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

PAGKAKAIT NG KATAHIMIKAN
Alexander Martin Remollino

Sa mga kaanak at kaibigan ni Jonas Burgos at ng iba pang biktima ng sapilitang pagkawala

Kabilang sa inaangkin nilang mga pribilehiyo
ng kanilang katungkulan at uniporme
ang karapatang ipagkait ang katahimikan
sa pinakatahimik man nating mga gabi.
Ilan nang kaanak at kaibigan
na nakitalad upang ang lipunan ng mga tao
ay maging karapat-dapat sa mga tao
ang kanilang pinapaglahong parang mga bula,
at tayo'y kanilang isinadlak
sa walang-katapusang pakikipagtalo sa mga sarili
hinggil sa kung ang nawawalang mga kaanak at kaibigan
ay aalayan na kaya ng mga elehiya
o patuloy na aantaying kumatok isang araw
sa mga pinto ng ating mga tahanan at tanggapan
o biglang sumulpot sa ating mga pagtitipon.

Dahil dito,
atin naman ang karapatang ipagkait sa kanila
ang katahimikan ng tiyak na pagkakaupo
sa mga luklukan ng kapangyarihan.
Atin ang karapatang ibitin ng buhok
sa tapat ng kanilang mga ulo
ang espada ni Damocles.

IT WAS NOT A ONE-SHOT DEAL FOR YOU
Alexander Martin Remollino

For Carlos Bulosan

Your courage does not lie in a one-time sigh of disappointment
at a seductive dream that turned out to be a nightmare.
Your life was a lifetime and a hundred of rage
against man's inhumanity to man.
From that fateful encounter with moneyed boors
at that market in your native Pangasinan
to your last days in America
(when you were too weak to even punch the typewriter's keys),
you were fighting for a truly human society.

It is not those one-hit wonders who can fully honor you.
It was not a one-shot deal for you
but a struggle lasting beyond a lifetime.

SOLDIERS ORDERED TO VOTE FOR TEAM UNITY, DND EMPLOYEE CONFIRMS

In an interview with Bulatlat, an employee at the Department of National Defense corroborated reports that soldiers were instructed to vote 12-0 for the administration senatorial candidates as well as a military-backed party-list group.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

In an interview with Bulatlat, an employee at the Department of National Defense (DND) corroborated reports that soldiers were instructed to vote 12-0 for the senatorial candidates of the administration coalition Team Unity, as well as the party-list group Bantay (The True Marcos Loyalist) –- which has retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, Jr. as its first nominee.

Soldiers are among those covered by the Absentee Voting Law -– which allows voting ahead of schedule. Also covered by the said law are overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), policemen, and teachers performing election duties.

“They had orders to vote straight for Team Unity, and to vote for Bantay,” the DND employee -– who asked not to be named for security reasons -– told Bulatlat in an interview.

Team Unity’s candidates are: Edgardo Angara, Joker Arroyo, Mike Defensor, Jamalul Kiram, Vicente Magsaysay, Cesar Montano, Teresa Aquino-Oreta, Prospero Pichay Jr., Ralph Recto, Luis “Chavit” Singson, Vicente Sotto III and Juan Miguel Zubiri. Based on a list of party-list nominees recently released by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) upon orders following a Supreme Court ruling, Bantay’s other nominees aside from Palparan are: Ramon Garcia, Benjamin Angeles, Alan Guevara, and Agnes Reaño.

“General Esperon himself issued the order,” the DND employee said, referring to Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

The DND employee’s revelation corroborates the allegations made by a Col. Romeo A. Solina of the Philippine Army in a statement now circulating through the Internet. Solina’s letter was originally posted on the website http://sundalo.bravehost.com/, and began circulating around the Internet late last week.

“Information reportedly given by soldiers from different areas in the country claim that they were supervised by their commanders and ordered to vote straight Team Unity and for party list Bantay of retired general Palparan,” Solina said in his statement. “The soldiers come from Tarlac, from Samar, and from Davao. Personally, I also have my own informant confirming the same. Although out of the service, I still have a few soldiers in the active service who maintain contact with me.”

Before Solina’s statement started to circulate, senatorial candidate and former Navy officer Antonio Trillanes IV –- who is presently detained on mutiny charges -– had also told reporters that Esperon had issued a radio message to soldiers ordering them to “ensure victory” for Team Unity.

Esperon has denied the allegations of Trillanes, saying it is the military’s policy to remain non-partisan. “Internally, we have not been given or been giving instructions to our soldiers, officers and men, to vote for particular candidates and party-list groups,” the AFP chief of staff also told media.

Solina, however, is not convinced. “If he is telling the truth, then he has lost control of the AFP because someone in the organization can give out operational orders without his knowledge,” he said in his statement.

“And even if these orders really came from him, these may be ignored and disobeyed,” Solina added.

The DND employee expressed a similar view in the interview with Bulatlat. “I don’t know why the soldiers allowed themselves to be used in this manner,” the DND employee said. Bulatlat

QUO VADIS, GENUINE OPPOSITION?
Q & A with Atty. Adel Tamano, Genuine Opposition spokesperson

In this year’s senatorial elections, the Genuine Opposition is by all indications leading the race. What will it do if it is cheated -– or it does win?

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat


In this year’s senatorial elections, the Genuine Opposition is by all indications leading the race. All credible opinion surveys point to the Genuine Opposition as very likely to win the majority of the senatorial seats up for grabs in this year’s polls.



In its website, the Genuine Opposition describes itself as "the umbrella political coalition party of the opposition’s senatorial and local line-up for the 2007 Philippine Midterm Elections." It is further described as a "multi-party and multi-sectoral coalition" which includes the United Opposition (UNO), the Liberal Party, the Nacionalista Party, the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), Aksyon Demokratiko, PDP-Laban, the Partido ng Masang Pilipino (Party of the A Filipino Masses), and a number of civil society groups.

Its candidates for the 2007 senatorial elections are: Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, Alan Peter Cayetano, Anna Dominique "Nikki" Coseteng, Francis "Chiz" Escudero, Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, Loren Legarda, John Henry Osmeña, Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III, Sonia Roco, Antonio Trillanes IV and Manuel Villar.

The Genuine Opposition’s lead in all credible opinion polls shows that the coalition will win hands down in a clean and honest election.

The coalition’s lead over the administration’s Team Unity ticket is interpreted as a reflection of the electorate’s disgust with the Arroyo administration –- which is under fire from various quarters for massive human rights violations, corruption, and imposition of policies described as "anti-national and anti-people."

In what direction is the Genuine Opposition headed? What will it do if it is cheated in the coming elections? What will it do if it does win in the coming elections?

This interview with lawyer Adel Tamano, the Genuine Opposition’s spokesman, aims to provide answers to these questions.

How does the Genuine Opposition assess the conduct of its campaign thus far?

From the surveys, consistently we’ve been doing quite well. The surveys have been consistent that at least seven to eight of our candidates will come in.

So within the context that we don’t have much funds and logistics, and our opponents have so much funds and so much logistics, and we’re the underdogs because we’re not in power and yet in the surveys we're leading -- I think that's a testimony to the effectivity of our campaign.

Many are curious about why the Genuine Opposition did not field candidates in many of the local positions. Is there an explanation for that?

We have 50 percent of the candidates for provincial posts, we have 69 percent in the congressional districts, 25 percent of mayoral posts. Now, it may appear that we have a shortage of candidates.

But we have set up already an anti-poll fraud team that would cover 95 percent of municipalities. Because the next question would be, "How can you protect your votes?" In spite of the lack of candidates, the scope, the reach of our pollwatchers will be enough.

The Liberal Party, which is part of the Genuine Opposition coalition, has been accredited as the dominant minority party. Because of that, they will be able to get the election returns at the municipal level, which is the primary document used for canvassing and to assail the canvass.

So that is where we will get our protection.

As a related point, we don’t really believe that there is a command vote anymore, in the sense that Filipinos are maturing politically. So in spite of the claimed command votes, I think the Filipinos will really choose to vote on their own, regardless of what their political leaders say, and we’re putting our hopes on that also.

Team Unity spokespersons have been going around the entire country telling people that their so-called "political machinery" will ensure them a 12-0 victory in the coming elections. What do you make of this?

You know, I was just at a forum with Noynoy Aquino, and what he said was good, he had good insights.

In 2004 he campaigned with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He was a part of their slate, he was actually administration before, and he joined the opposition only in 2005. They campaigned really hard throughout Luzon then.

This is the same machinery, basically, that they’re tapping for the 2007 elections. And in Luzon in 2004 –- and it was just one person that they were really pushing for, it was just GMA. GMA only won in two provinces: Pampanga and Tarlac. So this goes to show you that this machinery actually, it's vaunted, but in real practice, in application, this showed the weakness of the machinery. Because in 2004 they were campaigning for only one person, and yet she only won in Tarlac and Pampanga, which is her own base. Now they're campaigning for a full 12 slate, and as Congressman Noynoy said –- since he has been in elective office for nine years –- if you ask the local leaders to add one or two candidates to the senatorial slate, it’s easy… But once you start doing four, five, six – the local officials will say, boss, that's no longer easy, because the amount of work they will have to do –- first to campaign, if the candidates are really palatable; and if they're not palatable, to cheat in order to get that result –- it would just be too much for the local candidates. So on the basis of that, he sees that it’s not gonna happen, this 12-0 boast. It’s not gonna happen. It's been proven. It’s really not possible.

There has been no closure on what happened to Fernando Poe, Jr.’s votes in 2004, as well as on the "Hello Garci" tapes. Do you expect a repeat of these scenarios in the next elections?

Two things:

First, we hope it won’t happen again because if we felt really that there was no more credibility in the election process, then one of the options for the opposition would have been to boycott. And there were calls, really, to boycott the elections. So our participation shows that we still believe in the process, that's number one.

Number two, this is not the same opposition as in 2004. We have learned from our mistakes and also from the cheating methods that they undertook in 2004, and we’re more prepared for that and we're taking the necessary steps to protect the votes and to ensure that "Hello Garci" doesn’t happen again.

Because we really believe that the country is not ready and cannot take another "Hello Garci" scandal.

Now, going to the legislative agenda of the Genuine Opposition…

We have 10 agenda points. They’re pretty broad, but you can see common threads. Our advocacies –- one common theme in all of them is that we are not promising to do something we cannot do. At the start of the campaign period, there were some discussions on, "How about we promise to give a P200 wage increase?" or "Why don’t we promise that we'll scrap the EVAT (Expanded Value-Added Tax) Law?" but we felt that as an organization, we would lose our credibility. Even if we win on that platform and we don't deliver, we would lose our credibility… In the long term, our credibility, we give it more importance than the short-term gain of promising so many things. I think the common thread in our legislative agenda is that it’s doable. For example, we want a moratorium on new taxes. That is doable. So we do not promise anything we cannot achieve, we want that to be one of the hallmarks of the Genuine Opposition, which is that we promise to do only that which we can do.

In the Genuine Opposition’s legislative agenda, there is an item which says something about instituting reforms “to make the economy more dynamic, efficient and equitable and make the Filipino workers and enterprises more globally competitive.” Would it be reasonable to expect then that these reforms would be taking place within the framework of the globalization program?

Yes, it’s reasonable to… Well, globalization, that is a tie that we cannot really go against. It’s here. We don't have to create a program for that: it’s here. It’s a reality that we face, and…

One of the things also that you’ll notice in our legislative agenda is we did not make it too specific. Because we want to give our opposition senators the leeway to make investigations and to decide which way they're going to go. So for example, to institute the necessary reforms to make us more globally competitive, I cannot give you a very specific answer to what specifically we would do, because we really want to also have the flexibility.

But underlying that is the idea that we feel that there must be not just economic growth, but an equitable distribution of that growth. Because we feel that you can have 5 percent GNP (Gross National Product) growth and even 10 percent GNP growth, but if poverty still remains at about 53 percent, then you don’t really call that a success. In fact, one of our primary beliefs is that one of the first freedoms is freedom from poverty, and until we achieve that, we’re not going to have a free society.

One of the items in the agenda that I noticed as being more specific is that on increased budgetary allocation for education.

Yes, under the Constitution, education should be given the top budgetary priority. Unfortunately now, under the current dispensation, the number one budgetary priority is debt servicing. Now, of course that’s a complicated issue, there are a lot of pros and cons to that, but for us, we want to give life to the letter and spirit of the Constitution. In fact, if you take a look at the 2007 budget, even the ranking –- number one is of course, debt servicing, while education is not even at numbers two, three and four –- it’s number five, if I'm not mistaken. Ahead of that are the allocations for the military, infrastructure – education is not as high on the priority list for this administration, and in fact on a per capita basis, expenditure for education has gone down by about P200 per student, and that shows you that we really have a long way to go.

Another thing is the generation of jobs "through labor-intensive infrastructure projects in the rural areas."

We feel the big projects, capital-intensive projects do not take full advantage, or do not take full account of our competitive advantage. Our competitive advantage is labor. We have cheap labor, we have plentiful labor, and our labor is actually skilled.

And yet we’re focusing on mega-buck projects. The focus on mega-buck projects is because it is easy to get cuts and kickbacks from these, as opposed to a project that is labor-intensive. So we feel that there should be a shift of emphasis, we feel that we should make the most use of our comparative advantage.

And that’s why we’re pushing for more labor-intensive industries, technologies, etc.

Just for clarification: aren’t the jobs to be generated from these projects more short-term in nature, or are they also long-term?

Of course, whenever you make a plan for job generation, you have to look at the short-term, the medium-term, and the long-term. Now these labor-intensive projects are varied –- again, I cannot really specify, like what specific project we're going to implement, because you have to see what the needs are.

The principle is sound that instead of more on the capital-intensive, focus on the labor-intensive.

So whether it’s short-term, medium-term or long-term -– at least you are able to address the issues of unemployment, underemployment. Of course we want...

It’s not just job generation per se, it’s also quality of jobs, it’s jobs that really give you the sufficient income to keep body and soul together. For us –- in this country it’s not just the lack of jobs, in this country you can have a job and still be poor. Obviously at a 53 percent poverty self-rating, we don’t have a 53 percent unemployment rate. Which just goes to show you that there are many people who are employed but consider themselves as poor. So that’s how we differ with more developed countries. In developed countries if you have any job, even a minimum-wage job, you don’t consider yourself poor, because it’s enough to take care of yourself and your family, unlike in our country.

A recent study by the World Bank put forward the observation that our extreme dependence on overseas remittances is not sustainable in the long term. What then can you say about the labor export policy being implemented by the government?

Let’s go back 30 years: in the 1970s, when we had our first OFWs (overseas Filipino woorkers) leave the country –- I know this because I used to teach Labor Law –- if you take a look at the original administrative orders, the original quasi-legislative papers, memoranda that were issued by the Office of the President, their perception really was that this OFW phenomenon would be a short-term phenomenon. The thinking was that this was brought about by the –- at that time was the oil shortage, the OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) –- their feeling was that it would only be short-term. In fact the idea was, eventually all these guys are going to return and everything would be normal. Because if you ask any Filipino, he’d rather stay home, right? Except the really rich ones who are more cosmopolitan.

But it persisted. Instead of being a short-term problem, it became a long-term problem. And in fact, this is a bit radical –- this is no longer the Genuine Opposition’s position, this is my own analysis –- one of the reasons why we don’t become competitive is that no matter what we do, no matter how badly we run this economy, we will always have that buffer, the OFW remittance that keeps the economy afloat. That’s the only reason this GMA economy is still afloat, it’s because of the OFW remittance.

So it’s both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing in the sense that of course we don’t want our people, we don’t want our economy to be destroyed, but it’s also a curse because it makes us lazy: it doesn’t force us to be competitive.

So it’s a very complex problem, what to do is to set up the legal and financial framework. Legal framework means we want to protect our OFWs, we want to strengthen the powers of the embassies and consuls to provide legal protection for our laborers. As an additional point, maybe give them insurance, other types of benefits outside of our country. And then the other component is the micro-financial component, because what we want is for our laborers, when they come back, if they save enough money, the government can give them some funding to set up small and medium enterprises so they don’t have to leave. I mean, that really should be the long-term thinking. The OFW phenomenon, it’s not a one-time phenomenon. We think they leave and don’t come back. But they go back and forth... Contracts, and then they come back and they spend all their money, and then leave again. It’s like that, it’s multiple exit and entry. And we have to really set up the legal and financial system so that if they return and they have money already, some savings, let’s give them micro-financing.

So they don’t have to keep coming back, because there’s a big social cost involved. You have to understand also that while economically it’s advantageous to us, the social cost –- in terms of families being destroyed, even increase in AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) amongst OFWs, health risks, of course those who get jailed or killed abroad –- all of these are social cost incurred because of the OFW phenomenon.

You know, I studied abroad, and I never met any -– even those who have fairly decent jobs –- (who would rather stay abroad). If you ask them, "If you could have the exact same job that pays the exact same amount of money in the Philippines, would you rather stay here in the United States?" and the answer is, "No, we’d rather stay in the Philippines." But precisely because they have no options, that’s why they leave our country.

I was at a recent miting de avance, and one of the performers there -– before giving his number – said something to the effect that the Philippines is presently "in danger" of having to go through another 1986-type scenario. Do you agree with that observation?

Well, if we’re talking about the 1986 scenario, if I recall in 1986 we won back our democracy because of People Power, so I don’t see anything so wrong with that. It’s not that I advocate revolution, but rather, if he was speaking in behalf of the administration –-

No, he was speaking against the administration.

Okay, if he was speaking against the administration, that’s something to look forward to –- that we’ll actually reclaim our democracy.

But I don’t want it to get to that point. The Genuine Opposition, our stand has been clear and in fact Joker Arroyo, at the start of the election period, said, "Well, the reason I didn’t join you is because you support revolution, you support unconstitutional means," so immediately we answered back and said, "That’s untrue, precisely we are participating in this election because we support constitutional processes in order to obtain reform." We do not want to have to go through that level, where we would have a revolution, in order to have reforms. We feel that there are sufficient constitutional processes under the rule of law that we can get the reforms through. Bulatlat

THE POLITICS OF THE FEW, THE CHALLENGES TO THE MANY
Oligarchic Politics by Francis A. Gealogo, Roland G. Simbulan, Ely H. Manalansan, Jr., Felix P. Muga II, Bobby M. Tuazon, Temario C. Rivera, and Danilo Araña Arao
Published by the Center for People Empowerment in Governance

Oligarchic Politics, published by the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), is a timely book considering that the Filipino electorate is again in the midst of an election season. The questions it raises and the answers it strives to provide, however, deal with issues the relevance of which will last beyond the coming electoral exercise.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

Politics in the Philippines is often observed to be largely an enclave of the country’s moneyed and privileged classes. A new book published by the policy study institution Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), Oligarchic Politics –- set to be launched May 8 at the Balai Kalinaw, University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City –- tells why this observation is sound.

Oligarchic Politics dissects the political party system in the Philippines, but gives special focus to the party-list bloc.

In his essay “History of Political Parties in the Philippines,” historian Francis A. Gealogo of the Ateneo de Manila University traces the roots of Philippine political parties to the American colonial period. He gives two reasons for their origins:

The first was the realized need by the American colonizers to put forward a viable avenue for political participation by Filipinos as a counterpoint to the armed resistance of the Filipino revolutionaries against colonial occupation. The electoral exercise and the attendant formation of political parties will therefore present itself as an alternative reaction to American rule by Filipinos who would otherwise be involved in armed resistance. The second is the need to attract a significant number of Filipino elites into the fold of colonial governance. The electoral process would ensure elite participation in the colonial political project of integrating the well-to-do members of the society to the institutionalization of the colonial administrative control over the population.

Roland G. Simbulan, a former Faculty Regent at UP, analyzes Philippine traditional politics since the 1986 downfall of the Marcos dictatorship in “Contemporary Politics in the Philippines: The Configuration of Post-Edsa I Political Parties,” using in part research by Cyrus Alanis. He puts forward in this essay the view that what happened after the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos from the presidency was not the restoration of “democracy” as claimed by some journalists and historians, but the restoration of what he calls “the trappings of the undeveloped and distorted party system”: elite domination and the “ideological monotony” of the mainstream political parties.

The succeeding chapter, “The Philippine Party-List System: Opportunities, Limitations and Prospects” by Ely H. Manalansan, Jr., provides a historical perspective on the Philippine party-list system. Manalansan, who was involved with a number of research institutions before working as a staff researcher at the House of Representatives, lays bare in his essay the bitter irony that while the party-list system is mandated to serve as a mechanism by which marginalized sectors may be represented in Congress, it is itself marginalized in the overall scheme of things.

He cites the proliferation of “party-list groups” that are appendages of traditional political parties and, worse, adjuncts of the incumbent administration. Manalansan also documents several instances in which the bills filed by progressive party-list groups were blocked, citing as a case in point the recall of Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) Rep. Crispin Beltran’s bill for a P125 across-the-board, nationwide wage increase for private-sector workers after it was approved at the House of Representatives. He also cites the political persecution of progressive party-list representatives.

In the end, Manalansan points to the progressive party-list bloc as the force that makes the party-list system really work for those sectors of society it is supposed to serve. As he says:

Not only have they done the most in terms of legislations for the masses they represent, they likewise represent what genuine party-lists of the masses should be doing in Congress. Without them, prospects for the party-list system appear not very promising, even dreary. It may lead to party-lists becoming instruments of traditional political parties, as in fact is the trajectory of interests of elitists in government.

Meanwhile, in two essays -– “The Negation of the Party-List Law on the Principle of Proportional Representation” and “On Stakeholder-Based Allocation Method: A Fair Allocation of Power in the Philippine Party-List System,” Feliz P. Muga II, an associate professor of Mathematics at the Ateneo de Manila University, dissects the mathematics behind the principle of proportional representation in the party-list system.

The next chapter after Muga’s two essays –- “The Future of Oligarchic Politics and the Party-List System” by Bobby M. Tuazon, CenPEG’s Policy Study, Publication and Advocacy (PSPA) program director –- projects a not-so-bright future for the party-list system, with conditions having become “less and less favorable for its full realization” as he says, but nonetheless counsels the progressive bloc not to give up the struggle in the electoral arena even as he reminds that it is not only through electoral or parliamentary struggle that what he calls “real governance” can evolve.

In “The Crisis of Philippine Electoral Democracy,” Temario C. Rivera, a professor of Comparative Politics and International Relations at the International Christian University of Tokyo, examines what he considers the two “critical problems” of Philippine electoral democracy: the elitist mode of representation and the lack of accountability and its continuing political instability. “A clear alternative to this status quo lies in building up a strong and more representative and accountable party system that can challenge elite dominance of electoral processes,” Rivera writes.

The last chapter, “Elections, Personality Politics and the Mass Media” by UP Journalism professor Danilo Araña Arao, criticizes the personality-based orientation of much of media coverage of elections, and reminds journalists of their task “to ensure a comprehensive discussion of issues concerning politics, economics and culture and consequently transcend personality politics that characterizes campaigns during elections.”

Oligarchic Politics is a timely book considering that the Filipino electorate is again in the midst of an election season. The questions it raises and the answers it strives to provide, however, deal with issues the relevance of which will last beyond the coming electoral exercise. Bulatlat

PALACE SUPPORT FOR PRO-GLORIA PARTY-LISTS A GROUND FOR IMPEACHMENT

Both Art. VI, Sec. 5 of the Constitution and Republic Act No. 7941 expressly reserve the party-list system for marginalized and underrepresented groups. The Supreme Court, in one of its landmark decisions, brought the matter further by explicitly barring groups linked to or supported by the government from participating in the party-list system.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

Should it be proven that Malacañang disbursed funds in support of pro-administration party-list groups, it could constitute an impeachable offense on the part of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Both Art. VI, Sec. 5 of the Constitution and Republic Act No. 7941 expressly reserve the party-list system for marginalized and underrepresented groups. The Supreme Court, in one of its landmark decisions, brought the matter further by explicitly barring groups linked to or supported by the government from participating in the party-list system.

In its decision on the 2001 case Ang Bagong Bayani-OFW Labor Party v. Commission on Elections, et al, the Supreme Court issued eight guidelines for screening party-list participants. The fifth guideline states thus:

x x x (The) party or organization must not be an adjunct of, or a project organized or an entity funded or assisted by, the government. By the very nature of the party-list system, the party or organization must be a group of citizens, organized by citizens and operated by citizens. It must be independent of the government. The participation of the government or its officials in the affairs of a party-list candidate is not only illegal and unfair to other parties, but also deleterious to the objective of the law: to enable citizens belonging to marginalized and underrepresented sectors and organizations to be elected to the House of Representatives.

The issue of government-backed party-list groups participating in the elections was recently brought to the fore when militant organizations and party-list groups including Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) and Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) exposed a memorandum to the Office of the President from the Special Concerns Group of the Office of External Affairs (OEA-SCG), which is headed by Assistant Secretary Marcelo Fariñas II.

The memorandum is reported to have been leaked by a disgruntled OEA employee. Fariñas has denied issuing the memorandum.

The memorandum, dated Oct. 16, 2006 and bearing Fariñas' signature, refers to an administration party-list campaign with the following objectives:

“1. Provide full support to several COMELEC accredited (party-list) groups that are ascertained to be pro-administration and ensure the winning of nine (9) to twelve (12) seats in the House of Representatives;

“2. Form a party-list bloc that will support the plans and moves of the administration and help in countering destabilization moves by the opposition as well as left-leaning party-list groups; and

“3. Contribute in the overall campaign to substantially lower the number of votes of leftist and left-leaning party-list organizations, and in the process reduce the number of seats of these anti-administration parties in the House of Representatives.”

The memorandum –- of which Bulatlat received a copy courtesy of Migrante International –- specifically requests for “funding assistance” from the Office of the President's intelligence funds for the pro-administration party-list groups as well as the SCG.

Attached to the two-page memorandum is a “confidential” party-list campaign proposal including a proposed budget of P5.5 million from October to December 2006 ($107,192 based on the year's average exchange rate of $1:P51.31). The campaign proposal identifies the following as the four main party-list organizations to be supported: Agbiag! Timpuyog Ilocano (Agbiag!), Babae para sa Kaunlaran (Babae Ka or Women for Development), League of Youth for Peace and Development (LYPAD), and Kalahi Advocates for Overseas Filipinos (Kalahi).

Three of these groups –- Agbiag!, Babae Ka, and Kalahi –- are among 22 party-list organizations recently exposed as “Malacañang and AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) fronts” by the broad anti-fraud coalition Kontra Daya, which is led by former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Jr. and Fr. Joe Dizon. Agbiag!, Babae Ka, and Kalahi had all also figured in an earlier exposé by the party-list group Akbayan.

Fariñas himself is reported to be secretary-general and one of the nominees of Agbiag! Babae Ka is reportedly a member of Sigaw ng Bayan (People’s Clamor), a pro-administration group that last year spearheaded a campaign to amend the Constitution through "people's initiative" and has Sally Dagami and Ruth Vasquez as its first and second nominees, respectively. Kalahi has as its first nominee Poe Gratela, who claimed to be an activist before he went over to the administration camp in 2004, led in forming the pro-administration migrants' group Kaisang Bayan, and went on to work for the OEA until recently.

“If it is proven that Malacañang disbursed funds in support of those party-list groups, that violates the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act,” said Judge Cleto Villacorta, a member of the Board of Directors of the policy study institution Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), in an interview with Bulatlat. “That is also an impeachable offense.”

Sec. 3 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act No. 3019) classifies as a corrupt practice of public officers the act of:

Knowingly approving or granting any license, permit, privilege or benefit in favor of any person not qualified for or not legally entitled to such license, permit, privilege or advantage, or of a mere representative or dummy of one who is not so qualified or entitled.

Graft and corrupt practices is one of four impeachable offenses under the Constitution; the others are bribery, betrayal of public trust, and culpable violation of the Constitution.

The formation of these and other party-list groups with dubious connections and funding has been assailed as a move by Mrs. Arroyo to ensure additional votes that will be mobilized to thwart a possible third impeachment against her at the House of Representatives. It has also been denounced as part of government attempts to mangle the constitutional provision that calls for the representation of poor classes and sectors in the legislature and to evict the Left and other progressive groups from Congress. Bulatlat

MASSACRES BY SOLDIERS PROVOKED LATEST CLASH, MNLF LEADER SAYS

A series of massacres of civilians in Sulu, including those of two grandchildren of an MNLF leader, provoked the latest wave of fighting between government troops and the Moro revolutionary group.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

Last Feb. 17, Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) state chairman Khaid Ajibon sent two grandsons of his on an errand to the market in Indanan, Sulu. Upon their return, soldiers fired at them. One of the children was killed.

Eight days later, Scout Rangers bombarded the MNLF headquarters in Indanan, where Ajibon is based.

On April 25, Scout Rangers massacred a family of 10 in Timpuok, Patikul, Sulu. Only one of the family's members managed to survive.

These incidents are what provoked the latest wave of fighting between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the MNLF, Bangsamoro People’s National Congress (BPNC) chairman Ustadz Zain Jali told Bulatlat in an interview this week.

“Because of these, (MNLF commander) Ustadz Habier Malik has had enough,” Jali said. “He cannot take these anymore.”

At around 6 a.m. on April 14, MNLF forces led by Malik attacked the detachment of the 11th Marine Battalion Landing Team in Tayungan, Panamao, Sulu. The assault left two soldiers dead and eight others wounded.

Before the series of massacres that provoked the latest wave of clashes, Malik and his men had “detained” a group led by Muslim convert Marine Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino in Jolo, Sulu. That was on Feb. 2-4.

Dolorfino, who also uses the name Ben Muhammad, went with Undersecretary for Peace Ramon Santos and 13 others to the MNLF’s Camp Jabal Ubod in Panamao, Sulu in the morning of Feb. 2 to talk with MNLF representatives headed by Malik. The group included two colonels, a junior officer, nine enlisted men, and several members of Santos’ staff.

The talks were to tackle the holding of a tripartite meeting, proposed late last year by the MNLF, with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Organization of Islamic Conference.

In the afternoon of that same day, Dolorfino and his group were prevented from leaving the camp.

“General Dolorfino and his group were asked why the tripartite meeting had been postponed again, and Undersecretary Santos could not give any answer,” Jolo Councilor Cocoy Tulawie told Bulatlat in an earlier interview. “So they were prevented from leaving until the GRP and the OIC agreed to schedule a meeting for March 17.”

The proposed tripartite meeting was to tackle issues related to the 1996 Final Peace Agreement between the GRP and the MNLF.

The meeting scheduled for March 17 was to be a preliminary meeting in preparation for the tripartite meeting. “It didn’t push through,” Jali revealed.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is accusing the MNLF of coddling members of the bandit Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) –- an accusation that the Moro revolutionary group has vehemently denied.

“There is one group of people in Sulu tipping off others as ‘terrorists’ or ‘terrorist coddlers’ to the military, just for the bounty,” Jali disclosed. “That is why the military has these accusations against the MNLF.

Displacement

The fighting has displaced more than 40,000 civilians in Sulu. Some of the evacuees have been relocated at the Panglima Mamah Elementary School in Tagbak, Indanan, Sulu. The rest are in Jolo, the provincial capital –- where there are no evacuation centers.

“There are no sanitary conditions (in the evacuation center),” Jali told Bulatlat. “The dangers of epidemics breaking out there are very high.”

In a separate interview, Moro-Christian People’s Alliance (MCPA) secretary-general Amirah Ali Lidasan confirmed this.

“Within the confines of the evacuation centers, the refugees catch different diseases,” Lidasan, who is also one of the nominees of the Suara Bangsamoro (Voice of the Moro People) Party, said. “And the food is never enough for all of them.”

Flashback

The MNLF traces its origins to a massacre of between 28 and 64 Moro fighters recruited by the government in 1968 for a scheme to occupy Sabah, an island near Mindanao to which the Philippines has a historic claim.

Sabah ended up in the hands of the Malaysian government during the presidency of Diosdado Macapagal (1961-1965). His successor Ferdinand Marcos conceived a scheme involving the recruitment of Moro fighters to occupy the island.

The recruits were summarily executed by their military superiors in 1968, in what is now known as the infamous Jabidah Massacre.

The Jabidah Massacre triggered widespread outrage among the Moros and led to the formation of the MNLF that same year. The MNLF waged an armed revolutionary struggle against the GRP for an independent Muslim state in Mindanao.

The Marcos government, weighed down by the costs of the Mindanao war, negotiated for peace and signed an agreement with the MNLF in Tripoli, Libya in the mid-1970s. The pact involved the grant of autonomy to the Mindanao Muslims.

Negotiations between the GRP and the MNLF went on and off until 1996, when the two parties signed a Final Peace Agreement which created the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as a concession to the group.

Sulu is one of four provinces under the ARMM: the others are Basilan, Maguindanao, and Tawi-Tawi.

In October 2001, hostilities broke out anew between the GRP and the MNLF. The military was in hot pursuit of Abu Sayyaf bandits who had abducted tourists in Sipadan, Malaysia. At one point, the military had announced the defeat of an “Abu Sayyaf” contingent in Talipao, Sulu.

The MNLF, however, said that it was its guerrillas, not Abu Sayyaf bandits, who were killed by the military.

The massacre in Talipao led the MNLF, just five years after signing a peace agreement with the government, to once more take up arms. MNLF founding chairman Nur Misuari, a former political science professor at the University of the Philippines (UP) who was then ARMM governor, said the Talipao Massacre was a “violation” of the 1996 Peace Agreement.

Misuari, who was then in Malaysia, ended up being arrested and subsequently detained in a military camp in Sta. Rosa, Laguna (38 kms south of Manila) and charged with rebellion. He is currently under house arrest in New Manila, Quezon City while still facing rebellion charges.

Since 2001, there has been sporadic fighting between the AFP and the MNLF. The waves of fighting have invariably been provoked by massacres of Moro civilians by soldiers, Jali said.

“Our people are always being massacred,” he said. Bulatlat

PARTY-LIST LEGISLATION IN THE 13TH CONGRESS

The party-list system was envisioned by its advocates as purportedly a counter-current to the dominance of pro-foreign and elite interests in Philippine traditional politics. How have the party-list groups done in terms of their legislative work? Have they fulfilled the mandate of legislating particularly for the marginalized and underrepresented sectors? A look at the bills filed by party-list groups during the 13th Congress can give one an idea.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

The party-list system makes it possible for groups representing the country’s marginalized and underrepresented sectors to have seats at the House of Representatives. It was envisioned by its advocates as purportedly a counter-current to the dominance of pro-foreign and elite interests in Philippine traditional politics.

The 1987 Constitution has a provision that representatives from party-list groups are to be allotted 20 percent of the total number of seats at the House of Representatives. For three consecutive terms under the 1987 Constitution, representatives from the labor, peasant, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, women, youth, and other sectors as may be provided by law –- except the religious sector –- were selected or elected to fill half of the seats allocated to party-list representatives.

Republic Act No. 7941, passed in 1995, served as the enabling law for the constitutional provision for a party-list system. It also adds the elderly, the handicapped, veterans, overseas workers, and professionals to the list of sectors that party-list groups are supposed to represent.

As representatives of marginalized and underrepresented groups, party-list lawmakers are expected to contribute legislation that would benefit their immediate constituency and the nation in general. As the Supreme Court stated in its landmark decision on Ang Bagong Bayani-OFW v. Comelec, et al, “while lacking a well-defined political constituency, the (party-list) nominee must likewise be able to contribute to the formulation and enactment of appropriate legislation that will benefit the nation as a whole.”

How have the party-list groups done in terms of their legislative work? Have they fulfilled the mandate of legislating particularly for the marginalized and underrepresented sectors? A look at the bills they filed can give one an idea.

The party-list groups that won seats in the 13th Congress are: Bayan Muna (People First), Anakpawis (Toiling Masses), Akbayan, Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives (APEC), Buhay Hayaan Yumabong (Buhay or Let Life Grow), Anakpawis (Toiling Masses), Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP), Citizen’s Battle Against Corruption (Cibac), Butil (Grain) Farmer Party, Veterans Freedom Party, Cooperative-National Confederation of Cooperatives (Coop-Natcco), An Waray (literally, Those Who Have Nothing), Anak Mindanao (AMIN or Children of Mindanao), Ang Laban ng Indiginong Filipino (ALIF or The Struggle of Indigenous Filipino), and Alagad (literally, Agent).

Based on the Social Weather Station (SWS) survey last March, six of these party-list groups could expect to maintain, if not increase, their seats at the House of Representatives: Bayan Muna, Akbayan, Anakpawis, GWP, AMIN and Cibac. Four of them, meanwhile, fell short of the statistical requirement for congressional representation but are close to the threshold: APEC, Partido ng Manggagawa, Buhay, and Coop-Natcco.

Their performance during the 13th Congress may be taken as a measure of how they may be expected to do if they all manage to win seats in the 14th Congress.

Bayan Muna was represented by Satur Ocampo, Teddy Casiño, and Joel Virador. The three filed more than 200 bills and resolutions in all during the 13th Congress, based on data from the House of Representatives.

Ocampo’s bills dealt primarily with human rights and foreign debt. Among his human rights bills are those repealing Batas Pambansa Blg. 880 and strengthening the right to free expression and peaceable assembly, defining and penalizing the crime of forced disappearance and declaring torture as a crime and prescribing penalties for acts of torture. He also has bills repealing the Automatic Appropriations Act, cancelling “fraudulent” loans incurred during the Marcos regime as well as those that resulted from onerous contracts.

Casiño, a former student leader, had a number of bills seeking to regulate tuition and other fee increases in private colleges and universities and mandating them to allow a certain number of students as scholarship grantees. Virador, meanwhile, is known for his bill repealing the Mining Act of 1995.

Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran –- who has been confined under police custody at the Philippine Heart Center since February 2006 following his warrantless arrest on rebellion charges –- is best known for his bills providing for wage increases for private-sector workers and government employees. He also filed a bill seeking to repeal the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998.

The other Anakpawis representative, Rafael Mariano –- a farmer from Nueva Ecija and a long-time peasant leader before being elected to Congress –- had bills focusing mainly on land rights for farmers.

GWP’s Liza Maza filed a bill providing for equal rights for husbands and wives by amending Articles 333, 334, and 344 of the Revised Penal Code. Her bills have dealt mostly with the promotion of women’s and children’s rights.

Akbayan’s bills dealt mainly with the promotion of human rights education and international humanitarian law, and amendments to the country’s tax and labor laws.

APEC filed a few bills dealing with extending tax exemptions to electric cooperatives. Meanwhile, Coop-Natcco’s Guillermo Cua had bills seeking to strengthen cooperatives and give them representation in certain government agencies.

Buhay’s Hans Christian Señeres and Rene Velarde filed a few bills dealing with child pornography and abortion. Cibac’s Joel Villanueva filed bills against corruption, marital infidelity, and pornography.

AMIN’s Mujiv Hataman filed bills which provide for the mandatory study of Moro and Lumad history, culture and identity in all levels of education in the Philippines. Many of his other bills, however, are particular to certain legislative districts in Mindanao.

Partido ng Manggagawa represents workers. It is represented in Congress by Renato Magtubo. The House of Representatives website has no listing for bills under Magtubo’s name, but the Partido ng Manggagawa website lists, among other measures, a bill establishing a New Labor Code of the Philippines as well as bills providing for salary increases for public school teachers. Magtubo co-sponsored Beltran’s bills on wage increases for private-sector workers and government employees.

Having identified the major bills they filed, it remains another matter altogether as to why most of them have not been approved by the House of Representatives. Bulatlat

SAPAGKAT NASA GAYONG PAGHIHINTAY ANG PAG-ASA NILA'T KINABUKASAN
Alexander Martin Remollino

Mapalad ang mga nangangailangan
sapagkat ang kanilang pag-asa't kinabukasan
ay nasa paghihintay lamang ng suwerte sa tuwi-tuwina.
Kailangan lamang nilang mag-antay na irehistro ng mga bola
ang numero ng kanilang tiket,
o maambunan sila ng mga proyektong pangkawanggawa
ng gobyernong walang pakialam
kung mabutasan nang kasinlalaki ng kamao
ang mga bituka ng mga mamamayan.

Ito lamang ang kanilang dapat na gawin.
Di na kailangang putlin pa nila
ang mga ugat ng kanilang pangangailangan.
Kailangan lamang nilang maghintay ng suwerte
sa tuwi-tuwina
sapagkat nasa gayong paghihintay
ang kanilang pag-asa't kinabukasan.

Mapalad ang mga nangangailangan.

The Makata, April 2007