The essential Scholastican

What fruits had we tasted? What pearls had we found? What seeds had been sown in our young lives, and have they grown into great trees? What did we get, what did we give? What food, what richness, what strengths did we take along when we set out into the wilderness?

Did we discover the hidden wells and the orchards? Did we search for life among the ruins? Did we listen, did we speak? Did we laugh and did we weep? Did we hearken, did we heed? And as we journeyed on, who have we become—for ourselves, for others, for God?

Much have been given us and much is to be given back—and forward. The late Sister Caridad Barrion OSB, dean of St. Scholastica’s College for almost two decades, never tired of reminding generations of Scholasticans to give. Her mantra: “You cannot give what you do not have.”

And so we had to fill ourselves first, to drink, by drawing from the deep. To be steeped in a Benedictine tradition of learning for the heart, a way of life so ancient yet ever new. Ora et labora. Pray and work. And study too, for weren’t the Benedictine monks known since the fifth century to be keepers and spreaders of wisdom and knowledge, the bearers of light during the Dark Ages when barbarians threatened to destroy Western civilization?



St. Scholastica’s College marks its glorious 100th year on December 3. On Sept. 14, 1906 five German Missionary Benedictine Sisters arrived in Manila to become the pioneers of an institution of learning for women and girls. They had come to serve the poor but were disappointed when something else they had not expected was thrust upon them: the education of those who had relative material affluence and future influence. And so with typical German grit, they went to work--to teach, to shape, to mold, to discipline (sometimes too severely—and I should know) so that their wards would become “women of character”. Well, the pioneers did not come straight out of the Bavarian Kulturcampf for nothing.

Last Sunday, we launched “Daughters True: 100 Years of Scholastican Education, 1906-2006”, a great book that summarizes a century as distilled in the minds, hearts and lives of generations of Scholasticans. It is history, yes, for it serves up a lot, not just about St. Scho and its evolution, but the Philippine context as well. But it is more than just history, it is also a book of insights and experiences--sublime, hilarious, serious, unforgettable because true-to-life--delivered in so many ways by more than 60 Scholasticans from different corners of these islands and the world.

Scholasticans from across 100 years and from all walks of life shared the essence of their lives by drawing from their own life journeys. Five long major chapter essays (thematic) hold the book together and are spiced up by dozens of short scrumptious pieces and hundreds of vintage photographs (some to-die-for antiques) in duo tone. (Book size 8 by 11 in matte coated paper, more than 300 pages between hard covers.) Already several bookstores have called to inquire if they could have some.

You don’t have to be a Scholastican to appreciate the book. For it says a lot about culture, education, being Filipino, being Christian, being women and “daughters true”. How we become.

The major themes are the school’s history and evolution through the years, the different levels and their thrust, women’s education and empowerment, education for justice, Scholastican activism, Scholastican spirituality, the school’s neo-Romanesque and art deco architecture, the 36 outstanding Scholasticans (Pax awardees from 1979 to 2006, Pres. Corazon Aquino among them) who wrote some of the pieces.

But as I said, the short essays (even the lists) are the spice and garnish that make the book even more palatable. I do not like to pick out names and essays lest I be accused of favoritism. But I must mention the editors—Neni Sta. Romana Cruz, Paulynn Paredes Sicam, Karina Africa Bolasco and myself. Lynett Villariba, the Inquirer’s art and design director, gave the book a great look never before seen in books about institutions.

This book was four years in the making. It was the brainchild of then school president Sr. Mary John Mananzan OSB (now mother prioress) who made sure “Daughters True” became “daughters through”. Sr. M. Soledad Hilado OSB saw us through the 100 years with her sharp eye and solicitude.

I wrote one of the major essays, “The Essential Scholastican: The Roots and Fruits of Her Spirituality” which is not about spirituality above the clouds but on terra firma. It was wonderful to hear Scholasticans from all walks of life share their process of becoming. For what is spirituality if not (according to theologian Fr. Percy Bacani MJ) “a style, unique to the self, that catches up all our attitudes in communal and personal prayer, in behavior, bodily expressions, life choices, in what we support and affirm and what we protest and deny”?

Mother Irene Dabalus OSB sums up the ideal Scholastican thus: “God-grounded, God-enthralled, God-enamored, she swings into the lives around her and feels for the sufferings and struggles of others.”

This same life force, Mother Irene adds, is active in Benedictine education known for that combination of a passion for the truth in academic pursuits, and compassion shaped by a sense of community, prayer and service to others.

“This was all there in our college days, this vision of life which united a deep thirst for the Spirit and a grounding in God, and the work of calling forth the best resources in life, goodness and peace out of each one of us…and the whole of creation.”

Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus. That in all things God may be glorified.

Workers’ rights and garment labels

“Sr. Stella L.”, a 1984 multi-awarded Mike de Leon-Pete Lacaba film, was on cable TV a few nights ago. While watching it I recalled the hot afternoon we spent at a location where several strike scenes in that movie were shot. A bunch of us women journalists were there as extras shouting “Welga! Welga!” We did it for free. The shooting was in an old bodega-like place that was made to look like a cooking oil factory.

It was quite an outing, what with an award-winning bunch there—Vilma Santos playing Sr. Stella L., the late Tony Santos as Dencio, Laurice Guillen as the other Sr. Stella or the “tokayo”, Anita Linda and several “nuns” linking arms with the workers in the picket line. There was Sr. Stella L. emerging from her baptism of fire and delivering an impassioned plea on behalf of the strikers. And there we were, taking it all in under the scorching sun. It was like the real thing. We each had an orange drink after that.

What timing, I thought while I was watching it again after 22 years and waiting for the credits to roll so I could catch our names. For I had received an urgent call from the Workers Assistance Center (WAC) in Cavite. This was concerning the on-going strike at the Cavite Export Processing Zone (CEPZ). Unlike the “Sr. Stella L.” strike that was in a small local factory, the strikes at the CEPZ are in foreign-owned companies.

I went around CEPZ some years ago to do a labor-day series on the strikes there and to interview CEZ workers, particularly young women and how they lived. I visited some of them at their congested lodging houses where the lodgers took turns in using double-deck beds because, they reasoned, anyway they worked and slept in shifts. They didn’t have beds to call their own. One of the companies on strike was producing sacred images that were exported to Europe.



The ones on strike now since Sept. 25 are workers of two Korean-owned companies—Chong Won Fashion, Inc. and Phils. Jeon Garments Inc.—suppliers of garments of big and known companies abroad. The former supplies products to Gap, Wal-Mart, Target, American Eagle Outfitters, Mervyn’s and White Stag while the latter produces for DKNY, Hanes, Al-alseel, O/X, Dream Station, etc. Name it. You might be wearing some of the labels that came from the CEPZ.

Last week the Inquirer ran an editorial (“Condemned”) on the strike but the strike remains unresolved. In Chong Won Fashion, the strikers are raising the issue of unfair labor practices such as refusal to bargain, illegal suspension of union officers and members and discrimination of union officers and members on overtime affecting 210 union members and more than 700 contractual workers.

In Phils. Jeon Garments the issues are refusal to bargain, union busting, illegal dismissal of the union’s president Emmanuel Bautista. One hundred eighty five of the 400 regular rank-and-file employees are union members.

One of the interesting developments in these two strikes is the intervention of the big foreign firms for which the Korean companies at the CEPZ supply garments. By writing to Pres. Arroyo, these corporate entities are weighing in with the strikers. They are stressing their awareness of the importance of labor rights in their global operations.

Here are some familiar brand names and labels that you usually see on garments and product ads but which went (brand logo and all) to their representatives’ letter of appeal to the President. American Eagle Outfitters, Gap Inc., Jones Apparel Group, Liz Claiborne Inc., PVH, Polo Ralph Lauren and Wal Mart.

And here are excerpts from their common letter that say something about their corporate conscience.

“As companies buying apparel products from the Philippines, we write to bring your attention to a matter of urgent concern. As you know, there have been recent reports of alleged violent attacks on striking workers and the assaults and killings of labor rights promoters. Our industry is alarmed by such reports and urges your immediate attention to the situation. We are particularly disturbed about allegations that Municipal and Export Processing Zone police may have been involved in some of these attacks and assaults. In addition we are concerned about the reports that Export Processing Zone authorities have banned some striking workers from entering the CEZ.

“We urge your government to take proactive measures for ensuring the physical safety and for protecting the rights of workers and labor rights promoters.”

But the pleasant giveaway of their corporate values is this:

“As companies that seek to source in countries and from suppliers that share our commitment to ensuring respect for workers’ rights, we believe that local and human and labor rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can play an important role by partnering with manufacturers and governmental entities as well as suppliers and companies to help improve labor pratices and working conditions in the apparel industry. These NGOs should be able to express their views and carry out their legitimate role freely and without fear of violence.

“Additionally, we strongly believe that individuals working in factories that produce our goods must have the right to associate freely, join organizations of their choice and bargain collectively without unlawful interference. Workers should have the opportunity to work and live in an environment free from the threat of physical violence or harm.”

When you look at your garments’ brand labels, think of the labor rights of those who made them.

Cheap drugs from India a boon

India has gotten giant drug manufacturers worried. It has challenged the patents on some of the world’s biggest money-making drugs. It has gone into manufacturing of low-cost drugs that would benefit the world’s poor. While India has stumped the big brand-name players, it has given poor nations such as those in Africa with huge numbers of AIDS cases a reason to be thankful.

Well, count the Philippines among the beneficiaries. But can’t the Philippines do the same?

I have been interested in India’s in-your-face kind of upstartness in putting the Goliaths of the drug industry on the defensive (or is it offensive?)

A story in yesterday’s Inquirer said that the government-run Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC) will bring in up to P1 billion worth of low-cost medicine in 2007 to make essential drugs affordable to Filipinos. These will be sourced mainly from India and Pakistan. PITC has, in fact, been doing this but next year’s big batch is getting giant drug multinationals even more worried. PITC sells these cheap medicines through its network of Botika ng Bayan and Botika ng Barangay.

So Pfizer took legal action against PITC, saying that it has no assurance its patent rights would not be violated. With the support of international development agency Oxfam, medicine users picketed Pfizer to stress “patients’ rights over patent rights”. There.



Time magazine has come out with stories on India’s drug manufacturing time and again. Aravind Adiga wrote that India’s generic-drug makers are flooding international markets with cheap copycat pills, infuriating behemoth rivals from the US and Europe. These so-called copycat pills may not be “signature” or branded but they are not adulterated or less potent. Their components are like the branded ones. And they’re cheaper.

Wrote Adiga: “The notion that India’s upstart pharmaceutical firms could be a threat to Goliaths such as Pfizer and Merck might sound as hard to swallow as cod-liver oil. India is the world’s fourth largest drug producer by volume, but its fragmented industry of 20,000 companies is still stunted in terms of revenues. (In 2002), the total value of India’s drug sales including exports came to $6.5 billion, less than the $8 billion Pfizer raked in from a single blockbuster product, its anticholesterol drug Lipitor.”

Yet, Time reported, India’s copycat drug firms are becoming a headache for big multinationals. For not only are these Indian drug firms expanding to the US and Europe, they are also challenging patents so that cheaper alternatives could become widely available.

One of the challengers is Yusuf Hamied, chair of the Indian drug company Cipla who declared in 2001 that he was going to sell AIDS drugs to Africa less than four percent of the price charged by multinationals. A couple of years later, Hamied declared, “Today, the daggers are drawn.”

Hamied has been described as “the good doctor”. Devastated after seeing an AIDS-stricken friend waste away and die, he set out to do something. In his article for Time, Meenkshi Ganguly described Hamied as an organic chemist and owner of drug firms who made it his mission to find the magic drug. So when Glaxo Wellcome’s AZT and 3TC AIDS cocktails hit the market with promising results, Hamied and his researchers went to work.

Hamied’s Cipla has made anti-AIDS drugs available to the French NGO Medicins Sans Frontieres for less than $1 dollar a day ($350 per year) for the poor. “A humanitarian price,” Hamied said.

Indian laws allow the manufacture of already patented drugs as long as the process is different from the patented one. Because manufacturing cost in India is relatively low, Cipla is able to sell its medicines at a fraction of the cost of the original. $350 per patient per year for the Cipla AIDS cocktail as against $15,000 for the original.

The multinationals did not take this sitting down and howled protests saying India violated intellectual property rights. But these MNCs have long been accused of making giant profits out of poor people’s illnesses. Even after they have recovered the cost of research, their drugs remain overpriced, indirectly sending those who cannot afford the drugs to their deaths.

Medicins Sans Frontieres had even argued that some drugs were developed using US public funds and the companies that made them have already made a lot of profits so why the high cost?

And what did Hamied have to say of his drugs? “Just use the bloody thing. So what if I don’t make a profit on AIDS drugs. That is not the be-all or end-all…To say all Indians are pirates is very good PR. If I am a pirate, I am a thief. If I am a thief I have broken a law. But I abide by the laws of the land.”

Such unnerving effrontery if one may call it that. The man has nerve.

Here in the Philippines, it is not the AIDS cocktail that is causing a furor. The Inquirer report said the dispute revolves also around the importation of amlodipine besylate, the active ingredient of Pfizer’s anti-hypertension drug Norvasc, from what Pfizer said are “unauthorized sources” in India and Pakistan.

PITC argued that it is merely making medicines affordable for poor Filipinos and paving the way for an early regulatory approval so that the product could be marketed in the Philippines when the patent on Norvasc expires in June 2007. Pfizer looks at this an infringement on its intellectual property rights.

Gamot sa high-blood, anyone? Patent rights or patients’ rights?

Tabang Mindanaw study on Sulu

“The security situation in Sulu is COMPLEX and has to be understood in all its facets if a lasting solution is to be found.”

This sums up the results of a recent survey that Tabang Mindanaw did on behalf of Pagtabangan BaSulTa. The Assisi Foundation was behind the endeavor.

The report entitled “Developing a Culture of Peace for Sulu” is a review of the peace and order situation in Sulu based on a survey conducted in 18 towns of the province. The respondents were composed of religious leaders, traditional leaders, women, the youth and the economic sector.

But what is this “culture of peace” that the report is invoking? The report uses the United Nations definition which is “a set of values, attitudes, modes of behavior and ways of life that reject violence and prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes to solve problems through dialogue and negotiations among individuals, groups and nations.”

The research team, headed by Victor M. Taylor and Abraham Idjirani, ran the survey that focused on the people’s views on their personal situation, the province, security, factors that contribute to the present situation and factors needed to improve the situation.



“Complex” is the key word used to summarize the survey findings. Civil servants, development agencies and the myriad stakeholders in the province are advised to take heed. Anyone aspiring to work in Sulu is advised to read the report in order to appreciate Sulu’s complex landscape especially the historical and cultural context in which this complexity is being played out.

Why is the situation the way it is, and what can be done about it?

The report first gives a brief account of Sulu’s “glorious and troubled history”. It goes back to the time when Sulu was at the crossroads of trade between China and Europe up until the mid-19th century, then the entry of Spain, the US and the attacks on the predominantly Muslim Moro homeland that went on for a long time.

The report also reminds that Sulu was the nerve center of the Moro secessionist fighting that broke out in the 1970s. Brief peaceful interludes were experienced in the 1950s and 1960s then things changed when martial law was imposed in the 1970s. Today, conflict is very much a part of the Sulu scene.

The survey results show that 82 percent of all respondents feel that things are more difficult for them today, with 74 percent citing the economic situation as the reason. Seventy two percent feel the situation in the province is chaotic. Among the reasons are security (35%), governance (30%), economic (28%) and religion (4%).

While 62 percent of the respondents feel that their respective communities are peaceful, a much greater majority (83.3%) believes that the province of Sulu as a whole is in turmoil.

Security factors cited are the unstable peace and order situation, frequent killings, clan conflicts, armed conflicts (among them the conflict between the military and the Moro National Liberation Front) and other armed groups like the Abu Sayyaf.

One of the issues the report addresses is terrorism. Not all acts of violence could be labeled terrorism or should be linked to terrorist groups, the report explains. They become acts of terrorism only when it is clear that the intent is to achieve a political or ideological objective. Making sweeping labels only aggravates the problem and it often wrongly justifies illegal courses of action on the part of the authorities.

One of the interesting portions of the report tackles the role of civil society in communities in Sulu. It points out the “seeming passiveness of civil society in doing its share to proactively address the issue of peace in Sulu and bridge the gap between the populace and the authorities.” It is as if the people are resigned to their fate and have become mainly passive spectators of events swirling around them. And when civil society does move, it is often in a confrontational manner that results in the deepening of animosities between concerned sectors.

This is not to say that nothing has been done by civil society. In the past months civil society in Sulu has broadened to include the business sector which used to be a separate category. There are venues for coming together. One of them is the Task Force on Peace and Unity which is a gathering of individuals and groups from the academe, Muslim and Christian groups, NGOs, business and government.

Last March civil society groups, government agencies, the military and police and the MNLF held a ground-breaking workshop in Jolo to discuss the future of the province. One of the results was the formation of a core group that focuses on peace and order.

But more needs to be done. Civil society must realize that the work for peace is not theirs alone. Ordinary citizens must know that they have a role to play. Civil society must therefore be a channel of information on issues and events that affect the people’s lives. It should provide venues for discussions and airing of different points of view. It should be able to bridge the gap between the people and government authorities (officials, military, police).

Of course, the religious sector’s role is one of the most important in this predominantly Muslim province. The Sulu Ulama Council for Peace and Development has done a lot through its radio program Ulanig sin Kasajahitraan or Echoes of Peace.

(I love the sound of the first three syllables—Kasaja. It sounds like the Visayan kasadya which means merry or festive. I hope I can use the name someday.)

If you want a copy of the Tabang Mindanaw report, send email to tabang@tabangmindanaw.org

Limbo un-rocked

Today, Nov. 2, is All Souls Day, the day for our dear departed. But feast-loving Filipinos always do the feasting and remembering in advance as if there might be no more tomorrow. And so Nov. 1, All Saints Day, is what Filipinos consider araw ng mga patay.

We Filipinos have a way of advancing the calendar to suit our festive mood. Well, All Souls Day is the harbinger of the Christmas season. Tomorrow the Christmas season “officially” begins in these islands. It will last for two months.

But hold on awhile to the 11th month. We all have our early memories of this November feast that sends Filipino families in droves to their old hometowns. Celebrations in the provinces are so much more folksy and Pinoy, unlike those in Metro Manila where the feast has taken on an American macabre flavor that I find corny and TH.

On the solemn side of memory lane, some melodies refuse to die. I can still sing the first and last lines of the Latin Gregorian chant that the Benedictine sisters chanted during the Mass for the Dead in the beautiful neo-Romanesque chapel in school. “Dies irae, dies illa, solvet saeclum in favilla…” Translated as, “Nigher still, and still more nigh, Draws the day of prophecy…”



It ends with the soaring, “Lacrymosa dies illa, Qua resurget ex favilla…” “Full of tears and full of dread, is the day that wakes the dead…”

Oh, it soaked my soul and shook the ramparts of my young heart.

This being the season that makes us ponder life after death, there is now no reason to wonder where limbo is. The vacuous place has been erased from the afterlife. The Roman Catholic Church had created that place during the Middle Ages, last year the magisterium decided to delete it. (Will so-called plenary indulgences be the next to go?)


Blame the creation of the limbo hypothesis on the concept of the stamp of original sin and the outdated way that it was taught.

Last year Pope Benedict XVI abolished the concept of limbo, the place where, Catholics were made to believe, the souls of un-baptized children went. The year before he died, Pope John Paul II had created a commission to come up with a “more coherent and illuminating” doctrine on this neither-here-nor-there place in the Great Beyond.

Pope Benedict XVI (Cardinal Josep Ratzinger then) had presided over the first sessions before he became Pope. A report said that he is on record as saying that limbo has no place in modern Catholicism. In 1984 he was already quoted as saying that limbo had “never been a definitive truth of the faith”.

Limbo has been scrapped.

Limbo comes from the Latin word limbus that means edge or boundary. It was supposed to be the transit area for the souls of the people who lived good lives but died before the resurrection of Jesus two millennia ago. Only on the Last Judgment will they all move on to heaven. Neat arrangement.

Limbo was also supposed to be the permanent home of the babies who died in infancy (and the fetuses too) that didn’t get freed from original sin through baptism. There they were supposed to live in a state of natural happiness, whatever that means.

Here’s something I read: “In the Divine Comedy, Dante depicts limbo as the first circle of hell, located beyond the river of Acheron but before the judgment seat of Minos. The virtuous pagans of classical history and mythology inhabit a brightly lit and beautiful—but somber—castle which is seemingly a medievalized version of Elysium. (A) semi-infernal region, above limbo or the other side of Acheron, but inside the gate of Hell also exists—it is the vestibule of hell and houses so-called ‘neutralists’ or ‘opportunists’ who devoted their lives neither to good nor to evil…” A place for fence sitters and opportunists!

Now that limbo has been demolished, where did its occupants proceed? Or where were they all the time? In heaven, I presume.

Nowhere in the Bible is limbo mentioned, but it is supposed to be the “bosom of Abraham” which is twice mentioned in the Bible. This bosom is supposed to be a blissful state where the good and the righteous of the pre-Jesus era await their eternal reward. It is neither heaven nor hell, it is a transit lounge before entering paradise.

I read somewhere that the gospel story about the “good thief” who was crucified and died beside Jesus is a case that should tweak this limbo theory. Jesus promised him that they would be together “this day” in paradise. Right away?

Well the answer, some say, is in the punctuation mark, the comma. (The celebrated writer Pico Iyer has a great essay on the comma and what it can do.) Did Jesus say, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise” or “Truly I say to you today, you shall be with me in paradise”? The latter means that the thief had to wait in limbo until the resurrection made it possible for him to enter the Pearly Gates.

This is grist for biblical nitpickers. I bring this up only to say it is good that limbo has been deleted from the file folders, it has been erased from the landscape of the afterlife. But the word limbo will stay in colloquial lingo. It means neither here nor there.

The limbo of the afterlife had nothing to do with the limbo dance that originated in the Caribbean. Limbo rock comes from Jamaican English limba or to bend (from the English limber). Limbo rock we all know. It uses a stick below which dancers must bend backwards as they proceed. Limbo dancing is believed to have started from cramped and smelly slave ships that brought Africans to the Americas.

That was not limbo, that was hell. But the real hell is where slave traders—the modern-day ones, specially--should go.