Will JDV Let Us Down, Again?

The Long View : The Speaker's position

Manuel L. Quezon III
Inquirer News Service

ON NOV. 10, 2003, Speaker Jose de Venecia rose and delivered a remarkable speech. His apparently extemporaneous remarks were made in response to a parliamentary inquiry made in order to resolve a political crisis. The political crisis was caused by the desire of the House minority to impeach the Chief Justice. Those against the impeachment argued that the constitutional ban on more than one impeachment attempt a year had been violated. The challenge was elevated to the Supreme Court, which upheld the position of the objectors. The House minority insisted that the impeachment should proceed. The nation became alarmed at the prospect of an insistent House transmitting articles of impeachment to the Senate, which might result in the executive department having to use its police power to enforce the Supreme Court ruling.

I believe that De Venecia never received enough credit for the manner in which he resolved that potential constitutional crisis, and the eloquence of his remarks on that November day. He demonstrated genuine leadership, a genuine gift for positively responding to public opinion, and proved his ability to arrive at, and defend, a democratic consensus. The man, both as Jose de Venecia and as Speaker of the House, is yet again reaching-if he hasn't already reached-a defining moment in his political career.

In recent days, the Speaker, observers claim, has been showing signs of great stress and distress. The normally placid, often bubbly Speaker (who can claim the unusual distinction of being the one man in Philippine politics all the professional politicians seem to like; and really, I have yet to encounter a person who has met the Speaker personally, and has gone away not liking the man) has of late been said to be curt, even angry. His public pronouncements, in the words of a colleague, have become increasingly "shrill." It must certainly be unpleasant for a man who has built a career on achieving compromise and consensus to see the country, and his House, so divided.

In the great division among our people that took place in recent months, it was the Speaker who provided the "foot soldiers," so to speak, at the command of former President Ramos when the latter decided to support the President. In truth, what Ramos possessed at the time was an impeccable sense of timing, and a residual prestige. It would depend, however, on the Speaker to hold the line and man the trenches with loyal troops and efficient lieutenants in what has become a political battle of attrition.

The Speaker has, so far, done exactly that, a remarkable feat considering how unpopular the President has always been with his Lakas party. The Lakas members in the House, supported in turn by the Lakas network in local governments, backed the President to achieve parliamentary rule for the House and federalism for the provinces. For a time, it seemed the President would be held hostage by Lakas, supporting parliamentary government and federalism.

In recent weeks, though, the President has increasingly displayed signs of independence, which included dropping hints-such as her statement to Korina Sanchez during an interview-that she has never publicly advocated a unicameral legislature. She has ordered the creation of a Constitutional Consultative Commission to act as a counterweight to the desires and constitutional enthusiasm of the House. In other words, she has turned the situation around to her advantage, and regained what presidents traditionally enjoy over the House: leverage.

In fighting for her political life, the President nailed not hers, but Ramos' and De Venecia's colors to the mast, and proceeded to continue sailing the ship in the direction of enemy fire. Furthermore, she has tied both Ramos and the Speaker to the mast, which means it is they who are getting shot at, while the President continues to command the show from the comfort of her cabin. While Ramos has already done all he could-you can only throw your support behind someone once-the Speaker is still being called upon to marshal the troops in the House, and for what? Whatever their view about the President, the majority of the people want the impeachment process to continue. The Speaker might have been able to justify fighting "creeping impeachment" by "stealthily railroading" the throwing out of the impeachment, but his unpopularity and that of his parliamentary cause would only be worth it if the President did her part by gambling big on achieving constitutional change. She has done the opposite: she has gambled small, and it may be that her real bet is on herself.

This leaves the Speaker without a parliament and without popularity, and heading a party whose grip on the President is beginning to relax (not least because of the President's tacticians, as the recent gambit of her personal, pet party Kampi, and the road user's tax demonstrated). The President has not helped deliver what the Speaker needs: a national consensus on Charter change. Perhaps, the Speaker needs to find other allies; neither he nor his party will necessarily go down with the President if her ship sinks; but they may emerge too shattered and discredited to obtain what they want all along: a parliamentary future for themselves.

In the second week of September, Congress goes on recess for a month. Both the minority and majority need to resolve the question of impeachment before then. Should the Speaker deliver by throwing out impeachment by then? He will reap a whirlwind someone else sowed; and worse, he will never ever be prime minister. At least not until 2010. His best chance to be prime minister is to let the process proceed. That will gain him good will, and the claim to statesmanship.

Knee-Jerk

As I See It : Reduce 'colorum' buses in Metro, save gas

Neal Cruz opinion@inquirer.com.ph
Inquirer News Service

CHARACTERISTIC of the lack of imagination and ideas of this administration is its knee-jerk decision to conserve oil. "Let's use bikes and walk more," said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and immediately the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and the mayors met to set up bike lanes all over the metropolis at a cost of P682 million.

We are going backward as a nation. A more primitive China, where bicycles used to be a primary means of transportation, has now phased them out. But we are now going into bikes. In the same way that we are going into land reform at a time when its originators, and from whom we copied the concept -- the two Chinas -- are phasing it out. Next time, we may have rickshaws pulled by humans instead of motor-driven, and therefore gas-guzzling, tricycles.

What is very obvious to the people the Departments of Energy and Transportation cannot see. And that is, that the oversupply of buses in Metro Manila, especially on the Edsa highway, is a principal cause of fuel wastage. Every day, these buses, all of them half-empty, burn thousands of gallons of fuel as they creep slowly in the metropolis because of heavy traffic caused by them in the first place. All the other vehicles that have to creep along in the heavy traffic as a result burn millions of gallons more. Worse, all these vehicles pollute the air we breathe with the toxic gases they emit. Isn't it elementary that just by reducing the number of buses (and jeepneys), we would be saving millions of gallons of fuel and improve the quality of our air?

All these extra buses are neither needed nor authorized. Half of them would be enough to take commuters to their destinations. By the government's own estimate, at least 300 buses operating in Metro Manila are "colorum" [illegal]. These buses have franchises to operate in the provinces, but their operators prefer to operate illegally in Metro Manila. Why? Obviously because they earn more in the city. They have much fewer passengers and fewer trips in the city because of the traffic, and use up more fuel in the stop-and-go traffic, yet they prefer to operate here rather than in their provinces where they are sorely needed by the people. Yet they earn more in the city despite the dearth of passengers and trips. How? They overcharge their passengers.

So what are the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board doing?

* * *

The President wants the people to walk more. Fine. But she should try it first. She would find out that it is very difficult to walk in Metro Manila because there are no sidewalks to walk on in the first place. Oh yes, there are sidewalks, but they are occupied by parked vehicles and sidewalk vendors. Some business establishments even rope off the sidewalks to reserve them for their customers. These sidewalks belong to the public, not to the stores. And they are for the use of pedestrians; they are not parking places for vehicles and vendors. As a result, pedestrians to whom the sidewalks belong have to walk on the street where they risk being sideswiped by speeding vehicles.

Before we can entice the people to walk more, we should first make the sidewalks pleasant to walk on.

* * *

On Aug. 30, the 155th birth anniversary of Marcelo H. del Pilar, Plaridel's Corner will be inaugurated at 10 a.m. on Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, Manila. Here, anybody can speak out his or her mind freely at any hour of day or night, speak out against the government and its officials, without fear of being stopped or arrested. It is patterned after the Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park, or those in Singapore and Australia.

Plaridel's Corner is a project of Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, Samahang Plaridel, the journalists' association, and Kapihan sa Manila forum which was born 20 years ago for the sole purpose of promoting freedom of speech and of the press. Isn't it fitting that the first Plaridel's Corner is situated at Plaza Miranda, the place public officials used to refer to when they asked their associates: "Can we defend this (contract, policy, or decision) at Plaza Miranda?"

In the morning, at 9:30 a.m., there will be a wreath-laying at the Plaridel monument in Malate, Manila. In the evening, there will be a musical variety show, "Harana kay Plaridel," at the Front Page piano bar.

Three evenings earlier, on Aug. 27, there will be another musical show, "Plaridel's Night," at the Front Page. At 1:30 p.m., still Aug. 27, there will be a lecture on "The Revolution of the Intellectuals" by Adrian Cristobal at the Plaridel Clubhouse.

And on Aug. 29, at 11:30 p.m., an exhibition of cartoons by the Samahang Kartunista ng Pilipinas will be opened.

* * *

KAPIHAN NOTES: There will be two sets of panelists at next Monday's Kapihan sa Manila (Hotel) forum. The first are the four young pro-administration congressmen who last signed the impeachment complaint against President Arroyo: Gilbert Remulla, Robert Ace Barbers, Edmund Reyes and Dodot Jaworski. Would that other administration lawmakers also be stricken by their consciences and follow them.

The second batch is the officers of the feuding basketball associations. The Philippine Olympic Committee has ousted the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) and replaced it with the Philippine Basketball Federation (PBF), but the Federation of International Basketball Associations (FIDE) still recognizes BAP and not PBF. All this is happening just when we are hosting the Southeast Asian Games where we have always dominated the basketball games.

Beyond Impeachment

At Large : Where do we go after impeachment?

Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service

FRIENDS connected with the Black & White Movement wish to correct reports that there were only about 100 participants at the recent founding assembly last Sunday. Organizers say that by their own count, there were more than 550 people who took part in the whole-day activity, representing more than 75 groups "with about as many different views" on what to do regarding the "Gloriagate" crisis and scenarios for the future.

Leah Navarro, who was part of the organizing committee, writes friends that a remarkable thing about the gathering was "there were no histrionics, and the key word of the day was 'listen.'"

In a report, Luz Rimban of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism wrote that "black and white is the new yellow," at least for the segment of the middle class, the erstwhile "Edsa forces," who gathered on the La Salle Greenhills campus near the Edsa highway. While impeachment seems to be the preferred option of many, said Rimban, leaders were worried that the impeachment case against the President seemed to be headed for an early demise.

"Saan tayo pupunta pagkatapos pag wala na yung impeachment complaint? [Where do we go if the impeachment complaint is voted down?]," Rimban quotes former Education Secretary and Liberal Party leader Florencio "Butch" Abad. "What path do people take once the impeachment option is slammed shut in their faces?"

Where to now, indeed?

* * *

THE HUBBY and I, with our friend Ric Ramos and his daughter Bea, were in Mindoro Island over the weekend, to take a look at the accomplishments of the Calapan Waterworks Corp.

We had originally planned the trip for the other weekend, but a typhoon was passing through Northern Luzon and my husband thought it might be too dangerous to make the crossing from Batangas province. It turns out that he thought the crossing would still be made via those old wooden batels, which he took when he was a child, on the way to his father's ranch in Abra de Ilog. But our decision to postpone the trip was fortuitous, as the Coast Guard had indeed deemed sea travel too dangerous for passenger craft.

Last Saturday dawned clear as we drove from our Antipolo home to Ric's place in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. After breakfast prepared by Ric's wife EJ, we proceeded to Batangas City, making it in just over an hour. We raced on foot from the parking lot at the pier because Ric wanted to catch the 8 a.m. trip. Entering the terminal, we were assaulted by shouts from the folks at the counter, competing for passengers not just for Calapan City but also for Puerto Galera town. Why is it that we need to turn every public facility into a "palengke" [public market]?

* * *

STILL, despite the aggravation, it was interesting watching the comings and goings of passengers and cargo. Ric says "ro-ro" (roll-on, roll-off) vessels make the crossing to and from Calapan every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day.

On the highway from the Calapan pier is a billboard pointing the way, on one side, to the city center, the provincial capitol and other local attractions. On the other side of the billboard, an arrow points to "Roxas, Boracay, Kalibo, Iloilo," a sign that the much-vaunted "Strong Republic Nautical Highway" is very much a reality.

If one wanted to, we were told, one could indeed drive all the way from Luzon to Mindanao, defying our archipelagic limitations. After the Roro docks in Calapan, one can drive southwards to Roxas town, catching another ro-ro ferry that will bring one to either Kalibo or Caticlan, the jump-off point for the vacationer's paradise of Boracay. If one wishes to follow the "nautical highway" to Mindanao, one can drive from Kalibo to Iloilo, board the Roro to Bacolod, motor on to San Carlos City and make the crossing to Cebu and thence board another ro-ro vessel to either Cagayan de Oro or Surigao.

Fascinated by tales of the "nautical highway," the hubby and I resolved to save up enough money to make the trip from Luzon to Mindanao -- in the not-too-distant future, we hope.

* * *

FROM CALAPAN we made the rough and tumble drive through a road that was paved in parts, and dusty and pockmarked in others, to Puerto Galera.

We stayed overnight at a relatively new resort called Puerto Nirvana, near the town proper, which started out as a vacation home of owner Romy Roxas, until he decided to expand the facilities to include a hotel building and dormitory-type accommodations. We called it a night fairly early, after straightening out the kinks in our muscles from the long drive with a massage.

Puerto Galera may have lost much of its cachet among the leisure set, but it remains an attractive destination. Sea-going vessels, from small speedboats to breathtaking yachts, can still be found docked at the Puerto Galera Yacht Club. Resorts and dive centers -- from fairly high-end facilities to smaller places built helter-skelter to the very edge of the beach line -- were still doing brisk business even during this "low" season.

But I also think Puerto Galera has much to thank the family of the late National Artist for Architecture Leandro Locsin, who was one of the first to discover the wonders of the place. Wishing to preserve the natural beauty and environment of Puerto Galera, the Locsins bought islands with some of the best beachfronts, if only to protect them from the sort of over-development that has blighted other islands. The public is still free to use the beaches on these private islands, and indeed there were many tourists going snorkeling off the Locsin-owned White Beach, where some of the best coral formations are found.

Indeed, where political will is too weak to fend off careless developers, the private sector will have to step in. Would that other similarly beautiful but endangered environments in our country had guardians like the Locsins!

Water Tax

As I See It : Solon wants to tax drinking water

Neal H. Cruz
Inquirer News Service

PEOPLE are talking about "The Great Raid" and "The Great Escape." Not the new movie with Cesar Montano in its cast or the old one starring Steve McQueen. They are talking about the raid conducted by police and military intelligence agents on a house in San Mateo, Rizal, where they seized important evidence on cheating in the last elections; and the escape of former Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano who is said to have been caught in the "Hello Garci" tapes as one of the prominent personalities involved in a plot to cheat in the elections.

The speculation is that both capers-the raid and the escape-could not have been successfully accomplished without the knowledge, approval and help of Malacañang. The squatter there, after all, would be the one to benefit from the seizure of evidence on poll cheating and from the escape of Garci.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the police (CIDG) and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Isafp) would not have conducted the illegal raid if it had not been ordered by somebody very high up in the government. There was no search warrant, no complaint against the caretaker of the poll evidence. Until now, the CIDG and Isafp cannot explain the basis for the raid and for the seizure of the election returns. The ERs legally belong to the opposition party which, under the law, is entitled to one of the seven copies of every ER. The police should return them immediately. Their caretaker, Segundo Tabayoyong, an expert on questioned documents, has not committed any crime.

The excuse given by the CIDG and Isafp for the raid was that the owner of the house asked for their help. If that was the only reason, wouldn't the local police have been enough? Why was the CIDG involved? And the Isafp, too? Really, only somebody very powerful could have ordered the raid.

Similarly, Garcillano could not have escaped without the help, financial and otherwise, of Malacañang. He could not have afforded the fee for the charter of the Learjet to Singapore. And he could not have gotten through immigration without the help of somebody very influential who must have opened the right doors for him and greased the right hands.

Everybody was looking for Garci. There was an alert for him. There had been talk for quite some time that he would escape to another country. Yet, he was still able to escape. He could not have done that, not unless some government officials were incompetent or were part of a conspiracy.

The consensus is that Malacañang is getting so desperate as to resort to illegal acts to cover its tracks. For the web of accumulating circumstantial evidence and testimony from witnesses is tightening the noose around the neck of its illegal occupant.

The tampered election returns, although meant only as evidence in the election protest of former Sen. Loren Legarda against Vice President Noli de Castro, would also show that the votes for the presidential candidates were altered or manufactured to make GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) win. And Garcillano, if found and forced to tell the truth, could mean the end of the GMA regime. No wonder, GMA's minions are risking criminal prosecution to cover Malacañang's tracks. In fact, Garci risks being murdered because of what he knows. He knows too much. But dead men tell no tales.

The lesson here once more is that "the truth will always out." "You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all of the people all the time." The more you lie and commit illegal acts to cover your tracks, the more you are caught in the web of your lies. Lies are like a trap. The more you try to wiggle out of them by lying some more, the more the noose tightens. Even experienced and habitual liars are caught. GMA is no exception. The most powerful man in the world, President Richard Nixon, trying to cover up the Watergate burglary, was finally caught in the web of his lies that were exposed in the secret tapes of his conversations in the White House. GMA was caught by secret tapes of her phone conversations with Garci. Nixon resigned the presidency rather than face an impeachment trial. Would that GMA be as statesmanlike as Nixon and do the same thing-resign.

* * *

As if the expanded value-added tax is not enough to squeeze the life out of the people, a congressman has filed a bill to tax-would you believe-drinking water. Yes, House Bill 2899 of Samar Rep. Catalino Figueroa (Lakas-NP) proposes to impose a 10-percent excise tax on bottled water. The excise tax would be in addition to the EVAT. And the House ways and means committee, instead of throwing the stupid bill into the waste basket, has actually started hearings on it last Aug. 16.

Drinking water is a basic necessity. Nobody can continue to live without safe drinking water. In a country where more than one-third of the population has no access to safe drinking water, it is criminal to tax it. Entire communities have fallen ill from drinking contaminated tap water. By his own admission, Figueroa said that bottled water has become a necessity, that it is essential to life. Yet, he wants to put it beyond the reach of the people by imposing an additional tax on it. All for what? So the government will have more money that government officials can steal and use to bribe witnesses and legislators. Perhaps, Figueroa was thinking of the pork barrel of congressmen when he filed the bill.

An excise tax is imposed to curb the consumption of products harmful to health, such as alcohol and tobacco. By slapping such tax on drinking water, is Figueroa saying that people should be taxed for wanting to survive? A tax on drinking water, bottled or not, is a tax on a person's right to life.

Flavier's View

Pinoy Kasi : Guilt and guile

Michael Tan opinion@inquirer.com.ph
Inquirer News Service

I COULD tell where the lecture was when I got to the University of the Philippines' College of Medicine last Friday by the way laughter thundered through the building. Which is unusual for the college. Most of the time the classrooms are noisy, but it's because students are discussing, often with long solemn faces, their textbooks and lecture notes.

To celebrate the college's centennial, a series of lectures had been organized, and last Friday, the guest speaker was Dr. Juan Flavier, one of their most famous (or notorious, depending on your point of view) alumni. Speak he did, regaling his audiences with one joke after another, recounting his student days and terror teachers ("We had a test where we were asked to name all the amino acids ... in the order of their discovery."), his short (pun intended) but very fruitful stint as health secretary ("When asked how many people work at the department, I answer, 'Half of them.'") and, for the last few years, serving as senator.

'SSS'

I had first been approached a month or so ago to be one of the reactors at the talk, and I had asked myself, "How do you react to a talk by Dr. Flavier?"

How indeed. The jokes were non-stop, with no sacred cows. There were, to be sure, the usual crop of condom jokes, of vulcanizable condoms for Ilocanos and luminous ones for aging clergy. But that has always been his point: People can't relate to doctors and to the Department of Health (DOH) because health matters are made too serious. Well, they should be, but if you want people to be healthy, you have to make health fun.

I'm going to apologize here as I drop the "Doctor" and "Senator" references (the Inquirer's style is not to attach titles to surnames except with the first citation). So, here goes:

Flavier admits that as health secretary he was merely continuing programs set up by his predecessors but he did add spice to the programs, captured by a catchy "Let's DOH it!" package of slogans and acronyms.

It was during Flavier's term that we were introduced to Yosi Kadiri, a cartoon character epitomizing the repugnance of smoking. We heard, too, the calls to women to conduct "SSS," the Tagalog acronym for breast self-examination.

Language of health

Flavier talked about how we need to tap popular culture, including our love of rhyming words and phrases. I couldn't agree more, and in my reaction, I noted how health educators needed to look at languages other than Tagalog for innovative ideas. Then, too, there's the wealth of folklore, of folk tales and proverbs and riddles. A sample I shared, referring to a very common public health problem: "Paa niya nasa ulo [On the head are its feet]." The audience was perplexed but I finally heard someone give the right answer: "kuto" [lice].

Imagine the difference starting a community lecture by going, "Today we are going to discuss lice," compared with a, "Let's play a game... Guess what..." And for a prize, you would give out one of those special fine-toothed combs.

Words are powerful, which means we have to be careful as well in our choices. I've written about the disaster that came with "Ligtas Buntis," the health department's campaign for safe pregnancy. But in Flavier's time, there had been a "Ligtas Tigdas" program, calling on parents to get their children vaccinated against measles. Ligtas Buntis was interpreted by conservative Catholics as an attempt to pathologize pregnancy, to make it sound like measles and other diseases.

Community health

Jokes and slogans have their place, certainly, in public health, but I do worry at times about the message being overwhelmed by the medium. In some way, Flavier may be a victim of his own success: whenever he lectures, we end up being so entertained that we forget that his main achievement was promoting community health.

Flavier's very ability to make health understandable to the public comes out of his own experience as a rural doctor. In international public health circles, he is remembered for one of his early books where he used agricultural metaphors to explain family planning.

Fortunately, during the talk at the University of the Philippines, the other two discussants were doctors who came out of community practice: Penny Damogo, who was for many years the municipal health officer of Bontoc town and is now one of the provincial health officers for Mountain Province; and Florence Tienzo, who worked for many years with community-based health programs. Both talked about how Flavier had influenced them. Florence, in fact, had a running battle with her parents about her wanting to go to community medicine. Fortunately, Flavier was their commencement speaker and his speech convinced Florence's parents that community medicine wasn't such a crazy option after all.

Guiltless resignation

After Flavier's talk, I told the organizers we need more of these events, not just to "entertain" students and faculty but also to remind them that medical practice includes many options.

Just the day before Flavier's talk, Dr. Olive Caoili of the Department of Political Science at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, asked me if I'd read an article in the British journal, The Lancet, about brain drain among Filipino doctors.

I looked up the essay, written by Victor Alvarez of the Makati Medical Center and published in the June 21 to July 1, 2005 issue of the journal. It's interesting how the article is making its rounds now through e-mail, reaching non-physicians and provoking discussions, including "What else do doctors at the Makati Medical Center need to keep them from leaving?"

Alvarez's essay clearly shows it isn't just economics that drives away our doctors. The article starts by describing how one of Alvarez's friends, a surgeon, went into nursing school with the hope of eventually leaving the country. The article is scathing as it runs through the problems of health care in the Philippines, a long list of frustrations about everything-from the maddening traffic to poverty and government neglect.

Alvarez's essay is entitled "Guiltless resignation." We joke all the time about how Catholics are so saddled by guilt, so the title says a lot about where our doctors are these days. But I can understand how guilt and remorse are bound to disappear when we face so much guile, so much deception on the part of our leaders.

Which takes me back to Flavier. We need to hear him more often talking about what it means to be a doctor, especially in these trying times. He did talk about brain drain during the open forum, the only time that morning where his voice was tinged with sadness. Who would have thought indeed that the profession would need so much soul-searching, grappling both with guile and guilt?

Glo A Fraud

Kris-Crossing Mindanao : Interview with a phantom

Noralyn Mustafa
Inquirer News Service

IT was one of those times that brought on again that kind of feeling where you often caught yourself wondering whether this was real or unreal, or whether this was simply because your world as you knew it had been turned upside down by forces beyond your control.

I was still grappling to come to terms with the State of the Nation Address Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delivered last month (which turned out to be the most vulgar display of political obscenity I have ever seen in my lifetime), when she giggled on television that she was the one cheated in the last elections and then blamed us for creating a rotten system that made her a "victim."

Change the system, change the structure, she said, echoing, four decades late, the early batches of military officers and an elite selection of bureaucrats who invented the term "technocrat," and whom Marcos sent to the Asian Institute of Management and the Development Academy of the Philippines to be transformed into messiahs of the gospel of "management of change"—the messiahs who would kill the "old society" and resurrect it into the "new."

(Those whose ideas about changing the world differed from those of Marcos' were killed, but they were never resurrected.)

This she told a group of infants who, she said, would be fed and nurtured to ensure that their generation would be brighter than hers; so they could create a political system that would not be as rotten as hers; assuming, of course, that they would have enough to eat to survive that long.

Even then, those babies were still lucky because they and their unsuspecting mothers got to have precious photographs to show generations of relatives, neighbors and friends of that incredible day they were actually allowed inside the Palace; even as others, some years older than the babies, were dying a slow death breaking their backs carrying sacks of rice in the port of Cebu, cutting sugarcane in Negros, and burning themselves dry under the sun in a quarry in Romblon.

But I guess what really triggered the topic of this piece was seeing the members of the foreign press, some of them friends of mine, being sent out of the room where Ms Arroyo would face the media in a press conference, emceed by Ignacio Bunye, wearing as usual, the excruciatingly inscrutable face of one who must have been an android in his immediate past life.

It was that time again when, in desperation, I had to seek refuge in my most inexpensive coping mechanism: sleep, perchance to dream "dreams no mortal dared to dream before," and maybe, if only in my dreams, "with Fate conspire to change this sorry scheme of things entire."

And so in deep sleep I dreamt I was "Madam President" being interviewed by a lone interviewer who looked like Korina Sanchez but who introduced herself to me as "Your Worst Media Nightmare." But the worst part of it was, I could not answer any of her questions because my tongue was paralyzed with fear at the sight of a horrible phantom looming behind Korina. The phantom kept changing its face in rapid succession—from that of Bunye to Rigoberto Tiglao, to Eduardo Ermita, to Gabriel Claudio, to Ricardo Saludo, to Angelo Reyes, to Raul Gonzalez, to Fidel Ramos, to Jose de Venecia, then back to Bunye to start another cycle of those faces and another and another—all of which scowled at me, I noted, with eyebrows that turned into half-moons. I couldn't quite comprehend why, each time Korina asked a question, this phantom, whatever face he was wearing at a particular moment, would make, with his hands, one of two signs: zipping his mouth or cutting his throat.

I woke up in cold sweat.

As I sat in the living room, slipping into a catatonic state "while I pondered weak and weary," trying to fathom the significance of my nightmare, Mike the Defender came on the television screen before me, giving the greatest performance of his life, trying to convince the media that "it is the voice of the President (on the Garci tapes) but it is not the President talking."

It was, I swear, delivered with the same level of irony achieved by Marlon Brando as Mark Anthony in his oration, telling the Roman masa about the treachery of the members of the senate, yet asserting at the end of every bitter disclosure, "and they are all honorable men."

I am at a loss for words. Due to a limited vocabulary, I cannot seem to describe, even in my silent but very weary mind, my reaction to this, except to recognize what appears to be some kind of irrelevance rising from the depths of my murky thoughts: Defensor has just been removed from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to head an agency especially created for him, the Department for the Defense (of Ms Arroyo), resulting in a bureaucratic crisis because there is nobody who can replace Mike on the expressway, where he chases, before cameras, trucks of illegal logs.

And then it happened.

It was a moment as magical as can be possible in these times. Philippine media have been vindicated, the humiliation of Focap has been assuaged. I have never been prouder to be part of this noblest of professions.

It was one shining moment in Philippine journalism that will inspire us all in our constant struggle in treading the difficult path between the truth and the greatest hoax that has been played on the Filipino people.

No, this country, this nation will not perish, not even under the most relentless assault of lies and deception the phantom can conceive.

The biggest nail on the coffin of this fraudulent administration was driven right after the day the casket containing the body of the President I voted for was embraced by the earth that had sustained him in life. And he was an honorable man.

Dagdag Boses Theory Refuted

Posted by Alecks Pabico 
PCIJ

AT DENR Secretary Michael Defensor's press conference yesterday, I brought up the issue of the tapes that Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye presented to the Malacañang press corps last June 6 because these — both the allegedly "original/unaltered" and "spliced" versions — also contain the "yung dagdag" portion, which Defensor alleges to have been inserted in the Paguia tape. Except for the deleted utterance of the word "Namfrel" in the supposedly "unaltered" version, this portion was found to be free from splicing by an independent sound expert who shared with us his analysis of the Bunye tapes.

Since there is reason to believe that all the versions that have come out have the three-hour recordings as source, I asked how come the findings of Jonathan Tiongco, Defensor's so-called expert, say otherwise. Could it be that the track he asked to be analyzed had been tampered with?

If the examination made by the same independent sound expert who analyzed Bunye's tapes (and the "Chavit X-tapes") is to be considered, there is reason to doubt Tiongco's findings. Based on the FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) Spectrograph analysis he has done on the Paguia tapes, our source has found no discrepancy or discontinuity in the " yung dagdag" conversation.

An FFT Spectrograph analysis was used to show any discontinuity or splicing done on the audio clips. The FFT Spectrograph shows the frequency-time domain of the audio being analyzed where the intensity of the red pixels on the graph shows changes in the volume of a particular frequency in the audio clip. Time is represented by the x-axis, the frequency by the y-axis with the lowest frequency found at the bottom of the graph. Splicing will be very much apparent if there are breaks in the red graph color distribution across the x-axis.

Below are his findings (click on the links to download larger images of the corresponding plates):

Plate 1 shows the FFT Spectrograph analysis of Paguia's version of the entire "yung dagdag " conversation. On this graph alone, you will not find any discrepancy/break or discontinuity in the conversation.

Plate 2 shows the FFT Spectrograph analysis of Paguia's version of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's portion where she mentioned " yung dagdag, yung dagdag." In this analysis, one will never find any break or splicing in the clip. The conversation is very much "continuous" and there is no abrupt change on the background frequencies.

Plate 3 shows the FFT Spectrograph analysis of the three-hour tapes particularly on the part where Arroyo mentioned " yung dagdag, yung dagdag." Analysis shows that the clip is pretty much unaltered. Not a single "break" or discontinuity is found here.

Tiongco's findings also mentioned that the "yung dagdag" portion was altered by means of varying the speed of the playback. But our source says that if that was the case, the background should also change in "pitch." The following plate images illustrate his point:

Plate 4 shows the actual waveform presentation of the "yung dagdag" portion in the three-hour tape. Notice that the background including the GSM radio buzz is consistent all throughout the recording. If there were changes in the speed or pitch in the clip, there should also be a corresponding change in the background. But in this case, the background is very much consistent on both Garcillano's and Arroyo's parts.

Plate 5 shows a zoomed version of the Garcillano part's background. This is actually the GSM radio noise heard on a typical cell-phone conversation.

Plate 6 shows a zoomed version of Arroyo's " yung dagdag" background. This also shows the same noise found on Garcillano's part and the pitch has never changed. It thus disproves allegations that the speed of the conversation was altered. A simple test of just listening to the background will show that the background noise frequency/pitch is pretty much consistent. So if there had been speed alterations, the background should have been affected and will in fact show as frequency variations in any FFT analysis.

Swallowed

Youngblood : Taking it from here

Pauline V. Apilado
Inquirer News Service

DO you sometimes have the feeling that you're being swallowed up by the events of your life? That, yes, things are moving along, but your heart and soul are somewhere else entirely? That your life is not your own? That precious, precious time is slipping away from you because you don't have focus or purpose?

Let me be more explicit by walking you through my daily routine. See if you can relate to it or even just parts of it.

I dress up in the morning and I'm excited by what I'm going to wear. It's something I can directly control. I can be as creative with the color and style combinations as I want. What I'm going to wear to work can be new and fresh. (This is actually one of the best parts of my day!)

Then I step out of the house and join the rest of the working world in a mad, mad morning rush to our offices. I don't know how many times I've stared out the window of my Ayala Avenue-bound FX [taxi van] at the morning traffic and said to myself, "This is crazy! I don't want to live like this. Why do we live like this?"

I see people scurrying about, frowning if they fail to catch their ride to work. Or, I don't know, are they frowning because of déja vu? It's the same scene that's been played out and they've starred in a million times. I ask myself if the dismay or blank expression I see in people's faces during my morning commute is just a symptom of existential questioning I find myself engaged in. "What on earth am I here for? Am I doing the right thing or is there something else I should be doing but am not? Am I just letting my life slip away from me? Or am I the only one asking these questions and feeling lost and confused?"

When I get to work, I have to get my caffeine fix. Believe me, if I can live without it, I would. I just need the extra jolt of energy to get me through the day. In that sense, I'm no different from those who have become dependent on the bottle or other substances. As a rational human being, I know that the thing I'm addicted to isn't good for me and is making my normal body functions go haywire, but I use it as a crutch to help me get through my daily working life.

I don't seem to sound all that cheerful about work and yet, I've told my friends I personally prefer to work in the great urban jungles of Ayala, Eastwood or Ortigas. There's an energy in these places that you just feed on. I feel strangely alive, yes, in the frenetic pace of activities in these megacenters of work and commerce. I love watching what people are wearing, how they carry themselves with self-importance, how they mentally plan out their tasks for the day (or even just their meals!). These are my people. We share similar concerns and worries, not to mention the staple: My God, I have a report due tomorrow morning and I haven't even started on it. How in hell am I going to finish it on time?

And (you guessed it right!) the rest of the day passes by in a blur. It's one deadline, task, meeting, phone call or another. There are good moments, good conversations or good meals with friends in between and, I believe, that's a huge part of what we live for and what keeps us sane on a daily basis. And to clarify the matter, I do work with a good group and there are opportunities to learn from every situation we find ourselves in.

The workday ends and my morning commute is put in reverse. When I get home, I'm too tired to reflect on what happened in the course of the day, even if I want to and know I need to. My evenings are spent living vicariously through other people's trials and triumphs ( a.k.a. escapism): "Six Feet Under," "The Probe Team Documentaries" or whatever's on HBO or Star Movies that sustains my interest. (In the rare instances that I'm home early, I catch snatches of "Entertainment Tonight," "Encantadia" and "All About Eve.")

That's a quick run-through on my daily life. It's an eclectic mix of content and discontent. Now I realize that I should be happy that I'm asking questions, rather than just slogging through it daily and feeling oddly empty and clueless.

A friend told me that one of her key "take-aways" (our catch-word for lessons learned from a training session) is that work is not always happy, and to work from there. This I can apply to my life. Then there are the ellipses and "if I had the time." (That's another page from my journal altogether.)

I don't mean to keep you in suspense or withhold your hoped-for happy ending. There isn't any, this is just what is for now. I have to take it from here.

Pauline V. Apilado, 27, is an organizational development associate at eTelecare Global Solutions Inc.

Presidents in Prison

A vision of two presidents

Inquirer News Service

ON TELEVISION, they appeared to be a bunch of battery-operated robots programmed to stand up and clap -- on cue from Speaker Jose de Venecia -- 30 times for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as she delivered her State of the Nation Address. But there was nothing to applaud in a speech that was a cacophony of political and economic pretensions.

Ms Arroyo, obviously upon the prodding of her advisers, focused on the idea of amending the Constitution and changing our form of government. She did not say a bit about calls for her removal from office. His advisers must be adept in the sleight-of-hand trick of magicians. But they failed. Once again, her silence on the scandals surrounding her only reminded us that it is very hard to fool the people all the time. The people's clamor for Ms Arroyo's resignation even shifted to higher gear.

Pulse Asia's July 2-14 survey showed 73 percent of Filipinos want to see Ms Arroyo out of Malacañang either through resignation, impeachment, "snap elections" or even unconstitutional means.

What the Filipinos have in the Philippines right now is a president who has imposed herself on the nation and wants to rule without the consent of the governed. In a democracy, the governed, if extremely unhappy with their leaders, have the right to change the latter by whatever means possible.

The issue of Charter change in order to adopt a new form of government is not a solution to Arroyo's unpopular leadership. The best solution so far is for Arroyo to undergo a full examination of conscience as suggested by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and to "cut cleanly," Ferdinand Marcos-style.

When Ms Arroyo, acting in concert with Chief Justice Hilario Davide, grabbed the presidency from Joseph Estrada on Jan. 20, 2001 following protest demonstrations at the Edsa highway, she said, "The President has not only lost moral authority to govern, but now has no government." Fast forward to Jan. 20, 2006, another politician may utter similar statements and proclaim himself "the new commander-in-chief" of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. So the vision of two former Philippine presidents put behind bars is not a remote possibility.

GONZALO POLICARPIO (via e-mail)

Change Politicians

Kris-Crossing Mindanao : Am I asking for the moon?

Antonio Montalvan II
Inquirer News Service

I WANT not just the political system changed. I want the politicians changed as well.

I want a system free from the greed of our country's ruling elite. I cannot entrust my future to politicians who are so full of themselves with their moronic tantrums.

Could I entrust my future to a Jinggoy Estrada or a Loi Ejercito? Or to a Lito Lapid? Or to a Tootsie Guingona, freshly harvested from his family orchard of balimbings yet already behaving like a trapo? It is perhaps true: Con-Ass is, pardon the language, only for pompous asses.

Would I want my future mapped out by an Imee Marcos? God forbid, the Filipinos forgetting the accountability of the Marcoses. The war for accountability can never be waged through sheer hypocrisy.

I want a system where all the Imelda Marcoses, all the Erap Estradas, all the cheaters and stealers found guilty of making their own "Hello Garci" calls (and there are many) go to jail. For it is important for us to live under a society that recognizes what is right and what is wrong. That is a fundamental virtue that should not be selective and applicable only to a few scapegoats and political pet peeves. Enough with the tomfoolery!

I want a system of genuine nationalists, not of blabbering nationalists whose unprincipled and changing alliances go by the shifting sands of Philippine politics, never mind if they make strange bedfellows. Having dud nationalists is the last thing we need.

I want a system insulated for all times from these harbingers of idiocy-our present crop of leaders, national, local and whatever. I do not want to see their wives, husbands, children, brothers, sisters, cousins and in-laws play "merry go-round" with the sacred elective positions in our government, as though we, voters, were the most gullible fools of this earth. Dynasts you all are, no matter how many times you deny it to death.

I want a system where the poor do not vote according to the wishes of the highest bidder. For here we have a system of politicians whose words grandiloquently proclaim noble political visions and goals but whose ways and interests are very much like those of the dark underworld. Exploitation of the poor is one of the gravest sins of our politicians, who are now destined for Hades.

I want a system free forever from local mayors and governors who behave like monarchs, potentates and egomaniacs as they treat local government units as their personal rubber stamps. I want local leaders who sit for only one term and, together with all their relatives, prohibited forever from running for any office anywhere, anytime. Why, they are no gods! I am certain our lives will be better without them.

I want a political system where major decisions come down not from an ivory tower in Manila but take into account the angst and yearnings of faceless ordinary Filipinos even in the remotest countryside. I do not want to submit papers to a bureaucrat who is based in Manila and who does not understand my wholeness and my being.

I want a system that puts food on the family tables of our languishing poor who number in the millions, not a system that is mired in the silly gridlocks of senseless political grandstanding and debate.

I want a system where the rich resources of Mindanao go to Mindanao's marginalized people, not to the coffers of an uncaring Manila that thinks all talk of Mindanao secession is just an empty threat. I dream of a Mindanao that is not a victim of a juvenile and trigger-happy mind disposed to fire guns and explode bombs as a strategy for silencing opposition.

I want a system where the Philippines stands proud as a sovereign among sovereigns, not a puppet republic in an archaic world dichotomy prescribed by a self-appointed global policeman. I want a system with the chutzpah to take up the cudgels for the Aung San Suu Kyis of this world.

Am I making impossible demands? I think not. A Charter change for federalism would be good. Jose "Pepe" Abueva is correct: Mindanao is the cradle of the federalist movement. Come to think of it, power is a commodity that is most effective only when it is near. In this sense, Charter change that includes federalism will have my awe and my reverence.

This is precisely why I cannot entrust Charter change and my future to congressmen and senators and all the purveyors of political patronage, who have only discredited themselves and have long been on the road to self-destruction; and it is definitely not the road less traveled.

What bliss it would be to have them all impeached!

Women's Champ

At Large : Raul and 'Lola Afric'

Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service

THEY called him an "honorary woman," and true to his nature and his advocacy, former Sen. Raul Roco didn't seem to mind it at all, and in fact basked in this appellation.

He may have received the "title" for drafting and successfully pursuing the passage of the "Women in Nation building Act," which laid to rest several gender-based biases in our laws. But even before this and long after it, Roco was a champion of women's rights and equality before the law. I remember the years when the progressive anti-rape bill was going through an excruciating deliberation in Congress; Roco provided valuable advice on ways to "tweak" the draft law and avoid possible pitfalls in the language of the legislation, as well as how to win more advocates. Actually, we couldn't have expected any less from the husband of Sonia Malasarte Roco, herself a feminist, women's rights advocate and educator. For if there was anything truly admirable in their marriage, it was Raul and Sonia's partnership, their mutually supporting each other in their pursuit of each one's causes and dreams.

There could not have been a bigger dream than that of the presidency, which Raul pursued twice, with Sonia proving herself his most ardent supporter. In his first attempt, he did better than most had expected, scoring impressive gains among the youth and demonstrating a solid hold on the loyalty of Bicolanos. But in his second stab at the presidency, despite early impressive showings in the polls and high credibility ratings, his campaign seemed to stumble and stall, crashing inexorably when he left the campaign shortly before the elections on reasons of health.

* * *

RAUL Roco may have been "the best president the country never had," as the Inquirer cleverly, and quite touchingly, put it. But his failure to make it to Malacañang should not detract from a proper appreciation of his role in our political life. From his stint as chief of staff of the late Sen. Ninoy Aquino to his participation in the anti-dictatorship movement and his career as a legislator, Roco proved his commitment to democracy and his enduring belief in the power of the law to right inequalities and address social problems.

Here's to Raul Roco, then. Here's to an "honorary woman" whose championship of women's causes and feminist ideals proved even more solid than those of some "real" women in positions of leadership. Here's to a man of amiability and generosity, despite reports of his having a temper. Here's to a loving husband and father and a doting grandfather. We may never know how the country would have fared under a Roco presidency, but we do know that the country has lost a good man.

* * *

IN 1973, widowed suddenly after her husband, architect Jose Reynoso, succumbed to a heart attack, Africa Valdes Reynoso went into partnership with Hans Sy, son of tycoon Henry Sy, and opened "Sizzling Plate" in the food court of SM Makati.

Though she ran a successful eatery in the pioneering Valleson department store in Escolta shortly after World War II, "Lola Afric" was, at the age of 56, a relative newbie, having spent the previous 20 years as a full-time housewife, looking after her and Joe's nine children. But, her entrepreneurial instincts "unleashed," Lola Afric proved a formidable competitor. She rounded up her household help, dressed them in "civilian" wear and had them crowd in front of the "Sizzling Plate" stall, pretending to point to items on the menu board. In no time, curious diners were lining up along with the house help, launching "Sizzling Plate" as one of the most successful tenants of the SM chain of malls.

As the first enterprise to popularize steaks, which before had been enjoyed only by the moneyed few, as well as to serve the steaks in cast-iron "sizzling" plates, "Sizzling Plate" could be said to have democratized fine cuisine for Filipinos. Lola Afric's domain has since expanded to other eateries, from the "Sizzling Plate" restaurants in Baguio (owned by daughter Edna and her husband Mike Anton), and those in Legazpi City (owned by son Tito; "Steak Escape" (jointly owned by daughter Cecille and grandson Emilio); "Steak Break," a successful chain of "low-end, masa" versions of the steak stalls (owned by daughter Mia Laws); to "Pinoy Toppings" (owned by grandson Mike Anton); and "Steaks and Toppings" outlets of Mike's brother Carlos.

* * *

THE "REYNOSO FLAIR" for good food and cuisine, which her children all attribute to Lola Afric, is likewise expressed in the work of three daughters: the eldest child Leni Reynoso Araullo who commutes from Los Angeles to Manila for regular teaching stints on cake-decorating and sausage-making; Sylvia Reynoso Gala, a well-known cooking instructor, writer and TV chef; and Lorrie, a chef-instructor at the Art Institute of New York who has trained so many chefs in New York's fine-dining establishments that she can book seats at even the most exclusive places at a moment's notice.

To celebrate Lola Afric's 88th birth anniversary, her children, with the indefatigable Edna at the lead, launched last Friday a book, "The Reynoso Flair: 80 Years of Lola Afric's Cooking," which documents, through family stories as well as recipes of Lola's specialties, her life-long affair with food.

At that rambunctious affair, generations of Valdeses and Reynosos, as well as friends from Baguio and Manila, including the book's creative team headed by writer-editor Babeth Lolarga, mingled for book-signing and recollecting.

At the center of it all was Lola Afric, elegant in a piña gown, silently basking in the attention of a clan that has come to love her, not just for her cooking but most of all for the generosity of spirit that animates their family.

Half-Truth

Right time to do what is right

Inquirer News Service

I AM writing as a wife and a mother. It would be very easy to just concern myself with taking care of my husband and my two young children. But I feel I have a responsibility not just to my family but to my country as well.

I feel that there is something that I have to ask the Catholic Church. As you well know, our country is in a political crisis. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has admitted an indiscretion and wishes to close the chapter on the "Hello, Garci" tapes. But how can we close this chapter when the whole truth has yet to come out? The President says all Filipinos are equal under the law and yet her continued occupancy of Malacañang betrays that assertion.

Forgive my bias, but I don't think the President appointed Virgilio Garcillano for his integrity. How can we give the commissioner the benefit of the doubt when he cannot even face the Filipino people? We can have our different interpretations of the conversations between him and the President, but one thing is all too clear: the Palace attempted a cover-up. And President Arroyo must take full responsibility for this betrayal of public trust.

I am writing this letter in the hope that the Church will press for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

If you would allow me to quote Martin Luther King Jr: "The time is always right to do what is right." And with all due respect, I can think of nothing worse than knowing what is right and not doing anything about it.

I trust that the Church will do what it ought to and the time is now.

DANIELLE S. LIZARES, 30 Mercury St., Bel-Air, Makati City

Mercado's Column

Viewpoint : Taxicab tutorial

Juan Mercado
Inquirer News Service

WHAT has a taxi driver, barreling through traffic gridlock, got to do with today's crisis and Mark Twain?

"Our 'mga (expletive deleted) ina' leaders made us believe it's better to have Filipinos, even if they'd run government like hell," he said while cutting lanes. I braced for a crash. "We got what they wanted."

"Life here is rough," he continued while braking behind a scavenger's cart. I let my breath out slowly. "But Filipinos with foreign spouses must be embarrassed over what's happening here. 'Nakakahiya.' [It's shameful.] We were better off under the Americans."

"Mark Twain wouldn't agree," I mumbled. "Mark who?" he asked.

This American humorist, I explained, dismissed Washington's decision to take over the Philippines as a laughable status symbol. The May 10, 1907 issue of the Baltimore Sun's interview with Twain had this:

"The funniest thing was when at the close of the Spanish-American War the United States paid poor decrepit old Spain $20 million for the Philippines. It was just a case of this country buying its way into good society.

"Honestly, when I read in the papers that this deal had been made, I laughed until my sides ached.

"There were the Filipinos fighting like blazes for their liberty. Spain would not hear of it. The United States stepped in, and after they had licked the enemy to a standstill, instead of freeing the Filipinos, they paid that enormous amount for an island which is of no earthly account to us.

"(We) just wanted to be like the aristocratic countries of Europe which have possessions in foreign waters. The United States wanted to be in the swim, and it, too, had to branch out, like an American heiress buying a Duke or an Earl. Sounds well, but that's all."

What's-his-name got it right about our fighting for freedom, the cabbie persisted. "The Guinness Book of World Records says Andres Bonifacio was the first Asian to successfully challenge foreign colonizers."

"There's nothing about Bonifacio in the Guinness Book of World Records 2005," I said. A fixture in Guinness' "Crime" section in the 1990s, the Marcoses were dislodged since the 2000 edition. That triggered a philippic on how Marcos ripped off Japanese war reparations. But that was when we arrived and I dropped off.

This cab-ride tutorial was stripped of administration spin and untainted by opposition bile. Was it a state of the nation message from "below"?

He reflected our stunted national self-esteem. Like most Filipinos, he went through the economic wringer daily. The $60-a-barrel oil hits cabbies first.

And he saw clearly that massive impoverishment occurs as so-called "leaders" gambol in ill-gotten luxury, blind to the misery, cocksure there'll be no accounting.

None of those who tortured under martial law were ever tried. Coconut farmers haven't received refunds from the coconut levy, imposed by the dictatorship, over two decades ago.

"There's a widespread impression that the most pervasive rot today is massive corruption," Cebu Daily News said in an editorial, titled "Crime pays."

"It is not so," the paper says. "Rather, it's the miasma of cynical impunity that corrodes democratic governance. Daily experience tells us the law is skewed in favor of the affluent and vests them with impunity. Thus, the list of those who thumb their noses at the law is long."

What aggravates this impunity is the fact that, in our lives and institutions, far too many work by "pecuniary decency." Cash is the sole yardstick of value. "Self worth equals net worth," a banker explains.

What is decent and human is overwhelmed by appetites, not shaped by "values that endure even after the sun goes out." We saw that in Joseph Estrada's second envelope, those Mega-Pacific election computers or the "Garci" tapes. This results in an economy where the powerful batten off on the weak.

But context is not destiny. Repeated betrayal of the poor is not inevitable. Change is needed. Governance must be overhauled so that the basic human needs of the poor command first priority. Measures that reinforce skills should replace doles. Our scarce resources must broaden options for people, like our cab driver.

"There has never been this number of poor people in the Philippines," Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales said. He'd just visited a Maricaban hovel, where squatter families huddled. "It was broad daylight outside," the Inquirer reported. But inside the hovel, it was "as though night had fallen."

That image of darkness resonates. Fridays I'd drive the wife and friends to the pediatric charity ward in a run-down public hospital to bring medicines, etc. Once, we came across an almost totally blind girl, singing softly a lullaby to herself. She was all of five -- too young to sing of "old unhappy far-off things / And battles long ago."

Her left eye was gone, the emaciated mother explained. Early treatment could have saved the right. But they never could scrape up enough loose change for the jeepney fare to the hospital. Now, she faced a prospect of night falling, "even if it was broad daylight outside."

The cab driver, Maricaban hovel dwellers and the girl of the lullaby "do not belong to another race of creatures, bound on other journeys," as Charles Dickens wrote. "We are fellow passengers to the grave."

They deserve far better than Estrada who offers himself as alternative head of government, Senators Franklin Drilon and Mar Roxas sprinting for president, and below the radar screen, Eduardo Cojuangco and his Brat Pack positioning for a grab, at a prime minister's post, should that appear.

"These are all honest men," the bitter Spanish proverb says. "But my cloak is not to be found."

Tan's Column

Pinoy Kasi : Kindness of history?

Michael Tan opinion@inquirer.com.ph
Inquirer News Service

WAS Ferdinand Marcos the best president we've ever had in recent history?

Seems so, based on Pulse Asia's July 2005 "Ulat ng Bayan" [Report of the Nation] national survey which asked people to rate recent presidents. Marcos romped away with a median rating of 7, compared to 6 for Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took a 4.

I wish I had more information on the research instruments themselves, such as the questions used, and how people actually rated the presidents on each of several criteria. Nevertheless, the findings were enough to get me alarmed.

Marcos era

Time, we are told, is like a medicinal balm that heals wounds. Put another way, history tends to be kind. And yes, it's been almost 20 years since Marcos was stormed out of Malacañang. But that still seems a terribly short time to forget the thousands of political prisoners, the tortured, the disappeared and the way the nation's coffers were plundered.

Maybe the mass media's focus has been banal -- Imelda's shoes and parties, for example -- so that now we tend to be more benign as we look back. Maybe, too, we're in collective denial about the Marcos era.

We tend to refer to that era simply as "martial law," yet our problems started when Marcos first came to office in 1965. Conrado de Quiros' "Dead Aim" is the best chronicle yet of the Marcos era, pointing out how Marcos was driven by ambition, and a cunning ability to read the public's pulse ... even without public opinion surveys.

He capitalized on our aspirations and our fears to keep himself in power, using democratic institutions and constitutional processes to his advantage. We forget that only nine years of the Marcos era (1972 to 1981) was technically under martial law. Much of his rule was "constitutional": from 1965 to 1972 as a duly elected president, and from 1981 to 1986 after he "lifted" martial law. Ever conscious of how history might judge him, he was always trying to legitimize himself with constitutional conventions, elections, the imposition and lifting of martial law.

We have to remember all his machinations, including the invoking of "due process," if we are to understand the dangers of complacency that come about today, where democratic institutions, however fragile, still prevail.

Totalitarian temptation

Marcos won Filipinos' hearts with promises of firm leadership. People were willing to give him a chance when he declared martial law and, although that experiment was disastrous, we tend to blame the failure on Imelda, or his cronies.

These days, we are again being seduced by offers of strong leadership. Ms Arroyo tried with her "strong republic" rhetoric but the rhetoric lingers only on "Matatag na Republika" [Strong Republic] emblazoned on our license plates (a parody, when you think of how our motor vehicles so represent the disdain Filipinos have for the laws and law enforcers of that "strong republic").

The Pulse Asia surveys show Ping Lacson leading in the National Capital Region among those who Filipinos think should replace Ms Arroyo. Nationwide, he was third, after Noli de Castro and Joseph Estrada. We know Lacson's appeal: If he ever became president, the Department of Public Works and Highways would spend most of its time building more jails, than schools, hospitals or highways.

But therein lies the paradox of totalitarianism, one that Marcos was well aware of: precisely because people yearn so much for democracy, we often end up believing democracy is best served through authoritarianism. As democratic institutions falter, as noise levels of discontent and dissent rise, we complain about "democrazy" and yearn for the fictitious peace and order that comes with kings (or in our case, datus and sultans) and dictators.

Bodies politic

As the country's body politic is slowly being torn apart, it is not surprising that Ms Arroyo's advisers have seen another political opportunity, this time in a literal body, to "heal" the nation. Perhaps reading the Pulse Asia findings and the high ratings for Marcos, Ms Arroyo is now courting the Marcos family (currently identified with the anti-Arroyo forces) by offering to have Ferdinand Marcos' remains transferred to the Libingan ng Mga Bayani [Cemetery of Heroes]. It's a battle the Marcos family has been fighting for years, with Joseph Estrada almost acceding, except that there was a massive public outcry protesting the proposal.

This time around, there's not just silence from protesters but more voices saying let bygones be bygones. Yet, I would argue this is an even worse time to have him buried there. If we feel uneasy about the Marcoses and Marcos cronies surrounding Susan Roces and the opposition, we should be even more concerned about the unholiest of unholiest alliances that could be built up via Ms Arroyo and the Marcoses as they feed into each other's delusions of grandeur.

In recent weeks, we've seen how totally clueless Ms Arroyo is when it comes to public relations. Her speeches, her press conferences have to be scripted and pre-taped and despite all precautions, she still falls flat. Her advisers know this all too well and how a grand Marcos burial would serve her well. But if that ever comes about, the Libingan ceremonies would be doubly blasphemous, not just a canonization of Marcos as national hero but also his ghost resurrected to anoint Ms Arroyo as his spiritual successor.

In all these events, I wonder if we are seeing the kindness of history, or the kindness of historians. Are our historians perhaps remiss in chronicling the past? Should it be surprising that we then suffer national amnesia, and are therefore unable to see through the replays of history, the deceptions of politicians, the quagmire of authoritarianism?

Historical memories aren't built by historians alone. I've mentioned "Dead Aim" as an important source book for building our historical memory. I'd recommend, too, a conference report published by the Ateneo de Manila University, "Memory, Truth-telling and the Pursuit of Justice," which brought together scholars from different disciplines to look back at the dictatorship.

But books are books, and in a country that reads so little, the burden of memory-keeping and truth-telling falls the on mass media, and on families and schools. Let us not forget most of our students today were born after the Marcos era.

De Quiros' book is subtitled "How Marcos Ambushed Philippine Democracy." With little or no historical memory, my nightmare is that perhaps we are walking right into another ambush. Mind you, I have a strong suspicion that Ms Arroyo isn't doing the ambushing, or even directing it. I'm afraid that, overwhelmed by desperate pride, she is walking right into it as well, taking the nation with her. That will be another story for historians to tell, and to judge.

Jimenez-David's Column

At Large : Moral disgust

Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service

"MORAL disgust" is how many describe their sentiments these days, a conviction that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo cheated her way to the presidency as indicated in the "Hello, Garci" tapes, and dismay, disappointment and even anger that she seems to be getting away with it.

Even as pressure builds to shame President Arroyo into voluntarily resigning, she has shown every sign of staying on, from turning the nation's attention away from the "tale of the tapes" to Charter change, from proclaiming her willingness to have her day in court through an impeachment even as her allies in Congress take every step to derail the impeachment motion.

Perhaps the President's confidence has to do with the lack of focus of all the groups and movements calling for her ouster. A motley collection of the "usual suspects" -- Joseph Estrada supporters, failed candidates, leftist groups, and liberal clergy -- joined by deserters from among her support group, including former Cabinet members and NGO sympathizers, the anti-Arroyo movement has found it difficult not just to mount united protests but even to propose a credible post-Arroyo scenario. As a friend put it: "We have no alternatives, no Plan B, no taste for the rabble-rousing opposition, no inclination to heroics, and no antidote to exhaustion."

What seems clear at this point is that doing more of the same, more of the tried and true forms of protest dating back to pre-martial law days, even, will no longer work. Some new, creative form of distilling the moral disgust in the air and giving expression to it has to be devised. As another friend put it: this new expression of public indignation "must take a different form from marching in the street or signing a petition or issuing a statement because people recoil from doing anything political when they feel particularly morally affronted."

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WHATEVER "new" trigger or precipitating event emerges, it doesn't look like it will be coming from the ongoing hearings on the illegal lottery "jueteng" or the "Gloriagate" tapes. This despite the surfacing of a new witness who puts the President personally present during the distribution to Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials of bribes solicited from jueteng lords. Talk about joining the issues!

I don't usually agree with the President's political adviser Gabby Claudio, but I think what he says about Michaelangelo Zuce, a relatively minor Malacañang functionary, bears considering. How could Zuce, who worked in the office of Joey Rufino, a liaison officer for political affairs, have enjoyed such trust that he would be allowed to join the very few people at the President's personal residence in La Vista? Especially since President Arroyo not only met with Comelec officials, which would be fishy in itself, but also stood by while they received millions of pesos in bribes?

It seems particularly brazen of the President, and careless, too, which she certainly is not. Why would she need to be present at such an occasion, after all? And why hold the payoff in her family home, which would tie her to the bribery even if she weren't present?

Though the Senate is giving Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz one last shot at presenting witnesses on the jueteng racket, my feeling is that the public has already turned off on the hearings by now. From what I gather, the public seems to believe there's nothing really new or spectacularly scandalous about the revelations so far, with administration supporters successfully boring holes through the more sensational allegations.

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TALK about amending the Constitution for now centers on the proposed shifts in form of government: from presidential bicameral to parliamentary unicameral; and the adoption of a federal system, that is, dissipating the power of the executive at the national center by granting more decision-making power and control over local resources to state or regional governments.

But there's nothing to prevent the opening of other provisions or sections of the Charter to changes or amendments, especially if Congress simply meets as a constituent assembly. This is because the public would no longer have a chance to decide what areas they want to be amended by voting for delegates to sit in a constitutional convention, granted that all candidates would present a menu of Charter changes they would undertake.

It's possible that some new features introduced in the 1987 Constitution, such as the "people power" provisions on recall and oversight, or the more stringent requirements for the declaration of martial law, could be overturned. And certainly, we can expect debate on such controversial items as the so-called "right to life" provision granting state protection to the "unborn" or even the provision granting women and men "equality before the law."

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ON THE LATTER, we need to keep a close watch on the drafting of the Iraqi constitution, which is expected to wrap up by Aug. 15. Iraqi women's groups are organizing themselves to counter attempts by religious conservatives to impose Islamic laws on the country's once-secular legal system. Some 200 women have already marched on Baghdad's streets precisely to prevent this from happening.

Iraqi women are particularly alarmed by proposals to adopt Sharia law as the civil code applied to Muslim families. Under Sharia law, for instance, a woman who files charges of rape must be able to produce a male witness in her favor, or else face the possibility of being convicted of adultery herself.

Though religious parties have tried to placate the women's fears, the women are not reassured any by the statement of one prominent cleric that while Islam respects the right of women, women must content themselves with "limited equality" under Islamic rules.