Category: Cong Corrales

Women: More problema after Yolanda

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

By Cong B. Corrales

THE STORM surges and strong winds have long been gone but people in areas hardest hit by super typhoon Haiyan last year still continue to rebuild their shattered lives.

And women are finding it more difficult than men, burdened as they are by gender discrimination, and a host of other problems that have been magnified after the storm.

More than a hundred women survivors of typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) gathered to point this out during the international aid group Oxfam’s forum on Tuesday dubbed “Women After the Storm.”

“The struggles of those from typhoon hit areas—from poverty, poor governance, and delivery of basic social services, to gender discrimination—have always been there before, and were even magnified after the typhoon,” Jing Pura, gender justice programme coordinator of Oxfam-Philippines told the PCIJ.

Derived from the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, Oxfam is an international confederation of 17 organizations working together with partners and local communities in more than 90 countries. In the Philippines, Oxfam has been operating since 1978. It is helping at least 760,000 people affected by the storm in the provinces of Leyte, Eastern Samar, and Cebu.

Haiyan – the strongest typhoon ever recorded – killed more than 6,000 people and displaced 4.1 people, 3.7 million of whom are women and girls, the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) reported.

Pura said gender inequality and discrimination are some of the underlying causes why people are still suffering nine months after the storm had passed.

“Meron kaming pagkiling sa kababaihan dahil nakikita namin na sila yung maraming dinadaanang problema at ibang sitwasyon dahil may mga inequality doon sa community. Dito sa Haiyan, yung response ng Oxfam—kasi tumutugon kami sa water, sanitation and hygiene issues, tumutugon din kami sa livelihood issues—nakita namin na hindi sila masyadong natatanong, nakokonsulta,” Pura said.

(We have a bias for women because we have seen that they are facing more problems because of the inequalities in their community; because of Haiyan, Oxfam’s response has been to help them in terms of water, sanitation, and hygiene issues. We are also helping them in their livelihood because they are not largely being consulted or asked.)

INFOGRAPHIC BY OXFAM

INFOGRAPHIC BY OXFAM

The experience of Mirasol Gayoso, a woman survivor from the fishing town of Guiuan in Eastern Samar is a stark case in point. Like her, women in their town contribute to their family’s finances by making bags and sleeping mats from indigenous hemp while their husbands fish.

“May mga organization na iba, halimbawa na kumukuha sila ng impormasyon tungkol sa mga livelihood, so mostly naka-focus sila sa mga kalalakihan. Parang nawawalan na ng time or attention ang mga babae kasi naka focus nga sa kanila. Eh, paano naman yung mga kababaihan doon napakalaking tulong din yun sa mga asawa nila,” Gayoso told PCIJ.

(There are organizations that get information about our livelihood and most of them focus on what the men are doing but they are not giving time or attention to the women. How about the women who can be of big help to their husbands?)

For Jayza dela Dia of Balanggiga town in Eastern Samar, it took 14 days for relief operations reached their town. She blamed a gap in communication.

“Delayed siguro ganon tapos may information na naiparating sa mga higher (officials) na partially damaged lang yung Balangiga ang report. Pero ang katotohanan po talaga totally damaged (sic) din po kami. Kung titingnan po yung lugar namin halos walang bahay doon nakatayo or kung may roon mang nakatayo, walang bubong at sira yung mga walls,” she said.

(It could have been delayed because information reaching the higher-ups said that Balangiga [town] was only partially-damaged but in truth, there was total destruction there; almost all houses were destroyed and those left standing had had no roofs or the walls were damaged.)

“We need to understand how women, with their families and communities, are coping and managing so that we are able to collectively re-imagine the best and most lasting ways to build back better,” Pura said.

Representatives from various national and international agencies—United Nations Population Fund, UN Women, Save the Children, Plan International, World Vision, UP Center for Women’s Studies, and Women’s Legal and Human Rights Bureau, Inc—also attended Oxfam’s forum.

SOME PARTICIPANTS during the forum | Photo by Cong B. Corrales

SOME PARTICIPANTS during the forum | Photo by Cong B. Corrales

Topics discussed during the forum include: rebuilding of women’s livelihoods, promoting women leadership in times of emergencies, responding to gender-based violence and reproductive health needs of women, mainstreaming gender in relocation and rehabilitation planning, and recognizing LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender) rights during and after typhoon Haiyan.

“The risks women, men, girls, and boys who are affected by Yolanda are different, and this determines who survives or who will get back on their feet. Thus, gender responsive provisions should be instilled in rehabilitation and recovery programs to address overlapping issues like land, shelter, and livelihood,” said Pura adding that it is important to have a “gender lens” in rebuilding communities after calamities.

Women: More problema after Yolanda

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

By Cong B. Corrales

THE STORM surges and strong winds have long been gone but people in areas hardest hit by super typhoon Haiyan last year still continue to rebuild their shattered lives.

And women are finding it more difficult than men, burdened as they are by gender discrimination, and a host of other problems that have been magnified after the storm.

More than a hundred women survivors of typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) gathered to point this out during the international aid group Oxfam’s forum on Tuesday dubbed “Women After the Storm.”

“The struggles of those from typhoon hit areas—from poverty, poor governance, and delivery of basic social services, to gender discrimination—have always been there before, and were even magnified after the typhoon,” Jing Pura, gender justice programme coordinator of Oxfam-Philippines told the PCIJ.

Derived from the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, Oxfam is an international confederation of 17 organizations working together with partners and local communities in more than 90 countries. In the Philippines, Oxfam has been operating since 1978. It is helping at least 760,000 people affected by the storm in the provinces of Leyte, Eastern Samar, and Cebu.

Haiyan – the strongest typhoon ever recorded – killed more than 6,000 people and displaced 4.1 people, 3.7 million of whom are women and girls, the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) reported.

Pura said gender inequality and discrimination are some of the underlying causes why people are still suffering nine months after the storm had passed.

“Meron kaming pagkiling sa kababaihan dahil nakikita namin na sila yung maraming dinadaanang problema at ibang sitwasyon dahil may mga inequality doon sa community. Dito sa Haiyan, yung response ng Oxfam—kasi tumutugon kami sa water, sanitation and hygiene issues, tumutugon din kami sa livelihood issues—nakita namin na hindi sila masyadong natatanong, nakokonsulta,” Pura said.

(We have a bias for women because we have seen that they are facing more problems because of the inequalities in their community; because of Haiyan, Oxfam’s response has been to help them in terms of water, sanitation, and hygiene issues. We are also helping them in their livelihood because they are not largely being consulted or asked.)

INFOGRAPHIC BY OXFAM

INFOGRAPHIC BY OXFAM

The experience of Mirasol Gayoso, a woman survivor from the fishing town of Guiuan in Eastern Samar is a stark case in point. Like her, women in their town contribute to their family’s finances by making bags and sleeping mats from indigenous hemp while their husbands fish.

“May mga organization na iba, halimbawa na kumukuha sila ng impormasyon tungkol sa mga livelihood, so mostly naka-focus sila sa mga kalalakihan. Parang nawawalan na ng time or attention ang mga babae kasi naka focus nga sa kanila. Eh, paano naman yung mga kababaihan doon napakalaking tulong din yun sa mga asawa nila,” Gayoso told PCIJ.

(There are organizations that get information about our livelihood and most of them focus on what the men are doing but they are not giving time or attention to the women. How about the women who can be of big help to their husbands?)

For Jayza dela Dia of Balanggiga town in Eastern Samar, it took 14 days for relief operations reached their town. She blamed a gap in communication.

“Delayed siguro ganon tapos may information na naiparating sa mga higher (officials) na partially damaged lang yung Balangiga ang report. Pero ang katotohanan po talaga totally damaged (sic) din po kami. Kung titingnan po yung lugar namin halos walang bahay doon nakatayo or kung may roon mang nakatayo, walang bubong at sira yung mga walls,” she said.

(It could have been delayed because information reaching the higher-ups said that Balangiga [town] was only partially-damaged but in truth, there was total destruction there; almost all houses were destroyed and those left standing had had no roofs or the walls were damaged.)

“We need to understand how women, with their families and communities, are coping and managing so that we are able to collectively re-imagine the best and most lasting ways to build back better,” Pura said.

Representatives from various national and international agencies—United Nations Population Fund, UN Women, Save the Children, Plan International, World Vision, UP Center for Women’s Studies, and Women’s Legal and Human Rights Bureau, Inc—also attended Oxfam’s forum.

SOME PARTICIPANTS during the forum | Photo by Cong B. Corrales

SOME PARTICIPANTS during the forum | Photo by Cong B. Corrales

Topics discussed during the forum include: rebuilding of women’s livelihoods, promoting women leadership in times of emergencies, responding to gender-based violence and reproductive health needs of women, mainstreaming gender in relocation and rehabilitation planning, and recognizing LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender) rights during and after typhoon Haiyan.

“The risks women, men, girls, and boys who are affected by Yolanda are different, and this determines who survives or who will get back on their feet. Thus, gender responsive provisions should be instilled in rehabilitation and recovery programs to address overlapping issues like land, shelter, and livelihood,” said Pura adding that it is important to have a “gender lens” in rebuilding communities after calamities.

Poems for the fallen

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

TODAY, 57 months after the Ampatuan Massacre, justice has yet to be had for 58 people who were murdered on a hilltop in the village of Masalay in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao province.

Exactly 57 months ago today, armed men believed to be under orders from some members of the Ampatuan family, brutally killed the victims who were on their way to deliver the certificate of candidacy of Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu who challenged the Ampatuans for the governorship of Maguindanao province.

Thirty-two of the victims were journalists and media workers.

The multiple murder cases against more than 100 accused – including some members of the Ampatuan clan that were identified as the alleged masterminds – have dragged on for years. Lately, private prosecutors made public their disagreement with the decision of public prosecutors to rest the case against 28 of the co-accused. Some families of the victims have also confirmed attempts by the Ampatuan family to pay them millions of pesos in exchange for withdrawing from the case.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called the Ampatuan Massacre as the single deadliest attack against journalists. The International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) has declared November 23 as the International Day to End Impunity – a day that IFEX has dedicated not only to the victims of the massacre but all those who have been targeted for “exercising their right to freedom of expression, and to shed light on the issue of impunity.”

PCIJ’s Julius D. Mariveles and Cong B. Corrales read their poems in this slideshow of photos taken by Mariveles in 2010 at the massacre site during the first year commemoration.

Mariveles’ poem written in Hiligaynon is titled “Lima Ka Napulo kag Walo,” 58 in the local language, and talks about the slow grind of the wheels of justice. Corrales’ “Ang Pinakamadilim na Tanghali” or “The Darkest Noon describes the Ampatuan Massacre.

Today, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines is leading the commemoration rites at the NCCP Grounds, Quezon Avenue, EDSA. Those who want to attend are requested to wear black.

Memory, Martial Law, and Ninoy Aquino

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

THE WORD “memory” traces its roots to the Latin word “memoria” and “memor,” meaning “mindful” or “remembering.”

It is defined as the human mind’s ability to “encode, sort, retain, and subsequently recall information and past experiences in the human brain.” The website human-memory.net also said that memory can be “be thought of in general terms as the use of past experience to affect or influence current behavior.”

Sociologists also talk about “collective memory” – coined by the sociologist Maurice Halbwachs (“The Collective Memory”), which is defined as a construction of created narratives and traditions to give people a sense of community to understand an event or a “social phenomena.”

The declaration by President Ferdinand Marcos of Martial Law in the Philippines on September 21, 1972 is a social phenomena. The debate over his role and how society should judge the Marcoses who are still in power was renewed recently.

Some say that the country was better off under Marcos. They say we need need an iron fist for the Philippines to progress. Others believe that those who have not experienced or seen the horrors of Martial Law are the only ones who would favor it.

Some say, however, that the lack of understanding about Martial Law, especially those belonging to the young generation, is because the nation lack of a sense of history, a collective memory. Not much sense is made of the past, the horrors, sufferings, and hardships under Martial Law.

The most prominent victim of Martial Law was then Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., an opposition solon who was imprisoned by Marcos. He was placed in solitary confinement for more than seven years, suffered a heart attack, and was sent to the United States for treatment.

He returned August 21, 1983 and was gunned down on the tarmac of what was then the Manila International Airport that was renamed in his honor several years after his wife, Corazon Aquino, assumed the presidency through a military-backed people’s uprising in February 1986.

It was not only Aquino who suffered under the dictatorship. At least 9,000 more were imprisoned, tortured, and killed during what is now being called as the darkest days in Philippine history based on the records that TFD holds it in its files.

This is the collective memory that the Task Force Detainees want Filipinos to have to point the nation in the right direction.

This video short by PCIJ deputy producer Cong Corrales tells us about this museum as the death anniversary of Ninoy Aquino nears.

Indeed, as the movie says, without memories, there would only be “the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.”

Palparan arrest to bolster rights abuse cases

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

Cong B. Corrales

THE ARREST of former major general Jovito Palparan will bolster the cases filed against the ex-military official accused of a string of alleged human rights violations.

The arrest came three years after Judge Teodora Gonzales of the Regional Trial Court Branch 14 in Malolos, Bulacan issued a warrant for Palparan on serious illegal detention and kidnapping charges of students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan.

National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) Secretary General Edre Olalia told the PCIJ in a phone interview that while the arrest has been long overdue, it will certainly bolster their case.

“From my own experience and based on the law, even one eyewitness can secure a conviction,” said Olalia. He said they have already presented three eyewitnesses who testified about Palparan’s involvement in the kidnapping and torture of Empeño and Cadapan.

CHECKMATE: General Jovito Palparan

CHECKMATE: General Jovito Palparan

“We have presented (a farmer, a security guard and a barangay official) who have seen Empeño and Cadapan at one time when they were abducted. The three positively identified Palparan. They were able to live to tell their stories because they were able to escape their abductors,” said Olalia.

“We have a previously scheduled hearing on the case on Monday (August 18),” Olalia said.

He added that with the arrest of Palparan Gonzales may decide separately for the two co-accused of Palparan, Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado Jr. and S/Sgt. Edgardo Osorio, or “wait for Palparan for a joint resolution on the case.”

Olalia said that the fourth accused, M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario, is still at large.

“He must be treated no different than any other in jail where he will be detained while awaiting trial,” he said.

When asked on the possibility that some government officials had helped in hiding Palparan, Olalia said that they will file cases against these officials for “accessory and obstruction of justice.”

“We will file cases. They should be held accountable. (But) it is incumbent on the Justice Department to file cases against these officials as soon as they find out who these officials are,” he said.

Even before Palparan’s arrest, Olalia added that relatives of the victims and human rights defenders were mulling the filing of another case for violation of the Anti-Disappearance law against Palparan.

Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay agrees that the arrest of Palparan is “long overdue.” She claimed that Palparan got help from government officials and that his lawyer knew where he was hiding all this time.

“Those who helped him evade arrest should be held accountable,” Palabay said.

According to the records of the Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights (Karapatan), Palparan has committed some 332 human rights violations—extrajudicial killings, forced disappearance, frustrated murders and torture—in three areas he was deployed from May 2001 to September 11, 2006. The breakdown of the human rights violations are as follows:

Extrajudicial Killings

  • Mindoro (May 2001-April 2003): 38
  • Eastern Visayas (February 2005-August 2005): 25
  • Central Luzon (September 2005-September 11, 2006): 75

Enforced Disappearances

  • Mindoro: 5
  • Eastern Visayas: 12
  • Central Luzon: 42

Frustrated Murders

  • Mindoro: 37
  • Eastern Visayas: 9
  • Central Luzon: 15

Torture

  • Mindoro: 37
  • Eastern Visayas: 25
  • Central Luzon: 38

“Among those killed under Palparan are human rights defenders Eden Marcellana and peasant leader Eddie Gumanoy in Southern Tagalog; UCCP Pastor Edison Lapuz, Leyte; Atty. Fedelito Dacut, Leyte; Supreme Bishop Alberto Ramento of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente,” Karapatan’s statement on their website reads.

Karapatan also said that from 2005 to 2006 alone, under Palparan—who was then the commanding officer of the 24th Infantry Battalion of the 7th Infantry Division—there were “71 victims of extrajudicial killings, 14 victims of frustrated killing, and five incidents of massacre.”