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Coalition prods Congress: Pass FOI before EDSA’s 30th

May 12, 2015May 12, 2015 mcmangahas Leave a comment

THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION Act is on the cusp of passage into law, if only the House of Representatives will work with a little more speed and focus on the bill in the next nine months.

Should that happen, an FOI law might well be the best Christmas gift that the 16th Congress and the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III could offer the citizens.

In a statement issued today, May 12, the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition of over 160 civil society organizations and leaders urged Congress to rush action on the FOI bill, and assure its passage into law by February 2016.

The Coalition said an FOI law could serve as “the perpetual pillar and legacy of the democracy that Filipinos claimed and restored under the leadership of Aquino’s late mother, Corazon ‘Cory’ Aquino.”

Next year, the nation will mark the 30th anniversary of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolt.

Already 103 countries worldwide with combined population of 5.8 billion have adopted FOI and access to information laws, starting with Sweden in 1776 and ending with Mozambique in 2014.

Will the Philippines have its FOI law soon, much later, or never at all? That is the big challenge to President Aquino and the 16th Congress before they bow out of office in June 2016, the Coalition said.

Members of the Coalition have been campaigning for an FOI law over the last 14 years, or since the 12th Congress and three presidents ago.

To monitor the status of the FOI bill in the House and the Senate, according to its reasonable timetable, the Coalition has launched a project, “Congress Action on FOI Tracker.”

The FOI Tracker will provide the public with timely and regular updates on the status of the FOI Bill, including a periodic assessment of the lawmakers’ action on the passage of the bill, based on the substantive quality and integrity of their work, according to the Coalition’s timetable.

While the FOI law is well positioned for passage, it still teeters between birth and death, should the leaders and members of the House fail in their task, according to the Right to Know Coalition.

It said a few good things must happen for the FOI bill to become a fulfilled promise and solid legacy of the Aquino administration:

* The House Committee’s consolidated version of the bill must be sponsored in plenary, and interpellation and debate substantially started between now and June 11, when the second regular session adjourns sine die.

* The period of interpellation is done, the bill is approved on second reading, amendments are finished, and the FOI bill is approved on third reading in the House between July 27, 2015 (when Congress starts its third regular session) and November 2015.

* The bicameral conference committee of the Senate and House has finalized a reconciled bill and its report is ratified in both chambers by December 2015.

* The Enrolled People’s FOI Bill must have been presented to the President for approval by January 2016.

* President Aquino signs the enrolled bill into law in February 2016, just in time for EDSA’s 30th anniversary.

By this timetable, the Right to Know Coalition said it will monitor and judge the action of the House, the Senate, and the President vis-à-vis the FOI bill, a major and popular advocacy of the Coalition’s 160-member organizations over the last 14 years.

A broad range of organizations signed the Coalition statement, including the Makati Business Club, FOI Youth Initiative, National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (NASSA) of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Philippine College of Physicians, Code-NGO, Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), Focus on the Global South-Philippines, Libertas, Transparency and Accountability Network, Center for Migrant Advocacy, Partido Manggagawa, Ang Kapatiran Party, Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (PAKISAMA), PAL Employees Union, Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), Peace Women Partners Inc., STOP the War Coalition Philippines, Save Agrarian Reform Alliance, Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), Action for Economic Reforms (AER), Center for Community Journalism and Development (CCJD), Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), and Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ).

The eminent persons who also signed the Coalition statement include former House Deputy Speaker Lorenzo R. Tañada III; Dr. Wilfrido Villacorta, member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission and co-sponsor of the Right to Information provision; Prof. Edna E. A. Co of the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies, Dr. Nicole Curato of the Centre for Deliberative Democracy & Global Governance, University of Canberra; Dr. Sylvia Estrada Claudio of the UP Department of Women and Development Studies; and Prof. Aileen San Pablo-Baviera of the UP Asian Center.

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

May 8, 2015May 8, 2015 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

May 8, 2015May 8, 2015 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.

“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.

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

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

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

Amid war, a peace workshop

May 7, 2015May 7, 2015 mcmangahas Leave a comment

By Ferdinandh Cabrera
Contributor

TAMONTAKA, Awang Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao — While gunfire and bombs rained on residents of Datu Unsay and Datu Saudi Ampatuan in this province, about 60 young Mindanaons gathered here recently for a peace assembly.

Amid the staccato wailing of war fifty kilometers away, the youth of the strife-torn island crafted art and songs at a peace-building workshop last March 29.

That same day, the conflict killed at least 30 persons, including a few soldiers and three ranking members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

Since the launch of military offensive in February, an estimated 125,300 persons from 15 municipalities of Maguindanao have fled their homes, displaced by the conflict.

But the workshop for the youth offered a contrast in tone and imagery. The sessions focused on enhancing art expression, singing, and leadership skills, and bonding among the participants.

Macmod Sadam, a resident of Malingao, Shariff Saydona Mustapha town, whose family members were among those who rushed to the evacuation centers, could only reflect on their tragic fate.

“How could they move on?” he asked. “Life inside the temporary camp is so hard, I was there and I can feel how they felt now.”

Macmod is grateful for the opportunity to join the three-day youth assembly. There, youth community leaders were encouraged to express their feelings about the situation, and discern their role in fostering peace in their communities.

“(What) I painted expressed how I desire to achieve peace, but when it will happen?” Macmod said. “I hope the government will heed the long-desired Bangsamoro governance,” affirming his support for the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law.

Florely Araquil from Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat province, spoke about the conditions of her Muslim friends who live in Maguindanao.

While her family lives quite a distance away from the clash, she said, “we are deeply concerned about their studies.” The conflict, she noted, meant only that “they can’t go to schools.”

Florely also lamented that clan wars or rido have also affected relations between the youth from rival families. She said her former school maters have ceased to be friends because their families have been dragged into clan wars.

Alsudairy Sarip from Wato-Balindong in Lanao del Sur said he was glad that the workshop gave the participants a chance to interact with other tribes. “We now have the chance to understand each other’s culture better. That way, we’d know how to respond to and respect the different traditions and norms of every tribe in Mindanao,” Sarip said.

The peace-building youth assembly was attended by 60 youth members were members of the Iranun, Maguindanaon, Maranaw, Ilocano, Ilonggo, and Teduray communities from the province of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sultan Kudarat, North Cotabato, and Cotabato City.

The workshop featured sessions for the participants to acknowledge the differences in culture, norms, and religion of the different tribes, and how the situation in Mindanao has roots in sectarian conflict, cultural differences, and land disputes.

Among other outputs, the workshop yielded paintings, literary pieces, and a song titled “Bakit Ba” that the participants themselves produced.

In future, Macmod says he wishes to see a peaceful and progressive Mindanao, without military operations, without bakwits. - With reporting by Joyce Toledo, USM Devcom Intern

Not as obvious as a gun

April 29, 2015April 29, 2015 Julius Mariveles Leave a comment

We are printing the full text of the speech given by Rowena Paraan, chairperson of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines given during the forum for World Press Freedom Day in Manila, Philippines entitled “Let Journalism Thrive: The right to life, the right to know, the right to free expression.

Not all threats to Press Freedom are as obvious as a .45 caliber gun

“The can be no press freedom if journalists exist in conditions of poverty, corruption and fear.”

News organizations last night had more than the usual skeleton staff on duty. A lot of us in fact stayed up until three this morning to monitor the execution of Mary Jane Veloso at an island prison in Indonesia. Mary Jane came from a poor family of sakadas or seasonal farm workers. She has two sons and, just like the 3,700 Filipino workers who leave the country daily, she decided to work abroad in order to feed her family.

We all know by now the story of Mary Jane. She was recruited by a family friend to work in Malaysia but when she got there, there was no job. Instead she was made to go to Indonesia, unknowingly (according to supporters) carrying luggage with heroin hidden in the lining. With limited English, interrogated without legal counsel and her family receiving death threats from the drug syndicate, she was convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad.

NUJP chairperson Rowena Paraan | Photo by Cong B. Corrales

So why am I talking about Mary Jane Veloso? A lot of Filipinos find themselves in situations like that of Mary Jane, including Filipino journalists. Anxious to provide for their families, desperate to break away from poverty and often forced to risk their safety to get the kind of picture or interview that the networks or newspapers would be willing to pay for.

When we talk about threats to press freedom, the first things that come to mind, especially if in the context of countries like the Philippines, are the killings of journalists. But some threats to freedoms are not always as obvious as a .45 caliber gun or as loud as a gunshot. Some attacks happen quietly and hit us where it hurts the most: in the stomach, or sikmura. But, ironically, many journalists have gotten so used to the situation that they no longer see or they fail to understand how it already undermines basic rights and freedoms, including the right to a free press.

US Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg, gave the keynote address to the forum for World Press Freedom Day held in Manila, Philippines on April 28, 2014 | Photo by Cong B. Corrales

I have talked about the plight of media workers before (pasensiya na po kung paulit-ulit) but I am bringing it up again, this time in the context of World Press Freedom Day.

Among our colleagues, community journalists have always been the most vulnerable — to assassin’s bullets or to exploitation and abuse by media owners.

Most community media outfits are too small to be able to provide adequate compensation and benefits to their workers.

A community journalist in Zamboanga for example, who is now in her 30s, reported to NUJP that all the papers she has worked for have always paid way below the minimum. At the moment, she receives the average paltry sum of P80 a day or P2400 a month.

SOME of the participants to the forum for World Press Freedom Day held in Manila, Philippines on April 29, 2014 | Photo by Cong B. Corrales

Journalists are also sometimes made to sign two sets of payroll. In one radio station for example, one payroll indicates a salary of P8000 and the other P5000. The same goes even with the required 13^th month pay.

Community reporters usually have neither medical insurance, social benefits nor bonuses.

But there are still far more horrendous ways that community journalists are exploited.

There are media outlets that do not pay at all their reporters, leaving them to find ways to earn money using their press cards. “Diskarte” is how it is usually referred to. This may entail knocking on the door of officials, letting them hear the recording of the commentary or news report that aired recently wherein the official is given much prominence. With fingers crossed, the reporter hopes that the official is grateful or happy enough to slip him or her a Ninoy Aquino bill, depending on how much pogi points he will get from the broadcast.

UNITED NATION’s county representative Terence Jones | Photo by Cong B. Corrales

Some media owners take on politicians as clients, their stations or papers serving as mouthpieces. In exchange, the clients take care of their reporters’ salaries. If the client happens to be the mayor, reporters are sometimes included in the city hall’s payroll.

Then there are those that compel their news staff to solicit advertising to get commissions in lieu of wages. This makes it difficult for the staff to publish reports critical of the entity that have placed the ads. This, we all know, is one of the oldest and most effective ways of influencing media.

But let us not forget the leasing of airtime to unscrupulous politicians who then put / in the blocktime program / media colleagues desperate for work in an increasingly shrinking job market. The journalists then are used as surrogate warriors in their political battles.

These practices have reduced journalists, who used to be very highly regarded being vanguards of democracy and freedom, to almost the level of mendicancy and stripped of dignity.

Furthermore, the lack of decent wage, the absence of job security and the little job opportunities available – ALL make the journalists extremely vulnerable. Just like Mary Jane Veloso, forced to go to Indonesia and later Malaysia despite the uncertainties and risks.

On the other hand, the tactics employed by owners to squeeze as much profit as possible from every issue, every broadcast brazenly violate labor laws. They not only violate economic rights and dignity. They also put the journalists in the line of fire, often leading to them getting threats, being charged with criminal libel, or even physically attacked.

Many, even us media groups, have linked some media killings to a serious lack of ethics and professionalism in quite a number of practitioners. We have never denied the truth to this observation and NUJP has worked hard to promote ethics and professional practice.

But I have to ask: Since when has corruption been a license to murder? And even if it were so, shouldn’t government institutions and agencies be the first to be depopulated?

And while it is true that, in the end, ethics is a personal choice, often overlooked is the fact that corruption does not spring out of a vacuum. There is, indeed, an urgent need to look into the lack of ethics in our ranks. But there is just as urgent – if not more – need to look into the equally serious lack of ethics among media owners and managements.

How can ethics take root and thrive when infotainment and ratings trump real information and public service, when media outfits knowingly hire the unqualified and unskilled because they are cheaper, when many media workers struggle to survive on less than the legal minimum and hardly any benefits, when a media outfit requires its workers to seek ads / or farms them out to clients, when stories are killed because they are deemed inimical to media owners or their allies, when block time continues to be sold to and bought by political and business interests to attack their foes?

The truth is, many of the travails faced by the working press spring from the same malevolent social, economic and political power structure that defines what passed for governance in our benighted land. Even as they often are the ones the oppressed turn to for help, journalists too are among the most oppressed.

Last week, several of our colleagues from a major television network found themselves suddenly jobless. As of our last count, there are already more than 250 of them retrenched. The reason given was “strategic streamlining” geared toward “increasing ratings and revenues.”

For me, for NUJP, for us who are campaigning to improve the condition of the working press and defend the right of the people to a free press – and let me make this very clear – this is not an issue of Kapuso, Kapamilya or Kapatid.

What we know is that it is something that can happen to any of us, any time. As in any industry, the drive to maximize earnings has come at the expense of the workers, leading to the erosion of job security and welfare, with contractualization increasingly becoming the norm, even in the largest media outfits.

Before I end, let me go back to Mary Jane. Reporting to netizens the reprieve that had been given to Mary Jane Veloso last night, the petition campaign platform change.org said in its website something that resonated in me. It said, “Miracles happen when people choose to stand for justice.”

This is now what journalists AND THE PUBLIC must do.

We, media workers, should close ranks and zealously defend our rights and welfare and the dignity of journalists and the press. In so doing, we are also defending our people whose right to information is our utmost priority. Together with the public, we choose to stand for the people’s rights.