‘Miracle in Rwanda’

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

HER NAME IS Immaculée. This is what she remembers of the place she called home.

“I was born in paradise. At least that’s how I felt about my homeland while I was growing up.

“Rwanda is a tiny country set like a jewel in Central Africa. She is so breathtakingly beautiful that it’s impossible not to see the hand of God in her lush rolling hills; mist-shrouded mountains; green valleys; and sparkling lakes.”

Her name is Immaculée. This is what she remembers of those terrifying days in her blood-drenched paradise that lay in ruins.

“I heard the killers call my name. They were on the other side of the wall, and less than an inch of plaster and wood separated us. Their voices were cold, hard, and determined.

“’She’s here…we know she’s here somewhere….Find her—find Immaculée.’”

Those are excerpts from the book “Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust” by Immaculée Ilibagiza (with Steve Erwin). The book was on the New York Times bestseller list. (“The Diary of Immaculée ” is on DVD. )

This July, Immaculée came alive at The Insular Life Theater in the heart-stopping “Miracle in Rwanda”, a one-woman play based on her true story. Created and performed by Leslie Lewis-Sword, the play has been staged more than 100 times in more than a dozen cities and countries. Lewis-Sword is half Filipino, half African-American.

Lewis-Sword did not base “Miracle” on the book alone. She went out of her way to know Immaculée personally and traveled a number of times to Rwanda in order to deepen her grasp of what Immaculée and her paradise had gone through.

As a one-woman play (one hour and five minutes), “Miracle” is a miracle in itself, what with Lewis-Sword playing Immaculée and a host of other characters. How it was staged here, is also a miracle, according to executive producer Roger Saldo Chua, a theater veteran.

The only props in the play are the pictures of the dead members of Immaculée’s family hanging prominently on stage and the masking tape on the floor that signifies the rectangular area (a few feet square of bathroom space) where Immaculée and seven other women hide for 91 days from the murderous machete-wielding Hutus.

Everything else is light, sound and pure acting. And on the part of the audience, imagination and emotion.

 The play begins with the plane of Rwanda’s Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana shot down in April 1994. His fellow Hutu tribesmen take this as a cue to exterminate their enemy tribe, the Tutsis. The Hutus and the Tutsis have been engaged in a civil war for some time. And so as the world watches, the most brutal genocide in recent history begins.

In just three months, almost a million people are killed. It is in this setting that the “miraculous” story of Immaculée unfolds. Coming from a devoted Catholic and educated Tutsi family, Immaculée, along with seven other women, hides in a cramped bathroom in the home of a Protestant pastor who happens to be a Hutu.

Lewis-Sword steps out of the rectangular space only when she plays the other characters. When she becomes the murderous Hutus hunting down Immaculée, she howls, yelps, prances and goes into a dervish. She also acts as her father, the compassionate pastor, the person responsible for the death of the members of her family and several other characters. What a feat for one actor. And she speaks with a Rwandan accent.

“Miracle” focuses on this harrowing episode in Immaculée’s life. Her experience may look small in the context of the big bloodbath in Rwanda but it tells a lot. Through Lewis-Sword’s deft storytelling and acting in a few square feet of bathroom space, with an imaginary toilet bowl and all, the bigger Rwandan landscape is revealed.

But it is also in the cramped hiding place that one gets to know Immaculée up close. Through her musings she reveals her heart of hearts, her faith in God, her expansive mind, her dreams and even her sense of humor. Armed with a rosary and reciting Hail Marys and Our Fathers incessantly, Immaculée clings to her childhood faith and prays for deliverance. But could she ever forgive?

The subtitle of the play says, “the miracle is forgiveness”. Immaculée forgives. She shows how forgiveness redeems and heals and makes persons whole again. She is forgiveness personified. How I wish the play devoted just a little more to this toward the end. Suddenly it was all over.

What the script could not cover, Lewis-Sword tackled during the question-answer after the play. Amazing how her accent could swiftly shift from Rwandan to American. She spoke about Rwanda, how she and husband Gavin Sword adopted two Rwandan children, a girl and a boy. There is no mistaking her love affair with Rwanda.

She spoke about her friend Immaculée who is now happily settled in the US, married, with two children.

“Miracle in Rwanda” played 10 times last week. The gala night was co-sponsored by The Lewis College of Sorsogon which was founded by Lewis-Sword’s mother. Lewis-Sword is the older daughter of Filipino lawyer Loida Nicolas-Lewis and the late African-American businessman and philanthropist Reginald F. Lewis.

A social studies graduate (cum laude) of Harvard University, Lewis-Sword has an MA in Fine Art (Acting) from the University of California in Los Angeles. She has acted in many plays, “The Vagina Monologues” among them.

Lewis-Sword has brought “Miracle in Rwanda” to many places in order to raise funds for children who were orphaned during the 1994 genocide. Her efforts have reaped citations.

Immaculée ends her book with these words: “The love of a single heart can make a world of difference. I believe that we can heal Rwanda—and our world---by healing one heart at a time. I hope my story helps.”

Three Eves

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

I WAS at the 6th Cinemalaya 2010 film showing at the Cultural Center of the Philippines last Sunday morning to watch the closing three-in-one film (it was the opening, too) “Ganap na Babae.” I went home thinking about a sequel, full-blown, for each of the three.

If I am writing about a Cinemalaya’s entry this year, it is not as a film critic because I am not. I write about films occasionally simply as one who likes to watch films on the big screen when time permits. So don’t sue me.

Cinemalaya, no doubt, deserves to become part of the movie-going public’s consciousness. And my writing about one of the films I watched is my way of saying we should support Cinemalaya all the way.

Hubo Production’s “Ganap na Babae” was directed by three young women: Rica Arevalo, Ellen Ramos and Sarah Roxas. “Ganap” wasn’t among the winners this year, but it certainly drove home strong points, some of which may not be to my liking because they were too stereotypical and overused, but that’s okay. That’s why I kept thinking of how the sequels would unravel and reach denouement and catharsis.

 Described as “a film for women made by women directors,” “Ganap” is three separate but interwoven stories about women. Ramos’ “Kapatid” is a story about two very poor sisters, Milagros (Sue Prado) and Elena (Jam Perez), who grow food in a dry and unforgiving land. Arevalo’s “Kaibigan” is about a widow named Eos (Boots Anson-Roa) who falls in love with a man young enough to be her youngest son (Rome Mallari as Rodrigo). Roxas’ “Ina” is about a prostitute/mother (Mercedes Cabral) who bares her soul on-cam to a TV journalist. The whore (she calls herself that) will state her name later.

I don’t know how the women directors and the producers agreed on the title “Ganap na Babae” which literally translates as “fully woman” or suggests a woman’s full becoming. The Eve in its English title (“Garden of Eve”) seems more apt. Eve as the archetypal woman. I don’t know about the garden.

In other words, I take issue with the title. I find it misleading. These three stories are about women in different stages or situations of “unbecoming,” if you ask me. These are women on the edge, women not quite on the verge of a breakthrough. Their stories are definitely real, no question about that; they are, in fact, too familiar for comfort.

Sisters Milagros and Elena struggle to survive in a harsh and remote environment. The widowed Elena has two young kids to raise. The film begins with Milagros coaxing the water to come out of a decrepit hand pump and then carrying the filled water cans hanging on a balancing rod on her shoulder while navigating rugged terrain. Quite a scene.

Kamote may be healthy breakfast fare but eating it day in and day out proves too much for Elena. She decides to go to Japan where she ends up with a Japanese man who is no knight in shining armor. She fights back and ends up dead. Milagros learns about her sister’s fate from her battered radio.

The newly widowed Eos learns how to operate a computer and to communicate with her daughter abroad with the help of a techie, Rodrigo, who is himself dealing with a recent heartbreak. She is north of 60, he is in his early 30s. Eos and Rodrigo hit it off well and soon eros takes over. Theirs is a May-December affair which reminds me of “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone.” Is this true love? Will they or won’t they? It does not take long for their families to find out.

The prostitute’s story is told on-cam by the prostitute herself enhanced by flashbacks of violent sex and physical battering she experiences from Thomas, her live-in partner. A foreigner, Thomas has the dollars to support the prostitute and her children sired by different men. But he is a demanding sex partner. He often sodomizes her and leaves her bruised and battered. Her children know what is going on. They want him out of their mother’s life. But like most battered women, she is dependent on the man and says she can’t imagine life without him.

Unlike “Kaibigan” where getting physical is just suggested, “Ina” shows graphic scenes of pumping and sodomizing. It is sickening but the story must stress a point, in the way that stereotypical films on prostitution do. Speaking of shock value.

“Tell me your name before the tape runs out,” the journalist asks the prostitute. The prostitute answers, “My name is…Pilipinas.”

Arrrgh. Give me a break. The Philippines as the metaphorical whore. Na naman?

I’ve done a number of stories on prostitutes and prostitution and have even slept in their quarters and I can say that their real-life stories are even more shocking than the movies. But the amazing part of their story is what they do with their lives when their bodies have become worn out (I remember the woman who had gone through seven abortions) and their teeth are falling off.

Of the three stories, the one that seems to be out of the box is “Kapatid.” Sure, the OFW-comes-home-in-a-box theme is there but Milagros, the surviving sister in the harsh rural landscape, seems to hold a lot of promise. Into her life, the long-awaited rain finally falls.

She reminds me of a documentary on a dirt-poor battered wife and mother who rose from the mud and became a junk dealer and,  later, the owner of farm machines she rented out to help poor tillers of the soil. She was able to send all her children to school and her no-good a-h husband to parts unknown.

“Ganap na Babae” aims at the gut as well as the mind. But the briefness of the stories leaves more to be desired. Here’s hoping that Hubo Production’s Will Fredo supports more women’s indies down the road.

Robredo's Naga:ants in a happy place

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

IT WAS WAS WITH BATED BREATH that we waited for Jesse Robredo of Naga City, one of the ablest mayors this country ever had, to finally be sworn in as Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). His name had been one of the first to be mentioned for a cabinet post. And then everybody was sworn in except him.

The post had been unabashedly coveted by former Makati City mayor and now Vice President Jejomar Binay who did not hide his desire and the moist in his eyes. But Pres. Noynoy Aquino was not about to hand it to him. It was Robredo’s, or so we thought, and then, the wait.

Robredo was handed the DILG post last week and he accepted. What a relief.

Robredo, as many of us know, was the Ramon Magsaysay (RM) Awardee for Government Service in 2000. He was 42 years old then and had been mayor for three terms. I had the privilege of being assigned to write about him at that time.

 Robredo shared ``the story of a small, faceless but inspired community which got better by continuously trying to better itself.’’ When he took over in 1988, Naga was ``in bad shape’’ economically, service delivery was bad and political patronage was the order of the day.

Mere words wouldn’t have worked for a cynical citizenry. But leadership in action proved irresistible and couldn’t be ignored. Still a little creative gimmickry went a long way to make people ``hit the ground running.’’ Symbols and slogans were among the secret ingredients.

Robredo, had to offer his constituents a dream they could visualize and aim for--a place where they could live happily. “Ang Maogmang Lugar” (the happy place) became a catch phrase to describe the Naga dream, along with slogans:``Kauswagan kan Naga, kung bako ngonian, nuarin pa?’’ (Progress for Naga, if not now when?) And the busy ant, that does not work alone but in community, became the mascot. These, Robredo called his ``communications strategy.’’

Robredo said ``participative visioning’’ was a key. This involved three essential elements: a core development perspective, a mechanism for updating the corporate vision/mission from time to time, and a strategy for communicating that vision. But before all these, he said, one had to do ``environmental scanning’’ in order to know what Naga and its people was all about.

Robredo, a mechanical and industrial engineering graduate of De La Salle University and who finished an MBA at the University of the Philippines, was a San Miguel executive in Manila until he heeded the call of former President Corazon Aquino for young people to help build People Power at the grassroots level. He packed his bags and headed for home. He was 32.

Robredo used corporate jargon to describe his strategies but, more than that, he was a hands-on leader in touch with non-government and people’s organizations in the grassroots.

Said France Clavecilla, a community organizing veteran who had worked in Naga: ``He delivered fast. Housing for the poor was among his priorities.’’

``Growth with equity’’ was at the core of Robredo’s administration’s philosophy. This meant that every constituent was a partner-beneficiary in the city’s development.

``Given the circumstances,’’ he said in 2000, ``almost no one believed us when we said that Naga would reclaim its reputation as the premier city of Bicol before the end of my first term in 1992, more so when we envisioned Naga establishing its niche as one of the best managed local governments in the country.’’

But first, Robredo said, there had to be confidence building. There had to confidence in the leadership, the bureaucracy and the citizenry as a whole. ``Leadership must be bold and inspiring, energizing, enabling and ennobling.” To show this concretely, Robredo described how he curbed illegal gambling, corruption, prostitution and drugs. ``Our message was: your government not only works, it always does things better.’’ He put in long work hours.

The city hall bureaucracy got the message: this guy meant business and they must do the same. ``Everyone was given the opportunity to prove his worth,’’ Robredo recalled, ``but it also became clear to everyone that a no-nonsense leadership was at the helm.’’ Soon the efforts paid off.

But the constituency had to be included. ``The leadership must not only be empowering, it must be inclusive,’’ Robredo stressed. ``It is precisely for this reason that very early on, we reached out to the city’s NGO-PO community instead of simply confining deliberation within a group of elected officials.’’

``The Empowerment Ordinance of Naga City’’ was a landmark and revolutionary legislation that forged a partnership between the city government and people of Naga. The Naga City People’s Council was the result of this ordinance which enabled people’s representatives to participate and vote in deliberations and even propose legislation.

Naga City had, by then, garnered a string of international and national awards, among them, the plum RM Award, which Robredo said, was rightfully deserved by the Naguenos. The only award, Naga had not won, Robredo said in jest, was the one from Clean and Green.

Robredo did not stop learning. After his term ended in 1998, he attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

After three terms or almost 10 years as mayor, Robredo left government service even though he could have run for another public post. It was important, he said, that he spent more time with his wife and children.

In no time, Robredo was back at the helm for nine more years. And the rest is Naga history.

Now he is in the shortlist of the World Mayor Prize.

Finding ‘Care for Rare’ Orphan Diseases

Sunday Inquirer Magazine/FEATURE/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

HAVE you heard of Pompe’s disease? What about MPS Hunter syndrome, maple syrup urine disorder (MSUD), Gaucher disease and adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD)?

Even if you shed tears while watching the movie “Lorenzo’s Oil,” you probably would not be able to recall or pronounce the name of the disease – it was ALD or adrenoleukodystrophy –around which the plot revolved.

The recent movie “Extraordinary Measures” (starring Harrison Ford as the eccentric doctor-scientist and Brendan Fraser as the father of two ailing children) may not have been as riveting as “Lorenzo’s Oil,” but it also turned out great performances and gave hope that a cure – this time for Pompe’s disease – could be found. In fact, they came close with enzyme replacement therapy.

Both based on true-to-life stories, the movies showed that with the combined efforts, persistence and the support of parents, doctors, scientists, research financiers and society at large, there is hope for those with rare or so-called “orphan” diseases.

Here, the Philippine Society for Orphan Disorders Inc. (PSOD) is at the forefront of the “care for rare” advocacy and coordinates efforts to sustain the quality of life of individuals with rare disorders.

There have been many breakthroughs since its founding in 2006. PSOD has become a support group for patients with rare disorders and their families. It has established a network of patients, families, doctors and support groups in different parts of the world. It was able to push for a bill on rare diseases in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. And more importantly, many patients have found access to treatment and are now enjoying a better quality of life.

This is not to say PSOD has it all. There is much that needs to be done.

Lending a face and voice to PSOD is Juan Benedicto “Dickoy” Magdaraog, who has been bravely battling a rare condition called Pompe’s disease since he was 10 years old. His movements are limited. He can’t walk and raise his arms. His breathing is aided by a machine almost all hours of day and night. Although he can move about in a motorized wheelchair, Dickoy needs a caregiver to lift him, adjust his breathing machine, help him eat and attend to his personal needs, although his fingers can move and do a lot of work.

Now 32, Dickoy has not allowed Pompe’s to close the doors on his dreams. He is a wiz at computers. He has a degree in Industrial Design from De La Salle University, had a girl friend at one time and is gainfully employed. He even heads his own web design company and has been featured several times on TV and in print because of his talent.

In a way, Dickoy has defied the odds because persons with Pompe’s who do not receive medical intervention are not expected to live beyond a decade or so.

Photos of Dickoy when he was a kid show him vibrant and active until the disease took over. “I was about nine when I began having difficulty walking, running and keeping up,” he recalled. “Doctors thought it was because of my flat feet, so I was fitted with implants. Then doctors thought it was muscular dystrophy.” Dickoy’s condition deteriorated until he became wheelchair-bound.

His parents, Cynthia and Victor, younger brother Steve, caregivers, friends and classmates pushed the limits to make Dickoy’s life as normal as possible. A major breakthrough – a miracle they call it – came when the family went to the US and consulted a specialist. The good news: it was not muscular dystrophy. The bad news: it was Pompe’s disease. (See sidebar)

The other good news for Dickoy was a treatment called enzyme replacement therapy. (The movie “Extraordinary Measures” shows how this was discovered.) And it was super expensive. It would not cure Dickoy but it would prevent his condition from deteriorating further and keep the devastating effects of the disease at bay until a more potent treatment can be discovered and reverse his condition.

Twice a month Dickoy undergoes enzyme replacement therapy at the Philippine General Hospital. “Bringing Dickoy to PGH is a major production,” Cynthia, Dickoy’s mother, said cheerfully. The enzyme infusion process is done intravenously and takes several hours. The cost of the enzyme is north of P10 million a year but Dickoy gets it free from Genzyme, a bio-tech company. Genzyme also supports three patients with Gaucher’s disease through enzyme replacement therapy.

The Magdaraogs are a story in themselves. They have converted a part of their home in Greenhills into an office for PSOD. It is their way of giving back and helping those with orphan disorders. Cynthia serves as PSOD president. The other officers are Dr. Carmencita D. Padilla (PSOD founding chair, pediatrician, geneticist) , Elpidio M. Paras (vice president, and grandparent of a child with maple syrup urine disease) and Dr. Sylvia C. Estrada (pediatric endocrinologist and metabolic physician for newborn screening follow-up program).

While many Filipinos continue to be plagued by common diseases related to poverty like tuberculosis, dysentery and malaria that should have been rendered uncommon by modern medicine, there are individuals – children mostly – who battle very rare diseases that most people have never heard of. These diseases are difficult and expensive to treat, and many patients and their families – until PSOD came along – have been left on their own to find treatment to arrest the diseases’ progress.

These expensive treatments, if available, allow patients to live relatively regular lives. And yes, there are a good number of happy stories.

On most days, one will find Dr. Estrada seeing young patients at the pediatric section of PGH. John, 9 months old, has PKU (Phenylketonuria). Mark, 8 months, has CPS deficiency, Matt, 1 and ½ years old, has MMA. Delle, 4 months, has non-classical galactosemia. They all have orphan disorders that require expensive treatment and constant monitoring. They also need medicines and special baby formula (for example, PKU milk, lactose-free milk, MSUD milk, prophree milk, etc.) that are beyond their families’ means. (Mead Johnson provides their monthly supply for free.)

High on PSOD’s agenda is a Rare Diseases Act that would establish a system to help ensure early diagnosis and treatment of rare or orphan diseases. PSOD defines a rare disease as “any health condition resulting from genetic defects and afflicts no more than 1 of 20,000 individuals in the country.” PSOD notes that there is little interest in these disorders among research institutions because of the small number affected. Drug companies are not inclined to develop costly medicines for so few.

A Rare Diseases Act would give teeth to the constitutional provision on one’s right to health care. It will support public education and information on rare diseases, training, research and resource generation. Senator Edgardo Angara filed the Rare Disorder bill (SB 3087) last year. So did Representative Arthur Pingoy (HB 6937). PSOD is campaigning for half a million signatures to push the bill.

And so Dickoy continues to hope and work hard. “My condition made me understand suffering,” he said. “It taught me compassion, patience and the value of hard work. Going to school was not easy, you know. But if you want people to help you, you have to help yourself.”

Dickoy himself will attest to the marked improvement of his condition because of enzyme infusions. He said: “I am able to breathe on my own for a few minutes. I have more energy and I am able to go out and socialize. The treatment was life-changing.”

He owes this to the concerted efforts of many people of science and of faith. •

Philippine Society for Orphan Disorder (PSOD) contact numbers: 7256519, +639184350820. Email: info@psod.org.ph

Side bar:  

Meet some deadly “orphans”

1. Pompe’s disease is a rare neuromuscular genetic disorder that manifests in those who inherit a defective gene from their parents. There is a defect in the gene that is responsible for making an enzyme called acid alpha-glucosidase (GAA), which is either missing or in short supply. Patients suffer progressive and debilitating muscular weakness that progresses into physical disability and dependence on a breathing support system. With the heart and lungs weakening progressively, patients could succumb to heart and/or pulmonary failure. The ratio of occurrence in the population is one in 40,000.

2. MPS Hunter syndrome. Also known as mucopolysaccharidosis II (MPS II), it is a rare inborn error of metabolism characterized by deficiency of an enzyme known as iduronate sulfatase. This enzyme breaks down specific long sugar molecules in the body called glycosaminogycans found in body parts bone, joints, valves.

3. Apert syndrome (craniosynostisis syndrome) is a genetic defect that falls under the broad classification of craniofacial/limb anomalies. Can be inherited from a parent with Apert or may be a fresh mutation. It is characterized by malformations of the skull, midface, hands and feet. It occurs in 1 per 160,000 to 200,000 live births.

4. Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by the breakdown or lessening of the myelin sheath surrounding nerve cells in the brain and progressive dysfunction of the adrenal gland.

5. Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a rare inherited metabolic disease characterized by high levels of the amino acid phenylalanine which can cause mental retardation, seizures and movement disorders.

6. Maple syrup urine disorder (MSUD) is a metabolic disease that causes branched chain amino acids to accumulate in the body, creating a toxic effect that can lead to brain swelling, neurological damage and death. The name is derived from the sweet smell of the patient’s urine.

7. Gaucher disease is an inherited illness caused by a mutation in the glucocerebrosidase gene. Accumulation of glucocerebrocides in the brain, liver, spleen, skeleton and other body parts leads to organ dysfunction.

(Source: PSOD)

Pass bicameral version of FOI bill ASAP!

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

TODAY THIS SPACE gives way to the urgent statement of the Right to Know Right Now! Coalition on the Freedom of Information Act that we, those in the media especially, want raised from the dead. (Because of space limitation some lines had to be omitted in the print and online versions. This blog version is complete.) Dear readers, please be with us in this crusade.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,

it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,

it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,

it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”

This brilliant prose of Charles Dickens, in the beginning of his epic "A Tale of Two Cities", could have been written also about the recent death, nay murder, of the proposed Freedom of Information Act in the 14th Congress. What could have been a legislation of wisdom, light and hope for good governance and people empowerment was overcome by the foolishness, dark motives and desperate designs of those who seek to thwart good governance and to keep people at the margins of power.

Indeed, the Freedom of Information Bill was nearly almost enacted, after over 14 years of unflinching advocacy work by all social sectors for its passage. The bill failed to advance significantly in the 11th, 12th and 13th Congress but finally moved in the 14th. The penultimate step, before transmission to the President for signing, would have been the ratification by the House of Representatives and by the Senate of the bicameral conference committee report.

The Senate promptly fulfilled its legislative duty on February 1; the House did not. With session days fast running out, the leadership of the House professed support for the measure when in truth it did all it could to prevent the ratification of the bill. On four session days – February 2 and 3, and May 24 and 31 – the House leadership either refused to put the bill on agenda, or worse, stomped all motions by the bill’s authors to ratify the bicameral conference committee report.

But the lowest point was reserved for June 4, the last day of the third and last regular session of the 14th Congress. On roll call after a quorum question, the House Secretary General reported that 128 members were present, short of the 135 members needed for a quorum. A motion was made for the present members to compel the attendance of absent members, as provided by Section 74 of the House Rules. This measure is supported by no less than the Constitution (Article VI, Section 16, par. 2), precisely to prevent absent members from holding hostage the conduct of legislative work. Speaker Prospero Nograles ignored the rule and even scoffed at the motion.

The story did not end there. After Nograles released the list of House members who were supposedly absent on June 4, at least nine congressmen came forward and were established on video footage to have been actually present at the session hall during the roll call. They include Representatives Neptali Gonzales II, Roilo Golez, Michael John “Jack” Duavit, Mujiv Hataman, Arthur Pingoy, Magtanggol Gunigundo, Jovito Palparan, Pablo P. Garcia, and Oscar Malapitan.

By all accounts, the number of House members present at the June 4 session was more than the required number to constitute quorum and the Freedom of Information Act could have been ratified that same day.

Even as we continue to discern which House leaders and Secretariat personnel must be held accountable for the events of June 4, we must also chart the immediate next steps to move the Freedom of Information Act forward. In this effort, we call on the members of the 15th Congress, both from the Senate and the House, and the Executive, to commit themselves to support it.

First, the bicameral conference committee report on the Freedom of Information Act reached in the 14th Congress that has already been re-filed in the Lower House must be passed with dispatch by the 15th Congress. This version of the draft law had been discussed in public consultation meetings and had hurdled the legislative wringer in the 14th Congress. It has taken into consideration the concerns of government agencies without compromising the integrity of the people’s right to information. The new senators and congressmen may do well not to repeat the processes so they can save valuable time and even more valuable taxpayers’ money.

After all, this bicameral conference committee report is as progressive and as reasonable as a Freedom of Information Act could get. It provides a standard and definite procedure for dealing with requests for information. It clearly defines a narrow list of exceptions, carefully balancing the public interest in broad disclosure with the public interest in keeping certain information secret. It secures for citizens concurrent remedies in cases of denial of access to information. It provides implementing mechanics for the public disclosure of a list of important government transactions, without need of request from anyone. It provides criminal and administrative sanctions for violation of the right to information. Finally, it introduces numerous mechanisms for the active promotion of openness in government. All these directly address the operational gaps that have made the Constitutional right to information and the state policy of full disclosure of government transactions involving public interest, extremely difficult to enforce in practice.

Second, the administration of President Benigno C. Aquino III would do well to translate its commitment to transparency into clear policies and concrete action. We hope that President Noynoy Aquino will convey to Congress his unequivocal support for the immediate passage of the bill, in his first State of the Nation Address as well as through an appropriate message to Congress certifying the necessity of its immediate enactment.

Even as we await the final passage of the Freedom of Information Act, we hope that President Noynoy Aquino and his appointees will promulgate and observe active disclosure policies in their decisions and transactions, notably appointments, contracts, executive agreements, borrowing, and spending.

Third, we call on the new House of Representatives of the 15th Congress to introduce amendments to its Rules and changes in its practice, to prevent a repeat of capricious acts by the leaders of the 14th Congress that undermine not only the due performance of its legislative duty but also the integrity of the institution.

It must stop the practice of dispensing with the roll call at the start of session to railroad measures without quorum. Attendance in sessions, an important obligation to state and people by every member of Congress, can only be enforced if quorum is strictly observed before session can proceed. Where quorum is not present amid urgent business matters on the agenda, Congress must exercise its right to compel the attendance of absent members. In terms of the determination of quorum, the Rules must be amended to provide an effective check on the Secretary General’s determination of the result of a roll call. Finally, the Rules on the consideration of conference reports must be strengthened to give effect to its high privilege in the order of business, and avoid the arbitrary and unjust blocking of an important measure by the House leadership as happened in the FOI bill conference report.

We, the 160 organizations and civil society leaders who comprise the Right to Know. Right Now! Coalition, affirm our commitment to continue the fight for our freedom of information. We dream of an empowered and vigilant citizenry that will make full and responsible use of its right to information to secure what is rightfully ours in terms of government services, to exact accountability from government officials in the use of public funds and the exercise of governmental powers, and to facilitate the effective exercise of other rights of citizenship such as participation in policy-making and in elections.

We call on everyone to join us in working to make this dream a reality.

Right to Know. Right Now! Coalition

04 July 2010