Global editorial on climate change

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

LAST WEEK, one day before the Copenhagen summit (Dec. 7-18) on climate change opened, 56 major newspapers in 45 countries spoke with one voice. They came out with a common global editorial written in 20 languages on climate change.

I was hoping that Philippine newspapers would join major newspapers all over the world and carry the global editorial that London’s The Guardian had initiated. But last week the Philippine media were just too caught up in the brutality without compare that visited our ranks. News about the mass murder in Maguindanao of 30 media practitioners plus 27 non-media persons, and the public unraveling of the unspeakable evil that had long stalked that Mindanao wasteland could hardly give way to anything else. The pages of Philippine newspapers have been soaking in blood since Nov. 23.

The entire global editorial, “14 days to seal history's judgment on this generation”, cannot fit in this space, so I have only excerpts here. You can find the complete text, as well as the story behind its drafting, in the internet.

“Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.

“Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted.

“Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.

“The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3-4C — the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction — would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea.

“Few believe that Copenhagen can any longer produce a fully polished treaty; real progress towards one could only begin with the arrival of President Obama in the White House and the reversal of years of US obstructionism. Even now the world finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics, for the president cannot fully commit to the action required until the US Congress has done so.

“But the politicians in Copenhagen can and must agree the essential elements of a fair and effective deal and, crucially, a firm timetable for turning it into a treaty. Next June's UN climate meeting in Bonn should be their deadline. As one negotiator put it: "We can go into extra time but we can't afford a replay."

“At the deal's heart must be a settlement between the rich world and the developing world covering how the burden of fighting climate change will be divided — and how we will share a newly precious resource: the trillion or so tonnes of carbon that we can emit before the mercury rises to dangerous levels.

“Rich nations like to point to the arithmetic truth that there can be no solution until developing giants such as China take more radical steps than they have so far. But the rich world is responsible for most of the accumulated carbon in the atmosphere – three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emitted since 1850. It must now take a lead, and every developed country must commit to deep cuts which will reduce their emissions within a decade to very substantially less than their 1990 level.

“Developing countries can point out they did not cause the bulk of the problem, and also that the poorest regions of the world will be hardest hit. But they will increasingly contribute to warming, and must thus pledge meaningful and quantifiable action of their own. Though both fell short of what some had hoped for, the recent commitments to emissions targets by the world's biggest polluters, the United States and China, were important steps in the right direction.

“Kicking our carbon habit within a few short decades will require a feat of engineering and innovation to match anything in our history. But whereas putting a man on the moon or splitting the atom were born of conflict and competition, the coming carbon race must be driven by a collaborative effort to achieve collective salvation.

“Overcoming climate change will take a triumph of optimism over pessimism, of vision over short-sightedness, of what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature".

“The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history's judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it. We implore them to make the right choice.”

Journalists rage: Stop the killing

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

ENRAGED JOURNALISTS clad in black, both local and foreign, took to the streets of Manila Wednesday, becoming newsmakers themselves by denouncing the massacre of at least 30 media workers and 27 others on Nov. 23 in Ampatuan, Maguindanao.

At the same time in Maguindanao, journalists briefly took a break from covering military operations and trekked to the massacre site in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman to light candles in honor of their colleagues killed in the country’s worst case of election-related violence.

Protest rallies in different parts of the country and the world were also held to coincide with Wednesday’s “Black Day” march, Nestor Burgos of the National Union of Journalists (NUJP) said.

More than a thousand protesters from various sectors in Manila marched with journalists from España Avenue to the Chino Roces (formerly Mendiola) Bridge near Malacañang Palace to shout out their protest close to the seat of government power. They called for justice for the victims and an end to the culture of impunity.

Most dangerous

They also denounced and blamed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for the massacre that has earned the Philippines the reputation of being the most dangerous place in the world for journalists.

“Stop the killing” and “Never again to martial law” rang out as the marchers wound their way toward Mendiola.

One participant carried a placard with a toy backhoe on it—a reminder of how the victims and their vehicles were buried in mass graves with the use of a local government-owned backhoe that was waiting at the massacre site. Many wore black shirts and arm bands.

Protesters carried three black coffins symbolizing the death of accountability, press freedom and rule of law. Others carried white coffins and placards with the victims’ names and photos.

The body of a reporter from the Midland Review has yet to be found.

Independent probe

The November 23 Movement, a coalition of media organizations, and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) were the main organizers of the rallies.

The movement has been calling for an independent investigation of the crime. Aside from journalists, the dead included two women lawyers, and members of the Mangudadatu family and their supporters.

With the larger-than-life statue of press freedom icon Chino Roces in the background, journalists took turns condemning the unabated killing of journalists since Ms Arroyo became president in 2001.

The Nov. 23 massacre brought to more than 100 the number of slain journalists since 1986, about two-thirds of them since Ms Arroyo took power, said Roby Alampay, executive director of Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA).

Inquirer publisher and Philippine Press Institute president Isagani Yambot delivered an impassioned speech in Filipino calling on journalists not to let their guard down. “Sumumpa tayo na hindi tayo titigil (Let us make a vow not to let up),” Yambot said.

Referring to the Nov. 23 victims, Yambot said, “Ang kanilang kaluluwa ay nananaghoy at humihingi ng katarungan (Their souls are crying out for justice).”

He quoted poet John Donne: “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

This won’t be forgotten

“Our quest for justice will not end in the filing of cases and the arrest of the suspects,” echoed NUJP director Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao chief correspondent, who was among the leaders of the march in Maguindanao.

“This story will not end even if justice is done. We will not allow this to be forgotten,” Alampay added.

Alampay said Jakarta journalists were the first to hold a protest rally after the Maguindanao massacre.

The Inquirer has set up a fund for the children of the slain journalists.

“The slain journalists left behind 75 children and dependents. An entire generation of journalists in Mindanao has been lost,” said Sydney Morning Herald’s Ruth Pollard, an IFJ representative who joined a fact-finding mission in Maguindanao.

Two past deans and the present dean of the University of the Philippines’ College of Mass Communication—Georgina Encanto, Luis Teodoro and Rolando Tolentino, respectively—marched with the protesters and carried their own streamer.

Organizers announced candle-lighting rituals all over the country to be held on Dec. 23.

How they love one another

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

WISHING YOU ALL a meaningful Human Rights Day. It’s been 62 years since the International Declaration of Human Rights was signed and adopted by nations the world over. And where are we?

Last week’s Time magazine cover story was about “The Decade from Hell”. Indeed, in the past 10 years, terrorist attacks, wars, financial melt-downs, natural and man-made disasters, viruses, diseases, hunger and all kinds of violence have visited this planet and sent humanity running for cover. Humanity continues to be under attack.

We are now ending this decade and entering the next. Christians are observing the Advent season and ushering in Christmas. Muslims have just ended their own yearly observance of Eid ul Adha or feast of sacrifice. All these as we Filipinos remain shocked beyond words by the Nov. 23 massacre of more than 60 human beings, 30 journalists among them, in the Ampatuan fiefdom in Maguindanao.

The evils and tragedies of the past and the present, the human rights violations and crimes against humanity have been widely documented and written about, but sadly, the little stories about compassion and caring for one another are often unwritten and forgotten. The great news about Efren Penaflorida who was voted the CNN Hero of the Year was all but drowned out by the blood that flowed in Maguindanao.

I was recently invited to the 20th anniversary of the Coalition of Services of the Elderly (COSE) and the launching of the book “Love Grows: A Primer” and the 10 Ulirang Nakakatanda (10 Outstanding Older People) Awards. I was asked to say a few worlds about the little book which COSE published. Many of the people at the celebration were advanced not only in age but also in wisdom and in grace. Most of them came from the poor sector of society. One of the special guests was a 107-year-old lady who walked straight to the podium unaided.

Written history—as we’ve studied and read it—has always been from the point of view of those who were in power or wanted to wrest power. The history of nations were written from the point of view of politics and power and the people who made things happen in a big way. The scholars who wrote them do not include the voices of the little people who were themselves part of history. I mean real voices, real faces, real stories.

I say all these because I think COSE’s unpretentious book could provide some missing voices in our cultural history. Some of the stories of the goldie oldies tell of a bygone era that many of us have not experienced. The war, the idyllic countryside of their youth and, to borrow the title of a great opus, love in the time of cholera.

What’s different about this book? This book is mainly about caring and community among older people most of whom happen to be poor. It is about growing and becoming. It is about dignity in the face of the inevitable.

I praise COSE for making this book happen. I have often wondered what it would have been like if there were no writers who wrote about the life of Jesus Christ, what he taught about love and justice and forgiveness and peace and giving up one’s life for one’s friends. We would have little to go by.

So you see, I said to the older people and young ones present, it is important that the good things are recalled (while they can) and told and written and read so that older people of the present and the future will be inspired to give of themselves. The stories in the book are not stunning stories about dramatic lives and dramatic deeds. They are small stories about loving service.

This book reassures us that we have not lost it all—to politicians, warlords, climate change, globalization, showbiz, fast food and what-have-you. Many generations from now, this humble book will really be history. It will provide some missing pieces. Many who will read it will be amazed and they will say, “See, how they loved one another.”

Here are COSE’s “10 Ulirang Nakakatanda” of 2009 and their good deeds. (This is probably the only time the awardees will read their names in a newspaper.)

Pelagia Baclayo took a course on herbal medicine and then, as member of an organized group of older people, opened a herbal garden for the community. Salve Basiano, whose husband is blind, helped organize blind musicians to play in malls as an income generating project. She is also the past president of the Confederation of Older People’s Organizations of the Philippines.

Estrella Buelo, president of the Quiapo Group of Older People is active in prison work. Perfecto Cunanan is a farmer leader who organized older farmers to join community based programs. Rodolfo Larida is one of the few male home carers in his community and is available 24/7 for bedridden patients in urban poor areas.

Crispulo Migrino is disabled but serves as president of the federation of 13 groups in Commonwealth-, QC.

Epifania Noblado not only takes care of the infirm in Arayat, Pampanga, she advocates home care to be part of government policy.

Eufrocia Omayam helped develop community-based programs in Davao which allow older people to take care of one another. Lina Patricio’s home in the city was demolished and her family was dumped in Paliparan, Cavite but she, along with a group of religious sisters and other older people, helped to organize her community. Priscilla Mariano is a respected elder in her community. Though not in good health, she pushed the passing of an ordinance that would recognize the needs of older people so that they could be assisted. She has been serving in the board of hospital and water services for 35 years without compensation.

COSE’s programs are managed by older people themselves. An affiliate of Helpage International, COSE aims to keep older people active in communities and increase awareness of their importance.

Journalists and women as safety shield

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Opinion/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
IF I COULD GET HOLD of even only one of the perpetrators of the Nov. 23 broad daylight mass murder/massacre of 57 human beings, 30 of them from the media, I would ask only one question. (And I shudder to think that I know the answer to my own question.) My question would be: What or who made you think or believe that you could commit this evil deed and get away with it?

I cry out, de profundis: President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, how have we come to this? For the 21st century or for just this decade, the Philippines can now claim a day of horror, a day of evil of its own to remember: 11/23.

People used to say the name of the month and day to be remembered, such as Sept. 21 or 
Aug. 21, or invoke numbers to never forget, such as P.D. 1081, to conjure up images of blood and terror. Or they use them to remember some significant event, like Nueve de Febrero (name of a street) and Mayo Uno (Labor Day).

Now we abbreviate the dates and turn them into catchwords, logos or tattoos so that we will never forget, because there are too many to not forget. Tragedies like 9/11. More than the sound and the look of the numbers, there is something about them that should make us remember and vow to never allow these evil to happen again.

We’ve run out of superlatives to describe the massacre that was so well planned and so swiftly carried out in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, on 11/23.

I write about this horror even though, in the past days, so much have been written and said about it. I want the story to be part, not just of my journalism files, but to be part of me as a human being who happens to be a journalist. I share in the grief in a very profound way. I burst into tears as soon as I learned about what happened to the journalists and to the many who thought they were safe being with them.

The more than 50 victims did not die in a battlefield or a bomb blast or by being at the wrong place at the wrong time. They were, in fact, in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing. And they were murdered one by one.

Their killers made sure none of them would make it alive to civilization to tell the gory tale. The mass graves had been dug ahead of time. A backhoe was on standby to move the earth and immediately cover the corpses and the vehicles. What a massive undertaking indeed. But the mastermind and perpetrators believed, they felt very assured, that they could get away with it. With impunity.

Evil forces were lying in wait for the convoy to pass through that stretch of road while on its way to the Commission on Elections. The whys and hows of that fateful road trip is well known by now. Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu’s wife Genalin, accompanied by supporters, lawyers and a horde of journalists, were on their way to file Mangudadatu’s certificate of candidacy for governor that would challenge the powerful warlord Ampatuan clan. Mangudadatu stayed behind. The convoy was waylaid. The rest is bloody history.

It used to be that there was safety in having journalists and women in risky undertakings. They act not only as safety shield, journalists could also be witnesses to unfolding events and later be counted upon to tell the truth about what they have witnessed.

When Sen. Ninoy Aquino came home from exile in 1983, he had journalists with him. Moments before he was assassinated he told them to watch out. It could be over fast, he said. Those last moments and the moment he was shot were recorded on video and on voice recorder. The tape recorder of Time magazine’s Sandra Burton was on when the shots rang out as Ninoy descended from the plane. Photojournalists on the ground captured images of Ninoy bloodied on the ground.

Now we are waiting to hear the sound of the massacre that was supposedly recorded on audio tape by one of the victims. I hope this recording exists.

There is safety in women and in numbers. Bare breasted women from indigenous tribes have confronted military men who protected infrastructure projects that would destroy ancestral lands. Weepy whistle-blower Jun Lozada surrounded himself with nuns who acted as his security cordon when he testified about the alleged payoffs that involved government officials.

Toward the end of the martial law years when repression of the media again intensified, the women journalists came out with damning article after damning article to expose the abuses of the Marcos military regime. We thought we were invincible. And despite the series of interrogations meant to cow us, we continued to dare. The military backed off when we haled them to court.

That feeling of invincibility now belongs to the past. Here in the Philippines and in many dangerous places abroad, women journalists are as unsafe as their male colleagues. I think of Russian journalist Anna Politskaya who was murdered recently, of our own Marlene Esperat who was gunned down before her children. Nuns who braved the wilds and the barricades have been brutally killed, shot at close range. I think of Sr. Dorothy Stang who defended the Amazon forest and the indigenous communities of Brazil. I think of the Maryknoll missionaries who were killed in El Salvador and the nuns in East Timor.

Journalists are sometimes thought to be intrepid survivors, the last ones left standing. Although many have died in the crossfire, they were not the targets. Those who survived brought us stories and images of historical events. Movies about these events usually have journalists weaving in and out of the scenes. They do not die like the protagonists. They grow old and write memoirs, books and historical novels.

Somehow 11/23 changed all that.

Cory Aquino, nun, 4 activists join Bantayog heroes

Philippine Daily Inquirer/News

FORMER PRESIDENT Corazon C. Aquino leads this year’s batch of heroes and martyrs whose names will be inscribed on the Wall of Remembrance of the Bantayog ng mga Bayani (Monument of Heroes).

Besides Aquino, the latest additions to the roster are Sr. Asuncion Martinez, ICM, and activists Antonio G. Ariado, Melito T. Glor, Alfredo L. Malicay and Ronald Jan F. Quimpo.

The yearly Bantayog rites are held either on Nov. 30, Bonifacio Day, or Dec. 10, Human Rights Day.

Both Aquino and Martinez have been classified as heroes. They died of natural causes at a late age—Aquino at 76 on Aug. 1 and Martinez at 84 in 1994. The four young men, who all died in their 20s in the 1970s, are considered martyrs.

This year’s honorees bring to 179 the number of names etched on the black granite Wall of Remembrance near the 45-foot bronze monument by renowned sculptor Eduardo Castrillo that depicts a defiant mother holding a fallen son.

The monument, the wall and other structures in the Bantayog complex are dedicated to “the nation’s modern-day martyrs and heroes who fought against all odds to help regain freedom, peace, justice, truth and democracy in the country.”

The Bantayog recognition is conferred only after a close examination of a person’s life and manner of death.

Aquino couple

Aquino, fondly called Tita Cory by Filipinos, continues to be recognized around the world as an icon of democracy and had received numerous honors here and abroad while she was alive.

Her husband, former Sen. Benigno S. Aquino, who was assassinated in 1983, was among the first 65 persons whose names were etched on the Wall of Remembrance in 1992. The Aquinos are not the first couple to be included in the Bantayog roster. Their sacrifices and love of country are known to almost every Filipino.

Bantayog is honoring the former President for leading the fight to end the Marcos dictatorship, restoring civilian supremacy, reestablishing government accountability and helping restore the faith of the Filipino in themselves, their country and in democracy.

She is also being cited for “upholding her electoral mandate by stepping down at the end of her term, thus ensuring a calm transition.”

Nun at barricades

Martinez, or Sister Asun as she was fondly called, of the Immaculate Heart of Mary began her missionary work in the academic setting. When she was nearing her 60s, she responded to the call to work for the “church of the poor” and immersed herself among sugar workers in the Visayas.

She worked with the National Federation of Sugar Workers and the Federation of Free Farmers, and became exposed to the plight of sugar workers and farmers. She was among the founders of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines.

When she returned to Manila in 1972, she immersed herself among workers and the urban poor. In 1975, when workers of the La Tondeña Distillery decided to strike to press their demands, she was among those they trusted to help them.

When soldiers broke up the strike and hauled the strikers to prison, Sister Asun dared them to arrest her, too, and held on to the bus that carried the workers.

“La Tondeña was my second baptism,” Martinez wrote in the book “I Climb Mountains.” She said: “I acquired a new heart, a new vision, a new understanding of my country's history and my people.”

After La Tondeña, Sister Asun became involved with the Urban Missionaries, the Friends of the Workers and other groups that supported workers. She continued to live with the poor in Bagong Barrio in Caloocan City, long after she had reached “retirement age.”

She ran The Wooden House which became a haven for distressed workers and activists.

Martinez died in 1994.

Escribiente

Born in 1949 to a well-to-do family in Sorsogon, Ariado excelled in academics. A gifted orator, poet and stage actor, he was also called escribiente or writer. He was also into sports.

When he went to college at Far Eastern University, Ariado became exposed to national issues. He joined demonstrations and experienced rough police dispersal. Undaunted, he continued to join rallies against US involvement in Vietnam.

Ariado became a member of the National Union of Students of the Philippines and, later, of the militant Kabataang Makabayan (KM). In 1970, he transferred to Araneta University but soon dropped out and returned home.

He then began organizing a local chapter of KM. He organized a long march in Bicol so that ordinary people could air their grievances and press for reforms.

When martial law was imposed in 1972, Ariado learned that he was on the government’s wanted list. With other activists, he went underground and joined the guerrilla movement. His family suffered harassment because of his activities.

A year later, Ariado and 12 others died in a military operation. He was 24.

Guerrilla fighter

Glor, who was from Quezon province, also came from a well-to-do family.

In high school, Glor was often called the campus James Dean. Bold and daring, he was a natural leader. In his yearbook, he wrote that his ambition was to be a soldier.

But Glor went to the University of the Philippines for a pre-med course, hoping to become a doctor. Soon activism got in the way of this ambition. He was often in protest rallies.

When martial law was declared in 1972, Glor went home to Quezon and recruited people for the armed resistance. He soon became one of the leading officers of the communist armed wing New People’s Army (NPA) in Southern Luzon and Bicol.

Glor married someone named Flor in 1973, but marriage did not stop him from doing his guerrilla work. He was a wanted man.

While on a trek with his pregnant wife and comrades, military troops caught up with them and opened fire without warning.

Glor died in the first volley. He was 24.

His wife, who was unhurt, was arrested. One of their companions, Manuel Blasco, was executed the next day.

The Melito Glor Command, an NPA command in Southern Luzon, was named after him.

Scholar

Malicay was the son of poor farmers from Davao. As a student, he was hardworking and showed natural leadership. He graduated from high school with honors and was awarded a college scholarship by the 4H Club Scholarship Program.

He enrolled at the UP College of Agriculture in Los Baños, Laguna, and studied agricultural chemistry.

Malicay showed exceptional writing skills and became editor in chief from 1968 to 1969 of the Aggie Green and Gold, the student publication of the college. He joined the KM and, later, the Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity.

As a KM organizer, Malicay recruited members from different schools. He wrote articles for the school publication, urging students to embrace nationalism, democracy and academic freedom.

He also supported friends from the Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan.

Malicay and his friends organized a Friday discussion group which met and discussed the books of nationalist Renato Constantino and Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong.

Malicay finished his course in 1971 but he did not seek employment after graduation. He went into full-time organizing in Laguna, Quezon and Batangas, calling on the youth to demand social reforms for the exploited sectors of society.

He went back to school for graduate studies in UP Diliman, but when martial law was imposed in 1972, he returned to Los Baños to do full-time recruitment work against the dictatorship.

In 1973, while Malicay was in Malabon for a meeting with fellow activists, the house they were in was raided by the military. Three were arrested and two were shot dead.

Malicay was one of the dead. He was 27.

Because his family was too poor to travel from Davao to Manila, Malicay’s fraternity brothers took charge of retrieving his body and burying him at the Navotas Public Cemetery. Three of his brothers later also joined the anti-Marcos movement.

Well-behaved boy

Quimpo was known to be a well-behaved boy, but he also had a rebellious streak.

Born in Iloilo City, Quimpo was the seventh of nine children. He attended San Beda College in Manila for his elementary schooling and went to Philippine Science High School (PSHS) where he got exposed to activism. He was only in high school when he joined the KM.

He joined rallies to protest a sudden increase in gas prices in 1971. The shooting of a student further fanned the flame of protests.

Although he was only a senior at PSHS, Quimpo joined the students in barricading the UP campus in Diliman, Quezon City. The standoff became to be known as the Diliman Commune.

Quimpo went to UP for a degree in BS Geology. But his love for science could not match his desire to become a revolutionary and “serve the masses.” He left school and spent time in poor quarrying communities on the outskirts of the city where he felt like he was in a “Little Isabela,” the northern province where many activists dreamed of going.

Quimpo became aware of police abuses against the poor and was determined to work for their cause.

One day in 1973, while Quimpo was in the house of a fellow activist, narcotics agents raided the house. He and two other students, and two sisters who lived in the house were taken to a camp and subjected to psychological and physical torture.

One of the sisters, Liliosa Hilao, died after suffering torture.

Quimpo was a changed man after the experience. He quietly resumed his geology course. One day in 1977, the Philippine Constabulary raided the Quimpo house to arrest him and his younger brother, Ishmael Jr.

Not finding them, the soldiers left. One morning two weeks later, Quimpo, then 23, left home, saying he would be back for dinner. He never returned. He was never found.

Memorial

Located at the corner of EDSA (Epifanio delos Santos Avenue) and Quezon Avenue in Quezon City, the Bantayog Memorial Center complex now boasts of a P16-million building, with a 1,000-square-meter floor space. It has a small auditorium with 72 seats, symbolic of the year (1972) tyrannical rule was imposed through martial law.

A museum and library-archives are also housed in the building.

Bantayog’s 1.5-hectare property was donated by the government, through Landbank, a year after the Marcos dictatorship was toppled and Aquino became president.

Every year, names are added to the Wall of Remembrance. The first 65 names were engraved on the black granite wall in 1992. An estimated 10,000 Filipinos are believed to have suffered and died during the Marcos dictatorship that ended in 1986.

Set up after the 1986 People Power Revolution, The Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation Inc. is chaired by Alfonso T. Yuchengco. Former Sen. Jovito R. Salonga is chair emeritus.

Bantayog’s facilities could accommodate special gatherings for special occasions. (For details, please call 4348343 or visit www.bantayogngbayani.net).

Mangyans, mining and betrayal

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Opinion/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
COURAGE, HUMILITY AND COMPASSION. These, Bishop Broderick Pabillo prayed, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Lito Atienza would have so that he would correct his mistake.

Pabillo is chair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ Commission on Social Action, Justice and Peace and auxiliary bishop of Manila. He was one of the hunger strikers who joined the Mangyans and priests of Mindoro to oppose large-scale mining in watershed and ancestral domain areas.

Two days into the hunger strike, the anti-mining protestors thought they had triumphed. They had earlier met with Atienza to urge him to cancel the environmental compliance certificate (ECC) that his office had issued to Intex Resources, a Norwegian mining company, last Oct. 14 despite strong and valid opposition from the community, the local government and the Catholic Church.

After the meeting with Atienza, a Mass of thanksgiving was held. Bishops Warlito Cajandig and Pabillo concelebrated with some 25 priests on the sidewalk fronting DENR. Arnan Panaligan and Josephine Sato, governors of Mindoro Oriental and Occidental respectively, as well as Alagad Party-list Rep. Diogenes Osabel, nuns and anti-mining advocates were present.

Moments later, they found out that they had been had. Atienza only suspended the ECC for 90 days. This meant that Intex could work a little harder to fulfill the supposed requirements and it would soon be back in the field.

Two days ago, a whole-page open letter to Atienza signed by Pabillo came out in the Inquirer. The bishop’s statement, with the backing of several Church institutions, questioned Atienza’s decision.

“We all felt betrayed,” Pabillo said. “If the ECC was acquired with irregularity, why should it be just suspended for 90 days? Is it not invalid, and being so, must be revoked? [I]n front of two provincial governors, several mayors, congressmen, priests, two bishops, DENR officials and several Mangyan leaders, you were emphatic about your allegiance to the law and your assurance to punish anyone in your office who does not abide by the law.”

What happened here? Only Atienza knows. And so the hunger strikers are still camped out in front of the DENR.

The Mangyans and anti-mining advocates have been protesting the proposed nickel mining project that would cover 11,218 hectares and span four towns in Mindoro Oriental and Occidental, including the ancestral domain of Alangan and Tadyawan Mangyans.

In 2005, Mindoro Oriental’s Sangguniang Panlalawigan passed an ordinance declaring a 25-year moratorium on mining activities. The mining project will span four towns: Victoria, Pola and Socorro in Oriental Mindoro and Sablayan in Occidental Mindoro. It is expected to produce 100 to 120 million tons of ore over a period of 15 to 20 years. Mindoro’s nickel laterite deposit is believed to be one of the biggest in the world.

Mindoro Island, home of the Mangyans, is the country’s fourth largest rice-producing area with P12 billion worth of annual agricultural income.

Panaligan told the Inquirer, “We realize that this is not the end. We have to refocus and fight to show this project has no social acceptability.” Social acceptability is one of the requirements for the issuance of an ECC.

Fr. Edwin Gariguez of Alyansa Laban Sa Mina and Mangyan Mission said of the 90-day suspension, “DENR is merely asking Intex to complete their papers. We want an investigation.”

Former Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez was said to have opposed the Mindoro mining project and refused to issue an ECC after seeing for himself the watershed area where the project would operate.

Inquirer sources showed documents to prove that the issuance of the ECC for Intex had been “fast-tracked,” allegedly by fiat “from above,” in order “to ensure optimum economic growth without delay.”

The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) system had also been simplified. This was the reason Intex got an ECC without wide consultations with communities, the sources said.

According to the Ateneo-based Simbahang Lingkod Bayan, “the large scale mining operations of Intex Resources... may bring about the destruction of a contiguous watershed and that can lead to the displacement of several indigenous Mangyan communities in Oriental Mindoro.”

I dread a Marinduque-like mining disaster that would wreak havoc on the mountains, the seas and countless human and wild life.

Mindoro is included in a detailed study on mining in Mindoro, Sibuyan Island and Mindanao, “Philippines: Mining or Food,” (2008) commissioned by several international development agencies, including Misereor of the Catholic Bishops of Germany. The study was done by Robert Goodland, environmental scientist specializing in economic development, and Clive Wicks, engineering, agriculture and environmental specialist, with the UK-based Working Group on Mining in the Philippines. The study concluded: “Intex and all mining companies should comply with the mining moratoria... The Intex Mindoro Mining Project, and the other 91 mining applications being considered for the tropical island, would damage most of the water catchment area and the possibility of sustainable food production in the foreseeable future of Mindoro.”

I have been to Mangyan territories a number of times. The hardy and gentle Mangyans are close to my heart. They still adhere to their age-old traditions, but they are no longer the push-overs that lowlanders thought them to be. They are now proudly reviving the use of their syllabic script. A Mangyan college student taught me how to write my name in Mangyan syllabic script.

The Pope at the hunger summit

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Opinion/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
AROUND 1.02 BILLION people are suffering chronic hunger today, said a report released last week by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme. This sharp rise in hunger triggered by the global economic crisis has hit the poorest people in developing countries hardest, revealing a fragile world food system in urgent need of reform, the report added.

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf warned: “The silent hunger crisis affecting one-sixth of all humanity poses a serious risk for world peace and security.” He called the 1.02 billion “our tragic achievement in these modern days.” Watch Diouf’s shocking six-second video message in www.1billionhungry.org.

Before I say more, let me say that the Philippines is among the 31 countries listed as suffering from “severe localized food insecurity.”

The World Summit on Food Security (WSFS), also known as the Hunger Summit, opened in Rome on Monday, which was also World Food Day. Spearheaded by FAO, it had no less than Pope Benedict XVI exhorting the FAO member states’ representatives in all their official languages: “God bless your efforts to ensure that all people are given their daily bread.” FAO’s logo has the words “Fiat panis” which means “Let there be bread/food.”
But the Pope had his stinging moments. “Hunger is the most cruel and concrete sign of poverty,” he told the delegates. “Opulence and waste are no longer acceptable when the tragedy of hunger is assuming ever greater proportions.”

His thoughts went to the poor, rural regions of the world. “Access to international markets must be favored for those products coming from the poorest area, which today are often relegated to the margins. In order to achieve these objectives, it is necessary to separate the rules of international trade from the logic of profit viewed as an end in itself.”

The Pope’s pronouncement on profit at the hunger summit echoed what he said in his first ever social encyclical published in July 2009, “Caritas in Veritate” (Love in Truth), where he condemned unbridled profit. “Profit is useful if it serves as a means towards an end that provides a sense both of how to produce it and how to make good use of it. Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty.”

I clicked Find on the computer screen to find the words “food” and “hunger” in “Caritas in Veritate” and found a long chunk on hunger and food security. Here are excerpts from chapter 2 which makes the Pope sound like a veteran grassroots development worker.

“Life in many poor countries is still extremely insecure as a consequence of food shortages, and the situation could become worse: hunger still reaps enormous numbers of victims among those who, like Lazarus, are not permitted to take their place at the rich man’s table… Feed the hungry (Mt 25: 35, 37, 42) is an ethical imperative for the universal Church, as she responds to the teachings of her Founder, the Lord Jesus, concerning solidarity and the sharing of goods. Moreover, the elimination of world hunger has also, in the global era, become a requirement for safeguarding the peace and stability of the planet.

“Hunger is not so much dependent on lack of material things as on shortage of social resources, the most important of which are institutional. What is missing, in other words, is a network of economic institutions capable of guaranteeing regular access to sufficient food and water for nutritional needs, and also capable of addressing the primary needs and necessities ensuing from genuine food crises, whether due to natural causes or political irresponsibility, nationally and internationally.

“The problem of food insecurity needs to be addressed within a long-term perspective, eliminating the structural causes that give rise to it and promoting the agricultural development of poorer countries. This can be done by investing in rural infrastructures, irrigation systems, transport, organization of markets, and in the development and dissemination of agricultural technology that can make the best use of the human, natural and socio-economic resources that are more readily available at the local level, while guaranteeing their sustainability over the long term as well.

“All this needs to be accomplished with the involvement of local communities in choices and decisions that affect the use of agricultural land. In this perspective, it could be useful to consider the new possibilities that are opening up through proper use of traditional as well as innovative farming techniques, always assuming that these have been judged, after sufficient testing, to be appropriate, respectful of the environment and attentive to the needs of the most deprived peoples.

“At the same time, the question of equitable agrarian reform in developing countries should not be ignored. The right to food, like the right to water, has an important place within the pursuit of other rights, beginning with the fundamental right to life…

“It is important, moreover, to emphasize that solidarity with poor countries in the process of development can point towards a solution of the current global crisis, as politicians and directors of international institutions have begun to sense in recent times…”

There’s more.

On a sour note, Fian International, an NGO, said that the summit declaration has failed to mention “in any way the sell-out of African and Asian countries’ agricultural lands to foreign states and companies.” I had written about this issue (“Global land grab, agricolonialism,” 7/23/09). It’s the latest scourge.