Category: Culture

Bongbong & BBL: Father-son act?

mcmangahas Leave a comment

By Cong B. Corrales

REMEMBER thy father’s mistakes, do right by the Moro people.

This, according to supporters of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), are lessons that Sen. Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. might do well to remember before thrashing the BBL.

proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), according to the leader of the
“Tandaan po natin, ang pamilya Marcos, ang tatay ni Senator Bongbong Marcos, siya po ang pinagmulan ng puno’t-dulong gulo, lalong-lalo na po sa Mindanao,” said Aga Khan Sharieff, chairman of the Bangsamoro National Movement for Peace and Development, at a recent press briefing. [Let us not forget that it was the Marcos family, the father of Senator Bongbong Marcos, who started the conflict in Mindanao.]

A political advertisement featuring the young Marcos had repeatedly aired on national television. In it, he stated his opposition to the proposed law and announced his plan to draft a new version of the bill.

Earlier, Marcos, who chairs the Senate committee on local government, had said that he would rather amend Republic Act No. 6734 or the Organic Act to establish the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, rather than pass the BBL.

Sharieff, who is also known as “Sheik Bin Laden” because of his long beard, is also the lead convenor of Anti-Bugok or Anti-Bungangero at Utak Pulburang Pulitiko. The phrase translates to “Against Looudmouth and Trigger-Happy Politicians”.

PCIJ tried to reach Marcos on Monday for comment but his staff said the senator was attending a hearing on the case of a student who allegedly committed suicide after being berated by his teacher.

Meanwhile, Yhang Macusang, spokesperson of the Anak Mindanao (AMIN) Partylist group, said that instead of blocking the passage of BBL, Marcos would do well to take this chance to make amends with the Bangsamoro people.

“Panahon na po upang bumawi kayo (Marcos) sa mga mamamayang Moro. Kayo (Marcos) po sana ang magtuwid ng mali ng nakaraan. Ngunit tila yata tama ang kasabihang: Kung ano ang puno ay siya ang bunga,” Macusang said. [It's high time for the Marcoses to do good by the Moro people. The Marcoses should correct the mistakes of the past. However, it seems like the saying is true: A tree bears fruit in its own image and likeness.]

“He (Marcos) must lead the restitution for the victims of the Jabidah massacre, Manlili massacre, and the countless victims of enforced disappearance, torture and warrantless arrests,” the group said in a statement read by Abdul Malik, program director of Bawgbug Center for Human Rights and Peace.

The group said that if Marcos really wants peace in Mindanao, he should “stop his shameless use of the issue of the BBL for his political campaign ads.”

For her part, lawyer Mary Ann Arnado, secretary general of Mindanao People’s Caucus, said that the BBL is a product of 17 years of negotiations and hundreds of consultations. According to her, Marcos’s plan to draft his own version of the bill is an insult to the thousands of people who have devoted their time and effort in the drafting of the BBL.

“Wala na pong ibang mas makagagawa ng Bangsamoro Basic Law liban po sa mga Bangsamoro,” said Arnado. [No other group but the Bangsamoro people must raft their own Bangsamoro Basic Law.]

“At kung si Bongbong Marcos ay gagawa na kanyang basic law, sa kanya ‘yan. Bongbong Law ‘yan at hinding-hindi ‘yan magiging Bangsamoro Basic Law,” Amado added. [If Bongbong Marcos will draft his basic law, then that's his own. That could only be a Bongbong law, and never a Bangsamoro Basic Law.] – PCIJ, June 2015

VIDEO: The ‘promised land’

Julius Mariveles Leave a comment

ALMA Ravina is a second generation coconut farmer in Bondoc Peninsula, Quezon province. Since last year, she already owns the land their family have been toiling for years—well, at least that’s what it says on paper.

On May 15, 2015, the collective might of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Commission on Human Rights (CHR), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Justice (DOJ), and the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) plus the Philippine National Police (PNP), and Philippine Army failed to install Luzara and other agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in Hacienda Matias in San Francisco, Bondoc Peninsula.

Hacienda Matias — whose former owners are Michael Gil Matias and Cenen F. Matias Jr — is a coconut plantation that spans an area of 1,715.983 hectares.

Of the 283 ARBs, 69 members of KMBP need to be installed, or to be physically placed on their farm lot. This is because they were driven out of their farm lots by the hired armed goons of the Matiases. Some of them live near the shore of Sibuyan Sea, while the others managed to build makeshift shelters on the mountain slopes in the margins of Hacienda Matias.

For some curious reason, both the police and army could not hurdle the main gate of Hacienda Matias and effectively install the ARBs that day.

Curious, too, that a memo order, dated May 20, 2015, of Police Director Ricardo Cornejo Marquez of the PNP Directorate for Operations to “establish PNP detachment within the hacienda, escort the DAR personnel and ARBs/farmers in installing the latter to their awarded lands, conduct regular patrol within the hacienda, and implement other appropriate interventions to ensure/maintain peace and order in the area” could not be implemented by the Quezon PNP Regional Command.

DAR Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes, had texted the request for a PNP detachment inside the hacienda because “installation is futile if the area is not guarded by PNP once installed by DAR.”

Ravina is among the 283 CLOA holders in Hacienda Matias.

This video short tells their story.

How to build a dynasty

Julius Mariveles Leave a comment

IN 2007, political scientist Julio Tehankee wrote that the two houses of the Philippine Congress have practically been home for at least 160 families over the last century.

“These families have had two or more members who have served in Congress, and they account for nearly 424 of the 2,407 men and women who have been elected to the national legislature from 1907 to 2004,” Tehankee wrote in the article “And the clans play on.”

More than 20 years after the People Power Revolution that toppled a dictatorship in 1986, the clans persist in the Philippines. In fact, Tehankee observed:

“Political clans have been an enduring feature of Philippine politics. In the upcoming local and congressional contests, that will remain to be so. Majority of these families or clans, in fact, take their roots from local politics. Generally considered as a grouping within the elites of society, the political clan is basically composed of a family and its network of relations that actively pursues elective or appointive political office at the local and/or national level. In many cases, the clan has also managed to maintain power through generations.”

But how are clans built?

Jejomar Binay

IT’S ALL in the family for the Binays. Philippine Vice-President Jejomar Binay and three of his children are in government. Nancy is a senator, Mar-Len Abigail is a representative, and Junjun is a city mayor| HLURB Photo

PCIJ founding executive director Sheila S. Coronel explored this issue in 2007 and came up with a summary of seven factors upon which dynasties are built.

Money, machine, media and/or movies, marriage, murder and mayhem, myth, and mergers are the seven Ms, the required elements for a dynasty to endure.

1. MONEY

The families that endure and survive political upheaval are more likely to be those that have a sustainable economic base to finance their participation in electoral battles. Philippine elections are costly — a congressional campaign in 2004, according to campaign insiders, could have cost up to P30 million in Metro Manila. In rural areas, the price tag is much less: P10 million on average, although campaigns can be run for P3 million or less in smaller districts where the competition is not too intense.

The investment may be worth it, as the rates of return can be high, depending on how well congressional office is exploited. Historically, families have been able to use their positions to expand their landholdings or their business empires, using their preferential access to privileges from the state — loans, franchises, monopolies, tax exemptions, cheap foreign exchange, subsidies, etc. These privileges have made political families wealthy, in turn allowing them to assemble formidable election machines that guarantee victory at the polls. The most successful families are those able to establish business empires not solely dependent on government largesse. They must also be competent enough to run these businesses well, allowing their members to survive electoral defeat and political ignominy.

In Landlords and Capitalists, political scientist Temario Rivera found that 87 families controlled the top 120 manufacturing companies from 1964-1986. Sixteen of these families — about 20 percent of the total — were involved in politics. Most of them were members of the landowning elite that emerged during the 19th century, including the Aranetas, the Cojuangcos, the Jacintos, the Madrigals, and the Yulos. “Through government influence,” writes Rivera, “landed capitalists caused the diversion of state resources to traditional elite economic activities like sugar and coconut milling, limiting further industrial diversification.”

Click on the photo to continue reading the article.

FORMER FIRST LADY IMELDA R. MARCOS. More than 20 years after the EDSA People Power that toppled his husband's rule, the Marcoses are still in power | Photo by Lilen Uy

FORMER FIRST LADY IMELDA R. MARCOS. More than 20 years after the EDSA People Power that toppled his husband’s rule, the Marcoses are still in power | Photo by Lilen Uy

Watered-down BBL = A house with no roof, plates with no food

mcmangahas Leave a comment

By Cong B. Corrales

A WEAK AND EFFETE Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will be like giving the Bangsamoro people “a house without a roof” or “plates without food.”

This was how peace advocates from Mindanao and Manila responded to recent statements by members of the House of Representatives that at least eight provisions in the BBL could be amended.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Ad Hoc Committee on the BBL, had earlier told reporters in several forums that his committee plans to scrap eight provisions of the BBL that are supposedly “unconstitutional.”

But Gani Abunda of the Friends of the Bangsamoro Movement in a public forum on Friday said such statements do not augur well for the BBL, citing “the spirit and principles of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB)” which the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed on March 27, 2014.

“We don’t think that a watered-down (BBL) will address the legitimate concerns of the Bangsamoro for peace,” said Abunda, who also represents the Initiatives for International Dialogue.

Congressman Rodriguez had earlier proposed to scrap some provisions of BBL’s Section 2 on the “Powers of Government ” authorizing the new Bangsamoro administration to have its own constitutional bodies.

Mary Ann Arnado, secretary general of the Mindanao Peace Caucus, disagrees.

She said that while the proposed BBL provides for the creation of its own constitutional bodies (i.e. Civil Service, Commission on Elections, Commission on Human Rights, Commission on Audit), these bodies would ultimately be under their respective mother commissions.

“These constitutional bodies, namely the Civil Service Commission, the auditing office, and the electoral office of the Bangsamoro will still be working together with the Comelec, the COA, and the Civil Service. So these are not really totally independent but these are offices that will be established in the Bangsamoro,” said Arnado.

The House of Representatives will commence deliberations on the BBL next Monday, May 11. To ensure that the discussions will be “compliant and reflective” of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the peace advocates have called on Filipinos to join a Peace March-Rally on that day.

The march-rally will start from the Sandiganbayan compound on Commonwealth Avenue in Diliman, Quezon City and proceed to the gates of Batasan Pambansa Complex. “It is a symbolic march that will gather at least 8,000 peace advocates to ensure that the BBL that will be passed in the lower house of Congress will not be a watered-down version,” said Arnado.

“May 11 will be beyond just joining a big rally,” she said. “It will be a massive citizens’ action for the Bangsamoro. For those of us who have witnessed the cruelty of war in Mindanao, for the bakwit (evacuees) who perennially leave their homes just to avoid being caught in the crossfires and for all the innocent victims of this long-drawn war in Mindanao, May 11 is an opportunity for all of us to show our sturdy unity to achieve genuine peace.”

Meanwhile, in an emailed statement, Thursday, Oxfam said lawmakers could be in “strategic position to put an end to the vicious cycle of poverty and conflict” in Mindanao by opening that part of the country to “sound public investments.”

“Oxfam agrees with the statement of the Citizens’ Peace Council early this week that the block grant can help the region catch up with the rest of the country since it is critical for the operations of the Bangsamoro government,” Oxfam said.

The vaunted growth of the national economy, it noted, has not helped in easing the dire conditions of communities in the Muslim Mindanao region.

In a 2012 report, t representative Gani Abunda he Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the concentration of poor people in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has remained high, “ranging between 42 percent and 47 percent” in 2006, 2009, and 2012.

Of the 17 regions in the country, ARMM has always had the highest incidence of poverty, the PSA report added.

“As we wait for the outcome of the deliberations of the BBL,’ Oxfam said, “let us be reminded that the draft law can open an opportunity to promote inclusive growth and development, and address the persisting problems of poverty and inequality besetting Muslim Mindanao.” - PCIJ, May 2015

Watered-down BBL = A house with no roof, plates with no food

mcmangahas Leave a comment

By Cong B. Corrales

A WEAK AND EFFETE Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will be like giving the Bangsamoro people “a house without a roof” or “plates without food.”

This was how peace advocates from Mindanao and Manila responded to recent statements by members of the House of Representatives that at least eight provisions in the BBL could be amended.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Ad Hoc Committee on the BBL, had earlier told reporters in several forums that his committee plans to scrap eight provisions of the BBL that are supposedly “unconstitutional.”

But Gani Abunda of the Friends of the Bangsamoro Movement in a public forum on Friday said such statements do not augur well for the BBL, citing “the spirit and principles of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB)” which the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed on March 27, 2014.

“We don’t think that a watered-down (BBL) will address the legitimate concerns of the Bangsamoro for peace,” said Abunda, who also represents the Initiatives for International Dialogue.

Congressman Rodriguez had earlier proposed to scrap some provisions of BBL’s Section 2 on the “Powers of Government ” authorizing the new Bangsamoro administration to have its own constitutional bodies.

Mary Ann Arnado, secretary general of the Mindanao Peace Caucus, disagrees.

She said that while the proposed BBL provides for the creation of its own constitutional bodies (i.e. Civil Service, Commission on Elections, Commission on Human Rights, Commission on Audit), these bodies would ultimately be under their respective mother commissions.

“These constitutional bodies, namely the Civil Service Commission, the auditing office, and the electoral office of the Bangsamoro will still be working together with the Comelec, the COA, and the Civil Service. So these are not really totally independent but these are offices that will be established in the Bangsamoro,” said Arnado.

The House of Representatives will commence deliberations on the BBL next Monday, May 11. To ensure that the discussions will be “compliant and reflective” of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the peace advocates have called on Filipinos to join a Peace March-Rally on that day.

The march-rally will start from the Sandiganbayan compound on Commonwealth Avenue in Diliman, Quezon City and proceed to the gates of Batasan Pambansa Complex. “It is a symbolic march that will gather at least 8,000 peace advocates to ensure that the BBL that will be passed in the lower house of Congress will not be a watered-down version,” said Arnado.

“May 11 will be beyond just joining a big rally,” she said. “It will be a massive citizens’ action for the Bangsamoro. For those of us who have witnessed the cruelty of war in Mindanao, for the bakwit (evacuees) who perennially leave their homes just to avoid being caught in the crossfires and for all the innocent victims of this long-drawn war in Mindanao, May 11 is an opportunity for all of us to show our sturdy unity to achieve genuine peace.”

Meanwhile, in an emailed statement, Thursday, Oxfam said lawmakers could be in “strategic position to put an end to the vicious cycle of poverty and conflict” in Mindanao by opening that part of the country to “sound public investments.”

“Oxfam agrees with the statement of the Citizens’ Peace Council early this week that the block grant can help the region catch up with the rest of the country since it is critical for the operations of the Bangsamoro government,” Oxfam said.

The vaunted growth of the national economy, it noted, has not helped in easing the dire conditions of communities in the Muslim Mindanao region.

In a 2012 report, t representative Gani Abunda he Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the concentration of poor people in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has remained high, “ranging between 42 percent and 47 percent” in 2006, 2009, and 2012.

Of the 17 regions in the country, ARMM has always had the highest incidence of poverty, the PSA report added.

“As we wait for the outcome of the deliberations of the BBL,’ Oxfam said, “let us be reminded that the draft law can open an opportunity to promote inclusive growth and development, and address the persisting problems of poverty and inequality besetting Muslim Mindanao.” - PCIJ, May 2015