Hildegarde and the 'Goddess at Sunrise'

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

UNTYPICAL and myth-shattering but beautiful is the trophy that noted sculptor Agnes Arellano created for the Hildegarde Award for Women in Media and Communication. This award is conferred yearly during Women’s Month by the Mass Communication Department of St. Scholastica’s College to honor and recognize the outstanding contributions of women in shaping the Philippine media.

Arellano’s “Goddess at Sunrise”, done in synthetic onyx, is a figure of a naked woman with arms raised and the palm of her hands facing upward. She is carrying half of the sky.

Well endowed on the hips, thighs and bosom, “Goddess” is a picture of fecundity, the antithesis of the stereotypical slim, lithe Barbie types perched on glass shelves. But while she is sumptuous and soft in front, her back tells another story.

She has a protruding spinal column of nine nodules that go up to the back of her slightly upturned head. She has a third eye on her forehead and a serpent is crawling around her feet. On the trophy’s base are signs and symbols related to Hildegarde.

“She is my ode to Hildegarde,” says Arellano who is in constant search of the sacred feminine. “Goddess” is a representation of the shadow of a woman that Arellano had seen on a hilltop at sunrise and which gave her an “aha” moment. (You can see it in my blog, www.ceresdoyo.com.)

The Hildegarde Award is now on its fourth year. This year being the 25th anniversary of St. Scho’s masscom department, the students and faculty decided that the honorees should all be Scholasticans in media—broadcaster Tina Monzon Palma of ABS-CBN and Bantay Bata, teacher, singer, composer Susan Fernandez (posthumous) and moi of the Inquirer.

Much of what I said to those at the rites I drew from the Hildegarde piece I wrote in this space some years ago.

Again, I say, it behooves us to learn from great women who lived many centuries removed from our time, women who made a dent in their milieu through their daring and groundbreaking work. Voices crying in the wilderness, prophets in their time, women of uncommon courage and wisdom.

Hildegard of Bingen was one such woman.

Hildegard, a saint of the Catholic Church, was an extraordinary woman who lived in the Rhineland valley in the 12th century. She was the abbess of a large and prosperous Benedictine abbey. She was a prominent preacher, doctor, scientist, artist, mystic, healer, poet, musician and composer. She had written nine books on theology, medicine, science and physiology. She was a communicator of wisdom and knowledge. Today she would be considered an eco-feminist.

Those of us who were educated at St. Scho knew her only as one of the great Benedictine saints but we didn’t know much about her life and work. Now we do and we hail her.

We knew St. Hildegard then as the building up front, the most imposing structure in the campus, done in Beaux Art and Romanesque style, with intricate arches, huge columns and a grand social hall. On the front wall of the building are Saints Hildegard and Scholastica’s images in bas-relief.

With the rise of the women’s movement, Hildegarde is back to her future, so to speak. Her life is being celebrated. Her written works and music are being studied.

Hildegarde was 42 when she began to have visions that she recorded as “illuminations”. I have the book “Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen” with commentary by Matthew Fox who said of her: “If Hildegard had been a man, she would be well known as one of the greatest artists and intellectuals the world has ever seen.”

Fox dedicates the book “to my sister Hildegard, and all her sisters, past, present and to come, in a hope that their wisdom will cease to be repressed, ridiculed, forgotten and otherwise excluded from church, society and culture, so that the earth might be blessed and mutuality might be the law of the land.”

Wrote Bernard W. Scholz in “The American Benedictine Review”: “(Hildegarde) castigated a pope for his timidity and an emperor for moral blindness. She taught scholars and preached to clergy and laity as no woman before her had ever done…”

For almost 800 years Hildegarde was virtually unknown but in the 1980s she began to emerge and awareness of her significance began to grow. Her music is now being played.

Of her own music, Hildegarde said: “These watery varieties of sounds and silences, terrifying, mysterious, whirling and sometimes gestating and gentle must somehow be felt in the pulse, ebb and flow of the music that sings in me. My new song must float like a feather on the breath of God.”

But it is in “Illuminations” that one gets a glimpse of Hildegarde’s “greening power”. (She coined the word viriditas.) She was first to view the universe as a cosmic egg. She offered a scintillating insight into the cosmos and its symphonic beauty. I couldn’t help thinking, Hildegard was eight centuries ahead of Teilhard de Chardin.

Hildegarde sings to us even today, and these lines from her could very well be for us, her 21st-century sisters.

“Hail, O greenest branch…(O viridissima virga…)/ When the time came/ that you blossomed in your branches/ hail, hail was (the word) to you! For the warmth of the sun distilled in you/ a fragrance like balsam./ For in you blossomed the beautiful/ flower that gave fragrance/ to all the spices/ which had been dry/ And they all appeared in all verdure…

“O life-giving greenness of God’s hand,/ with which he has planted an orchard,/ You rise resplendent into the highest heavens,/ like a towering pillar./ You are glorious in God’s work…

Celebrate Women’s Month, celebrate woman power!

Confession of a highwayman

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

THE MURDER A FEW DAYS AGO OF HIGHWAYS contractor Wilfredo “Boy” Mayor (2005 jueteng whistleblower) by what appeared to be hired hit men gave rise to speculations about what he might have known about shady deals in the domain of public works. The assassins pumped 22 bullets into Mayor’s Volvo 850. He had just come from the casino.

Those who know Mayor say the murder may not be connected with his jueteng past but with his foray into contracting and getting in the way of those who coveted juicy projects.

I don’t know Mayor from Adam. I have no idea who did him in. What I know is that public works is a messy, shady field which the weak of stomach would fear to tread.

Years ago, I sat down with a highway engineer whose construction firm was among those that regularly bid for huge government projects. He agreed to be interviewed for our Sunday magazine issue on corruption.

Caught in the web of corruption that plagued government infrastructure projects, the engineer admitted to brazen participation in the evil system but wished he didn’t and had a choice.

[highwayman n: a person who robs travelers on a road]

The engineer didn’t rob but he was a member of the cast of characters in the highway robbery that went on in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). I don’t remember his face, his name. And if he’s reading this, I hope he could tell us how things have changed. His confession might be dated but this is what he said at that time:

The DPWH is a perfectly departmentalized system of corruption. Every office or department where your paper passes is well set up to milk you. There are two types of milkmen in the department: the garapal (crude) and the Mr. Clean types. The garapals make a killing by dealing with contractors directly. The Mr. Clean types are SOBs who use their subordinates for the dirty job.

In the prequalification stage before the bidding, people in the department will find ways to disqualify you. These are among the most corrupt. They check on your financial state, equipment capability, engineering capacity and experience. Then they try to find fault, waiting for you to pay your way through them. These people are underpaid.

There are rigged bids. People in the department sell estimates to bidders. There is no way for me but to participate in the scheme. If there are five of us bidding, I talk to the other four to sell their bids to me. Then I call for the estimator to give me an estimate. I jack up my bid by five percent, but my bid would still be the lowest because I have already bought the other four bidders.

That five percent jack-up is the milk that will be divided into five and distributed among the four “losing” bidders and the estimator. See, the five of them earned money without having to do actual construction work. I am the one who will do the actual work.

I want to play Mr. Clean but how can I? They’ll steal some of your papers and give you a rough time to slow you down.

There is also what you call a “price escalation committee.”

It takes time for us to collect. Our receivables are sitting on the desks. A lot of our money goes out, just so we can collect. I still have collectibles and they’re being withheld. They think they’re hurting me. They’re hurting the small people.

How do we start to clean up the system? If I were the one to do it I would get people inside who are also SOBs but who would put in a good performance. No use putting a good guy who is bookish and is just trying to learn the system. The department has to be professionalized, employees have to be given good salaries. That means spending more, but in the end government will profit from it, as there will be less stealing of money that is supposed to go to the government. I really wish contractors would get contracts at the right price. No rigging.

As it is, indirectly, the government is losing from all these shady deals. Money goes to the people who get it in the form of kickbacks. The government loses, we, the contractors also lose.

Oh yes, I’ve personally delivered as much as P5 million—cold cash—in one blow. You don’t fool around exposing anyone here, no marked bills. There’s some kind of code of honor here. You break that and you’re finished. Maraming onsehan, marami ring nababaril.

How do all these come out in my books? Ah, I will not tell you. In this business there are three types: the rich, the stupid and those who refuse to make money

.

I’ve done a lot of big projects for the government: roads, bridges, dams. I can tell you that I delivered well. There are those who will not worry tomorrow about the inferior roads they built. I think those crooks should be killed.

Preparing for a project entails a lot of work. You have to check the project requirements, determine the area of work, do the design, check the budget. You also have to make surveys of your own to find out where projects will be put up. I also had to pay my way through in my rural projects. I had to give to the New People’s Army. By the time I am awarded the project, I have already spent a million. The trick here is to disqualify other bidding contractors. I know how to do that.

I have shared a project with a close relative of Imelda Marcos. They would always watch me. I’m tuso (clever), they said. That guy told me, hati tayo o ibubulgar ko (let’s half or I’ll expose you). I subcontracted for him.

You cannot eliminate all these practices if people are not paid properly. They get themselves paid some other way. Makikita mo naman kung sino ang magnanakaw, you’ll know who are the cheaters. Yung ibang empleyado diyan, pasigasigarilyo na lang, Salem pa. (Some of them just smoke, and Salem, mind you.)

The morning after: Malacañang 1986

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Opinion
by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
ONE OF MY FIRST ASSIGNMENTS AS A STAFF writer of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine (first published in March 1986, right after the Edsa People Power Revolution) was to check out Malacañang Palace and do a morning-after story. I also had to fly to Leyte twice to check out Imelda Marcos’ fabled haunts where she threw opulent parties (Olot) and kept a dazzling art collection (the Sto. Niño Shrine).

If, as they say, journalism is history written in a hurry, then the Inquirer has lots of People Power history in its archives, written not by historians but by journalists in a hurry to meet deadlines.

This week, as we celebrate the 24th anniversary of People Power that ended the Marcos dictatorship, stuff written 24 years ago are being re-read or read for the first time by those who were not yet around. I can imagine more of these coming out next year for the 25th. Along with lots of nostalgia pieces, too.

Yesterday, the Inquirer came out with the nostalgia piece, “The Filipino is worth crying for,” by David Briscoe, Associated Press bureau chief in the 1980s. Last Sunday we had lunch with the Hawaii-based Briscoe couple, David and Noree (our Women in Media colleague), who were here for a visit. We had fun going down memory lane. They later met up with Inquirer founding chair Eggie Apostol and editor in chief Letty J. Magsanoc.

One of the pieces I wrote for the magazine, edited then by Letty, was “Greatest show in town” with a kilometric subtitle about the hoi polloi trooping to Malacañang Palace to gawk at what the Marcoses left behind. The large photos were by AP’s Bullit Marquez and Reuters’ Willy Vicoy. I can’t reprint the entire hurried piece, so here are excerpts:

Teodora Cruz, 65, sidewalk vendor from Port Area, burst into tears after touring Malacañang Palace. “Nakita ko ang mga santo. Yun din ang nagparusa sa kanya. Dapat mangyari sa kanya yun.” (I saw the religious statues. They brought down punishment on Imelda. She deserved it.)

Teodora was one of hundreds on the dry run tour of the famed Palace on Thursday last week. Aghast and shocked by the opulence and the intimations of the scandalous lifestyle that the Marcoses, especially Imelda, led, Teodora says: “Nangingilabot ako. Tingnan mo ang paghihirap namin, ako, ang mga anak ko, ang pagtitiis namin. Yan lahat, utang sa aming mahihirap na walang sapat na ulam at bigas. Sa ngalan ng Diyos, nakapasok din ako.” (I had goose bumps. Look how poor we are, me, my children. All those things, she owes us who don’t have enough to eat. With God’s help, I finally got in.)

Wim Grundeman, officer of a European development agency, exclaims: “They are absolutely sick. I’m a Dutchman. If our queen has about six gowns, that’s about all.”

On grand opening day, Friday, thousands came early by the Palace gates only to find that thousands more came earlier than they did. As first days usually turn out, Friday was pandemonium as uniformed guards, white-clad women volunteers tried to keep the surging crowd at bay. It was bedlam, it was mayhem, as the impatient crowd outside Gate 2 tried to push the gate open, refusing to transfer to where they were supposed to pass. For a while it looked like The Storming of the Palace, Part II.

Tempers rose, perspiration flowed like the Pasig, stomachs grumbled. Women fainted, children lost their mothers, journalists cursed for getting trapped in the human traffic. This was just the gate…

A few meters from the Palace doors the exclamations die down a bit. An elderly man in circa 1970 double-knit pants takes out his pocket comb, tidies his hair and pulls down his shirt in place. Aaah, he says. A woman in rubber slippers wrings her dress dripping with sweat. If only the sun were kinder….

The visitors gawk, gaze, stare. There’s a sudden hush here, a snicker and an outburst there. From the entrance of the chandeliered halls, to Imelda’s and Ferdinand’s bedroom, from the toilet to the mini-Rustan’s that contains Imelda’s wardrobe, the reactions are like a litany of curses, shock, awe and anger. There is humor, too…

A man in shabby attire… suddenly blurts out upon beholding a painting of Marcos as “Malakas” of the Philippine legend: “Baka sisirain ko ang mukha niya!” (I might destroy his face!) A companion takes him away saying, “Relax lang, pare.”

A woman from the Visayas: “Baw, ginoo, lilintian, ang kuwarto ni Imelda.” (Goddamn, look at Imelda’s room.)

Aling Coring, laundrywoman: “Parang sa panaginip. Nangutang ng nangutang, diyan lang pala napunta.” (It’s like a dream. They borrowed heavily and this is where the money went.)

Tony Fajardo, 49, taxi driver: “Nalunasan na ang paghihirap ko ng kaligayahan nang makita ko ang loob.” (The difficulty I had in coming here has been compensated when I saw what’s inside.)

Never again, should this happen, never again, should anybody live like this, they say. And so Malacañang will never be the same again, and hopefully, too, the lives of those who came and saw.

More next year. A glorious 24th People Power Anniversary!

My blog. Today being an auspicious day, I’d like to say that I now have a blog, “Human Face by Ceres” (www.ceresdoyo.com) where I post my weekly columns, features, special reports, photos and other stuff. The template still needs tweaking and so much more have to be uploaded. Thanks to my Canada-based friend Mila Alvarez-Magno who tutored me every step of the way by e-mail, helped me post hundreds of my articles even while watching the Winter Olympics on TV. I hope the blog will serve some purpose. Tell me what you think.

Presidential candidates have spent P1 billion on pol ads

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

EVEN BEFORE THE OFFICIAL CAMPAIGN PERIOD began on Feb. 9, six of the 10 presidential candidates have already spent some P1 billion on political ads. But the real advertising value of all those ads could actually amount to about P2.1 billion.

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) released Wednesday its latest report, “War on the air waves: 6 top bets spend P1-B on pol ads,” by senior researcher-writer Che de los Reyes. This is part of PCIJ’s series of reports for the project “Pera at Politika (PAP) 2010.”

PCIJ’s two-part report reveals that in the last three months before the election campaign period began, 6 of the 10 candidates for president had already “racked up advertising values on television, radio and print media worth a whopping P2.1 billion.”

But minus the discounts and commissions that, according to media networks executives and PRs, reach about 50 percent, the real spending of the six candidates would be about P991 million from Nov. 1, 2009 to Jan. 30, 2010. Or close to P1 billion. These so-called “negotiated rates” are still a staggering amount. The spending on political ads after Feb. 9 is another story.

Even more interesting, PCIJ points out, is that five of the six candidates have “by now exceeded the limit on TV airtime minutes, if these pre-campaign ads were measured against the Fair Election Practices Act or Republic Act No. 9006.” Will these candidates who have defied the law and overspent be penalized?

Well, they could get away with their overspending by saying that those ads fall under “advocacy ads” or whatever. Think of all those pre-campaign period “advocacy ads” that made some of the candidates for president, and candidates for other positions as well, look like they were God’s special gift to this world.

For her report, De los Reyes reviewed the AGB Nielsen Media Research ad spending data base. According to PCIJ executive director Malou Mangahas, PCIJ manages the subscription to the data base on behalf of its PAP 2010 partner organizations, namely, Lawyers’ League for Liberty, Center for Electoral Reforms and the Association of Schools of Public Administration in the Philippines.

Let’s go back to the P2.1 billion figure (advertising value). About half of this, the PCIJ report says, represents the ad buys of Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Sen. Manuel Villar. PCIJ points out that a presidential candidate’s maximum campaign spending limit is only P500 million or P10 per voter. PCIJ adds that Villar’s party may however spend another P5 per voter or P250 million.

PCIJ tells us that “Villar’s TV ads also logged a total airtime of 758.5 minutes on GMA channel 7, and 696 minutes on ABS-CBN Channel 2 during those three months before the campaign period. Four other presidential candidates racked up formidable totals for their respective TV ads on the two stations as well, most of them posting total airtime for the placements at both GMA and ABS-CBN in the three digits.”

Here is the ad duration in minutes of the other candidates (from Nov. 1 2009-Jan. 31, 2010): Benigno Aquino III (218.77 ABS-CBN, 136.75 GMA), Joseph Estrada (96 ABS-CBN, 44.5 GMA), Richard Gordon (248 ABS-CBN, 127.5 GMA), Gilberto Teodoro Jr. (291.75 ABS-CBN, 257.75 GMA), Eddie Villanueva (24.5 ABS-CBN, 161.75 GMA), and Manuel Villar Jr. (696 ABS-CBN, 758.5 GMA). PCIJ adds that Villanueva who has equity interest in QTV 11, a joint venture of his Zoe Broadcasting Network with GMA, recorded an additional 221.5 minutes of ad buys on QTV 11.

It is obvious that candidates took the opportunity to splurge to campaign during the pre-campaign period in order for them to avoid the spending limits of the campaign period. PCIJ says, these candidates took advantage of the amended Election Modernization Act that says, one is considered a candidate only “at the start of the campaign period for which he filed his certificate of candidacy.”

They could also invoke the Supreme Court’s Nov. 2009 ruling that says that a candidate’s political acts become unlawful only when the campaign period starts.

Here are the ad values that PCIJ took from AGB Nielsen data and computed based on rate cards. TV ad values were reduced by 50 percent to arrive at the indicative real ad cost.

The ad war is more intense than the ground war, PCIJ tells us. The moneyed Villar is ahead of the pack when it comes to total ad value. (See table in http://www.pcij.org)

There is more to the PCIJ report than the figures (See PCIJ website.) Media and ad executives who crunch numbers also tell us what all these mean and amount to. By understanding all these, voters can discern better and will not be overwhelmed and bulldozed by these ads that don’t really tell us the whole truth.

Take them as entertainment. Or just reach for that remote.

Tips for Lent: Save rice, plant seeds, be creative

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

SET ASIDE and save up for the hungry poor isang dakot na bigas (a handful of rice) every time you cook. Plant seeds and make them grow into seedlings. Volunteer your services to worthy but hard-up candidates. Give up something for someone in need. 

These are some alternative ways in observing Lent suggested by some church persons especially for those who eschew public self-flagellation, crucifixion and other traditional Filipino pietistic practices that are personal in nature. Fasting and penance as a form of personal piety only are not enough.

 This year, Lent is right smack in the campaign season that leads to the May 10 national elections. The Inquirer spoke to some religious leaders who admonished Christians to be creative and do something different as a form of sacrifice. But there were also reminders, for candidates especially, of Jesus’ admonition to not trumpet to the world what they do for the poor.
Today, Ash Wednesday, marks the beginning of the observance of the 40-day season of Lent when Christendom commemorates the passion and death of Jesus and which culminates in the feast of the Resurrection or Easter Sunday.

Isang dakot na bigas 
Sr. Emelina Villegas ICM who lives and works among the poor in Camarin, Novaliches in Quezon City says even the poor have something to offer those who are poorer than they are. “During the Advent season members of the pamayanan (basic ecclesial community or BEC) in our parish decided to set aside isang dakot na bigas every time they cooked rice,” Villegas said. By Christmas time, families in the pamayanan had set aside enough rice savings that were pooled together and shared with the poorest of the poor. “This season of Lent, they decided to again set aside isang dakot na bigas.”

“Fasting is not only fasting from food,” Villegas added. “Abstaining from meat is not really a form of penance for the poor as they can’t afford that. But there are certain practices they said they could abstain from or attitudes they could change. Like tsismisan (gossip), being balat sibuyas (being over-sensitive), pagtatanim (harboring ill-feelings) and mahirap magpatawad (being unforgiving).”

Villegas, former Provincial Superior of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart and who had spent many years serving workers, said Lent involves panalangin (prayer), pagbabagong buhay (renewing one’s life) and pagkakawanggawa (serving others). Today, she said, Ash Wednesday, 21 wooden crosses are going to be blessed and taken to the 21 pamayanan of Camarin. These crosses will be used when the people do the Stations of the Cross.

Toward God and neighbor 
Fr. Aris Sison, spokesman of the Diocese of Cubao and parish priest of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary parish (known as Pres. Cory Aquino’s parish) in West Triangle, QC said Christians are often bogged down by external religious practices. “Lent is really a time of conversion and penance,” he said, “and this means turning away from sin and toward God and our neighbor,” Sison said.

“The gospel during Ash Wednesday warns that we make sure that what we do—prayer, fasting and helping others—not be done for show but out love for God and neighbor,” he reminded.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus says, “When you give something to the poor, do not have it trumpeted before you…If you give something to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing…When you pray, do not be like those who want to be seen…When you fast, do not put on a miserable face…” (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18)

As to the politicians who invoke the name of the poor and advertise their deeds for the poor, Sison said, “We have to check the intention of the heart. Are they doing it for the love of God and the poor or to just get votes? (Their claims) may be valid but I hope they continue after they have gotten the votes. As authentic Christians, were they already doing these in the past?”

Sison said that in his former parish, families saved up for the poor every day by giving up something. “That was during the Jubilee Year 2000. The youngest in the family was tasked to collect the day’s savings . The families were able to save and offer enough to construct two Jubilee homes for the poor. So you see, sacrifice should not be just for the sake of sacrifice.”

Volunteerism 
Auxiliary bishop of Manila Broderick Pabillo also stressed prayer, penance and kawanggawa during Lent. These help open people’s hearts to God and to their neighbor. “When they watch less TV it should be in order to prayer more,” he said. “When they give up a movie, it should be to help others.”

Pabillo who heads the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ Commission on Social Action Justice and Peace, added: “Self-denial is not para makilala (to become popular) or advance our selves.” He also suggested a concrete and timely form of Lenten sacrifice during the election campaign period. “Volunteerism, is one way. Volunteer your services to candidates who are worthy but have no money.”

But he warned: “People should be discerning of candidates. Politicians should not use the poor and the poor should not use the politicians. Politicians should show good example by following the laws.” Pabillo was referring to candidates who defied Comelec rules on campaign posters.

Pabillo offered other alternative ways of observing Lent. “Feed hungry children. Serve the community by helping clean up the surroundings.”

Mother Nature 
Fr. Jose Dizon whose ministry is among workers in Cavite, said that in one of the parishes he had served, the people gathered seeds and planted them on Ash Wednesday. “They made the seeds grow and by Easter the seeds had turned into seedlings. We had so many. These were later planted on barren places.”

With global warming and climate change causing devastation on planet Earth, Dizon said serving others also includes taking care of Mother Nature.

The vote of the poor

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Opinion/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
IT'S THEIR SEASON once again. The poor of this nation rule. Elections have a way of smoking them out of the woodwork, the cracks and crevices they inhabit. They are wooed, romanced if you like, as if candidates discovered them and fell in love with them for the first time. Suddenly the poor are on center stage, in the limelight.

That is how it appears if you go by the political ads of many candidates in the coming May elections. Images and voices of the poor provide the backdrop for campaign ads that cost millions of pesos to produce, air and print.

How do the truly poor feel when they see the likes of them being glorified in those multi-million TV ads? I am inclined to use the word obscene to describe this obsession to appear pro-poor, to be indentified with the poor, to be counted among the poor—in order to gain votes. Obscene is the word when candidates use the poor to speak for them and to make the poor personify their ambitions.

Well, yesterday’s Inquirer hbanner eadline said: “It’s carnival time again.”

I dug into my files (under “Elections”) and I found the results of the study conducted by Ateneo University’s Institute of Philippine Culture (IPC) titled “The Vote of the Poor: The Values and Pragmatics of Elections” released during the presidential campaign period in 2004. I had written two columns about the research findings at that time. The 2004 findings are still relevant given the fact that this country is still in this smelly rut that it was in then.

Do the poor produce a “dumb masa” vote? How do they make their choices? How much influence do the media exert on them? What to them are the traits of a true leader?

“The Vote of the Poor” was the result of a research using focused group discussions (FGD) as a tool to get to the raw sentiments and perceptions of the subjects. Unlike surveys that use statistical methods, the FGD type elicits qualitative responses and scrutinizes the meaning and quality of these responses.

The study showed that the most important sources of influence in the choice of candidates were: media, family, church, political parties, one’s own (sarili lang/walang nakakaimpluwensiya) and surveys.

The mass media appeared to play a crucial bridge between the poor’s leadership ideals and the process of choosing candidates.

To arrive at an informed choice, IPC said, the participants recognized the media as playing a most crucial role. Only among rural participants did the media not figure as the most important source of influence. The family and the church were on top of their list.

While the research participants mainly got information from newspapers, radio and TV, the youth also relied on text messages and the Internet. Across all groups, tsismis (gossip or small talk) figured as a source of information. Discussions (pakikisalamuha) with other people were also deemed important. Urbanites also looked to ads, leaflets, campaign streamers to get to know the candidates.

But body language was important too. And here the electronic media had an edge over print. The poor analyzed the images projected by candidates via radio or TV to gauge character (ugali). How did the candidates speak and comport themselves?

Rural women looked at the candidates’ manner of speaking. Did they “speak with respect”? Males also observed the speaking style and the face, how the candidates stood, walked and dealt with people. Nothing beats a face to face encounter. Urbanites observed the candidates’ personal appearance.

Here are some quotes from the FGDs. Sa pananalita malalaman mo kung mabait o magaling. Sa reaksyon niya sa mga tao habang nangangampanya. Physical appearance is a good source for determining behavior.

The youth said they could tell a person’s character by the manner of speaking and responding to questions during a debate. They also studied the temper of the candidate. As one young FGD participant said: “They say liars have unstable eye movements.”

Despite media’s high ranking, participants still considered the information from the media inadequate, particularly in the case of those running for national positions. TV ads were considered unreliable as there was no way to check out the claims.

Election time is a time of confusion, nakakalito. Too many candidates, too many positions to fill. And the information about candidates were not to be trusted. Maraming paninira ang lumalabas sa mga kandidato, hindi mo alam kung ano ang totoo.As to vote buying and selling, there was a sense that the public ultimately would lose if this practice went on. Hindi tama na mamigay, kasi kapag nanalo, babawiin din ito, baka mas malaki pa. Dai, magkakaigwa nin korapto. Mali, kasi parang binibili ang pagkatao mo.


While a handful said they would never accept money, most participants said they would accept but still vote for those they like as long as their votes could not be checked.

IPC concluded that, as suggested by the opinions expressed by the research participants, the poor possessed a dignified, defensible and rational idea about good leadership. However, the study said, there appeared to be a mismatch between the ideals of leadership on one hand, and elections as the mechanism for choosing elected leaders, on the other.

Here is an important lesson that needs to be recognized. If the electoral process is fair and the broader political system is reformed, the poor, despite their poverty—can make good choices. But, they way it was, the IPC study pointed out, they could only make good choices based on a flawed system. For our political problems, the voting poor (much used and abused) are not to blame.

The poor are smarter than you think.

Senior citizens ask for so little

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

LET ME REPEAT what I had written in this space many months ago (“Pension now for poor older people” 3/19/2009) in relation to poor Filipino senior citizens (SC): The Philippines is the only country in Asia that has no social pension for poor, older people. I am referring to the ones not formally employed when they were younger and therefore did not have social security or insurance that they could draw from in their older years.

Countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Vietnam have some kind of social pension for the elderly poor, says Ed Gerlock, advocacy officer of the Coalition of Services of the Elderly (COSE), a non-government organization that focuses mainly on the elderly poor.

Now comes the much-awaited expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2009 (SBN 3561) which was passed by the House of Representatives and by the Senate on third reading on Jan. 27, 2010. It is titled “An act granting additional benefits and privileges to senior citizens, further amending RA 7432”.

Only the signature of Pres. Gloria M. Arroyo is being awaited.

If passed, The Senior Citizens Act would grant SC their entire 20 percent discount and exempt them from the 12 percent value-added tax (VAT) provided under the National Internal Revenue Code on the sale of goods and services from all establishments. It is one of the major significant provisions of the Act. SC have been complaining that they have not fully enjoyed the 20 percent discount because of the VAT.

Under the proposed Act, SC shall be entitled to a 20 percent discount and exemption from value added tax on the following:

1. On the purchase of medicines, including the purchase of influenza

and pneumococcal vaccines, and such other essential medical supplies,

accessories and equipment to be determined by the Department of Health

(DOH).

2. On the professional fees of attending physicians in all private

hospitals, medical facilities, outpatient clinics and home health care

services.

3. On the professional fees of licensed professional workers

providing home health care services as endorsed by private hospitals

or employed through home health care employment agencies.

4. On medical and dental services, diagnostic and laboratory fees in

all private hospitals, medical facilities, outpatient clinic and home

health care services.

Aside from the VAT exemption, there would be exemption from payment of individual income taxes for SC considered minimum wage earners. There would be death benefit assistance of a minimum of P2,000 for the bereaved families, monthly stipends of P500 for indigents, and building senior citizens’ wards in government hospitals.

Other benefits for poor SC are free medical and dental services, no diagnostic and laboratory feeds in government facilities, full PhilHealth insurance coverage, free anti-flu and anti-pneumonia vaccines and five percent discount on water and electric bills. These benefits would also ease the burden on poor families who love and care for their elders but who cannot provide for their basic needs.

The estimated P54.4-million in foregone revenues is really a pittance and should not be considered a loss to the government. Think of society's gains from improved health care and increased purchasing power that the elderly would have. The foregone revenues should not be a compelling reason to deprive our elders of the quality of life they deserve.

Last Monday, hundreds of SC braved the heat and marched from Morayta to Mendiola to ask the President to not dilly-dally and to sign the expanded Senior Citizens Act. (Two fainted but recovered.) When told that the President will sign the bill on or before Valentine’s Day, COSE’s executive director, Francis Cupang, said the SC should not be made to wait. “We Filipinos pride ourselves as loving and caring of our elderly,” Cupang said. “Our national policies should reflect this Filipino value. Senior citizens’ interest is of national interest.”

He was worried that interest groups might sway the President to do otherwise. Last week, Malacanang was said to have shown signs of hesitation because exemption from the 12 percent VAT would mean P54.4 in foregone revenues during the first year of the bill’s implementation. How easily they computed and came up with the figure.

Citing national Economic Development Authority figures, Cupang pointed out that of the seven million Filipinos who are over 60 years old, three million live in poverty and 900,000 are “desperately poor.” These SC should not be considered a burden. As COSE has proven through their programs and projects, these poor elderly they have served for 20 years still have much to give by way of services to their communities.

Note that COSE means Coalition of Services of the Elderly, with emphasis on “of the elderly” not “for the elderly.” I have visited some communities where COSE-initiated community programs of the elderly operate. COSE started home care services in some Metro Manila communities but these services need to be replicated and institutionalized by local governments.

The poor older people have a lot to give to their peers and the younger generation. In COSE areas, the strong work as home care assistants, community gerontologists and peer counselors. Others are fund raisers, organizers and mentors for the young. Many who found themselves alone in the sunset of their lives live together, take care of one another and do something for their neighborhood.

Why does the President need to wait for Valentine’s Day to sign The Senior Citizens Act of 2009?