`The countryside that feeds it’

The line from Pres. Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address that played over and over in my mind was: ``Perhaps it’s time to take the power from the center to the countryside that feeds it.’’ GMA received a roaring applause from her promdi (proudly promdi, obviously) supporters. That line lingered like a long-lost refrain that was suddenly, if not conveniently, found.

In saying that, the President was obviously playing to the gallery of supporters from local government units who, at the tipping point of her government’s crisis early this month, rallied around her when many in her own official family abandoned ship. Was GMA’s ode to loyalty perhaps the fruit of her intimate town hall-type campaign sortie during the 2004 elections, a strategy she used to counter FPJ’s crowd-drawing power?

With that statement, GMA was also making a dig at so-called ``imperialist Manila’’, the center of the protest rallies calling for her resignation. Oh, but how her provincial cheering squad in the Batasan rafters reveled in her words. Outside, a mammoth protest rally calling for her ouster was setting her effigy on fire.

The context in which the statement was said may have been full of contradictions and sounded unconvincing to her critics, but taken at face value, the statement sounded like music to the ears of the oft-forgotten local officials who suddenly found themselves important. Perhaps many had all the reasons to feel KSP (kulang sa pansin) for so long, until last Monday’s SONA.

Taken at face value and without its political color, the statement ``Perhaps it’s time to take the power from the center to the countryside that feeds it’’ is indeed a reality to wish for. This is a loaded statement that should not be glibly uttered to merely warm the cockles of the hearts of those far from the center. It should hold weight like a promise made after one is nearly struck down from one’s horse.



While the statement has a political ring to it, it might as well be taken literally.
``...the countryside that feeds it.’’ For so long, the countryside, the provider of food and raw materials for our national sustenance, has felt neglected by the national government. It has always been lip service on the part of many politicians.

During election time, it is usually the dense urban population that politicians woo because the votes are there in concentration. The campaigner does not have to cover a big geographical area. Last year, while gathering data for a series on families living near the railroad tracks, I photographed shanties pasted over with campaign posters with promises that went down with the rain (the promises, that is) after only one rainy season.

The city’s squatters (now euphemistically known as informal dwellers) do get a lot of attention or, if they’re lucky, the fruits of their votes. Not far from where I live in Quezon City is a depressed area blessed with cemented roads. The tax payers in the nearby area have to live with potholes and clogged canals.

I am not saying the urban poor should not get services. They should. But while they are able to demand from the national government new homes and services in relocation areas, many poor public school teachers in the provinces have no decent homes and safe water to drink, many have to walk through muddy fields to get to their classrooms. They are all but forgotten. No wonder, many from the provinces go to the cities to join the ``informal’’ dwellers.

If we have to get literal with the word ``feeds’’ in the SONA statement, then it is the food producers and providers in the countryside that should take center stage. I wish GMA had named them as such in the context of ``the countryside feeding the (center)’’. Or might she just have been referring to her loyal political supporters from ``the countryside’’? For they had indeed fed support to the center which was/is on the brink of collapse.

Speaking of farmers and the agricultural sector, they should find alarming the new global push for extremely restrictive seed laws or ``agricultural apartheid.’’ These seed laws, says GRAIN’s Seedling Magazine, are supposed to have little to do with protection of farmers and a lot to do with creating conditions for the private seed industry to gain and control markets worldwide. Seed laws are about repression of farmers.

GRAIN says: ``Back in the 1960s, seed laws referred to rules governing the commercialization of seeds: what materials could be sold on the market under what conditions. From the 1960s through the 1980s, agencies like FAO and the World Bank played a very strong role in getting developing countries to adopt seed laws. The main idea, officially speaking, was to ensure that only `good quality’ planting materials reach farmers in order to raise productivity and therefore feed growing populations.

``However, the marketing rules that the FAO and the World Bank effectively pushed came from Europe and North America, the very place where the seed industry is in place.’’

Alas, seeds are now produced by seed industry professionals and no longer by farmers themselves. Europe is supposed to be hardest hit by seed laws all these years and activists are working hard to reverse the system. Farmer-controlled seed systems have to be encouraged, they have to thrive if developing countries are to have ``autonomous, culturally meaningful and socially-supported forms of agriculture’’ in different countries.’’

What is the government doing to protect our farmers who feed and nourish us?
If you want to know more about the alarming seed laws, visit www.grain.org/seedling.

The bigger truth

I was away the first two weeks of July for a yearly break which is compulsory for Inquirer employees but I did catch up on the goings-on as soon as I got back. The wonder of it is that Pres. Arroyo is still in Malacanang. I thought I’d find a new scenario on the streets, no longer the ``GMA resign’’ kind, but political and ideological groups at cross purposes tearing one another down and racing for the nearest entrance to Malacanang. I was disappointed.

To the humorless who might think I want anarchy, I say that with tongue in cheek.

I was not exactly out of touch out there in the Mediterranean because the Filipinos (40 percent of the 800-strong international crew) on the cruise ship I was on had a daily news bulletin, Philippines Today, culled from the news wires. The July 9 banner story headline read, ``Arroyo names new ministers, refuses to step down.’’

Although on holiday mode as a paying guest, I did some journalistic work and interviewed (quite clandestinely at first) a good number of Filipinos, among them, engineers, waiters, singers, a wine master, a photographer, a spa attendant, a classic violinist, a pianist, band players, name it. They were concerned about what was happening back home. What is the truth? they asked.

There was really no need for me to be under cover after all and I got to interview the Greek ship captain and the energetic American cruise master who had nothing but high praises for the Filipinos in the crew. In the belly of the ship to which I was allowed to descend, in posh bars and restaurants, on pool sides, on stage and on deck of this floating getaway, the working OFWs were at their best. More on them in a separate feature story.



I am writing this while criticism from some quarters are being hurled at the so-called truth commission which Pres. Arroyo, upon the urging of the Catholic bishops, wants set up to dig into the issues against her.

Truth/fact-finding commission, impeachment process, outright resignation? I am for all three.

If Pres. Arroyo decides to resign now or tomorrow, so be it. That means we will not be able to get at the bigger truth. Only part of it. Only that she was the voice on the ``Hello, Garci’’ tape, as she had admitted. That she was talking to Comelec commissioner Garcillano, that she, as she had admitted, had committed an indiscretion, blah, blah, blah.

That she, without an iota of doubt, had truly cheated or influenced the results of last year’s elections in order to win or increase her edge over the late FPJ, that she had actually lost to FPJ by either a small or large margin—these we will never know if a fact-finding body does not arrive at the bigger truth or if an impeachment process never takes place.

Who’s afraid of a truth commission? Who’s afraid of an impeachment process? A lie not easy to spin or spawn. The truth is not easy to find.

The wiretapped conversation, even if technologically proven to be authentic, and with all its semantic and linguistic undertones and overtones, unspoken between-the-lines suggestions, as well as clear intelligible statements which could be interpreted at face value, do not have the entire truth, if you ask me, only part of it.

As a citizen, I want more. If not the entire truth, at least the bigger truth.

I want more than just the President stepping down if she is found guilty of cheating and the other offenses she is being accused of. I want more. I am not inclined to give her a quick exit, be it graceful, disgraceful or inglorious. That would be too convenient for both her and those who accuse her. As a citizen I want a deliberate, even if slow and arduous process at arriving at the bigger truth.

I want more. If not the entire truth, at least the bigger truth.

I don’t want fast-food to-go. I don’t want a quick fix, not because I am afraid of Vice President Noli de Castro. If the President resigns or is bodily dragged out of Malacanang, by all means, de Castro should take over. He should not be bullied into stepping down if he has not been proven to be involved in something disgraceful or criminal while he was vice president.

I want more. I want to know the what, where, when, why, how.

For me, here is the small place to start. Where did the tape come from? Who authorized the illegal wiretapping of the conversation between the President and Garcillano?

Why was it done? Were there intelligence reports that cheating might be committed that the wiretappers decided to break the law in order to uphold the law (against electoral fraud)?

I want to know more about the etymiology and epidemiology—to use tongue-twisting metaphors—of these evidences. In other words, the fuller tale of the tape so suddenly sprung by persons so suddenly out of sight.

Who were the persons involved in this activity? Sure, they’ll be damned, but so surely too would the President be damned. Where, when, how was the wiretapping done? Who else were wiretapped? (Any squealers?)

The old question I will keep on asking: Why was the tape released only now? FPJ died six months after the elections, or six months ago. Why was the tape—illegally acquired though it was--not presented when FPJ was alive, when it could have meant electoral victory for him?

This is not to deflect the focus on the culpability of the President. If she is found guilty, she should be bodily brought to the exit door.

Those who dismiss the questions as old hat or as small are not after the bigger truth. These are not just about whether Pres. Arroyo cheated or not. These could lead to bigger questions and answers. Questions like, how have we come to this?

The truth is bigger than the sum of its small parts.

`To be poor and obscure’

To be poor and obscure. This is the antithesis of being wealthy and famous. Nothing wrong with being wealthy and famous per se because so much good could also be achieved by being so. But something goes wrong when going there and remaining there become an all-consuming desire that defines a person’ s ``VMG’’ (vision-mission goals, FYI).

But what value, you ask, does being poor and obscure has?

Read Karl Gaspar’s ``To be Poor and Obscure: The Spiritual Sojourn of a Mindanawon.’’ Karl is not exactly poor if the national poverty line is to be used. And he is not unknown to development workers, social scientists and church workers immersed among the truly poor and obscure.

May I say early on that the book is not about darkness and despair. It is, in fact, a smiling book. The cover already tells you that. I judge a book also by its cover, you know.

When you read ``To be Poor and Obscure’’ you enter the world not just of Karl but of the people for whom he has committed his life. Before Karl decided to become a Redemptorist Brother in 1987 (when he was 40), he was already a noted a social scientist and veteran church development worker. Karl was detained for two years during the martial law years, an experience that added color to his worldview.

Karl has several books to his name but ``To be Poor and Obscure’’ would probably the most confessional but in a very relaxed, soothing and loving way. It is a long way from his 1985 ``How Long?: Prison Reflections.’’



But the book is not of the chicken-soup variety. Karl offers the analytic views of a social scientist (he has sociology, economics and Philippine studies degrees) and more importantly, the stirrings of his heart. Here is one love affair.

As Fr. Jose Mario C. Francisco SJ wrote in the foreword: ``As one walks through these confessional essays, one encounters Karl and his world where the personal, political, and spiritual are interwoven into an intricate Lumad design. Here he reveals himself as a true anthropologist, a radical lover of humankind in the particular persons and communities he lives and works with in his homeland Mindanao.’’

Yes, a lumad flavor, if you will. The indigenous communities (lumad) provide contrast and balance to the weight of Western-style Christianity and Jesuit education that people like Karl carry around. A first-generation Mindanawon (Karl’s parents settled in Mindanano in the 1940s), he was privy to the world of both the lowland settlers and the lumad.

But why keep on describing Karl and his book when they could very well speak directly to us?

From the essay ``To Die a Thousand Deaths’’:

``We, the settlers in Mindanao are a lot poorer than the Lumad and Moro…The stories about their ancestors remain intact in their memories…No wonder we are a fragmented people, a lost tribe floating aimlessly, unable to get our act together. No wonder we have turned against…each other. Because we have not been able to ground ourselves in the affectionate memory of having the same ancestors, we are lost.

``My appreciation of ancestors actually came from two fronts: first was my anthropological fascination with epics and genealogies, and second, my interest in Scriptures which are filled with story after story of Jesus’ ancestors. In fact, I also relate to Jesus as if He were my ancestor…

``To compensate in some small way, I have worked to see to it that the tradition lives on. Working among Lumad, for example, I tell them how lucky they are to be bonded to their ancestors and exhort them to hold on to this aspect of their lives.

``In Kulaman, I keep on telling government officials that names of villages should not be changed because many of these names—Midtungok, Tudog, Baltakan, Nati, Midfanga, Malegdeg, Blangas, Mantil—were of actual people who inhabited this land long before settlers came over.’’

From ``To Hold God’s Face in One’s Hands’’: ``I remember how touched I was by their use of metaphors to articulate deep meanings. I was quite moved by the innocent simplicity in how they described God’s efficacious love for them. There were moments when I realized I was poorer in terms of having such depth of faith in God’s providence.

``However, I was an angry young man then and in a bit of a hurry to see results in terms of our organizing work. I had little time to be still. I couldn’t bring integration to all the phenomena erupting everywhere; I was unable to view reality holistically. I couldn’t piece together the fragments of lived experiences…

``Back in the grassroots as a Redemptorist Brother, I found myself more able to absorb the meanings of signs and symbols that I was confronted with. The sustained immersion at the grassroots level provided adequate time to listen to people’s dreams and hopes. Encountering rural families and communities in prayer and liturgical celebrations—in their homes, under the canopy of trees, by the side of a river, in thatched-roof chapels—provided the venue for faith-life sharing where God’s presence became more palpable.’’

Karl’s lead essay explains what ``To be Poor and Obscure’’ is all about. ``Located in its hidden landscape, you are nobody. You won’t be projected in media; no one out there is bombarded with images of your noble commitments. You have disappeared into this setting that allows you to blend into a nondescript space that exists only in the people’s and your own consciousness…

``What am I doing here? Crossing a flooded river or getting lost in the forest also has led me to tell myself: I don’t have to be here…’’

The book tells you why Karl, and other people like him, have chosen to be there.

(The book is available at the Center for Spirituality-Manila, 7279772, 7213391.)

1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 (2)

In October we will know if the nominated ``1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Price 2005’’ will collectively be named as this year’s winner of the Peace Prize.

Last June 29, the names of the nominated 1,000 women (999 actually) from 153 countries were announced simultaneously in different parts of the world. Twenty seven are from the Philippines.

Behind this unprecedented global search for 1,000 women was the Association 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 which was began in 2003 on the conviction that the commitment of women working for peace should be acknowledged and publicized. Last week I wrote about the criteria used.

Who are they, where are they, what are they doing? (You can read the short biographies in www.1000peacewomen.org.) Here are the Philippines’ 27 women and what they have to say on their work for peace.

Ma. Lorenza ``Binky’’ Dalupan-Palm: ``The peace process involves more than negotiations (with armed groups). You can’t achieve social transformation just sitting across a negotiating table.’’

Cecile Guidote-Alvarez: ``I envision a world free from poverty, pollution, ignorance, injustice. This must be done through culture so that it is peaceful. We have to develop minds and hearts that care and share.’’

Miriam ``Dedet’’ L. Suacito: ``Blessed are my companions who offered their lives while walking the path to peace.’’



Corazon ``Dinky’’ Juliano-Soliman: ``Visualizing peace means sounds of laughter, conversation, life at its best, singing, dancing, productivity and abundance.’’

Adoracio ``Dory’’ C. Avisado: ``I see the need for the Supreme Court to act like a conductor of an orchestra. Once they raise the baton, everyone will follow its way.’’

Delia Ediltrudes ``Duds’’ Santiago-Locsin: ``People should learn to let public officials know that what they are doing is wrong. They should not keep quiet about things that need to be changed.’’

Eliza del Puerto: ``I am childless but I have 40,000 children. The children in Basilan suffer the most from this senseless war and they need all the love and help we can give them.’’

Hadja Bainon Guiabar Karon: ``I don’t need a monument. I just want people to be empowered, as I am, especially the women and the youth, and assert their rights.’’

Haydee Yorac: ``You should believe in what you are doing and convince all the other people who work with you that what you are doing is important. And then you treat them like human beings, not like automatons.’’

Irene Morada Santiago: ``A just peace is not achievable nor is it sustainable without the energies, dreams, imagination and inspiration of women.’’

June Caridad Pagaduan-Lopez: ``My hope for women is more freedom, more courage to get out of the box, more openness to new ways of looking at themselves.’’

Loreta Navarro-Castro: ``We may not see the results in our lifetime but we must go on believing that someday, that critical mass will be reached and more meaningful change will happen.’’

Sister Mariani Dimaranan SFIC: ``It is fitting to remember and take to heart that no prison is large enough, or evil strong enough, to stop a people’s forward march to freedom.’’

Marilou Diaz-Abaya: ``Filmmakers can moved towards an advocacy for the redemption of human dignity. It is their privilege to reverse the current culture of despair to a culture of hope.’’

Mary Lou Alcid: ``In a globalized economy, will migrants just be a disposable factor to employers? I would like to be optimistic, working for migrant rights.’’

Miriam Coronel-Ferrer: ``Conflicts are best resolved not through annihilation of one party but the transformation of all actors toward a common vision and shared responsibilities and accountability.’’

Myla Jabiles-Leguro: ``Peace education is a must among schools and other institutions. It is as serious as math and science. If we do not give it equal importance, then we are not giving peace importance too.’’

Piang T. Albar: ``I want to educate our people for education is the best means to transform them for the better. It enhances human understanding and relationships, and strengthens faith and closeness to God.’’

Pura Sumangil: ``If a person is poor, he is not free because he is not given a choice, except for what he has.’’

Ana Theresia ``Risa’’ Hontiveros-Baraquel: ``We have to find another way of engaging in conflict and trying to resolve our conflicts without violating each other.’’

Seiko Bodios Ohashi: ``I will live the rest of my life in Negros because the women, children and men in this island really make my life rich and valuable.’’

Sister Mary Soledad Perpinan RGS: ``My body is complaining of the harness of my arthritic knee. Maybe it is my body that absorbed all the pain and brokenness. But my spirit mercifully has not. One does what one believes is right.’’

Teresa Banaynal Fernandez: ``The more difficulties you encounter, the more you are honed and deepened in understanding, in reflecting on the events.’’

Teresita ``Tessy’’ Ang-See: ``Our blood may be Chinese, but our roots grow deep in Philippine soil, our bonds are with the Filipino people.’’

Teresita ``Ging’’ Quintos-Deles: ``Hope is the lifeblood of peace advocacy. We have to make an act of faith every day to overcome all threats to peace so we can become effective peace advocates and peacemakers. We have to sty the course.’’

Zenaide Brigida ``Manang Briggs’’ Hamada-Pawid: ``I speak the memories of the hearts of my people. These pictures of the heart have been orally transmitted from our ancestors. We keep adding what we want to keep, and soon they will be part of lore.’’

Zenaida ``Zeny’’ Tan Lim: ``While, indeed, we have, in our own little way, helped our people chart a beautiful, promising future for ourselves, so much remains to be done.’’