‘u.g.’

Just out of the presses is “u.g.: An Underground Tale” by Benjamin Pimentel which is about “the journey of Edgar Jopson and the First Quarter Storm Generation.”

More than 15 years ago, Pimentel came out with a book on Jopson, the young leftist leader in the underground movement who was shot and killed while being chased by the military. Two editions have since been printed but Pimentel, feeling that more needed to be told, recently came out with a more complete story. And so “u.g.”, the book, emerged from the underground, so to speak.

For total political innocents, UG means underground, or that political movement (armed and unarmed) that operated clandestinely at that time and worked toward revolutionary change in society and were therefore considered threats to the status quo. They were called subversives by the establishment. That is my loose definition of it. It still applies today.

“UG” is now part of the leftist jargon, like “mob” (for mobilization), “PO”, “CS”, “DPA”, “H”, “kasams”, “oryentasion”, to name a few. (Hey, someone should do a compilation of the undergroundspeak of the martial law era.)

Anyway, “u.g.” still tells the same story of a young man from a rich family, educated at the Ateneo, and gave up his life of privilege in order to pursue his dream of helping the poor and the powerless by struggling to change the oppressive structures in society. That was what the old edition “Edjop: The Unusual Journey of Edgar Jopson” was about. What “Edjop” did not have “u.g.” now has. “u.g.” includes the nuances of Edjop’s struggle.



Pimentel sent me an email from San Franciso saying: “For example, I found out that Edjop was aware of and was seriously disturbed by the allegations that the movement was responsible for the Plaza Miranda bombing. Also the names of some of the characters are now included so it is now easier to follow the story. In the first book, I could not even use the real UG names at the request of the interview subjects.”

Pimentel’s “u.g.” has an afterword by Gloria (Joy) A. Jopson-Kintanar, the widow of Jopson, and herself once part of the underground. Joy later married another communist underground bigwig Rolando Kintanar. They were both captured and briefly jailed in the 1990s. Kintanar was later assassinated by his own communist comrades.

“u.g.” also has a main foreword by former Sen. Jovito R. Salonga, himself a victim of the Plaza Miranda bombing, plus another foreword (by Edicio de la Torre) and another afterword by Ramsey Clark, both from “u.g.’s” other former incarnation (“Rebolusyon: A Generation of Struggle”).

I tell you, this book keeps evolving and reincarnating. Well, more and more information are finding their way above ground, shedding light on so many things that were once in the dark or rarely spoken about.

The book is instructive for both political virgins and die-hard ideologues as it traces Edjop’s transformation from being a student activist to a communist cadre and revolutionary. But this is not just one person’s story. As Jose “Pete” Lacaba notes, “This is not just the biography of one person; it is the history of a generation.”

Indeed, as one follows the personal life of Jopson, one also reads about political developments, debates, skirmishes, decisions and movements around him and in the underground that make their impact above ground. As these are played out, the characters take on real faces and personalities, and as Pimentel said, in this latest edition, he was able to give real names.

Pimentel deftly tells the story and keeps it moving with incidents, dialogs and debates between persons. He also does not fail to tell humorous and touching anecdotes that say a lot about the characters, Jopson especially.

Here are excerpts that I picked randomly:
…
His friends called Edjop “Charlie Brown,” after the wide-eyed comic strip kid who was always thinking of ways to improve the world……

“Do you know of Christians who joined the Communist Party?” he asked. “How did they resolve their belief in God?”

De la Torre said he knew quite a few. “But I said for the most part their belief in God was not the principal question. When they were invited to the Party, the CPP did not ask them first if they belief in God or not. For a lot of them, those who believed continued believing, and those who didn’t believe did not find any reason to assert that.”

“Edjop did not pick up the question too much,” De la Torre recalled. “But occasionally I would catch him at other meetings, look at me with a bit of a question. I also gave him some materials to read. The whole issue of religious belief in a revolutionary movement, particularly in a Communist movement which includes atheists, is a very difficult question…But it is ultimately a very personal question. I don’t know how Edjop resolved it, or whether he felt any need to resolve it.”

…

Aling Osang’s newest “relative” was called Gusting. San Roque’s residents could see that he was definitely not of the New People’s Army—not a gerilya…He was also too clumsy to be a gerilya. He often stumbled while walking on the levees. Gusting was not much of a farmer either. He planted the seedlings too close to each other.”

Published by Anvil, “u.g.” is now in bookstores. Author Benjamin Pimentel is a graduate of the Ateneo, UP and the University of California in Berkeley. He works at the San Francisco Chronicle and is co-anchor of Balitang America on the Filipino channel.

DNA on soiled panties and condoms

In the news these past days were the items related to the alleged rape case that involved Filipino complainant-victim “Nicole” and the four accused US Marines. Forensic analyst Dr. Francisco Supe Jr. of the PNP Crime Laboratory told the court that DNA was indeed present in the two pieces of evidence that he had examined.

The panty yielded male and female DNA samples, with the female DNA sample matching Nicole’s. Strangely, the condom did not yield a male DNA profile. The male DNA found on the panty has yet to be matched with those of the accused, particularly DNA from Lance Corporal Daniel Smith who had used it in what the defense called “consensual sex.”

In this case, a lot will depend on the material evidence. I hope this will yield lessons on how evidence should be preserved and handled with utmost care by the victims and investigators. The accused and their conspirators have all the reasons to cover their tracks.

Well, in their hurry to get back to their ship the accused in this rape case weren’t able to get rid of the condom and Nicole’s panty as well.

Still, there might have been some mishandling of the vital pieces of evidence when these were turned over and this might have allowed environmental factors to damage other vital traces.

A “rape kit” would have come in handy for Nicole and the persons trying to help her immediately after the traumatic incident.



If you’re a fan of the blockbuster TV show ``CSI’’ (crime scene investigation) you know that the phrase ``shred of evidence’’ could mean a whole cache, thanks to modern science and technology. But David Caruso and his team can’t do much with their high tech lab machines and reagents if they have no crime scene samples to work on.

A rape kit could deliver those shreds of evidence, microscopic they may be. The kit could give an idea of the crime scene and the profiles of the guilty. A rape kit is light, handy, cheap and easy to use. It’s all in one big envelope.

Rape kits should be available to as many individuals and agencies in the helping profession as possible. Rape kits could spell the difference between justice and no justice and could lead to the speedy crime resolution for the victims, the guilty and the innocent as well.

The DNA Analysis Laboratory of Natural Sciences Institute of the University of the Philippines is working to make these kits available. Multi-awarded molecular microbiologist Dr. Ma. Corazon A. De Ungria and her UP team had worked on the project ``Incorporating DNA Evidence in the Resolution of Sexual Assault Cases in the Philippines’’ and won a funding grant for this two years ago.

UP’s DNA lab can now implement what it had proposed: validate a prototype investigation kit, establish an integrated system for rape investigations and storage of evidence, and train the lawyers/judiciary on the proper interpretation of forensic DNA evidence in the courtroom.

Yes, science moves faster than jurisprudence and there’s a lot that judges and criminal lawyers could learn from the nerdy lab techies.

With the advent of forensic DNA technology as a powerful investigative tool in the prompt resolution of criminal cases, there is a need to develop an efficient and secure system for the collection, analysis and storage of biological evidence. Rape kits form part of this technology.

A rape kit consists of several collection tubes with caps in different colors, cotton swabs for collecting samples from different parts of the victim’s body (vagina, external genitalia, anus, mouth and throat), small envelopes for the collection tubes, instructions on how to gather samples, preserve, pack, seal, preserve (at what temperature, etc.) and transport.

Also included are a sexual assault case history sheet to be filled up and signed by the interviewer and medical examiner, and a check list of the samples collected to be signed by the health practitioner who collected the samples. Pieces of clothing (like underwear) that might contain samples should be included too.

If you don’t have a rape kit, clip this column and note the items that you must have and make one.

The ``chain of custody’’ is very important. The samples collected should land in the right hands and agencies. UP’s DNA lab has a working partnership with the Child Protection Unit of the UP-Philippine General Hospital which assists women and children victims of sexual abuse. The UP-PGH-CPU and selected CPU units have been testing the prototype kits.

Samples should be gathered immediately and preferably before the victim washes her or his genital or anal area so that the semen of the rapist/s could be collected.

Some of the institutions in the country with DNA testing labs are the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine National Police, St. Luke’s Medical Center, and UP.
UP-NSRI does forensic research and accepts civil, criminal and disaster cases as part of its extension work. It personnel readily testify in court.

The American Academy of Forensic Science defines forensic science as ``the application of scientific principles and technological practices to the purposes of justice in the study and resolution of criminal cases and regulatory issues.’’

A person’s DNA profile serves as a DNA print that may be used to identify a person and trace his or her activities. New technologies are capable of analyzing even minute amounts of crime scene evidence, hence the immense impact of DNA technology in forensic investigations.

How much for a drink of urine?

How much would it be for Wildredo Quijano who was made to drink urine (“I don't know whose urine it was,” he said) and who spent his 17th birthday and nine birthdays after that in prison?

How much should Paula Romero, a former seamstress, receive for her missing son Henry, a newspaperman at the time of his disappearance?

How much for the 34-year-old woman in Mindanao who woke up one night to find her house being set on fire by some 15 armed men who then stabbed her husband who died in front of her? How much for her own 10 stab wounds? This woman bled till morning and was still clasping her six-month-old baby when help came. Her five-year-old child ran for his life and called for help. When the village people came it was already morning but the woman was still alive. I interviewed her many years ago.

How do you put a price tag on the pain of Purificacion Viernes, a health worker from Mindanao whose husband and two children were killed? In 1984, armed men came in the dead of night and strafed the home of the Vierneses who were suspected of being rebel sympathizers. The next thing Purificacion saw were brain tissues and blood splattered all over. Her two children died instantly and she heard her husband breathe his last.



Purificacion played dead when the armed men came up to inspect the place. The men took a look at her and decided to pump one more bullet into her to make sure she was dead. As if that was not enough, a soldier clicked his cigarette lighter and ran its flame on the soles of Purificacion's feet. To see if she would move. She did not and they left her.

Purificacion survived to tell her story. One of her legs was suspended in mid-air when I interviewed her in a hospital. Another one was heavily bandaged. The soles of her feet were swollen.

So how much is Purificacion's share of the Marcos billions? How do you put a price tag on her wounds, her dead husband and sons, the burns on her feet?

I had to scour my “Forever Files” to search for stories like these. I wrote the above in this space 12 years ago in 1994. That was after a US court ruled that $1.2 billion in damages was to be awarded to the almost 10,000 victims of martial rule who filed a class suit against the Marcos estate.

I also wrote then that the Ramos government stood in the way. Its stand then was that the Marcoses' immense wealth should go back to the government because it was stolen from the government. And so it should not be used to indemnify victims of Marcos rule.

Nine years ago in 1997 I again wrote about the victims’ hopes nearing realization when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed with finality a 1995 district court ruling in Honolulu. The claimants' lead counsel Robert Swift said the Marcoses had no further right of appeal under U.S. law. In 1995 the U.S. Supreme Court already upheld a lower court's ruling on $1.2 billion in exemplary damages. Both class action and direct action plaintiffs had clearly won. There was also the $772 in compensatory damages. These figures and suits could be confusing but just think of a total of $2 billion.

The things you could do with $2 billion, I wrote then. Of course, you do not divide that equally into 10,000. Victims are classified into three general types. But it goes without saying that you cannot quantify suffering and loss. It was not the prospect of money that pushed the 10,000 claimants to file a class suit for compensation. It was justice for 10,001 crimes.

But will the government let go? Silvestre Bello III, solicitor general at that time said the government was “inclined to lay off claim to the Marcos Swiss fund.” Good, I wrote, the government should then step aside and allow the 10,000 victims to get the $2 billion. A big portion of the amount was to come from the frozen assets in Switzerland. Imagine all that money pouring in. That would be much more than what was being sent by Filipino overseas contract workers slaving away in foreign lands.

But it seemed the victims were never going to see the color of that money because the government kept standing in the way. If the government succeeds in snatching that money from the victims, I said then, a curse will be upon this land. Why? The $2 billion might only line a few big pockets. Maybe it will find its way to the national budget and then to the pork barrel, to government projects and offices and the sticky hands of the corrupt. While if the amount were spread around to victims it would go a along way—for education, housing, health, seed capital, etc.

Well, so much has already been recovered and where did these go? Not a cent for the victims. Wala, kahit isang singkong duling.

It is now 2006. Last month, the US District Court of Hawaii sent a notice to 9,539 claimants. The letter gave a background saying: “Following trials in 1992, 1994 and 1995, the Court entered Final Judgment on Feb. 3, 1995 in favor of the Class in the amount of US$1,964,000,000. Your claim is one of the 9,539 (emphasis theirs). The Judgment was affirmed by the US Appeals Court, and is now final.” It also tackled collection proceedings, distribution of the fund, eligibility of class members, attorney’s fees and expenses.

Last week the District Court of Hawaii authorized compensation of $2,000 each to about 7,500 victims (why fewer now?) of human rights abuses. The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals awarded the victims $35 million in a New York brokerage account that once belonged to the Marcoses.

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) is again standing in the way. We call on the spirit of the late PCGG chair Haydee Yorac, defender of human rights, to be the mediatrix.

Bishops treated as hacks?

If it is true that someone had been distributing money envelopes, supposedly from Malacanang, to members of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) during their retreat and plenary assembly I hold the bishops partly to blame. How could this have happened?

According to an Inquirer news report yesterday by Christian V. Esguerra, a bishop (described as “soft-spoken” and “low-key”) admitted having been handed an envelope by a “casual-looking” man who had introduced himself as a messenger “from Malacanang.”

How could the bishops or their personnel allow in an outsider during their retreat and deliberations on a much-awaited statement? Why was this Mr. Moneybags allowed to walk around and distribute envelopes containing between P20,000 and P30,000? If this indeed happened or was allowed to happen, then one could only conclude that the bishops were caught unawares or “tatanga-tanga”. Sorry, but that is the translation in Filipino and its root word does not sound nice.

If they were in conclave electing a pope, word would have gotten out before white smoke could come out of the chimney.

And why didn’t anyone raise a howl right there and then? The bishops were after all in their territory. They were not guests in a place where decorum would have dictated that they did not embarrass their host with an uproar. If I were on the receiving end, I would have roared, “Who the devil sent you?!” or “Begone, Satan!” then called security and staff to help investigate who the uninvited guest was.



This was an incident that would have merited wrath not so unlike the wrath Jesus displayed in the temple when he saw it being defiled by those trying to earn a few bucks in a sacred place. There was a proper place for such activities, Jesus said, in the same way that there is a proper manner to send donations to bishops.

Whoever was the devil who sent the money envelopes during that occasion, one thing is evident—that person/those persons had no respect for the bishops. The bishops were looked upon and treated as mere hacks that could be paid, bought, bribed and made to look like spineless fools lacking in virility—which they are not. Try saying that in Filipino.

One could say, well, that goes with forays into political territory where money talks. This is not to say that those in the church hierarchy have no business speaking on secular and political issues. But how have some individual bishops been comporting themselves in relation to the unending political fracas? Hmmm, one too many trying-hard wanna-bes, if you ask me. But this is my own biased perception.

“It was revolting, I felt insulted.” the bishop who comes from a poor diocese said. “Medyo garapal.” (Quite brazen.) I wish the bishop had allowed our reporter to name him.

The envelopes were reportedly inserted into bishops’ pockets and when they returned to their rooms they were surprised to find money inside the envelopes. Some said they were going to return the money.

To whom?

Yes, beware of strangers inserting anything into your clothing, books, bags and other personal belongings. In airports, stations, malls and even hallowed places where bishops pray and meet.

The news report said that as early as Monday, last week, the eve of the CBCP retreat that was to be followed by a plenary session, some Malacanang representatives (okay, plural now) were already seen loitering at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center. This was according to a bishop who had rejected an envelope offered to him. The “messengers” approached bishops during break time and offered “livelihood” money.

Livelihood? What could P20,000 to P30,000 do for livelihood? The bishop-informant was right—the amount was not for livelihood projects but for the individual bishops’ personal use.

Malacanang merely laughed off the report about the messengers who offered envelopes. Were they impostors then? If Malacanang didn’t send them, who did?

Now presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor is saying that henceforth donations would be directly given to bishops or the diocesan social action centers (SACs). This was supposed to be the suggestion of governors, mayors and NGOs. This was supposed to prevent jealousy among local officials and NGOs.

At least one bishop, Paranaque’s Bishop Jesse Mercado, has said that he has rejected offers of medicine, rice, noodles and other stuff offered by the Arroyo administration. Indeed, why give these to the bishops when there are government agencies that could handle these? Sure, in a disaster situation, the diocesan SACs could act as conduits, but nowadays when the color of money is the color of politics, the church should be more circumspect and safely suspicious.

On the other side of the globe, Pope Benedict XVI did not mince words when he spoke at the huge two-day family rally in Valencia, Spain. He repeatedly condemned threats to the so-called traditional family, among them, same-sex marriage and fast-track divorce. Alas, nothing was heard about the clear and present danger that is the physical fragmentation of families as a result of parents leaving home to work in foreign lands. Global economics have taken a toll on poor families. Disparities in the wealth of nations have forced millions of parents to leave the children they have brought into this world in order to give them a better life.

****

Inquirer’s topnotch sports columnist Recah Trinidad will launch “Pacific Storm”, his book on the life and rise of boxing champ Manny Pacquiao, at 6 p.m. at National Book Store in Shangri-la Mall on EDSA.