Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
The 1960s movie “The Singing Nun” starring Debbie Reynolds was inspired by a real singing nun named Sr. Janine Deckers. The Dominican nun from Belgium popularized the French song “Dominique” and many other compositions. I had a book of her songs that came with piano scores, guitar chords and ink drawings. The semibiographical movie, with Reynolds playing Sister Ann, became a hit. It’s on YouTube.
(Let me just mention here that the real singing nun’s life would later take a downward spin and end in tragedy in 1981. I read this in Wikipedia.)
The movie’s timing was ideal. Vatican II had just ended and religious orders were headed for renewal, examining their original charisms and breaking doors open to let fresh air in. Real-life nuns toting guitars, proclaiming God’s love by singing in public and even in “The Ed Sullivan Show,” were no longer taboo. Atrocious religious habits were being shucked and simpler lifestyles were becoming the ideal. Things began going farther from there. It was also the era of anti-Vietnam War protests.
A little later, in other parts of the world like the Philippines, nuns would join protest movements against repression and wade into uncharted waters. Many were frontliners in the freedom movement, if not grassroots agents of change who left the comforts of the cloisters to heed the call of the marginalized.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Greed, need, ignorance and stupidity
Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
Was it greed, need, ignorance or stupidity?
On the part of the schemers-scammers it was, above all, greed. But on the part of the victims, it could be all or some of the above. It is puzzling—or perhaps not—how 15,000 people or more were gypped into believing that their money, if placed in this “wonder” of an investment scheme, could be doubled in a few weeks.
Oh, but indeed, it was deliberately made to work for a few—they who were the living proofs that would entice even more people to put their lifetime’s savings and borrowed cash into this “magical” scheme that eventually crashed and crushed the greedy, needy, ignorant and stupid (GNIS). But it is shocking that those who knew better did not raise early warnings while the double-your-investment rush was going on so openly.
The clever dupers behind Aman Futures and the Rasuman group were not doing hush-hush business underground or in the back streets of Mindanao. Word of mouth was their best advertising ploy. How could anyone have missed it? The places in Mindanao that were badly hit by the scam were not wanting in financial wizards or straight-thinking people who could have stopped the GNIS from bundling their hard-earned and/or borrowed cash and taking these to the Aman/Rasuman agents who promised them instant wealth and fast and double returns on their investments.
Was it greed, need, ignorance or stupidity?
On the part of the schemers-scammers it was, above all, greed. But on the part of the victims, it could be all or some of the above. It is puzzling—or perhaps not—how 15,000 people or more were gypped into believing that their money, if placed in this “wonder” of an investment scheme, could be doubled in a few weeks.
Oh, but indeed, it was deliberately made to work for a few—they who were the living proofs that would entice even more people to put their lifetime’s savings and borrowed cash into this “magical” scheme that eventually crashed and crushed the greedy, needy, ignorant and stupid (GNIS). But it is shocking that those who knew better did not raise early warnings while the double-your-investment rush was going on so openly.
The clever dupers behind Aman Futures and the Rasuman group were not doing hush-hush business underground or in the back streets of Mindanao. Word of mouth was their best advertising ploy. How could anyone have missed it? The places in Mindanao that were badly hit by the scam were not wanting in financial wizards or straight-thinking people who could have stopped the GNIS from bundling their hard-earned and/or borrowed cash and taking these to the Aman/Rasuman agents who promised them instant wealth and fast and double returns on their investments.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Association of Foundations@40
The Philippines can be Southeast Asia’s civil society organizations (CSO) or nongovernment organizations (NGOs) capital, what with countless CSOs that include foundations, people’s organizations (POs) and cooperatives operating in the country.
Over several decades, many CSOs have come and gone, so much human effort and funding have been poured into them in the name of development, human rights, environmental protection, peace, health, education, food security, and so forth and so on. The Filipino people must be so lucky that many CSOs and the persons behind them have made it their almost-lifetime commitment to serve communities, families and individuals so that they can live dignified and fruitful lives.
Not all have fulfilled their commitments; a number have fallen by the wayside, if not failed their beneficiaries. But they are more the exception than the rule. Human frailties and other unavoidable factors do come in the way, among them financial, social, and even ideological. But on the whole, there are many unsung CSO heroes whose saintly, committed efforts have made a difference in people’s lives.
These thoughts crowded my mind during the 40th-anniversary celebration of the Association of Foundations (AF) last Nov. 16. It was a low-key but elegant gathering at the iconic Bahay na Puti in Cubao, the home of Judy Araneta-Roxas who serves as AF chair. Gathered were representatives of AF member-foundations and some individuals with NGO backgrounds now serving in the government.
The AF was founded in 1972, the year of the imposition of martial rule that sent many cause-oriented individuals as well as political figures either to the underground, the hills, and the military stockades or to their graves. Many CSOs with grassroots beneficiaries became suspect or clashed head-on with the dictatorship, risking harassment or obliteration. There were those who tried to be above the fray and continued to fulfill their mandate come what may, but without compromising their integrity.
The first members and founders of the AF were among them. The AF’s history is rooted in “the continuous pursuit and passion for integrity and excellence in service.” It began as a clearing house of information and a venue for sharing knowledge and expertise among foundations, as well as a center for “self-policing and accreditation” that was an important component of building high credibility.
Later, the AF would expand its services that include fund sourcing, tax incentive petitions and putting in place policies that would support the growth and sustainability of NGOs. It now has 126 well-screened member-foundations. It maintains links with those outside its membership and with national and regional networks.
According to AF executive director Norman Jiao, the association has given birth to other groups, among them the League of Corporate Foundations, which promotes corporate social responsibility (CSR) among its members. CSR now goes with profit and growth, it goes without saying.
In the last 10 years, the AF’s efforts were geared toward professionalizing CSOs and strengthening the capacity of its members through “improved governance, institutional effectiveness and stability.” Add to that strategic partnerships. We’ve heard of fly-by-nights, corruption and financial mismanagement in NGOs, if not NGOs founded and run with selfish motives.
While helping NGOs/CSOs, the AF promotes transparency and accountability among its members and encourages them to get certification from the Philippine Council for NGO Certification. The AF shares expertise and prepares them for certification. Araneta-Roxas takes pride in saying that with its 126 members, the AF is the Philippines’ largest network of foundations. “We take pride in bringing 40 years of collective impact into the fields of children’s welfare, education, health and nutrition, community organization and development livelihood and enterprise, and environmental protection and biodiversity. With the AF having served as mentor, facilitator, and integrator to its members, it is gratifying to see that our efforts have borne much fruit.”
Said AF president Fely C. Rixhon: “Beyond merely an indication of our being the most heterogeneous network of NGOs, our multicause orientation has become a real instrument in addressing the ever evolving, myriad needs of Filipinos in constantly changing times.” An important AF accomplishment during this anniversary year is the publication of “Directory of Civil Society Organizations in the Philippines 2012,” a compilation of information on 1,009 NGOs, POs and cooperatives. Australian AID aided in the research and publication.
This is perhaps the only one of its kind thereabouts. The AF had published two directories in the past but this 2012 version is comparatively more expanded—and online, too. There had been no readily available data base on CSOs, Jiao said, not even at the Securities and Exchange Commission and other registering agencies.
And despite the work that went into the data gathering, the printed 2012 directory is by no means complete. Not all CSOs were that conscientious about filling up forms, providing data and sending these back and on time, Jiao lamented. But data will be continuously updated at the AF website. To CSOs out there, if you missed being included in the impressive directory, it might be your fault.
Those interested in the directory can find it online, or they may contact the AF at Room 1102, 11/F Aurora Tower, Aurora Boulevard, Cubao, QC. Telefax: (02) 911-9792, 913-7231 E-mail: af@afonline.org. Website:www.afonline.org.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
The murder of the FOI bill
Philippine Daily Inquirer /OPINION/ by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
Last Monday, in a last-ditch effort, groups marched to and rallied in Mendiola in the vain hope that the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill would become a reality after years of languishing in the desert despite the valiant efforts of its advocates. And for it to get past (to borrow the title of a Lemony Snicket blockbuster) the “series of unfortunate events” that bedeviled it, no thanks to the closet and openly harmful antis.
I joined the marchers and we shouted ourselves hoarse—“FOI, isabatas, isabatas! FOI, ipasa, ipasa!”—in the hope that our voices would get past Malacañang’s gates and reach the ears of the people there. We lighted candles that symbolized our undiminished hope.
The next day, Tuesday, the hearing of the House committee on public information on the FOI bill was conducted.
This was how the FOI advocates present at the hearing summarized what happened: BAM (as in “battery, assault and murder”)! for the Freedom of Information bill.
The bad news: The FOI bill is dead in the 15th Congress.
From the point of view of FOI supporters, this was how the hearing transpired: By ensuring that no committee report will be approved in [Tuesday’s] hearing, the House committee on public information has for all intents and purposes left no time for any FOI measure to get approved in the 15th Congress.
Committee chair Rep. Ben Evardone was the biggest disappointment of all. His error: a dismal failure of leadership. (He was a Malaya reporter in his younger days.)
First, Evardone enrolled the FOI bill as the last of eight items on the committee’s agenda. When the committee finally discussed the FOI bill, he next allowed Rep. Rodolfo Antonino to hijack most of the proceedings and perorate endlessly on how Antonino’s right of reply bill was not considered by the committee’s Technical Working Group (TWG) led by FOI proponent Rep. Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III.
In effect, Antonino made certain that the committee’s time was wasted on his redundant insistence on having his complaint heard. In truth, Antonino raised the very same issue at the last committee hearing in March. In fact, his complaint was resolved in that last hearing. In the end, the committee lost time to discuss any substantive issues on the FOI bill, particularly its contents. And when a motion was made and seconded to put the consolidated bill to a vote, Antonino, who used up most of the committee’s time to complain about the TWG, promptly moved to adjourn the committee hearing, citing a technicality that was sustained by the committee chair.
What happened on Tuesday was just the final blow delivered by Evardone and Antonino, which left the rest of the committee members uncannily helpless to stop the slaughter of the FOI bill.
By all indications, the conspiracy to kill the FOI bill had commenced much earlier. President Aquino led the battery and assault on the FOI bill with his mindless “concerns” about it. In January, at the height of the Corona impeachment trial, he all too suddenly endorsed the bill, albeit in a few perfunctory press statements only. But in the next eight months, nothing more was heard from him by way of real proof of endorsement of the bill. The President’s Liberal Party allies in the House, led by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Majority Leader Neptali Gonzalez III, did not move either. They neither pushed nor nudged the bill to fruition. Evardone did not call committee hearings until Tuesday.
The FOI bill is dead, actually murdered in its tracks. Its butchers? The lackadaisical Evardone. The mindlessly perorating Antonino. The President and his flaccid support. Belmonte, Gonzalez, and the Liberal Party leaders of the House, by propping and blessing Evardone’s duplicity on the FOI bill.
There. This series of unfortunate events was witnessed by concerned groups and individuals led by lawyer Nepomuceno Malaluan of the Institute for Freedom of Information and Right to Know Right Now! Coalition, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, the Southeast Asia Monitor for Action, the Access to Information Network, and many others.
The Second Front Page of the Inquirer yesterday carried Leila S. Salaverria’s news report headlined “Time running out on FOI bill.” Her lead paragraphs: “Hope is dimming for the passage of the [FOI] bill in the House of Representatives, after the committee vote on its approval [Tuesday] got mired in technical procedures and what one lawmaker called ‘minute’ issues.
“Despite the motions by some lawmakers to put the consolidated FOI bill to a vote, public information committee chair Ben Evardone adjourned the hearing, saying they had run out of time since the plenary session was about to start at 4 p.m. and there were still many issues to resolve at the next hearing.
“As it turned out, there was no plenary session as there was no quorum on the floor….”
FOI advocate Tañada was reported as saying that unless both the Senate and the House passed their respective versions before Christmas (a little more than a month away), there was little hope it would become a law before the end of the 15th Congress—which is like saying it is as good as dead in the water. For now.
The FOI bill is feared by the powerful and guilty; if passed, it will allow the public to get information on government transactions and documents that were once inaccessible or held in secret. The bill will allow for more transparency, curb corruption, and promote good governance.
Who’s afraid of FOI? Is there hope in the 16th Congress?
Last Monday, in a last-ditch effort, groups marched to and rallied in Mendiola in the vain hope that the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill would become a reality after years of languishing in the desert despite the valiant efforts of its advocates. And for it to get past (to borrow the title of a Lemony Snicket blockbuster) the “series of unfortunate events” that bedeviled it, no thanks to the closet and openly harmful antis.
I joined the marchers and we shouted ourselves hoarse—“FOI, isabatas, isabatas! FOI, ipasa, ipasa!”—in the hope that our voices would get past Malacañang’s gates and reach the ears of the people there. We lighted candles that symbolized our undiminished hope. The next day, Tuesday, the hearing of the House committee on public information on the FOI bill was conducted.
This was how the FOI advocates present at the hearing summarized what happened: BAM (as in “battery, assault and murder”)! for the Freedom of Information bill.
The bad news: The FOI bill is dead in the 15th Congress.
From the point of view of FOI supporters, this was how the hearing transpired: By ensuring that no committee report will be approved in [Tuesday’s] hearing, the House committee on public information has for all intents and purposes left no time for any FOI measure to get approved in the 15th Congress.
Committee chair Rep. Ben Evardone was the biggest disappointment of all. His error: a dismal failure of leadership. (He was a Malaya reporter in his younger days.)
First, Evardone enrolled the FOI bill as the last of eight items on the committee’s agenda. When the committee finally discussed the FOI bill, he next allowed Rep. Rodolfo Antonino to hijack most of the proceedings and perorate endlessly on how Antonino’s right of reply bill was not considered by the committee’s Technical Working Group (TWG) led by FOI proponent Rep. Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III.
In effect, Antonino made certain that the committee’s time was wasted on his redundant insistence on having his complaint heard. In truth, Antonino raised the very same issue at the last committee hearing in March. In fact, his complaint was resolved in that last hearing. In the end, the committee lost time to discuss any substantive issues on the FOI bill, particularly its contents. And when a motion was made and seconded to put the consolidated bill to a vote, Antonino, who used up most of the committee’s time to complain about the TWG, promptly moved to adjourn the committee hearing, citing a technicality that was sustained by the committee chair.
What happened on Tuesday was just the final blow delivered by Evardone and Antonino, which left the rest of the committee members uncannily helpless to stop the slaughter of the FOI bill.
By all indications, the conspiracy to kill the FOI bill had commenced much earlier. President Aquino led the battery and assault on the FOI bill with his mindless “concerns” about it. In January, at the height of the Corona impeachment trial, he all too suddenly endorsed the bill, albeit in a few perfunctory press statements only. But in the next eight months, nothing more was heard from him by way of real proof of endorsement of the bill. The President’s Liberal Party allies in the House, led by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Majority Leader Neptali Gonzalez III, did not move either. They neither pushed nor nudged the bill to fruition. Evardone did not call committee hearings until Tuesday.
The FOI bill is dead, actually murdered in its tracks. Its butchers? The lackadaisical Evardone. The mindlessly perorating Antonino. The President and his flaccid support. Belmonte, Gonzalez, and the Liberal Party leaders of the House, by propping and blessing Evardone’s duplicity on the FOI bill.
There. This series of unfortunate events was witnessed by concerned groups and individuals led by lawyer Nepomuceno Malaluan of the Institute for Freedom of Information and Right to Know Right Now! Coalition, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, the Southeast Asia Monitor for Action, the Access to Information Network, and many others.
The Second Front Page of the Inquirer yesterday carried Leila S. Salaverria’s news report headlined “Time running out on FOI bill.” Her lead paragraphs: “Hope is dimming for the passage of the [FOI] bill in the House of Representatives, after the committee vote on its approval [Tuesday] got mired in technical procedures and what one lawmaker called ‘minute’ issues.
“Despite the motions by some lawmakers to put the consolidated FOI bill to a vote, public information committee chair Ben Evardone adjourned the hearing, saying they had run out of time since the plenary session was about to start at 4 p.m. and there were still many issues to resolve at the next hearing.
“As it turned out, there was no plenary session as there was no quorum on the floor….”
FOI advocate Tañada was reported as saying that unless both the Senate and the House passed their respective versions before Christmas (a little more than a month away), there was little hope it would become a law before the end of the 15th Congress—which is like saying it is as good as dead in the water. For now.
The FOI bill is feared by the powerful and guilty; if passed, it will allow the public to get information on government transactions and documents that were once inaccessible or held in secret. The bill will allow for more transparency, curb corruption, and promote good governance.
Who’s afraid of FOI? Is there hope in the 16th Congress?
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Tricycles and crime
TRICYCLES DO not commit crime, it is their drivers and riders who have sometimes been involved in gruesome crimes with the aid of these three-wheeled vehicles.
The latest victim in a tricyle-aided crime is Cyrish Magalang, 20, a cum laude graduate of the University of Santo Tomas, the youngest in her family. The two suspects—Roel Garcia Jr., 24, a trike driver, and his brother, Rollyn, 27, a vegetable vendor—have been arrested by Bacoor police. On national TV, both promptly and tearfully admitted to robbing and killing Cyrish.
Their confession: Rollyn was seated behind Roel, the driver. Rollyn transferred into the sidecar, sat beside Cyrish and brandished a screw driver. The brothers then took Cyrish to a farm where they killed her. Rollyn said being high on drugs and alcohol was the reason they committed the heinous deed. As if this would lessen their guilt. The screw driver used to stab Cyrish, the tricycle, and Cyrish’s shoulder bag have been recovered from the brothers.
A witness said it must have been around 11 p.m. when Cyrish boarded the tricycle. She was on her way home from work at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City. The news report said a farmer found Cyrish’s body the next morning inside a hut. Police said Cyrish’s body bore 49 stab wounds, her face was crushed with a hollow block, and her hands were tied. Although she was found with her underwear pulled down, rape was not immediately confirmed or ruled out.
Tricycles have become part of our daily lives. They serve as school buses, farm-to-market cargo vehicles, ambulances to carry the sick and the dying, even as family “cars.”
The tricycle is an Asian innovation. If the jeepney is to the Philippines only, the tricycle is to Asia. The latter has so many variations and names. In Thailand it is tuk-tuk, in India I heard people simply calling it a rickshaw. (Rickshaw is also the name of the ancient kalesa-like carriage pulled by a human being.)
I have taken pictures of different kinds of tricycles. I even took a photo of one in New York. In the Philippines this passenger bike is called tricycle (pronounced traisikel, with accent on the last syllable), pedicab, tri-sikad, sidecar, depending on how it runs—on gas or leg power. The carriage may be in front, back or side. Many street families now live in home-made tri-sikads. I once took a photo of a homeless family’s tri-sikad with a frameless “electric” fan that ran on wind power and cooled their pet dog.
Tricycle drivers know the layout of their small communities and many of the people who live there. They have been eyewitnesses to crimes. They have themselves been perpetrators of heinous crimes, rape included.
If two-wheeled motorbikes are used often by “riding in tandem” gun-for-hire criminals, bag snatchers and holdup men for a quick getaway, tricycles also serve a purpose for other crimes. These small, noisy trikes are not only perfect getaway vehicles, their drivers can also do surveillance and serve as lookouts. A crime being committed inside a moving tricycle’s cab—say a holdup or a prelude to rape—can be easily covered by tarps, especially on a rainy day.
I do not mean to put down tricycle drivers, but I am sure many can attest to their daredevil way of driving. Several times have I driven through a crossing with the green light for my lane, and a tricycle suddenly crosses before me, with the driver casting a mean look at aghast car drivers who have the right of way. Once I pointed to the green light to indicate to the trike driver that it was “go” for me, but I got only expletives.
The flamboyant jeepney is the king of the road? Not anymore. It is the tricycle. It has nothing to do with size or decor but with daring with a capital D. The trike driver astride the machine throws caution to the wind and roars past highway behemoths such as speeding dump trucks and buses. Worse, he blocks the path. You’d think the drivers are driving Harley-Davidsons or are from the California Highway Patrol.
People complain about how driving on highways has become dangerous because of tricycles that suddenly materialize from nowhere and race with big vehicles. Compared to motorcycles, tricycles are slower, and worse, loaded with people and other endangered species.
But here’s something more worrisome. The police know that tricycle drivers are good choices to be couriers of prohibited drugs, if they are not users themselves like Roel and Rollyn Garcia. They could earn more from their sidelines even while staying as drivers.
The air and noise pollution that tricycles cause is another concern. What have our local government authorities done to make people safe from tricycles and tricycle drivers? (Sorry to say it this way.) Should these vehicles go electric, should their waiting stations have CCTVs? How should they be designed? Who assesses the membership of tricycle associations?
* * *
Am now a techie! With patience and daring I successfully downloaded online the new Windows 8 released two weeks ago. By myself! I availed myself of Microsoft’s promo price (till January 2013) for my new computer. No Windows 8 CDs on sale yet so it took eight hours, prayers and sweat to download. Entering the kilometric ID, promo code, product key and annoying captchas was enough to discombobulate me. Past midnight the new keyboard would not correctly write @ (for my e-mail ad being asked) and the high security password I had earlier chosen—though caps and num locks were off. I solved it. Next was transferring my apps and 20-year-old files. Yes, I had read up on what some had warned about: unnerving new features. One day was all it took for me to get used to them. I wrote this piece on Windows 8.
The latest victim in a tricyle-aided crime is Cyrish Magalang, 20, a cum laude graduate of the University of Santo Tomas, the youngest in her family. The two suspects—Roel Garcia Jr., 24, a trike driver, and his brother, Rollyn, 27, a vegetable vendor—have been arrested by Bacoor police. On national TV, both promptly and tearfully admitted to robbing and killing Cyrish.
Their confession: Rollyn was seated behind Roel, the driver. Rollyn transferred into the sidecar, sat beside Cyrish and brandished a screw driver. The brothers then took Cyrish to a farm where they killed her. Rollyn said being high on drugs and alcohol was the reason they committed the heinous deed. As if this would lessen their guilt. The screw driver used to stab Cyrish, the tricycle, and Cyrish’s shoulder bag have been recovered from the brothers.
A witness said it must have been around 11 p.m. when Cyrish boarded the tricycle. She was on her way home from work at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City. The news report said a farmer found Cyrish’s body the next morning inside a hut. Police said Cyrish’s body bore 49 stab wounds, her face was crushed with a hollow block, and her hands were tied. Although she was found with her underwear pulled down, rape was not immediately confirmed or ruled out.
Tricycles have become part of our daily lives. They serve as school buses, farm-to-market cargo vehicles, ambulances to carry the sick and the dying, even as family “cars.”
The tricycle is an Asian innovation. If the jeepney is to the Philippines only, the tricycle is to Asia. The latter has so many variations and names. In Thailand it is tuk-tuk, in India I heard people simply calling it a rickshaw. (Rickshaw is also the name of the ancient kalesa-like carriage pulled by a human being.)
I have taken pictures of different kinds of tricycles. I even took a photo of one in New York. In the Philippines this passenger bike is called tricycle (pronounced traisikel, with accent on the last syllable), pedicab, tri-sikad, sidecar, depending on how it runs—on gas or leg power. The carriage may be in front, back or side. Many street families now live in home-made tri-sikads. I once took a photo of a homeless family’s tri-sikad with a frameless “electric” fan that ran on wind power and cooled their pet dog.
Tricycle drivers know the layout of their small communities and many of the people who live there. They have been eyewitnesses to crimes. They have themselves been perpetrators of heinous crimes, rape included.
If two-wheeled motorbikes are used often by “riding in tandem” gun-for-hire criminals, bag snatchers and holdup men for a quick getaway, tricycles also serve a purpose for other crimes. These small, noisy trikes are not only perfect getaway vehicles, their drivers can also do surveillance and serve as lookouts. A crime being committed inside a moving tricycle’s cab—say a holdup or a prelude to rape—can be easily covered by tarps, especially on a rainy day.
I do not mean to put down tricycle drivers, but I am sure many can attest to their daredevil way of driving. Several times have I driven through a crossing with the green light for my lane, and a tricycle suddenly crosses before me, with the driver casting a mean look at aghast car drivers who have the right of way. Once I pointed to the green light to indicate to the trike driver that it was “go” for me, but I got only expletives.
The flamboyant jeepney is the king of the road? Not anymore. It is the tricycle. It has nothing to do with size or decor but with daring with a capital D. The trike driver astride the machine throws caution to the wind and roars past highway behemoths such as speeding dump trucks and buses. Worse, he blocks the path. You’d think the drivers are driving Harley-Davidsons or are from the California Highway Patrol.
People complain about how driving on highways has become dangerous because of tricycles that suddenly materialize from nowhere and race with big vehicles. Compared to motorcycles, tricycles are slower, and worse, loaded with people and other endangered species.
But here’s something more worrisome. The police know that tricycle drivers are good choices to be couriers of prohibited drugs, if they are not users themselves like Roel and Rollyn Garcia. They could earn more from their sidelines even while staying as drivers.
The air and noise pollution that tricycles cause is another concern. What have our local government authorities done to make people safe from tricycles and tricycle drivers? (Sorry to say it this way.) Should these vehicles go electric, should their waiting stations have CCTVs? How should they be designed? Who assesses the membership of tricycle associations?
* * *
Am now a techie! With patience and daring I successfully downloaded online the new Windows 8 released two weeks ago. By myself! I availed myself of Microsoft’s promo price (till January 2013) for my new computer. No Windows 8 CDs on sale yet so it took eight hours, prayers and sweat to download. Entering the kilometric ID, promo code, product key and annoying captchas was enough to discombobulate me. Past midnight the new keyboard would not correctly write @ (for my e-mail ad being asked) and the high security password I had earlier chosen—though caps and num locks were off. I solved it. Next was transferring my apps and 20-year-old files. Yes, I had read up on what some had warned about: unnerving new features. One day was all it took for me to get used to them. I wrote this piece on Windows 8.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
OFW saints and eco-saints
Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
TODAY, ALL Saints Day or Todos los Santos, it behooves us to remember the saintly women and men who have done much good for our country, communities, families and, directly or indirectly, our individual selves. They may not be canonized saints but they are saints nonetheless to those for whom they offered the substance of their lives.
Who, to you, is a saint, living or dead?
Today begins the trek to the resting places for the departed. In celebrating, Filipinos do not distinguish much between All Saints Day and All Souls Day. The 2-to-4-day holiday package is for the beloved—saintly or not—who have crossed over to the afterlife.
Speaking of saints, Catholic Philippines now has two—San Lorenzo Ruiz who was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1987, and San Pedro Calungsod who was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI 12 days ago on Oct. 21. The two were martyred in foreign lands in the 17th century during Spanish colonial times. San Lorenzo, a lay married man, was brutally killed along with several Dominican priests in Japan, and San Pedro, a teenage catechist, was killed along with a Jesuit priest in the Marianas or Guam.
Both Filipino missionaries were killed by inhabitants of their host countries. These martyred Filipinos represented an alien faith that intruded into the culture of their host countries. Well, one sending country’s saints could be another’s villains. A sending country’s martyr-missionaries could be the colonized or threatened country’s culture polluters. When Pope John Paul II’s canonization of martyred missionaries during the Boxer Rebellion in China became a problematic issue (the Chinese authorities were not happy), I consulted a theologian and this is what she told me: The individual martyrs, may have lived saintly lives, served selflessly and oppressed no one, but they could not help being identified with the oppressive colonizers, the conquering power that threatened an ancient civilization.And I couldn’t help thinking then: What if the Vatican canonized Magellan or some zealous Spanish friars who, as we were taught in school, brought the sword and the cross in the name of Spain and God and made Christians of almost all of us? What would that make of our Lapu-lapu and his bare-breasted braves who fought and killed some of the invaders? Villains? Would we protest? I, a Christian and Catholic, would.
About San Lorenzo, I remember hearing comments to this effect: “Now we have a saint, but he’s made in Japan.” This is not to belittle Lorenzo’s martyrdom, but is some sort of a misgiving. Japan invaded the Philippines during World War II and later in the 20th century began importing sexy Filipino female nightclub dancers who became known as “japayuki.” And so we kept sending dancers in droves to boost the sad state of our economy. These women lived difficult lives in the Land of the Rising Sun and many had offspring known as “Japinos,” a whole generation of them.
With Pedro’s canonization, it is not lost on many Filipinos that this second Filipino saint, like the first one, also died abroad. And we blithely remark that both Lorenzo and Pedro were overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), which is how we call our modern-day migrant workers in foreign lands. And with that remark, it is as if we just awakened to that fact that, of course, oo nga, as it was in the beginning is now, and (hopefully not) forever will be.
But this fact should also give us pause because, indeed, it is in foreign lands that Filipino resilience and faith are tested. Our OFWs may not be missionaries by purpose, but how many times have church leaders referred to them as evangelizers, adding to their burden as dollar earners and accidental modern-day heroes for the motherland? They are the latter-day Lorenzos and Petras, little unsung saints for their families back home. They may not be Bible-thumpers and preachers, but many have shown, through the quality of their service, a kind of saintliness especially during trials.
With urban Filipinos becoming copycats of Western-style Halloween celebrations featuring the macabre (the antithesis of the Christian hope for a glorious afterlife), the cursed zombies that have transmogrified into “zombasura” or inconsiderate litterbugs are what the EcoWAste Coalition is warning against. While we are in this All Saints-All Souls mood, we are constantly reminded by ecology groups to please keep the hallowed grounds free of garbage. But as in many religious festivities, garbage control, like crowd control, is a difficult task. Those who join huge religious events leave behind mounds of garbage, a sign of thoughtlessness that runs counter to their spiritual undertakings. They are defilers of God’s creation.
Two saints to emulate because of their ecological bent are the popular St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) and not-so-known St. Hildegarde of Bingen.
Last month Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed the latter a Doctor of the Church, becoming one of only four women saints of the Catholic Church to be given the title. Hildegarde lived in the Rhineland Valley in the 12th century. The abbess of a large and prosperous Benedictine abbey, she was a prominent preacher, doctor, scientist, artist, mystic, healer, poet, musician and composer. She wrote nine books on theology, medicine, science and physiology. She was a communicator of wisdom and knowledge. She even rebuked a pope and an emperor. Today she would be considered an eco-feminist. Hildegarde coined the word “viriditas” or greening power. She was first to view the universe as a cosmic egg and offered a scintillating insight into the cosmos and its symphonic beauty. Know more about her.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
The horror of toxic mine spills
Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
In the 1980s, long before the deadly Marcopper mine spill shocked us witless, I went to Marinduque to document for a church-based organization the havoc that Marcopper had been wreaking on the sea and the lives of fishing communities living near Calancan Bay.
Environmental activism was not very much in vogue then but the social action arm of the Catholic Church was the voice in the wilderness that called attention to the wanton destruction of the environment in that part of Luzon.
Marinduque Bishop Rafael Lim, then chair of the Luzon Secretariat of Social Action, stood tall against the massive destruction in his diocese. But the country was under martial rule and unlike now, there was not much national outrage over local issues then.
I saw for myself Marcopper’s giant kilometric pipes jutting out far into the sea and pumping, pumping, pumping out toxic mine byproducts as if the world would end tomorrow anyway. Day or night, one could see a deadly sheen on the surface of the water and imagine fish na nangingisay (in the throes of death). One could see beaches turned into mud-covered landscapes that cracked under the noonday sun. One could see rashes on the bodies of fishermen. One could see the imminent death of creation.
I wrote a long feature on Marinduque’s woes in a church social action anniversary publication, with on-the-spot line sketches by an artist who had come with me, and stark black-and white photos that I took, one of them of a huge pipe dumping poison into the sea. (I have a photo of myself standing on top of a huge pipe.) I could not hide my dismay. I wrote then: “But the church leaders are not disheartened. In Barangay Botilao in Sta. Cruz, villagers one day met to discuss the issue of pollution. In a way it was too late since Marcopper Mining has already done so much harm. President Marcos has upheld Marcopper’s petition to continue dumping its waste into Calancan Bay.” Today this would have caused a global outrage.
“Fishermen are hitting Marcopper’s 16-kilometer waste disposal pipeline that juts out five kilometers from the shore to the sea. They ask that a lighthouse be built on the causeway to warn sailboats at night of the pipeline. Boats traverse this area as they go farther to Quezon where waters are still clean and unpolluted.” All the fishermen could manage to plead for then was a lighthouse so they could fish somewhere else.
“The pipeline has caused floods due to the constriction of water in the bay where islets are too close to each other. People say that a basin had been planned for the area but Marcopper opted for the cheaper pipeline. The tailings pit in Mt. Taipan has not been fully utilized when Marcopper discovered more copper ore underneath.”
In 1986, the National Pollution Control commission under the Cory Aquino administration at last banned mine wastes from being dumped into the bay. But in the 1990s, a huge unprecedented environmental disaster happened. Marcopper’s tailings containment pond broke and continuously unleashed tons and tons of toxic matter that poisoned everything in its way. Again, as if there was no tomorrow. The spillage caused national and international furor. In an article I wrote for the Inquirer, I could only begin with a cliché: “It was a disaster waiting to happen.” As far as I know the Canadian mining company has not fully compensated the severely affected populace.
Fast forward to 2012. Environmentalists’ attention is now trained on the toxic spillage from the Philex mines in the Cordillera. But little, it seems, has been heard of the government’s offer of solutions. (And if I may parenthetically add here, a collateral damage of the mine spill is the filing of a libel suit by a government official against a Facebook user and antimining advocate whose postings generated “likes.” This, despite a Supreme Court temporary restraining order on the implementation of the controversial cybercrime law.)
Outside of the Cordillera, again, it is the Church’s social action arm that is leading the call for solutions. Last month a fact-finding team (FFT) went to investigate the reported tailings leakage from Philex’s Padcal mine in Benguet. Leading the team were the National Secretariat of Social Action (Nassa) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and the Climate Change Congress of the Philippines (CCCP). With them were representatives of several civil society groups.
Something in the FFT’s statement hit home: “Although Philex, the country’s largest mining corporation, is already facing penalty charges amounting to P1 billion for violating the Clean Water Act and its own environmental compliance certificate and losing P30 million per day from its suspension, the direct impact of the mining tailings on its immediate surroundings has not been given significant media attention.
”But here’s for fright night: “Dr. Esteban C. Godilano, CCCP resident scientist, said that the Philex Mines tailings spillage is massive. The MGM estimate was 20.6 million metric tons, which is 1,300 percent higher than the Marcopper accident in Boac, Marinduque, of 1.6 million metric tons. Ten years after the accident the Boac River is still dead. Recent studies showed that coastal sediments near the river outflow contains high amount of copper, manganese, lead and zinc.”
The FFT also belied Philex claims that the tailings are “biodegradable.” The indigenous communities’ loss of fishing and mining grounds as well as loss of income and safe source of food and water should leave Philex and local officials sleepless. There is so much more than what could be written here. You can download the full FFT report from the Nassa website http://nassa.org.ph.
In the 1980s, long before the deadly Marcopper mine spill shocked us witless, I went to Marinduque to document for a church-based organization the havoc that Marcopper had been wreaking on the sea and the lives of fishing communities living near Calancan Bay.
Environmental activism was not very much in vogue then but the social action arm of the Catholic Church was the voice in the wilderness that called attention to the wanton destruction of the environment in that part of Luzon.
Marinduque Bishop Rafael Lim, then chair of the Luzon Secretariat of Social Action, stood tall against the massive destruction in his diocese. But the country was under martial rule and unlike now, there was not much national outrage over local issues then.
I saw for myself Marcopper’s giant kilometric pipes jutting out far into the sea and pumping, pumping, pumping out toxic mine byproducts as if the world would end tomorrow anyway. Day or night, one could see a deadly sheen on the surface of the water and imagine fish na nangingisay (in the throes of death). One could see beaches turned into mud-covered landscapes that cracked under the noonday sun. One could see rashes on the bodies of fishermen. One could see the imminent death of creation.
I wrote a long feature on Marinduque’s woes in a church social action anniversary publication, with on-the-spot line sketches by an artist who had come with me, and stark black-and white photos that I took, one of them of a huge pipe dumping poison into the sea. (I have a photo of myself standing on top of a huge pipe.) I could not hide my dismay. I wrote then: “But the church leaders are not disheartened. In Barangay Botilao in Sta. Cruz, villagers one day met to discuss the issue of pollution. In a way it was too late since Marcopper Mining has already done so much harm. President Marcos has upheld Marcopper’s petition to continue dumping its waste into Calancan Bay.” Today this would have caused a global outrage.
“Fishermen are hitting Marcopper’s 16-kilometer waste disposal pipeline that juts out five kilometers from the shore to the sea. They ask that a lighthouse be built on the causeway to warn sailboats at night of the pipeline. Boats traverse this area as they go farther to Quezon where waters are still clean and unpolluted.” All the fishermen could manage to plead for then was a lighthouse so they could fish somewhere else.
“The pipeline has caused floods due to the constriction of water in the bay where islets are too close to each other. People say that a basin had been planned for the area but Marcopper opted for the cheaper pipeline. The tailings pit in Mt. Taipan has not been fully utilized when Marcopper discovered more copper ore underneath.”
In 1986, the National Pollution Control commission under the Cory Aquino administration at last banned mine wastes from being dumped into the bay. But in the 1990s, a huge unprecedented environmental disaster happened. Marcopper’s tailings containment pond broke and continuously unleashed tons and tons of toxic matter that poisoned everything in its way. Again, as if there was no tomorrow. The spillage caused national and international furor. In an article I wrote for the Inquirer, I could only begin with a cliché: “It was a disaster waiting to happen.” As far as I know the Canadian mining company has not fully compensated the severely affected populace.
Fast forward to 2012. Environmentalists’ attention is now trained on the toxic spillage from the Philex mines in the Cordillera. But little, it seems, has been heard of the government’s offer of solutions. (And if I may parenthetically add here, a collateral damage of the mine spill is the filing of a libel suit by a government official against a Facebook user and antimining advocate whose postings generated “likes.” This, despite a Supreme Court temporary restraining order on the implementation of the controversial cybercrime law.)
Outside of the Cordillera, again, it is the Church’s social action arm that is leading the call for solutions. Last month a fact-finding team (FFT) went to investigate the reported tailings leakage from Philex’s Padcal mine in Benguet. Leading the team were the National Secretariat of Social Action (Nassa) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and the Climate Change Congress of the Philippines (CCCP). With them were representatives of several civil society groups.
Something in the FFT’s statement hit home: “Although Philex, the country’s largest mining corporation, is already facing penalty charges amounting to P1 billion for violating the Clean Water Act and its own environmental compliance certificate and losing P30 million per day from its suspension, the direct impact of the mining tailings on its immediate surroundings has not been given significant media attention.
”But here’s for fright night: “Dr. Esteban C. Godilano, CCCP resident scientist, said that the Philex Mines tailings spillage is massive. The MGM estimate was 20.6 million metric tons, which is 1,300 percent higher than the Marcopper accident in Boac, Marinduque, of 1.6 million metric tons. Ten years after the accident the Boac River is still dead. Recent studies showed that coastal sediments near the river outflow contains high amount of copper, manganese, lead and zinc.”
The FFT also belied Philex claims that the tailings are “biodegradable.” The indigenous communities’ loss of fishing and mining grounds as well as loss of income and safe source of food and water should leave Philex and local officials sleepless. There is so much more than what could be written here. You can download the full FFT report from the Nassa website http://nassa.org.ph.
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