NAPAKADALI ANG MAGSABING 'MAGHINTAY' KUNG...
Alexander Martin Remollino

Ngayong bumubulwak na muli ang mga panawagan para sa pagbabago sa pambansang liderato, kasunod ng mga pagbubunyag ni Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada hinggil sa mga anumalya sa kontratang National Broadband Network (NBN) sa pagitan ng gobyerno ng Pilipinas at ZTE Corp. ng Tsina, pati na sa ibang proyektong pinasukan ng pamahalaan gaya ng NorthRail at SouthRail, umeeksena rin ang ilang henyo’t nagsasabing dapat ay hintayin na lamang ng mga puwersang anti-administrasyon ang 2010 para sa pagkakataong mapalitan si Gng. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo — na diumano’y Pangulo ng Pilipinas.

Sa 2010 ang susunod na halalang pampanguluhan ng Pilipinas. Sapagkat diumano’y nakapagwagi na sa halalang pampanguluhan, ayon sa Saligang Batas ay hindi na maaaring maihalalal “na muli” si Arroyo — na ang kahina-hinalang “tagumpay” sa halalan ng 2004 ay ipinagbunyi ng gobyerno ng Estados Unidos — bilang Pangulo.

Ngunit may halos dalawang taon pa hanggang sa 2010, at sa halos dalawang taon ay napakaraming maaaring mangyari. Sa loob ng halos dalawang taon ay marami pang maanumalyang proyekto ang maaaring pasukin ng pamahalaan, malaki pa ang maaaring ilawak ng agwat ng halaga ng pamumuhay at ng kabuhayan ng nakararaming mamamayan, at marami pang paglabag sa karapatang pantao ang maaaring isagawa.

Pinatalsik si Joseph “Erap” Estrada noong 2001 sa isang pambansang pag-aaklas na sa kalakha’y laban sa katiwalian, upang pagkatapos ay palitan ni Arroyong ang panunungkula’y kinatampukan ng lalo’t lalong katiwalian — mula sa anumalya sa pagpapagawa ng President Diosdado Macapagal Avenue hanggang sa kagila-gilalas na mga kickback sa kontratang NBN. Sa ilalim ng rehimeng Arroyo nasaksihan ang mga antas ng kagutuman at karalitaan sa bansa na hindi nakita sa loob ng mahabang panahon, batay sa lahat ng kapani-paniwalang panlipunang sarbey (IBON Foundation, Social Weather Station, at Pulse Asia). Ang rehimeng ito’y nakapagtala rin ng mga paglabag sa karapatang pantao — mula sa mga ekstrahudisyal na pamamaslang at sapilitang pagkawala hanggang sa mga pagbibibilanggong pulitikal, mula sa marahas na pagtugon sa mga kilos-protesta hanggang sa pagbubusal sa pabatirang-madla — na ang dami’y hindi kayang pantayan ng alinmang rehimen, marahil, sa kasaysayan ng Pilipinas maliban sa kay Ferdinand Marcos (na malapit-lapit na nga nitong maungusan).

Napakadali ang magsabing “maghintay” para sa mga taong hindi nagtitiis na magpainiksiyon sa mga nars at duktor na gumagamit ng hiringgilyang naninilaw; o magklase sa damuhan, sa ilalim ng init ng araw, sapagkat ang salapi ng taumbayan na dapat sana’y inilalaan sa mga serbisyong panlipunan ay ipinapasok sa maanumalyang mga proyektong ang nakikinabang lamang ay iilang salanggapang na opisyal ng pamahalaan gaya ng mga Benjamin Abalos, at mga kamag-anak ng mga nasa kapangyarihan tulad ng mga Mike Arroyo.

Napakadali ang magsabing “maghintay” para sa mga taong nagtatampisaw sa salapi kahit na hindi igalaw ang mga daliri at hindi nagkakangkukuba sa pagtatrabaho sa mga pabrika’t opisina upang pagkatapos ng isang buong araw ng pagpapatulo ng pawis ay mag-uwi ng sahod na maaaring kitain sa loob lamang ng isang oras sa ibang bansa, o sa paggawa sa bukid upang pagkatapos ng bawat anihan ay maipagbili ang palay sa halagang kulang na pang-isang buwan ngunit kailangang papagkasyahin sa tatlong buwan.

Napakadali ang magsabing “maghintay” para sa mga taong walang kamag-anak, kaibigan o kakilala man lamang na kabilang sa mahigit na 900 na ngayong biktima ng ekstrahudisyal na pamamaslang at mahigit sa 180 biktima ng sapilitang pagkawala, o sa mahigit sa 200 bilanggong pulitikal — batay sa pinakahuling mga tala ng Karapatan — na kaya humantong sa gayon ay sapagkat nangahas na ipaglaban ang karapatan ng mga manggagawa sa nakabubuhay na sahod, ang karapatan ng mga magsasaka na pakinabangang lubos ang mga bunga ng lupang sinasaka, at ang karapatan ng mga mamamayan sa mga serbisyong tulad ng kalusugan at edukasyon — mga karapatang dapat ay tinatamasa ng lahat sa alinmang bansang tulad ng Pilipinas na namamaraling siya’y isang demokrasya.

Dahil sa ang alinmang pamahalaan ay lubhang nakapangyayari sa kalakhan ng buhay ng mga mamamayan, ang pag-iral nito ay dapat na nakabatay sa kapakanan ng tanang nasasakupan. Kung hindi ganito ang batayan ng pag-iral ng isang pamahalaan, karapatan ng mga mamamayan ang ito’y lansagin.

At sapagkat karapatan ito ng mga mamamayan, hindi nila kailangang maghintay ng pagkakataong gawin ito, kundi karapatan nilang likhain ang ganitong pagkakataon.

Hintayin ang 2010? Hayaan ang mga hunghang at hangal na maghintay kung siya nilang ibig.

AT KAHIT NA NINGNING AY WALA SA IYO
Alexander Martin Remollino

Ikaw na ngayo'y nasa pinakamataas na luklukan
ng aming bayan: luwalhati -- liwanag --
ang ibinabandila ng iyong pangalan.

Ngunit anong luwalhati ang mababanaag
sa isang magnanakaw na sa araw,
hindi man lamang sa gabi, nagnanakaw?
At anong luwalhati ang mababanaag
sa isang mamamatay-taong ang mga kamay
ay hindi matuyuan ng dugo ng bayan?

Luwalhati ang ibinabandila ng iyong pangalan,
ngunit isang silahis man lamang ng liwanag
ay wala ka --
at kahit na ningning ay wala sa iyo.

BALIKATAN 2008 RAISES FEARS OF RAPES, OTHER ATROCITIES BY U.S. TROOPS

This year’s RP-U.S. Balikatan military “exercises” in Sulu, Basilan, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, and North Cotabato start just shortly after two sexual assaults by U.S. troops in Okinawa, Japan –- in which one of the victims was a Filipina. They also come less than three years after a Filipina was raped by U.S. troops participating in joint military “exercises” in Subic, Zambales.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 4, February 24-March 1, 2008

The arrival of U.S. troops in several Mindanao provinces and in Sulu for the 2008 Balikatan military “exercises” has triggered fears of rapes and other atrocities by U.S. soldiers against Filipinos.

This year’s RP-U.S. Balikatan military “exercises” in Sulu, Basilan, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, and North Cotabato started just shortly after two sexual assaults by U.S. troops in Okinawa, Japan –- in which one of the victims was a Filipina. They also come less than three years after a Filipina was raped by U.S. troops participating in joint military “exercises” in Subic, Zambales.

Last week, the Kyodo News Agency repoted that the U.S. military had taken into custody earlier this month a U.S. soldier who sexually assaulted a Filipina in Okinawa, where the U.S. government maintains a military base.

Also last week, U.S. Marine soldier Tyrone Hadnott, 38, was arrested for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl also in Okinawa. This incident is reminiscent of the rape of a 12-year-old girl by a U.S. solider also in Okinawa in 1995 – an incident that sparked a wave of protests that threatened to banish U.S. troops from the island.

In October last year, four U.S. soldiers were also arrested in Okinawa for allegedly raping a young woman. They are being investigated and could face court martial proceedings.

In the Philippines, L/Cpl Daniel Smith of the U.S. Marines was convicted in December 2006 for raping a young woman in Subic in November 2005. Judge Benjamin Pozon of the Makati City Regional Trial Court ordered him detained at the Makati City Jail, but he was secretly transferred to the U.S. Embassy in Manila at the behest of the U.S. government, which invoked the RP-U.S. Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). His case is still on appeal.

Mindanao: Balikatan 2008

U.S. and Philippine troops began this year’s Balikatan military “exercises” on Feb. 19 amid protest actions all over Mindanao. This year’s joint military “exercises are scheduled to last until March 3.

In a Feb. 14 statement, the Sisters’ Association of Mindanao (SAMIN) asked, “Will U.S. troops participate in actual military operations against our people as they did in other places? Will there be another Nicole, and will our women and children again be made ‘objects’ for the U.S. soldiers’ rest and recreation?”

In the Lanao provinces, a broad multi-sectoral alliance has been formed to oppose the Balikatan military “exercises.” The alliance, called RACABE (Ranao Crescent Against Balikatan Exercises), stressed in a statement:

“The presence of U.S. troops in Lanao will be a serious threat to the ongoing peace process in Mindanao since the U.S. troops...help organize counterinsurgency groups.... On the one hand, it will awaken painful memories of the past American invasions of the Ranao areas such as the massacres in Padang Karbala of Bayang, Lanao del Sur (during the first decade of the 20th century) that almost wiped out all the able-bodied men in the said municipality except for seven who were either minors or infirm, in Tugaya, Lanao del Sur and Pantar, Lanao del Norte that may trigger violent retaliatory actions against U.S. troops.”

Sittie Rajabia Sundang, secretary-general of the Kawagib Moro Human Rights organization, cited in a Feb. 19 press statement the following atrocities by U.S. troops against civilians since the first Balikatan military “exercises” were held in Basilan in 2002:

· Farmer Buyung-Buyung Isnijal was shot by an American soldier identified by witnesses as Sgt. Reggie Lane, who was accused of participating in a military operation on July 27, 2002 in Tuburan, Basilan.

· In Zamboanga, U.S. soldiers accidentally fired at civilians in the community while on their testing missions. One case was the shooting and wounding of Arsid Baharun in Zamboanga City while soldiers were conducting a marksmanship practice in 2004.

· In August 2004, Sardiya Abu Calderon, 54, died of a heart attack when a helicopter carrying two U.S. soldiers landed on their farm during the clearing operation conducted by U.S. and Philippine troops in August 2004.

· In September 2006, shrapnels from a misfired bomb hit the back of a 50-year-old Bizma Juhan in Indanan, Sulu.

· In Zamboanga City, passengers of a tricycle complained in a radio station about U.S. soldiers who accidentally bumped the tricycle they were riding in Calarian village on Dec. 15, 2007. Instead of assisting the victims, U.S. soldiers alighted from their vehicle brandishing high-powered guns.

· On Feb. 4, 2008, one of the survivors of the Maimbung, Sulu massacre Rawina Wahid revealed that when the soldiers who attacked their village brought her and the body of her husband, Pfc. Ibnul Wahid, into a Navy boat she saw four U.S. soldiers inside.

U.S. troops in RP: 2002-present

The first RP-U.S. Balikatan military “exercises” were held in 2002 in Basilan, then known as a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), which, according to different sources, was formed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to justify the intensive military operations against Moro communities and the continuing presence of U.S. troops in the region.

As then Col. David Maxwell wrote in an article for the Military Review in 2004, the Balikatan “exercises” in Basilan were a guise for counter-“terrorist” operations under the auspices of Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines.

Operation Enduring Freedom is the official name given to the U.S. government’s military response to the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001 in New York City. It entails a series of anti-“terrorism” activities in Afghanistan, the Philippines, the Horn of Africa, Trans-Sahara, and Pakinsi Gorge.

“The mission in Basilan was to conduct unconventional warfare operations in the Southern Philippines through, by, and with the AFP to help the Philippine government separate the population from and to destroy terrorist organizations,” Maxwell, who was the commander of the U.S. troops deployed for Balikatan 2002, wrote. “The plan’s intent was to provide all SF (Special Forces) elements in Basilan with unifying guidance that would help harmonize counterterrorist and counterinsurgency operations in the Southern Philippines with initial focus on Basilan.”

Maxwell included among the Special Forces’ tasks “supporting operations by the AFP ‘strike force’ (LRC or Light Reaction Company)” in their areas of responsibility.

Areas covered

This year’s Balikatan military “exercises” cover Basilan, the Lanao provinces, Sulu, and North Cotabato.

North Cotabato is one of the provinces straddled by the oil-rich Liguasan Marsh, together with Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat. Basilan, the Lanao provinces, and North Cotabato are strongholds of the revolutionary Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), whose peace talks with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) are currently at a standstill over ancestral domain issues.

Sulu is also currently the site of oil exploration operations involving several foreign companies including a U.S. corporation.

In 2005, the Department of Energy (DoE) awarded Service Contract 56 to Australia’s BHP Billiton Petroleum PTY Ltd., Amerada Hess Ltd., Unocal Sulu Ltd., and Sandakan Oil II, LCC. Amerada Hess Ltd. is a unit of Hess Ltd., a U.S.-based oil and gas exploration company.

Based on a 2005 news item published by the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), Service Contract 56 covers some 8,620 hectares offshore Sulu Sea, an area described as “one of the most prospective areas for oil and gas exploration as indicated by the previous drilling activities conducted in the area.”

These provinces are covered by this year’s Balikatan military “exercises,” which have raised among other fears the possibility of other women suffering the plight of “Nicole” (the court-assigned name for the Subic rape victim of 2005) -– not an unjustified fear considering the latest series of rapes by U.S. troops stationed in Okinawa. Bulatlat

I READ THIS LINE IN BOLD LETTERS ON YOUR FOREHEAD
Alexander Martin Remollino

What did they say about the young Maceda --
"so young and so corrupt"?
I read this line in bold letters on your forehead
whenever I hear your drumbeating
for that thief and tyrant in Malacañang
who holds a gold-plated scepter.

For Lorelei Fajardo, deputy presidential spokesperson

WHY YOU'RE ON THE RUN
Alexander Martin Remollino

"Papa, if it is true that you did well for the country, why is it we are on the run?"

-- Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada, National Broadband Network (NBN) scam whistleblower, quoting one of his children in a Feb. 18 speech

You are all on the run
even as your father did good for the country --
because this is a land where, for the longest time,
those who do good for others
have been looked upon like rotten eggs.
Yes, for ages we've been throwing out the good stuff
and feasting on that which is rotten to the core.

At times we throw up the moldy food
that we have grown to love gobbling up.
But, as we have all too often seen,
it is a prevalent habit in this part of the world
to swallow your own vomit.

Until that habit is licked,
no one can tell how long you'll be on the run
in this country --
for which your father did good.

IN WAKE OF LOZADA EXPOSÉS: PROTESTS EXPECTED TO LEAD TO LEADERSHIP CHANGE

For Joey de Venecia, the series of anti-government rallies by various groups following Jun Lozada’s testimonies on the NBN deal and other corruption cases can and should lead to Arroyo’s ouster.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 3, February 17-23, 2008

For businessman Jose “Joey” de Venecia III, son of ousted House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., the series of anti-government rallies that has been started by various groups in the wake of Engr. Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada’s testimonies on the National Broadband Network (NBN) deal and other corruption cases can and should lead to the ouster of the Arroyo regime -- at the soonest possible.

He shared to reporters, who interviewed him after he spoke at the Feb. 15 rally organized by various groups at Ayala Avenue in Makati City, that attending anti-government rallies was not very new to him. “I was here in 1983, during the rallies for the late Ninoy Aquino,” he shared, referring to the series of broad anti-Marcos rallies that was sparked by the assassination of Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, whom many considered an opposition stalwart during the Marcos years.

“We waited for three years (to oust the Marcos dictatorship),” he added. “I hope we wouldn’t have to wait that long.”

Atty. Adel Tamano, spokesman of the United Opposition (UNO) which along with the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), the Concerned Citizens Group, the Black & White Movement, and Laban ng Masa (The Masses’ Fight) was among the initiators of the Feb. 15 rally, was not as pointed about where he expected the new series of anti-Arroyo protests to lead. “It’s up to the people,” he said in a brief interview with Bulatlat.

But when asked what he thought of the possibility that it would lead to leadership change, he said it would be well as long as the change is not unlawful or violent.

“It must be a constitutional and peaceful leadership change, he said. “Otherwise, we will not support it.”

Flashback: NBN deal

The younger De Venecia heads one of the companies that lost the bidding for the allegedly rigged and overpriced NBN deal between the Philippine government and China’s ZTE Corp.

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, 2007 -- 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. It was also deemed disadvantageous to the country because it was to be financed through a loan from China when, in fact, it could have been done at no cost to the government through a “Build-Operate-Transfer” scheme.

The younger De Venecia, co-founder of Amsterdam Holdings, Inc. which is one of the losing bidders in the NBN deal, 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 privileged speech on Aug. 29, 2007, 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 Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairman and former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director-general Romulo Neri -- in exchange for approving or supporting the approval of the project.

Neri, in a Senate investigation, confirmed that Abalos had offered him P200 million ($4.33 million at last year’s average exchange rate of $1:P46.15) -- a revelation that provoked public indignation leading the latter to resign from his Comelec post.

Lozada

Enter Lozada, a telecommunications engineer and former president of the Philippine Forest Corporation, who served as Neri’s technical consultant for the NBN deal. He not only confirmed that the NBN contract was overpriced by $130 billion: he also confirmed Abalos’ involvement as a supposed broker in the deal, as well as the bribe attempt on Neri. He went a step further and disclosed that Abalos was frequently calling up presidential spouse Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo in the course of the bidding and deliberations on the NBN project.

Besides these, Lozada said, it was standard practice to overprice government projects by 20 percent. The overprice on the NBN deal is so far the biggest under the Arroyo administration, whose list of overpriced projects includes the Call Centers in State Universities project (P575 million, or $12.46 million based on last year’s average exchange rate, in “unaccounted” funds), the President Diosdado Macapagal Avenue project (overpriced by P536 million or $10.51 million at the 2001 average exchange rate of $1:P50.99), the Cyber Education project, the IMPSA deal, and the Comelec counting machines.

Lozada’s testimonies came in the same week that the elder De Venecia was ousted from the House Speakership and replaced by staunch Malacañang ally Davao Rep. Prospero Nograles. The elder De Venecia is said to have earned Malacañang’s ire for failing to stop his son from testifying on the NBN scam.

Calls for resignation, removal

Lozada’s exposés on corruption has revived calls for the resignation or removal of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who has reaped condemnation for the spate of extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations, electoral fraud, and large-scale corruption under her watch. The rally last Feb. 15 in Makati City -- which yielded an estimated turnout of 15,000-20,000 - is the first in what is intended to be a new series of protests launched as a response to corruption under the Arroyo regime.

Lozada and the younger De Venecia have the support of Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), who has called for “communal action” for truth. Said Lagdameo in a Feb. 10 statement:

“Truth hurts. Truth liberates. But the truth must be served. The truth will set our country free...

“Only the truth, not lies and deceits, will set our country free. This truth challenges us now to communal action.”

Lagdameo had previously signed a joint statement calling for a rejection of “morally bankrupt” government.

The Makati Business Club (MBC), another influential group, has also expressed support for a possible people-power uprising similar to those that ousted Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada in 1986 and 2001, respectively; but stated it would not favor a military takeover.

Vice President Noli de Castro has, in television interviews, expressed willingness to take over the reins of government as constitutional successor should Arroyo be removed from power or forced to resign from office.

Meanwhile, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison, in a Feb. 15 statement e-mailed to media from his base in the Netherlands where he has been seeking asylum since the cancellation of his passport in 1988, said Arroyo is “ripe for ouster” by the broad mass movement.

“The sheer growth of the legal and peaceful mass actions in the national capital region and on a national scale in the coming days, weeks and months can encourage the military and police to withdraw support from the Arroyo ruling clique and can suffice to cause the resignation, impeachment or outright ouster of the illegitimate and morally bankrupt president,” Sison said.

The younger De Venecia said he certainly hopes the mass actions would lead to Arroyo’s resignation.

“This is too much already,” he said on corruption under the Arroyo government. “The Filipino masses can no longer take it. The middle classes can no longer take it...”

“My call is for her to step down,” he said of Arroyo. Bulatlat

BLACK SWAN
Alexander Martin Remollino

And the black swan let itself be found.
In so doing, it shocked into their senses a people
long accustomed to thinking of thievery
as something to be met simply
with a shrug of the shoulders.

That could all be very well.
But until when will this nation be waiting
for black swans?

U.S. TROOPS SIGHTED IN SULU MASSACRE

U.S. troops were present during the Feb. 4 assault by combined Army and Navy elite forces on Barangay (village) Ipil, Maimbung, Sulu that killed eight non-combatants, including an Army soldier on vacation. Worse, they tolerated what had taken place.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 2, February 10-16, 2008

Soldiers from the Army’s Light Reaction Company (LRC) -– a unit composed of Philippine soldiers who had received training from U.S. troops during the RP-U.S. joint military exercises –- and the Navy’s Special Weapons Group (Swag) attacked Brgy. Ipil early morning, while most villagers were still sleeping, on Feb. 4, said Concerned Citizens of Sulu convener and former Jolo councilor Temogen “Cocoy” Tulawie in an interview with Bulatlat.

Killed in the attack were Marisa Payian, 4; Wedme Lahim, 9; Alnalyn Lahim, 15; Sulayman Hakob, 17; Kirah Lahim, 45; Eldisim Lahim, 43; Narcia Abon, 24 -– all civilians. Also killed was Pfc. Ibnul Wahid of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, who was then on vacation.

“Wahid’s hands were even tied behind his back,” Tulawie said, citing an account by Sandrawina Wahid, the slain soldier’s wife. “He was forced to lie face down on the ground and they stepped on his back. His wife ran into their hut and back out, showing the soldiers his Army ID and bag, begging them to not hurt him. But still, they shot him.”

One of the victims, Kirah Lahim, was even mutilated. “They took out his eyes and cut off his fingers and ears,” Tulawie said.

Military officials have given varying explanations of the incident. One explanation was that the non-combatants were killed in a firefight between soldiers and “terrorists,” while another points to a “family feud” as having triggered the killings.

One Army general said what happened on Feb. 4 was a “legitimate encounter,” claiming that troops searching for kidnapped trader Rosalie Lao clashed with Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) bandits and members of the terrorist Jema’ah Islamiyah.

The military did not say whether Lao, who was kidnapped on Jan. 28 while on the way home from her store, was being held in Sulu.

Maj. Gen. Ruben Rafael, commander of an anti-“terrorist” task force in Sulu, said two soldiers and three bandits -– including ASG leader Abu Muktadil – were killed in the “encounter.”

“It was a legitimate encounter,” Rafael told media. “As far as we are concerned, troops clashed with the Abu Sayyaf and Jema’ah Islamiyah. We have recovered the bodies of Muktadil, but soldiers also found eight more bodies in the area and we are trying to find out whether they were caught in the crossfire or slain by terrorists.”

Tulawie, however, said this was not true.

“That’s a lie,” Tulawie said. “Most of these people (who were killed) are just seaweed farmers. There is no ASG there. In the case of Wahid, they killed their own fellow soldier.”

“They were quiet people who had no enemies,” Tulawie said of the victims.

Meanwhile, Maj. Eugene Batara, spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom), said authorities are presently investigating reports that the killings were sparked by a family feud.

As the killings were taking place, there were U.S. troops nearby. Tulawie said Sandrawina was taken into a Navy boat, where she saw four U.S. soldiers.

“They were just nearby and they tolerated what was happening,” Tulawie said. “There was only one who was heard shouting, ‘Hold your fire!’ but that was all. They tolerated these human rights violations committed by the soldiers they had trained.”

Westmincom chief Maj. Gen. Nelson Allaga said there were no U.S. troops involved in the operation.

“There was no direct involvement of the Americans,” Allaga said. “It is strictly prohibited.”

Not the first time

Sulu Gov. Abdulsakur Tan said this was not the first time that U.S. troops were reported to have taken part in Philippine military operations in Sulu. With this, he corroborated what Tulawie had said in an earlier interview with Bulatlat.

When an encounter between the AFP and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) broke out in Brgy. Buansa, Indanan, Sulu in early 2007, U.S. troops who were a few kilometers away were seen running toward the direction of the gunfire. They were carrying their guns.

Military spokespersons said the attack was brought about by reports that members of the ASG were in the MNLF camp. The MNLF –- with which the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) signed a Final Peace Agreement in 1996 -– has repeatedly denied that it coddles ASG members.

During that same period, U.S. troops were busy with a road construction project in Brgy. Bato-Bato, Indanan. At that time, the area was the center of Philippine military operations in Sulu.

These were gathered by Bulatlat in its interview with Tulawie in March last year.

This, Tulawie said, is just part of a larger picture that has been developing in Sulu since 2004.

“Military operations always take place not far from where U.S. troops are,” said Tulawie. “The presence of U.S. troops has been visible in areas where military operations have taken place.”

While Tulawie says there is yet no evidence that U.S. troops have actually participated in combat operations, their visibility in areas where AFP operations have been conducted raises questions on the real reasons behind their presence in the country’s southernmost province.

U.S. military presence in Sulu

The presence of U.S. troops in Sulu started in 2004 and has been continuous since then.

U.S. troops would have entered Sulu as early as February 2003. The AFP and the U.S. Armed Forces had both announced that the Balikatan military exercises for that year would be held in Sulu.

This provoked a wave of protest from the people of Sulu, who had not yet forgotten what has come to be known as the Bud Dajo Massacre.

The Bud Dajo massacre, which took place in 1906, is described in some history texts as the “First Battle of Bud Dajo.” It was an operation against Moro fighters resisting the American occupation.

The description of the incident as a “battle,” however, is disputed considering the sheer mismatch in firepower between U.S. forces and the Moro resistance fighters. The 790 U.S. troops who assaulted Bud Dajo used naval cannons against the 800-1,000 Moro resistance fighters who were mostly armed only with melee weapons.

In the end, only six of the hundreds of Moro resistance fighters holding Bud Dajo as a stronghold survived, while there were 15-20 casualties among the U.S. troops.

The announcement in February 2003 that the year’s Balikatan military exercises would be held in Sulu summoned bitter memories of the Bud Dajo Massacre and led to protest actions where thousands of Sulu residents participated.

The next year, however, U.S. troops came up with ingenious ways to find their way into Sulu – coming in small groups and bringing relief goods. This “neutralized” the residents’ resistance to their presence.

“Unconventional warfare”

The U.S. troops in Sulu are part of the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P). Based on several news items from the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), the JSOTF-P are in Sulu to train the AFP’s Southern Command (Southcom) and to conduct civic actions.

However, an article written by Command Sgt. Maj. William Eckert of the JSOTF-P, “Defeating the Idea: Unconventional Warfare in Southern Philippines,” hints that there is more to the task force’s work than training AFP troops and embarking on “humanitarian actions.” Wrote Eckert:

“Working in close coordination with the U.S. Embassy, JSOTF-P uses Special Forces, Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations forces to conduct deliberate intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in very focused areas, and based on collection plans, to perform tasks to prepare the environment and obtain critical information requirements. The information is used to determine the capabilities, intentions and activities of threat groups that exist within the local population and to focus U.S. forces –- and the AFP -– on providing security to the local populace. It is truly a joint operation, in which Navy SEALs and SOF aviators work with their AFP counterparts to enhance the AFP’s capacities.”

These U.S. troops have always been seen near the sites of Philippine military operations in Sulu. The latest sighting was during the Feb. 4 attack on Brgy. Ipil, Maimbung where seven civilians and one Army soldier on vacation were killed. Bulatlat

PEACE TALKS NEARING DEAD END, SAYS MILF PANEL CHIEF

Real movement in the peace talks is possible only if both parties–especially the GRP–can find “a way forward,” MILF Negotiating Panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal said.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 1, February 3-6, 2008

The peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic (GRP) of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are nearing a dead end, if we ask MILF Negotiating Panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal. Real movement in the peace talks is possible only if both parties -– especially the GRP -– can find “a way forward,” Iqbal said in an e-mail interview with Bulatlat.

Last December, the GRP-MILF peace negotiations reached a deadlock over the ancestral domain issue.

The ancestral domain issue, which was first discussed only in 2004 or some eight years after the talks started, has turned out to be the most contentious issue in the GRP-MILF peace negotiations.

The MILF last year was proposing a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity that would be based on an ancestral domain claim of the Bangsa Moro people over Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan.

The GRP had insisted that areas to be covered by the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity other than the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) should be subjected to a plebiscite. This repeatedly led to an impasse in the peace negotiations with the group.

The impasse was broken only in November last year, when the GRP and the MILF reached an agreement defining the land and maritime areas to be covered by the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

Things seemed to be looking up after that, causing lawyer Eid Kabalu, then MILF spokesperson, to make media statements to the effect that they expected a final agreement to be signed by mid-2008.

But all hopes for forging a peace pact between the GRP and the MILF were dashed last December, when the peace talks hit a snag following the government’s insistence that the ancestral domain issue be settled through “constitutional processes” –- a phrase which, Iqbal said, had been inserted into the agreement without their consent.

“The constitutional process properly belongs to the implementing phase, not in the discussion of the ancestral domain aspect and this is unilateral to the government,” Iqbal said. “We do not understand why the government is raising this issue.”

The government side has denied that the original agreement had been modified. “There was no change from the original proposal,” GRP Negotiating Panel chief Rodolfo Garcia told media on Jan. 15.

Chacha?

The deadlock over the ancestral domain issue in the GRP-MILF peace talks has prompted legal scholar Fr. Joaquin Bernas, who teaches at the Ateneo Law School, to propose what he calls a “surgical constitutional change” to address the conflict in Mindanao.

In his Jan. 21 column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Bernas proposed a constitutional amendment that has the sole purpose of effecting “significant changes” in the structure of government in Mindanao.

“In my view, the search for a solution to the Mindanao problem can be approached through this ‘surgical’ method,” Bernas wrote. “More specifically the goal can be either a reformulation of the powers that can be given to the Autonomous Region or the formation of a federated state for Mindanao. I believe that a limited constitutional change can be achieved by Congress under the present constitutional provision without disturbing the rest.”

Bernas’ proposal was praised by Sec. Jesus Dureza, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process. “I strongly commend the views expressed by Father Bernas in his column pushing for a surgical constitutional change that would eventually benefit the Mindanao peace process, particularly the negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, for lasting peace in the south,” Dureza said on Jan. 23.

“I am reiterating my earlier proposal to install a Bangsamoro federal governance unit as the only item in any move to change the charter, in order to ensure that it would pass with bipartisan congressional support and enjoy smooth sailing in both chambers of Congress,” Dureza added.

Iqbal, when asked to comment on Bernas’ proposal, acknowledged it but expressed apprehension on the government’s capacity to push it through.

“It is an opening to formulate a new formula for the negotiated political settlement,” Iqbal said of Bernas’ proposal. “Much depends, however, on how much political capital the President has to push it to a concrete constitutional amendment without derogating the text of the GRP-MILF agreement.”

Land problem

Moro historian Salah Jubair traces the roots of the present conflict in southern Philippines to the U.S. annexation of Mindanao and Sulu into the Philippine territory in 1946.

The inclusion of Mindnaao and Sulu in the scope of the 1946 “independence” grant to the Philippines paved the way for large-scale non-Muslim migration to the two islands. This large-scale migration, which began in the 1950s, brought with it the problem of land grabbing.

At some point the government even instituted a Mindanao Homestead Program, which involved giving land parcels seized from Moro peoples to landless peasants from the Visayas islands and Luzon and also to former communist guerrillas who availed of amnesty.

This was intended to defuse the peasant unrest and the revolutionary war that was staged in the late 1940s and early 1950s by the communist-led Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB or People’s Liberation Army), which was basically a peasant army.

The Bangsa Moro people’s struggle

The marginalization of the Moros in their own land led to the formation of the Muslim Independence Movement (MIM) in the 1950s. The MIM struggle, however, would fizzle out before long as many of its leaders, usually from Mindanao’s elite classes, would be coopted by the government.

During the presidency of Diosdado Macapagal (1961-1965), Sabah, an island near Mindanao to which the Philippines has a historic claim, ended up in the hands of the Malaysian government.

During his first presidential term, Ferdinand Marcos conceived of a scheme that involved the recruitment of between 28 and 64 Moro fighters to occupy Sabah. The recruits were, subsequently, summarily executed by their military superiors in 1968, in what is now known as the infamous Jabidah Massacre. According to Jubair, this was because they had refused to follow orders.

The Jabidah Massacre triggered widespread outrage among the Moros and led to the formation of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that same year. The MNLF, led by former University of the Philippines (UP) professor Nur Misuari, waged an armed revolutionary struggle against the GRP for an independent 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.

Conflicts on the issue of autonomy led to a breakdown of talks between the GRP and the MNLF in 1978, prompting a group led by Dr. Salamat Hashim to break away from the MNLF and form the MILF. Since then, the MILF has been fighting for Moro self-determination.

In 1996, the MNLF signed the Final Peace Agreement with the GRP, which created the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as a concession to the group. That same year, the MILF began peace negotiations with the GRP.

While the peace agreement with the MNLF supposedly holds, armed skirmishes between the AFP and MNLF did not stop. On Nov. 19, 2001, Misuari declared war on the Arroyo government for allegedly reneging on its commitments to the Final Peace Agreement. The MNLF then attacked an Army headquarters in Jolo. Misuari was subsequently arrested in Sabah, Malaysia for illegal entry and was turned over to the Philippine government by Malaysian authorities. He is currently under house arrest.

Meanwhile, the GRP-MILF peace talks have repeatedly bogged down on the issue of ancestral domain, mainly because the GRP has frequently insisted on resolving it within “constitutional processes.” This does not sit well with the MILF. Bulatlat

‘I TURN A BAD THING INTO A GOOD THING’ –- SISON

NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison’s listing as a “foreign terrorist” in 2002 brought about the suspension of his benefits and pension, and restrictions on his right to travel. “But I turn a bad thing into a good thing,” he said.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 50, January 27-February 2, 2008

For Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), coping with the day-to-day-demands of life and work has in the last five years remained possible largely by getting personal loans from friends.

“My living conditions are extremely difficult,” Sison shared in an e-mail interview with Bulatlat.

The e-mail interview between Sison and Bulatlat was conducted following a Jan. 21 global press conference held by the NDFP International Office. Philippine media were able to attend the press conference through Internet audio-video patch facilitated by the NDFP-nominated section of the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC).

As an asylum seeker, Sison is entitled to social benefits and old-age pension in the Netherlands but is not allowed to seek employment there. But even these -– his only source of “livelihood” –- have been withheld since 2002, when he was listed by the U.S. Department of State and the Council of the European Union as a “foreign terrorist.”

Aside from these, his listing as a “foreign terrorist” also brought about restrictions on his right to travel.

“But I turn a bad thing into a good thing,” Sison said. “Because I have no money to go places and to go on holidays and because I am also explicitly restricted from traveling, I have more time to read and write and I have ample opportunity to think and exercise my freedom of thought and expression in the interest of the Filipino people and other peoples.”

A poet and revolutionary

Sison –- a poet, essayist, and political analyst -– taught English and Social Science courses at his alma mater, the University of the Philippines (UP), and the Lyceum of the Philippines in the 1960s, after graduating with honors in 1959.

He founded the progressive organizations Student Cultural Association of the University of the Philippines (SCAUP) and Kabataang Makabayan (KM). He was later also involved in the workers’ and peasant movements through the Lapiang Manggagawa (Workers Party) and the Malayang Samahan ng Magsasaka (MASAKA or Free Association of Peasants). He became secretary-general of the Socialist Party of the Philippines (SPP) and, later, the Movement for the Advancement of Nationalism (MAN).

But he is best known as the founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (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) due to ideological differences, and re-established the party as the CPP.

Under Sison’s leadership, the CPP rapidly gained strength and together with the NPA, its armed component, which was founded in 1969, 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.

“Terror” listing

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.

According to Jan Fermon, one of Sison’s lawyers, the Dutch Foreign Ministry 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 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 Netherlands is at present one of the leading U.S. allies in Europe – next only to the United Kingdom.

The Council of the European Union followed suit in listing Sison as a “terrorist” later that year.

On May 29, 2007 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 that same year, 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 – an accusation he has denied. His apartment, the homes of a few other NDFP negotiators, and the NDFP International Office were raided and several important items like computers, hard disks, and files related to the NDFP’s peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) were taken.

The CPP-NPA leadership in the Philippines has owned up to the killings of both Kintanar and Tabara, citing them for “crimes against the Revolution.”

On Sept. 13, the District Court of The Hague ordered Sison’s release due to lack of direct and sufficient evidence against him. Part of the decision reads thus:

“The police files submitted to the court include many indications for the point of view that the accused has been involved in the CC (Central Committee) of the CPP and her military branch, the (NPA). There are also indications that the accused is still playing a leading role in the (underground) activities of the CC, the CPP and the NPA.

“Without prejudice to the justified suspicion that the accused during the period described in the charges played a leading role in the aforementioned organizations, the files nevertheless do not provide a sufficient basis for the suspicion that the accused, while staying in the Netherlands, committed the offenses he is charged with in deliberate and close cooperation with the perpetrators in the Philippines.”

Last Jan. 18, however, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service announced that it would continue its investigation of Sison’s alleged involvement in the killings of Kintanar and Tabara up to the middle of this year. This development was the subject of the Jan. 21 global press conference.

Confident

Despite all these, Sison remains in a fighting stance and throwing in the towel is the farthest thing from his mind.

“After consultations with my lawyer, I let him do the work in my legal defense,” he said.

“I am not at all mentally and physically weighed down by the further investigation announced by the prosecutor. I am confident about winning my case completely because the charge is patently false and politically motivated and because so far I have won several court decisions pertaining to it.”

He admits, however, that the “ceaseless persecution” and prolonged suspension of his benefits and pension “adversely affect” his living conditions.

“They expose the brutal character of imperialist states like the U.S. and the Netherlands,” he said. Bulatlat

ON EDSA II ANNIVERSARY: EDSA II FORCES, ERAP GROUPS UNITE IN ANTI-GMA PROTEST

The seventh anniversary of what is now known as the EDSA II or People Power II uprising was marked by a coming together of political blocs that were not and could not have been seen talking to each other seven years ago: the EDSA II forces, on the one hand; and the pro-Estrada forces, on the other.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 49, January 20-26, 2008

The seventh anniversary of what is now known as the EDSA II or People Power II uprising was marked by a coming together of political blocs that were not and could not have been seen talking to each other seven years ago: the EDSA II forces, on the one hand; and the pro-Estrada forces, on the other.

Seeing them together was unimaginable seven years ago, because EDSA II had for its aim the ouster of then President Joseph Estrada. But on the seventh anniversary of EDSA II, which was marked Jan. 18 with an indoor activity at the La Salle Greenhills School (LSGH) and a march to the EDSA Shrine, the two political blocs that had clashed in 2001 were gathered for the common purpose of delivering the statement that: “Seven years is enough! Gloria must go!”

Estrada has always taken pride in the fact that he won in the 1998 presidential elections by a plurality of 10 million –- which is said to be the largest plurality ever to propel a candidate to Malacañang. He assumed the presidency on the basis of a populist “platform” and a professed love for the “Filipino masses.”

But early on in his term he had been criticized for his closeness to the Marcoses and their political allies –- remnants of a dictatorship that was toppled in 1986, in what is now known as the EDSA I uprising. He would later on be under more fire for graft and corruption –- which would constitute one of the grounds for impeachment charges lodged against him in 2000 together with bribery, betrayal of public trust, and culpable violation of the Constitution.

The refusal of his Senate allies to allow the opening of the second of two envelopes containing evidence relevant to the impeachment proceedings triggered a walkout by the prosecution panel and the audience, as well as an evening noise barrage, on Jan. 16, 2001 – signaling the start of a four-day popular uprising that would bring down the Estrada regime.

All through these, Estrada insisted he was the “real president of the Philippines,” pointing out that he had not resigned but merely stepped down.

His arrest in late April, 2001 provoked what his supporters called the “EDSA III uprising.”

Estrada was tried for plunder in a trial that would drag on for more than six years. He would be convicted, but pardoned, in the end.

In a statement after his release following the grant of executive clemency, Estrada said:

“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. We must now as a nation attend to our people’s continuing clamor for food on their tables, roofs above their heads, and better education and health care for their children.”

Seven years of “deceit”

On the seventh anniversary of the EDSA II uprising, Estrada’s supporters and the groups that ousted him in 2001 were together in sending the message that seven years of the Arroyo administration are enough.

“This government has been deceiving us for seven years,” said Bro. Armin Luistro, president of the De La Salle University (DLSU) System, during the indoor activity at LSGH.

“A government that bases its false claims to victory on an election that has legitimacy problems of its own has no right to govern us,” he also said.

Erning Ofracio, an urban poor leader from the Kilusan para sa Makatarungang Lipunan at Gobyerno (KMLG or Movement for a Just Society and Government), told about a text joke he had earlier received, in which a man told his daughter that liars do not grow tall, and get protruding teeth and moles on their faces.

“Anak daw po ‘yon ni Presidente Diosdado Macapagal” (That girl is said to be the daughter of President Diosdado Macapagal), Ofracio said. “Pero ang batang ‘yon ay Presidente na ng Pilipinas” (But that girl is now President of the Philippines.)

Danilo Ramos, chairman of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement of the Philippines), talked about the peasantry’s worsening poverty and hunger under the Arroyo administration, and reminded the audience about the Fertilizer Funds scam of 2004. “Y’ong pondo para sa abono, iniabono sa kampanya” (Funds meant for fertilizers to fatten the soil were used for fattening campaign funds), he said.

Josie Lichauco, convener of the Concerned Citizens Group and former Transportation and Communication Secretary, discussed the various corruption scandals under the Arroyo regime.

Vergel Santos, editor of Business World and a board member of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), talked about the Arroyo regime’s repressive measures: the “Strong Republic” policy, Presidential Proclamation No. 1017, and the Human Security Act.

When Arroyo was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2001 she promised, among other things, “government by example.”

But early on in her continuation of Estrada’s term (2001-2004), Arroyo had come under fire from people’s organizations for her government’s refusal to address long-standing economic demands such as a P125 legislated wage increase for private-sector workers; and for inaction amid relentless increases in the prices of basic commodities like water, power, and petroleum products due to the policies of privatization and liberalization imposed by the Bretton Woods Twins. Human rights violations especially extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances also started to escalate early on.

By 2003, Arroyo’s name had been enmeshed in no less than ten large-scale corruption scandals.

Having spent only three years continuing her predecessor’s term, Arroyo was constitutionally allowed to run for the 2004 presidential elections –- where she won amid allegations of massive fraud.

Discrepant figures in the election returns and certificates of canvass cast doubts on the credibility of the 2004 presidential elections. In the end, however, she was proclaimed winner by more than 1 million votes against her closest rival, the actor Fernando Poe, Jr. who died without seeing the conclusion of his electoral protest.

In mid-2005, Arroyo faced a major challenge to her government following the surfacing of the so-called “Hello Garci” tapes.

The “Hello Garci” tapes were a series of wiretapped and recorded 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 presidential polls. There is a specific instruction that a victory of “more than 1 M” be ensured for the woman.

Both Arroyo and Garcillano were forced to admit that they talked to each other during the counting period following the 2004 polls. They have however denied rigging the said elections.

The surfacing of the “Hello Garci” tapes triggered widespread demands for Arroyo’s resignation or removal from office. Here the EDSA II forces and the pro-Estrada groups found a common cause.

Human rights violations would become rampant from 2004 –- underscored by present figures from Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) pointing to more than 880 extrajudicial killings and more than 180 enforced disappearances since 2001. Likewise corruption would also worsen –- with the latest cases being the National Broadband Network (NBN) deal between the Philippine government and China’s ZTE Corp., and the distribution of “cash gifts” to congressmen and governors in a Malacañang meeting last October.

Arroyo has been the subject of three impeachment complaints citing her for bribery, graft and corrupt practices, betrayal of public trust, and culpable violation of the Constitution –- the same charges against Estrada. All impeachment complaints were thrown out through the sheer tyranny of numbers at the House of Representatives.

Jan. 20, 2008 marks Arroyo’s seventh year in office –- making her the longest-serving Philippine President since the late Ferdinand Marcos.

March to EDSA Shrine

The participants in the Jan. 18 commemoration –- Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance), Black & White Movement, KMLG, Union of the Masses for Democracy and Justice (UMDJ), Concerned Citizens Group, Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino (Filipino Masses’ Forces), and Kubol ng Pag-asa -– marched to the EDSA Shrine after the indoor activity at LSGH.

They intended to light candles at the EDSA Shrine -– the site of the People Power II uprising where seven years ago, policemen trooped after then Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Panfilo Lacson was forced by his officers to withdraw support from Estrada. This time, however, the ralliers were stopped by the police from going near the shrine.

“We were the ones who put Arroyo in Malacañang, but now we are prohibited from setting foot (at the EDSA Shrine),” said Bayan Muna (People First) Rep. Satur Ocampo.

The ralliers settled for lighting candles along the sidewalk. Bulatlat

UNIONS TO STEP UP CAMPAIGN FOR P125 WAGE HIKE

Labor federations and unions under the banner of the KMU are entering 2008 by upping the ante in the continuing campaign for an old, still-unheeded demand -– a legislated P125 across-the-board, nationwide wage increase.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
LABOR WATCH
Vol. VII, No. 48, January 13-19, 2008

Labor federations and unions under the banner of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May 1st Movement) are entering 2008 by upping the ante in the continuing campaign for an old, still-unheeded demand –- a legislated P125 across-the-board, nationwide wage increase.

The demand for a P125 wage increase was first put forward by the KMU in 1999, nearly a year into the presidency of Joseph Estrada who won the 1998 presidential elections on an avowed populist “platform.”

Back then, the average family living wage for a family of six –- the average Filipino family –- was P379.51 ($9.71 at the year’s average exchange rate of $1:P39.09) a day on a national average, based on data from the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC). In contrast, the daily minimum wage stood at a national average of P193.67 ($4.95).

A P125 wage increase at that time would have brought the national average minimum wage to P318.67 ($8.15), or P60.84 short of the national average family living wage that year.

The Estrada administration, which ascended to power on the basis of a proclaimed love for the “Filipino masses,” never paid heed to this demand of the KMU.

Estrada was ousted in 2001 through a popular uprising that was largely anti-corruption. He was succeeded by his vice president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

After Estrada

The demand for a P125 wage increase was among the items in the “People’s Agenda” that cause-oriented groups presented to Arroyo during her first days in office.

The required living wage for an average Filipino family was in 2001 a far cry from what it is now. That year, it stood at a national average of P445.53 ($10.89 at that year’s average exchange rate of $1:P40.89), based on data from the NWPC. The highest regional minimum wage then was in the National Capital Region (NCR), which was pegged at P250. At a national average, however, the daily minimum wage that year stood at P222.42, based on data from the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE).

Even then, a P125 across-the-board, nationwide wage increase would have been insufficient to bridge the gap between the minimum wage and the required family living wage. An additional P125 would have brought up the 2001 daily minimum wage to P347.42 –- which is P98.11 short of what an average Filipino family needed to survive daily that year.

Nearly seven years after first assuming power, the Arroyo administration has yet to heed this demand of the KMU.

The national average family living wage has risen by more than P125 since 2001. But it hardly made a dent in the gap between the minimum wage and the required family living wage, as the increases that came in trickles were fast eaten up by runaway inflation. Based on December 2007 data from the NWPC, the national average family living wage for a family of six stands at P670 ($14.52 at last year’s average exchange rate of $1:P46.15) a day.

The highest regional minimum wage at present is P362 ($8.92 at the Jan. 10 exchange rate of $1:P40.60) for the National Capital Region (NCR), which has a regional daily family living wage of P806 ($19.85).

The region with the lowest minimum wage rate is the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), with only P200 ($4.92). It has a regional daily family living wage of P1096 ($27).

But the KMU holds on to the demand for a P125 wage increase. “This is to stress that our demand for a legislated wage increase is a long-standing but long-unheeded one,” said Wilson Baldonaza, KMU secretary-general, in an interview with Bulatlat.

Baldonaza said the KMU and its affiliated federations and unions will be actively campaigning for Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) Rep. Crispin Beltran’s House Bill No. 1722, which provides for a P125 across-the-board, nationwide wage increase for private-sector workers.

Beltran is a former KMU chairman, and he has been in the forefront of the campaign for a legislated P125 wage increase since way back in 1999. During his three terms as representative, Beltran was able to file three bills for a legislated minimum wage hike. He first filed a wage-hike bill in 2001, as a representative of Bayan Muna (People First). It never did go beyond first reading.

The second, HB 345 –- which Beltran filed as Anakpawis representative -– was approved at the plenary of the House of Representatives by a vote of 151-0 on Dec. 20, 2006. Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada -– son of Arroyo’s predecessor -– was sponsoring a counterpart bill at that time.

The next month, however, HB 345 was recalled upon a motion filed by Cavite Rep. Crispin Remulla, purportedly to allow further debate and deliberation. Malacañang supported this move of the House of Representatives, and the younger Estrada deferred sponsorship of the counterpart Senate bill.

If HB 345 had not been recalled and its counterpart Senate bill was also passed, the national average minimum wage would have gone up to P408.67 ($7.96 at that year’s average exchange rate of $1:P51.31). But that would have still been short of what the family of six would need on a national average to survive daily, based on 2006 data from the NWPC.

HB 1722

The KMU enters this year by stepping up the campaign for the passage of Beltran’s HB 1722.

Baldonaza said KMU members in the country’s various regions would be lobbying before their respective district representatives for the passage of HB 1722 –- a tactic which the KMU is trying for the first time.

“We recognize, however, that lobbying work becomes effective as a means of applying pressure only when the mass movement is strong,” Baldonaza said.

Baldonaza added that the KMU would be forming an alliance specifically for the campaign for a wage increase. The alliance, he said, would go by the name Unions for 125. “All unions are welcome to join that alliance so long as they support the demand for a P125 wage increase,” he said.

The KMU leader said the P125 wage hike campaign should be expected to reach its peak by May 1 this year. Bulatlat

DEBOSYON AT AKTIBISMO
Alexander Martin Remollino

Ang naganap kahapon na Pista ng Itim na Nazareno sa Quiapo, Maynila ay isang naghuhumiyaw na tanda ng ating panahon. At marami itong inihihiyaw.

Batay sa isang ulat ng Philippine Daily Inquirer, umabot sa 2.6 milyong Katolikong deboto ang lumahok sa pagdiriwang ng pistang nasabi. Ayon sa pamunuan ng Simbahang Katoliko sa Pilipinas, ito ang pinakamalaking paglahok sa Pista ng Itim na Nazareno sa loob ng nakaraang ilang taon. Ang marawal na kalagayan ng bansa sa kasalukuyan ang itinuturo ng Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) na dahilan ng pagbulwak ng bilang ng mga kalahok sa Pista ng Itim na Nazareno.

Sa isang artikulo sa website ng Arsobispadong Romano Katoliko ng Maynila, sinasabing ang imahe ng Nazareno na ngayo’y nasa Simbahan ng Quiapo ay dinala sa Maynila ng isang paring Kastila noong 1607. Nasunog daw ang barkong pinaglululanan ng imahe at nadamay ito. Bagama’t nasunog, ang nasabing imahe’y inaruga pa rin ng mga mamamayan. Mula noon, ayon sa mga kuwento, naghihimala na ang imahe para sa sinumang sumaling dito.

Ito na rin marahil ang pinagsimulan ng mahabang tradisyon na ng pamamanata ng mga debotong Katoliko sa nasabing imahe ni Kristo, na isang mamamayan ng Nazaret.

Sa isang panahon kung kailan malimit na pahirapan ang makapagpalahok ng kahit 2,000 sa mga kilos-protesta gayong kadalasa’y 5,000 o mahigit pa ang hinahangad na pakilusin ng mga organisador — kahit na walang kapantay sa kasaysayan ang kawalang-pakundangan ng katiwalian habang pinapasan ng mga mamamayan ang matinding bigat ng buwis, at patuloy ang pangangayupapa ng panahalaan sa mga dayuhang patakarang pang-ekonomiyang tuluy-tuloy na nagpapahirap sa kalakhan ng populasyon at maging sa papalaking bahagi ng gitnang uri) — ang isang kapistahang kagaya ng sa Poong Nazareno ng Quiapo ay nakapagpapalahok ng may 2.6 milyong tao.

Sa mga panahong sunud-sunod ang kagipitang kanilang hinaharap at madali nilang akalaing wala sa kanilang mga kamay ang kaligtasan, ang mga tao’y madadaling kumapit sa ipinalalagay na posibilidad ng mga himala kagaya ng diumano’y nagmumula sa Itim na Nazareno.

Ang Pista ng Itim na Nazareno’y itinuturing na siyang pinakamalaking pagtitipon ng mga Katoliko sa Pilipinas taun-taon, at ang laki ng pagtitipon kahapo’y walang kapantay sa nagdaang ilang taon.

Idiniriin ng ganitong panahon ang hamon sa mga progresibong nasa hanay ng taong-simbahan na palawakin nang husto ang pag-oorganisa sa Simbahang Katoliko — na mula sa panahon ng mga Kastila magpahanggang ngayo’y nananatiling siyang pinakamaimpluwensiyang simbahan sa Pilipinas, at ngayo’y may impluwensiya sa tinatayang 85 porsiyento ng ating populasyong nasa 89 milyon na.

Sa lalong malawak na saklaw, ipinakikita ng naganap na pagtitipon ng mga deboto kahapon sa Quiapo ang isang hamon sa mga nasa kilusan sa pagbabago na papag-ibayuhin ang pagsisikap na makapagbigay ng pag-asa sa nakararaming mamamayan — sa panahong tila kaydaling maubusan ng pag-asa.

CHOICES
Alexander Martin Remollino

We have by and large been reduced to choosing
between hell and the deep blue sea.
The path to the heavens is now "the road less traveled."

Is it simply because it is infinitely easier
to make a downhill run to the Devil's den,
or to take a plunge into the mystery-filled depths
than it is to scale the heights?
Or is it because there are now so many among us
with cotton spines and jelly knees
that the uphill path has become the most-feared option?

But of what consequence are the pains
of even the most laborious climb
if at the end of the road lie the heavens?
Let us not let the weak of will and mind pull us down,
for ours
is a journey worth all the pains that come with it.

CUBAN FIVE: JAILED FOR FIGHTING TERRORISM

“I am certain that many young Cubans, in their struggle against the Giant in the Seven-League Boots, would do as they did. Money can buy everything save the soul of a people who has never gone down on its knees.” –- Fidel Castro on the Cuban Five, 27 December 2007

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 47, January 6-12, 2008

“(Jose) Marti taught us that ‘all of the world’s glory fits in a kernel of corn.’ Many times have I said and repeated this phrase, which carries in eleven words a veritable school of ethics.

“Cuba's Five Heroes, imprisoned by the empire, are to be held up as examples for new generations. Fortunately, exemplary conduct will continue to flourish with the consciousness of our peoples as long as our species exists.”

“I am certain that many young Cubans, in their struggle against the Giant in the Seven-League Boots, would do as they did. Money can buy everything save the soul of a people who has never gone down on its knees.”

This is what Cuban President Fidel Castro said about the five men now known as the Cuban Five in a message to Cuba’s National Assembly a few days before the New Year.

The Cuban Five are Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labañino, Fernando Gonzales, and Rene Gonzales – Cuban nationals currently serving prison terms in the U.S. for alleged espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, and other illegal activities.

The five Cubans had been sent to Miami, Florida in the 1990s on a mission to infiltrate organizations conducting terrorist activities against Cuba, particularly Brothers to the Rescue, and relay information about their activities to the Cuban government.

On June 17, 1998 the Cuban government and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) met in Havana.

The Cuban government presented to the FBI the results of its investigations into the activities of Miami-based anti-Cuba groups like Comandos F4, Coalition of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU), Alpha 66, Omega 7, and Brothers to the Rescue –- all based in Miami. These included documents, photographs and surveillance reports showing that these groups were planning to stage a number of new “terrorist” attacks.

Attacks against Cuba

Based on an item in the website Miami 5 (http://www.granma.cu/miami5/ingles/index.html), the attacks against Cuba included the following cases:

Oct. 7, 1992: An armed attack against the Varadero Melia Hotel perpetrated from a vessel manned by four Miami terrorists who were later arrested and questioned by the FBI, then released.

April 2, 1993: The tanker ship Mikonos sailing under the Cypriot flag was fired upon 7 miles north of Matanzas from a vessel crewed by Cuban born, U.S. based terrorists.

November 1994: Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and five of his accomplices smuggled weapons into Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, during the IV Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government in order to make an attempt on the life of President Fidel Castro. However, the security belt kept him at a distance thus thwarting his aim. Posada Carriles later told the New York Times: “I was standing behind some journalists and I saw Castro's friend, (Gabriel) García Márquez, but I could only see Castro from a long way away.”

March 11, 1994: A terrorist group from Miami fired on the Guitart Cayo Coco Hotel.

Sept. 4, 1994: Two U.S.-based terrorists infiltrated into the area around Caibarien, Villa Clara, with the aim of carrying out sabotage in that province. A number of weapons and large amounts of military equipment were seized.

Oct. 6, 1994: Another armed group fired automatic weapons at the Guitart Cayo Coco Hotel from a boat that set out from Florida.

Oct. 15, 1994: A group of armed terrorists coming from the United States landed on the causeway to Cayo Santa María near Caibarién, Villa Clara, and murdered comrade Arcelio Rodríguez García.

May 20, 1995: The Guitart Cayo Coco Hotel was attacked the second time by terrorists manning a fast launch coming from the United States.

Feb. 11, 1996: After firing on our coastline, a vessel coming from the United States carrying three terrorists was captured by the Cuban cost guard patrol.

April 12, 1997: An explosive device was detonated in the Melia Cohiba Hotel in the City of Havana.

July 12, 1997: Bombs blasted in the Capri and National hotels.

Aug. 4, 1997: Another bomb exploded in the Melia Cohiba Hotel.

Arrest and trial of the Cuban Five

The FBI promised to take action on the results of Cuba’s investigations –- including the surveillance reports, which had been prepared by Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labañino, Fernando Gonzales, and Rene Gonzales.

The five, however, were arrested on Sept. 12, 1998 and charged with espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, and other crimes. For 17 months they were kept in solitary confinement.

Their trial began in November 2000. The U.S. government insisted on their being tried in Miami, in spite of several requests for a transfer of venue citing the “impossibility of a fair trial” in the said city.

After a six-month trial involving 24,000 pages of documents and 119 pages of testimonies, the five were convicted and sentenced to four life terms and 75 years in prison.

On Aug. 9, 2005, the Cuban Five won a victory on appeal and a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial outside of Miami. However, on Oct. 31 that same year, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals conducted an en banc hearing and voted 10-2 denying them a new trial.

The wives and children of the Cuban Five have repeatedly been denied U.S. visas preventing them from visiting the five in jail.

International support

The campaign for the freedom of the Cuban Five has gained broad international support.

On May 27, 2005 the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) adopted a report by its Working Group on Arbitrary Detention criticizing the trial and conviction of the Cuban Five. The report stated, among other things, that:

“The Working Group notes that it arises from the facts and circumstances in which the trial took place and from the nature of the charges and the harsh sentences handed down to the accused that the trial did not take place in the climate of objectivity and impartiality that is required in order to conform to the standards of a fair trial as defined in Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States of America is a party.”

In 2006, eight Nobel Prize winners have wrote and sent a petition letter to the U.S. Attorney-General calling for freedom for the Cuban Five. The signatories are Zhores Alferov (Physics, 2000), Desmond Tutu (Peace, 1984), Nadine Gordimer (Literature, 1991), Rigoberta Menchú (Peace, 1992), Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Peace, 1980), Wole Soyinka (Literature, 1986), José Saramago (Literature, 1996), and Gunter Grass (Literature, 1999).

In the United Kingdom that same year, six MPs wrote to then Prime Minister Tony Blair urging him to call on the U.S. to act against terrorists in Miami and release the Cuban Five. Blair declined to take any action.

Among the most prominent supporters of the campaign to free the Cuban Five in the U.S. are writer Alice Walker and actor Danny Glover.

At present there are support groups for the Cuban Five in 27 countries.

The Five

Gerardo Hernandez was born in Havana in 1965, and has a degree in International Political Relations. He has been a cartoonist and humorist from his youth, and while at school he was also part of a theater group. In 1989 he was part of the Cuban forces supporting Angola against the invading South African apartheid regime. Several of his cartoons and jokes were published in 2002 in the book You Can Achieve Everything with Love and Humor.

Antonio Guerrero was born in 1958 in Miami. Their family returned to their native Cuba the following year, after the victory of the Cuban Revolution. He trained as an airfield construction engineer in Kiev, Ukraine and graduated in 1983. As an engineer he was responsible for, among other things, the expansion of the Santiago de Cuba International Airport. Also a poet, he has published several poems in both Spanish and English in the book Desde Mi Altura (From My Altitude).

Ramon Labañino was born in Havana in 1963 and was schooled in Economics at the University of Havana, where he graduated with honors.

Fernando Gonzalez, who was born in 1963 in Havana, earned a degree in International Political Relations with high honors. He was active in theater and participated in international cultural festivals. From 1987 to 1989 he was part of the Cuban forces supporting Angola against the South African apartheid regime.

Rene Gonzalez was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1963. Their family returned to Cuba in 1963. He served in Angola from 1977 to 1979. He studied aviation after that and graduated as a pilot and flight instructor in 1982. Bulatlat

CONTRACTUALIZATION AND THE STATE OF UNIONISM IN THE PHILIPPINES

The prevalent practice of contractualization has been the main culprit in the reduction of union membership on a national scale. Without a union, workers’ rights are easily violated.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
YEAREND REPORT –- LABOR
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 46, December 23, 2007 – January 5, 2008

The Ilaw at Buklod ng Manggagawa (IBM or Workers’ Light and Unity) –- the union of workers of the San Miguel Corporation (SMC) conglomerate, the country’s largest food and beverage corporation –- used to be a showcase of what being a strong union was all about. As recently as during the early 1990s, majority of San Miguel’s then 39,000-strong workforce were members of IBM, which is affiliated with the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May 1st Movement).

Today, the composition of SMC’s workforce serves as a showcase of what contractualization can do to a union.

Based on an item on the SMC website (http://www.sanmiguel.com.ph/), the company now has 26,000 employees. “May 1,100 na lang sa mga ‘yan ang regular” (Only some 1,100 of them remain as regulars), said Ka Neri, 33, a full-time KMU organizer working with the IBM and himself a former contractual employee at SMC, in an interview with Bulatlat.

Ka Neri said SMC was able to reduce the regular workforce through attacks on the union and department closures.

“Kinasuhan ang mga lider ng unyon at tinanggal, para humina ang unyon” (The union leaders were slapped with charges and dismissed to weaken the union), the union organizer said. “Nagsara rin ng mga departamento at natanggal ang mga dating nagtatrabaho doon” (There were departments that were closed down, and workers were laid off.)

Aside from these, Ka Neri said, the company was also able to ‘encourage’ a number of the older employees to accept “early retirement” packages. To ‘encourage’ old employees to avail of the early retirement option, attractive compensation packages are offered while at the same time managers approach employees and tell them that they should avail of these otherwise they might end up getting less if retrenched.

“Y’ong mga natanggal o naalis d’yan ay pinalitan ng mga mas bata...mga kontraktuwal na mas mababa ang suweldo” (Those who were dismissed, got laid off, or had availed of early retirement packages were replaced with younger ones, contractual employees with lower wages), Ka Neri said. “May iba na pinagkontrata na lang ng bago” (Some were rehired as contractuals.)

The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) is another showcase of the effects of contractualization on unions. In an interview with Bulatlat’s Karl G. Ombion earlier this year, PLDT Union Council member Ronnie Gedoria said that from a 16,000-strong regular workforce (of which majority were union members) before 1995, the PLDT now has only about 3,000 regular employees.

While before regular employees are divided into departments corresponding to the different processes such as telephone line installation and repair, and maintenance and repair of underground cables, the remaining regular employees are now forced to do all kinds of jobs, under the multi-skill, multi-task scheme for employees, and with higher workloads.

Added to this, certain processes are already contracted out. For example, installations of new telephone lines are now being done by contractuals who are hired by agencies. These contractuals are paid by piecemeal, meaning their pay depends on the number of telephone lines they installed: no installation, no pay.

Contractualization and unionism

Ombion, citing data from both government and labor sources, wrote that between 1995 and 2005, the number of contractual workers in the Philippines soared from 65 percent to as much as 78 percent of the country’s employed labor force.

Companies in the Philippines started going on an orgy of contractualization in the years following Department Order No. 10 of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), which was issued in 1997 by then Labor Secretary Leonardo Quisumbing.

The Labor Code devotes only a small section to provisions on contractual employment, and gives the Secretary of Labor the leeway to restrict or even prohibit the contracting-out of labor “to protect the rights of workers.”

But the apparent shift of government policy from its bias towards regular employment, as reflected in the Labor Code, to “flexible” work arrangements can be seen in the issuance of one whole department order, DO No.10, for the purpose of legalizing and legitimizing contractualization. DO No. 10 reads, “Contracting and subcontracting arrangements are expressly allowed by law…”

DO No. 10 also declares, as part of its guiding principles, that “flexibility for the purpose of increasing efficiency and streamlining operations is essential for every business to grow in an atmosphere of free competition…”

While DO No. 10 professed to protect workers’ rights, including the right to self-organization and social benefits, the experience under a regime of contractualization has been that contractual employees are barred from joining unions and are denied the social benefits that are supposedly due them even under DO No. 10.

DO No. 10 opened the floodgates to the mass lay-offs of regular workers, which included the dismantling of unions, and their replacement with contractual workers.

DoLE DO No. 3, issued in 2001 by then Labor Secretary Patricia St. Tomas, revoked DO No. 10 but honored all contracts entered into during its effectivity. The Department’s DO No 18-02, issued the next year also by Sto. Tomas, practically restored DO No. 10.

The prevalent practice of contractualization has been the main culprit in the reduction of union membership on a national scale.

Based on data from the Bureau of Labor Relations (BLR), 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 June 2007, union membership would rise to 1.89 million.

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

The sorry state of unionism in the Philippines is further emphasized when looked upon in proportion to the 33.33 million-strong labor force as of June 2007. The total union membership of 1.89 million as of June 2007 means that only 5.68 percent of the country’s employed labor force is organized.

Unions and workers’ rights

This does not bode well for the defense of workers’ rights. Without a union, workers’ rights are easily violated.

All these notwithstanding, those in the unions still suffer the atrocities of violence and harassment. The vulnerability of unions to these atrocities has no doubt been exacerbated by their weakening owing to the bane of contractualization.

Data from the non-government organization Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) show that from January to August 2007 alone, there were 59 cases of union and human rights violations involving a total of 829 victims. These included the killings of two labor leaders, violent dispersals of picketlines, illegal arrest and detention, torture, grave threats, and enforced disappearances.

CTUHR’s data further show that from 2001 to August 2007, there have been a total of 1,167 union and human rights violations, all in all involving 14,623 victims. The killings of union leaders Renato Pacaide and Charlie Solayao this year have brought the total number of workers extrajudicially killed under the Arroyo administration to 85.

Meanwhile, the economic rights of workers are also not faring well.

Recent data from the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) show that the national average family living wage for a family of six, the average Filipino family, now stands at P664.87 ($15.91 at an exchange rate of $1:P41.80 as of Dec. 21).

Conversely, the highest regional minimum wage –- which is “enjoyed” in the National Capital Region (NCR) – stands at only P325-362 ($7.78-8.66) 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 P1,087 ($26) as against a minimum wage of only P200 ($4.78) daily.

Resisting the bane

The onslaught of contractuazation since the 1990s has done a lot to weaken unions in the Philippines –- which at various points in history were major forces in fighting authoritarianism.

Last year broke what seemed to be an upward trend in Philippine union membership since 2002. While union membership has risen since last year, an increase of about 30,000 from last year’s 1.86 million as of June 2007 is by no means a drastic leap.

With the present weakness of unions compared to their strength a decade ago, the defense of workers’ rights has become more and more difficult. For this year, there has been no improvement in workers’ economic rights, while union and human rights continue to be violated with impunity.

But not only workers are affected by the trend of contractualization. The trainings contractuals undergo are many times less than what regular employees underwent in years passed. This lack of training plus the pressures being exerted on contractual workers who have no rights and are paid less, sometimes on a piecemeal basis, is already taking its toll on the quality of services of companies such as PLDT and Meralco.

Thus, contractualization is a bane not only to workers and their unions but to consumers as well. Bulatlat

MAGKABILANG DULO HALOS
Alexander Martin Remollino

Alay sa mga magbubukid ng Sumilao, Bukidnon

Hindi na "diyan lamang" ang kanilang nilakad
kahit para sa mga paang matagal nang nasanay na magturing
na "diyan lamang" ang tatlong bundok na lakarin.
Hindi "diyan lamang" kundi sanlibo't pitong daang kilometro --
magkabilang dulo halos nitong kapuluan --
ang itinakda nilang haba ng kanilang lakad
sa pagitan ng pag-asa't kawalan ng pag-asa.

At bakit naman hindi?
Layang magtanim at umani --
layang huminga nang maluwag sa kasariwaan ng hangin --
ang katarungang mailap na kanilang tinutugis.

Subalit ang dulo ng kanilang paglalakbay
ay tila lakbayin pa ring higit pa
sa sanlibo't pitong daang kilometro:
lakbaying kung saan dudulo
ay walang nakababatid.

Samahan natin sila sa kanilang paglalakbay,
gaano man kalayo ang lakarin
at saanman umabot ang ating mga talampakan
sa pagtugis sa layang magtanim at umani --
layang huminga nang maluwag sa kasariwaan ng hangin.

OIL PRICE HIKES DRAIN DRIVERS’ INCOME

The income of jeepney drivers has plunged miserably since the advent of the Oil Deregulation Law, and more miserably this year owing to the recent wave of oil price hikes.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 45, December 16-22, 2007

The income of jeepney drivers -– the Philippines’ so-called “kings of the road” -– has plunged miserably since the advent of the Oil Deregulation Law, and more miserably this year owing to the recent wave of oil price hikes.

Erelito Mendoza, a jeepney driver plying the Cainta-Taytay-Angono-Tanay route in Rizal province, east of Manila, knows this well.

He has been a driver for 30 years. For most of the last 30 years he was able to make a fairly decent living, and did not particularly mind that to be able to do so he had to be awake even before the sun rose and it would be dark by the time he could go home.

But the last six years have been particularly difficult for his livelihood, he said.

“Dati, malaki-laki pa’ng kinikita ko” (I used to earn considerably well), he told Bulatlat in an interview. “Ngayon, halos wala na akong maiuwi sa pamilya ko. Gasolinahan na lang halos ang binubuhay ko” (Nowadays I end up taking almost nothing home to my family. Almost all of my earnings go to the gasoline stations.)

Mendoza is one of the millions of ordinary Filipinos –- drivers and non-drivers alike –- who are reeling from the effects of relentless oil price increases particularly in the last month. The oil price increases are particularly hard for him, since one of his children –- all of whom he is sending through school as the family’s sole breadwinner –- is now in college.

World oil prices surged to $96 at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) last month before settling at $95.59 per barrel.

With this, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was urged to intervene by increasing world supply. But OPEC refused, saying there was no oil supply shortage and blaming speculation for the price jumps.

The deregulated oil market in the Philippines makes the country all the more vulnerable to world oil shocks, as local subsidiaries of oil giants are able to pad pump prices.

The banner story of Business World’s Oct. 31, 2007 issue, citing a recent study by the United Nations (UN), shows the Philippines to be among the countries most vulnerable to oil price jumps -– along with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, Laos, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, and Vanuatu. In the report the Philippines’ heavy dependence on imported oil and its high level of poverty and inequality were cited as the reasons for its vulnerability.

Deregulation, oil price hikes, and drivers’ earnings

Based on data from the socio-economic think tank IBON Foundation, pump prices have increased by as much as 535 percent since Republic Act No. 8479 or the Oil Deregulation Law – a brainchild of then Sen. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo along with other laws pushing for the Bretton Woods agenda of liberalization, deregulation and privatization for Third World Countries -– took effect in April 1996. Under the Oil Deregulation Law, premium oil prices have soared to P45.18/liter ($1.10 at an exchange rate of $1:P41.14 as of Dec. 14) from P16.56/liter in 2001 ($0.32 at the 2001 average exchange rate of $1:P50.99), while diesel prices have climbed to P35.95 ($0.92) in 2007 from P13.82/liter ($0.27) in 2001.

IBON data also show that pump prices have been overpriced by as much as P4.55 ($0.11) per liter since 2000.

This year alone, oil prices have increased more than 10 times, with the price of diesel -– which jeepney drivers use -– hiking by P6.50 ($0.157) a liter.

Ordinary drivers as well as transport-sector leaders interviewed separately by Bulatlat over the past three years have said that a jeepney driver, on the average, takes in some 300 passengers and consumes around 30 liters of diesel a day.

Before this year’s wave of oil price hikes, diesel cost P31.45/liter ($0.76). With the diesel cost increases amounting to P6.50 ($0.157) this year alone, jeepney drivers of late have had to shell out P37.95 ($0.92) for every liter of diesel.

With the minimum fare at P7.50 ($0.18) and an average of 300 passengers a day, a jeepney driver usually earns a gross of P2,250 ($54.69). Taking away the total diesel expenses of P1,138.50 ($27.67) at P37.95/liter and the boundary fee of P900 ($21.87), the driver would be left with P211.50 ($5.14) at the end of the day.

Before this year’s wave of oil price hikes, a driver would usually be left with P406.50 ($9.88) on the average after a day’s work. With the slide in jeepney drivers’ earnings from P406.50 to P211.50 a day, we can see that their daily income has decreased by P195 ($4.739) due to oil price increases.

Data from the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) show that the national average family living wage for a family of six, the average Filipino family, now stands at P664.87 as of July 2007 ($16.70 based on the current exchange rate of $1:P41.14).

Jeepney drivers’ current daily earnings are P453.37 ($11.02) below the national average family living wage.

This is a far cry from what jeepney drivers earned before the implementation of the Oil Deregulation Law.

Sarbing Repaso, a jeepney driver interviewed by Bulatlat in 2004, recalled that in 1996, just before the passage of the Oil Deregulation Law, diesel cost only P5.50 (then $0.21) a liter. At the end of each day’s work, a driver paid P400 (then $15.38) as boundary fee.

Taking in an average of 300 passengers a day at that year’s minimum fare of P2.50 (then $0.10), the driver was earning a gross income of P750 (then $28.86) daily. Taking from that the P165 (then $6.35) spent on diesel daily (P5.50/liter of diesel multiplied by 30 liters a day), as well as the P400 boundary fee, a driver was left with P185 (then $10.58) a day. This was P128.38 below the then national average daily cost of living of P313.38 (then $12.05).

Things today are vastly different from how they were when he was just starting out as a driver, Mendoza shared.

“Noon, hindi problema ang pag-aaral ng aking mga kapatid” (In those days, I had no trouble sending my siblings through school), he said. “Ngayon, iisa ang anak kong nasa college, hirap na hirap kami” Right now only one of my children is in college and still we are having a very hard time.)

Protests

Drivers under the banner of the Pinag-isang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston) have held two protest actions in the last three weeks against oil price increases –- a rally last Nov. 26 and a transport strike last Dec. 13.They demanded the following: government control of oil prices and a moratorium on oil price hikes; removal of RVAT (Restructured Value-Added Tax) coverage on oil to effect a P4 rollback in oil prices; and the scrapping of the Oil Deregulation Law and state control of the oil industry.

A few days before the Dec. 13 transport strike, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes announced that there would be no further oil price increases until the end of the year.

In an interview with Bulatlat, Piston secretary-general George San Mateo said Reyes’ announcement is proof that the government can intervene in the oil industry if deemed necessary.

“They can do it, and this is proof,” San Mateo said. “But what they don’t want to do is institutional intervention, which would mean the junking of the Oil Deregulation Law.”

San Mateo said that if the government fails or refuses to heed all the demands of the Nov. 26 and Dec. 13 protests, Piston would not hesitate to stage other actions come next year. Bulatlat