulido has denied alleged links with Ver and Malacañang. A former lawyer of the Magdalo Group, he is reportedly working in the staff of Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan, who was implicated in the “Oakwood Mutiny” of 2003 as well as last year’s alleged “Left-Right conspiracy” to topple the Arroyo regime.

A few months before last May’s elections, Honasan –- who is identified with the opposition –- was reported to have gone into negotiations with Malacañang in relation to the rebellion charges against him. He ran as an independent senatorial candidate and won in last May’s elections.

Meanwhile, Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia –- who is a Kampi member –- has pointed to Kampi chairman and Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno as the mastermind of the impeachment complaint. Puno has denied Garcia’s accusation.

Puno has subsequently declared that Ver had been fired as Kampi deputy secretary-general.

On Oct. 11, Malacañang called House members aligned with Kampi and Lakas-CMD to a breakfast meeting. No less than De Venecia admitted that the “stability of the administration coalition” in the House of Representatives was discussed in the meeting, although he denied reports that Malacañang was conducting a loyalty check. But after the meeting, De Venecia inhibited himself from the referral of the impeachment complaint and gave the go signal to the Deputy Speaker to refer it to the justice committee which would start the process of killing the “weak” impeachment complaint.

Ver

Who is this Francis Ver, whose alleged bribery attempts on a number of opposition congressmen has provoked finger-pointing left and right?

A relative of Gen. Fabian Ver, a distant cousin of the deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos who served as Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff during Martial Law, Francis Ver graduated from the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law in 1981. He was supposed to have graduated the year before, but had been turned back for a year.

According to Puno, Ver worked for a long time as a lawyer at the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). Puno said Ver resigned from DILG in the late 1990s. “I don’t know where he went after that,” Puno told reporters in an Oct. 9 press briefing.

Rodriguez said he knew Ver as the chief of staff of one of the high government officials during the administration of ousted President Joseph Estrada (1998-2001).

During the 12th Congress (2001-2004), Ver served as a congressional staff member for then Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez, who was for a long time an Estrada ally.

In 2004, Puno -– who was then already with Kampi – was elected as representative of Antipolo City, a post to which he had also been elected during Estrada’s presidency.

Puno was allied with Estrada during the latter’s presidency. He disappeared from the limelight following Estrada’s ouster through a popular uprising in 2001 –- but resurfaced three years later as a representative of Antipolo City under the banner of Kampi.

Ver, he says, volunteered to join his staff when he was elected Antipolo City representative in 2004, and he decided to take the man in as consultant.

“In Kampi, he was designated as one of the deputy secretary-generals,” Puno also said. Puno said Ver served as the liaison between Kampi and Lakas-CMD during the run-up to the May 2007 elections.

Less than five months after the May 2007 elections, Ver was accused of bribing a number of opposition congressmen to support what has been described as a “fake impeachment complaint” against Arroyo. Bulatlat

IN THESE TIMES THAT TEST US
Alexander Martin Remollino

It is tempting quite to be thankful for this day’s dawning,
even as we should not be so, by any means.

For these times, which test the mettle of men and women,
afford us this unusually rare opportunity
to see –- in all their uncovered ignominy –-
the sunshine patriots and the summer soldiers among us:
they who, like the weeds,
would kiss the soil at the slightest huff of the wind.
It is not difficult in times like these
to recognize the genuine warriors –-
who would stand proud amidst the fiercest storms,
like the narra and the molave,
and refuse to settle for anything less
than the most glorious of triumphs.

SISON: ACTIONS VS NDFP PANELISTS COULD DESTROY PEACE TALKS

Even as he is still elated over his latest victory in the Dutch courts, NDFP chief political consultant and ILPS chairman Jose Maria Sison is calling on all supporters of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations to protest what he described as the “unjust actions” by the U.S., Philippine and Dutch governments.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 35, October 7-13, 2007

Even as he is still elated over his latest victory in the Dutch courts, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant and International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) chairman Jose Maria Sison is calling on all supporters of the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the NDFP to protest what he described as the “unjust actions” by the U.S., Philippine and Dutch governments.

“The unjust actions already taken against me and the panelists, other consultants and staffers of the NDFP negotiating panel are meant by the U.S., Philippine and Dutch governments to put the NDFP Negotiating Panel under duress for the purpose of pressuring it or scuttling the entire peace negotiations,” Sison said in an e-mail interview with Bulatlat over the weekend. “The advocates of a just peace must take a stand and denounce the unjust actions and the malicious calculations behind these.”

Sison was referring to his arrest in Utrecht, the Netherlands on Aug. 28 for allegedly ordering the murders of former Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) leaders Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara in the Philippines in 2003 and 2004, respectively, and the raids on the NDFP International Office and the houses of several NDFP consultants and staff.

Sison had reported to the Utrecht police station on Aug. 28 after receiving an invitation supposedly regarding new information on a complaint he filed way back in 2001. He was asked to go to a room where he was supposedly going to be asked a few questions.

But he was whisked away without the knowledge of the lawyer who was accompanying him at that time, and was subsequently hauled off to the Dutch National Penitentiary in Scheveningen, Den Haag where he was left to languish in solitary confinement for 17 days.

On the same day that Sison was arrested, the NDFP International Office was raided and its computers were taken. Dutch police also raided the homes of several NDFP consultants.

Sison was released last month from detention after the Rechtbank of Den Haag ruled, citing lack of evidence against him in the case on the Kintanar-Tabara deaths, that there was no cause to keep him further in pre-trial detention.

The Dutch Prosecutor’s Office promptly filed a petition before the Dutch Court of Appeals to have Sison placed back in pre-trial detention. On Oct. 3, the Dutch Court of Appeals threw out the appeal.

“The wording of the Decision is very interesting, even better than the Rechtbank’s,” said Michiel Pestman, Sison’s lawyer, in an e-mail message received by Bulatlat.

In its decision, a copy of which was also received by Bulatlat, the Dutch Court of Appeals stated that there is no direct evidence linking Sison to Kintanar and Tabara’s killings. It also questioned the reliability of the witnesses’ statements against Sison, stating that their declarations “contain a high degree of indefiniteness in time.”

The Dutch Court of Appeals likewise described the witnesses’ statements against Sison as “perhaps” having a “political context.” It stated that these declarations “cannot just simply be taken as reliable” considering the present “political constellation” in the Philippines.

“On top of that the Court expresses its doubt about Sison’s ability to fully exercise his right to cross-examine the Prosecution witnesses, which is an implicit reference to the human rights situation in the Philippines and the dangers faced there by Sison’s defense lawyers,” Pestman said.

Sison has repeatedly denied allegations that he had a hand in the killings of Kintanar and Tabara. The CPP-NPA leadership in the Philippines owned up to both killings, citing what it described as Kintanar and Tabara’s “crimes against the revolution.” He has in a statement described the Dutch Court of Appeals decision on his case as “a triumph of justice.”

He is optimistic that the charges against him in connection with the Kintanar-Tabara deaths will eventually dismissed.

“The charge cannot prosper because I have nothing to do with the deaths of the military and police agents Kintanar and Tabara as well as with the independent judicial process of the People’s Court in the Philippines,” Sison told Bulatlat. “Therefore there can never be any direct and sufficient evidence against me. Moreover the Kintanar and Tabara incidents are acts of rebellion according to the Philippine prosecution and acts of revolution according to the revolutionary forces.”

The killings of Kintanar and Tabara are included in the rebellion case filed by the Department of Justice (DoJ) last year against Sison and more than 50 other personalities –- including Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) Rep. Crispin Beltran –- in connection with an alleged “Left-Right conspiracy” to topple the Arroyo regime. This case was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

The CPP-NPA leadership in the Philippines, in a number of statements, described the killings of Kintanar and Tabara as “acts of revolution.”

His next legal move, Sison said, would be to build up his legal defense by cross-examining the witnesses against him through his counsel.

Sison is known as the founding chairman of the CPP. In 1968 he led a group that broke away from the leadership of the Lava brothers in the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) and re-established the CPP.

Under Sison’s leadership, the CPP rapidly gained strength and together with the NPA, its armed component, it developed into one of the strongest organized forces opposed to the U.S.-Marcos regime during the martial law years.

He was the CPP’s highest-ranking leader from its reestablishment until he was arrested by the Marcos dictatorship in 1977.

Released in 1986 by virtue of then President Corazon Aquino’s general amnesty proclamation for political prisoners, Sison got involved in a number of legal political activities and even delivered a series of lectures at his alma mater, the University of the Philippines (UP).

In 1987, he found himself having to apply for political asylum after the Aquino government cancelled his passport while he was in Europe on a speaking tour. He has since lived in the Netherlands as an asylum seeker.

In 2002, the CPP-NPA was included by the U.S. Department of State in its list of “foreign terrorist organizations.” Sison was likewise listed as a “foreign terrorist.” The Council of the European Union followed suit later that year.

On May 29 this year, the Council of the European Union decided to retain Sison in its “terrorist” list. This decision was annulled by a July 11 verdict of the Luxembourg-based European Court of First Instance (ECFI). Bulatlat

ROMULO NERI AND THE NBN SCAM

CHEd chairman and former NEDA director-general Romulo Neri, soft-spoken and frail of build, hardly comes across as one who could cause an uproar. But he has created quite a stir by confirming, in a Senate inquiry, reports that he had been offered a bribe by Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos in connection with a broadband network deal between the Philippine government and China’s ZTE Corp.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 34, September 30-October 6, 2007

Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) chairman and former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director-general Romulo Neri, soft-spoken and frail of build, hardly comes across as one who could cause an uproar.

But he has created quite a stir by confirming, in a Senate inquiry, reports that he had been offered a bribe by Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos in connection with a National Broadband Network (NBN) deal between the Philippine government and China’s ZTE Corp.

Neri provoked murmurs in the Senate gallery –- despite requests by the members of the Blue Ribbon Committee and the Committee on Trade and Industry that the audience refrain from being “too emotional” –- when he said under oath in a Sept. 26 hearing that Abalos had offered him a bribe amounting to P200 million ($4.44 million based on an exchange rate of $1:P45.04 as of Sept. 28) in connection with the NBN project. “Sec, may 200 ka dito” (Mr. Secretary, you have 200 here), he quoted Abalos as saying to him in a meeting with ZTE officials “late last year or early this year.” What they were talking about was “basically (about) the NBN project,” he said.

A day later, Iloilo Vice Gov. Rolex Suplico filed an impeachment complaint at the House of Representatives against Abalos. Representatives have reportedly crossed party lines to support the complaint; what remains to be seen is whether it would get the minimum number of votes required by the Constitution (1/3 of the House membership) for it to be transmitted to the Senate.

The NBN project is a $329-million contract that aims to connect government agencies throughout the Philippines through the Internet.

The deal was signed in Boao, China on April 21 –- when the government was not allowed to sign contracts because of the then-upcoming senatorial and local elections. It has become controversial for allegedly being overpriced and for supposedly having been signed without going through the proper bidding process.

Jose de Venecia III, son of House Speaker Jose de Venecia and co-founder of Amsterdam Holdings, Inc. which is one of the losing bidders in the NBN deal, has accused Abalos of offering him $10 million in exchange for backing out of the NBN deal – an accusation the Comelec chief has denied.

In a privileged speech on Aug. 29, Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla said it was Abalos who brokered the deal between the Philippine government and ZTE Corp. Padilla also said Abalos was seen playing golf with ZTE officials in Manila and Shenzen. He also accused Abalos of receiving money and women in exchange for brokering the NBN deal.

As controversy built up over the NBN deal, reports also went rife that Abalos had bribed or tried to bribe a number of government officials –- including Neri –- in exchange for approving or supporting the approval of the project.

In the Sept. 26 Senate hearing, Neri confirmed under oath reports that Abalos had indeed tried to offer him a P200-million peso bribe.

With this, he has caused quite an uproar, and many are now clamoring for Abalos’ head to roll.

There are those who wouldn’t stop at Abalos’ doorstep, and are also bent on unearthing the possible involvement of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Mike Arroyo in the deal.

Neri had also said at the Senate inquiry that he reported Abalos’ bribe offer, which as he said took place either “late last year or early this year,” to the President. “Don’t accept it,” he quoted the President as saying –- and refused to say more about their conversations on the NBN deal, invoking executive privilege.

As is well known, the project got approved and was only recently suspended by Malacañang. Abalos, meanwhile, got to stay on in his post, presiding over the 2007 senatorial and local elections which were marred by allegations of massive fraud, and is only set to retire as Comelec chief in February next year –- that is, if the outrage provoked by Neri’s revelation does not force him out earlier.

The man who has caused such a stir was born on Feb. 1, 1950. After high school at the Ateneo de Manila University, where among other things he won a National Science Development Board (NSDB) Gold Medal for Physical Chemistry, he took BS Business Administration at the University of the Philippines (UP), where he was a University Scholar for eight semesters. He graduated as class valedictorian and magna cum laude in 1970.

That same year he went back to the UP College of Business Administration to work as an instructor, a job he held until 1971.

The year 1971 was, for Neri, the start of a corporate career spanning several years. From 1971 to 1977 he held various management positions in Riverside Mills Corp., Mobil Oil Philippines, Luzon Stevedoring Corp., and the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC).

He enrolled at the MBA program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1977 and earned his degree two years later.

He returned to the country the same year he completed his MBA, and worked until 1985 for CJ Yulo and Sons, Inc.

From 1986 to 1990, he was a professor at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).

In 1990, he was appointed director-general of the Congressional Budget and Planning Office (CBPO) –- a post he held until 2002, when Arroyo took him in as NEDA director-general.

During his stint at the CBPO –- his longest in any single government post so far –- he became closely associated with the elder De Venecia, who has served several terms as House Speaker. He is reported to have been appointed to the post of NEDA director-general upon the elder De Venecia’s recommendation.

In July 2005, he was appointed to head the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) after then Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin resigned along with other cabinet officials who were part of the group now known as the Hyatt 10 over the surfacing of the so-called “Hello Garci” tapes.

The “Hello Garci” tapes were a series of recorded telephone conversations in which a voice similar to Arroyo’s is heard instructing an election official –- widely believed to be former Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano –- to rig the 2004 elections.

The surfacing of the “Hello Garci” tapes provoked calls for Arroyo’s resignation or removal from office, but Neri stood by the President through the controversy. He was made to head the DBM after the Hyatt 10’s resignation, and stayed at that post until he was transferred back to NEDA following Rolando Andaya’s appointment as budget secretary in February 2006.

Last July he was temporarily transferred to CHEd. Media reports have speculated that his transfer had something to do with his disputing the 6.2-percent growth figure projected by Malacañang as the target for 2008. But Suplico, for his part, opined that his transfer may have been connected to the NBN deal –- something which Neri said at the Sept. 26 hearing was something he thought unlikely.

A little over two months after his transfer to CHEd, Neri creates an uproar with the revelation that Abalos had offered him a P200-million peso bribe in relation to the NBN project. Right now it remains to be seen whether or not he would eventually spill the beans on the possible involvement of the Arroyo couple in the controversial contract. Bulatlat

WORKERS’ PLIGHT WORSENING

Thirty-five years after the declaration of martial law, 34 years after the first workers’ protests under martial law, and 21 years after the ouster of Marcos -– the state of workers’ rights demonstrates a greater need for worker militancy.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 33, September 23-29, 2007

The organized labor movement was one of the forces that proved to be instrumental in breaking the climate of fear that was created when then President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972.

Marcos’ imposition of Proclamation No. 1081 was a response to a socio-political turmoil that was shaking the land. The tumult had its immediate origins in historical developments that took place before Marcos assumed his first term in 1965.

As historian-economist Ricco Alejandro M. Santos wrote in a 2003 article for Bulatlat:

“Instructed by the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the elder Macapagal in 1961 instituted decontrol – the free inflow of imports through tariff reductions, and the free repatriation of dollar profits by foreign investors. This first policy measure of Macapagal set the Philippine economy into a tailspin, wiping out more than 10,000 businesses, and creating even greater poverty. Decontrol tightened the (neocolonization) of the economy, and whatever small gains were achieved in Filipino industrialization during the period of import and exchange controls.”

The conditions that this development generated were filling up the streets with protesters –- workers, peasants, students and intellectuals, and even sections of the business community.

Marcos assumed his first presidential term in 1965 amid a nascent political ferment. During his second term (starting 1969), nationalist dissent found its way into the corridors of the political establishment. Santos cites three major nationalist developments in the period 1969-1972:

“In 1969, Congress under pressure from a growing anti-imperialist public opinion, passed a Magna Carta that call(ed) for national industrialization against the dictates of the IMF. Then from 1971 to 1972, nationalists were gaining ground in gathering support for an anti-imperialist agenda in the Constitutional Convention. In 1972, the Supreme Court (SC) issued two decisions unfavorable to the foreign monopolist corporations: one, in the Quasha case, which nullified all sales of private lands to American citizens after 1945, and (an)other rolled back oil price hikes by the oil cartel.”

Martial law

Marcos’ very first act after the issuance of Proclamation No. 1081 was a reversal of the Quasha case. A report by the U.S. Congress would later admit that the martial law period was a time for the granting of greater privileges to foreign investments.

In 1973, a U.S. official visited the Philippines, and congratulated Marcos for his “adherence to democracy.”

The attack on civil liberties was the Marcos regime’s way of dealing with the movements for sovereignty and social justice.

The imposition of martial law on Sept. 21, 1972 had the initial effect of silencing the voices of protest.

By 1974, however, the protest movement was beginning to make its presence felt again, through a series of small strikes by workers’ organizations.

In 1975, the La Tondeña workers -– backed by church workers, among them Fr. Luis Jalandoni –- would stage the first major strike under the martial law regime. That strike dealt a strong blow to the atmosphere of terror created by Proclamation No. 1081.

Thirty-five years after the declaration of martial law, 33 years after the first workers’ protests under martial law, and 21 years after the ouster of Marcos – how are workers’ rights faring in the country?

Art. XIII, Sec. 3 of the Constitution provides that:

“The State shall afford full protection to labor, local and overseas, organized and unorganized, and promote full employment and equality of employment opportunities for all.

“It shall guarantee the rights of all workers to self-organization, collective bargaining and negotiations, and peaceful concerted activities, including the right to strike in accordance with law. They shall be entitled to security of tenure, humane conditions of work, and a living wage. They shall also participate in policy and decision-making processes affecting their rights and benefits as may be provided by law.

“The State shall promote the principle of shared responsibility between workers and employers and the preferential use of voluntary modes in settling disputes, including conciliation, and shall enforce their mutual compliance therewith to foster industrial peace.

“The State shall regulate the relations between workers and employers, recognizing the right of labor to its just share in the fruits of production and the right of enterprises to reasonable returns to investments, and to expansion and growth.”

However, statistics from both government offices and non-government organizations show that workers’ rights have not been faring well in the last six years.

Unions and union rights violations

There was a sharp slide in union membership from 2001 –- when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was catapulted to power through a popular uprising -– to 2002. Union membership decreased in the said period from 3.85 million to only 1.47 million. The number of union members decreased by almost half from 2001 to 2002.

From 2002 to 2005, there seems to be an encouraging picture of union membership, as there was an increase from 1.47 million to 1.91 million. What appears to be an upward trend would be broken again in 2006, with union membership decreasing to 1.86 million. From 2006 to March 2007 union membership would rise to 1.87 million.

As of March 2007, union membership in the Philippines has yet to reach even the 2-million mark since 2001.

The sorry state of union membership in the country is even more glaring when compared to the labor force of 54.98 million as of April 2007. This means that only .03 percent of the labor force is organized. This does not bode well for the defense of workers’ rights. Without a union, workers’ rights are easily violated. The prevalent practice of contractualization and non-regularization of workers are the main causes of the decline in union membership.

Those in the unions, in turn, still suffer the added atrocities of violence and harassment.

Based on data from the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), a non-government organization, there were a total of 1,114 violations of union and human rights from 2001 to 2006. These include assaults on picket lines, illegal arrest and detention, torture, killing, grave threats, and forced disappearances.

Workers are among the numerous victims of extra-judicial killings under the Arroyo administration. CTUHR’s data place the number of workers extra-judicially killed at 83 from 2001 to 2006. As in cases involving victims from other sectors, state forces were found to have been the perpetrators in majority of the killings of workers.

The number of victims of these union and human rights violations total 13,794 from 2001 to 2006, CTUHR data further show.

Economic rights

Meanwhile, the economic rights of workers are hardly doing any better.

Based on data from the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC), the family living wage for a family of six -– the average Filipino family –- stands at a national average of P701.8 ($15.38 based on the average exchange rate of $1:P45.62 as of July 2007).

Conversely, the highest regional minimum wage -– which is “enjoyed” in the National Capital Region (NCR) –- stands at only P325-362 ($7.63-7.94) daily. The biggest gap between the family living wage and the minimum wage is to be found in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), with a family living wage of P1,074 ($23.54) as against a minimum wage of only P200 ($4.38) daily.

Militancy

Workers contributed in no small measure to breaking the climate of fear created by the imposition of martial law in 1972.

Thirty-five years after the declaration of martial law, 34 years after the first workers’ protests under martial law, and 21 years after the ouster of Marcos –- the state of workers’ rights demonstrates the need for greater worker militancy.

BENJAMIN ABALOS: A LEGACY OF CONTROVERSY?

Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos, Sr. is now in what may well be described as the “legacy phase” of his stint as an election official, and quite possibly his entire career as a government official. Set to retire from the Comelec in February next year, he has said he does not want to leave a legacy of controversy. But a legacy of controversy is what he appears to be leaving.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 32, September 16-22, 2007

Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos, Sr. is now in what may well be described as the “legacy phase” of his stint as an election official, and quite possibly his entire career as a government official. Set to retire from the Comelec in February next year, he has said he does not want to leave a legacy of controversy.

But a legacy of controversy is what he appears to be leaving. In particular, his stint as Comelec chairman seems to be one of hopping from one controversy to another.

The National Broadband Network (NBN) contract between the Philippine government and China’s ZTE Corp. is not the least of these.

The NBN project is a $329-million contract that aims to connect government agencies throughout the Philippines through the Internet.

The deal was signed in Boao, China on April 21 –- when the government was not allowed to sign contracts because of the then-upcoming senatorial and local elections. It has become controversial for allegedly being overpriced and for supposedly having been signed without going through the proper bidding process.

Jose de Venecia III, co-founder of Amsterdam Holdings, Inc. which is one of the losing bidders in the NBN deal, has accused Abalos of offering him $10 million in exchange for backing out of the NBN deal – an accusation the Comelec chief has denied.

In a privileged speech on Aug. 29, Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla said it was Abalos who brokered the deal between the Philippine government and ZTE Corp. Padilla also said Abalos was seen playing golf with ZTE officials in Manila and Shenzen. He also accused Abalos of receiving money and women in exchange for brokering the NBN deal.

Abalos has denied being the conduit for the NBN deal. He has also denied receiving money and women from ZTE executives.

However, he has admitted that some of the ZTE honchos were his “golfing buddies.” He has likewise disclosed that ZTE officials paid for his trips to China.

He has also admitted that his daughter Girlie, who runs a company that imports goods from China, is a friend of some ZTE executives.

The NBN controversy seems poised to cap what could be a government stint of more than 40 years for Abalos.

Working up the ladder of bureaucracy

The Comelec chief claims to have been born into a poor family in Pangasinan on Sept. 21, 1935. A 1957 law graduate of the Manuel L. Quezon University (MLQU), Abalos claims to have supported himself through college by working as a janitor, factory worker, and a caddy at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club.

In 1963, Abalos ran for vice mayor of Mandaluyong, which was then part of Rizal. He lost to the scion of a political family in what he alleges to have been a fraud-ridden local election.

For the next several years he served as judge. While his record as judge is not associated with any monumental legal feat, he loves talking of how he was named as outstanding judge for 10 straight years.

In the course of his career as judge, he would meet and forge a partnership with Neptali Gonzalez, an opposition leader at that time who would eventually become Senate President.

He ran for Mandaluyong mayor in 1980. He claims to have won in the count, but says he was unable to assume his post. This, he says, is because the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos prevented him from serving as mayor.

In 1986, shortly after Marcos was ousted through a popular uprising, President Corazon Aquino appointed him as Officer-in-Charge (OIC) mayor of Mandaluyong.

He ran for Mandaluyong mayor and won in the local elections of 1988, the first local elections under the 1987 Constitution. He ran for the same post and won in the elections of 1992, 1995, and 1998 –- using up the constitutionally-mandated limit of three consecutive terms for local officials.

Up to 1991, Abalos was an active member of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), when he and others in a group led by Gonzalez split over Senate leadership rivalries with Sen. Edgardo Angara. He became part of the Lakas-National Union of Christian Democrats (Lakas-NUCD), which fielded former Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos in the 1992 presidential elections.

In 2001 Abalos was appointed chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), a post he held until the following year. He takes pride in the cleanliness drive he implemented as MMDA chairman.

Comelec

Abalos was appointed Comelec chairman in 2002, even as he was then a very visible leader of the Lakas-NUCD.

In February 2003, the Comelec opened a bidding process for a poll automation scheme with an approved budget of P2.5 billion ($44.48 million based on the year’s $1:P56.20 average exchange rate). Two companies –- Mega Pacific eSolutions, Inc. (MPEI) and Total Information Management Corp. (TIMC) -- fought it out in the bidding process. MPEI won with a bid of P1.2 billion ($21.35 million), P1 million lower than TIMC’s bid.

Under the deal, MPEI was to supply the Comelec with 1,191 automated counting machines to be used in the 2004 elections.

However, the contract was shortly after found to have been fraught with legal infirmities: among other things, the Comelec had awarded the contract to Mega Pacific Consortium – an entity that had not participated in the bidding process –- and MPEI did not meet eligibility requirements. The deal was thumbed down by the Supreme Court.

Abalos would court more controversy by presiding over the 2004 and 2007 elections, which were both marred by allegations of widespread fraud.

In both polls, the Comelec shied away from taking appropriate measures against two notorious electoral fraud suspects –- Virgilio Garcillano and Lintang Bedol. Abalos even defended the two election officials against their accusers without so much as the benefit of any investigation into allegations of poll fraud.

Later in 2007, Abalos finds himself accused of brokering an onerous deal between the Philippine government and China’s ZTE Corp. for an NBN project.

This controversy comes for Abalos just a few months before his retirement from his post as Comelec chairman. Bulatlat

DUTCH-PHILIPPINE RELATIONS: THE TIES THAT BIND

The arrest of NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison by Dutch police has brought attention to Dutch interests in the country.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 31, September 9-15, 2007

The arrest of NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison by Dutch police, purportedly to enforce a special law in The Netherlands, for allegedly ordering the killings of Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara in the Philippines, has brought attention to Dutch interests in the country.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry, said Sison’s counsel Jan Fermon, admitted in its website that the inclusion of the CPP-NPA and Sison in its list of terrorists was done to comply with the request of the U.S. government. It likewise stated that the 150 Dutch companies have investments in the Philippines and that Holland is one of the major investors now in the country. It added that the only burden in the relationship between Holland and the Philippines is the presence of what they called the Communist leadership in Utrecht.

The Philippines is the main U.S. ally in Southeast Asia, while the Netherlands places second to the United Kingdom in being a major U.S. ally in Europe. The U.S. was the first to include the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) and Sison in its terrorist list. The Dutch government followed suit and it even supported the inclusion of Sison in the European Union list of “foreign terrorists” in 2002.

Sison is known as the founding chairman of the CPP. In 1968 he led a group that broke away from the leadership of the Lava brothers in the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) and re-established the CPP.

Under Sison’s leadership, the CPP rapidly gained strength and together with the NPA, its armed component, it developed into one of the strongest organized forces opposed to the U.S.-Marcos regime during the martial law years.

He was the CPP’s highest-ranking leader from its reestablishment until he was arrested by the Marcos dictatorship in 1977.

Released in 1986 by virtue of then President Corazon Aquino’s general amnesty proclamation for political prisoners, Sison got involved in a number of legal political activities and even delivered a series of lectures at his alma mater, the University of the Philippines (UP).

In 1988, he found himself having to apply for political asylum after the Aquino government cancelled his passport while he was in Europe on a speaking tour. He has since lived in the Netherlands as an asylum seeker.

In 2002, the CPP-NPA was included by the U.S. Department of State in its list of “foreign terrorist organizations.” Sison was also listed as a “foreign terrorist.” The Dutch government listed the CPP-NPA and Sison in its own terror list a day after the U.S. listing. The Council of the European Union followed suit later that year.

On May 29, the Council of the European Union decided to retain Sison in its “terrorist” list. This decision was annulled by the July 11 verdict of the European Court of First Instance (ECFI).

On Aug. 28, Sison was arrested by Dutch police in Utrecht for allegedly ordering the murders of former CPP-NPA leaders Kintanar and Tabara in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

Sison’s arrest has placed focus on the ties between the Philippine and Dutch governments and the U.S., and Dutch business interests in the Philippines.

Based on information from the office of Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) Rep. Crispin Beltran, for instance, the Arroyo administraton has recently approved an oil exploration project by Dutch, U.S. and British companies covering about a million hectares of agricultural and fishing areas in the Bicol region. In early August, Beltran said, the Dutch company Premier Oil secured permission to drill an exploration well within Service Contract 43 in Ragay Gulf, and has in fact earmarked some $3.6-9.6 million for the said project.

The Philippines is The Netherlands’ third major trading partner among Asian countries, Beltran also said.

“The language barrier is not present in the Philippines as a location for offshore work,” explains Brian Altman, managing director of the Dutch IT service firm IAMD Software Solutions which operates in the Philippines, on why the country has been emerging as a favorite base for offshore operations among European companies. “Everybody speaks English. Furthermore, the Philippines has an abundance of highly skilled and very creative people that are not afraid to work hard at very low costs compared to the West.”

The Dutch software company started out as a small freelance Web development company specializing in travel packages for a hotel/resort portal devoted to traveling in the Philippines. Later on it tapped into local companies’ online needs.

IAMD’s major local client is the SM chain of malls and department stores, which is owned by Henry Sy. SM relies on IAMD for online transactions and website maintenance.

Premier Oil and IAMD Software Solutions are among some 30 Dutch companies now operating in the Philippines.

The largest among these Dutch business interests in the Philippines are in the outsourced business processes. These include Getronics, the ING Group, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and the Bickers Group of Companies –- Bickers Law Firm, Bickers Corporate and Bickers Public Solutions.

Getronics is an information and communication technology (ICT) service provider for corporations. It integrates and manages ICT systems for several Dutch and global companies and organizations.

The ING Group is a global financial services company claiming to be one of the 20 largest financial institutions worldwide. It provides banking, insurance and asset management services.

The Bickers Group of Companies provides legal, government liaising, and trade-related services to European companies with business interests in Europe and Southeast Asia. Its base of operations in Asia is located in Cebu, the company’s first satellite office outside The Netherlands.

Beyond the outsourced business processes, Dutch companies in the Philippines have large business ventures in food, home, and personal care products; the oil industry; petroleum trading, oil and gas exploration; solar energy, electronics, banking, insurance, coco coir export, and wholesale trade.

The Royal Dutch Shell is one of the “Big Three” multinational oil industry players in the Philippines and the world. It was ranked this year by Fortune magazine as the third largest corporation in the world, behind Wal-Mart and ExxonMobil.

Aside from gasoline and diesel, Shell also produces car and motorcycle oils like Shell Helix for cars and Shell Advance for motorcycles. Shell also produces the Shellane brand of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Its solar energy company, Shell Solar, piloted a sunstation in Aklan and recently completed a feasibility study for establishing and operating sunstations in Palawan.

Shell is involved in oil and gas explorations in Camago and Malampaya fields, which are located not more than 200 nautical miles off the coast of Palawan.

The Vitol Group provides oil trading and marketing services for upstream producers and downstream retailers. It is also involved in oil and gas exploration.

In the food, home and personal care products business Unilever is easily one of the most prominent in the Philippines. Unilever is a multinational company of Anglo-Dutch parentage. It is associated with several brand-name products: Knorr, Becel/Flora, Bertolli, Lipton, Blue Band, Rama, Country Crock, Doriana, Heartbrand, Hellman’s, Amora, Calvé, Wish-Bone, Slim·Fast, Cif, Comfort, Domestos, Omo, Radiant, Sunlight, Surf, Axe, Dove, Lifebuoy, Lux, Rexona, Pond’s, Signal, Close Up, Sunsilk, and Vaseline.

In wholesale trade, Makro is one of the giants in the Philippines. Established in the Philippines in 1995, Pilipinas Makro is a partnership between the Dutch SHV Holdings N.V and SM Prime Investments of the Sy Group of Companies. Its clients in the Philippines include hotels, restaurants, caterers, and sari-sari (variety) store owners.

Other Dutch companies with interests in the Philippines are Philips (electronics), ABN-AMRO (banking), and Rinos N.-V Corion (coco coir export). Bulatlat

MAKALAMPAS LANG NANG KAUNTI SA PAANAN
Alexander Martin Remollino

May higit sa isang taon na ang lumalakad
mula nang ang mga paa ng mga
Dale Abenojar, Erwin Emata, Leo Oracion, at Romi Garduce
ay makahalik sa tuktok ng Everest.
Noo’y nagpista ang buong bayan,
at karapat-dapat lang na ipagbunyi hanggang langit
ang kanilang tagumpay.
Sila ang kauna-unahang mga anak ng Pilipinas
na nakarating sa tuktok
ng pinakamataas na bundok sa mundo.

Ngunit huwag sanang angkinin ang kanilang tagumpay
bilang “tagumpay ng ating lahi,
tagumpay ng ating lipi.”

Hindi nila panahon ang ating panahon:
sila’y angat sa ating panahon.
Sapagkat ang ating panahon
ay panahong nagkakasya ang karamihan
sa makalampas lang nang kaunti sa paanan
ng bundok na ni hindi kasintaas ng Everest,
at sapagkat malapit lamang sa paanan
ang hinahangad na marating,
itinuturing nang malaking tagumpay
ang makaapak sa paanan lamang –-
sa halip na tuklasin at sikaping igpawan
ang dahilan ng kahinaan ng tuhod.

ANG LALONG MAHALAGA SA ATING PANAHON
Alexander Martin Remollino

Kay Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, ang tunay na ika-12 senador ng halalan ng 2007

Gusto ko sanang humiling ng aral sa iyo
hinggil sa kung paano ang digmaang
ang labanan ay isa sa sandaan,
ang kalaban mo ay buong daigdig.
Sapagkat nauna ka sa akin,
at ang landas ng buhay
ay maraming laang patibong
na mahirap takasan –-
kabilang ang mga digmaang
wala kang kakampi,
o kung may kakampi ka man
ay siya ring kaaway mo pala.

Ngunit huwag na muna.
Sapagkat sa wari ko,
higit na mahalaga sa ating panahon
ang alamin

kung bakit tayo ngayo’y napaliligiran
ng mga matang di man lamang nagtitis
sa pagdaan ng nakangisi’t nandudurong katampalasanan –-

na tila ba hindi nakasusulukasok
ang amoy ng bulok na bangkay,

na tila ba hindi nakababasag ng tainga
ang mga kantang wala ni titik, ni tugtog.

'EMPLOYMENT' UP, BUT LITTLE GAINFUL WORK

When President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delivers her next SoNA, she will no doubt count among her administration’s accomplishments the increase in employment rate from last year to this year. But the government’s own figures show that there was not much gainful employment generated in the past year.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
LABOR WATCH
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 23, July 15-21, 2007

When President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delivers her State of the Nation Address (SoNA) this coming July 23, she will no doubt count among her administration’s accomplishments the increase in employment rate from last year to this year.

Unemployment rates had several times reached all-time highs under the Arroyo administration, especially during the President’s continuation of the term of deposed President Joseph Estrada (2001-2004). The growing unemployment rate was in fact one of the issues against Arroyo during the 2004 elections. In 2005, a change in the definition of unemployment effectively reduced the unemployment rates which had been among the smears in the record of the Arroyo administration thus far.

Arroyo may well be expected to use the statistics of increased employment from 2006 to 2007 as proof of improvement in the labor sector other than that which was semantically induced in 2005.

Based on the April 2006 and April 2007 Labor Force Surveys of the National Statistics Office (NSO), there was a growth in the country’s labor force (those 15 years old and above) from 54.98 million in April 2006 to 56.41 million in April 2007.

The increase in the size of the country’s labor force is taken into account in the comparative data from the NSO, which shows an increase in the employment rate from 91.8 percent in April 2006 to 92.8 percent in April 2007, or a decrease in the unemployment rates from 8.2 to 7.4 percent in the period between the two Labor Force Surveys. Likewise, there is supposed to have been a decrease in the number of the underemployed –- or those working less than 40 hours a week –- from 25.4 percent in April 2006 to 18.9 percent in April 2007.

The statistics look encouraging. But the real picture becomes clearer when the number of jobs generated for each category of employment is broken down.

As NSO Administrator Carmelita Ericta said in her explanation of the results of the April 2007 Labor Force Survey:

“Out of the estimated 56.4 million population 15 years and over in April 2007, approximately 36.4 million were in the labor force. These figures placed the labor force participation rate at 64.5 percent.

“The April 2007 employment rate of 92.6 percent implies that the total employed population was 33.7 million in April 2007. Almost half or 49.3 percent of the total employed in this period were in the services sector; about the same percentage was recorded in April 2006 (49.5 percent). The percentage of employed workers in the agriculture sector in April 2007 was 35.2 percent, while that for the industry sector was 15.6 percent.”

More precisely, the NSO’s data place the number of employed persons in the country at 32,699,000 in April 2006 and 33,706,000 in April 2007.

Employment categories

There are, however, many categories of employment. As Ericta explains:

“Employed persons fall into any of these three categories: wage and salary workers, own account workers and unpaid family workers. Wage and salary workers are those who work for private establishments, government or government corporations and those who work with pay in own-family operated farms or businesses. Of the total employed population in April 2007, 51.1 percent were wage and salary workers, most of them (38.2 percent of the total employed) working for private establishments. Those working for the government or government corporations accounted for only 7.6 percent of the total employed population. Own-account workers, such as proprietors and self-employed workers, constituted 35.8 percent of the total employed in April 2007, with the self-employed workers having the larger share (31.9 percent). The unpaid family workers comprised only 13.1 percent.

“Employed persons are classified as either full-time workers or part-time workers. Full-time workers are those who work for 40 hours or more, while part-time workers work for less than 40 hours. More than half (55.5 percent) of the total employed persons in April 2007 were full-time workers, most of them working for 40 to 48 hours (34.6 percent of total employed). Part-time workers comprised 41.8 percent of the total employed.

“Employed persons who want or desire additional hours of work are considered underemployed. The proportion of underemployed persons to total employed was estimated at 18.9 percent in April 2007. Dominating the underemployed population were those working in the agriculture sector, comprising 48.3 percent of the total underemployed in April 2007. Underemployed persons in the services sector accounted for 35.2 percent while those in the industry sector, 16.5 percent. About 65.3 percent of the underemployed were reported as visibly underemployed, or had been working for less than 40 hours a week.”

Based on the NSO’s data, the number of wage and salary workers increased in the period between the two Labor Force Surveys from 50.6 to 51.1 percent, while the unpaid family workers increased from 11.9 to 13.1 percent. The own account workers, meanwhile, decreased from 37.5 to 35.8 percent for the said period.

Even looking only at percentage rates, it is already easy to notice that there was a greater percentage increase in unpaid family labor than in wage and salary labor. One gets a fuller view of the picture by taking into consideration the actual figures.

Wage and salary workers comprised 50.6 percent of 32,699,000 employed persons in April 2006 –- or 16,545,694. The same category made up 51.1 percent of 33,706,000 employed persons in April 2007 –- or 17,223,766. This means an increase of 678,072 from April 2006 to April 2007.

Unpaid family labor made up 11.9 percent of 32,699,000 employed persons in April 2006 –- or 3,891,181. This same category comprised 13.1 percent of 33,706,000 employed persons in April 2007 -– or 4,415,486. This shows an increase of 524,305 in the number of unpaid family workers in the period between the two Labor Force Surveys.

Adding the increases in the numbers of wage and salary workers and unpaid family workers from April 2006 to April 2007, we get a total of 1,202,377 –- which is the number of jobs generated from April 2006 to April 2007.

Meanwhile, own account workers decreased in number from 37.5 percent of 32,699,000 (12,262,165) in April 2006 to 35.8 percent of 33,706,000 (12,066,748) in April 2007 – or a difference of 195,417.

Subtracting this number from the total number of jobs generated from April 2006 to April 2007, we get an increase of 1,006,960 in the number of employed persons for the period between the two Labor Force Surveys.

It is thus easily visible that of the jobs generated from April 2006 to April 2007, almost half was unpaid family labor. Those who found “jobs” as unpaid family workers between April 2006 and April 2007 comprise 43.61 percent of the total number of persons who got “employed” in the period between the two Labor Force Surveys.

Meanwhile, those who work less than 40 hours a week increased from 40.8 percent to 41.8 percent from April 2006 to April 2007, while those working 40 hours or more a week decreased from 56.9 percent to 55.5 percent in the same period. We can get a clearer view of the situation by taking stock of the actual figures.

Those working for less than 40 hours a week comprised 40.8 percent of 32,699,000 employed persons (13,341,192) in April 2006 and 41.8 percent of 33,706,000 (14,089,108) in April 2007. This amounts to an increase of 747,916 in the number of part-time workers from April 2006 to April 2007.

In contrast, those working 40 hours or more a week made up 56.9 percent of the April 2006 number of employed persons (18,605,731) and 55.5 percent of the April 2007 number (18,706,830). This means an increase of 101,099.

Thus, we can see that the increase in the number of part-time workers is in fact greater that that in the number of full-time workers.

The NSO’s data also shows a decrease in underemployment from 25.4 percent in April 2006 to 18.5 percent in April 2007. Computing the actual numbers, we get the total of 8,305,546 underemployed persons in April 2006 and 6,235,610 in April 2007. There appears to be a decrease of 2,069,936 in the number of underemployed persons in the period between the two Labor Force Surveys.

But there are other factors to be considered in analyzing the classification of employed persons into part-time and full-time workers, or of workers into employed and underemployed. In comparing employment statistics between one year and another, the NSO in its Labor Force Survey takes into account only the question of whether a particular person was employed part-time or full-time at the very time of every particular survey, and not how long he was employed full-time or how many times he was employed part-time over an entire year.

With contractualization being the trend since the 1990s and jobs becoming scarcer, it has become common for people to be in contractual jobs for three to six months and then spend the rest of the year looking for work. If the NSO takes into account in its definition of underemployment the total number of hours a particular person was able to work over an entire year and divided it into the number of weeks in each year (52) to get his average number of work hours for every week, the number of underemployed persons would surely be different.

Little gainful employment

Taken as a whole, the comparative employment statistics for April 2006 and April 2007 would seem to paint a promising picture for the country’s ever-growing labor force.

But broken down into their different mathematical components, these figures give us a view that is not so rosy.

Of the 33,706,000 employed persons in April 2007, 51.1 percent or 17,223,766 are wage and salary workers while the rest are either “self-employed” or unpaid family workers. Those categorized as self-employed workers, 10,752,214, are mostly ambulant vendors who usually earn way below the minimum wage.Adding this to the 4,415,486 unpaid family workers would show that almost half of those classified as employed, or a total of 15,167,700 workers, are actually not gainfully employed.

Meanwhile, those working part-time amount to also almost half of the total number of employed persons, comprising 41.8 percent or 14,089,108. Full-time workers made up 55.5 percent of the total employed, or 18,706,830.

Thus, almost half of the 92.6 percent of the labor force classified as employed are not really earning enough for a decent living as they are either self-employed or unpaid family workers, and many are working part-time.

While there appears to be a substantial increase in employment from April 2006 to April 2007, there is no change in the overall picture between the two Labor Force Surveys.

The figure of 1,202,377 jobs generated between April 2006 and April 2007 looks encouraging. However, it loses its luster when we consider that 43.61 percent -– dangerously close to half -– of the jobs generated for the said period is actually unpaid family labor. Likewise, there was a greater increase in part-time jobs than in full-time jobs.

While employment statistics seem to be getting better, in reality there is little gainful employment in the country –- thus the rush in seeking employment abroad. Bulatlat

SISON HITS 'HOSTILE REACTIONS' TO RULING DELISTING HIM FROM EU 'TERRORIST' LIST

NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison criticized what he described as the “concerted hostile reactions” of the Dutch and Arroyo governments to the July 11 verdict of the European Court of First Instance (ECFI) in Luxembourg annulling the May 29 decision of the Council of the European Union to retain him in its “terrorist” blacklist.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 23, July 15-21, 2007

Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in its peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), criticized what he described as the “concerted hostile reactions” of the Dutch and Arroyo governments to the July 11 verdict of the European Court of First Instance (ECFI) in Luxembourg annulling the May 29 decision of the Council of the European Union to retain him in its “terrorist” blacklist.

In its verdict, the ECFI stated that the Council of the European Union’s May 29 decision failed to provide valid reasons for his being listed as a “terrorist.” The ECFI also stated that the Council’s decision violated Sison’s rights of defense and deprived him of judicial protection. The “terrorist” tag on Sison was also a threat to the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, the ECFI also stated.

The ECFI also ordered the Council of the European Union to shoulder Sison’s legal fees for the past five years.

The Dutch Embassy in Manila said in a one-page statement on July 13 that the ECFI verdict covered only the May 29 decision of the Council of the European Union and not its recent one.

“The judgment of July 11 of the ECFI bears upon an old decision which had already been withdrawn by the council,” the Dutch Embassy statement read. “The judgment does not concern the latest review process of the EU terrorism list by the council, which culminated in a new list adopted on June 29, 2007.

“This new decision, covering all persons and organizations on the EU terrorism list, includes Mr. Sison, the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines), and the NPA (New People’s Army) on the list and maintains the freeze on their assets,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, Malacañang spokespersons have said that the ECFI decision has no bearing on Sison’s status.

But Sison said the ECFI judgment, by implication, also covers the June 29 decision of the Council of the European Union which is referred to in the Dutch Embassy’s statement.

“The facts of the case covered by the ECFI judgment are mainly within the period from the Council’s first decision to include me in the blacklist on 28 October 2002 to the final public hearing on my case before the ECFI on 30 May 2006,” Sison said in a July 14 statement sent to media. “This period covered the 29 May 2006 decision of the Council. Nevertheless, the issues resolved by the judgment are also involved in the 28 June 2007 decision of the Council of the EU. Therefore, the judgment has a direct bearing and effect on the aforesaid decision of the Council.”

Sison is known as the founding chairman of the CPP. In 1968 he led a group that broke away from the leadership of the Lava brothers in the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) and re-established the CPP.

Under Sison’s leadership, the CPP rapidly gained strength and together with the NPA, its armed component, it developed into one of the strongest organized forces opposed to the U.S.-Marcos regime during the martial law years.

He was the CPP’s highest-ranking leader from its reestablishment until he was arrested by the Marcos dictatorship in 1977.

Released in 1986 by virtue of then President Corazon Aquino’s general amnesty proclamation for political prisoners, Sison got involved in a number of legal political activities and even delivered a series of lectures at his alma mater, the University of the Philippines (UP).

In 1988, he found himself having to apply for political asylum after the Aquino government cancelled his passport while he was in Europe on a speaking tour. He has since lived in the Netherlands as an asylum seeker.

In 2002, the CPP-NPA was included by the U.S. Department of State in its list of “foreign terrorist organizations.” Sison was likewise listed as a “foreign terrorist.” The Council of the European Union followed suit later that year.

On May 29, the Council of the European Union decided to retain Sison in its “terrorist” list. This decision was annulled by the July 11 verdict of the ECFI. He expects, however, that the Council will contest the July 11 ECFI verdict.

“While the legal struggle goes on, I continue to be persecuted by being blacklisted and stigmatized by the Council as a ‘terrorist’ and by being subjected to the violation of my fundamental rights and freedoms, to ‘civil death’ (deprivation of economic means) similar to that in the ancient regime in France and to public incitement of hatred and violence against my person,” Sison said in his statement. “However, I have already gained advantage by having won my case on 11 July 2007.”

“I call on all the people, parties, organizations and movements that have supported me in my legal and political struggle to defend my fundamental rights and freedom and to remain firm, vigilant and militant against the forces of imperialist plunder, fascism and aggression,” Sison also said. “These evil forces never get tired of exploiting and oppressing the people. They are always driven by their greed and blood thirst to suppress those who fight for the national liberation of the oppressed peoples, democracy and social justice for the working people, development and world peace. We must continue to struggle for a new and better world.” Bulatlat

SC RULING ON 'BATASAN 6' ANOTHER DECISION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES

The decision of the Supreme Court’s Second Division in the case of Beltran, et al v. Gonzalez, et al is an important ruling in the campaign for the protection of civil liberties. Assuming that it will not be reversed by the Supreme Court en banc, the decision will make it difficult for the government to file trumped-up rebellion charges against leaders and members of progressive organizations.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 19, June 17-23, 2007

The decision of the Supreme Court’s Second Division in the case of Beltran, et al v. Gonzalez, et al is an important ruling in the campaign for the protection of civil liberties. Assuming that it will not be reversed by the Supreme Court en banc, the decision will make it difficult for the government to file trumped-up rebellion charges against leaders and members of progressive organizations.

In its decision on the case, penned by Justice Antonio Carpio, the Supreme Court’s Second Division –- which is chaired by Justice Leonardo Quisumbing -– dismissed the rebellion case against Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) Rep. Crispin Beltran and the so-called “Batasan 5 representatives – Satur Ocampo, Teddy Casiño, and Joel Virador of Bayan Muna (People First); Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis; and Liza Maza of the Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP).

Romeo Capulong, lead counsel for the defense in the case of Beltran, et al v. Gonzalez, et al, said that if the ruling is not reversed by the Supreme Court en banc, it will be difficult, in the future, for the government to try to connect dots and charge political activists with rebellion -– a usual practice of the government especially under Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez.

Beltran had been arrested without warrant last year in connection with an alleged conspiracy between the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the dissident soldiers’ group Makabayang Kawal Pilipino (MKP or Patriotic Filipino Soldiers) to topple the Arroyo government. He was subsequently charged with rebellion, and confined under police custody at the Philippine Heart Center.

Beltran’s arrest took place during the effectivity of Presidential Proclamation No. 1017, which declared a “state of national emergency” in the country.

Meanwhile, the Batasan 5 representatives sought protective custody at the House of Representatives to elude the possibility of unlawful arrest.

The information against Beltran was later amended to include the Batasan 5, as well as other personalities –- among them Jose Maria Sison, Vicente Ladlad, Rafael Baylosis, Randall Echanis, Rey Claro Casambre, and Elisa “Tita” Lubi.

The evidences used by the Department of Justice (DoJ) in the case against Beltran, the Batasan 5, and other personalities were based on the premise of a supposed organizational linkage between the underground CPP, New People’s Army (NPA) and National Democratic Front (NDF) and the legal cause-oriented groups. The 492 documents filed by the government span the entire history of what is broadly termed the national-democratic movement, from 1968 to the filing of the information last year.

Under Art. 134 of the Revised Penal Code, rebellion is committed “by rising publicly and taking arms against the Government for the purpose of removing from the allegiance to said Government or its laws, the territory of the Republic of the Philippines or any part thereof, or any body of land, naval, or other armed forces or depriving the Chief Executive or the Legislature, wholly or partially, of any of their powers or prerogatives.”

Among the evidences used specifically against Beltran were affidavits claiming that he was present at the 10th Plenum of the CPP, allegedly held in 1992; that he attended the meeting between the CPP and the MKP in Padre Garcia, Batangas a few days before Feb. 24, 2006 – the supposed date of the plot to topple the Arroyo administration – and that the progressive party-list groups channeled funds for the purchase of arms for the NPA.

Most of the evidences, as noted in the decision of the Supreme Court’s Second Division –- penned by Justice Antonio Carpio -– were affidavits executed by soldiers and a few civilians. The affidavits even included ambushes and alleged extortion by the NPA, as well as the CPP’s internal purges in the 1980s.

None of these affidavits, the decision further stated, mentioned Beltran – except for two by Ruel Escala and Raul Cachuela.

“The allegations in these affidavits are far from the proof needed to indict Beltran for taking part in an armed public uprising against the government,” said the Supreme Court’s Second Division. “What these documents prove, at best, is that Beltran was in Bucal, Padre Garcia, Batangas on 20 February 2006 and that 14 years earlier, he was present during the 1992 CPP Plenum. None of the affidavits stated that Beltran committed specific acts of promoting, maintaining, or heading a rebellion as found in the (DoJ) Resolution of 27 February 2006. None of the affidavits alleged that Beltran is a leader of a rebellion. Beltran’s alleged presence during the 1992 CPP Plenum does not automatically make him a leader of a rebellion.

“In fact, Cachuela’s affidavit stated that Beltran attended the 1992 CPP Plenum as ‘Chairman, Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).’ Assuming that Beltran is a member of the CPP, which Beltran does not acknowledge, mere membership in the CPP does not constitute rebellion. As for the alleged funding of the CPP’s military equipment from Beltran’s congressional funds, Cachuela’s affidavit merely contained a general conclusion without any specific act showing such funding.”

Capulong interpreted the ruling of the Supreme Court’s Second Division to mean that none of the acts cited in the evidences can be taken as criminal acts for which the accused could be held liable.

“That will apply to everybody, that will be a very good precedent,” Capulong said. “Because almost all the accused were, as claimed by the testimony of the witnesses, present in one or another Central Committee meeting or Plenum. The Supreme Court said that just because you were there is not sufficient evidence that you participated in the rebellion.

“That observation of the Court means that for (leaders and members of) legal organizations (to be indicted for rebellion), a greater and higher degree of proof is required than mere (alleged) presence in a meeting –- Plenum, Central Committee meeting, meeting for tactical alliance and so forth.”

The decision of the Supreme Court’s Second Division in the case of Beltran, et al v. Gonzalez, et al may be farther-reaching than the High Tribunal’s ruling on People of the Philippines v. Hernandez, et al.

Hernandez, a writer and labor leader during the late 1040s and early 1950s, was arrested in 1951 and convicted by the lower court of rebellion complex with murder, arson and other crimes. Among the evidences presented against him were affidavits alleging that he was a member of the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) who went by the aliases Victor and Soliman and advocated communist theory.

While the Supreme Court en banc ruled in People v. Hernandez, et al that all acts committed in the pursuit of rebellion are subsumed under the charge of rebellion – meaning that there is no such crime as rebellion complexed with murder, arson and other crimes – it also stated in its decision that mere membership in the Communist Party, and advocacy of communist theory, do not amount to rebellion.

The decision of the Supreme Court’s Second Division in the case of Beltran, et al v. Gonzalez, et al goes a step further, in that while it stops short of disproving the allegation that Beltran and the others were present in meetings of the CPP, it states that mere participation in such meetings is not the same as being the leader of a rebellion.

With that, how will it be possible for the government to file another trumped up charge of rebellion against those from the Left, if the decision is not reversed by the Supreme Court en banc? “To be honest, I don’t know how,” Capulong said. Bulatlat

HINDI IYAN ANG AMING HINAHANAP
Alexander Martin Remollino

Bakit iyan ang ibinigay ninyo sa amin?
Hindi iyan ang aming hinahanap.

Ang aming hinahanap
ay hindi ang inyong paboritong mga kanta --
mga kantang may mga titik nga ay walang sinasabi,
mga kantang may himig nga'y walang ipinaririnig --
mga kantang walang paiindakin
kundi yaong ang mga utak
ay nasa mga kuko sa kanilang mga paa.

Ang aming hinahanap
ay mga

kasama
kapatid
kaibigan

na iwinalang parang mga bula
at ngayo'y hindi namin malaman-laman
kung ipagtitirik na ba ng mga kandila
o aantaying isang araw ay biglang magpakita.
Sila'y mga taong
naglagay ng sariling mga buhay sa panganib
alang-alang sa pangarap
na lahat ay mabuhay nang walang panganib --
at sila'y iwinalang parang mga bula
ng mga duwag, mga natatakot
na matupad ang kanilang mga pangarap.

Ang aming hinahanap

ay kalayaan
at katarungan.

Ito ang aming hinahanap.
at hindi ang inyong paboritong mga kantang
walang paiindaking sinuman
kundi yaong ang mga utak
ay nasa mga kuko sa kanilang mga paa.

Huwag iyan ang ibigay ninyo sa amin.

DO NOT PUKE AT THE SIGHT OF THE SOIL
Alexander Martin Remollino

Do not puke at the sight of the soil.
It is not as dirty as you think.
It is not as dirty as it looks.
Even if littered with manure and other wastes,
the soil is still a thousand times cleaner
than any, any of the hands
that desecrated the wishes of the people.

MAGUINDANAO, SULU, LANAO DEL SUR: 2007
Alexander Martin Remollino

Maguindanao, Sulu, Lanao del Sur:
doon pinagpasyahan ng iilan ang kapasyahan ng bayan.
Doo'y nakapaghalal ang mga taumbayan
nang di naghahalal:
sa maraming bayan sa mga lalawigang iyon,
ni hindi nila nahipo ang mga balota.

Isang milyon halos ang mga botong mula roon,
mga botong isinulat ng mga kamay
na karamiha'y hindi nakahawak ng balota --
isang milyon halos na botong kung ibilang na lahat
ay sapat upang itakda ang kapalaran
ng dalawang mahigpit na naglalabang koalisyon.

Maguindanao, Sulu, Lanao del Sur:
doon ibinaba ng iilan ang hatol ng mga mamamayan
sa karampot na kriminal na ayaw maparusahan.

CENTERSTAGE: ARMM

As the national canvassing of votes for the recently-concluded senatorial and local elections continues to go full-swing, all eyes are on the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) -– as massive fraud is alleged to have taken place in two of the region’s provinces while failure of elections has been declared in another.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Election Watch
Vol. VII, No. 16 May 27-June 2, 2007

As the national canvassing of votes for the recently-concluded senatorial and local elections continues to go full-swing, all eyes are on the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) –- Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Shariff Kabunsuan, Lanao del Sur, Marawi City, and Maguindanao –- as massive fraud is alleged to have taken place in two of the region’s provinces while failure of elections has been declared in another.

Maguindanao and Sulu have aroused controversy for both delivering 12-0 victories for the administration coalition Team Unity. Meanwhile, a failure of election had been declared in 14 of the municipalities of Lanao del Sur.

The ARMM has a combined total of 1,381,467 registered voters, based on data from the regional office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) there. Maguindanao has 212,795; Shariff Kabunsuan has 198,278; Lanao del Sur and Marawi City have 396,913; Basilan has 182,020; Sulu has 251,223; and Tawi-Tawi has 140, 238.

The size of the voting population in either Maguindanao or Sulu can affect the 11th and 12th slots in the senatorial race.

Based on the official Comelec count as of 7:30 p.m., May 25, Genuine Opposition candidates Antonio Trillanes IV and Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel are in the 11th and 12th slots, respectively.

The total number of registered voters in the entire ARMM is statistically enough to affect the rankings of all senatorial candidates.

Uncanvassed returns, pre-filled ballots

A May 25 report from the Task Force Poll Watch (TFPW) -– a joint effort by the progressive party-list bloc and the Genuine Opposition to monitor the counting of votes – reveals that up to 190 election returns (ERs) and 38 ballot boxes have yet to be canvassed in Pagalungan, Maguindanao.

“Up to now, the authorized Comelec officer has yet to collect the election returns and the 38 ballot boxes,” said Faizal Kalantungan, a member of Maguindanao’s Board of Election Inspectors (BEI), in an affidavit signed yesterday.

Kalantungan’s affidavit, which TFPW used as reference for its May 25 report sent to media, comes as a shocking disclosure considering that the Magundanao certificate of canvass (CoC) had been submitted to the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), where the Comelec en banc is conducting the national canvassing of votes.

A TFPW fact-finding team sent to investigate the reported fraud in Maguindanao discovered that the 190 uncanvassed ERs mentioned in Kalantungan’s affidavit contained all the votes for eight out of 12 barangays (villages) in Pagalungan.

“It is highly irregular that the Provincial Board of Canvassers already finished canvassing ‘votes’ in Maguindanao while the ERs remain in the custody of poll officers at the municipal level,” said Satur Ocampo, first nominee of Bayan Muna (People First) which is among the initiators of TFPW.

“This is a clear case of election sabotage, a criminal and election offense,” Ocampo also said.

Kalantungan’s revelation comes on the heels of reports that teachers serving as election officials in Maguindanao were literally forced to deliver a 12-0 victory for senatorial candidates belonging to the administration coalition Team Unity.

In a news conference on May 20, the poll monitoring group Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente) –- headed by lawyer Carlos Medina –- stated that a teacher from Maguindanao had talked to its volunteers and said that election officials were ordered at gunpoint to fill the ballots with the names of Team Unity senatorial candidates, starting with those of Luis “Chavit” Singson and Prospero Pichay.

Aside from Singson and Pichay, Team Unity’s other senatorial candidates are: Juan Miguel Zubiri, Mike Defensor, Jamalul Kiram, Ralph Recto, Joker Arroyo, Mike Defensor, Edgardo Angara, Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, Teresa Aquino-Oreta, and Cesar Montano.

Not only that -– students and other children playing around on the school grounds were asked to mark the ballots with thumbprints and sign their names on the voters’ list.

Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos has warned of the possibility of penalty should the Maguindanao teacher’s allegation “fail” to be substantiated. “We are also looking at the other side because unverified, invalidated reports, which cause alarm to our people, should not be tolerated and should not be left unpunished,” the Comelec chairman said in a press conference on May 22.

Lente even stated that the teacher said no actual voting took place in Maguindanao. “We request the Comelec to send an investigation team and talk to the common folk, look for indelible ink on their fingers because the teacher said the ink was not used,” Medina said.

Alongside Lente’s exposé came a report from Eric Alvia, secretary-general of the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), that Maguindanao Comelec officers withheld copies of provincial ERs from Namfrel volunteers.

Fr. Eduardo Tanudtanud, Namfrel’s Maguindanao chairman, said their volunteers were told that municipal election officers issued a verbal order to withhold the release of all copies of the ERs –- including the copy for Namfrel.

Sulu

It is not only in Maguindanao that such occurrences have been reported. There were reports of similar occurrences in Sulu.

On election day, lawyer Raissa Jajurie, the only Lente lawyer assigned to Sulu, visited a number of polling precincts in the said province. “I was really taken aback by the massive cheating in the area,” she said in an account published in Mindanews.

This, she said, is what she witnessed in a school in one town (the identity of which she requested to be withheld):

“When I arrived, many of the rooms where the precincts were conducting business were closed, with a military guard right outside the door. When I tried to get in, I was told by the military that I could not, even if I showed him my (canvassing) ID.

“I peeped in and saw that there were people inside. I tried my luck in another building. I was able to get in. And I was shocked to see the BEIs (Board of Election Inspectors) writing on the ballots which had already been thumbmarked. They were writing the same list of candidates on each of the ballots. A man with a bolo was also near the BEI. A ballot box was open (without padlock) while ballots were being placed inside it.

“I saw the same thing (BEI writing on the ballots) being done in two precincts stationed on a stage (it is a school campus). When the BEI and other people around them realized that I was watching them, they whispered to each other but continued with their task. When I left, someone approached me and asked me what I was doing. I told him I’m a watcher, and showed him my IDs.”

In another school in the same town, Jajurie said, there were people “assisting” the voters. “There was no vote secrecy and voters, watchers and ‘other people’ were mingling in the rooms,” she said.

Jajurie said she had information that there were similar incidents in other towns in Sulu, but she admitted she had no opportunity to visit other areas.

The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has called for the declaration of a failure of elections in Sulu on account of what it described as the “massive fraud” that transpired in the said province.

“Déjà vu”

In its preliminary post-election report released May 21, the election monitoring group Kontra Daya (Anti-Fraud) –- which has among its conveners former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Jr., Fr. Joe Dizon, former Transportation and Communication Secretary Josie Lichauco, film director Carlitos Siguion Reyna, retired Army Col. Gerry Cunanan, and National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera –- noted that the occurrences in the ARMM seemed like a repeat of what transpired in the 2004 elections, where the said region was reportedly a major operating center.

“Kontra Daya finds significant the reports of Maguindanao province delivering a 12-0 sweep for administration senatorial candidates,” the group stated in its report. “There are incoming reports that Sulu province is also poised to deliver a 12-0 sweep for Team Unity. Such an overnight sweep, which the government attributes to overwhelming popular support for the administration, simply strains credulity.”

Kontra Daya has accused Malacañang of engaging in “large-scale electoral fraud” to favor its candidates in the senatorial and party-list elections. It has also denounced the Comelec for being “directly complicit with the Arroyo administration” in perpetuating fraud. Bulatlat